Help! Dec for 5-8 ppl, OKW, BCV, or somewhere else?

[caribbeanme]

Hey all!

First off, I want to thank y'all for all your help! My June trip is turning out to be extremely magical, and it's all because I found this board.

Now I'm planning a grownup trip for 5-8 ppl, late 20s, early 30 somethings, sometime between Dec. 1-15, 2004. We've been considering multiple rooms at different resorts, but I just found out about OKW and BCV. It seems like these resorts may be best for a large group-- we can all hang out together without worrying about meeting up somewhere, we would have all sorts of homey touches, etc... For those who've stayed at these resorts, what would you recommend I do, and where would you stay? Are we likely to get an AP rate for these resorts during this time period? Are there other ways to save? Would you recommend staying elsewhere?

Any suggestions, help, would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks a bunch,

 

[4greatboys]

We have stayed at a 2bdrm at OKW before and they are HUGE! You have a full kitchen and washer & dryer. Master bdrm has king bed, 2nd bdrm has 2 queen beds and the living room as a fold out sofa. The cheapest way to get one of these would be to rent points from a dvc member--they normally go $10 per point.

 

[WDWLVR]

For room size I've heard OKW can't be beat (we'll be checking it out in May). Any of the DVC resorts would give you the space and home feel you are looking for. Check out the DVC rent board here on the DIS to look into renting points instead of booking a cash reservation.

One word or warning - early December is prime time for DVC and the rooms book up fast.

 

[caribbeanme]

Thanks a bunch for the DVC point rental suggestion. It will come out a bit steep for us, particularly since we can probably get two rooms for the price of one night at OKW, even with point rental. Oh well...we'll see...

 

[pumpkinboy]

Looks like a 2BR at OKW during December comes to 22 points on a weeknight, or $220 divided by 8 ppl comes to $27.50 per person per weeknight. Is that price steep? And if you are dividing by 5, it's a whopping $44 per person per weeknight. Plus you've got a washer/dryer and full kitchen in the unit, and tons of space. Could be that AP rates at the All Stars would be cheaper, but you'll be more comfortable at OKW. Now the weekends are a different story, at 54 pts or $540 a night (540/8 = $67.50; 540/5 = $108).

But you all could have a full week at OKW in a 2BR for 218 pts or $2,180 total. I am not sure there are much better deals than that on Disney property.

I expect that AP deals will be out there for this time period at the non-DVC resorts, and these could be a better deal, albeit for 2 or more rooms, without the free laundry and full kitchen. And you can get the AP rate on up to 3 rooms per AP; less "togetherness" but you might all still be friends by the end .

Sounds like fun in any case.

 

[caribbeanme]

Thanks for the math! I really hate doing it! I actually calculated it at $72 per person, a night (9 nights, 5 ppl for early December). Of course, the dates we have pick up on two weekends.

Of course, if we can get the full 8 ppl to commit, it's a done deal! I could care less, but I have a couple of friends who are thrifty to the point of cheapness (who would really not want to spend an extra $100 on lodging for our stay) and a couple more who really want to stay at AKL. I think I could sell it as a compromise.

 

[4greatboys]

Maybe you could stay the weekend at AKL or one of the value resorts and then move over to OKW for the weeknights. That way you would have to spend the extra $$ for weekend points. We always go to Universal on our trips and this year we are making Universal our weekend stay Fri, Sat and Sunday. I dont knwo if your group likes Universal but their FOTL access for staying onsite cant be beat.