disney grand california sale start 1-25-09 for founding members

[bethy]

Thank you! Now I can confirm the numbers and take my mega spreadsheet to DH for the final decision. I think I'll be campaigning for 126 points. You wouldn't believe the number of calculations that made me come up with that number. I don't want to buy one single point too many or too few. Unlike the other DVC resorts I don't think it will ever be that easy to add on an extra contract via resale someday. And certainly not in increments of less than 100.

 

[squidmo]

I don't want to buy one single point too many or too few. Unlike the other DVC resorts I don't think it will ever be that easy to add on an extra contract via resale someday. And certainly not in increments of less than 100.

I agree. I haven't run our calculations yet, since I'm not eligible to buy during the founding member phase, but I plan on doing the full "what-if" analysis to try and get my points purchase to be EXACTLY what I'll be needing over time.

 

[kerickson]

Disney just put all the 2010 charts up on the members website today. Here's the link to the 2010 chart for VGC:

http://advc.disney.go.com/media/dvc...ationClub_DisneysGrandCalifornianHotelSpa.pdf

Yay!

 

[kerickson]

Thank you! Now I can confirm the numbers and take my mega spreadsheet to DH for the final decision. I think I'll be campaigning for 126 points. You wouldn't believe the number of calculations that made me come up with that number. I don't want to buy one single point too many or too few. Unlike the other DVC resorts I don't think it will ever be that easy to add on an extra contract via resale someday. And certainly not in increments of less than 100.

I'm figuring we'll travel May/Dec or Jan/Sept in a 1BR twice every 3 years for 4 nights (3week, 1 w/end). We'll need 95 points per year. Since we have to buy 100 I'll have 5 extra. I guess I'll just add those to my SSR points for a 7mo booking or non DVC stay. Can't afford to buy more than 100, so I'll just have to deal with the extra. Better than having too few!

 

[nunzia]

Thanks for the link! I went through many many scenarios and would really like 120 or so, but 110 will work well.

 

[bethy]

Our parameters are that we always need to include 2 weekend nights. First b/c we always travel in the off season when my very favorite DLR attractions are only offered on weekends (fireworks, fantasmic, ELP). But even more importantly because I have found out how HARD it is to miss school. My DD is only in First grade and we just had her out for a week. She really struggled emotionally with this and the school gave us a hard time. In principle I know she's our kid and we should be doing what we feel is best for our family. But I figure if the reality is like this in FIRST grade then it's only going to get harder from here on out. So I'm thinking we'll be doing mainly 3 and 4 day weekends. This is another reason I love DLR - you can get a lot out of a short visit like that!

Anyway, my big dilemma right now is how badly do we need/want a one bedroom? For such a short trip we actually don't mind sharing a room with our DD's at all. For us, it's kind of part of the intense, immersion, family bonding experience which is the main reason we go to DLR. All for one and one for all! But I'm trying to figure out if that will change in coming years. Heaven knows we have absolutely no use whatsoever for a full kitchen and a laundry on short immersion trips like the ones we take!

I'm also trying to figure out how often will we REALLY be wanting to do DLR or WDW in the coming years. This year I did/am doing 4 trips but that is a real fluke. My safest guess is that most year we'll want to go at least once with a few exceptions for big trips elsewhere. But then we can just bank our points and have fun figuring out how to use them.

 

[Grumpygrandpa]

OK, so now I'm going to sound stupid. I didn't realize that point charts change from year to year. Because I've almost always used my points at DLR I had never noticed and just assumed that points at DVC resorts didn't change from year to year. People always say that one of the advantages of DVC is that over time it is a hedge against inflation, but how can that be true if point charts can change from year to year?

 

[PrincessDuck]

From my understanding, the points can change around on the points chart, but the total will always be the same.... I am sure that it is a little more complex than this because I am new to all of this, but that is my understanding.

OK, so now I'm going to sound stupid. I didn't realize that point charts change from year to year. Because I've almost always used my points at DLR I had never noticed and just assumed that points at DVC resorts didn't change from year to year. People always say that one of the advantages of DVC is that over time it is a hedge against inflation, but how can that be true if point charts can change from year to year?

 

[Grumpygrandpa]

From my understanding, the points can change around on the points chart, but the total will always be the same.... I am sure that it is a little more complex than this because I am new to all of this, but that is my understanding.

OK, that makes sense. That would allow DVC to fine tune without raising the points yearly.

 

[ACDSNY]

OK, so now I'm going to sound stupid. I didn't realize that point charts change from year to year. Because I've almost always used my points at DLR I had never noticed and just assumed that points at DVC resorts didn't change from year to year. People always say that one of the advantages of DVC is that over time it is a hedge against inflation, but how can that be true if point charts can change from year to year?

The dates within the season may change, but usually the points per night within the season remain the same.

