Anyone ever use points to stay at Disney Collection?

[River Country]

It seems that last minute reservations are getting tougher and tougher each and every year. I was just curious if anyone ever used their annual points to stay at a Disney Collection resort? Pros and cons?

TIA

 

[BillPA]

Once a long time ago, stayed at GF, before DVC was there. It was 35 points a night, not a bad deal. Also unless they changed it, the rule of 4s says you can't book during the last 4 months of your UY. Also you can not use resale points.

 

[Frederic Civish]

The inability to use resale points is they significant inconvenience.
Last year I did use points to stay at in a hotel room at Grand Californian in Disneyland. I have also made Regular DVC reservations at Grand Californian but I wanted to travel at a time when there was no availability obviously true DVC. It worked fine but it was quite expensive.
I think that there are a few Resorts that might be worth using points, All Things Considered. Port Orleans, Caribbean Beach, or Coronado Springs. The point exchanges for those is not too bad.

 

[River Country]

Thanks for the input

 

[mixmastertoy]

I would rather rent out my points on the forums here and use the cash to book... that is still the best bang for your dollar.

 

[BillPA]

I would rather rent out my points on the forums here and use the cash to book... that is still the best bang for your dollar.

I agree at the current exchange cost. Our 35 points for GF was not bad, now it would be 83 a night, no way it's worth that. ($1,150+)

 

[DenLo]

Once a long time ago, stayed at GF, before DVC was there. It was 35 points a night, not a bad deal. Also unless they changed it, the rule of 4s says you can't book during the last 4 months of your UY. Also you can not use resale points.

Actually you can use resale points for the Disney Collection if you purchased those points prior to March 11, 2011.

The point cost to stay at the Grand Floridian hotel using the Disney Collection is much higher now, 60 - 170 point per night depending on the season and room view. https://secure.cdn1.wdpromedia.com/...s/disney-resort-hotels/2018WDWPtCht061917.pdf You probably could get a moderate resort room at 35 points a night.

 

[Frederic Civish]

I would rather rent out my points on the forums here and use the cash to book... that is still the best bang for your dollar.

I will agree that this is USUALLY the case, but there are a few resorts, French Quarter, Riverside, Caribbean Beach and Coronado Springs where there are AT TIMES, no more points required through Disney Collection, than if your rented the points out and used cash, because approximately the same number of points would be required to sell, to get the cash, to rent the same room. Is this making any sense? Take a look at it. Sometimes the difference in points, either way, is minimal.

While I am on that, what the heck is going on with the points required through the Disney Collection for Art of Animation? For Art of Animation, it will cost, per night, 30 points to 50 points. But for Port Orleans or Coronado Springs it is 19 through 40, depending on the season and night. I know the Art of Animation points are listed for 'Family Suites" such as "The Lion King" family suite or the "Nemo" family suite. Well, I stayed in the Nemo family suite and I didn't find it to be much better than a regular hotel room. I didn't understand what the fuss, and extra expense, was about.

 

[Bing Showei]

I will agree that this is USUALLY the case, but there are a few resorts, French Quarter, Riverside, Caribbean Beach and Coronado Springs where there are AT TIMES, no more points required through Disney Collection, than if your rented the points out and used cash, because approximately the same number of points would be required to sell, to get the cash, to rent the same room. Is this making any sense? Take a look at it. Sometimes the difference in points, either way, is minimal.

You can argue that the difference isn't worth the effort of renting, but it is never more cost effective to to exchange into the Disney Concierge Collection.

Even if we cherry-pick the 19pt/night at Caribbean Beach (the only resort with a 19pt/night room), and say we stay Sun-Thurs, specifically during the period that is covered, Jan 2-3, Jan 7-11, Jan 15-Feb 14 (Adventure Season), each of those 19pt nights would cost $203.06/night (incl. tax). 19 points renting at $13/night will yield $247.00.

Assuming you stay for 5 nights maximizing the 19pt/night rate, that would cost you as follows:

CASH
$1,015.30

POINTS
95

If you were to rent those 95 points at $13/point, that would be $1,235.00. A $219.70 difference, or 18% difference.

The equivalent is renting out 78 points. A savings of 17 points.

All that is not to say one should rent out their points to stay elsewhere, it's more to underscore why it is repeated on these boards over and over again: don't buy into DVC unless you plan to use your points at a DVC resort. Using those direct point "benefits" only benefits Disney.

 

[Deb & Bill]

You can use resale points if they are grandfathered in. But it takes way too many points to book the Disney Collection. Rent out your points and pay cash.

 

[bwvBound]

We haven't done it in a while ... but we used to book the Grand Californian Hotel through the Disney Collection before the Villas were built there.

 

[Frederic Civish]

You can argue that the difference isn't worth the effort of renting, but it is never more cost effective to to exchange into the Disney Concierge Collection.

Even if we cherry-pick the 19pt/night at Caribbean Beach (the only resort with a 19pt/night room), and say we stay Sun-Thurs, specifically during the period that is covered, Jan 2-3, Jan 7-11, Jan 15-Feb 14 (Adventure Season), each of those 19pt nights would cost $203.06/night (incl. tax). 19 points renting at $13/night will yield $247.00.

