Help..Children have different vacation schedules

[Boardwalk Tigger]

I have had smooth planning with my previous vacations as a DVCer. Problem though is that this year I have children with different vacation schedules. I am hoping to pull my DS out of his new school so that we can all take a vacation together in March. He is in middle school so I won't know if this is feasible until we are there for awhile( maybe October)Meanwhile I would like to book a vacation for March 2005 soon. I currently have 100+ points from this February 2004 that I didn't use and I usually borrow the balance of the points needed from the next Feb (2005) for my March vacation (2005). I have a Feb use year. Question is what happens if I can't go on this vacation. Do I lose my points. What would happen if I cancel in October. What would happen if I cancel in January of 2005? Any difference? I am so confused. Thanks for any help you can give us

 

[Boardwalk Tigger]

I would also love to hear if any of you have a problem with conflicting vacation schedules with children and how you resolve it

 

[SSRex]

We are a blended family going on just over 2 years now. Spring Break has been crazy the last 2 years and again next year also.
Half the kids are in one school district and half are in another one.

My wife's 2 kids, daughter (11) and son (14) are having spring break right now. It started on Good Friday and going thru 4/18.

My 2 kids, Daughter also 11, but 5th grade, not sixith and my son also 14, but 9th grade, not 8th, had their break the week before Easter and went back to school the Monday after Easter Sunday.

At least we have set it up to have all 4 kids together every other year. The Easter before last, we left on Thursday night and had to be back on Sunday. We will have the same situation in 2005.

Even when the school years begin and end is slightly different. We went to WDW last time in June and will be there this July.
We have had to schedule around tennis camp, cheerleading camp, this year band camp, and of course the ex's vacations too.

I get my kids for 4 weeks in the summer and my wife loses hers for 2 weeks, so I have the weeks planned more than 11 months out, so picking a week for DVC trips was the least of my worries.

 

[todsue99]

First off Tigger you need bank you 2004 points into 2005 in order for you to use them for a March 2005 vacation. 2004 points are only good until the end of Jan. unless you bank them. Then if you make a reservation for March and you cancel before the 30(I believe it is 30) day window the points will go back into your account. Although the 2004 points you banked must be used before the end of Jan. 2006. Therefore taking asummer/fall or xmas trip would be good. Do not forget your banking windows it very important. Even though you are scheduling your trip before the end of your use year it doesn't matter, it depends on when you are taking the trip. I hope this helps.

Also, we have taken our kids out of school 5 years running now and have not had any trouble. Both of our kids are very good students and although the makeup work is hard the week we come back they get through it. That would be how I decide how to take the kids out of school. If the older one is the better student(easiest to catch up) then take him/her out of school or the other way around. That is my 2 cents anyway. Good luck.

 

[Merilyn]

As I understand it you have 100 point that are good from Feb 04 until Feb 05. You will have to use them, bank them or lose them. You can bank them into Feb 2005 but you can't get them back into 2004. I think for Feb use year, they have to be banked by July to bank all of them. Since you don't plan to go until Mar 2005, I would bank them and they then can be used until Jan 31, 2006. You can change a vacation date without any trouble until 31 days before. After that you get into some other options that are better explained by MS. So for a March 2005 vacation, you have until Feb 2005 to change it or cancel it. It is 31 days from the last day of your vacation. Keep in mind the days in each month, that will make a difference. After banked, you can use your 2004 points you banked for your March 05 vacation. If it is cancelled you will have to use the points before Jan 31, 2006 or lose them. They can't be banked again. The points that you get in Feb 2005 can be banked into 2006. I know this is confusing but you will get it after a while. Just ask on these board, someone is always ready to help with this.


I made a mistake in my post. You can change or cancel 31 days before the FIRST DAY of your vacation not the last.

 

[BEACHCLUBVILLAS]

My two kids are both in High School but because of sport team commitments, they are not usually free to travel at the same time. This October during a school break we are taking my son and his friend to Disney and then next April we will take my daughter and her friend. The other can't travel with us due to athletic games and practices conflicts. In the summer, we travel together as a family.

When they were in middle school, I took them out of school for one week. It was never a problem. It's a balancing act for sure.

 

[Boardwalk Tigger]

So as I understand it I need to bank my100+ ( 2004) points and THEN make the March reservation. That way I won't lose any of those points until end of January 2006 if I need to cancel this March2005 vacation. If I make the reservation for March 2005 using the 100+ (2004)points without banking them first and then have to cancel I would lose those points or only have until end of Jan 2005 to use them. Right?

So the trick is to bank 2004 points first and then make the ressie? Thanks so much for this advise.

 

[Merilyn]

You have to bank them to use them past Jan 31, 2005. You can only use points from Feb 2004 until Jan 31, 2005 and so it goes every year. To use them for Mar 2005 trip they would have to be banked into that use year and they can't be moved back into 2004. Once banked they are good until the end of the use year you put them in. So point banked into 2005 must be used by the end of that use year-Jan 31 2006. Always keep in mind that it is not a calender year but use year. In your case it is Feb 1 until Jan 31 of each year. You have until July to bank all points (100%) into the next use years. The percentage goes down after that. If you have to change your reservation for March you will have until Jan 31, 2006 to use the 100 banked points or lose them. This is if you changed or cancelled 31 days before your arrival time. Hope this is a help.

 

[laceemouse]

Tigger, if I were you I would just vacation in the sumer. It would be less crowded than Easter anyway. My kids are smart but the workload here is crazy, especially by Jr. High. The teachers don't help at all since missing for vacation is frowned upon. Heck, even if you have been out sick they are not nice about helping you make it up. DD12 is up until midnight doing homework as it is, there would be H-E- you know what to pay if you had to make up a week. Tell me again why I picked this award winning school district?

 

[Boardwalk Tigger]

We aren't going in the Summer because we absolutely can't stand it then. We have been before ( once on business and once to check ou the BCV's when it first opened) It was unbearable for us. It was so hot I started booking Maine vacations in the Summer. I could try December right after Christmas but we prefer a March vacation.....Thanks for the suggestions and help with points.