booking with II

[margied]

Hi, new to this site and thinking about purchasing. we are headed down to disney on the 23rd and will tour the dvc's. just wondering if anyone has booked a substantial vacation outside of disney. there would be many places we would enjoy going, but wondering how realistic planning one would be. for example, has anyone booked atlantis in the bahamas?? a friend of mine tried to book williamsburg va. in april for an august trip and she is told it's too soon. her home base in not in disney. is there a difference when trying to book something other than disney? thanks so much for your help.

 

[Buckeye Fan]

Hi, new to this site and thinking about purchasing. we are headed down to disney on the 23rd and will tour the dvc's. just wondering if anyone has booked a substantial vacation outside of disney. there would be many places we would enjoy going, but wondering how realistic planning one would be. for example, has anyone booked atlantis in the bahamas?? a friend of mine tried to book williamsburg va. in april for an august trip and she is told it's too soon. her home base in not in disney. is there a difference when trying to book something other than disney? thanks so much for your help.

Personally, we have never booked, but my BIL/SIL have many times. Most will tell you it's not a good value to trade out, so if you're consider doing that, buy a small number of points that will allow you to bank/use/borrow every 2 or 3 years and buy into another timeshare to trade. From what I understand, you can buy into other resorts that have more trading power, are cheaper and have lower dues.

With that said, my SIL plans about 9 - 12 months in advance. They have gone to the Bahamas, Hawaii, Spain, Germany, Paris, Aruba and a couple of other locations. If you put in a search, DVC will automatically confirm if a reservation comes through. However, you can call and ask DVC to see what is available. This will give you a little bit of time to look for flights. I will tell you, it appears to take a lot of planning and requires the stars to align!!! For what it's worth, both she and my BIL have been so happy with their lodging when they've traded out. In Spain, they had this gorgeous 2 story villa and each villa had its own private pool! Ahhhh....one of these days!!!

Enjoy your tour. For what it's worth, we've LOVED owning, and if you travel to Dis often and stay in moderate or deluxe resorts, it's definitely worth hearing the sales pitch! Have fun and have a GREAT vacation!

 

[margied]

thanks so much for your input. after posting i saw a few threads relating to this subject. is your bil/sil a disney vacation club member? glad to hear "someone" has had success using thier points somewhere other than disney. we love disney but want to visit other places as well. now we just have to decide which resort. any new akv incentives available?????

 

[Dean]

Hi, new to this site and thinking about purchasing. we are headed down to disney on the 23rd and will tour the dvc's. just wondering if anyone has booked a substantial vacation outside of disney. there would be many places we would enjoy going, but wondering how realistic planning one would be. for example, has anyone booked atlantis in the bahamas?? a friend of mine tried to book williamsburg va. in april for an august trip and she is told it's too soon. her home base in not in disney. is there a difference when trying to book something other than disney? thanks so much for your help.

Planning for high demand options like HI and Atlantis is not very realistic. For current members sit never hurts to try but to buy with this purpose in mind makes no sense. If you buy in simply buy less, the # of points you'd use at DVC and look to non DVC options for other trips.