If you stay at a DVC resort twice a year- how many points do you have and which room type do you use?

[SleeplessInTO]

I originally replied to this in 2022, back then I was working through banked points (300) due to lockdown.

Now I’m at 500 points in total and have borrowed all except 1 point from my next UY. This allowed us to stay at Aulani for 10 days in March 2024, at WDW from July 19 through August 12, and have an upcoming 3 night trip to WDW booked for October. All studios except for a cabin stay at Fort Wilderness.

I’m a little twitchy at not having any points to play with right now. Starting to dream of buying a direct Poly contract…

 

[vdangelo239]

350 points - family of 5 also

We can comfortably do two trips a year for 8-ish nights each.

This current trip in August is 8 nights in a GFV resort studio costs exactly 150 pts.

 

[Instagramhusband]

355 points. Lots of Travel at low point use times and need exclusively studios. This year we didn't even have a full compliment of points for the year and we have 6 different trips total. We have one 5 day trip, one 3 day trip and the rest are 2 day weekend trips.

Our needs will change soon as my younger teen ages and will want to take a friend or not go, so I am planning on another 200-300 points sooner rather than later.

My wife and I work together in a small business and both of us being gone for long periods aren't optimal so it will almost always be weekend trips but the seasons work in our favor as most of our travel is early December, Jan, Feb and September.

 

[marmentrout85]

We plan out two separate 8-night trips each year, doing split-stays each trip in studios. We have a total of 300 pts right now between our 3 home resorts. September and either Dec/Jan our when we'll typically go. It works for now, but we'll likely want more points over the next few years as our daughter gets older and will likely want more space.

150 @ BCV
100 @ VGF
50 @ RIV

 

[Disdreaming479]

I have 560 points. 400 pts for 7 or 8 nights in a 2 bdrm with my family of 4. Kids are 19 and 15, so definitely old enough for a friend to come if they want to share a bed. I really like the pace of 8 night stays! The 160 pts is for me to use for solo purposes in January bc 1 week is not enough for me and I hate winter weather. Florida winter is pretty nice in comparison!

 

[EPCOT Terran]

I originally replied to this in 2022, back then I was working through banked points (300) due to lockdown.

That's funny! I didn't notice that this was a 2-year old thread until you wrote this. Oh, well, it's still interesting to read how others structure their trips.

 

[atthebeachclub]

I have 560 points. 400 pts for 7 or 8 nights in a 2 bdrm with my family of 4. Kids are 19 and 15, so definitely old enough for a friend to come if they want to share a bed. I really like the pace of 8 night stays! The 160 pts is for me to use for solo purposes in January bc 1 week is not enough for me and I hate winter weather. Florida winter is pretty nice in comparison!

LOL, I can’t lie: my main reason for buying points was NOT Disney. It was because I want to leave the cold weather every January. I love Disney and am happy to go there. But some years I hope to just go hang out in Florida and enjoy being warm. Mainly I wanted a place I could travel to which was safe for me to vacation alone or bring my family, had all the infrastructure built in, and I don’t have to go do maintenance there. Plus flights to Orlando are cheap(er). DVC sounded perfect! I actually wonder how many other people thought the same.

 

[Sprinkles&Sprints]

We have points for more than two trips but when that was the original plan, I wanted enough for 5-7 days between Christmas and NYE in a studio, and then 7-10 days in a 2 bedroom in August. We probably wouldn’t need the 2 bedroom every year so we’d bank in the off years to have enough when we needed it. That was around 500-ish points (and 2 contracts ago ).

 

[Disdreaming479]

LOL, I can’t lie: my main reason for buying points was NOT Disney. It was because I want to leave the cold weather every January. I love Disney and am happy to go there. But some years I hope to just go hang out in Florida and enjoy being warm. Mainly I wanted a place I could travel to which was safe for me to vacation alone or bring my family, had all the infrastructure built in, and I don’t have to go do maintenance there. Plus flights to Orlando are cheap(er). DVC sounded perfect! I actually wonder how many other people thought the same.

Yes, very similar reasoning here. January in Orlando is a nice change of scenery! In the future when our kids are doing their own thing, we’ll have more weeks since we won’t need a 2 bdrm. Plus Aulani has some nice availability in off season. We can switch it up if we want. There is so much to do in Orlando and Oahu!

