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Re: Marriott - Aruba (by cr271):

Aruba is deeded - the country rules, unlike US. That is why you don't get snagged into Marriott points only system like Florida. Fees have been horrendous and have been rising ridiculously fast. You can elect to use your points every year related to the Aruba Ocean Club property, or just your week, so you can use your week (or split it if 2 bedroom lock off) or you can use your saved points to obtain a week. Ownership guarantees a week. You can buy extra points, but I find they are expensive. You may not see a change in your annual point value/property. that is fixed, BUT your price per point fee does increase annually. We have found with Marriott's new system to book our Aruba week if we can with our week, often splitting it and doing 2 weeks back to back. It was becoming more and more difficult to return to Aruba after Marriott launched the Abound program - we had plenty of weeks, plenty of points and could not book. It was easier and cheaper to go online and book externally - buy why should we since we already paid for the ability to trade and had been doing it for decades. When Venezuela had a financial meltdown a few years ago, we were in the right place at the right time to purchase there. Whatever Marriott has done with Interval, it is harder to use our weeks to go where we want. They ask you to buy more points to be in the next echelon of service / status, to get priority. That is another issue. If you don't keep "adding to your portfolio", you fall behind.