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Re: Is FLORIDA really all red time? (by Mary D.):

jayjay wrote:

randy, there are different shades of red in the red category for Florida (re: hot red and light red).

Summer is red hot season in Florida since American kids are out of school and everyone is vacationing. Winter is red hot season since the snowbirds like to head south in winter as are major holidays red hot.

The light reds are considered in between weeks with less traffic, although still shades of red such as September, October and November, until Thanksgiving week, and the first part of December until Christmas week and New Years week. After New Years week the snowbirds start heading south.

We were in Kissimmee the week before Thanskgiving (we left the Sunday before Thanksgiving), which that week would be considered light red, but you couldn't tell it by how many people were in the area as the traffic was very heavy all week and the restaurants full during breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'd hate to be there during a red hot designation.

We previously owned an October week in Kissimmee, since it was cooler, less humidity and less crowded, which would be considered light red, but at Disney World there were thousands of international tourists that spoke various foreign languages.

You also have to remember that Florida is an international destination, much like Las Vegas, not just an American destination.

Edited to say that I forgot about red hot spring break when kids and colleges are out of school from March through Easter. With all the above red hot designations that leaves very little light red.

Hope this helps explain the year round red phenomena for Florida.

Uh..maybe not. If you really want to be puzzled, look at page 107 of RCI's 2006/2007 directory which covers resorts in the Florida panhandle. The resorts (both Gold Crown, both Fairfield, both in Destin) have different season assignments. Early January is Blue in both; mid-January to mid February is White in both--but Beach Street Cottages are Red for the rest of the year while Bay Club II is Blue mid-November to mid-December. (As are most panhandle resorts.)

I see another Gold Crown resort about 40 min NW of Orlando which is White in May and September. (p.76) There are a lot of places in upper Florida which are not RCI Red year round. (Having been there in January, I agree with this!)

As JayJay pointed out, an area may be Red for various reasons, but as far as the color shown in the RCI Directory is concerned, Red is Red.

If we are talking about the color seasons assigned by resort groups for their own internal exchanges, we may indeed encounter terms such as High Red, Leaf Season,etc. Bluegreen seems to invent more seasons all the time! BG calls Orlando Red in some months and High Red in others while RCI shows just plain Red. Fairfield fine tunes the Destin resorts mentioned earlier into Quiet, Value, High, and Prime seasons. Each resort chain seems to speak its own language.

Mary D