503 Points! Worth It?

[twopeasonepod]

The only time I went to Disneyworld during New Years, it was literally freezing temperatures; think whole orange orchards destroyed (the end of 2000/beginning of 2001) so I don't know if I would be really willing to spend that many points just in case there was a repeat.

However, I will say that I really enjoyed staying at the Royal Pacific this past May. The ability to enter the park early and get to Harry Potter was an excellent experience. I thought that the employees at the Royal Pacific out did themselves in terms of helpfulness and attentiveness (we had just stayed 7 nights at AKL Kidani Village; and actually besides checking in, I have no memory of interacting with CM's other than they never replaced a lightbulb I called mouse keeping about)

How aggressive is your school district with absences? When I make my pro and con list, in my head, on whether to stay at our private school, the ability to take vacations at will, definitely tops the list (besides all the more meaningful educational reasons).

Anyway, good luck. Not easy to decide this options when there are so many points in play.

There is no district mandate for private schools. So it's mostly that I have to face the teachers and admin haha.

I hear ya on the potentially frigid temperatures. In 2007, we were in FL for a week (including NY), and it was way colder than WV/KY (where we had come from!

How many points do you have in a year? If you have 500+ points then I guess it's not a big deal to use them all in 10 days.

Your boys are already going to miss 4 weeks of school so I wouldn't take them out for any more. Four weeks is a really a lot of time to miss. It's difficult for some kids to "catch up" on lost time in school and you really don't know if your kids can do it or not as they are just in Kindergarten now.

We only get 220, but banked our points from 2011. So 366 for 12/16-26 sounds great! We might even stay til Friday the 27th.

The boys are missing 4 weeks in first grade. By Christmas, they will be in second. They are way ahead (Montessori, so they are in a 1st-3rd grade class), so I'm not worried about their achievement -- I'm more worried about the administration being mad haha.

If you do Universal they have partner resorts that are a lot cheaper and you still can get some or all of the perks as if it was a Universal resort. My SIL is doing that next week...staying at Hyatt Place and they get the early admission to IOA (which is the important one because of the Harry Potter section being there) and they get free breakfast too. They have a ton of different partner resorts with different perks. We went to Universal in August and stayed 2 nights at Hard Rock. It was lovely, but we crammed 5 to a regular room and it did cost a lot. We got a AAA package so it was a little discounted.

As far as your main question. No, we would not use 503 points. My DH would go into heart failure if we did that.

After talking to my mom, I think they are going to come home on the 26th and we will actually go to Tampa and spend the New Year with my 2nd BFF! We only didn't consider going there because we thought my parents would be with us for the entirety. Yay! WDW and BFF -- the best of both worlds!

I'm still recovering from heart failure after waiting in those long bathroom lines.

It is very crowded. We always remembered to say magic and celebrate throughout the week and it was much better.

If it's a must do, to do NYE at WDW then use the points, otherwise, no. Not only were points high, but again, long lines for everything, and the TIW was blocked out for the two days.

I hope you enjoy it one of those weeks, the decorations are delightful.

Yeah, I don't *need* to be there for NYE. Just didn't want to have to pack and move, but looks like we will have to leave anyway, so going to Tampa is a great plan!

 

[robinb]

After talking to my mom, I think they are going to come home on the 26th and we will actually go to Tampa and spend the New Year with my 2nd BFF! We only didn't consider going there because we thought my parents would be with us for the entirety. Yay! WDW and BFF -- the best of both worlds!

It sounds like you have a plan . We were in Tampa for NYE this year. We watched the fireworks down at Channelside but didn't get into the fenced in are right near the water. Apparently we had to walk in early and get wristbands before waiting nearly 40 minutes for an ice cream at Coldstone Creamery. The fireworks were still very nice! We also visited Winter the dolphin at the Clearwater Aquarium. If you plan in advance you can get a photo of your boys with one of the dolphins for a reasonable price.

 

[dbs1228]

All I can say is we did 6 nights in a GV at BLT for 6 nights over NYE this year and it was AWESOME! Booked LK view and got lucky and had MK/LK view it was amazing. I loved being in disney even with the crowds. This for us was our "lets try the holidays at least once" and yes I would do it again! We decided to go this year since it is when all DD's and DH have time off (we are all on different schedules). Enjoy whatever you decide!

 

[Dasha Hermosilla]

We spent NYE it the GF in a theme park view room and it was incredible! BEST fireworks display I have ever seen. Crowds level was crazy, but we got to the parks early and only stayed half days. I would do it at least once for the experience if anyone is considering NYE.

 

[jimmytammy]

No! If you can take the kids out, do so. I have friends who have been down on those days and it is a madhouse. And you will be using a ton of pts. to stay. So a big NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[yitbos96bb]

We are preparing to reserve Christmas at AKV 2BR Kidani Standard. Now it looks like we won't be able to go as early as planned (the boys won't start break until the 20th), so instead of leaving on the 26th, I want to try and stay for New Year's.

Is 503 points for 12/24 - 1/4 worth it during the ridiculously crazy busy week? I think I would be doing this mostly for 1/2-4, when I hope the crowds calm down a little? Or should I just pull them out of school and go the 16th-26th? If we do that, we need suggestions for somewhere else to go for New Year's....Universal? We've been twice before but never stayed there.

We were just there from Dec 27-Jan 5. It was packed the whole trip. Even after New Years I was seeing 2-3 hour space mountain lines. QS line for Be our Guest actually closed.

My personal opinion is no, but I hate the crowds. Only you can decide if it is worth it, but expect it to be crowded. The proliferation of Bowl games and the school vacation schedules have made the first week of Jan a very busy one now.

 

[CaliforniaDreaming]

We did BWV 2-bedroom BW view once for a week over New Year's, and it was pushing close to that amount of points. I'm not sure that I'd do it again any time soon, but no regrets doing it once. We loved being at Epcot on New Year's Eve. Yes, it was crowded (and very, very crowded!) but we didn't try going commando and did enjoy it. We've stayed at the Contemporary and Grand Floridian before for New Year's and did NYE at MK, talk about insane room rates that make the DVC points not look so bad...

 

[twopeasonepod]

No! If you can take the kids out, do so. I have friends who have been down on those days and it is a madhouse. And you will be using a ton of pts. to stay. So a big NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Yeah, I think we can get away with taking them out again. I'm sure their school will continue to take my money haha. Too many points, and all without being able to ride (no way I'm standing in line with two 7-year-olds -- fights, fights, fights).

We were just there from Dec 27-Jan 5. It was packed the whole trip. Even after New Years I was seeing 2-3 hour space mountain lines. QS line for Be our Guest actually closed.

My personal opinion is no, but I hate the crowds. Only you can decide if it is worth it, but expect it to be crowded. The proliferation of Bowl games and the school vacation schedules have made the first week of Jan a very busy one now.

Yeah, I hate crowds, too. I am willing to deal with ride closures to avoid people during May and October (which is when we usually go to either DLR or WDW). I'll just grin and bear it for Christmas (gotta do it at least once!), then we're going to St. Pete's with my 2nd BFF!