does anyone go elsewhere on weekends to save points??

[Rock'n Robin]

My trip for July has been set since August, but now I'm tossing around some other ideas. I'm using 160 BWV points for Sun.-thurs. for a standard view 2BR (grandparents might come), then 180 for a 1BR VWL Fri-Mon.
If I stay elsewhere or pay cash for Friday and Saturday nights, I can book a 2BR VWL and save 100 points!!! (the total would be 80 instead of 180).
This is important because the more points I have, the less cash I will have to pay for my 2003 4 day cruise--since you pay at booking, which will be right after we come back from WDW, the cash amount is important.
I figure we could spend 2 nights at the Poly or maybe try AKL--the Sat. of our trip is my BDay, so I'm sure it would be up to me:D . Or perhaps we could get a villa for cash if there is a DC or AP discount.
Anyone ever do this?
Robin M.
Poly 6/2000
BWV 6/2001
Poly 12/2001
BWV/VWL 7/2002

[AZKathy]

We are doing this on our next trip. One reason, we live so far away, we can only do one trip a year due to airline costs, so we make the longest time we can with points. Secondly, our kids are now old enough that we are taking a side trip away to USF/IOA for a weekend and staying onsite there and checking out that place now. Kids are big enough to enjoy most of the big rides there.

[Patabel]

Since we like to begin our trips on a Friday, we generally start our trip at one of the moderates (or a really good rate for a deluxe) and then move over to DVC on Sunday. This not only saves us valuable points, but it also lets us try out the different resorts, as well.

I have a hard time justifying the double points for staying on a Friday or Saturday, since we don't stay in those rooms any longer on those days than any other day!

[bub]

We usually do this and enjoy trying other hotels on site. Last year we stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which we loved! The downside is needing to change rooms - also, the hotel rooms have fewer amenitites. I miss the microwave and fridge of the studio - in the hotel, you are captive to Disney dining.

[DanG]

our upcoming Spring Break trip has us starting our vacation with a Friday and Saturday night stay at the Hard Rock Hotel ($145 per night). We enjoy all of the Orlando parks and a stay at the HRH gives you front of the line access at the Universal parks all day every day.

This may not be for everyone, but we enjoy the change of pace.

DanG

[colleen mcmaster]

We're checking out on Friday and staying at POR for Friday night. Couldn't justify more Friday points since we're staying the previous Fri. and Sat. at a DVC resort. Plus I love POR and at least I'll get to stay there one day. We would've stayed at AS but POR was only $15 more which is well worth it to us.

[WDWguru]

Our view seems to be the minority here. The REASON we bought so many points was so we didn't have to worry about adjusting our vacation schedules around saving points. We very much take the view of DVC as pre-paid vacations and while we do love the Disney resorts and plan to check them out from time to time, it won't necessarily be a points decision for us.

When deciding how many points to buy, we simply figured out how many days we wanted to go each year and which room we'd want to stay in. Granted 400 is probably a lot for two people who never plan to have kids, but we can afford it. We'd much rather just not have to worry about it! If we want to go down on a Friday and check out a week from Sunday, that's what we do. If we want to stay at AKL a few nights, that's what we do - it may even be ::gasp:: NOT weekend nights! Not that we don't pay any attention to the points (and I completely understand the other viewpoints here), but our purpose in "overloading" our points was so we didn't HAVE to.

My 2 cents... :D

[danicaw]

We are doing a 3 day DCL Cruise in the middle of our next trip.
We are staying on Property with points until Thurs when the ship leaves. Then come back Sunday and "return Home".

This does a couple of things:
1) allows us to go on another cruise
2) spreads our points out longer since we arent using them for the weekends.

We are paying cash for the Cruise. And we like to switch resorts half way through our trips so this works out great for us. It wasn't what we were orginally planning to do but we enjoyed the ship sooo much on our Dec cruise we really wanted to find a way to fit a short cruise into this next trip. And the 3 day is pretty much over the weekend. It just all kind of worked out this way.
If we didn't do the cruise we would have just stayed on points for the weekend.

[Regina]

We've been members since DVC began, and we've never, ever done this.

[jennybobenny]

Last November I arranged our trip so we spent the first 3 days at All Star Movies (had to see the 'infamous' Toy Story section ;) ) and then checked into BWV on a Sunday. ASM was great - no complaints at all, and we certainly saved alot of points, but we really didn't like having to pack up in the middle and switch resorts.

I was tempted to just go ahead and plan another WDW resort/BWV combo vacation, but I remembered the feeling of complete relaxation that came over us once we got into our BWV 2 br and decided to go for broke. So now we're staying at BWV from Wed thru to the following Friday. Unfortunately I didn't figure it all out until it was too late to get the first 2 nights in a std view 2 br. Oh well - live and learn. :)

[GAIL HAYDEN]

I am doing this for the first time this trip and only because we got a great rate at AK lodge. We both wanted to stay at this new resort because of a variety of reasons, so, I used my annual pass for a nice discount.

[Rock'n Robin]

Thanks for all your responses! I'm still considering, and DH has to be in the mood to discuss DVC (he usually runs from the room when I mention point use).
I wish we had enough points so this wasn't an issue, but DH's business is having a rough winter and an add-on just isn't going to happen. The cruise is something I really want to do, and this is one way I can make it happen.
Doesn't is stink that if you do the 3 day cruise everything works out, but if you want the 4 day you have to use weekend points? I think if I did the 3 day it would seem to be over before it started.
I think if we do this we'll do the Poly since it is DH's favorite. Once I know what we want to do I'll check availability--I hope I can upgrade to a 2BR at VWL at this point.
Robin M.
Keep those opinions coming!!:D

[ZerasPride]

I can relate to how you feel Robin. I've been "playing" with our points and figuring out different vacation possibilities including the cruise but it seems, like you said, if you do the 4 day cruise, you have to use too many precious points for a weekend DVC stay. I think the 3 day cruise will be too short as well but at least you can get off the ship and go to your DVC accommodations and use less expensive weekday points.

My DH is like yours, if he even thinks I'm going to start talking DVC, he "zones" out on me. I've taken my manual and had it three hold punched and placed in a three ring binder and when DH sees me, the binder and a calculator, he leaves the room as quick as he can!:D

Lisa

[Richyams]

We've been members since DVC began, and we've never, ever done this.

Ditto

[EROS]

I'm with WDWguru. We bought sufficient points to eventually allow us to secure a 1-bedroom at BWV in high season for 1 week. Since for now we've been staying in studio units, we actually have points to blow. With our 4 year old, it's just too much of a hassle to relocate in the middle of a vacation. For others, it's no aggravation...........each to his own:) :) :) :)

[vernon]

I've done this quiet a lot and I don't find it a problem. I bought DVC to be the "icing on the cake" of a vacation not the whole thing as , coming from the UK, I could never be certain I'll be able to use the points EVERY year. If I don't visit for one year then I would have enough points to spend the whole of the next year on site. I also tend to visit off property to see SW, IOA and US as well as a lot of other things, I don't see the point of staying on site if you're visiting off site so if I'm visiting the coast or Busch Gardens I'd stay down there for the weekend. IOA,US or SW I'd stay on I-drive. I think to appreciate Disney it is useful to sometimes take time away from WDW to see what else is on offer. IMHO it makes it all the more fun coming back.

[jmminarik]

Our trip over Christmas week we did this. Checked in on Sunday at Vero, checked out on Friday. The saturday before we stayed outside WDW (and went to IOA).

Then my sister decided she wanted to stay in Orlando after Christmas and do WDW. Caught up in the excitement, I agreed to go during the most busiest time at the happiest place on earth. While looking for rooms I decided its silly for me to pay money when I have points to use! So we borrows points from next year and booked 2 nights (yep, Fri. and Sat) at the BWV.

Next year we'll borrow points from the following to stay at OKW for a week with my wife's clan. We're already figuring on arriving Saturday, getting cash ressies for Sat., then checking in Sunday through Sat. One weekend night's points on a GV or multiple 1/2BR's can be significant.

At this rate, we'll be adding-on more points to replace the points we keep borrowing. :-)

Hope this helps,
Joe (who thought 275 points would be enough.... HA!)

[dopey2]

We have always done this when we stay 2 weeks but I do not like moving in the middle of our vacation seems lile a waste of two good days. This year we have cash ressies for the Friday and Saturday and will not have to move.

[tiffany123]

WDWGuru---we think along the same lines as you. Our kids are grown and this DVC purchase is being thought of as a "country club membership"----initial purchase price, our entry into the "club" and yearly dues, the same as yearly club dues. We won't be concerned with getting max out of our points but instead, doing what we want when we want. We'll use points for weekends, conceirge, cruising, II exchanges or whatever we desire.

However, we can also see others points of view who need and want to save as many points as possible.

One of the nicest features of DVC is the flexibility and that's what sold us on the program

[GAIL HAYDEN]

I am coming in on a Friday and will spend Friday and Sat at AK Lodge. I don't normally do this, but, I figured at the time of year I usually stay, I could get two trips out of our points rather than one and a smidge.
Then my former husband and I have a membership which, means, yet another fun filled two weeks doing it this way.
We will see how it works out.

[ScottOKW2K]

Though we are relatively new to DVC- having only been members for less than a year now - we have so far done a mixture of both. Our first stay was 5 nights (Sun - Thur) last June in a 2-bedroom at the VLW ( with only 3 of us we were definitely splurging on point use ). We did drive down that saturday and stay off-site at the Wyndham - we needed a cheap but nice room since we were only going to be sleeping there.

Our next stay, which we just returned from, was six nights (Sun - Fri.) in an OKW Grand Villa. We brought family along this time, so we did the friday night to give them more time to properly experience WDW. It was a fair number or points (328) but the stay was well worth it ! We did decide to drive down the friday before - we just couldn't wait to get to the World !!!! - and we ended up doing one night at the Wyndham and one night at the Marriot Orlando World Center until the rest of the group arrived Sunday.

Since we only have 250 points now we will probably be somewhat more frugal with them in the future. Our next planned vacation is two weeks in June, with a combination of OKW, BWV, off-site close to WDW, and the middle weekend at Universal.

Besides, we have found out that we just can't do Disney only once a year. With all the stress everyone has these days, we need our Disney "fix" as often as we can get it ;) . My wife and I also want her home from work - SOON - so more points has to be a low priority for use ( though a common dream ). We also fine that with our home location (Mississippi) that we spend at least one day each way traveling (12 hours, but it's worth it) so with our vacation we usually spend saturdays driving. The DVC point system actually matches our travel plans quite well.

So - Yes, we go elsewhere to save on points. We love DVC and Disney, and we have to try to maximize one as much as possible at enjoy the other as much as possible.

[iluvdisney]

We used to travel to other parts of Florida on our trips and always made it the weekends to avoid the big points. Now we stay put unless there is a reason to go elsewhere. It's not worth the hassle of packing and unpacking to me - once I'm settled in, I just luv to enjoy my DVC!

[TrudyZ]

We also have a 3 year old, and I have no desire to change rooms during our trips.

I figured if we were going to take th plunge into DVC, we were going to have enough points to cover weekends.

But, I like hearing the creative ideas. For instance, I have always though AKL would be a pretty cool place to stay at, so I guess I would consider it; but no likely to do it just yet.

Trudy

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Trudy,
We do have enough points to cover weekends, however, by staying somewhere else we get two stays (Sun- Fri (leave)) for what it costs in points for one week.
IE: Fri-Fri (leave) 160 points
IE: Sun-Fri (leave) 80 points.
Like I said this is the first time I have ever done this, so, it will be interesting.

[SnowWitch]

We are as frugal as possible with our points!:rolleyes: We bought enough initially to allow 3 full weeks + a few days but I'm still frugal. And I have to admit I like staying at the AKL for a weekend just to relax and do not one park. We don't find it to be inconvient because I pack one bag just for the weekend and thats all we take in and unpack. When we move to the BWV we haul it all in. Although we have added the weekend at the end a few times. Just not wanting leave.:D