Anyone ever stay at their "home" for more than a month?

[Simba's Mom]

I was just wondering what's the longest anyone's stayed at their resort? The one and two bedroom units are so complete, you really could live there. What about being a "snowbird" (is that what they're called in Florida?)? That's when people go to the warm climates in the winter. Although I live in warmth already, I can definitely see myself retiring (in the future) and spending time in the winter months in WDW. Has anyone done it? I heard there was a man who used to stay at Fort Wilderness for a month.

 

[shelbyjosh]

I could only dream of a month (or more) stay at OKW!! I do remember asking a CM there what the longest stay was and thought it was some rich sheikh from the Middle East. I kinda took that with a grain of salt, but who knows??

12 days and counting.............

 

[tarzanman]

My DW and I went for a total of 5 weeks last year 2 weeks in December but never all at one time.

 

[MikeScott8]

anyone besides me think this would make an interesting poll? Simba's mom since you first asked the question why don't ya start a poll about this. I would love to see the answers. I would suggest options like

less than 5 days (4 nights)
5-7 days (4-6 nights)
8-10 days (7-9 nights)
11-13 days (10-12 nights)
14-17 days (13-16 nights)
18-21 days (17-20 nights)
22-26 days (21-25 nights)
more than 26 days (25 nights)

I don't want to steal your idea and post the poll myself

Mike

 

[PamOKW]

I remember someone posting a long time ago about meeting an older couple who were "snowbirding" at OKW. Sounds like a great life to me!

 

[Poohjan]

I have a friend who goes down for the months of January and February. They generally stay somehwere else on the weekends or travel, and spend the weekdays at OKW. Their son live in Orlando and works for Disney, so that helps. They have done this for several years. what a life!

 

[Tinkrbell]

I talked to someone whose parents (retired) would stay at the FWC in their own mobile home for 3 months.

Disney used to have a program, before DVC I'm sure, that you could stay there for the winter.

But It was an EXTREMELY high fee. I cant remember what it was exactly, but I think it was about $30-$50/day. I just remember being shocked at the high rate for a campground site, and your own trailor.

Anyway, she said they Loved it and then they bought into DVC when the program ended.

 

[wdwnut]

Pam: i think that post you're remembering was from a year ago or more. we were all wishing we could accumulate enough points for a winter at wdw and then another thread was talking about "geriatric dvc" for when the end of our contracts would come up. those 2 threads were great; it's a shame we can't find them to repost them here.

 

[ncligs]

That is exactly what we are planning to do in when we retire in 5 yrs.We will both be 51 and plan on spending every Jan (Adventure season-lowest pts) at OKW. We are from Oh, and it will be nice to get out of the cold for a month.
For a month during Jan at OKW, staying in studio, it would =320 pts
Option 2..Stay Sun-thurs in a 1BR...fri-sat (studio)=480 pts- Jan
Option 3...alternate weeks from 1BR to studio=480 pts-Jan

I know there would be a few room changes, but when you are "retired", what else do you have to do??
We have 410 pts now so it looks like we may have to add on 1 last time to be able to do this every Jan

And if we wanted to, we can bank and borrow, and stay for 2 months every other year if we wanted to.Anyway this our goal at the present time.

 

[DBBN]

We are planning extended stays at OKW as well. From mid to late November through early to mid March. We currently have 1075 OKW points and are in what I call an accumulation phase...350 OKW pts per year for the next five years when like ncligs we'll be retiring. Our goal is 2800 pts. 2000 of them deeded to my wife the rest deeded to me.

The plan is to winter at OKW and all other seasons in northern New England. If we need to maximize our points usage we'll stop at HHI for a week or so on the drive southbound in November and for a week or so northbound in March.

We chose OKW for 2 reasons.

1) Personal preference...size of one bedroom units, decor and other items such as this.

