BoardWalk Villa for $162.56/Night - March 2007

[Bill From PA]

In an effort to once again stay in the Epcot area on next year's trip I researched the whole DVC points renting thing and managed to get 9 days in a BoardWalk Villa Studio unit for $162 per night, total. Last month we paid $175 at Swan which came to almost $195 when taxes and the other BS was added on. Given that this is the premium season (or whatever it's called) and the discounts at S/D are fewer and fewer lately, I was glad to jump on this. Something for other S/D fans to consider during peak season.

Bill From PA

 

[Quinn222]

I'd love to rent points but I don't know if I'm not getting the whole thing or what because no matter how I work it I don't save any money over the rates I get on the WDW web site. Some people on this board told me it's because I need a weekend. I believe them but why would anyone buy into DVC if they can't stay over weekends without using up all their points in one visit? Obviously I am missing something. I'll have to try and research it some more.

 

[MyGoofy26]

It seems that a good number of DVC owners either don't stay on a weekend, or pay for a cash reservation for weekends so that they can stretch their points even farther.

 

[schumacher]

Wow, that sounds like a tremendous deal Bill, nice catch. I tried to rent points for our fall F&B festival trip and got very little interest from any DVCer's. I must sound like a bad risk I guess LOL. The little interest I did get had folks that really couldn't even check availability until.. well about now and I wanted to get the trip booked.

Congratulations, sounds like you have done well.

Cheers,

Schuey

 

[Sammie]

Renting is not for everyone. There are several things to consider. Yes points are higher on weekends. So if you are staying on a Friday or Saturday you might not get a bargain over a room with CRO. As to what members do, most have enough points to cover the weekends. Some do move on the weekends or take shorter trips.

Also most members do not offer any refunds on booking. This is definitely fair considering the savings, kinda like priceline. So this might not work if your plans are not definite.

You will also not get daily housekeeping, if that is important. Certain times of the year are hard to get at certain locations unless you can book 11 months in advance.

I would definitely make sure you read the info listed on the Rent/trade forums before contacting a member.

 

[Bill From PA]

The whole thing was easier than I expected. I posted a note on the DVC Points board stating my needs, enough points for 7 to 9 days at a BWV Studio Standard View room starting on Feb. 28 2007. One guy answered, offering points for $13 each. I'd read that $10 or so was the going rate, so I declined. Soon, another member posted offering hundreds of points for $11 each. She could make reservations 11 months in advance as BWV is her 'home' resort. Standard View Studio rooms are few in number and go quickly, so I agreed to pay $11 if she could reserve a Standard View Studio room for 9 days, less if I had to take a Preferred View which is more points. Long story short, she started calling for each day as soon as the 11 month window opened and she built the reservation one day at a time. I don't know if every renter would do that, but my 9 days cost 133 points at $11 per. On top of costing us about $30 less per day than Swan did last month, we get a kitchenette with a 'fridge, toaster and microwave and a BoardWalk address. A tip of the hat to jj721 (Jim) whom I met in Jan. '05 for a few cold ones at the Rose & Crown. He was a veteran renter and offered advice. Unless the $139 S/D Teacher's Rate comes back for early March, this will be my Plan A from now on.

Bill From PA

 

[DJNOWICK]

I totally agree - renting is my SOP from now on in most situations. We are renting for the first time the week after T-Day. We have a Sun-Thurs ressie for $10/point and a grand villa at OKW. Split between 3 families this is MUCH cheaper than an AP rate on a deluxe and about $125-ish/family cheaper than a mod...for all the extras you get it's totally worth it. We are moving to the WL for the Fri/Sat because DVC points are not worth it to me for those days because it's so much more expensive on weekends.

We've had a great experience so far - the owner made the ressie, he sent me the confirmation and I mailed him a deposit. Very smooth so far!

Jackie

 

[magsmom]

Hey Bill, don't know if you would want it but you can add the dining plan as part of your reservation.
Good for you. We love the Boardwalk, but generally can't get a standard view 7 months out as we own at SSR - they are all booked up - so we cough up the points for a preferred.

 

[Pocahantas]

You got a great deal Bill! I have rented points several times in the past from a DVC member and it was always a very smooth easy process. We the DVC resorts so much that we are in the process of buying some points of our own . I will be staying at Boardwalk Villas for the first time in 10 days and I am really looking forward to it!

