Do you avoid weekend trips to save points?

[gcbsdad]

This coming Sunday we are going to stay for our 3rd DVC vacation since we bought 160 points at SSR last September.
Our first stay was at OKW for two nights, Sunday and Monday.
Our second trip was 3 nights at VWL, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday.
Our upcoming trip is 5 nights Sunday thru Thursday.
As you can see we have tried to use days that require lessor points. We are lucky that we live in the nearby Tampa Bay area so we can take shorter trips and my kids are Home Schooled so days off aren't an issue.

Just wondering if others use the same theory when vacationing?

 

[CarolMN]

We only avoid weekends at DVC if we are visiting non-Disney attractions during our vacation. We stay off site for the first weekend in those cases.

I hate to move, so we stay put for weekends if the entire vacation is at WDW. I think of the cost as the cost per week, instead of per day. Not so bad when you do that. Plus I strongly agree with having weekends cost more to equalize out the demand.

Best wishes -

 

[gppnj]

We only avoid weekends at DVC if we are visiting non-Disney attractions during our vacation. We stay off site for the first weekend in those cases.

I hate to move, so we stay put for weekends if the entire vacation is at WDW. I think of the cost as the cost per week, instead of per day. Not so bad when you do that. Plus I strongly agree with having weekends cost more to equalize out the demand.

Best wishes -

Yeah. You can totally see why they had to do that. If all days cost the same, the weekends would get filled with people doing weekend-only trips, and then people would have a hard time getting a room for an entire week.

The only thing I don't understand is why Saturday nights at HHI had to be three times what a weekday costs. To me, that seems excessive.

 

[patsal]

It depends on what I have in the "works" for vacations. I have done Sun-Thurs in a 1BR, to a resort at WDW on Friday and Saturday and back to a 1BR on Sunday -Thurs. again. I have don Sun-Th with a weekend at Universal to get the FOTL and then back to DVC again. This year I am just moving from a 1BR to a studio and then back to a 1BR (I need the points for a possible December long weekend). This all really depends on the logistics of the vacation and what is in the works for us. When the kids were smaller we used to be able to just get a studio for 14 or 16 days, but I don't have the points for that length of stay in a 1BR.

 

[athenna]

On my 1st trip I went Sun-Thurs
then I added on 50 points, so my 2nd trip was Sun-Sat
My March trip will be Sun-Fri
And my Oct trip-is going to be Sun-Sun in a 1 bedroom LOTS OF POINTS!

 

[rocketriter]

Your strategy is perfectly valid. Lots of people avoid using points on weekends, either by not vacationing on those days or by moving temporarily to less expensive accomodations.

Our family, however, bought DVC specifically so we could routinely stay in suites, on the grounds, extending the length of our trips to 7 days without changing accomodations That means we factored in the cost of weekends while deciding to make our purchase. Is using points on weekends the most cost-effective use of our points? No. Does it get us the vacation we want? Yes.

 

[carlos1117]

You do have a good strategy, but for us it wouldn't work. We make one trip a year for at least 8 nights, so for us avoiding the weedends is a problem.

 

[Doctor P]

We don't deliberately avoid weekends at all for our major trips. As Carol said, we just look at it as a weekly cost rather than night by night. On the other hand, generally we do try to avoid a second weekend of costs (though our last trip we stayed over two weekends) due to not having enough points to do the extra weekend.

 

[pouncingpluto]

Even weekend points are cheaper than paying cash at a deluxe (especially if you think of your points in terms of what you paid for them rather than in terms of what you could get if you feel like dealing with renting them out).

Plus, for a 3- or 4-night weekend we aren't willing to move around. So, yes, we'll use weekend points when we need to. I'm not saying we won't ever aviod a weekend night here or there or occasionally use the opportunity to try another WDW hotel. However, I think most of the time we will just use our points at a DVC property.

 

[LakeAriel]

Usually I go Sunday to Thursday and when I cruised I was at sea for the weekend then in the resort during the week. This summer I will stay in a moderate for a few days then check into a one bedroom for Sunday through Friday. That way I can wash the dirty clothes and stretch out! Can't wait!