2) Maintenance and taxes...$3.22 OKW vs the next least expensive resort at WDW BCV $3.77. OKW saves us $53,900 in fees assuming 2800 pts for 35 years...from 2007 when we retire through 2042. Of course these are 2002 dues figures and there are no guarantees that OKW dues will continue to be the least expensive of the resorts at WDW.

ps. I've been visiting this board for a few months now and thought I'd say hello and thanks for all the interesting and informative posts.

 

[Regina]

Welcome DBBN! I'm happy to see that you decided to join in.

The longest that we stayed was 14 nights, and it was during the Holiday season.

I can see us heading down for extended stays once we have less responsibilities on the homefront.

Just knowing that we have so many options is what makes being a DVC member special.

 

[dianeschlicht]

DBBN
You will be living my dream! That is what we have always said we would like to do.

 

[Jimbo]

Wow, DBBN, that sounds like a great retirement! I'll bet that I'm safe in assuming that you two will be buying Annual Passes.

 

[Jimbo]

DBBN - I just mentioned your plans to my wife, and she's wants to know why we can't do that too! We're probably eight years away from retiring, so we're just starting to make some of these decisions.

One question that I would have is how do your reserve a room at OKW for 5 months? I would think calling day by day at the 11 month mark would be kind of a burden. But if you got stuck on the waitlist at various times, that would be terrible, too. How do you plan to do it?

 

[WDWguru]

Will you adopt me???

 

[MdmMim]

During Dec, I spent 10 nights--then returned in Jan/Feb for an additional 24 nights at BWV. I really enjoyed my time there. Next year, I'm going to try for at least 25 nights in one stretch. It's so relaxing having all the time in the "world!" (I retired in '95, and bought into DVC in 2000--wish I had done it years ago!)

 

[RobDoc]

We have the same plan (although NOT as organized as DBBN!) and have the same number of OKW points plus another 300 at HH.

We are prepared to spend the winters at OKW and add some other times at HH, while maintaining residence in Indiana. We'll need a few more points to accomplish this (have had our eye on that 1000 point contract at OKW). We hope to accomplish this in the next 5 years!

Our longest trip, thus far, is 16 days...and it was a wonderful experience. I can highly recommend extended stays!!

Enjoy!

 

[WDWguru]

I'm really fascinated by this! How do you guys plan to book the stays? I imagine day-by-day would be a nightmare, as somebody above stated. I would think booking a week at a time might work?

 

[EROS]

WOW!!!! . I'm just AMAZED at some of these Point totals . We're just worried about trying to finance a college education in 14 years rather than being able to amass hundreds/thousands of points .

We love WDW but would be bored to death staying there for more than 2 weeks at a time. Each to his/her own. It's a big world out there...........when we "retire" it will be "Have Passport,Will Travel"

 

[DBBN]

Originally posted by Jimbo
One question that I would have is how do your reserve a room at OKW for 5 months? I would think calling day by day at the 11 month mark would be kind of a burden. But if you got stuck on the waitlist at various times, that would be terrible, too. How do you plan to do it?

Fact is we're not sure yet! But we're not terribly conserned about it. Roughly 75% of our stay will be during Adventure, Choice and Dream seasons which will make reservations a bit easier to confirm. We expect daily calls at the 11 month mark for Christmas/New Years week, Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King and President's day weekends. Other times we expect weekly calls will secure the desired reservation(s). Odd thing is that since 1995 we've gone back home 24 times (I had to check my points usage history for that) and all but 3 or 4 times got what we asked for. I really find it amazing that when things look bleak MS does come up with inventory. Our next 2 stays 4 days in March and 6 days in April were reserved 2 months and 4 months ahead respectively.

Originally posted by EROS
We love WDW but would be bored to death staying there for more than 2 weeks at a time. Each to his/her own. It's a big world out there...........when we "retire" it will be "Have Passport,Will Travel"

I agree with you on this statement which is one of the reasons why we chose DVC. We figure we'll take a DCL cruise or jet off to Hawaii for a week or so whenever we need a vacation from OKW.