In the future planning more than a year out (or even close to 2) will improve your chances dramatically.
I'd expand your resorts as much as you can. For the general area you're already shooting for, add the Escapes in PC and IF you did 270 points (and not 160) add the Marriott in PC. If the deposit was for anything other than 160 or 270, it's almost certain you won't get anything and I'll explain why if it's applicable. While Legends Edge is not on the beach, it's a nice resort. If you're set on the beach, consider expanding to HH, MB, Daytona, West Palm and the mid and lower Gulf Coast. If you get to the time where your Husband has to pick a week, do so and alter your request accordingly. Consider a cash back up plan or make a DVC reservation for the same time frame. Realize that Escapes OB only has sunday check in and the one in PC only has Sat Check in. The Marriott has all 3 I believe.
You can search 2 years out. IMO, anything after 1 year from the first week of travel is short notice with II and VERY short with RCI. Still, those months and 50 resorts wouldn't be great odds for summer using DVC to trade.
As an owner Tom would know better than I. I know HI tends to bulk spacebank right at a year out or just under often times.
Best times to go if you aren't tied to school calendars. I'd venture that those are the majority of their deposits as well.
I put in a request for Harborside Atlantis which I know is hard to get but I put in the request for April-May 2010! I asked for a 2 bedroom but will probably change it to 1 or 2 bedroom. I'm guessing I have plenty of time to make the addition to the waitlist request (even though my family already thinks I'm nuts for even going on the waitlist now).
Thanks for the responses - Tom, I read your posts on tug too (recently started reading there, haven't signed up yet).
Tom, they don't take the points until you match but if you request a 2 BR and accept a 1 BR, you pay the 1 BR cost. Fortunately the reverse is not true, if you request a 1 BR and the LATER offer you a 2 BR, you still pay only the 1 BR cost. The exception is with an instant exchange. If you call today and ask for a 1 BR and they only have a 2 BR, you'll pay the 2 BR cost if you accept it. The trick in that case is to immediately place the 1 BR request and hope they later (like that evening) confirm you to the 2 BR that was available.
You now pay the fee upfront and it's "nonrefunable" which means if you match, it's gone but if you cancel prior to a match or don't match, you get your money back. In years past you paid the fee and had the chance to say yes or no when the trade was found but they had a lot of people who changed their minds and backed out so they felt this change would weed out the tire kickers. There is one resort system where getting upgraded to a 2 BR is very likely, the Royal Resorts. My concern with requesting a trade through DVC for Atlantis is the same as it is for any resort that has larger and smaller 1 BR units, namely that there's no way to know which you're getting until after the fact and in every situation I am aware of, it would determine whether I would accept the exchange or not. At least with II and RCI directly you can match, investigate the unit type, then cancel without penalty if you need to including getting your week back on a request first exchange. Unfortunately that does not appear to be the case with DVC.
Exactly. This is just another of many reasons why one needs to do independent investigations of the resorts on your exchange list. Factors that might be a negative for some resorts include:
