Has moving to Florida changed your DVC habits?

[EpcotPhoenician]

Looking for input from those who have moved to Florida and held onto their points/contract(s). How have your DVC habits changed, if at all?

I will be moving from NJ to Winter Garden, FL next month (10 minutes from property). Typically, when I vacation, I spend the entire week due to the cost of airfare, travel, etc. But now that I will be just a few minutes from property, I'm assuming my vacation habits will change. I like to believe I will become more spontaneous and hop over to a resort for a few weekends per year (opposed to a single, long week). If that's the case, the 11-month window would become largely irrelevant, and I will buy at the best value (e.g., Saratoga, Poly, Copper Creek).

Stories, feedback, input are all welcome

 

[lexxus379]

We didn’t move to Florida but we live here when we bought into DVC. The only time I use 11 month priority is Dec and Jan for Festival of Arts. The rest of the time we book maybe a couple of months in advance or last minute. We go several times a year for long weekends. We never use for week long vacations unless it’s at Aulani.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

Very good question…thanks for asking it! We are probably within 10 years or so from moving south (live in Upstate NY now). Both of our kids will be out of college within the next 6-7 years. I was kicking the tires on a 2nd contract and my wife’s objection is that, if everything goes according to plan (who are we kidding, right?), we wouldn’t need those extra points because we would be within driving distance to WDW. Like you, we go for a week at a time because of the travel expense. My point to her is that I could see us going for multiple weekends a year to enjoy the different EPCOT festivals, and that would be on top of our normal week long trip.

I will follow this thread because I’m very interested on getting insight into how people’s DVC experience changed with moving within driving distance to WDW.

 

[EpcotPhoenician]

Very good question…thanks for asking it! We are probably within 10 years or so from moving south (live in Upstate NY now). Both of our kids will be out of college within the next 6-7 years. I was kicking the tires on a 2nd contract and my wife’s objection is that, if everything goes according to plan (who are we kidding, right?), we wouldn’t need those extra points because we would be within driving distance to WDW. Like you, we go for a week at a time because of the travel expense. My point to her is that I could see us going for multiple weekends a year to enjoy the different EPCOT festivals, and that would be on top of our normal week long trip.

I will follow this thread because I’m very interested on getting insight into how people’s DVC experience changed with moving within driving distance to WDW.

Thanks for following.

I know Pete has mentioned a number of times on the DVC Fan podcast that he loves having the ability to spontaneously check resort availability for a few nights. It seems to be the biggest perk of living close to property. I just can't decide if I will continue vacationing for that long week.

I like the idea of saving some money and purchasing 150 or so points for weekend stays (1-2 nights) at Poly, Animal Kingdom Lodge, etc. on a whim.

 

[legler2250]

Fantastic question and one that is fun to speculate on. I will be retiring from the Marine Corps in less than a year and a half and will be moving back to Florida an hour away from WDW. It is easy to imagine booking Sunday thru Thursday and saving the extra point cost for the weekends. Perhaps going to Disney every month instead of going every 3 months =).

 

[Disneykate605]

We moved from NC to FL ( 2 hours from Disney) 10 months ago. We have kept our weeklong holiday trip ( Thanksgiving) the same and have gone on a planned weeklong trip with some family members and would do that again in the future if that opportunity presented itself. What has changed is we go now for at least a weekend (Friday and Saturday nights or just Saturday night) visit at least once a month. We also added on Easter weekend as well ( Friday - Monday). We would not have done that from NC because of the travel time but that will be a nice length trip for a 2 hour drive! Still love our DVC even after moving closer. Most of our weekend trips are booked a couple of months to a couple of weeks out. We usually book a night or 2 if we know of family or friends that will be at Disney so we can see them. We also will book time if someone is visiting us and we think they would enjoy going to Disney for a quick trip.
(We live in St. Augustine now so there's much to do here as well and not everyone we know is a Disney person )
All this to say the more points the better...even if you live nearby!

 

[DVCSunDevil]

Thanks for following.

I know Pete has mentioned a number of times on the DVC Fan podcast that he loves having the ability to spontaneously check resort availability for a few nights. It seems to be the biggest perk of living close to property. I just can't decide if I will continue vacationing for that long week.

I like the idea of saving some money and purchasing 150 or so points for weekend stays (1-2 nights) at Poly, Animal Kingdom Lodge, etc. on a whim.

Yeah, I have heard Pete say that a few times. He said he also puts family and friends up in DVC when they are visiting, but he has a ridiculous amount of points. We anticipate being within 5.5 hours from WDW when we eventually move, so we will be able to take long weekends.

