Disney Vacation Club adjusts 2010 Vacation Points charts

[OneMoreTry]

No, it is definitely 10cc. They also did the song "I'm not in Love." Funny juxtaposition -- these were their 2 big hits.

Earlier today I was playing it in my mind, and got SO DISILLUSIONED when I realized you were right.

Thanks for straightening me out.

 

[OneMoreTry]

DVC fails to take into account that some members such as myself will change their vacation plans to continue to maximize their point value.

This year a 2 bedroom at Saratoga Springs was 175 points during President's week.
Next year, the same accommodations increase to 192 points.

Since we don't do much on Sunday (aside from swimming and shopping) we will probably stay off-site and check in around 7:00 AM Monday morning.

This way a 17 point deficit becomes a 19 point surplus


The Prophet

I disagree. Not only did they take into account members changing vacation plans accordingly, that was the whole reason for the point change to begin with.

They want to make less popular nights more popular and vice versa. The points you save can be accumulated and used for a weekend night when it is convenient for your plans.

The poeple who benefit the most from this change are those who are restricted to using weekend nights because of work or school schedules.

disney does not lose or benefit from the change. The MS people may benefit as the change will result in more nights being open when people want them due to reallocation to distribute according to demand.
There fore less wait lists .

 

[Dean]

One thing I'm thinking about doing is canceling my Sunday night stay a day or two before I arrive -- which might give me a better chance of my room being ready Monday morning.
I don't care if the points go into holding, because I have a Feb use year and 11 months to use the points.

Legal ...Yes
Ethical....Probably not

I wanted to revisit this issue as it is a pet peeve of mine. Using any version of the word ethics with timeshare usage is simply not applicable. It's either within the rules or not. Even unintended consequences of rules are not unethical when used to your advantage. Things like booking the highest demand option for rental, booking using home resort points then canceling at 7 months and trying to rereserve with non home resort points, booking multiple units or weeks until you know what you need or walking reservations are OK if allowed under the rules and those 4 are. One can come up with many other examples of similar issues. The only issue is whether it's allowed or not.

 

[The Prophet]

I wanted to revisit this issue as it is a pet peeve of mine. Using any version of the word ethics with timeshare usage is simply not applicable. It's either within the rules or not. Even unintended consequences of rules are not unethical when used to your advantage. Things like booking the highest demand option for rental, booking using home resort points then canceling at 7 months and trying to rereserve with non home resort points, booking multiple units or weeks until you know what you need or walking reservations are OK if allowed under the rules and those 4 are. One can come up with many other examples of similar issues. The only issue is whether it's allowed or not.

It is within the rules to cancel up to 24 hours before I arrive.
If I cancel my first night at the latest possible time, there is some chance, not sure what it may be, that the room will remain vacant that night.

Would this work to my advantage?
I may have to try it and find out.

 

[Dean]

It is within the rules to cancel up to 24 hours before I arrive.
If I cancel my first night at the latest possible time, there is some chance, not sure what it may be, that the room will remain vacant that night.

Would this work to my advantage?
I may have to try it and find out.

It's possible but with the way DVC blocks rooms, I doubt it and as I said, it may work against you simply because they may have blocked your room but remove your block when you make the changes. With a system like Bluegreen where they actually match a specific unit to your reservation, you'd have a larger change of success. Actually I know some that did this type of thing with BG. Until fairly recently BG allowed reserving 7 days or more for 11 months out but only 5 months for less than 7 days. Further there are two options that some members can take advantage of. These are free room extensions on short notice and cheap rentals of $49 to $69 per night (studio to 2 BR). For many there are free cancelations and changes up to 10 days out. Things some did in this area included booking a 7 day reservation at 11 months out then calling back at or after 5 months out, canceling and rebooking for the shorter time since they knew the room would be available. Another was canceling at exactly 10 days then trying to get the room, or part of the time, back as a freebie or cheap rental. BG has since changed the rules so you can book any length available starting at 11 months so it has decreased much of this. They have also made it so that more people have a fee to cancel.

