And about the "cherry picking" comment. Let's be clear, I know many people who are just like us, they pick the non-weekend days because we don't want the weekend crowds... it has nothing to do with lower point values.
Your right, and based on the structure of the DVC point system there is nothing wrong with those who wish to only travel on weekdays. The problem is that lately the balance between weekend and school holiday only versus weekday demand has shifted. The competition over these reservations are going to drive up the point values for those room-nights.
As for "cherry-picking" I am referring to the selection of data points used to determine whether a point reallocation is an overall price increase. If you only look at the booking patterns of one member to form a conclusion then the act of selecting only those data points and excluding the rest of the statistical information is by definition "cherry-picking". DVD is responsible for the entire DVD membership and must, per the member agreement, rebalance the
point chart when the reallocation will benefit the membership body as a whole. Of course, anytime these changes occur there will always be some owners who are harmed by the changes and others who will benefit from it. Collectively, though it's a zero sum game.
And Disney was the ones who made them "bargain days" to get more people in their rooms, don't kid yourselves.
Exactly, but it is us as members who want to get more people in the DVC rooms... We require DVD to do this per our member agreement and balance the point chart to maximize occupancy in the DVC resorts every night of the year. Because when a DVC room goes unused, that represents a member who points are going to be lost when they expire. This hurts all of us.
Disney frankly could care less, because they get paid the operation expenses for the room up front regardless of whether the member uses them or not.
I'm not concerned that I don't get "bargain days" anymore, my only concern is that now we may have to stay less days or more off season to do our vacation with the points we have,
Another option you have is to take advantage of another flexible part of the DVC timeshare. Banking and borrowing. No member should have to run out and add on points or feel they must cut back their trip simply because of a point reallocation. If a 100 point member had exactly the points required to book a room for the year, but a reallocation then requires 105 points for the room.... With borrowing it will take that member 20 years before they really run out of points for their desired trip. And in that 20 year period it's likely the points chart will be reallocated once again or the individual member vacation patterns will change.
Luckily the DVC timeshare has all these built in flexibilities to give us owner more options to take full advantage of our memberships.
Without the points based system, the DVC timeshare could just as easily been set up as a week based system, or institute minimum night stays in order to make the dues and room night allocation fairer. This is the trade off we accept for a timeshare with a flexible points system. Placing more of the costs and burdens of the maintenance of the resort on members who travel at peak times, and discount the expenses for those who can travel during off peak times. Based on simple economic tendencies of individuals to look for the best deals possible, we can and should expect the "peak" and "off peak" windows to fluctuate over the years. Thankfully reallocation exists as an option to fix those variations as they come up.
but he [the selling agent] assured us that with our pattern of avoiding holidays and peak seasons, that reallocating wouldn't affect us because they reallocate "seasons".
...
while one of his key selling points to us was telling us our points would always be enough to vacation like we vacation.
Sadly, this is a far too often occurrence by the Disney sales agents and it's definitely an area Disney need to improve in to make sure the information the agents provide are accurate so the buyers are better informed as to how the product they are buying really works. Obviously this is a complicated product to explain to potential buyers, and I'm sure the sales agents are not trying to mislead or lie to purchasors, but they do need to be more consistent in explaining the technical details of how the timeshare works.
My guide was perfectly clear with me... With DVC there is no guarantee that you will be able to book the same time every year with your DVC contract. The only guarantee is that for the amount of points you have there will be availability at some point in the next 11 months to spend all your points and to have the greatest probability to travel on the dates you desire you must be prepared to book as early as possible. It’s quite possible a member can get shut out of their favorite travel time as demand for those use-nights can spike in the future and the member be forced to travel or accept a room on another night.
Bill
