150 pts @ SSR - Add on Question

[eporter66]

I know this has been asked here before, sorry. Plus, I think this is bad timing as the AKV construction/add on points special is probably no longer available.

We currently have 150 pts at SSR. We have thought about adding on, but have hesitated for a few reasons:
1. Our daughter is pre-school age, so all our vacations to WDW have been off-season. Once we are not able to take her out of school, we figured we might end up going every other year, which if we bank our pts would give us 300 - plenty.

2. the jacked up air fare for these times of year

3. not sure if we are up for dealing with Spring Break crowds or Thanksgiving holiday crowds, we have always had short wait times when we have gone (October, Jan, Feb, May), so it would be a new experience dealing with those large capacity crowds

Those are the only reasons or downside we see to adding more points, as we love WDW vacations.

If we do decide to go ahead and add on, how do you book your vacations when you own at 2 Resorts. Do you use the 11 month window for each and just book 2 or 3 at the lower pt resort, and then the rest of the days at the resort with the most points?

Thanks

 

[MAGICFOR2]

I was wondering the same thing - thinking about add on vs. just purchasing at VGC. We would have 150 on the East coast and 160 on the West coast. Don't know how we would combine them into one trip if we wanted to.

 

[chalee94]

If we do decide to go ahead and add on, how do you book your vacations when you own at 2 Resorts. Do you use the 11 month window for each and just book 2 or 3 at the lower pt resort, and then the rest of the days at the resort with the most points?

if you add on 50 pts at another resort besides SSR, you can bank/borrow to get the 11 month window for 150 pts every third year for that resort. (you can use SSR pts to stay for 225 pts the other 2 out of 3 years.)

some do "split stays" and move for a couple of days to the smaller contract resort.

of course, at 7 months, if there is availability, you can pool the points to book at any resort.

I was wondering the same thing - thinking about add on vs. just purchasing at VGC. We would have 150 on the East coast and 160 on the West coast. Don't know how we would combine them into one trip if we wanted to.

you could combine pts at 7 months or else bank/borrow to book one or the other at 11 months, while banking the other coast's contract's points for the next year...

 

[DVC Mike]

If we do decide to go ahead and add on, how do you book your vacations when you own at 2 Resorts. Do you use the 11 month window for each and just book 2 or 3 at the lower pt resort, and then the rest of the days at the resort with the most points?

We own 700 points spread across 4 resorts. We typically go 4 times a year, so I always book each of my home resorts exactly at the 11-mo window.

If we do a Disney cruise or a non-Disney vacation, I'll just bank the points for one of my home resorts.

 

[eporter66]

if you add on 50 pts at another resort besides SSR, you can bank/borrow to get the 11 month window for 150 pts every third year for that resort. (you can use SSR pts to stay for 225 pts the other 2 out of 3 years.)

Hope I am not being dense about this, so let me see if I understand.

I have 150 pts @SSR and 50 @ AKV

Let's say I take my 150pts @ SSR and 50 pts @ AKV (for 2008) and bank them for 2009.

2009 I have a total of 400pts (200 from 08 and my 200 2009pts). I can use the 150 banked SSR pts @ the 11 month window for AKV's?. So for 2009 I would have 200 pts that I could use at the 11 month window for AKV or SSR? Then I also have the 200 pts for 2009 that would have to be used in their normal way as far as the booking window? Is that correct?

Thanks
Eric

 

[DVC Mike]

I can use the 150 banked SSR pts @ the 11 month window for AKV's?.

No, you can only book at the 11-month window at a home resort using just the points you own at that particular home resort.

 

[LisaS]

Here's a banking example that might help clarify things. I own 100 points at VWL. Every other year I bank all of my VWL points so that I will have 200 points to use to book at the 11 month window every other year.

2005 UY: Banked all 100 VWL points
2006 UY: Used the banked points plus current-UY points to book a 6-night stay in a VWL 1BR in May (196 points required) at the 11-month window

2007 UY: Banked all 100 VWL points
2008 UY: Used the banked points plus current-UY points to book a 7-night stay in a VWL 1BR in early Dec (200 points required) at the 11-month window

For the years in between, I used the points from my BWV contract to book BWV 11 months out and OKW 7 months out. (I also used the 4 VWL points I had left over from my 196-pt reservation for the OKW reservation.)

ETA: As you can see from the last line above, when you own points at more than one resort, you sometimes end up with a few points left over. It can be a challenge to use them up since at 11 months out you can only use them at their home resort. My 4 leftover VWL points are no use to me when I'm booking BWV 11 months out. Fortunately we enjoy staying at OKW and since I don't own there and have to wait until 7 months out to book there, I try to use up any stray points for that reservation. If you decide to add on at a different resort, look at the point charts and try to buy the right number of points for the time of year, room type and length of stay. If I was only interested in going to VWL for 6 nights in May every other year, 98 points (rather than 100) would have been the right number of points to add on. But by buying 100 points, it gave us the option for a 7-night stay in December so we opted for that. But it does cause a little problem when we go in May and I end up with 4 stray points that I need to use up somewhere else.

 

[eporter66]

No, you can only book at the 11-month window at a home resort using just the points you own at that particular home resort.

Again - sorry for not getting it, but in a few posts on various threads people have talked about using your banked points every third year - am I missing something?

 

[Caskbill]

Again - sorry for not getting it, but in a few posts on various threads people have talked about using your banked points every third year - am I missing something?

It's a combination bank AND borrow that works out to every 3rd year. Suppose you had a 50 point contract somewhere.

Year 1: Bank those points
Year 2. You have 50 banked and 50 regular points. Now borrow points from the next year. This gives you a total of 150 points to make your vacation in year 2.

Year 3. You have no points because you borrowed them the previous year
Year 4. Bank your points into year 5
Year 5. Do same as you did in year 2
Year 6. You have no points because you borrowed them and used them in year 5
Year 7. Bank
Year 8. Use banked, regular, and borrow again
Year 9. No points because they were borrowed

etc.

You're using those points to take a vacation in year 2, then again in year 5, and again in year 8. The pattern repeats for every 3 years. You have a 50 point contract and take a 150 point vacation every 3rd year.

Hope this helps