Best use of points

[BelleCiavo]

I'm not an owner, but hope to be one day soon via resale and I'm trying to get an understanding on the best way to use points. DVC owners get a 25% discount on DVC rooms, yes? Do people with low point amounts pay cash for weekends and use their points for more nights Sun-Thurs? e.g., I hope to buy 200 points at SSR or OKW and I would need a 2 bedroom for my family of 5. Let's say I wanted to stay 9 nights Sun-Tue. Would it make sense to use points Sun-Thursday, pay cash Fri & Sat at 25% discount, and then use points Sun-Mon? (I know I'd have to borrow 10 pts.) Would there be three reservations then? Would they make me move to a different 2 bedroom?

Thanks,
Karen

[DVC Mike]

What we did, initially, was to just use our points to stay Sunday through Thursday, and then added on regular hotel stays on Friday and Saturday nights using the Annual Pass discount. We typically picked a mod resort (POR or POFQ).

Even at the 25% discount, Disney charges a lot for a DVC villa, so we have never booked a cash ressie with MS.

Or, while we book a 1-BR for Sunday-Thursday, we would use our points and book just a studio on Fri/Sat nights. The point cost for a studio on Fri/Sat night is about the same as a 1-BR on Sun-Thu.

Finally, we got tired of having to pick up and move, so we bought more points!

[BelleCiavo]

Thanks Mike. I see there are a couple of AKV resales, maybe we should just spend a little more and go for that. If we went with OKW, is it hard to get other popular resorts 7 months out? We usually go during adventure and choice seasons because we home school and don't have to think about traditional school schedules.

[Kidsmom]

We bought 200 pts. AKLV and are going this year and next year for 8 nights (Wed -Thurs) in a 2 bedroom SV. (We got 400 points extra for this year when we signed up) We are banking this years for 08-09.

This way 200 points gets us 8 nights at a 2 bedroom SV at AKLV every other year. I am sure down the road we will do things differently, but this seems to work for us now. (We are a family of 6)

[DVC Mike]

is it hard to get other popular resorts 7 months out?

I always recommend that folks "buy where they want to stay", as long as they can plan on booking their reservations at the 11-mo window. If you will typically be booking at the 7-mo timeframe, then just buy the cheapest overall (i.e., consider the annual dues) resort.

If you book at 7-mos out, it depends on what room type, resort, and time of year as to whether you might have a hard time getting what you want. If you're booking in an off-season for DVC, then you'll probably get what you want.

The reservations that are typically hard to get include the following resorts during the times listed:

Everywhere: Pretty much all of December, especially the week before Christmas to NY
Easter Week, Thanksgiving Week
BWV/BCV - During the Epcot Food and Wine (October-1st of November)
VWL - Thanksgiving-NYThe following room types may typically be hard to get at the 7-month window, depending upon the time of year:

Standard or BoardWalk view rooms at BWV
OKW Grand Villas
AKV Concierge rooms
AKV Value roomsThe resorts that are the easiest to book are SSR and OKW.

I hope that helps...

[BelleCiavo]

We bought 200 pts. AKLV and are going this year and next year for 8 nights (Wed -Thurs) in a 2 bedroom SV. (We got 400 points extra for this year when we signed up) We are banking this years for 08-09.

This way 200 points gets us 8 nights at a 2 bedroom SV at AKLV every other year. I am sure down the road we will do things differently, but this seems to work for us now. (We are a family of 6)

I thought the cheapest SV (savanna view) is 270 pts for 7 nights and 300 pts for 8 nights :confused: Even standard view is 236 pts for 8 nights or do I have this all wrong?

[Kidsmom]

I am sorry....I meant 400 points gets us 8 nights at SV. During our april spring break a week is 360 and one more mid week is 40=400 points.

We go every other year....so....that is 400 point (banking the 200 points from one year to the next)

Every other year is enough for us we were travel other places and do other vacations through out the year.

Sorry for the typo.

[MinnieMommie]

If you have flexibility as to when you can visit consider usuing your points in a season that uses less points per night. As you know Friday and Saturday are considerably more points than Sunday through Thursday nights. I have come in on a Saturday stayed at a hotel for that night and then switched over to my DVC resort for Sunday through Thursday night. I think we all have a way of making it work for us and getting the most out of the points we have. We like to visit Disney at least 2 times a year so what I would do is different than what someone would do if they are visiting every other year. :mickey: