Polynesian Villas – DVC Points vs Cash Price

Polynesian Villas – DVC Points vs Cash Price

I wanted to spend a weekend (Friday and Saturday night) in June at the new Disney's Polynesian Villas & Bungalows, but they were sold out for the weekend I wanted to visit using my DVC points. Of course, I should have booked this trip when they first opened and this is now less than 60 days from check-in, but this was an opportunity that just popped up in my vacation schedule.

So I called member services and asked for a DVC Member Cash Rate and the only availability was a Deluxe Studio - Standard View and it was $831.96 for two nights including all taxes and fees. The Bungalows and lake view studios were sold out.

When I used the Disney website for the same room, the grand total for the exact same reservation was $1,109.26

If there was availability to use my DVC points, that same weekend would have only cost me 48 DVC points.

Here is the summary for a weekend stay at the Poly using DVC points vs cash.

DVC Points = 48 points

DVC Member Cash Discount Price = $831.96 = divided by 48 points = $17.33 per point

DisneyWorld Website Price = $1,109.26 = divided by 48 points = $23.11 per point

So, in essence, I paid $17.33 to rent DVC points…ouch!

I know that I could have used my own points if there was availability and in the future, I can use a broker or rent from a Polynesian owner for $14-15pp

However, I am glad I could, at least, get a DVC discount instead of paying $23.11 per point.

Moral of the story = book your Disney vacations at the 11 or 7 month reservation mark to get the best deals.

David's actually charges $16 pp during 7-11 month window (for popular resorts) so your price really wasn't too much more than that (if you were looking to book in the future before 7 months)-the flexibility to cancel up to 5 days prior to arrival through disney might honestly be worth the $1.33 p.p. more IMO (when one is booking far in advance)
I thought the price difference between rentals and directly through disney was always a lot more than that (for instance we are going to BLT in May and have 1 studio booked with points and one cash-cost is 80 points or almost $1900 cash (over $23.50 pp WITH DVC 25% discount) At $14-16 pp it would be $1120-$1260. Unfortunately we didn't have enough points for both and booked late so cash was our only option for 2nd room. Interesting to see that Rentals may not always be that much cheaper as I assumed-wonder if PVB is an anomaly b/c point cost to stay is so high?

You forgot to add in MFs cost of those 48 points.

com_op_2000 said:

You forgot to add in MFs cost of those 48 points.

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I am not sure what you mean. I was only showing the difference between booking for points and cash. Everyone has a different valuation of their points and can be as low as $6pp or as high as $20pp

If someone buys a resale SSR contract for $60pp and uses it for 3 years and then sells it for $60pp, then their cost is only annual dues of $5pp and this reservation would cost them only 48 x 5 = $240. But if they bought Poly points for $150 and only put down 10% and financed it at 14% interest, then those same 48 points would be very expensive.

This thread demonstrates how much Disney can RENT points for cash.

disneynutz said:

I would waitlist and hope that DVC availability opens up. Last I read only 40% of the DVC units have been declared into the DVC.

Bill

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That is a great suggestion. I usually think of wait lists for reservations on points and forgot that I could also do it for cash reservations.

Now wish me luck that the wait list comes thru.

I am not sure if the waitlist will open up or not as the ENTIRE month of June is sold out at the Poly for studios.

No matter, a few RUM pineapple dole whips floats will make me forget that cost real quick.

If you rent a DVC unit using the DVC Member cash discount, will you get daily housekeeping like when you reserve a room through Central Reservations?

I am not sure if we get daily housekeeping or not, but the reservation email was almost identical to the one via points and it stated that housekeeping is on a weekly schedule.

If you book through MS, you get the same housekeeping schedule whether you pay with points or cash.

To get daily housekeeping you must book through CRO/DRC (or you can pay $$ for whatever housekeeping you want for your MS-booked stay).