Disney Vacation Club adjusts 2010 Vacation Points charts

[drusba]

It is about midnight eastern time. Don't know what is going on but announcement and all the 2010 point charts on the site are now gone.

 

[toocherie]

I sincerely doubt that the Guides were aware of it. DVC rarely informs the sales staff of this sort of change to prevent the info from leaking out before it's officially released. At best there may have been a meeting toward the end of the day today. At worst many will probably get blindsided by customers in the morning.

just like my Guide didn't know that letters had been sent out to Grand Californian founding members advising that sales for them would start January 25. I had to pdf a copy of the letter to him.

 

[glennbo123]

Someone just posted JPEG files of the point charts on this thread:

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

 

[ems_mom]

If you did just buy 7 days ago, you should be within your recission period under which the contract can be cancelled. Call your Guide in the morning and have him/her tear up the old contract and write a new one. Or just cancel altogether.

I am and I would, but I bought when the minimun add on was less than 100 points and I can't "write a new one" that would exactly fit my needs.

I am going to keep my BLT points because I love the location and models so much. I do wish people would not be so "black and white" about DVC. I love WDW and my DVC ownership, but that said, I believe we all have a right to express complaints without lectures.

 

[bwvBound]

Someone just posted JPEG files of the point charts on this thread:

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

Thanks for the link. The changes, if they stick, would be helpful to us. We tend to book 7-12 consecutive nights; our present stay is 10 nights: 6 weekday nights, 4 weekend nights. If we book the very same stay next year ... we'll save 16 points using the new chart. (Of course, I have an open search running through RCI for part of next year's stay ... hoping to conserve even more points if it comes through.)

 

[Lynne M]

I just signed and sent my paperwork back today for 189 points at BLT. At that level based on the point chart that DVC gave me 2 weeks ago I would be able to get a 1 bed room lake view Sun-Fri in choice season every year. Now I am 6 points shy. You can't tell me that the sales reps did not know that these charts were going to be changed for 2010.

I agree with the previous poster that this is bait and switch. It is making me consider using the 10-day period to rescind my purchase. Is this what I can expect from DVC going forward.....

"Bait and switch" implies illegality. The possibility of this occurring is explained in the contract. It's entirely permissible under the contract. Nowhere in the contract does it say that the point charts are set in stone. If your guide specifically told you that the points required for your stays would never, ever change, then you have a legitimate complaint.

And yes, I certainly do believe that the sales reps didn't know this was coming. They don't get told this stuff ahead of time.

 

[Marshay]

Thanks for the link. The changes, if they stick, would be helpful to us. We tend to book 7-12 consecutive nights;

We do the same -- I can't imaging moving just for 2 nights and coming back -- at least not with small children, so this makes the way we travel even more reasonable.

I also imagine it will save DVC money since Member Services can just make one ressie instead of two separate ones, Front Desk just deals with folks one time, only one key to be issued, maids have less "turn-over" cleaning to do, etc, etc, etc.

Although my parents are not happy since they are strict Sun - Thurs, checkout Friday, check back in Sunday type of folks.

 

[HookdonWDW]

Just for comparison sake:

We've booked rooms for February vacation this year. The trip will be a full week. We booked a 2 BR at BCV for us and a 1 BR at SSR for db and family (he didn't decide that he wanted to go until well after the 7-month mark).

According to the "vanishing point charts", if we booked for the same week next year, we would save 41 points on our 2 BR at BCV, and it would cost us 1 extra point for the 1 BR at SSR...

 

[tjkraz]

I do wish people would not be so "black and white" about DVC. I love WDW and my DVC ownership, but that said, I believe we all have a right to express complaints without lectures.

To quote another poster: "'Bait and switch' implies illegality." I was simply pointing out that what DVC has done appears to be perfectly legal.

Elsewhere in this thread I voiced my own personal displeasure with the move and never said that you shouldn't feel similarly.

 

[tjkraz]

just like my Guide didn't know that letters had been sent out to Grand Californian founding members advising that sales for them would start January 25. I had to pdf a copy of the letter to him.

Bingo.

 

[casper]

Well, this just doesn't make my day. I'm a guy who stays 8 nights in a studio arriving Thursday and check out Friday of the following week. My vacation habits will now cost me 14 more points for the year. 14 points I don't have btw.

Maybe it will be time to stay only 7 nights. Not a happy camper. Or should I say, Not a happy DVC'r.

 

[dis-happy]

Two guesses:

the points charts are down because someone realized that the road of change hasn't been properly paved yet. Who expects to find a new email from DVC in their inbox tomorrow morning? Bet the PR Dept. is working on it right now!


Also, there's a been an edict from corporate: all departments must cut x% from their operating budget for 2009. This is DVC's solution (cut housekeeping, Sunday overtime costs and turnover costs).

 

[lugnut33]

I haven't read all the posts but my here's my two cents...

I just bought a BLT add on for just enough points to allow me a 5 day 1 bedroom stay every third year, with banking and borrowing. I realize within the life of a contract, DVC has a right to reallocate points.

But I just bought a week ago and the resort isn't even open yet! My guide should have given me a heads up or they should allow me to buy 5 more points.

Seriously, isn't this called bait and switch?