 

[DaveH]

It is within the rules to cancel up to 24 hours before I arrive.
If I cancel my first night at the latest possible time, there is some chance, not sure what it may be, that the room will remain vacant that night.

Would this work to my advantage?
I may have to try it and find out.

With the way DVC assigns rooms now, your room may open up after the cancel on Monday and someone who arrives on Sun may get your original room. The only one you may hurt is a fellow DVC member trying to get a room for that night and can't because you are trying to get a room early. Allowed so ok, but selfish.

 

[The Prophet]

With the way DVC assigns rooms now, your room may open up after the cancel on Monday and someone who arrives on Sun may get your original room. The only one you may hurt is a fellow DVC member trying to get a room for that night and can't because you are trying to get a room early. Allowed so ok, but selfish.

How is it unfair?
I thought rooms were assigned first come....first serve
If I arrive at the hotel at 7:00 AM on my check-in day, I should get my room before someone who arrives at 1:00 PM

 

[Chuck S]

I thought rooms were assigned first come....first serve
If I arrive at the hotel at 7:00 AM on my check-in day, I should get my room before someone who arrives at 1:00 PM

Except, that if no room is cleaned and ready at 7am, they assign you a room, and they have no way of knowing when that particular room will be finished by housekeeping. So it is possible someone who checks n later will get a room earlier because the housekeepers may have finished that assigned room before they finish your, especially if a guest checks out earlier than another.

 

[tjkraz]

I thought rooms were assigned first come....first serve

Not necessarily. I'm about 50/50 in getting a first available vs. being automatically assigned to a room. Sometimes they already have a room picked-out for each guest and you don't gain access until that unit is ready.

And we don't know how the new on-line check-in will play into the mix either.

 

[DaveH]

How is it unfair?
I thought rooms were assigned first come....first serve
If I arrive at the hotel at 7:00 AM on my check-in day, I should get my room before someone who arrives at 1:00 PM

I am thinking of someone else trying to get a room for that date a couple of days after you did and can not get it. They have to change their vacation because you reserved the room you have no intention of using. That is selfish to me. It is allowed. When folks walk a ressie and cancel a few days later, at least that room is available to someone in a timely manner.

 

[Dean]

I am thinking of someone else trying to get a room for that date a couple of days after you did and can not get it. They have to change their vacation because you reserved the room you have no intention of using. That is selfish to me. It is allowed. When folks walk a ressie and cancel a few days later, at least that room is available to someone in a timely manner.

Actually I think walking is worse because it only frees up a day her and there and the people involved likely didn't get to make their reservation at all and had to try to call back the next day. In this case the member is putting their points on the line and committing them to be holding account points which they can only use short notice and are in much more risky situation related to losing points. The reality is that every single reservation each of us makes potentially affects someone else but certainly some usages are more out there than others.

 

[DVCGeek]

What about the opposite approach- you book (and NOT cancel) an extra night to try and make sure you have a room ready "early" for you? For example, me book 5 nights, Sun. through Thursday, but plan to arrive Monday morning. Would checking in "late" like that be a problem [like the whole ressie get canceled as a no show or something!], other than the cost of the extra points to the member?

 

[BWV Dreamin]

What about the opposite approach- you book (and NOT cancel) an extra night to try and make sure you have a room ready "early" for you? For example, me book 5 nights, Sun. through Thursday, but plan to arrive Monday morning. Would checking in "late" like that be a problem [like the whole ressie get canceled as a no show or something!], other than the cost of the extra points to the member?

I think this will be a problem. I would check with MS on the repercussions on checking in a day later. I think they will cancel the whole ressie.

 

[RobDoc]

What about the opposite approach- you book (and NOT cancel) an extra night to try and make sure you have a room ready "early" for you? For example, me book 5 nights, Sun. through Thursday, but plan to arrive Monday morning. Would checking in "late" like that be a problem [like the whole ressie get canceled as a no show or something!], other than the cost of the extra points to the member?

