All About Fixed Weeks (RIV/CCV/AUL/VGF/POLY/TOWER/VHD/FWC Charts)

[ziravan]

Just remember that you’re buying a 50 year product and changes are gonna happen.

DVC isn’t the same product it was 25yrs ago.

We bought a FW44 Poly Lake View.

We thought through it long and hard:

1. We believed that DVC would eventually have to address Fall Frenzy so maybe the first two weeks of Dec problem would ease over time.

2. The first floor Lake View problem (can’t see over bungalows) was already being discussed so we believed if those views are eventually re-evaluated, then Lake View would be more rare.

3. Rumors when we bought that DVC would eventually add a new Poly building would make Lake View more rare in terms of total studios.

4. Week 44 (aka Jersey Week) This year, today would be the last day of Week 44. Started on 10/30

F&W
Sometimes Halloween and MNSSHP
Sometimes Christmas and MVMCP
Rarely both.
Nice weather generally

Point being; we spent a considerable amount of time trying to envision not what DVC would look like today, but what it might look like in 20 years when we picked our FW.

I cautioned DW that it was doubtful we’d need to use the FW option in the first decade since its a long term advantage we’re seeking. Still haven’t ever used it but I really like knowing it’s there:

Something like 2% or less of Poly contracts are FWs. We got something just a bit more rare; special.

 

[ziravan]

As a bonus, with last year’s reallocation, my fixed week premium is down to a single point.

I had to buy 168 points which was equal to the 153 points necessary to book week 44 plus a 10% premium.

Now: it takes 167 points to book week 44.

Any more reallocations and my fixed week might be cheaper than an actual week:

My fixed week is booked regardless of point value: if I use it, that counts for all points for that year. Only if I cancel do point values come into play. So if the week costs more than my fixed week, I essentially will be allowed to book earlier for less.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

As a bonus, with last year’s reallocation, my fixed week premium is down to a single point.

I had to buy 168 points which was equal to the 153 points necessary to book week 44 plus a 10% premium.

Now: it takes 167 points to book week 44.

Any more reallocations and my fixed week might be cheaper than an actual week:

My fixed week is booked regardless of point value: if I use it, that counts for all points for that year. Only if I cancel do point values come into play. So if the week costs more than my fixed week, I essentially will be allowed to book earlier for less.

If your week ends up costing more points than you paid for, will you start using it that week? Just curious.

 

[Lorana]

If your week ends up costing more points than you paid for, will you start using it that week? Just curious.

We've ended up with 3 FWs at CCV in a Studio, primarily so that I have those weeks when I want them and not have to worry about walking a studio:
Week 44 (runDisney Food & Wine) - FW is 118 points, week is 114 points in 2021
Week 47 (Thanksgiving week) - FW is 118 points, week is 123 points in 2021
Week 48 (for Christmas season) - FW is 118 points, week is 110 points in 2021

In all cases, the "premium" of 11 points have decreased (the weeks cost 107 points when the resort opened), and in the case of Thanksgiving, my FW is now less expensive than the actual week's cost. We also strongly debated picking up a FW for week 52, which costs 161 points at CCV in a Studio, but the cost for that week in 2021 is 183 points, which means the fixed week would save us 22 points! But DH is not as much a fan of being in Disney over that very busy week as I am, and while that may change in the future, the Christmas holidays are such a big deal for my very large extended family that we feel it will be a rare instance we are there over that holiday week, and if we are, we likely will be with others and want larger accommodations anyway.

Being a frugal person, the "savings" on Thanksgiving week definitely makes me want to use our week in 2021, but honestly our plan in 2021 is to bring family, and we're looking at getting an AKV Grand Villa instead, so I likely won't use the week. I'm tempted to rent it out, except that we are planning a big trip in 2023 to take our godson and our friends/his parents (while still within our 2022 UY) and I think I want to carry over the points to be able to book a CCV Grand Villa for that trip.