A lawyer might contend that this person has not been wronged, but my sympathy goes out to the buyer in this case. Not very nice of Disney to do this.

 

[BeccaG]

simple, the POS says they can, up to 5 days. People have to learn the difference between legal options and hype.

Dean your memory for the details of the POS amaze me. . I read it pretty carefully and was aware that points for particular nights could and would be adjusted as needed, but for some reason the clause about the minimum stay slipped my attention and or memory (Of course that was several years ago and its not like I flip through it regularly at bedtime! Although, now that I am thinking about it, it might be a good idea!) To be honest, a minimum stay would be a bigger disappointment to me than the "new" disappearing point charts.

I think I echo a lot of people's sentiments when I say that the whole thing is just disappointing. Its not illegal or immoral, it just feels unfair. Most of us probably purchased DVC because ultimately we believe in the Disney magic. Things like this change that are radical shifts from what we are use to, and seem to come without warning, challenge that magical aura.

 

[lugnut33]

OK, we are doing a late August trip in a SSR 2 bedroom this year for a bunch of family members and staying sun-fri. That same trip in 2010 would cost 25 more points.

I am sooo sooo sooo glad I bought a little contract on the resale market, that way I won't feel too bad if things don't work out between us and DVC. Also lucky that the main purpose for buying the contract was to take a week long trip every other year and stay in a one bedroom and that point requirement hasn't changed. Plus I have a 16 point cushion so they can mess with it a bit.

 

[tidefan]

Boy, I was more on target than I thought! I posted this back in June 08 on the mega-thread about the change in the reservation windows:

Re: New policy for reservations based on check IN date

06-25-2008
Post #944

The more I read through this thread, the more that I think that a point reallocation may be the best solution. If so many members want to go over Christmas and New Years that there is a very skewed demand for the rooms, then simple economics dictates that they may need to rearrange point levels to get the demand evened back out over the year.

Additionally, if the speculation on this board is true that more members go Sun-Thurs instead of over weekends and DVC sees that increasing trend, then the obvious solution to that would be to decrease weekend points somewhat and increase weekday points.

I don't know that this is what some members would want, but in creating the apparent mass demand for certain times/certain places, membership may very well be driving a change like this.

The problem is that if there are too many members only booking Sun-Thurs stays and not booking weekend stays, then members face the real possibility of being shut out on reservations. I'm not saying that I don't understand some members frustration over this, but I understand the move. We bought based upon what we would need for a week long stay, give or take a few points, so we are OK with this. I have a bigger problem with 100 point minimum add-ons...

 

[kristenrice]

We have a 100 point contract. We need(ed) 205 points to take our kids and parents to AKV in a 2BR standard for spring break 2010. This was planned since we bought into DVC back in September. It was going to be our first trip home. DH and I then realized that instead of banking 2009 points, we could take a trip on 95 of those, bank 5, then use ALL of 2010 and ALL of 2011 to take the spring break trip.

Well, now that we have a 95-point trip planned for June 2009, with non-refundable airfare, DVC takes our plans and flushes them down the toilet! We will not have enough points to take my parents along in 2010 since it will now cost 230 points. The ONLY way this can happen is IF we are able to get a studio in June (there are waitlists for some already) instead of our 1BR.

I know that DVC didn't do anything illegal, but for something that once made me so excited to think about, it now makes me want to vomit. All those plans, the look on my dad's face when we told him we were taking him to Disney World.... all those things that make DVC ownership so special...all reduced to a big pile of poo in a blink of an eye.

I would have been much less upset if they had decided to announce the change now, but not implement it until 2011. That way, I could have banked my points instead of using them. Now, I have to pray that a studio will be available for June or I am out about $700 in non-refundable airfare because I am not telling my parents that we can no longer afford to take them.

 

[eyeheartgoofy]

I would have been much less upset if they had decided to announce the change now, but not implement it until 2011.

Yep, that is what I'm thinking as well. Less than a week ago, I borrowed 4 points from my 2010 UY in order to book August 09 at AKV. Guess what? I no longer have enough points to spend 5 nights in a studio at VWL during Spring Break 2010 b/c Sun-Thur nights went up 2 points per night ... and I thought I managed my points so well.

 

[GILL-WDW]

Did anyone happen to grab the VWL point charts before they took them down. Sorry... I have not read all 210 post!!!

If you did would you please PM me.

Thanks

 

[AnnaS]

If the point chart stays, I am sure sooner or later it will most likely affect many people since I don't think (it's possible) one will vacation exactly the same way year after year (for those that have a lot of points or usually bank, no biggie).

When we bought, we more or less calculated a week in a 1 BDR at OKW (have added a few times since then) Dream Season which was 196 - we like to round everything off and have a small cushion. We bought 200 - exactly what would be needed now. (We would have rounded off even if it came out to 192, 187, etc.).

We always felft that anyone buying and definitely more so for anyone buying in the future, to always give themself a cushion - more because our plans will most likely change - but now DVC has just changed it for all of us (which we knew could happen).

Wether or not we (us) like it, our vacation pattern, # of people, is never the same so we will work with our points, time and as finances allow us as usual. Our add-ons are also just an even number and not an exact for so many nights.

If the chart does go into effect - I feel and understand what everyone is saying who will be a few points short.

Waiting to see how all this pans out since the chart seems to be gone.