 

[Cfabar1]

We initially thought we would do several short trips each year in studios, and that's what we purchased points around. Thought maybe one year we would save up for a big trip to Hawaii or something like that....

Well, now we have decided that we need not only one bedrooms, but 2 bedrooms.... and that we want to stay at the GF when we do that.... at least for now....

So... we are now doing to... short trips (1-2 nights) in hotel rooms at the Swan & Dolphin, 1 long trip at VGF, and medium trips (3-4 nights) in Interval Getaways units or booking cash at Marriott or Sheraton villas nearby. If not that, using our points for a suite at Hyatt Grand Cypress, or possibly Hyatt Orlando. Am really hoping the rumored Hyatt Vacation Club in Orlando gets booked.

Since we go so frequently, it gets difficult to justify the on-property price premium all the time, but I do imagine we will need to as time goes on increase our points by about 100-200. Maybe we will get that as a Poly contract when that opens, we shall see.

 

[E2ME2]

LOL, I can’t lie: my main reason for buying points was NOT Disney. It was because I want to leave the cold weather every January. I love Disney and am happy to go there. But some years I hope to just go hang out in Florida and enjoy being warm. Mainly I wanted a place I could travel to which was safe for me to vacation alone or bring my family, had all the infrastructure built in, and I don’t have to go do maintenance there. Plus flights to Orlando are cheap(er). DVC sounded perfect! I actually wonder how many other people thought the same.

Yes, very similar reasoning here. January in Orlando is a nice change of scenery! In the future when our kids are doing their own thing, we’ll have more weeks since we won’t need a 2 bdrm. Plus Aulani has some nice availability in off season. We can switch it up if we want. There is so much to do in Orlando and Oahu!

You all are singing my tune! We bought-in to DVC in 2010 with the intention of adding on incrementally, and using as a "Snow-Bird" plan. It worked! I retired at the end of 2020, and we now have 970 points. We have spent Jan/Feb in WDW since 2021, and plan to do so for the foreseeable future. Jan/Feb points are very reasonable, and the Orlando weather is usually pretty dry that time of year. We typically experience 5-10 days of "COLD" while there.
Pre-Pandemic we would alternate years with the AP, and have Non-Park stays every third year.
However, the inability for some to obtain APs in 2020-2022 convinced us to keep ours renewed every year. You still can't beat it, if you spread the AP costs over 56-63 days.

ETA: We stay mainly in Studios to stretch those points, but occasionally get 1BR or 2BR if having family join us.

 

[Disdreaming479]

We have visited Florida during the first week of January with our kids for six years now I think. First few were a split with universal Orlando/ wdw commando style with 6 or 7 park days with no days off. Eesh I think we did that 3 years in a row. Started out with nice crowds but each year increasing so much we don’t care for it anymore. Universal is fine bc we stay premium for the express passes. Kids are too old to miss a few days like that during High School since they are earning college credits concurrent.
Now I go solo towards the ends of January and keep my sanity intact. Last year prior to my trip we had 2 ice storms and a snow storm in the previous 12 days. I had a few colder nights but I sure did get to spend 2 days swimming and every day having the sun shine on me. It was glorious.

 

[atthebeachclub]

You all are singing my tune! We bought-in to DVC in 2010 with the intention of adding on incrementally, and using as a "Snow-Bird" plan. It worked! I retired at the end of 2020, and we now have 970 points. We have spent Jan/Feb in WDW since 2021, and plan to do so for the foreseeable future. Jan/Feb points are very reasonable, and the Orlando weather is usually pretty dry that time of year. We typically experience 5-10 days of "COLD" while there.
Pre-Pandemic we would alternate years with the AP, and have Non-Park stays every third year.
However, the inability for some to obtain APs in 2020-2022 convinced us to keep ours renewed every year. You still can't beat it, if you spread the AP costs over 56-63 days.

ETA: We stay mainly in Studios to stretch those points, but occasionally get 1BR or 2BR if having family join us.

This sounds wonderful! I would greatly enjoy this. The biggest barrier to my warm January days is my kids’ school schedules and my scheduler. I may have to go alone some years and I am ok with that, because it is Disney! My spouse knows I was imported to this area of terrible weather and leaving during the worst of it is important to my sanity. lol.

