Hello All--

[MARCIAKAZ]

I've been reading your posts, trying to make a decision about buying. Ok, really looking for lots of ammunition to help sell the idea to DH...and it's working! Anyway, in the meantime, I'm thinking of renting points for a trip next year and weighing the financial options. The super-budget option (which may be the ONLY option because there are five of us and Thanksgiving week is the likely time) is to rent/use points at CSR rather than at a DVC resort. When I used the point calculator, it didn't offer the junior suite as a room option at CSR. So, to the point--how can I find out how many points for that particular room type for particular dates? Thanks in advance for your advice...and for all the great info provided on this board!

 

[InstImpres]

You will find renting points at a non DVC resort is not the most cost effective thing to do. I would recommend considering a 2 bedroom or if one of your children is under three you could get a 1 bedroom to really save money.

Good luck
Sandy

 

[MARCIAKAZ]

When we do this trip, kids will be DD-9, DS-16, DS-17--so a 1 bdrm won't work. I have tried just about every variation of stay on the points calculator and found that (in terms of points/price)the DVC resorts are very comparable to the Deluxe resorts--even for the 2 bdrms! However, I found that the moderates cost quite a bit fewer points. Since this is probably going to be a tight-budget trip, that is very appealing. The only room I would consider though, for comfort's sake, is the junior suite@CSR. Which brings me back to my original question--if I can find out the points cost for that accomodation for our stay, then I can weigh all the options and make a decision about this trip.

 

[SSRex]

would be the Ft. Wilderness Cabins. I do not recall them being a lot of points and there would be more room than any moderate would have. Your teenagers would love driving the golf carts.

 

[rocketriter]

I haven't seen CSR's junior suites, but I know that the junior suites at WL, a deluxe resort, are significantly smaller than any DVC 1-bedroom.

 

[SSRex]

Can only compare Deluxe, moderate, & Value rooms to a DVC studio and even then, there is no comparison. A family of 5 with teenagers needs some separated space like a DVC one bedroom or larger. The only other non-DVC Disney on-site option is the Ft. Wilderness cabins. We did that as a transition to joining DVC & our 4 kids were only 10, 10, 12, 12 at that time, we could not have done it again this summer when they were 12, 12, 14, 14, so we joined DVC and got a 2 bedroom. The kids wanted the SSR grand villa after seeing it. Who would not? Maybe someday.

 

[Disney Hot Mama]

Originally posted by SSRex
would be the Ft. Wilderness Cabins. I do not recall them being a lot of points and there would be more room than any moderate would have. Your teenagers would love driving the golf carts.

I'll second Ft Wilderness. You will have a full kitchen seperate bedroom with a set of bunk beds and a double bed in one room and then the pull down murphy in the living room I would put the kids in the seperate room and sleep on the murphy for DH and me. The kitchen would save you tons of $$ even if you only did breakfasts in it. I think size wise you can't beat these cabins.

They are listed at around 30 points per night (Sun - Thurs) vs. 20 ish for CSR - not the jr suite. For the same rate (or close to it) you could get a 2 BD at OKW which would more than double your space.

Have fun planning and taking your trip.

 

[SSRex]

We did exactly that, we put our kids in the bedroom and used the Murphy bed for ourselves. That allowed us to stay up later and get up earlier without disturbing the kids.

The other thing we discovered, but not until our week was almost over was that there was a campground comfort station just down a short path from our cabin. That gave us another bathroom when needed in the mornings and evenings. I also used the washer and dryer there.

 

[tjkraz]

You might want to double check your numbers. I really find it hard to believe that renting points at $10+ each for a non-DVC resort is going to be any cheaper than just paying discounted prices through CRO.

During Value season, a Standard/Water View room is going to run you 15-17 points per weekday, 27-31 on the weekends. At $10 per point, the least you would pay is $150 per night on the weeknights renting points, or as much as $310 for a weekend. The Rack Rate is $133, and you can usually find discounts if you look in the right place.

DVC wasn't designed to save us money on the non-DVC properties. It's an option for using points, but the usage values do not stack up well against the actual DVC resorts.

Just pay cash for the trip--wherever you decide to stay--and schedule a DVC tour at the sales center.

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

The cabins at FW sound like a nice option.

I think some of our family would LOVE them--we may have to try them out someday.

 

[MARCIAKAZ]

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. I've got some more research / thinking to do!