But we did not get the FW with the intent of using it every year, so much as knowing that we would every few years want to be at Disney then and wanted to lock in the savings AND ensure we had the week whenever we wanted. Once the kiddos are grown, I imagine we will use it more often, especially as Thanksgiving is my DH's family's big holiday, and his sister and family live in Florida, and I just LOVE Disney during the Christmas holidays (but prefer to spend actual Christmas at home with extended family).

 

[BWV Dreamin]

We've ended up with 3 FWs at CCV in a Studio, primarily so that I have those weeks when I want them and not have to worry about walking a studio:
Week 44 (runDisney Food & Wine) - FW is 118 points, week is 114 points in 2021
Week 47 (Thanksgiving week) - FW is 118 points, week is 123 points in 2021
Week 48 (for Christmas season) - FW is 118 points, week is 110 points in 2021

In all cases, the "premium" of 11 points have decreased (the weeks cost 107 points when the resort opened), and in the case of Thanksgiving, my FW is now less expensive than the actual week's cost. We also strongly debated picking up a FW for week 52, which costs 161 points at CCV in a Studio, but the cost for that week in 2021 is 183 points, which means the fixed week would save us 22 points! But DH is not as much a fan of being in Disney over that very busy week as I am, and while that may change in the future, the Christmas holidays are such a big deal for my very large extended family that we feel it will be a rare instance we are there over that holiday week, and if we are, we likely will be with others and want larger accommodations anyway.

Being a frugal person, the "savings" on Thanksgiving week definitely makes me want to use our week in 2021, but honestly our plan in 2021 is to bring family, and we're looking at getting an AKV Grand Villa instead, so I likely won't use the week. I'm tempted to rent it out, except that we are planning a big trip in 2023 to take our godson and our friends/his parents (while still within our 2022 UY) and I think I want to carry over the points to be able to book a CCV Grand Villa for that trip.

But we did not get the FW with the intent of using it every year, so much as knowing that we would every few years want to be at Disney then and wanted to lock in the savings AND ensure we had the week whenever we wanted. Once the kiddos are grown, I imagine we will use it more often, especially as Thanksgiving is my DH's family's big holiday, and his sister and family live in Florida, and I just LOVE Disney during the Christmas holidays (but prefer to spend actual Christmas at home with extended family).

We bought the fixed week to use, and so far have( except this Dec which due to Covid moved it to BRV in April). We plan on using the FW again in Dec 2021. I do love the flexibility of this FW, and as in your case, have many options to use it. I actually ended up using the extra points from our FW when I cancelled and rebooked for next April.

 

[ziravan]

If your week ends up costing more points than you paid for, will you start using it that week? Just curious.

Maybe. Probably eventually.

We picked a week we like but my work much better allows me to wrap a trip around a weekend.

I’m an RN working 12 hr shifts and every so often I can work S/M/Tu one week and Th/F/S the next and have 8 days off without taking vacation. That equates to WDW Thurs-Wed in between. We’ve done this several times.

Can’t do that on a FW except for the race weekends at CCV. Of course, week 44 is a race weekend (wine and dine marathon) so IF they ever decided to extend the race weekend flexibility to all current race weekends we’d be in business.

Otherwise, after I retire in a few years, probably will use it anyway.

 

[ziravan]

Honestly, if they just added in the race weekend flexibility as a standard fixed week option, they’d probably sell a bunch more.

They’d have to stay within the 35% fixed week capacity but that’s doable with just a little bit of rule making. Unfortunately it’s just not a big enough category to merit any real attention.

If for example though, they allowed fixed week sales at older fixed week resorts, they’d sell a bunch of VGF points in a hurry I’d suspect.

 

[Lorana]

Honestly, if they just added in the race weekend flexibility as a standard fixed week option, they’d probably sell a bunch more.

They’d have to stay within the 35% fixed week capacity but that’s doable with just a little bit of rule making. Unfortunately it’s just not a big enough category to merit any real attention.

If for example though, they allowed fixed week sales at older fixed week resorts, they’d sell a bunch of VGF points in a hurry I’d suspect.

They do allow you to still buy FWs at the older resorts that offered them, which includes VGF, but they only allow the runDisney weekends at CCV.

