Do you borrow, do you use disc. cash ressies or only points??

[edk35]

I was curious as to how many of us DVC'ers that don't have an over abundance of points........use their points?? We bought in Jan. 07 and got developer points of 300 along with our 300 we purchased which allowed us to take 8 nights in a 2br. last Aug. and again in Nov.

This summer we did a combo of points and discounted cash nights for the weekend points. We did cash three weekend cash nights at OKW and 1 at BCV. Now......I am trying to figure out how many points I am willing to borrow each year for trips or do I just try for cash ressies to combine with points.

Right now we have 234 points coming on Oct. 1st and 295 coming Oct. 09....and we want to stay at BCV again (if I can get all nights there) for at least 8 nights possibly 9 or 10 but we would have to use cash or I would use up all my 09 points too.

If we arrived on Tuesday and did points for three nights, then cash for two, then points for 5 we could stay 10 nights. That would use 320 points for the 8 week nights....leaving 209 for UY09. See I will always be borrowing if we continue to go once a year. Of course we could scale back and go for less nights and use POINTS ONLY. I just think it is a better deal to get those discounted cash nights for the weekends in the summer. I think we paid 452 plus tax for our one BCV weekend night and OKW was 397. Points for BCV are 75 per night for when we go in the summer.


ANY SUGGESTIONS??? BESIDES BUYING 100 MORE POINTS

 

[Inkmahm]

Sorry, we determined quickly after buying our initial 150 points that we'd need more. We did add ons for 180 and 200. Now we own 3 different resorts and have enough points for our 3 trips per year.

If you really do wan to go as often as you say, you may as well add on now.

 

[edk35]

Sorry, we determined quickly after buying our initial 150 points that we'd need more. We did add ons for 180 and 200. Now we own 3 different resorts and have enough points for our 3 trips per year.

If you really do wan to go as often as you say, you may as well add on now.

You know I think about this past summer....we did 4 cash nights in a 2br and that was close to 2000. I know I need to really think about this.

 

[DebbieB]

When my mom was alive and I was always booking 1 bedrooms, I used to supplement a weekend night with a cash discount room to stretch points. I used it at OKW on a Friday or Saturday night, at that time it was around $325 and saved me 48 points per night (May). We always kept the same room for the extra night. That came out to less than $7 a point, which I figured broke even with the cost of an add-on and maintenance. Now that she's gone, I have enough points and glad I didn't add-on.

 

[edk35]

When my mom was alive and I was always booking 1 bedrooms, I used to supplement a weekend night with a cash discount room to stretch points. I used it at OKW on a Friday or Saturday night, at that time it was around $325 and saved me 48 points per night (May). We always kept the same room for the extra night. That came out to less than $7 a point, which I figured broke even with the cost of an add-on and maintenance. Now that she's gone, I have enough points and glad I didn't add-on.

see that is what we thought about last summer. We got the discounted cash nights and we thought it was a great deal. Now we also went for 14 nights....that won't be happening again probabaly ever. LOL We had some cash to spend and we did. I would like to stay at BCV for 9 nights and I don't want to always be borrowing points like crazy either though but then again....that is what they are there for too.

 

[Flyerfan]

Well, we only have 200 pts. and it is yet to be determined if we will add on. We recently talked it over and decided we will probably go twice a year every other year. It works out great for us and the year in between we can travel elsewhere. Of course, we'll see how this works out.

This year we stayed one week (all points) at SSR and in November are doing a 3-way split...OKW 5 days, Swan for the weekend to save points, SSR for 4 and stopping at HHI for one night on our drive back home. It's just DH and I and it won't be bad switching because we'll have our own car. It will be kind of fun experiencing all the resorts.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We purchased DVC to pre-pay vacations, not continue to pay out of pocket. We started with 230 points and quickly decided it wasn't enough, so we purchased an additional 150 points. We have done great with 380 points for 10 years. Sometimes we bank and sometimes we borrow. Now last year we added 69 AKV points, so all that means as that we definitely bank and borrow those 69 AKV points to our advantage because all of our other 380 are at OKW. In 11 years of membership, we have only paid cash once. That was to save a few points on a year when we had 3 trips, and we wanted to add a Saturday night where point values are high. We paid cash for a night at PORS.

 

[tecodis]

So when you get a cash reservation from MS, does that discount qualify for any WDW resort or just DVC resorts? I would consider paying cash to save points by staying at a moderate on my weekend arrival date if they have that option!

 

[edk35]

So when you get a cash reservation from MS, does that discount qualify for any WDW resort or just DVC resorts? I would consider paying cash to save points by staying at a moderate on my weekend arrival date if they have that option!

If you go through MS the DVC discount is 25% OFF RACK RATES at DVC resorts. I think you can also go through CRO but you are not getting DVC rates......maybe they offer AP rates off of their inventory??? I am not sure about the regular resorts...

 

[JVL1018]

We have 325 points, 225 BWV and 100 HH.
We take one WDW vacation(one full week in a 1 bedroom) per year using just the BW points, and always have points left over, as a matter of fact, this year I have over 100 points left over so I decided to treat 5 of my friends to a girls weekend and booked 2 studios at the BWV next April.