And, for those interested in renting points, Friday and Saturday nights are almost double the points so it really doesn't save you any money. We normally stay somewhere else on those nights or stay only one of those nights during the trip (i.e. check-in on Sunday, check-out on Saturday).

 

[lark]

Bill -- you had a lot of good things working in your favor. First is that you are flexibile enough to travel starting mid-week, which is really the ideal way to do DVC rentals. Many people who want to do 9 nights at WDW would typically want to go from a Friday night to a Sunday, which would have icreased the cost by hundreds of dollars. Second, you were able to plan 11 months ahead, so you could find someone who had the resort you wanted as a home resort. People should understand that your choices get limited once you get even a couple of days beyond the 11 month window, unless you're flexible on dates. Third, you found someone willing to call every day. That's a little unusual -- you really need to find someone with outrageous numbers of points that need to dump them to get them to do that. With a 9 day stay, you probably would have had a harder time getting standard if she'd waited until the 9th day. Does DVC issue one nine day reservation when you do this? I thought it used to issue 9 one-days and then you'd have to convince the resort when you got there to let you stay in the same room.

Bottom line is that renting DVC can be great, although I'll be interested to hear what you have to say about standard when you return. There actually is a reason why preferred would have cost you about 30 more points.

 

[MdmMim]

Does DVC issue one nine day reservation when you do this? I thought it used to issue 9 one-days and then you'd have to convince the resort when you got there to let you stay in the same room.

It should be all one ressie, modified to add the individual days.

Bottom line is that renting DVC can be great, although I'll be interested to hear what you have to say about standard when you return. There actually is a reason why preferred would have cost you about 30 more points.

Bill, the standard views are not a problem. They are usually of the front of the resort, although there are some rooms that overlook the tennis courts and pond, and the ToT. Some of the standard rooms have views of the high Illuminations fireworks. I prefer the standard views!

 

[Bill From PA]

The DVC member I'm dealing with said that I should have the same room right through although a 7 & 2 split wouldn't bother me. Except for sipping our coffee on the patio/balcony the actual view doesn't matter much. We were given a balcony two trips ago at Swan and the only use we made of it was to take each other's picture on it from the ground level. Our actual dates are partially determined by my college's Spring Break schedule, and I usually push it forward a few days to make it a 10 Park Day vacation. We're not likely to want a dining package, we'll typically have 2 or 3 nice table service dinners per WDW trip and just graze on Pub Grub and counter service the rest of the time. Now the challenge is to nail down reasonable airfare. By this time last year we had tix for last month's trip in hand at $181 plus through USAir out of PHL. Next year we're looking to fly out of a small local airport on Feb. 28 and check in that night. So far, nothing for less than $301 each! OUCH!

Bill From PA

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

Wow, that sounds like a tremendous deal Bill, nice catch. I tried to rent points for our fall F&B festival trip and got very little interest from any DVCer's. I must sound like a bad risk I guess LOL. The little interest I did get had folks that really couldn't even check availability until.. well about now and I wanted to get the trip booked.

Congratulations, sounds like you have done well.

Cheers,

Schuey

Schuey - Booking for F&W festival is extremely tough, especially for a studio at either BWV or BCV. If you were looking for that - or even a 1-bedroom - chances are DVC owners didn't think it was worth their effort to try to get such a hot commodity.

 

[cobbler]

Congrats to you Bill. Enjoy your trip.

For those considering renting in the future, its going to get tougher to get a reservation at 10/pt. Be prepared to pay 11-13 a point, esp for peak DVC times. But don't let that discourage you because in Bill's case it would only be $266 more at 13 a point than 11. Still a huge savings!!

Have fun on your trip!!!

 

[ccgegg]

Bill, you'll be absolutely fine with the std view at BWV. We did that last Dec. And it sounds like you'll use your balcony more than we did. If you can find the thread about specific room requests, look it up for BWV. There were some excellent suggestions for room numbers in std view that were great. We had a corner room (can't remember the number)... a little bigger and we could actually see the higher fireworks from Illuminations. (also to warn you that they shook our windows too-- which I thought was cool but our little kids really didn't)

And welcome to the world of renting. I'm still trying to do it for this Dec. We must have been lucky last Dec because we got what we wanted on the first shot, about 8 months in advance. I had no idea we got lucky so as of right now, I'm left out in the cold for '06.

