Can I book a villa at one of the DVC resorts through the regular Disney booking process (cash ressie), and then when it gets to the 7 month window, change that to a "points" reservation?
_________________________
BWV
SSR
VWL
CBR
POFQ
CSR
FW
Can I book a villa at one of the DVC resorts through the regular Disney booking process (cash ressie), and then when it gets to the 7 month window, change that to a "points" reservation?
No, you cannot. Cash reservations actually come from a different room inventory than point reservations. So you would be cancelling one reservation and then starting from square one to get a point reservation.
The reservations that are available for cash come from a different "pool" than the rooms avail with points. The rooms avail for cash come from the rooms that DVD kept from the sales (either 2% or 4%, I cannot remember) or are rooms that are being sold to get back the money used to book some of the things we can do with our points such as cruises or other hotels such as the Disney Collection or Concierge Collection.
As already stated, it won't convert from cash to points. Why not book at your home resort, then switch at the 7 month point? That's how I do it when staying at a non home resort. That way you can still plan your trip knowing you will have someplace to stay.