DVC Upgrade

[Bluessox]

The whole family is going to Disney in October. We own a timeshare, not DVC, and traded our weeks for studio villas at Saratoga and Wilderness Lodge. With the trade we have to pay a fee to be onsite that makes us kinda like DVC members for the week. We added an extra person to the trip yesterday and the studio rooms may be a little too small. We are hoping that maybe we can upgrade to a 1 or 2 bedroom. Is this possible?? We didn't know if we could pay to upgrade or if we bought points if we could go that route. We will check with Disney at some point but we were hoping someone here may be able to give us a better answer.

 

[mikesmom]

DVC member here. No, you can't. I don't know the details, but the question has been asked before. The rooms that can be traded into are because a DVC member has chosen to use their points to go somewhere outside the syste. So, they turn over the points to make a ressie to Cruise or go elsewhere. CRO then has that room available for trading. It's not like there is a pool to pull from to add or subtract. If you rented points from a member you can't pile them on top of what you have - mostly because you actually rent reservations from a member, not points. I don't believe a room that comes through a trade is in the cash system. either.

You could pay cash to add nights, or pay cash to get the new members of your party a different room, but you can't make the room you have any bigger.

 

[Chuck S]

As mikesmom said, no DVC upgrades. And the fee does no make you "temporary DVC members"...you will not get DVC discounts and perks because of it, nor will you get DVC perks because you have traded into a DVC room. It is a "resort fee," basically a fee to pay for Member Services time to deal with the trade and other aspects of your reservation (room requests, adding dining plan, Magical Express, etc.)

You wil get the standard onsite perks of package delivery of park purchases, bus transportation, room charging, etc.

 

[Bluessox]

Thanks for the info. We may have jumped a little too quickly and took the studio just so we had it. We can still opt out of our reservation and take another one IF one comes up. Thanks again.

 

[littlestar]

Thanks for the info. We may have jumped a little too quickly and took the studio just so we had it. We can still opt out of our reservation and take another one IF one comes up. Thanks again.

If you need something bigger, I would just cancel the DVC studio and pay another trade fee for something bigger. If nothing bigger comes up for DVC, you could probably snag a nice Marriott 2 bedroom or something at Vistana Villages. They are as nice, or nicer than DVC rooms in some cases. (Especially the newer rooms with the granite, flat screen TV's, etc.).

 

[Dean]

Thanks for the info. We may have jumped a little too quickly and took the studio just so we had it. We can still opt out of our reservation and take another one IF one comes up. Thanks again.

Keep a check in II and see if a larger unit comes available. IF it does you can possibly retrade to get the larger unit. You MAY have to pay an additional exchange fee. Wait to pay the $95 fee until arrival just in case you get a larger unit.

 

[Bluessox]

Keep a check in II and see if a larger unit comes available. IF it does you can possibly retrade to get the larger unit. You MAY have to pay an additional exchange fee. Wait to pay the $95 fee until arrival just in case you get a larger unit.

Thanks for your help. I called II and if something comes on available we can retrade by paying the trade fee so I'll just keep an eye out. If it does we'll be thrilled and if it doesn't, we'll still be thrilled because we are going to Disney and staying on-site. Great idea about the $95. Again, thanks for taking the time to help me. I'm new to the whole trading on II thing so I appreciate it.

 

[Bluessox]

If you need something bigger, I would just cancel the DVC studio and pay another trade fee for something bigger. If nothing bigger comes up for DVC, you could probably snag a nice Marriott 2 bedroom or something at Vistana Villages. They are as nice, or nicer than DVC rooms in some cases. (Especially the newer rooms with the granite, flat screen TV's, etc.).

littlestar - thanks for the advice. You are right about some of the rooms at the Villages. We are actually owners through Starwood (which is Vistana) but at a different location, and we have stayed at the Vistana. I think it was the Villages, it wasn't the one near Downtown but closer to Sea World. We really enjoyed the resort but we just really want to stay on-site this time so we don't need to rent a car. There are a total of 11 of us going, staying at different resorts but all on property. The only problem we had at Vistana was the car issue. I know some people love to have a car, even when they stay on property but with 11 of us I think I might go crazy. We feel very lucky that we were able to trade for what we have because from everything I hear Disney doesn't become available too often. Whatever happens I know we'll have a great time.