I still can't decide how many points to purchase as my own rule is I don't want any one contract to have over 100 points. They're too hard to sale later down the road. I can't afford 2 100 point contracts and and 1 100 point contract isn't enough. Originally I was between 160 - 180 split between two contracts.

 

[maburke]

From my understanding, the points can change around on the points chart, but the total will always be the same.... I am sure that it is a little more complex than this because I am new to all of this, but that is my understanding.

That's exactly right. Usually, the only things that will change will be the dates of Easter and Thanksgiving, so that's why they have to have a new chart for every year. But it is very rare that, say, the points for one season will go up, and another season will go down. Because it is true that the total number of points for the year must remain the same for every unit. So they couldn't even do something like make the studios more and the 1BR fewer points.

What I'm curious to know is what defines the seasons. For example, at WDW we know that the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of Thanksgiving week are in Magic Season, and the Saturday after Thanksgiving to the end of November (whenever that happens) are in Choice Season, and December 1 starts Adventure Season. I wanted to go to VGC for 4th of July, but if I move back to June, I go from Magic to Choice Season. But in 2009, Choice ends on June 28, and in 2010, it ends on June 27. What's the defining point? The Monday before the 4th of July through the Saturday before Labor Day? What if the 4th is on a Monday? I'll have to figure out the pattern.

Meghan

 

[maburke]

What I'm curious to know is what defines the seasons. For example, at WDW we know that the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of Thanksgiving week are in Magic Season, and the Saturday after Thanksgiving to the end of November (whenever that happens) are in Choice Season, and December 1 starts Adventure Season. I wanted to go to VGC for 4th of July, but if I move back to June, I go from Magic to Choice Season. But in 2009, Choice ends on June 28, and in 2010, it ends on June 27. What's the defining point? The Monday before the 4th of July through the Saturday before Labor Day? What if the 4th is on a Monday? I'll have to figure out the pattern.

Okay, if I assume it's the same number of consecutive days every year for summer Magic Season, I think it must be the Monday before the Friday before the 4th of July through the Saturday before Labor Day. That means if Labor Day is early, Magic season will start earlier in June. The earliest will be June 23 (like in 2014) and the latest will be June 29 (like in 2015).
(I'm a mathematician, I couldn't let it go.)

I have no idea about the other holidays; it looks more complicated than the WDW charts.

 

[DebbieB]

DVC is reallocating the points charts for DVC resorts for 2010. Weekdays are up, Weekends are down.

 

[Brian Shepherd]

Disney just put all the 2010 charts up on the members website today. Here's the link to the 2010 chart for VGC:

http://advc.disney.go.com/media/dvc...ationClub_DisneysGrandCalifornianHotelSpa.pdf

I'm not a member so I cannot see the chart

 

[maburke]

It's not just you -- they've just (in the last 5 minutes) pulled all of the 2010 charts from the web site!

 

[TLPL]

Did anyone saved the pdf file before it got pulled???

 

[bethy]

Did anyone saved the pdf file before it got pulled???

No Darn it! I can tell you that the Choice season point totals matched dvcnews.com EXACTLY b/c that's what I've done my calculations on. That and Premiere season studios - those matched also.

 

[squidmo]

Did anyone saved the pdf file before it got pulled???

I was able to resurrect them all from my Temporary Internet Files folder, and have posted them over in the DVC-Planning section:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2067216

 

[kerickson]

Did anyone saved the pdf file before it got pulled???

yes I did. I can sent it you (I think) if you PM me...

 

[bethy]

Well.

On the same day that I figure out down to the point how many VGC points I'll need for our typical stays, DVC reminds me that it can juggle the point charts at any time.

I guess I'm glad I figured this out and not after I signed my contract. So back to square one - sort of.

Here's my thing: At WDW they just made all the weekend points a little lower and the weekday points a little higher. Theoretically it was because not enough people were booking weekend stays and thus the systems wasn't properly balanced.

I can see the opposite issue at DLR. I think it could be argued that many, many people prefer to go to DLR over a weekend. It is a fun, long weekend type destination and not a big annual long vacation type destination for most people from what I can tell. Also DLR is a new animal to DVC.

So suppose they didn't get the point allocations quite right . . . it would make sense, right? I mean the resort hasn't even opened yet. And DLR's attendance patterns are totally different than what they are used to. So I'm wondering if the weekend nights will end up being in higher demand than the week days. During the off season the hours and entertainment options are SIGNIFICANTLY better on weekends IMO. So even if a person is retired and/or can travel at any time then they might really want to include at least one weekend night in their stay.

I thought I had settled on 103 points tonight, which includes 2 weekend nights in each of our scenarios. I might need to tack on a couple of extras to account for possible changes in the future. But I just really don't want to spend any more money right now. DH and I just decided that the 126 we thought we might enjoy buying is just really too much of a stretch for us.

Thanks for reading through my random thoughts.