Advice and opinions please!?

[skippelm]

HI!
I need some advice from the wise ones on this board! I have 234 reservation points that expire in 2/03. However, I will only be able to travel for the next month or so- until the end of March.

Should I
-sell the points? (will I have a problem b/c they are ressie pts?)
-blow them on an expensive room at AKL for several nights
-try to get a cruise on only a months notice

What would you do?

Thanks!
SK

 

[Towncrier]

My advice is to use them if you can, even if you "blow" them on a trip to the AKL or on a cruise. If all else fails, sell 'em.

 

[Cinderella]

Hi, Well you have a good while until you have to use them. Don't panic like I did, not realising I could use mine on the cruise after August.

Have a little think for a while about what you want to do with them. If it gets too late, you can always bank them with interval international and after that, you will have two years to decide what to do with them and you can do a lot with those many points.

 

[bjeans0927]

have seen several references to "ressie points" explain what this is. am new to this board. plan to finally join dvc and am so confused.

 

[jmminarik]

Just my thoughts, but if you have to do something with them, use them if you can afford it. You only get so many vacations in life.

I guess this depends on if you have the time and/or money. If it were me, I'd use them for as long of a period as I could in a 1 BR. But I have 4 weeks vacation, so I have some time to burn.

Money wise, unless you spend every day going to a park and being touristy, it wouldn't be that much more $$$ spending the extra time somewhere if you stayed put at a resort relaxing. Food can be a non-issue if you do most of your own cooking on these days.

Come to think of it, if you don't have to do a park, take some time at either HH in the summer and shoulder months, or VB almost anytime.

Not all Disney vacations have to be exhausting.

Hope this helps,
Joe

 

[Werner Weiss]

Originally posted by Cinderella
If it gets too late, you can always bank them with interval international and after that, you will have two years to decide what to do with them and you can do a lot with those many points.

The original poster, skippelm, has 234 Reservation Points. You can't use Reservation Points for II exchanges.

There are two kinds of points:

• Vacation Points -- These are the points that you get every year to book accomodations at DVC resorts. You can borrow and bank Vacation Points, within the banking and borrowing rules.
• Reservation Points -- When you book Concierge Collection, WDW resorts, DCL cruises, and any other bookings that don't involve reservations at DVC resorts, equivalent DVC inventory is turned over to CRO which rents the DVC rooms to cash guests. Your Vacation Points are converted to Reservation Points. If you cancel a reservation made with such points (such as cancelling a DVC cruise), you get back the Reservation Points. You can't use the Reservation Points at DVC resorts because that DVC inventory has already been "used up."

Interval International (II) exchanges involve the use of Vacation Points. Your Vacation Points are used to book a week at a DVC resort according to the same rules that apply when you book a week for yourself. The week is turned over to II. Typically, DVC members search for an II exchange first through MS, which then books a comparable week at any DVC resort. But it's also possible to deposit a full week with II (again through MS) and search for a suitable exchange up to two years after the DVC week that was booked. You can't use the Reservation Points for II exchanges because Reservation Points can't be used to book a week at a DVC resort.

 

[WebmasterDoc]

Originally posted by bjeans0927
have seen several references to "ressie points" explain what this is. am new to this board. plan to finally join dvc and am so confused.

Points used to make a non-DVC reservation, which is later cancelled, are placed in "Reservation Status". This means they may be used ONLY for a non-DVC reservation.

Once DVC members make a reservation anyplace but a DVC resort, the points used are released to CRO to use to "pay" for that reservation. Once turned over to CRO, they can't be retreived as points- only as comparable reservations.

I'd sure try to find a way to use the points myself, but if that isn't an option, renting a reservation to someone else would certainly be better than losing the points.

Good Luck!

 

[Werner Weiss]

Originally posted by WebmasterDoc
Once DVC members make a reservation anyplace but a DVC resort, the points used are released to CRO to use to "pay" for that reservation. Once turned over to CRO, they can't be retreived as points- only as comparable reservations.

True -- with the additional clarification that although an II exchange may appear to be just another "reservation anyplace but a DVC resort," it's actually a special case. If you cancel a reservation for an II exchange, you don't get back Vacation Points (because II now has the DVC week for another II member) and you don't get back Reservation Points (because the equivalent points never went to CRO). But you can book another II exchange within a year.

 

[jmminarik]

Originally posted by jmminarik
Just my thoughts, but if you have to do something with them, use them if you can afford it. You only get so many vacations in life.

I guess this depends on if you have the time and/or money. If it were me, I'd use them for as long of a period as I could in a 1 BR. But I have 4 weeks vacation, so I have some time to burn.

Hope this helps,
Joe

Of course it won't, since I conveniently forgot these were ressie points.
I'd go for a room at a the beach club before the BCV open, or any hotel which would give me the most time for the amount of vacation I could spend.

-Joe

 

[CaptainMidnight]

Fly to New York with someone special to take in a Broadway play and stay in the plaza.

 

[Werner Weiss]

Originally posted by CaptainMidnight
Fly to New York with someone special to take in a Broadway play and stay in the plaza.

Yep! That's the right idea. Given the the points are already Reservation Points, there's no longer an argument about whether using points at non-DVC properties is an effiicent use of points. So stay at the Plaza or another Concierge Collection deluxe hotel, or see if you can get a Disney Cruise on short notice, or enjoy the AKL (home of Boma, the best dinner buffet I've ever been to).

Have a great vacation!

 

[skippelm]

Thanks everybody! We still havent made a decision yet... I'll let ya know. We have very limited time to stay anywhere as well as use the points- so I think we'll end up either on the cruise or AKL. NY is a nice idea but we only live 40 minutes outside of the city- so we spend alot of time there anyway.

Thanks!!