Few basic questions i couldnt find answers to...

[Lorilais_mommie]

Looking to buy into the Grand Floridian...

My husband is a little worried I may get bored staying at the GF all the time.
so we have looked at other resort point charts to make sure we are buying enough points.

Can points change if not your home resort? Ex. Weekly rate at AK is 69.. In a few years will that go up?

Also how difficult is it to get into a non-home resort?

If I have to book last min.... If I don't care what WDW resort we stay at, whats the chance we could get a room?

 

[crisi]

The general rule is that overall points can't change, but they can adjust points if they feel they need to even out demand. They don't do it often, but some people have been caught by an adjustment that leaves them a few points short. This is regardless of if its your home resort or a different resort.

Availability is a tricky question. It is not hard to get something at seven months - it can be very difficult to get something specific at seven months - don't think those VAKL value rooms are going to be available at seven months - they won't be - but there are almost always savannah rooms available. BLT Value and Theme Park - nope, but Lake View - most of the year, yes. BWV Standard or Boardwalk View - probably not, but want to look at the pool - well...here is where the other part comes in....

Some times of the year are really popular with DVC members - getting ANY room at at Epcot resort during Food and Wine can be difficult at seven months - and at six and a half, you have to hope you hit a cancellation. Getting VWL over Christmas is unlikely, although VWL isn't that hard for most of the year. June in Hawaii, Summer at Hilton Head - those aren't easy reservations to get unless you own there. But if you want SSR or OKW or VAKL Savannah View - those rooms are usually available at even four or five months out - and sometimes available a month or less out.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Looking to buy into the Grand Floridian...

My husband is a little worried I may get bored staying at the GF all the time.
so we have looked at other resort point charts to make sure we are buying enough points.

Can points change if not your home resort? Ex. Weekly rate at AK is 69.. In a few years will that go up?

Also how difficult is it to get into a non-home resort?

If I have to book last min.... If I don't care what WDW resort we stay at, whats the chance we could get a room?

Crisi gave good advice. One thing she didn't mention is that studios are often the first booked up. Two bedroom villas next. So if you have the points for a one bedroom, sometimes that can be found at a little less than seven months out.

But timeshares are meant to be 100% occupied (or nearly so). Plus DVC turns over any available villas that are not booked 60 days out. Sometimes they can get them back from Disney Reservation Center if they haven't been booked for cash when you need that reservation.

What you see available on the Disney Reservation site won't be what you can book on points. That is inventory either still owned by DVC or traded by members to book non-DVC trips.

 

[LisaS]

Can points change if not your home resort? Ex. Weekly rate at AK is 69.. In a few years will that go up?

It can happen at any resort, home or not.

The points required to book the entire resort for the entire year must stay the same. If they make some room types more expensive or increase the cost to stay at certain times of the year they have to reduce the cost somewhere else.

For example, a few years back they reduced the cost of weekend nights (Fri and Sat) and increased the cost of weekday nights for all room types at all resorts to even out demand. That was especially painful for the members who normally stayed just Sun-Thu because the point cost of their usual stay went up a lot. It also affected those who stayed a full week at specific times of the year because even though the cost of some nights went up and others went down, the cost to stay a week was higher overall in some seasons.

Another example is at AKV where they reclassified some rooms from Savanna View to Standard View, which reduced the cost to book those rooms all year round. To compensate, they increased the cost of Savanna View rooms across most seasons. Some rooms at BLT were also reclassified resulting in increases to the point cost for other rooms at BLT.

 

[Lorilais_mommie]

Thank you sooooo much for the help..


Ok so what I'm getting is .... the total points for the resorts never can never change, but the way the break them up can?


So example.. GF has 5000 on the sheet for the resort..
This year a studio is weekly 125 and a grand villa is 645 weekly

The next year maybe a studio is 130 but the villa is 640..

So the only perk of chosen the GF as your home resort is we would be book to room 11 mo.? Out, and non-home resort is 7mo..?

Also is sound like we should get enough points to insure a one week in a one bedroom, sone we can plan on ten studios?

 

[Deb & Bill]

Thank you sooooo much for the help..


Ok so what I'm getting is .... the total points for the resorts never can never change, but the way the break them up can?


So example.. GF has 5000 on the sheet for the resort..
This year a studio is weekly 125 and a grand villa is 645 weekly

The next year maybe a studio is 130 but the villa is 640..

So the only perk of chosen the GF as your home resort is we would be book to room 11 mo.? Out, and non-home resort is 7mo..?

Also is sound like we should get enough points to insure a one week in a one bedroom, sone we can plan on ten studios?

You want to book ten studios at GFV at one time? Won't happen. It's a small resort with a very limited number of studios.

 

[LisaS]

Ok so what I'm getting is .... the total points for the resorts never can never change, but the way the break them up can?