A cold windy January day in Orlando, even a snow day, will beat temperatures where I live in January by many tens of degrees, and will probably be less windy. I would estimate at least a 25 degree Fahrenheit difference (usually more) between the coldest Orlando day and a normal January day where I live. So even crummy weather in Florida is a blessing.

Last January my kids were happily swimming in the super cold Beach Club pool when the temps weren’t yet in the 70s. I think coming from such a cold place, anything warmer feels really great.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

January in Orlando can get very cold…

 

[atthebeachclub]

January in Orlando can get very cold…

Looks like the record low ever is 18. I would gladly take even that. Usual is 39 to 65 which is positively balmy compared to many regions in January.

My city’s average low in January is 5 degrees. And often the low occurs during the daytime, not overnight. Orlando’s average low appears to be 51 in January. I can take Orlando in January.

 

[Lorana]

My husband and I are possibly thinking to go down to Florida twice a year. We were thinking to do one trip that's longer and more park based, etc. and another shorter trip where we just plan to stay at the resort and maybe just do 1 park. We are 5- 2 adults and 3 kids. I'm thinking to get more points solely just for the shorter trip. Also just to avoid buying a lot more points, we have also been contemplating even doing a short trip like this every other year. So I'm curious, for those of you that stay at a DVC resort twice a year- how many points do you have and how long are your trips? I'm trying to figure out if 100 points is a good amount of points. I have a total of 360 points from my other two contracts and usually don't necessarily use all the points, but with anything left over, it wouldn't be enough for another short trip. I would love to know how you all work it. Thanks. =)

I feel like I’m the wrong person to answer this, lol. Addonitis is real! And we took advantage of some fire sales during Covid.

We also disregarded some of the advice on here, and we have a lot of points — for years we take family and friends to Disney and then for years we don’t, we rent out up to half our points to cover dues costs. (The covering dues costs goes against a lot of advice). For us - at least for now - we like the flexibility of being able to spoil family and friends, and I like knowing I *can* rent our points to cover our dues if we ever hit a personal financial crunch and still have points for us to go to Disney. We also point small contracts - the majority are 100 points or less, and all are under 170 - so we can also more easily downsize in the future should we choose.

Personally with 5, I would consider having enough points for a 2 BR. Trust me, once you stay in one, you’ll never want to go back. Yes there are studios that sleep 5, and 1BRs with sleeping surfaces that sleep 5, but as your kids hit teen and later teen, you’ll appreciate the extra space — especially if you are doing resort stays. Also the tables can be pretty small in 1BRs if you are eating in, and many of the refurbs have done away with tables in the studios.

Admittedly this is how our addonitis truly began. We started with BRV (we love the Wilderness Lodge) so we’d have studios with 3 sleeping surfaces. (We’re a family of 4 but our boys won’t share a bed), but knew we wanted at least 1BRs (it’s what first inspired us to buy into DVC). But once we did 2BRs, we decided that’s what we wanted as often as we could get, and it all went downhill from there, lol.

 

[Lorana]

You all are singing my tune! We bought-in to DVC in 2010 with the intention of adding on incrementally, and using as a "Snow-Bird" plan. It worked! I retired at the end of 2020, and we now have 970 points. We have spent Jan/Feb in WDW since 2021, and plan to do so for the foreseeable future. Jan/Feb points are very reasonable, and the Orlando weather is usually pretty dry that time of year. We typically experience 5-10 days of "COLD" while there.

Congrats!!

Admittedly this is our long term plan, too, to spend 2 or so months in Disney in the January to March timeframe to escape the New England winters. Retirement is still 15+ years off for me, however, and we’ll be losing all of our BRV points by then, too, alas! Which is why we added on CCV in 2020.

 

[RuntheMouse]

January in Orlando can get very cold…

It certainly was this past year. We stayed the whole month and had maybe 2 pool days at the end of our stay.

 

[E2ME2]

It certainly was this past year. We stayed the whole month and had maybe 2 pool days at the end of our stay.

What state is home for you??
We were there all of Jan, and there was only a week to 10 days that was too cold for the pool.
I’m from Maryland, and found it to be very nice in Jan & Feb, compared to home.

 

[RuntheMouse]

What state is home for you??
We were there all of Jan, and there was only a week to 10 days that was too cold for the pool.
I’m from Maryland, and found it to be very nice in Jan & Feb, compared to home.

Northern Wisconsin! We were bummed it was chilly.