DVC Brides Question

[Bewitch324]

This may be a dumb question, but if you own DVC and are planning to stay on points for at least part of your wedding trip, how do you handle the booking window issues?

We own at BLT, and I LOVE that resort...but for the wedding, I'm thinking we should probably stay over in the Boardwalk area as that seems to be the favorite area for most of our guests that we have talked to so far. I may book a night at the Grand for the night before and the night of the wedding since we're hoping to get married at the Wedding Pavilion and I'd rather get ready close to the site of the wedding...but I'm assuming it will be impossible to book the Grand DVC at 7 months out so I'm planning to pay cash for those two nights...

Anyways, how did you handle the booking window? Do you think we should book at BLT for the week of the wedding and then try and transfer the reservation once the 7 month window opens up? Or should I just try and rent points from someone else that has the 11 month window on the Beach Club or Boardwalk? But then that's extra $$ we need to come up with, so I'm not loving that idea.

I know with Escape weddings, you're supposed to have already booked your room reservation when you call to book your wedding, but we're doing a wishes wedding and will hopefully be able to confirm our date in November, at 12 months out...But I can't book my DVC room, even at my home resort, until 11 months out. Is the room reservation an issue when you are booking your wishes wedding? I should probably go reread the stuff the consultant sent me, I don't remember seeing anything about that.

We're planning for Sunday, Novembr 16, 2014, hopefully Wedding Pavilion and (I think....I'm MOSTLY decided) Ariel's with an evening dessert party at Epcot.

Hope everyone is having a good day!
Brooke

 

[Sweet Melissa]

Yes, I would book your home resort at 11 months and then try to transfer at 7 months. I regret not doing that. We waited until the 7 month mark to try for Boardwalk or Beach Club, and the only studio we could get for our wedding week (the last week of Food & Wine) was at Old Key West.

 

[Bewitch324]

Thanks for the reply, Melissa. I think I will take your advice, just in case. And I LOVE BLT, I really love being able to walk to MK...I'm just thinking we'll want to be where everyone else is for this trip.

I hope you'll enjoy OKW. Have you stayed there before? I stay there usually for a few days every year for a Mom/Daughter trip I take with my mom for Flower and Garden festival for her birthday and mother's day, and we really like it. The studios are HUGE compared to the other DVC's I've stayed at or toured so far--so from that perspective, you get a lot of bang for your points . It's older, but the landscaping is beautiful and the buildings are really cute...all the room decor got redone a couple years ago, and the rooms we've had have all been really nice. We always have a rental car though, so YMMV...it is a big resort, and I've never used their bus transportation. But you can request to be close to the main building, which is where the food and gift shop, etc. are located--then you'd be walking distance from the main pool and the regular bus stops.

Thanks
Brooke

 

[lurkyloo]

There is no Disney hotel stay requirement for Wishes brides and grooms the way there is for Escape and Memories couples. With Wishes, you are required to fill a certain number of room nights in a room block but it doesn't have to be you—it could all be guests filling those nights. That's why they don't require you to have a hotel reservation when you book Wishes. Instead, you set up a room block and then have however many months for people (including yourself) to book in it.

Also, depending on how much privacy you want on your honeymoon, you may actually enjoy not being in the same resort as your guests. Disney transportation can bring you all together when needed, but that way you can also have some alone time too.

 

[1EvilQueenfan]

Hi Brooke,


I would check to see how busy that time of year is going to be! We are getting married on the Dream but are going back to Disney for 2 weeks for our honeymoon! I am also DVC member and used our points. I thought about book at my home resort which is SSR at the 11 month window but then, I think, cancel the reservation before to free up those points!?! (Not sure about that) ANYWAY, I took the chance and called as soon as DVC opened and was able to score a studio at the Beach club for the days that I wanted! We are going in January and I knew that it would be a slow time.

I hope this helped! Good luck and Congrats

Jodi

 

[Sweet Melissa]

Thanks for the reply, Melissa. I think I will take your advice, just in case. And I LOVE BLT, I really love being able to walk to MK...I'm just thinking we'll want to be where everyone else is for this trip.

I hope you'll enjoy OKW. Have you stayed there before? I stay there usually for a few days every year for a Mom/Daughter trip I take with my mom for Flower and Garden festival for her birthday and mother's day, and we really like it. The studios are HUGE compared to the other DVC's I've stayed at or toured so far--so from that perspective, you get a lot of bang for your points . It's older, but the landscaping is beautiful and the buildings are really cute...all the room decor got redone a couple years ago, and the rooms we've had have all been really nice. We always have a rental car though, so YMMV...it is a big resort, and I've never used their bus transportation. But you can request to be close to the main building, which is where the food and gift shop, etc. are located--then you'd be walking distance from the main pool and the regular bus stops.

Thanks
Brooke

Thanks, Brooke! I haven't stayed at Old Key West before, though we've always enjoyed visiting the resort. Although I wanted to be in the Epcot area for this vacation, I'm not too disappointed with our arrangement. We did book a couple days at the Dolphin so that we'll have a room in the immediate area of our wedding events. It will work out, and we get to try a few new resorts over the course of the trip.

 

[Bewitch324]

Thanks everyone for the feedback! Excellent point about not necessarily wanting to be where everyone else is...although we've been together a really long time at this point...it will be almost 10 years by the time we're actually getting married so I have concerns about the honeymoon itself "feeling" special and romantic...and different from our usual trips.

On the other hand, we may only stay for a couple days after the wedding on that trip (due to work) so maybe we'll schedule a "honeymoon" trip a few months later...maybe a cruise or soemthing, that would be different and something we've never done.

I think I'll book the nights at BLT when the 11 month window opens, and then see how I feel when we get close to the 7 month window.

Thanks!
Brooke

 

[Sweet Melissa]

I think I'll book the nights at BLT when the 11 month window opens, and then see how I feel when we get close to the 7 month window.

I think that's a good plan. The bonus is that if you do decide to keep Bay Lake Tower regardless of where your guests stay, you'll be close enough to the Grand Floridian that getting there for the wedding events will be convenient.

 

[marvelgirl2010]

We had been hording DVC points in preparation for our Wishes wedding and were able to book rooms for our family and ourselves. The room nights booked through DVC did count towards our minimum room night requirement. We just had to work with our room coordinator to make sure he had all the reservation numbers.

 

[leelee9878]

I own at AKV and BLT, i want to stay at BW so I found a member in the rent thread and did a BW transfer into my account so I can have the 11 month window, I will be renting my points to recoup the cost. This was the only way I was confident about getting BW during F&W.

 

[Bewitch324]

LeeLee that is a great idea. I've never done anything with transferring points or renting them (either as the renter or the rentee) so I'm a little leery but I definitely will investigate...

 

[leelee9878]

LeeLee that is a great idea. I've never done anything with transferring points or renting them (either as the renter or the rentee) so I'm a little leery but I definitely will investigate...

Take a look in the rent/trade thread a lot of the people there have references that you can contact to make you feel a little more comfortable. If you don't want to rent your points yourself you can always have a reputable site rent them for you. Although you would get more money if you did it yourself.