HH I have 100 points and our trips are 110 for a Sun-Fri.
Friday and Saturday night points are crazy high in HH for a 2 bedroom, so we don't bother borrowing we pay cash for the Friday night and never stay a Saturday night, we have to drive back to NJ anyway so we wouldn;t stay over Saturday even if we did have the points..
We borrow every year, but skipped last year's HH trip(did WDW twice instead with all those excess BW points stacked up) and now we're flush with HH points again.
I think about adding on, but I onlt want 10 HH points, other than that we are perfect.
More than enough for 2 week long vacations per year.

 

[Alexander]

We originally bought 220 points and in less than 6 months added on another 120. We are ALWAYS in borrowing mode! I just figure that by the time these contracts expire, I won't care if I don't have any points left for the last year! I would LOVE to add on more, but I really don't want to pay anymore maintenance fees! Maybe when our house is paid off (7 years and counting!)

We usually visit WDW 3-4 times a year. Sometimes in studios, sometimes in 1 bedrooms. This year we took family in Feb., and we are taking DH's family in Dec. In Feb. we booked 2 studios, and for Dec. we have 3 studios booked. We prefer the 1 bedrooms, but when we treat family, there just aren't enough points. In April, we'll split stay VB and OKW in a studio because it will be 10 nights, prime point season, and include a weekend.

 

[edk35]

We originally bought 220 points and in less than 6 months added on another 120. We are ALWAYS in borrowing mode! I just figure that by the time these contracts expire, I won't care if I don't have any points left for the last year! I would LOVE to add on more, but I really don't want to pay anymore maintenance fees! Maybe when our house is paid off (7 years and counting!)

We usually visit WDW 3-4 times a year. Sometimes in studios, sometimes in 1 bedrooms. This year we took family in Feb., and we are taking DH's family in Dec. In Feb. we booked 2 studios, and for Dec. we have 3 studios booked. We prefer the 1 bedrooms, but when we treat family, there just aren't enough points. In April, we'll split stay VB and OKW in a studio because it will be 10 nights, prime point season, and include a weekend.

I would feel comfortable with 350 but would love to have 400....we have 300 right now.

 

[alldiz]

Lately I stay 3 nights......Thurs-Sun in a studio for DVC cash rate. I'm paying 277.50 for BWV in Oct. Then I go to WLV 1BR for 5 nights.

Although now I'm kinda strapped for cash and wish I just booked the whole thing through points.....I don't think there are any studio's left for Columbus day weekend.

My plan is to NOT use any points next yr And save it for a disney cruise in 2010. I'll be amazed if I can "hold out"
Kerri

 

[marynvince]

Spend what you have. In my mind, if you are buying cash nights you are defeating the purpose of DVC. Didn't we all buy because paying cash for these resorts seemed like a dumb idea and being a DVC member seemed like a better financial option?

 

[castleri]

I use points for stays at WDW and if I need to save on them I book where I can find something at a really good rate like the two nights we spent out on 192 Christmas week two years ago for a total of $122. We did the non park things over that time period like TL, shopping at the outlets and DTD. We checked out of OKW at 11 and stayed and dinner before going back to the motel. We check out at 7 on Sunday morning and checked into SSR for the last four days at 7:30 (NYE) before heading to the parks. It saved enough points to allow for a spring trip also. I will use points for weekends as we are doing next month in some instances but not usually for Christmas or Easter
seasons. I bought to have the deluxe experience and have enough points to do it most times and just cannot bring myself to pay cash unless it is a really good rate and my idea of a good rate is not one that will cost me what some people say they will pay. I would rather put the money towards more points.
For a couple of years I was in borrowing mode but we are back too using current UY points again and will actually have some left over this year.

 

[alldiz]

Spend what you have. In my mind, if you are buying cash nights you are defeating the purpose of DVC. Didn't we all buy because paying cash for these resorts seemed like a dumb idea and being a DVC member seemed like a better financial option?

Nice idea
Well I had enough points to stay in a studio.....which I bought for over 10 nights....

Problem is I decided to do the 1BR's now and go 2x a year.....so DVC has upgraded my accomodations considerably.....but didn't save me a dime Really.
Kerri

 

[photobob]

We bought 180 and honestly that was as much as we could afford. We try to get two trips a year out of that, so we usually just stay Sun-Thurs since weekend points are so high. We may add on at some point but we can't afford to yet. Ideally i would like to buy a second 180 point contract so the I could leave one for my son and one for my daughter.

 

[edk35]

We bought 180 and honestly that was as much as we could afford. We try to get two trips a year out of that, so we usually just stay Sun-Thurs since weekend points are so high. We may add on at some point but we can't afford to yet. Ideally i would like to buy a second 180 point contract so the I could leave one for my son and one for my daughter.

When we bought...we were going to get less than 300 points but we wanted to divide the contracts up 3 way for our 3 kids so they said we needed to do three 100 pt. contracts at the min. so we did the 300. That was more than we really wanted to spend but we did. Now I wish we had gotten more. I wish we had about 375 or 400.

 

[Alexander]

The more you have, the more you'll use! Just like good ol' money! I could have 1,000 points and I would find a way to use every single one of them every single year!

 

[alldiz]

The more you have, the more you'll use! Just like good ol' money! I could have 1,000 points and I would find a way to use every single one of them every single year!

Kerri