Help! New DVC member trying to use dev. points!

[bhalko]

Hello!

We are a family of 7 (45,42,19,18,13,8,1) and our developer points will only get us one week in 2 studios at SSR. We were planning on staying for 10 days and 9 nights for our trip June 29-July 8th. So I booked two pirate rooms at Caribbean Beach for two nights PRIOR to us moving to SSR for the week.

My question is this....HOW do I get tickets and the dining plan the best way? Most affordable? We won't be going back to Disney until 2011 when we have enough points to stay at our home resort of BLT. I'm very confused at this point. We have been going to Disney for years and I was always very organized, but this is throwing me for a loop. Thanks for any and all help!!

 

[delmar411]

you get the dining plan the same way as a cash reservation. Just ask member services to add on whatever dining plan you are wanting. You pay upon arrival to the resort, not before though. Tickets can be bought online in advance or at check-in or through a discount broker.

 

[bobbiwoz]

You're not going to need AP's. I subscribe to the mousesavers news letter and then use their links to buy Disney tickets for our extended family. I have found undercover tourist's with the mousesavers discount to be the best prices. However, I've not bought in over 6 months, so maybe something is better out there. You could ask on the Budget Boards on the Dis.

I do not know how you add the dining plan to your CRO room, but you ask MS to put the dining plan onto your DVC rooms. Everyone in the room has to have the plan for all of the days of your visit.

Have a great vacation.

Bobbi

 

[hakepb]

May want to consider buying park tickets this year if you do find a great mousesaver discount for your length of use. (There is usually an annual increase) 'course if you have to pay credit card interest, then forget that thought.

 

[bhalko]

I guess that I should have clarified. We are going in June/July 2009 for SSR and won't be able to go to BLT until 2011 (have to save enough points and have plans for an Alaskan cruise in 2010!) I need the tickets and dining plan for my 2009 trip. Thanks for all of your advice. It seems that we won't be able to use the dining plan while we are at Caribbean Beach, but we will be able to use it while at SSR and we just pay for that at check-in?! Thanks again!

 

[Deb & Bill]

You do realize that no studio connects to another studio and you will have to divide your family up into the two studios. And there is no guarantee that they will be close to each other. Hope that's okay with you.

 

[bhalko]

We put in requests for studios next to each other or across the hall. We all live in the same house at home, but it is really two separate families with my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter occupying one studio and my husband and I with our two sons occupying the second. HOPEFULLY, we will be VERY close!!! Thanks for the warning though. I appreciate it! This was the best way for us to use almost all of the developer points. We will lose only 4 points that we can't use. Oh well!