503 Points! Worth It?

[twopeasonepod]

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.

 

[TSMMANIAC]

We used 895 points for a BW GV New Years of 2011. My family loved every minute of it and would do it again in a heartbeat. We always enjoy the week around NY. So no I don't think you will regret using those points

 

[lilpooh108]

OMG...I really don't think so. I'm sure others will disagree...but if you rent those out you can pay for 2 cruises (which then includes food for the whole week, etc) or basically your airfare to MCO plus 1 cruise.

The points required for holiday season is just insane...

If you own at AKV why not try for 1 BR value for your dates?

I love the pics of your boys btw. So cute.

 

[twopeasonepod]

Whoa, 895??? That would take me four years to save up for haha!

We have to do a 2BR because my parents are coming (they actually "bought" DVC for us -- although I paid for half). They don't plan to come all the time, but for Christmas they are in!

The biggest reason why I would do the 503 is because then we wouldn't have to move to another resort/hotel/city and could just stay in one place for the entire trip. I was looking at moving to Universal for New Year's but it would be easily $500/night and that is just dumb.

Selling points for cruises.....hmmm, now you got me thinking! But I think we do want to go for Christmas at least once.

Thanks for the compliment on the pic. That is from almost three years ago on a WDW trip!

 

[robinb]

Wow. I would say "no" and I have been at WDW for NYE many times. Why not split your stay? We stayed in a 4-bedroom house in Rolling Hills (about 10 minutes to AK) with a private pool for a TOTAL of $800 per week for Christmas Week 2012 including taxes and pool heat. You're 'spending' almost $600 per DAY. So, I would suggest that you stay someplace cheaper for the first part of your stay and then book the 2BR for 12/30 or 12/31 -1/4 so you're there for NYE.

 

[lilpooh108]

Whoa, 895??? That would take me four years to save up for haha!

We have to do a 2BR because my parents are coming (they actually "bought" DVC for us -- although I paid for half). They don't plan to come all the time, but for Christmas they are in!

The biggest reason why I would do the 503 is because then we wouldn't have to move to another resort/hotel/city and could just stay in one place for the entire trip. I was looking at moving to Universal for New Year's but it would be easily $500/night and that is just dumb.

Selling points for cruises.....hmmm, now you got me thinking! But I think we do want to go for Christmas at least once.

Thanks for the compliment on the pic. That is from almost three years ago on a WDW trip!

Oh wow I just noticed your signature. You guys are doing the EBTA? We're on the June 1 Magic for the Med. FYI, I think the prices dropped from a few months back so unless you booked on day 1, you might check to see if you get some money back. We would do the EBTA but I bought my flights going to LHR already.

Are you doing a back to back?

 

[Anal Annie]

How about have you priced out the idea of getting 2 studios instead? Personally, we would not "spend" 503 points for 1 week of vacation - but then we only own 250 pts. so that would be more than 2 yrs. worth for us. With 250 we can get 2 weeks in studios in various combinations. We'd never use 2 yrs. worth of points for just 1 week...we try to be pretty frugal with them and take as many trips as we can. But I guess it depends on how many points you have for 1 year and if your parents would prefer to see you use the points wisely or just blow 'em. SV studios at AKV run 181 points each for the week of Christmas...that's 141 points less than the 2 bedroom plan... That is what we would do if we needed to sleep 6-8 at that time of year.

 

[bumbershoot]

You WILL want to stay onsite for Universal over that time period. The hotel's unlimited Express Pass is just too valuable to pass up.

I've never found a package that was better than pricing it a la carte, so I use this website to see the prices of all 3 onsite hotels at once. I just looked at the 30th to the 3rd, and a room at Royal Pacific is about $350 plus tax with the Stay More Save More rate. I used "APH" as a code, to see if AP rates are out for that time period and/or available for that time period, and there are no AP rates for the time right now. AP rates can pop up anytime they need them, though, so I check often. If you have something booked and then the AP rate shows up, and it would be an overall savings to upgrade someone to an AP (preferred or premium) and get that rate, just call and they'll change it over for you, no problem.

