Another point question! What do you do with the 'leftovers'?

[intamin]

we just don't want to be one of those families that only vacations at Disney

me after visiting Disney World 8 times in the past year and Aulani with plans to go to Tokyo Disney:



Kidding kidding, I also threw a Royal Caribbean cruise in there too

 

[lilsonicfan]

This makes sense, I'm not sure anyone in my life would classify my wife and I as casual visitors, for pretty much the entire time we've been together we've visited at least once a year, until COVID, and then since then we've had our son, so we've only been back twice and one visit to Disneyland. I'd love to go every year, we just don't want to be one of those families that only vacations at Disney and I don't know that more than vacation a year is going to be feasible with kids. We had always wanted DVC, so we're really trying to find a way to make it work for our family.

While I am with you all the way - and I'm west coast so really going to WDW often isn't a thing for me - I'd argue that most DVCers might consider someone who visits once a year as super casual

 

[🍀TwinsMom]

me after visiting Disney World 8 times in the past year and Aulani with plans to go to Tokyo Disney:

View attachment 865628

Kidding kidding, I also threw a Royal Caribbean cruise in there too

#same. We went six times in five years and would have done more if we had points available. I don't care that it's "Disney," I'm all about the resorts and restaurants and one-stop shopping with kid entertainment in a safe environment that I don't have to drive everyone around and schlepp coolers of food and bring linens and towels to rent a cottage/cabin somewhere. I can rent a cottage (Vero) and cabin (Fort Wilderness/Copper Creek) with everything nearby.

 

[intamin]

#same. We went six times in five years and would have done more if we had points available. I don't care that it's "Disney," I'm all about the resorts and restaurants and one-stop shopping with kid entertainment in a safe environment that I don't have to drive everyone around and schlepp coolers of food and bring linens and towels to rent a cottage/cabin somewhere. I can rent a cottage (Vero) and cabin (Fort Wilderness/Copper Creek) with everything nearby.

I have to admit it's REALLY nice to know how to do everything like book dining reservations, book your rooms, have annual passes already paid for. This is the first time I've ever tried booking stuff for Tokyo Disney and I feel like I don't know anything and everything has a different deadline for when you can book things. It's been a struggle

 

[mauionabreakaway]

I guess we are filthy casuals, we only ever made it up to three trips a year when we were APs. I'll turn in my mouse ears!

Thanks for the input everyone! I'm sure I'll be back with more questions as we work our way through this and come up with new justificationsperspectives.

 

[Sammie]

I rarely have any leftovers but when I do, I gift a trip to a friend.

 

[MerlinandtheMouse]

#same. We went six times in five years and would have done more if we had points available. I don't care that it's "Disney," I'm all about the resorts and restaurants and one-stop shopping with kid entertainment in a safe environment that I don't have to drive everyone around and schlepp coolers of food and bring linens and towels to rent a cottage/cabin somewhere. I can rent a cottage (Vero) and cabin (Fort Wilderness/Copper Creek) with everything nearby.

I have to admit it's REALLY nice to know how to do everything like book dining reservations, book your rooms, have annual passes already paid for. This is the first time I've ever tried booking stuff for Tokyo Disney and I feel like I don't know anything and everything has a different deadline for when you can book things. It's been a struggle

All of this.

It’s incredibly underrated going somewhere with all the comfort and know-how but also, it’s a little bit different every time that keeps it fresh and exciting. And speaking specifically of WDW, there’s just SO much to do, even beyond the parks (we are very much parks people and can barely commit to a rest day in a week trip) that it’s never dull or boring or the same thing. I’ve said it before but the really is nothing quite like Disney World trip.

 

[adam.r.thomas]

#same. We went six times in five years and would have done more if we had points available. I don't care that it's "Disney," I'm all about the resorts and restaurants and one-stop shopping with kid entertainment in a safe environment that I don't have to drive everyone around and schlepp coolers of food and bring linens and towels to rent a cottage/cabin somewhere. I can rent a cottage (Vero) and cabin (Fort Wilderness/Copper Creek) with everything nearby.

My DH has huge dietary issues and it is SUCH A RELIEF to go somewhere that we KNOW he can eat, and that chefs will come out and make sure that he gets good, different, yummy food. We went for the first time as a family this year, and immediately started planning our next trip and became DVC members because of the sheer ease of being there. Even though we just got our first contract, I'm already debating buying more and trying to convince DH to make this an annual trip (screw Paris, let's do WDW!)

 

[🍀TwinsMom]

While WDW is not an easy vacation in the beginning, once you have the quirks down (Genie/LL/shifting hours for parties/dining reservations,) now it’s brainless. As the mom/planner, I get to relax on vacation for a change.

 

[ellataylor]

We have made 3 yearly trips work by messing around with split stays. So, for example we knew we wanted to stay at our home resort of VGF so we looked at the point charts of other resorts that are likely to be available at 7months and which resort would result in no point loss or less than 5 point loss (our personal acceptable amount to lose). So, for example, we are staying 4 days at Riviera, followed by 10days at VGF next month with 2 points left behind.

I guess it helps that we require 2 bedroom villas which tend to have slightly better availability than than 1 bedroom but you could do something similar with a split stay at SSR or other resorts with more availability at 7months.

Just taking a quick look now there is quite a few 1 bedrooms available for Jan 2025 (7 months from now), especially if you want to just tag a few days on the beginning or end of your home resort. Obviously January is a slower month than others though