!! HELP !! Info needed

[Montana Disney Fan]

Heya Gang,

I am planning on purchasing 250 points in the Saratoga Springs resort. You guys are the DVC veterans so please share any and all information you can with me. I am planning on doing it on Monday (May 24th).

I'm told the following by Judy (our sales lady):

1. Our USE year will be June (we usually vacation in Oct-Nov).

2. Annual maint. payments will be $950.

3. We can book other DVC properties 7 months in advance.

4. We can book our property 11 months in advance.


Do we get discounts on park hopper passes?

How hard is it to reserve the other DVC properties since Saratoga Springs would probably not be our first choice?

They claim they will shop for groceries for you prior to your arrival. Who has done this and what was the experiance like?

Anything at all you can add that I may or may not know about please share. It can be both positive and/or negative. I just want to know the "INS and OUTS".


Thanks a bunch,

MDF

 

[Dean]

The only discounts on tickets are on the UMP (Length of Stay), not on any other park hopper. The numbered items are all accurate. If you essentially don't want to stay at SSR, why buy there. If you like that location and want to stay there part of the time and try out other resorts along the way, you might be happy with it. You may want to consider resale or push your guide to find you points at another resort. June use year should be fine for Oct/November but a little later use year might be better, August or October would likely be the best. Remember you want actually have dues until your use year begins for SSR.

They will do groceries from what they have in the small stores at their prices. Most people do not do this and it would not be recommended for a family for a major trip.

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

The only reason I may not like SSR is the location. I won't know for sure until after we stay there. But!! One of our best vacations ever was at the Disney Institute so we can basically have fun anywhere. SSR is the only resort open for New Purchase.

I know we will want to try them all so I was just interested in knowing how hard it would be to book having only 7 months out. We usually go in October or early November.

Thanks again,

MDF

 

[brivers222]

How flexible is it picking your use year?

We are thinking about signing up in the next 2 months, but we will probably be vacationing more in the January/May time frame.

Can we sign the papers in July of 2004, but tell them we want our use year to be November of 2004? I am not sure I am understanding how we get our use year?

How will this effect us and our points for the 2004 season?

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by brivers222
How flexible is it picking your use year?

We are thinking about signing up in the next 2 months, but we will probably be vacationing more in the January/May time frame.

Can we sign the papers in July of 2004, but tell them we want our use year to be November of 2004? I am not sure I am understanding how we get our use year?

How will this effect us and our points for the 2004 season?

You can usually get what you want, if they have it. You will not be able to get Dec, 2003 I suspect. There are no November use years but you could get Oct. You might also be able to get December, 2004. One thing to keep in mind going farward for a use year is that you're losing months use of the points. The price is the same, the only savings is the prorated maint fees on the points. If it were me, I'd go back and get something as early as I could then either sell back, rent or bank and use the extra points. While I feel use year is important, don't throw away 6 monhs of points to get a specific one if you don't have to. For Dec/May visits, April or August would work OK for most people and far better than June for example.

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

Originally posted by Dean
If it were me, I'd go back and get something as early as I could then either sell back, rent or bank and use the extra points. While I feel use year is important, don't throw away 6 monhs of points to get a specific one if you don't have to. For Dec/May visits, April or August would work OK for most people and far better than June for example.

That is a very good point about USE year.

 

[mikesmom]

If you travel in October or November, BWV and BCV will be very challenging to get unless you jump on it right at the 7 month mark and are flexible about your accomodations. The Food & Wine Fest is held them and the Epcot Resorts tend to fill up fast with all the foodies who want the convenience of being able to just walk to the fest and stumble, excuse me, WALK back to the hotel.

 

[dianeschlicht]

If you don't think you want to stay at the DTD area, why not buy a resale at BWV, BCV, or VWL? They will be less per point than buying SSR direct from Disney as well.

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

Originally posted by dianeschlicht
If you don't think you want to stay at the DTD area, why not buy a resale at BWV, BCV, or VWL? They will be less per point than buying SSR direct from Disney as well.

As I stated in the post above, I don't know if I'll like it or not because I've never been there. I do know that I'll like BCV and BWV (since I've rented at both) so I was wondering how hard it was going to be to get into other properties 7 months out. Thanks to Mike for the answer.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Sorry, I missed Mikesmoms answer. We must have been typing at the same time. I didn't mean it to be offensive to you. Yes, BCV and VWL will be more difficult than BWV. You might be pleasantly surprised by how convenient SSR might be. Transportation from OKW and DTD is usually excellent, so I would expect it to be the same from SSR. Also, since you had a great stay at Disney Institute, and SSR is on that site, it might end up being your favorite place.

 

[Pluto4Pres]

The mantra on this board is, "Buy where you want to stay." That being said, IMHO SSR looks like a great place to stay. I bought OKW before it was OKW and I've never stayed anywhere else. SSR looks to be very similar in layout and location. Disney transportation takes you anywhere you want to go. It's a more relaxed atmosphere.

The big difference makers between the 7 & 11 month window would be if you need larger accomodations, (2BR or GV) are you fixed in to certain peak vacation times, (travelling with kids or you are a teacher) and do you absolutely need the action and atmosphere at BCV & BWV? If you think that you require these things for a quality Disney vacation, think twice about SSR and look to the resale market.

Grocery plans have been discussed on many other threads. We have never used the call ahead feature. We now go to Publix or Wal-Mart. If you don't have a car on-site, many people work out a stop on the way from airport with their limo driver.

Good Luck!

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

When you sign up 11 months in advance, can you request an area or particular room and if so, do you usually get it?

I see as they keep working on SSR the future rooms will be WAY back from the lagoon along PI and thus a lot longer walk to DTD. When we stayed at the Institute before, we were right along the water near the path that leads to DTD and it was a great convenience to just walk over for dinner after our afternoon naps.

diane, no offense taken. I just wanted to know the difficulty level of making reservations 7 months out as opposed to the 11 months rule. We just purchased (I know I said Monday, but our sales lady called this morning so I purchased it) and I got our week at BWV in November so I'm very pleased. Maybe this was done as we are a new member but only 5 months out I figured we had no chance.

 

[tjkraz]

Originally posted by Montana Disney Fan
When you sign up 11 months in advance, can you request an area or particular room and if so, do you usually get it?

A particular area...perhaps. BWV has a separate class of rooms for it's "Boardwalk View", and I suspect that SSR will do the same thing...allowing members to specifically reserve a DD view. If so, your room class (Studio, 1B, 2B, etc.) and view will be guaranteed. Any other requests you may make (non-smoking, specific floor, specific building number) are merely requests and cannot be guaranteed at check-in. This is no different than making a request at a standard hotel.

The room assigners do their best to accommodate guest requests, but at some periods of high occupancy, it is very difficult.

Incidentally, if DVC does move forward with the water view class of room, it would represent a very good reason to buy SSR as those rooms (less than 1/3 of the total resort) will likely be some of the more difficult to reserve outside of 11 months.

 

[rocketriter]

I suspect you know this, but since you said you liked staying at the Disney Institute I just wanted to make sure: Sarasota Springs IS the old Disney Institute property. They've kept the spa, which I've heard is excellent, but torn almost everything else down in order to build Sarasota Springs. So if the DI location worked for you, well, the SSR location will work just as well!

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

Thanks Rocket, I did know that. The DI was pretty run down and we still loved it!! The area is great for folks like us because we like to hit PI every night (we get a sitter from Disney for the kids).