How does using points at NON DVC resorts work?

[PrincessSophie'sMom]

At what point can you book a room using DVC points at say, the Poly (or any other non dvc resort)? Do they have certain rooms reserved for that? Has anyone had difficulty doing so?

Also, I know that one of the major benefits of DVC is the fact that the number of points to stay at the DVC resorts will not increase over time. Is this also true of the non DVC resorts, or will the number of points needed to stay there increase with the rack rate increases over the years?

Thanks so much for any info!
Erin

 

[RobDoc]

Resesrvations for any of the non-DVC options (Disney Collection, Concierge Collection, Adventure Collection) may be made 11 months in advance. They do not hold back any rooms for DVC, it's all first come/first served.

Point requirements for the non-DVC options are negotiated each year and traditionally have increased most years. There are no restrictions or guarantees governing the points needed for those options like we have for the DVC resorts (those options themselves could even be discontinued at some time- although that's not likely, IMO).

Enjoy!

 

[Caskbill]

Keep in mind that using points for non-DVC stays has some other issues.

Points are converted to reservation points. If you later cancel the reservation (within certain deadlines), points are returned, but they remain as reservation points, not DVC points. Reservation points cannot be used for DVC stays, and they cannot be banked.

Also, just to give you a feel for the points:

At the poly:

You can book 11-months to 2-days in advance (subject to 60-day rule)
You can cancel 6 days or more ahead and points are restored to you.
For 2005, there are 3 room categories: Garden, Lagoon, Concierge

There are 4 Seasons: Value, Regular, Peak, Holiday

Points for Garden View, Value Season, Sun-Thurs: 39 pts.
Points for Garden View, value Season, Fri-Sat: 70 pts.
Points for Concierge, value Season, Sun-Thurs: 67 pts.
Points for Concierge, value Season, Fri-Sat: 121 pts.

For Holiday Season, these same choices are: 60, 108, 96 and 173 pts respectively.

So the two extremes are from 39 pts/night to 173 pts/night. Every other combination is somewhere in between.

Most people do not consider using DVC-points for non-DVC stays to be an effective use of points.

 

[DiznEeyore]

Most people do not consider using DVC-points for non-DVC stays to be an effective use of points.

Maybe. But as someone here posted a while back, if using points for a Disney hotel makes you happy, you should do it. That's why we bought DVC -- for flexibility. We're planning a concierege stay at the GF for next year on points. We don't have disposable income to blow on a room like that when we can use points we already own.