How Do You "Pay" for Friday/Saturday Nights?

[DrTomorrow]

Since I'm a DVC rookie compared to those who have owned a decade or more, I'm always trying to learn and understand from both experts and other newbies with good ideas. This is an area that I haven't given a lot of thought to, but has come up here, so I'm asking.

Thanks for playing!

 

[Carlnne]

Move to Universal for the weekend or a non- DVC Disney hotel with AP discounts. Our kids are older, we travel light, and moving gives us a chance to visit other places.

 

[spiceycat]

I am cheap - so I either stay off site - get a code for a value resort - or go back on Friday -

I drive so getting a great rate for airlines is not necessary for me.

 

[tjkraz]

Last trip we stayed a night in a studio at BCV (our guests paid cash at CBR) before moving to our 2B at SSR for 5 nights. We really hated the inconvenience of moving--particularly when coupled with the likelihood of not having a room until 4pm two days in a row.

7 days/6 nights seems to be just about the right vacation length for us, and I'd love to be able to add on enough points for one of those costly weekends. Until then, we'll probably just resign ourselves to a 6 day / 5 night stay to avoid the hassle of changing resorts. Yes, Disney makes it fairly painless to switch, but with all of the baggage you need to travel with two little ones, it just isn't worth the effort. We'd much rather settle down in one place and stay put for the week.

I'm envious of those of you who can travel lightly enough to do the resort hopping thing. I always liked the variety in theory, but putting it into practice didn't work out so well.

That doesn't really answer your poll, DrT, but I feel better for getting it off my chest.

 

[POOH&PIGLET]

We have always stayed on points.

 

[mom2rb]

We have only done one DVC stay so I am not an expert. We brought my MIL so we did stay the first weekend on points. When she packed up to leave on Friday, we packed up and went to AKL. It was painless. I think this is one thing that SSR has the advantage on. We left the bags and a tip in our room, walked to Downtown Disney, and hopped on the bus to AKL. We had a great AP rate and the boys loved the animals. It took less than an hour for us to get out of one room and into another.

This September we are going on a cruise. We get off the boat on Thursday. Right now we plan on staying at POFQ from Thursday-Sunday and then moving to SSR from Saturday- Friday.

I don't ever see us moving twice in one trip. So it will either be the weekend before or the weekend after. If we stay longer we will bite the bullet and use the points.

 

[TOMAR@SSR]

this will be our second trip as DVCers, we always try to stay 14 days. One of the weekends will be paid with the 25% DVC discount, (which I didn`t see as one of your options), so I voted "other discount, rack rate, or os". The other weekend we just use our points. We don`t like moving , once we`re home.
____________________________________-
maria

 

[pumpkinboy]

Being a finance wonk and all, I naturally have a spreadsheet detailing where it is cheaper to use points, rack rate or (if available) DVC discount. Our last trip over Veterans' Day, we were in a 2BR Std view at BWV, and still it was a better deal to get the weekend nights for cash with DVC discount - had I not gotten the discount, we would have stayed on points only. But with Weds & Thurs on points, Fri & Sat for cash and then Sun on points again, we still kept the same room, keys, parking pass and evrything else; it was completely seamless.

Now in April, we've got a great general public rate over the first weekend at AKL on two rooms, then on to a 2BR at BWV again for the weeknights, then DVC discount for the final Friday night.

It's not that we don't have enough points; 495 really should be sufficient for my family and invited guests. It's just that I am saving for a glorious BWV GV in '06, so I can emulate our pal HBC.

 

[DebbieB]

I add a night or two to our May OKW reservation with an AP rate or DVC member rate for Friday and/or Saturday nights, then points Sunday to Thursday. It's 20 points for weekdays, 48 seems alot for weekends. Always stay in the same room. In December, we stay at BWV, I stay on points Saturday to Thursday nights.

 

[magictrickboy71]

I have no desire to move from on hotel to another during my vacation so I use my points. Once I get to the hotel I don't want to think about moving my stuff until I have to go home.

Frank

 

[jbthi]

From now on I will probably just stay 5 nights (we make a few trips each year) or go ahead and stay the weekend on points.

I will never switch resorts again. We have too much luggage and it was a pain for us. We stayed 5 nights at BWV, moved to AKL with a great AP rate and then 5 nights at BCV. Loved all three resorts but felt like we lost too much time.

June

 

[MJTinNH]

So far I have used my points. I really do not want to move during the trip and I did figure in Fri & Sat points when I purchased. What I didn't figure in was the preference of a 1bdrm to a studio.

In the future I may go for the cash with DVC Discount Fri & Sat nights.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

We do a mix of all the above. At HH and VB the weekend cash has been very discounted. When it's $99 dollars/night, it's hard use points. Only MS cash/points bookings can be linked. Bookings through DVC and CRO are not able to be linked. On one "DVC/CRO" trip we had to switch rooms when "the points" stay ended.

We are leaning to do more 12 night stays. Sometimes we will have to move to another resort including the offsite DVCs. For non-disney Orlando, we like the HIFS for a weekend. The kids love the bunkbeds and their pool is big and has a great areas for the little ones. It is fenced off from the main pool.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

I voted but I probably shouldn't have...I've done whatever works at the time. This next trip it'll be an AP rate at a value for the weekend...but that's 50% because I haven't been able to Sunday night and 50% the fact that the value is $49. One time I started my stay on a Saturday night on points and then mooched off a friend for my last two nights in an offsite condo. Yet another I again started on a Saturday then switched to AKL mid-stay. I didn't find switching to be painful at all except getting the luggage was a little tough. I'll probably switch it myself this time because I'll have a car.

You probably should address your question to people with lesser point values because I think they are the most likely to be switchers.

In the future I'll probably choose Sat, Sun, Mon night stays and make 4 day weekends.

 

[Granny]

Dr. T....we do a combination of the above.

We tend to drive down on a Saturday night and stay off-site since we arrive late Saturday. We just need a place to crash and can't see burning DVC points just for the night's sleep.

Besides, we then check-in early on Sunday so we don't have to take the "leftover" rooms!

Then we usually stay 10-13 nights and don't move, so we use DVC points for the weekend.

 

[JimC]

Typcial -- Bought with a desire to stay a week and absorb my weekend penalty by looking at the average cost for the week -- and I am comfortble with that.

BUt -- If we are going to stay less than a week or stay at more than one resort, we are mindful of the weekend penalty when arranging the schedules. We have also used both AP codes and points for non-DVC WDW resorts depending on the strength of the code vs the cost of our points.

 

[kathleena]

I use points! It's what I bought them for!

 

[palmtreegirl]

I started doing that but I got tired of trying to find a good deal etc...

So now we just use our points for everything, we're even using them to stay 2 nights at the Polynesian next week. I figure we have them we might as well use them.

Next year we're using our points to go Disneyland-yippie!

 

[Towncrier]

In the beginning (circa 1995), we paid cash for the weekends (at the suggestion of our DVC guide). In 1999, we bought a resale that gave us almost enough points to stay 12 nights in a 2BR at Old Key West during the summer months, so now we just use points for our entire stay.

 

[DVC-Don]

We have plenty of points (470) so we use the points for weekends. If we were dealing with a minimal contract we'd probably use cash for the weekends.