Can’t do that on a FW except for the race weekends at CCV. Of course, week 44 is a race weekend (wine and dine marathon) so IF they ever decided to extend the race weekend flexibility to all current race weekends we’d be in business.

They do sell runDisney FWs at CCV for Food & Wine, Marathon, Princess, and Star Wars race weeks.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

They do sell runDisney FWs at CCV for Food & Wine, Marathon, Princess, and Star Wars race weeks.

Hmmmm......now I do not run BUT that is very tempting!!!! Only downer is now that FW will cost $220/pt instead of $180/pt.....

 

[Lorana]

Hmmmm......now I do not run BUT that is very tempting!!!! Only downer is now that FW will cost $220/pt instead of $180/pt.....

With current incentives, it would be $210/point for FWs 124 points and under; $205/point for FWs 149 points and under; and $200/point for FWs 150 to 199 points, and $195/point for 200-299 points. And you can always add on a small extra amount to hit the next level of incentives. Helping!! ;-)

 

[Lorana]

Hmmmm......now I do not run BUT that is very tempting!!!! Only downer is now that FW will cost $220/pt instead of $180/pt.....

My husband wants to start doing runDisney events, which is part of the reason we decided to get it. But we also loved the idea of a guaranteed week that we could choose to check in and out on different days. This also gets us MNSSHP some years, and Food & Wine, so it seemed like a no brainer.

We would have loved Poly, except the direct cost is too high for us, or even RIV, but they weren't selling runDisney FWs at RIV. Wilderness Lodge is really our favorite, so we were also good with a week there. We don't really expect to use our FWs every year, since a year we go for Food & Wine, we're unlikely to go back for Thanksgiving/Christmas, but our goal was to make it so that we have the weeks when we want them. Given that cancelling a FW is pretty easy and then we can use the points for anything we want, really made it a no-brainer for us to grab FWs, but YMMV.

 

[MJ NH]

Does a fix week protect against the lock off premium that Disney tried in the first 2020 charts? I apologize if this was asked before.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Does a fix week protect against the lock off premium that Disney tried in the first 2020 charts? I apologize if this was asked before.

In essence yes if you're purchasing a fixed week for a studio or 1BR. They were raising both studios and 1BR's and reducing 2BR's. My best guess is that this management will not do that again though.

 

[WanderlustinFP]

Does anyone have a guide that they can recommend? My guide doesn't know much about GWs since he has never sold one in his 15 years at DVC. I'm also a new DVC member (resale), and I have many questions to ask.

I need to stop reading these forums. Addonitis is real!!!

 

[masupo]

My guide was pretty good. He didn't have that much experience with fixed weeks, but he had some knowledge. He had to ask his supervisor a couple of questions about my plan to purchase, but we got it done. I wanted a 25pt contract on top of the FW to reach the next incentive.

Are we allowed to mention names here? If not I can send a PM.

 

[zakdavid]

My guide was pretty good. He didn't have that much experience with fixed weeks, but he had some knowledge. He had to ask his supervisor a couple of questions about my plan to purchase, but we got it done. I wanted a 25pt contract on top of the FW to reach the next incentive.

Are we allowed to mention names here? If not I can send a PM.

yah you can mention guide names

 

[masupo]

Does anyone have a guide that they can recommend? My guide doesn't know much about GWs since he has never sold one in his 15 years at DVC. I'm also a new DVC member (resale), and I have many questions to ask.

I need to stop reading these forums. Addonitis is real!!!

My guide's name is Roderick Evens. Hope it all works out!

 

[Lorana]

Does anyone have a guide that they can recommend? My guide doesn't know much about GWs since he has never sold one in his 15 years at DVC. I'm also a new DVC member (resale), and I have many questions to ask.

I need to stop reading these forums. Addonitis is real!!!

Bill Koontz is my guide who I purchased my CCV Fixed Weeks from. He's been fantastic to work with.

 

[WanderlustinFP]

My guide's name is Roderick Evens. Hope it all works out!

Bill Koontz is my guide who I purchased my CCV Fixed Weeks from. He's been fantastic to work with.

Thank you!

 

[TinkB278]

Thank you!

I had George Rey and he didn’t have any problems with it!