First date success and red/platinum

I've stayed at this resort and liked it enough to look for it on the resale market.

For those of you who own at Ko'Olina, how often are you able to get your preferred date when you make reservations?

Also, some resale ads I've seen for Marriott Ko'Olina say "red" and some say "platinum." Is there a difference? I only know of the 50 week floating vs 52 week floating difference.

Thank you!

We have gotten our chosen dates every single time we reserve (eight trips), and we have owned since Feb '03. We go twice a year, winter and summer, and we plan our dates so we can reserve as close as possible to the first day the weeks are available. For example, we already have our desired week in Feb '08 reserved.

Single weeks are a little more iffy, because you can only reserve them 12 months in advance, but if you are staying more than one week, you can reserve 13 months in advance, giving you a leg up on others.

We have platinum weeks, and the only weeks we cannot reserve are Christmas and New Year's week. "Red" is used by exchange companies all the time for "hot" (i.e., most desirable) so perhaps that is what they mean. Every week is "red" for exchange purposes in Hawaii. 52 weeks per year.

Some resorts have 50 floating weeks because the some weeks like Christmas week cost more. I believe that this resort is all platinum weeks but other Marriotts have Platinum, Gold and Silver Weeks (such as Palm Desert), but all Marriott resorts are considered red all year round.

Also Ocean front condos with a straight on view of the ocean, cost more. When you reserve you get ocean views, but some rooms don't have ocean views.

You can trade for other Marriotts around the world or other timeshares, but we have always preferred Marriotts.

Hope this helps.