busiest seasons for dvc (sorry, long post)

[connorsmom911]

Ok, so I'm trying to do as much research into DVC for my family as I can. Thanks to these boards for all of the great info!!! So, here is where I'm at...

Of course price is one of the biggest factors for us, so I've been looking resale at the less expensive contracts per point, and the properties with lower maintenance fees. We will probably do our own financing via home equity loan or line of credit, and because we're in Canada, we'll likely just put the MF on credit card each year (I'm correct that we CDN's get the option to do this???), get the points and then flip it to the line of credit or pay it off. Right at this immediate point in time we're not in a position to buy, but I do forsee it being feasible in the next 5 years (hopefully sooner before the exchange rate widens again but this won't be done until I've crunched numbers every which way known to man...it's just my nature...)

Right now we usually vacation in fall or early December, maybe late April or May. We've cruised (not DCL), done Daytona a few times, and WDW a couple times (honeymoon being one) and we love "Mickey's house" (well, me and DS a little more than DH...lets just say he's not at the "obsessed" stage I am). I would hope we'll do "big" vacations every few years and maybe smaller ones in between. We do have a 2.5 year old, so school vacations may become an issue later on (although I am one of those parents that believe in taking them out of school for family vacation...no flames please!!). Many members of our families are shift workers so celebrating holidays on the actual holiday is not a real issue, we just make our own "holiday" days. Right now I know my schedule years in advance, so planning 11 months out is feasible, but sometimes we're spontaneous, so less than 7 months is also possible.

Looking at the atmosphere of the resorts, I like the feel of OKW, always have...since my family took the tour back in '93 and my parents ALMOST bought (you should see the bruises from them kicking themselves!!!). Love the GV's and would like to be able to do that at least once for a big family trip (parents, sisters, grandparents, etc). I also like the feel of BCV and the close proximity to Epcot, although we are quite used to the bus system. We've only ever stayed at CBR and CSR, and honestly were ready to downgrade to ASMo for an impromptu budget trip so DS could stay with "Buzz", so we are accustomed to Mod/Value stays, never having stayed Deluxe. We could probably "suffer" with a studio stay for a number of years before upgrading to 1BR (I don't know how much I want to cook on vacation), and only plan to go every other year or even less (bank and borrow for one trip, then skip a year, bank and borrow again for the next trip etc).

Soooo, my question is what are the busiest seasons for DVC as far as trying to get bookings at home vs non-home resorts. Yes, I get that Xmas/NY and Easter will be next to impossible at a non-home resort, but how about other times of the year? I don't have my heart set on BCV as a home resort, although it would be nice. I just see that resales/maint fees might be less at OKW. Or what about HH or VB? I've read the adage "buy where you want to stay" but then there's some posts that say that's not as important as everyone makes it out to be. Can you reasonably buy at HH or VB and never stay there, just staying at WDW properties going the times of year that we usually travel?

Any help or advice is always appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Tracey

 

[kda]

Early December is an exceptionally busy time for DVC ...... very low points and beautiful holiday decorations in the resorts and the parks, MVMCP, Osborne Lights, Candlelight Processional. WL is particularly lovely and it's small, so book very early there.

October and the first half of November (Food and Wine Festival) have become quite busy also, especially for BCV and BWV, because they're so close to Epcot. In general, BCV can be more difficult to get into because Stormalong Bay is so popular.

We definitely try to book before the 7 month window for the times mentioned above, and try for the 10-11 month window for VWL in December (our home resort). But, we've gotten OKW for early November at 4 months out ----- right after that I read lots of posts about wait listing, so I think I was just in time.

Since OKW is quite large and SSR will be quite large, there tends to be availability after the 7 month window has passed, even in busy seasons (I have no experience with the Easter/Thanksgiving/Christmas time periods). Of course, if you're talking about GV's, it's still good to book early.

We've gotten into VWL and OKW on a few week's notice in May, late August, September. You can always book your home resort, assuming it's not VB or HH, and go on a wait list for one of the other resorts.

 

[Popovich]

Our home resort is BWV and we love it. However, since we have gone each of the last 4 years we've stayed at a different resort each time and have not had a problem This year we wanted to stay at VWL in early Dec and it wasn't available at the 7 mo window - this is the first time we've had a problem. We've also booked stays for friends 4 -5 times at different places and have only had problems the first week of Dec.

I hope this helps you.

 

[cruise-o-matic]

We bought HH for the combination of low price per point and 2rd lowest MF's, just above SSR & OKW. (Keep in mind that VB may be the cheapest price per point, it by far has the highest fees and resales seem to take longer.) We also got HH b/c we live in NC and we have the 11 month advantage to book summers there.

Since we have HH points, we can't book WDW until 7 months out. So far we have booked a BCV studio for early December....called day by day at the 7 month mark (VWL studios were gone before 7 months, unless you waitlisted). And BWV for Marathon weekend in January at 5 1/2 months out. We had to waitlist for 1 night, but it only took a day for it to come through.

YMMV.

 

[AlaskaMOM]

QUOTE:
"I like the feel of OKW, always have...since my family took the tour back in '93 and my parents ALMOST bought (you should see the bruises from them kicking themselves!!!)."

 

[dianeschlicht]

We usually book at the 11 month mark, and the only time we have felt the need to book day-by-day is when we have wanted a GV. We always stay at OKW because we don't care for the arrangement of the villas at the other resorts, and have felt them to be inconvenient when we have stayed at them. That's a personal opinion though. That being said, if you buy at OKW and take your chances at the others, I am sure you will be able to trade into the rest as long as you aren't always trying for those prime times like F&W festival at BCV or BWV or Christmas at VWL. Early December, you might be limited to your home resort of OKW, but that's not all bad!

BTW, we understand the black and blue parents! We first looked into DVC in 1992, and we didn't purchase until 1997 AFTER the free passes ended! Yep, we are still bruised over that too!

 

[Cruelladeville]

Count us among the bruised. We finally bought in 97, too, and this year we finally bought...OKW.