Excited! And looking for some ideas.

[jmedrew]

Hello, a little backstory. We are a military family stationed in Germany. We did a Disney Mediterrean cruise this past summer where we purchased the DVC.

We purchased 180 pts and have until Mar 2015 to use our first years. We decided to book in Aug 2014 at our home resort, Animal Kingdom. We move back to the states that month and wanted to do a vacation with our PCS (permanent change of station) so we dont have to fly back to Florida sometime that year from wherever we got stationed (we thought it was gonna be colorado). Well, we just got our assignment and we are going to Patrick AFB! This is the Cocoa Beach/Cape Canaveral area!

We are thrilled!! But now we dont need to do this florida trip during our move. We will now be using the time to find a home to live in so our girls can start school Aug 19th.

Any ideas how we should use these points? Also, where do the pts go when I cancel this trip? Should we cruise in the spring before they expire? I am not sure if we would have enough pts to do thay.

Wow, we are basically gonna live where we would go vacation! But in saying that it makes using these pts more difficult to me. Or do we just do an off weekend in the winter since we will be an hr from Orlando.

What would you do?

And thanks!!!!

 

[JimC]

Welcome to the DIS, DVC and FL! And thank you for your service!

We live about half way between you and WDW, near MCO. Moved here in 2006. Wondered about our DVC ownership as well. We gave it a year and ended up adding more points. We still enjoy the immersive experience of being on property for an extended stay - as well as not having the commute.

When we were preparing to move to FL we used a trip to WDW and Palm Bay to house hunt. We celebrated our purchase with dinner at California Grill.

You may want to try the same thing - combo house hunt and vacation.

What happens when you cancel depends on the status of the points you used to book the vacation and when you cancel relative to the start of the vacation.

 

[jmedrew]

Thanks for the welcome!

We thought about coming over for spring break to check out neighborhoods and such. It would cost us a small fortune though to fly all of us from Frankfurt to MCO. . Since we plan on buying, we are trying to not waste any money that could go into a house.

The more I think about it...we should just go on a random weekend in Nov/Dec and still stay on property.

As far as how and when I booked...I first banked my pts in Oct and then booked a month or so later. I also borrowed 10 pts from our next year. I suppose I should just call them and figure all that out.

We are so excited to get to florida! Germany is way too dreary for my liking.

 

[Kidanifan08]

The holiday decorations are generally up at the parks by the second weekend in Nov, so a weekend in Nov or Dec would give you a chance to see those, if you've never been to WDW at the holidays.

The MK is decked out for Halloween from the end of Sept to early Nov. I don't know how old your kids are, but the MK Holloween Party is a lot of fun. Of course, Epcot F&W festival is going on at the same time.

Enjoy and Welcome Home!

 

[jmedrew]

Yes, I never thought of those celebrations! Im getting more excited now to plan maybe mulitple trips. My girls are 12 and almost 9 but they still love all things Disney and halloween is still so much fun for them. Thanks for the ideas.

 

[DonnaL]

Awesome news on your move to FL! I definitely agree with other poster from FL who said hold on to your points. Always nice to be able to pick up and go for a night or two...any basically have no transportation costs to get there! You might want to look into whether FL resident passes are the way to go or military passes....at least for the first year you are there. Don't know what the current cost of the military passes are, but, a while back they were very attractively priced. Also, keep in mind.....you don't only need to use your points at WDW......you can also go the Hilton Head Island (at the 7 month window of course) or even head out to Disneyland at the VGC (again at 7 month window). We used our VWL and SSR points for a trip to VGC last January ....we took our youngest son (24) and our grandson, who was 11 at the time...it was awesome....we were in a 1 bdrm park view ...overlooking the Mickey wheel at California Adventure! You could also head down to Vero Beach, but, conceivably you could be living within a 15 to 20 minute ride from there! Also, depending on your use year and banking/borrowing you shouldn't have any trouble cancelling/rescheduling your August trip since it's way before the 30 day window for cancellations.....

 

[wdwdano@yahoo.com]

Don't forget there is also Aulani! We live five hours from orlando and it never gets old though. Just recently used it to get engaged. Next trip is still undecided. Might head Down for Vero beach in March/April.

Welcome home

 

[lovegrumpy]

Use your points and go do Disneyland Paris.

 

[tinibee]

Take a short trip to Disney during you're PCS. PCSing is so stressful, a little break might be nice and the DVC accommodations will be better than any temp lodging ;-)

We bought into Aulani then ended up moving to Japan, about an hour away from TDL. We book at the tdlh for occasional trips for about three days at a time even though its local. Its especially nice to go to the hotel after a long day at the park vs. driving home. Even if you live local, its still fun to stay on site via points.

Or you could rent out your points to pay for APs to Disneyworld

Good luck with the move! Hope it all goes smoothly for you!

 

[mistergq]

I agree with what others said. Pick a weekend or two in October, November, December for events at Disney. You have Halloween, Wine and Dine at Epcott, and Christmas Holiday decorations.

You may also want to call DVC member services to find out how many points you can bank and how many need to be used. That may help with your decision.

While you will live in the area, Walt Disney World is so large that you will be able to enjoy exploring everything that it offers, including at the resorts, if you stay on property versus drive in.

If you want to use it for a cruise, you probably want to use the points for 3rd/4th guests.

Good luck with finding a home!

 

[jmedrew]

Thank you to everyone for all their ideas!