So example.. GF has 5000 on the sheet for the resort..
This year a studio is weekly 125 and a grand villa is 645 weekly

The next year maybe a studio is 130 but the villa is 640..

It's not quite as simple as that (I'll explain below if you want to wade through it) but in general, yes. For example, they might increase the cost to book a stay in early December (currently an extremely popular time) and less expensive in early May which is currently a slow time of year.

They don't change the point charts very often and they are limited to how much they can alter them from one year to the next so big changes have to be done in small steps over multiple years. They made one change to OKW's point chart early on and then went for years (15 maybe) without making any other changes until things got so far out of whack with weekend bookings that they had to adjust the cost of weekend nights vs weekday nights. That change was so extensive it had to be done over two years.

As stated above, they don't just add up the numbers in the point charts, they have to calculate the total cost to book every room for every night of the year. For example for 2014 it would cost the following number of points to book each of these booking categories at VGF for a 365-night stay:

Standard View:
Studio: 7904
1BR: 16032
2BR: 21838

Lake View:
Studio: 9412
1BR: 19159
2BR: 25914
GV: 53223

Add up all of those numbers and that is the cost to book the entire resort for the whole of 2014. The numbers will work out a bit differently year to year because of leap years and because there are 52 weeks plus one day in non-leap years and that extra day will be a weekday some years and a weekend other years. Also, the cost to book a 2BR lockoff (which is a 1BR connected to a studio ) is different from the cost to book those two rooms individually and I don't know how they account for that.

So the only perk of chosen the GF as your home resort is we would be book to room 11 mo.? Out, and non-home resort is 7mo..?

Yes, you can book 11 months out when using home resort points to pay for your reservation and must wait until 7 months out if paying with "foreign" points. Owning at VGF would provide you with an annual allotment of VGF points. Your home resort also determines your annual fees. The amount per point is different at each resort.

Also is sound like we should get enough points to insure a one week in a one bedroom, sone we can plan on ten studios?

Some here advise calculating the point cost of your usual trip and then adding another 5% - 10% as a fudge factor in case of point future point reallocations.

Reallocations have left me a few points short but we just borrow from the following UY. You can borrow a few points each year for quite a few years until eventually you are "borrowed out" and have to take a year off from Disney. We're getting close to that point and that's what we plan to do.

 

[Lorilais_mommie]

Thank so much Lisa... It explains A LOT..

We were just worried Disney could UP the total points at each resort.. In a since making people buy for points to stay at a non home resort..
And they could do it in one big swoop..

But I can see how they can change the point through out the seasons, could cause problem..

So this My understanding,

When Disney release the point charts they are for everyone, not just home resort owners?
But non-home owners, just have to wait until the 7mo. Mark to book those if available?

If so That would be fine with us.. I'm normally planning at least a year out..

And I could book us on the 11mo mark at the GF, and should another resort I want be open at 7 mo. I can change it?

 

[RobDoc]

From 1991 - 1995 the point charts did not change at all. There was an adjustment for OKW in 1996 (the first year there was another DVC resort at VB) and then no changes again until the last few years when there were about 3 changes - weekend points generally decreased a few points and weekdays increased a few points. In order for any nights to increase, others MUST decrease since the total number of points for the year cannot change.

Otherwise, changes to the point charts are an infrequent occurrence.

Yes, the point charts apply to everyone. The Home Resort reservation priority currently allows owners at that resort to reserve at 11 months and other members at 7 months - but that could also change. The POS allows Home Resort owners at least a one (1) month reservation advantage over other members. That window has ALWAYS been 7 months (a 4 month advantage) but please be aware that DVC could decide to change that by increasing or decreasing it without consult with the member/owners.

You can certainly reserve at your Home Resort at 11 months and then switch to another resort (based on availability) at 7 months. Many members do that to assure themselves of a reservation at WDW for their desired time.

Enjoy!

 

[LindaBabe]

yup - points charts are for everybody.

 

[LisaS]

When Disney release the point charts they are for everyone, not just home resort owners?
But non-home owners, just have to wait until the 7mo. Mark to book those if available?

Yes, everyone pays the same point cost to stay at a resort whether it's their home resort or not. Any point reallocations apply to everyone, owners and non-owners.

When booking 11 months out it's not really a question of owners and non-owners, the booking priority is tied to the points. To book VGF more than 7 months out you need to have enough VGF points in your account to pay for that reservation. If you own VGF and also another resort, only your VGF points can be used to book VGF more than 7 months out. At 7 months or less from check in, any points can be used to book any resort.

If so That would be fine with us.. I'm normally planning at least a year out..

And I could book us on the 11mo mark at the GF, and should another resort I want be open at 7 mo. I can change it?

Yes.