Assuming you stay for 5 nights maximizing the 19pt/night rate, that would cost you as follows:

CASH
$1,015.30

POINTS
95

If you were to rent those 95 points at $13/point, that would be $1,235.00. A $219.70 difference, or 18% difference.

The equivalent is renting out 78 points. A savings of 17 points.

All that is not to say one should rent out their points to stay elsewhere, it's more to underscore why it is repeated on these boards over and over again: don't buy into DVC unless you plan to use your points at a DVC resort. Using those direct point "benefits" only benefits Disney.

I could accept this, though I do think your price of $203 is a bit low. But that is okay.

However, I also need to point out that at least sometimes, people need to pay taxes on their “unearned income” from renting points. This could bring it all back into line again.

 

[bigAWL]

Also remember that there is a fee for each booking in the Disney Collection. This makes renting the points and paying cash even more advantageous. Not sure if it changed, but it was $95 per booking when I stayed at the Polynesian in 2011. And since I was booking two rooms, they were going to charge the fee twice. But thankfully the Member Services rep waived one of the fees for me.

 

[Frederic Civish]

Also remember that there is a fee for each booking in the Disney Collection. This makes renting the points and paying cash even more advantageous. Not sure if it changed, but it was $95 per booking when I stayed at the Polynesian in 2011. And since I was booking two rooms, they were going to charge the fee twice. But thankfully the Member Services rep waived one of the fees for me.

Good point

 

[Douglas Dubh]

I booked a regular room at the Grand Californian last fall using points. I had borrowed points planning to go to WDW in July but then had to cancel, so I had points that were going to expire. The villa rooms were all booked so my only choice was to use the points on a regular room. Normally it’s not worth it though for the reasons others have given above.

 

[Bing Showei]

I could accept this, though I do think your price of $203 is a bit low. But that is okay.

I didn’t make the $203 number up. That’s the published rate $180/night plus tax. You would get the same number if you try to book that room today for January 2019; Caribbean Beach, standard room. And I did not include the $95 fee to trade in which would stack another $19/night on top of the difference.

Difference between paying cash and using points is $314.70, or 31% more than paying cash. No amount of tax would eat up that difference.

There was no material value change when Disney took this ability to use book Concierge, ABD, DCL away from resale buyers in 2011. Prospective buyers did the math and shrugged it off. There is little value in doing the exchanges (unless weighed against losing points as Douglas dubh pointed out).

It wasn’t until the 2016 changes that Disney found a way to turn the screws on resale buyers. And within hours of the announcement, @ziravan posted about the 25pt work-around loophole that they would eventually close.

Again, using those direct “benefits” doesn’t benefit anyone but Disney.

 

[ziravan]

I didn’t make the $203 number up. That’s the published rate $180/night plus tax. You would get the same number if you try to book that room today for January 2019; Caribbean Beach, standard room. And I did not include the $95 fee to trade in which would stack another $19/night on top of the difference.

Difference between paying cash and using points is $314.70, or 31% more than paying cash. No amount of tax would eat up that difference.

There was no material value change when Disney took this ability to use book Concierge, ABD, DCL away from resale buyers in 2011. Prospective buyers did the math and shrugged it off. There is little value in doing the exchanges (unless weighed against losing points as Douglas dubh pointed out).

It wasn’t until the 2016 changes that Disney found a way to turn the screws on resale buyers. And within hours of the announcement, @ziravan posted about the 25pt work-around loophole that they would eventually close.

Again, using those direct “benefits” doesn’t benefit anyone but Disney.

Ah shucks.

This was that thread:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/resale-policy-change.3498681/

There was an obvious shill arguing the first few pages about how the 25 point kicker wouldn’t work; it did, for almost 2 years.

You should have seen the open letter I posted to Ken Potrock about the 2016 changes.

 

[purpliequeen]

We used the points to stay at the Grand Floridian (before the villas were built) and the Yacht Club - both were amazing and it was a super enjoyable vacation.

But agreed with other posters - the GF and YC stays were before there were so many DVC resorts and now the value proposition is different. Probably won't use points to stay in the Disney Collection again unless perhaps at the overseas parks (if we ever make it to Disney Paris, for example). We do enjoy using the points in the Concierge Collection - Fairmont San Francisco, Mandarin Oriental, DC, Keystone Resort (for friends' wedding - the room block was actually there and we got it for like 50 points that weekend!), etc. All of our Disney Concierge Collection experiences have been amazing thus far.

 

[hamilkm]

We used points at Paradise Pier in Disneyland last September. We were supposed to be a Copper Creek but canceled due to Irma. Our points would have expired (December use year) before we could get back to Disney world to use them. It wasn’t a great value, but kept a us from losing points and let us still use the week we had already scheduled off work for a Disney vacation!

 

[BEASLYBOO]

It's not really the best bang for your DVC buck... adding to it the $95 fee, doesn't make $$$ sense for me. But if you had points that were expiring, or couldn't or didn't want to rent them out, it's an option and could be justified. I think some DVC'rs have so many points, they may not take the time to calculate the actual cost of cruising, RCI, Disney Collection etc., they see it as already paid for and ready to use. But when you consider the cost of maintenance and other fees like the $95, cash deals can be better negotiated.