Adventures by disney using DVC

[Disney_Barbie]

Anyone know where I can find a chart/even a rough idea for the amout of DVC points it would cost to take the different "adventures by disney trips" (particularly Africa) I googled it but can't find it anywhere. I heard it was on the official DVC website, but I'm not an official owner yet :(
Having these numbers in front of me would no doubt be a big help in persuading my DH that we ought to join DVC "honey, look at all the other cool things we can use our points towards :)"

[DebK]

In 2008, it was 493 points per adult during the least expensive time of year to do the Classic Thomson Safari. The trip overall using the least amount of points was the American Mid-Atlantic one, which was 261 points per adult in value season.....

[Ian]

Having these numbers in front of me would no doubt be a big help in persuading my DH that we ought to join DVC "honey, look at all the other cool things we can use our points towards :)"Eh ... I wouldn't rely on that so much.

The truth is, even though Disney uses it as a selling point, the ability to use your points for vacations outside of DVC is really not very efficient. If you look at the amount of points you have to spend it's insane.

Take that safari referenced above for example ... you're going to spend just about 1,000 points for a couple to go at the absolute worst time of the year to take a safari. Given that the absolute most points you can use at a given time are from three use years (points banked from prior year, current year, and borrowed from next year) you'd have to have at least 335 points per year and take no other vacations for three years just to go.

Doesn't sound very appealing to me.

DVC is a great value when you use it as it's intended ... to stay in Disney DVC resorts. If you don't think that's something your DH will be interested in, then I would steer clear of buying.

[MidnTPK]

The truth is, even though Disney uses it as a selling point, the ability to use your points for vacations outside of DVC is really not very efficient. If you look at the amount of points you have to spend it's insane.

Is there anywhere to research, before buying in, all of the flex options and how realistic it is to use points for the non-DVC resort options?

As background: I own a unit at Harborside at Atlantis in the Bahamas (which is part of the Starwood vacation club). When buying my unit there the salespeople stressed how flexible my unit could be. I could book in other seasons and swap into other resorts. The truth, now that I own, is much different. While I technically I can do lots of swaps, its practically impossible. You have to hope a few owners didn't book in their season on time, and be one of the first people on the phone the morning things book up. Unless you want to go to one of the less popular resorts.

Fortunately, Harborside is the most popular in Starwood's club and I own in the peak season. Which means that even though swapping directly through the club system is not likely, I can reserve a great week and rent or swap it myself with someone who has something I value (like a 1-BR at the BCV). But I didn't learn this until I was already deep into ownership and there was no going back.

So before buying into the DVC, I'd like to know about the rules and practicalities that have a significant impact on ownership. So here are a few specific questions:

Can I freely use my points at WDW resorts, like the Poly, or are there restrictions that make this difficult? I've gathered that this is not an efficient use of points, but that's different from being difficult to do.

Similarly, can you freely use points for all of the non-Disney resorts that are advertised in the DVD, or do you run into capacity or rule constraints?

I'd probably be a 3-out-of-4 year user of the DVC WDW resorts, but if I buy in, I plan to buy enough points to go in the more popular seasons, but no necessarily go during those more popular times, so I think every few years I'll have a balance of points built up that could be used outside of the DVC resorts. But if that balance ends up being practically useless, maybe the DVC isn't right for me.

[Ian]

Probably the best way to see it for yourself would be to go check out the points charts that are available online.

Based on what I've seen, it looks very unrealistic that you could, with any degree of frequency, get value out of using your points at non-DVC resorts.

Even staying in the non-DVC Disney hotels is steep. I think a week night in a Grand Floridian room during Value season costs you something along the lines of 42 points per night for a Garden View. It's 76 points per night for a weekend.

So if you were to try to stay a week in the Grand Floridian using your points, you'd be getting a basic room and you'd be going off-off peak and it would end up costing you 362 points.

For comparison sake, you could stay a week in a 1BR villa at the Beach Club during Premiere season (i.e. between Christmas and New Year's) for only 350 points.

[MidnTPK]

Thanks for the further detail. I can easily find point charts for the DVC resorts, but I haven't found a chart that explains how points can be used at non-DVC resorts. Can you point me to one?

And I still have a question about the possibility and practicality of using the points, not the efficiency or value. I fully understand that it isn't a good value for regular or typical use. My question is CAN I do it, not SHOULD I do it.

So you understand why I'm asking: in the Starwood vacation club, there are actually four ways you can use your ownership interest.
1. You can use the type of unit you own in the season you own at your home resort for a week.
2. You can use the type of unit you own at any SVC resort in any period for a week.
3. You can convert to a vacation club points system that lets you get any type of unit at any SVC resort based on a nightly point system
4. You can convert to Starwood Preferred Guest points and use you points at any Starwood Hotel.

As I said in previous post, options 2 and 3 are virtually impossible to use because of the reservation windows involved. And option 4 can only be exercised every other year, though there are no other restrictions and the SPG program is quite liberal. But option 4 is pretty inefficient use of your unit because it turns a week at a SVC resort into fewer nights at a full service hotel.

So in summary: are there rules regarding using your DVC points at non-DVC resorts that make use there impractical? Like how far in advance could I make a reservation at the Poly using my DVC points? Could I use banked and borrowed points to make a Poly reservation? Could I use banked and borrowed points for a Disney Cruise?

Not being an insider, I'm not sure if I'm asking the right questions. And these questions weren't clearly answered in the DVD, nor would I trust the answer from a sales rep. Been there...done that...and while I expect that DVC salespeople are probably more honest than the others, there's still the matter of me not having the insider's vocabulary to ask the right question.

[TinkerbellT421]

I understand what your saying, so let me throw in what I do know the answers for.
YES to all of the above. Me and DBF (DBF more) is pretty experienced so if you have any other questions feel free to PM me. I will have DBF answer all your questions, this is his second time around for DVC and I swear he could be a sales person of the thing he knows all the ins and outs and knows all the figures basically off the top of his head lol. But to answer what I know, Yes you can bank and borrow to do whatever you like, HOWEVER Poly not being considered a DVC resort in itself for example, there is a transaction fee I believe of $95.00 to book there, but other than that you are able to use however many points as you need if they are available to you by borrowing future and using banked points if thats how many you need. You also are not limited to a week only. For any DVC resort if you have enough points you could stay in a room for a month if you wanted to, as long as you made the reservation for that long, obviously lol. Except for the Internation Bookings at other countries I believe are limited to a certain amount of days. I THINK it might be 5 or 6 days that you can stay. But yes if you feel like staying at Poly in January and the reservation is available and you booked far enough in advance and they are not booked solid, you can make a reservation for a two-weelk (if you feel like it) in December just for giggles. lol. HOWEVER for your "non-home resort" you can only book 7 months in advance of the day you want to stay. If you want to book at your home resort it can be done 11 months before the day you are looking to stay. Hope this helped. :thumbsup:

[MidnTPK]

Thanks....this is very helpful.

I'm familiar with the DVC home resort windows because Starwood does a similar thing (that's what options 1 and and 2 are above, and they have similar priority windows). And the literature I've received explains that system pretty well....plus reading things here in intercot.

[Ian]

I can't really speak to exchanging out because I've never done it, but from what I understand using your points at non-DVC Disney resorts can be done with about the same ease as you can book a cash reservation.

In other words, if there's space you're in.