I don’t know, I am still thinking it through. It’s a good amount of money to spend and my wife is being hard to convince on this one.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

We live 2.5 hours from WDW and we do 2-3 night trips throughout the year. Rarely more or less. 3 nights is perfect.

If we were in winter garden, I don't know what we would do, we purposely didn't pick Orlando area for that reason since we wanted it to still feel like a getaway.

 

[RivShore]

Looking for input from those who have moved to Florida and held onto their points/contract(s). How have your DVC habits changed, if at all?

I will be moving from NJ to Winter Garden, FL next month (10 minutes from property). Typically, when I vacation, I spend the entire week due to the cost of airfare, travel, etc. But now that I will be just a few minutes from property, I'm assuming my vacation habits will change. I like to believe I will become more spontaneous and hop over to a resort for a few weekends per year (opposed to a single, long week). If that's the case, the 11-month window would become largely irrelevant, and I will buy at the best value (e.g., Saratoga, Poly, Copper Creek).

Stories, feedback, input are all welcome

Did that move last year but we haven't been here long enogh to take advantage of it like we plan to - we do plan on some last minute weekends here or there at WDW and we might do longer stays at Vero. Also as long as we can coordinate with the family, we will still try and get a week long vacation in every few years.

 

[RivShore]

(We live in St. Augustine now so there's much to do here as well and not everyone we know is a Disney person )

Not to hijack the thread, but being new to the Orlando area, St. Augustine is on our list of day trips. Any recommendations of things we must do there?

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

Not to hijack the thread, but being new to the Orlando area, St. Augustine is on our list of day trips. Any recommendations of things we must do there?

Walk the downtown, the fort, many good restarants , Alligator farm is really cool also

 

[pklein09]

We're in the Daytona Beach area....just over an hour away. Our DVC travel has definitely changed. Post-covid has been challenging for us trying to get reservations. Resorts weren't at full capacity and there is a glut of points from the inability to travel. We tried to get 2 nights together for DH's birthday in October (looking 6-7 weeks in advance) and couldn't do it. We did a split stay for 2 nights. We've tried booking 1 week in advance, 2 weeks in advance, the day of and have had difficulty. I didn't care what resort, just get me a room. I posed the question here on the boards and was told that DVC is a 11 month and 7 month booking vacation vehicle, and that I shouldn't expect to get anything short notice. We found ourselves booking a CC Cabin using 1/3 of our yearly points for 1 night just to use the points. We decided to rent most of our yearly points this year, saving some for the odd night here and there.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

It's definitely changed, and I've been debating what to do with my points. I've lived here several years now and am about an hour away from the parks. As you suspect, I rarely plan a trip 11 months out anymore and my trips are often of the long weekend variety vs. the annual 10-day trip I initially bought my points for. My problem is that I DO care where I stay and do not have a very large contract so am typically looking for a studio in order to get the most nights out of my allotment. I may need to get over the former and give some other resorts a try. My home resort is Beach Club and there's rarely studios available at Beach Club or Boardwalk a few weeks out. I haven't done exhaustive searches but honestly I've rarely seen studios available anywhere other than Saratoga at a few weeks out but that just may have been my bad timing.

So, the types of visits and planning have definitely evolved but the desire to go to Disney hasn't and still have the desire to stay over even though could easily just do a day trip ... there's something about being fully immersed in "the bubble" that's still incredibly appealing. All good "problems" to have!

 

[DVCSunDevil]

It's definitely changed, and I've been debating what to do with my points. I've lived here several years now and am about an hour away from the parks. As you suspect, I rarely plan a trip 11 months out anymore and my trips are often of the long weekend variety vs. the annual 10-day trip I initially bought my points for. My problem is that I DO care where I stay and do not have a very large contract so am typically looking for a studio in order to get the most nights out of my allotment. I may need to get over the former and give some other resorts a try. My home resort is Beach Club and there's rarely studios available at Beach Club or Boardwalk a few weeks out. I haven't done exhaustive searches but honestly I've rarely seen studios available anywhere other than Saratoga at a few weeks out but that just may have been my bad timing.

So, the types of visits and planning have definitely evolved but the desire to go to Disney hasn't and still have the desire to stay over even though could easily just do a day trip ... there's something about being fully immersed in "the bubble" that's still incredibly appealing. All good "problems" to have!

