How many points would we need?

[shellyof4]

We're looking into purchasing DVC points at AKV. I have the book, watched the DVD and have been reading this board and have already learned a ton. It seems like most people buy a lot less points than I thought we would need, so I was hoping for some help with that.

Our scenario:

We go only in the cheapest 2 seasons of the year (I think that's Adventure and Choice??).
We are a family of 6! (Eeek! which is part of why we are thinking this is a good option for us...2 rooms at a value is not really our style) SO we will need a two bedroom most of the time.
We generally go to Disney parks about every two years (We kind of alternate between WDW and DL so if someone could explain this whole GCV thing I'd LOVE that.....We live on the West Coast already,--like is it going to be impossible to stay there if it's not your home resort and can you just do a small "add-on" to your main points package?--- )
We generally go to WDW for about 9-10 nights
We also take other vacations on the non-Disney years...Hawaii, London, Paris(but those are mostly just DH and I). I haven't seen much information on the boards yet about people using their points at other places.

I was originally thinking we were going to need at least 250 points maybe even 350, but now I'm wondering. Plus, that's a pretty hefty annual dues fee (I think this year it would be over 1,600).

Given this scenario, what would your recommended point purchase be?

Thanks!

I was just thinking that it also might be good to factor in our children's ages 13, 10, 5, 2. I assume that people use less points as their children get older or move out?? If there are any long time DVC members who could let me know if this assumption is correct that would be great....

 

[JaxFLBear]

For a 2-bedroom value villa at AKV during the Adventure Season you would need 240 points for 9 nights. Forum moderator caskbill has a suite of programs that can be used to plan/track a dvc trip. You might want to check out his DVC-Planner program to get an idea of how many points you might really need.

His programs are at http://caskbill.com

 

[Sy-]

If you go back and forth between WDW and DL each year they buy 1 deed with only half the points you would actually need durring that stay. Also buy a deed at GCV when available for half the points you would need there too. Bank points the WDW points the year you go to disneyland and vice versa!

 

[MAO]

If you go to Disney (either World or Land) every other year and need a two-bedroom at AKL for 9-10 nights, you'd want about 270 points every two years. That would be 135 points per year. I don't know what the minimum to buy from Disney is nowadays, but I'd think 135 points or more would work for you.

HOWEVER -- if you expect to use points to go someplace other than Disney on the off years, you'll need the full 270 points each year. The reason you can get away with only 135 points a year is the idea that you would bank a full year's points into the next year and then, when that next year rolls around you'd have the 135 points from the previous year plus the 135 points for that year for a total of 270. In other words, you wouldn't have any points available to use in the off year.

As far as using points at a DVC resort in California, you don't need to have any points *there* to make a reservation at that resort. The only reason to purchase points at a particular resort is for the home resort advantage of being able to make a reservation 11 months out instead of only 7 months. Unfortunately, a reservation at 11 months out must be made with ONLY the points for that home resort -- i.e., if you bought 100 points at AKL and 35 points at GCV, you'd only be able to make a reservation 11 months out for whatever 35 points would get you. But at 7 months you can make a reservation using all 135 points. (Or 270, if you've banked the previous year.)

Note also that, generally speaking, it's cheaper to pay cash for any resort/hotel/timeshare/whatever than to use DVC points for anything other than DVC resorts. In other words, when you figure what you've paid for the DVC points plus the annual maintenance fees, it's most likely cheaper to pay cash for a hotel in London than to use your DVC points for the hotel they have available. In your case, that's probably good since it means you can purchase fewer points (135, say) and plan on banking them one year and going to Disney every other year (using 270 points) and just staying where you want in Hawaii or London or wherever during the off-Disney years.

 

[shellyof4]

Great information!

Thanks! I did find some older posts talking about non Disney use of points as well so I think you've all convinced me to just buy points for what our Disney use would require and pay cash, or a totally different timeshare (far in the future ) for our other trips.

Is it suspected that GCV will sell out quickly? We were thinking of buying into DVC before our next trip, but it may not be before GVC goes on sale. Anyway, thanks for the help!

Shelly