How much do point costs affect your vacation timeframe

[jerseyduke]

Going over the 2021 point charts I started to wonder about this, and what kind of change it would take in the points required for my typical accommodation type and week for me to consider changing it.
For me, it's all about when I want to go. I do not think I would change that, I would either go for less time, or buy more points or sell my contract

 

[Minniesgal]

For me not at all there are bigger thing influence when I go like work.

 

[CarolMN]

We'd sell if the points for our preferred travel time rose to the level that made a 7-9 night stay cost more than our annual allotment.

Ticket prices are also becoming a concern, as is the increasing difficulty of getting FP+ reservations for our favorite attractions. (Not happy that Disney extended the 60 day benefit to non-Disney resorts). I'm no longer willing to stand in a line for more than 30 minutes or so. I know these last two items are not DVC-related, but they do play into our decision not add-on more points.

 

[CanadaDisney05]

We're bound by the school calendar. If point charts went up enough over March break/summer, where we could no longer go, we'd probably buy a small add-on, or sell.

 

[Noodlez]

I can’t answer as there isn’t a suitable option. Mine just is ‘I wouldn’t change’. I never bought based on a season or number of days in the first place. I bought a resale contract that I thought would more than cover our needs, and it does!
I don’t need a shorter period and I don’t need more points. There should be an option for those of us who bought to cover different scenarios.

 

[Sandisw]

I am at a point now that I can go so often that I would adjust my travel times, room size, etc. to be able to go within my yearly points.

 

[jerseyduke]

I can’t answer as there isn’t a suitable option. Mine just is ‘I wouldn’t change’. I never bought based on a season or number of days in the first place. I bought a resale contract that I thought would more than cover our needs, and it does!
I don’t need a shorter period and I don’t need more points. There should be an option for those of us who bought to cover different scenarios.

You are right, there should be.
My purpose with asking this question was to get a feel for how much if any Disney can balance demand for rooms via point allocation.
I was not expecting anyone to have extra points

 

[holden]

We only travel when the kids aren't in school. I never even consider how many points we use at one time versus traveling at another time.

 

[Brian Noble]

There is one other option that is missing from the poll, but probably what I would do: I would still likely travel during the same time and for the same length of trip, but would borrow the excess required. I'd plan to eventually take a year off to make up for the shortfall, which I've found I've wanted to do from time to time anyway.

 

[jerseyduke]

For me its about crowds and what's going on at WDW. I do not have to worry about school schedules, and work is very flexible, so I can pretty much literally do whenever, but I wont. Only a few responses, and I am not saying Disney should not try, but I really have my doubts as to home much they can affect this.

 

[CanadaDisney05]

For me its about crowds and what's going on at WDW. I do not have to worry about school schedules, and work is very flexible, so I can pretty much literally do whenever, but I wont. Only a few responses, and I am not saying Disney should not try, but I really have my doubts as to home much they can affect this.

I think it will have an effect. Not necessarily on this go around because I haven't seen what I would consider a large enough swing in point requirements. But if all of a sudden October had Xmas rates, and Summer had fall rates, I bet a significant amount of people (not all) would change their travel dates.

 

[crvetter]

For me its about crowds and what's going on at WDW. I do not have to worry about school schedules, and work is very flexible, so I can pretty much literally do whenever, but I wont. Only a few responses, and I am not saying Disney should not try, but I really have my doubts as to home much they can affect this.

Yeah but if the new point charts are requiring more points it’s simply that more rooms will be available because the owners booking them have the same number of points available but the rooms require more points. Therefore, availability increased. So say 7 owners were short now points for 1 night when they travel. That means now a week of availability was added to the system. Sure those owners could borrow, or buy more points it doesn’t matter because those points are just being taken from one place to be used there (thus again resting availability somewhere else or delaying the owners need to shorten their stay). So it might not change everyone’s travel times but it by necessity will change their trip times overall

 

[jerseyduke]

Yeah but if the new point charts are requiring more points it’s simply that more rooms will be available because the owners booking them have the same number of points available but the rooms require more points. Therefore, availability increased. So say 7 owners were short now points for 1 night when they travel. That means now a week of availability was added to the system. Sure those owners could borrow, or buy more points it doesn’t matter because those points are just being taken from one place to be used there (thus again resting availability somewhere else or delaying the owners need to shorten their stay). So it might not change everyone’s travel times but it by necessity will change their trip times overall

I get what you are saying, and its correct, but borrowing is the key and I think the point adjustment has to be significant.
I get a studio at the VGF every year in September for 8 nights, standard view, 145 points of my 150 point contract. If they upped it 2 points a night (over 10%) it would be 161 points. Id borrow 11 every year, then 13 years down the road miss a year. So it helps some sure, but its questionable as to how much, and that's what I am trying to gauge.

I'm not saying the shouldn't do it, it will affect things, I'm just trying to get a sense of how much,

 

[jerseyduke]

I think it will have an effect. Not necessarily on this go around because I haven't seen what I would consider a large enough swing in point requirements. But if all of a sudden October had Xmas rates, and Summer had fall rates, I bet a significant amount of people (not all) would change their travel dates.

This is what I am trying to figure out if indeed a significant number would change. Only a few answers and only @Sandisw has suggested that they would change, everyone else has pretty much said they would not.
Not really enough answer to constitute a sample set though.

So many are bound by external factors. I'm not, they would all but have to price me out for me to change the times I go. Now, if they moved Food and Wind and MNSSHP to July, then maybe, but thats not a DVC thing.

 

[bakerworld]

We have already shortened vacations due to point cost however if I have the points available I wouldn't change my time frame. Usually the time frame is generated by other life factors and not the total point cost.

 

[Lumpy1106]

This question really demands multiple answers. For example, we bought almost enough points to go for a 5-day period every year, with the intent to go every other year, but, wouldn't you know, now we are talking about going every year. If Disney suddenly decided to host some uber-popular event on our typical week and adjust the points for that week, we'd change plans to a different week. After all, we probably wouldn't want to be there during the event anyway. If they just do a little micro-adjustment, we'd probably keep our plans and borrow points until we would be forced to stay somewhere else for a night or 2 or skip a year to catch up on points. I don't think we'd sell and get out or buy more points. After all, it's best to have just enough points and use them all.

FWIW - the points for our typical stay went down in the 2021 allocation.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We're retired and about three hours away by car. We can go anytime. I'll book a cheaper stay if I need to conserve my points. So Jan, Sept, etc.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We don’t have a typical vacation, we do go often enough since we are retired. Not likely to sell everything or to buy more points. We’ll use what we have.

 

[disney junky]

Before I retired from teaching, we were very limited when we could go. Summer. That was pretty much it. Then there was a brief time after I retired and before the grandkids started school where we were pretty flexible. We were able to have three years worth of points and secure a grand villa at BW the week after Thanksgiving Sunday. It was one of the only times we could ever had enough points to get a GV. Now that the grandkids have started school, my wife and I are taking more frequent trips here and there (sometimes renting points) and then using our points for the whole extended family, ten of us now. Last June we had a 2BR and studio next door which worked great but exhausted our points until 2021.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Not at all