Yeah, from your comment and other comments on here it sounds like last-minute availability can be tough to get. And in looking at some availability sites it appears that every single resort is tough to get from around three months up to the date of check-in, including Saratoga springs. Maybe that will improve over the next year or two, especially getting further out from all of those banked points from Covid. I hope so. Although, if/when we do pull the trigger and make the move, I still do see us planning out many of our stays in advance…even some of the long weekends. Many of those long weekends will be planned around Epcot festivals, so we will know in advance that we want to go. But we may also want to do some spur of the moment stays, so hopefully availability lightens up. It sounds like stalking may be needed for some of those last-minute weekends.

 

[Disneykate605]

Not to hijack the thread, but being new to the Orlando area, St. Augustine is on our list of day trips. Any recommendations of things we must do there?

The Nights of Lights (November to the end of January) is definitely beautiful and something to see! I like to stroll around from the fort up along the water and down St. George street. The sunset on the water is beautiful (even though the sun is not setting on the water but to the right...the colors are beautiful and the Bridge of Lions and all the boats make for a beautiful site)! The sand on the beaches is powder soft! They have boat tours to see the city from the water ( we did this during the Nights of Lights) which was beautiful but they do it during the day to see marine life and also not during the lights as sunset cruises as well. There are many restaurants and foodie experiences as well!

 

[Disneykate605]

Yeah, from your comment and other comments on here it sounds like last-minute availability can be tough to get. And in looking at some availability sites it appears that every single resort is tough to get from around three months up to the date of check-in, including Saratoga springs. Maybe that will improve over the next year or two, especially getting further out from all of those banked points from Covid. I hope so. Although, if/when we do pull the trigger and make the move, I still do see us planning out many of our stays in advance…even some of the long weekends. Many of those long weekends will be planned around Epcot festivals, so we will know in advance that we want to go. But we may also want to do some spur of the moment stays, so hopefully availability lightens up. It sounds like stalking may be needed for some of those last-minute weekends.

We have been pretty lucky getting something not far out ( sometimes same week) from stalking and wait listing. I do also plan many stays months out and others over 7 months or 11 months out. I usually book something for times I think we will want to end up going ( during festivals, birthdays, holidays or long weekends) in advance and then re-evaluate as it gets closer. We have had to book a hotel night here or there and stay off property a couple of times. We sold a HHI contract last year with the thought that we wouldn't need that many points ( still have over 700) and instead use the maintenance fee money towards last minute hotel rooms. We probably should have waited another year to sell because the 50% limit is really hurting right now! We also have 2 teenage sons so we usually stay in 1 or 2 bedrooms most of the time. Getting the one bedrooms does help with availability.

 

[Memorymakerfor4]

We don't even live in Florida, but have moved closer with access to a reasonable direct flight, and we're already discussing different travel patterns. It used to take us most of a day each way for travel, now I want to take advantage of early arrivals and late departures to get an extra day in so we can start breaking down our once a year week long trip into two shorter trips.

 

[peabody58]

Didn't move to Florida, but when we retired 7 years ago, we did move just south of Atlanta so we could be 6 hrs from our happy place vs. the 20+ hr 2 day drive from Illinois. It was all part of our retirement plan. We now get AP's every other year and really optimize our points to get as many 4-5 nt Disney trips in during that time. We also just added on 100 more pts at BWV to do more 1 BR resort stays. Close enough to go frequently, but far enough away to avoid impulse trips. Plus my older brother retired to Polk County (30 min from WDW on I-4), so great reason to visit him whenever we travel to WDW.

 

[justadreamaway77]

We're in the Daytona Beach area....just over an hour away. Our DVC travel has definitely changed. Post-covid has been challenging for us trying to get reservations. Resorts weren't at full capacity and there is a glut of points from the inability to travel. We tried to get 2 nights together for DH's birthday in October (looking 6-7 weeks in advance) and couldn't do it. We did a split stay for 2 nights. We've tried booking 1 week in advance, 2 weeks in advance, the day of and have had difficulty. I didn't care what resort, just get me a room. I posed the question here on the boards and was told that DVC is a 11 month and 7 month booking vacation vehicle, and that I shouldn't expect to get anything short notice. We found ourselves booking a CC Cabin using 1/3 of our yearly points for 1 night just to use the points. We decided to rent most of our yearly points this year, saving some for the odd night here and there.

DVC resorts were at full capacity the minute they reopened. The regular resorts might have been at reduced capacity but DVC was at 100%.

 

[EpcotPhoenician]

For those saying you can’t find a room with short notice… even for one night?

Consecutive nights is expected to be limited. At least with one night, I’d have two full days at the pool.