Then I, personally, bought tickets from maple leaf tickets or undercovertourist.com and got a savings there, too. OK well NOW I just renew my AP. But back before we got hooked on Universal, I bought the tickets elsewhere.


Staying at Universal for part of it will bring down the points you need for the WDW part of the stay, which is good. I assume you really *want* AKV, but if it was just an idea, I would check out OKW. Nice big units, comfy casual setting, we find it hard to beat.

 

[lundve]

We used 895 points for a BW GV New Years of 2011. My family loved every minute of it and would do it again in a heartbeat. We always enjoy the week around NY. So no I don't think you will regret using those points

OMG - we can only have 150pts so it would take us 6 years to do that (but of course we can only gather 450 maximum for one trip)

 

[mom of princessx2]

I would pull them out of school and go earlier but that is easy for me to say because I pull my own kids. I prefer it less crowded especially at Christmas time. We like to take our time walking around WS, seeing all the decorations and watching the Osbourne Lights at HS. Plus the point difference would be to extreme for me. I prefer less points and less people!

 

[twopeasonepod]

Wow. I would say "no" and I have been at WDW for NYE many times. Why not split your stay? We stayed in a 4-bedroom house in Rolling Hills (about 10 minutes to AK) with a private pool for a TOTAL of $800 per week for Christmas Week 2012 including taxes and pool heat. You're 'spending' almost $600 per DAY. So, I would suggest that you stay someplace cheaper for the first part of your stay and then book the 2BR for 12/30 or 12/31 -1/4 so you're there for NYE.

We stayed at a 3/2 townhouse in Windsor Hills twice for 11 days. Each unit has it's own private splash pool. I thought we would just want to stay onsite and relax. I don't plan to really do the parks much (except for walking around) during the "black" days, so we will consider offsite for part of it.

 

[twopeasonepod]

Oh wow I just noticed your signature. You guys are doing the EBTA? We're on the June 1 Magic for the Med. FYI, I think the prices dropped from a few months back so unless you booked on day 1, you might check to see if you get some money back. We would do the EBTA but I bought my flights going to LHR already.

Are you doing a back to back?

Hello! We are not doing B2B. Staying in Barcelona for a week instead. Yeah, others were saying the prices dropped, but I checked our category (5B) and they are the same. Plus we are PIF through Costco already.

 

[twopeasonepod]

How about have you priced out the idea of getting 2 studios instead? Personally, we would not "spend" 503 points for 1 week of vacation - but then we only own 250 pts. so that would be more than 2 yrs. worth for us. With 250 we can get 2 weeks in studios in various combinations. We'd never use 2 yrs. worth of points for just 1 week...we try to be pretty frugal with them and take as many trips as we can. But I guess it depends on how many points you have for 1 year and if your parents would prefer to see you use the points wisely or just blow 'em. SV studios at AKV run 181 points each for the week of Christmas...that's 141 points less than the 2 bedroom plan... That is what we would do if we needed to sleep 6-8 at that time of year.

Whoa, great suggestion!!! I never even considered this! I'll talk to DH and my parents about it, but I think in the end we will want them with us (built-in babysitters). But when we cruise we get different rooms, so maybe....

 

[Kidanifan08]

If you are comfortable with pulling the kids out of school early, I would go that route. We took our DS6 out of first grade last month 12/1-12/9. He did not miss much, and it was so nice to be there when the crowds were lower. I watched the crowd levels from 12/22 - 1/6, and it was ugly. I wouldn't count on much of a reprieve 1/1-1/4.

As far as "spending" 503 points, I say use them as you wish. If you already have a sense of what you want to do with your points over the next 1-2 years, using the 503 points now may not be an issue for you. I disagree with others about getting two studios -- for an 11-12 night stay, you will want that full kitchen, W/D, and living space. Plus, at Kidani you have the third bathroom which is a huge plus. I think the choice of the standard room is fine. It gets dark early anyway, and if you hit a cold snap, you may not spend much time on the balcony watching animals. I would suggest requesting a pool view, as you may get lucky enough to be on the edge of the Pembe savanna, as we were in Oct 2011.

Lastly, I would definitely suggest participating in the Disboards DVC Christmas tree exchange. It was so nice having a Christmas tree in the room for part of our trip.