That would not be a problem in any way. I'd just call and let them know you will be a late arrival and they will hold your check-in until you arrive. You would definitely have a room available at arrival - even if that was at 5:00am or later the following morning. If the resort was fully booked, you still might not get any requests made, but you would DEFINTELY have a room available when you arrive past 4:00pm on your check-in date and would have preference over someone whose reservation was the day after yours even if they "arrive" earlier than you. If your reservation was for 3/28/09 and you didn't arrive until 10:00am on 3/29/09, you would still have a villa before the person who arrives at the same time with a check-in of 3/29/09.

 

[Dean]

I think this will be a problem. I would check with MS on the repercussions on checking in a day later. I think they will cancel the whole ressie.

You just have to let them know. We've done this on exchanges and will for 3 exchanges this year.

 

[disneynutz]

How is it unfair?
I thought rooms were assigned first come....first serve
If I arrive at the hotel at 7:00 AM on my check-in day, I should get my room before someone who arrives at 1:00 PM

I can't figure out what the pattern is. We always check in around 7:00 AM.

In December at BWV it seemed that the Mousekeepers worked down the hall in order. We were the last room at the end of the hall and we were the last room cleaned by the Mousekeepers before they went home at 4:00 PM.

Last week at SSR, the Mousekeepers attacked a building in mass with several support vehicles parked all over the place. The next building where we were moving to had no vehicles and only one Mousekeeper that I could see. She was arranging a linen cart. Room was ready at 3:30 PM.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I can't figure out what the pattern is. We always check in around 7:00 AM.

In December at BWV it seemed that the Mousekeepers worked down the hall in order. We were the last room at the end of the hall and we were the last room cleaned by the Mousekeepers before they went home at 4:00 PM.

Last week at SSR, the Mousekeepers attacked a building in mass with several support vehicles parked all over the place. The next building where we were moving to had no vehicles and only one Mousekeeper that I could see. She was arranging a linen cart. Room was ready at 3:30 PM.

I think it varies by resort. At OKW, a mousekeeper has responsibility for a specific building first before she moves on to help others. There is also a support system of people who do nothing but deliver baskets of clean linens to the rooms that need servicing. Generally,l the mousekeeper assigned to the building (sometimes it's a two building group) will be responsible not only for the cleaning, but also for getting the toiletries together (those don't come in the baskets). Given that information, I understand why it can take a long time for some rooms to get done. If one housekeeper is doing one whole building at OKW, she would really be swamped if all the rooms needed servicing on the same day!

 

[DisneyisGr8]

Personally, I am not happy with the change in points. We have been DVC members since 2007 and we purchased enough points for us to stay 5 nights at Disney World in a one bedroom (Sunday-Thursday nights), and 5 nights at Hilton Head in a one bedroom (Sunday-Thursday nights). We will no longer be able to do this!

 

[The Prophet]

Personally, I am not happy with the change in points. We have been DVC members since 2007 and we purchased enough points for us to stay 5 nights at Disney World in a one bedroom (Sunday-Thursday nights), and 5 nights at Hilton Head in a one bedroom (Sunday-Thursday nights). We will no longer be able to do this!

Join the club. I am also trying to figure out other options which include:

1. Purchasing more points -- Not a good one for me right now
2. Stay off-site on Sunday and arrive on Monday -- Looks promising
3. Drop down one level of accommodations -- Somewhere between #1 and #2

 

[Deb & Bill]

Join the club. I am also trying to figure out other options which include:

1. Purchasing more points -- Not a good one for me right now
2. Stay off-site on Sunday and arrive on Monday -- Looks promising
3. Drop down one level of accommodations -- Somewhere between #1 and #2

You forgot borrowing. You probably would be able to do that for a long time until you didn't have enough points for a stay.