 

[LeCras]

We bought enough points to be able to stay for two whole weeks in a 1BR during regular season. After travelling from the UK the last thing we feel like doing is move part way through our vacation...

Charlotte

 

[cobbler]

We looked at the weekly cost too. I live in MI so when we go we want to stay for a length of time and I don't want to be moving on the weekends and then move back.

Now if we did plan a shorter trip then you betcha I would do a Sun-Thurs but usually we go for 6-7 nights at a time.

I guess if you break it down for the week, for a one bedroom at SSR during choice you could say the average is between 27-28 points a night. So that isn't bad to me.

 

[Big J]

Although we don't avoid a weekend stay, we do make sure that if our trip is longer than a week we do not double our weekend days. Of course this is only an option if your stay is 12 days or less.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I suppose that's why we mostly stay in studios. We do take 3 night vacations, and usually at least 2 of them, Saturday and Sunday are DVC. Studio costs aren't bad for us. We used to travel Friday mornings and go home on Sundays, now we fly down after work on Fridays, stay non-DVC for Friday night and then have Monday as a vacation/travel day. We get 2 whole vacation days, and I'm satisfied. Someday, it will be different, we'll be retired, and we'll take longer but fewer DVC trips.

We have had plenty (for our only a bit more than 2 years of membership) of 4-5 night vacations with friends/relatives, and for those I do try my best to avoid using any weekend points, especially for the 2 bedrooms. Our upcoming VWL trip is a Sunday to Friday deal, 1 2-bedroom and 2 studios!!

We are having our first 1 bedroom stay in June, and we're in a studio (BCV) on Saturday, and going to a 1 bedroom OKW for the rest of the stay, OKW 4 nights. If we really like a 1 bedroom, we will be in trouble, I cannot see using them for our mostly shorter vacations.

Bobbi

 

[spiceycat]

I don't like to fly. So I drive mostly.

go home on friday and wash clothes , etc. get up on saturday and start packing...then leave saturday night - get there on Sunday morning stay until Friday morning - and drive back home.

I need Sat and Sun to relax and recoup before going to work on Monday.

works great for me.

generally when I am staying in a normal timeshare for 7 days - I also leave it on the 5th day sometimes 6th day - but mostly the 5th....

5 days is enough for me!!! more than enough for the pets that I didn't take with me.

Now when I retire - I can definitely see staying longer - that is if I find something to take of my pets that I can trust....if I still have pets then - that is at least 10 years from now...

 

[LIFERBABE]

DVC had me at hello! I too planned to not use weekend points, but after our first stay (8 nights in a BCV 2 bdr) Dh really complained about moving. Our trips only got longer after that, so we added on and now we stay weekends too.

I just look at it as weekly points not daily points. We drive or fly and its 1100 miles for us, so we dont do short stays. I like the 12 night stays in one unit the best. Those are awesome and we really get that "lived in" feel at the resort.

 

[pinkworld24]

I just pay member cash for weekend nights - maybe this is a bad idea since no one else even mentioned it!

 

[cdpa4d]

To be quite honest, I avoid weekends at DVC Resorts because of points, but I don't avoid Disney. We usually book a value resort for weekends since the price doesn't change at the Non-DVC resorts.

Since we have APs we only pay $60 to $80 per night.

 

[EdDome]

DVC had me at hello! I too planned to not use weekend points, but after our first stay (8 nights in a BCV 2 bdr) Dh really complained about moving. Our trips only got longer after that, so we added on and now we stay weekends too.

I just look at it as weekly points not daily points. We drive or fly and its 1100 miles for us, so we dont do short stays. I like the 12 night stays in one unit the best. Those are awesome and we really get that "lived in" feel at the resort.

We did the same thing by adding on to get to 12 nights (Sunday thru the following Thursday) in a 2-BR. At times I think about adding on again to get to two full weeks but I'd need to by 150+ points for the 2 weekend days. I'll likely keep it to the 12 days.

 

[lovedvc]

If we are staying for a long time I will book a studio in the beginning and move to a 1br during our stay. Or we will book OKW because it has the lowest points and then move to WL for the remainder of our stay.