 

[twopeasonepod]

You WILL want to stay onsite for Universal over that time period. The hotel's unlimited Express Pass is just too valuable to pass up.

I've never found a package that was better than pricing it a la carte, so I use this website to see the prices of all 3 onsite hotels at once. I just looked at the 30th to the 3rd, and a room at Royal Pacific is about $350 plus tax with the Stay More Save More rate. I used "APH" as a code, to see if AP rates are out for that time period and/or available for that time period, and there are no AP rates for the time right now. AP rates can pop up anytime they need them, though, so I check often. If you have something booked and then the AP rate shows up, and it would be an overall savings to upgrade someone to an AP (preferred or premium) and get that rate, just call and they'll change it over for you, no problem.

Then I, personally, bought tickets from maple leaf tickets or undercovertourist.com and got a savings there, too. OK well NOW I just renew my AP. But back before we got hooked on Universal, I bought the tickets elsewhere.


Staying at Universal for part of it will bring down the points you need for the WDW part of the stay, which is good. I assume you really *want* AKV, but if it was just an idea, I would check out OKW. Nice big units, comfy casual setting, we find it hard to beat.

Thanks! I've used that site to price things out as well. We were just in FL for two weeks at the end of May and thought about dropping by Universal. I think I would go with Hard Rock, but they all seem great. ITA about the Unlimited Express! And we used Undercover Tourist before we got APs! Great minds think alike...

I think we will find a way to stay at Disney (so we don't have to actually spend "money"). But if we end up doing US/IOA, we will use these tips!

 

[twopeasonepod]

I would pull them out of school and go earlier but that is easy for me to say because I pull my own kids. I prefer it less crowded especially at Christmas time. We like to take our time walking around WS, seeing all the decorations and watching the Osbourne Lights at HS. Plus the point difference would be to extreme for me. I prefer less points and less people!

I'm not against taking them out of school, but we have done it so much I feel like I should not do so if I can help it. The boys will miss over four weeks of school this year (first grade), due to DCL/DLR in Oct. and EBTA in May. Plus skiing over Spring Break (which we are extending two days). I know missing this time won't prevent them from getting into college or anything. Just wasting a lot of tuition money!

If you are comfortable with pulling the kids out of school early, I would go that route. We took our DS6 out of first grade last month 12/1-12/9. He did not miss much, and it was so nice to be there when the crowds were lower. I watched the crowd levels from 12/22 - 1/6, and it was ugly. I wouldn't count on much of a reprieve 1/1-1/4.

As far as "spending" 503 points, I say use them as you wish. If you already have a sense of what you want to do with your points over the next 1-2 years, using the 503 points now may not be an issue for you. I disagree with others about getting two studios -- for an 11-12 night stay, you will want that full kitchen, W/D, and living space. Plus, at Kidani you have the third bathroom which is a huge plus. I think the choice of the standard room is fine. It gets dark early anyway, and if you hit a cold snap, you may not spend much time on the balcony watching animals. I would suggest requesting a pool view, as you may get lucky enough to be on the edge of the Pembe savanna, as we were in Oct 2011.

Lastly, I would definitely suggest participating in the Disboards DVC Christmas tree exchange. It was so nice having a Christmas tree in the room for part of our trip.

Ooooh! Christmas tree exchange! YES!!!

You are right, I *do* want the kitchen, W/D, and extra space. I don't know why I was thinking that a studio had those things.

I wonder if 12/16-26 is the way to go? Then move over to Universal? Yikes that is a lot of money! But at least I can justify taking them out of school in my mind because it will be a new school year haha.

 

[k3chantal]

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.

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.

 

[robinb]

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.

 

[lovin'fl]

Thanks! I've used that site to price things out as well. We were just in FL for two weeks at the end of May and thought about dropping by Universal. I think I would go with Hard Rock, but they all seem great. ITA about the Unlimited Express! And we used Undercover Tourist before we got APs! Great minds think alike...

I think we will find a way to stay at Disney (so we don't have to actually spend "money"). But if we end up doing US/IOA, we will use these tips!

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.

 

[dvcterry]

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

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.