 

[spiceycat]

Schuey - Booking for F&W festival is extremely tough, especially for a studio at either BWV or BCV. If you were looking for that - or even a 1-bedroom - chances are DVC owners didn't think it was worth their effort to try to get such a hot commodity.

general someone looked and found that your reservation would be impossible to fill....

they should have notified you. I would. but some rentee are new to the Dis and are only posting to get rid of some points...

if you asked for standard view even at the 10 month for the food/wine it was probably already gone...

now if you had say you would like either BWV or BCV (I like this one even better) but would settle for any of the DVC resorts - someone who have responded...

 

[Alice Sr.]

Bottom line is that renting DVC can be great, although I'll be interested to hear what you have to say about standard when you return. There actually is a reason why preferred would have cost you about 30 more points.

Wow Lark - I have never had a bad standard view at BWV. I have been less than thrilled with some rooms at BCV and they don't even discount them.

Bill and Mrs. Bill I hope you have a great time (but such a long wait ).

 

[ElizabethB]

I'm surprised to hear the standard price for points is going up. I guess I just don't get renting DVC points. We always stay two weekends when we go, we want a preferred view, we want daily maid service and turn down service and we want the flexibility to cancel 5 days in advance of our arrival for no penalty. We often get an AP rate on a one-bedroom. I've calculated our cost using points (including the extra amount for weekends, maid service, turndown service) versus paying through CRO on an AP discount and the savings at $10 per point isn't that much. At $13 per point it's even less.

I think people get very excited about the fact that Sun-Thur is pretty cheap with points. But, for us -- the inconvenience of moving resorts or trying to switch to cash ressies for the weekend, pay extra for maid service AND most of all having spent so much money so far in advance with little or no chance of being able to cancel or change the reservation (not to mention having to trust someone I found over the internet).

Well, doesn't add up for us at $10 per point! So, it really doesn't at $13 per point.
To each his own, I guess!

 

[beattyfamily]

I'm a DVC member and I always include a weekend night...sometimes two or more! I factored that into buying DVC.

For example. I'm going to WDW Oct 21 and Oct 26, 27, and 28 leaving Oct 29 (Sat, Thurs, Fri and Sat). I'm staying in at the Boardwalk in a one bedroom villa.

My total points is 144 points and if you multiply that by $10 a point it would cost a non-DVC member $1440.

I just checked www.allearsnet.com and she says that timeframe would be $1860 plus taxes.

I just checked www.disney.com and their total for those 4 nights is $2073! I don't know if this total includes taxes??

So my 4 nights the end of Oct, which includes TWO Saturdays and ONE Friday and one Thursday is much cheaper to rent from a DVC member then going through Disney directly, unless maybe there is AP discount. I don't know that scenario.

 

[Bill From PA]

Quote: 'I'm surprised to hear the standard price for points is going up. I guess I just don't get renting DVC points.'

I don't know that this is true across the board. Go to the DVC Points forum and you'll find the majority of pts going for $10, sometimes $9 or less if the seller's use year is running out on them. The first offer I got was for $13, so naturally there's no upper limit on price from the seller's point of view. Several things factored into my decision to accept $11. I wanted to maximize our number of days and getting a Standard View Studio was the way to go. There are very few of them and they get snatched up quickly, so I needed to deal with someone whose home resort was the BWV so as to be able to reserve 11 months out. I first posted my needs and dates and only received the $13 offer. A member with a BWV 'home' posted points for $11. I calculated that I could get points at $10 if I waited, but by then the Standard View Studio rooms would be gone. The extra $1 ($133/9 days) I paid was the premium necessary for me to get 9 days in the room I wanted. This formula might not make sense to everyone, but it did to me. Finally, the last 4 years we've stayed at S/D, this last month at about $195 when the extras were added in. Anything substantially less than this made financial sense to us. Our $164/night is about rack rate with tax added for a Moderate in our time period. Throw in the kitchenette and it's a no-brainer.

Bill From PA