Has anyone booked a vacation with a non-disney property?

[dbkelly]

I am trying to find out if anyone has had an experience booking at a non-disney property. Is it difficult and where did you stay? As much as detail as possible would be wonderful.

Thank you

 

[BobH]

I booked a weekend with the Woodstock Inn in Vermont. It was very nice. It was my first time booking a non-Disney Resort. I booked it with only 6 weeks to go and had to give 3 choices of dates. Worked out fine however.

 

[caverill]

We booked a stay at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. Member Services was great. We gave them a few dates and everything was arranged.

We will be leaving for Mackinac a week from today and I will post a thread detailing our experience when we return.

 

[Ed T]

We are leaving next week for Ireland and England. We have 3 nights booked at the Dorchester Hotel in London. It is suppose to be one of the top 10 hotels in London. We are looking forward to our stay on pts since the room rates are 350 -400 pounds a night, just about $ 400 -450 US dollars. It was very easy to do, gave MS our dates, they called back in two days and we were in. We have done the cruise on pts as well.

Ed
DVC 1994

 

[Peggy Sue]

Did an II trade to Hawaii. MS took care of everything. Exchange was confirmed in 8 days.

 

[Dean]

I'm assuming you know little about timeshares in my reply. Through DVC, there are several options to use your points besides the DVC resorts themselves. These options include Concierge Collection (B & B and the like), Disney Cruises, other Disney hotels, Adventurer collection and Interval International. All of the options are relatively expensive use of points when compared to the value you get using your points at a DVC resort. The least costly otherwise can be exchanging for other Timeshares through II.

Here’s the basic process. You look at the list of around 200 top resorts in II and tell DVC what size unit you need and when you want to go. You give them as many choices of resorts and weeks as you can. They then look in the II computer and if anything’s available at that time, you confirm right then. If not, they place a search which may or may not even get filled and if it does, it might be 2-4 months before you’re planned travel. You’re cost will usually be for the same unit size as what you get but may be for more than you really need, this is one of the problems with the system. There are exceptions to giving up the same number of points as the unit size you get but don’t affect the overall picture. Once DVC finds a possible match, they will call you and ask if you want Resort X for Time Y. You say yes and they’ll book if for you with the number of points they tell you it will cost, usually OKW adventure, Dream or Magic season points cost. For II, it’s not like making a hotel reservation. There are some additional quirks in the system but that is the basic info.

 

[scootert]

Thank you Dean for the great information. DH and I are still very new to DVC and were wondering how the exchanges worked with II, how much time it took ,etc. Now we know how to do this and what to expect. Thanks so much..

 

[nickglover]

We also booked at The Woodstock and at Topnotch in Vermont. We booked several months in advance, and had to be flexible as far as going to The Woodstock first and Topnotch second, when we originally planned to go to Topnotch first. It worked out fine. At Woodstock, they didn't remind us that breakfast was included, so make sure you check the member book for any inclusions, such as breakfast, at the Concierge Collection properties.

 

[Denine]

We have stayed at the Jefferson in Washinton DC and the Grove Park Inn in Ashville, NC. No problems booking either. Just called MS, they checked availability and we were in. Liked the Jeffersons location. Grove Park as a resort is boring.

 

[Synonymous]

We did a night at the Plaza, in NYC, back in April. Did this on about 2 weeks notice with no problem. I just made a reservation for 4 nights at the Charleston Place in November.

Tom

 

[Merilyn]

We have gone to the Jefferson in Washington. Also, my kids stayed at the Plaza in NY. We just got back from the Marriott Newport Beach Villas. All were very nice, but we really loved the Marriott. It is more like our BW and OKW.

 

[Dean]

Scooter, I've posted in more detail in the past, you might go search for threads I've written on and then scan for ones that might help. There's more to doing it correctly than I've posted here. Happy to help with direct contact also if needed. There are always tricks to the trade. Things like.

1. Aruba has mostly studio and one BR and many of the studios have full kitchens. There are few 2 BR units.
2. Cancun has mostly 2 BR units, some exceptions.
3. Some studios are far more than those at DVC. Paradise Village, MX; Four Seasons as examples.
4. Some studios are only hotel rooms, Cancun again.
5. Aruba, MX studio or 1 BR for 55 points in summer using HH adventure.
6. HH only has 2 BR units for Marriott's.
7. Can do request first using DVC for 2 years ahead.
8. Can do a direct exchange with other Timeshare owners and frequently do much better and lock in what you want.
9. Can use independent exchange companies like SFX, Platinum Interchange, Trading Places.
10. Can do deposit first which works well for points you would otherwise lose effectively extending the life of the points.
    [/list=1]

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

We stayed at the Equinox in Vermont in April. Made the reservation in February. The information MS had was that there was a 4/room limit, and we have 3 kids. I called the Equinox directly, and they confirmed 5 was fine. Then I called MS again, and they confirmed it with the Equinox.

We had an enormous, lovely room. As a previous poster mentioned, make sure you know what's included...breakfast was included, but they never told us at checkin. At checkout, DH overheard a guy say to his wife (they had just checked out) that if he had known that breakfast was included, they could have saved a lot of many (they had eaten elsewhere).

 

[dbkelly]

I just want to thank everyone who replied. All of the information was helpful. Now we are just trying to buy a resale of OKW and hopefully something comes up.

 

[BobH]

The Woodstock Inn seems to be famous for not telling you about breakfast. Same thing hapened to us.

 

[nickglover]

Yes - to Woodstock and breakfast - and not really the kind of place for kids - the atmosphere was a bit stuffy, but we just smiled and said hi to everyone! We were there for three nights and only had one free breakfast, and only realized it when we didn't get a bill! Oh well, we would not have discovered The Creamery down the road, where they had really nice (and cheap) breakfasts and homemade bread and preserves - we also got to mingle with the locals!

 

[KMarie]

Ed T,
Where are you staying in Ireland? Are you using points for that part of your trip?

Please do post your expereince with your England-Ireland trip, as my family wants to travel there, too.

Thanks!