Just booked 23 nights using DVC points. 300 days to go

[my3princes]

I was able to book 23 nights at Fort Wilderness campground using DVC points. That will leave us plenty of nights for an early trip the following summer. We love Fort Wilderness, it is our favorite campground in the US. Our stay is July 16th - August 8.

 

[2goofycampers]

Sounds like a GREAT trip.

 

[momminnie]

23 nights? That is my dream.

 

[Teamubr]

Wow! I wasn't sure how the DVC points at the Fort worked. Sounds like pretty well!

Congrats.

j

 

[loislane]

So jealous!!!!

 

[bama_ed]

Deb,

Congrats - what a nice long vacation!

We have folks ask about using DVC points to book a campsite a couple times a year and it seems that it's difficult to use points for campsites. Also we've heard issues about the points per night required versus the publicly available cost for campsites.

What is your opinion? Were you able to get all those nights because you booked so well in advance? Have you tried to book the Fort with points before? Out of curiosity, what's your home DVC resort?

Thanks, Bama Ed

 

[my3princes]

Deb,

Congrats - what a nice long vacation!

We have folks ask about using DVC points to book a campsite a couple times a year and it seems that it's difficult to use points for campsites. Also we've heard issues about the points per night required versus the publicly available cost for campsites.

What is your opinion? Were you able to get all those nights because you booked so well in advance? Have you tried to book the Fort with points before? Out of curiosity, what's your home DVC resort?

Thanks, Bama Ed

We have used points for FW stays in the past. The point cost per night varies by weekend and weeknight and season. We have 1 night at 10 points, 5 nights at 9 points, 6 nights at 14 points and 11 nights at 12 points. Our stay crossed "seasons". We absolutely love Fort Wilderness and stayed there several times before we purchased DVC. We live in Vermont and we are a family of 5 so it is much more economical to drive than to fly, even when towing our camper. We choose to camp near home for weekends or vacations so why not camp at FW? By using points we get a super long stay and we'll purchase annual passes. This gives us 23 nights in the summer of 2015 and we'll use points and stay at one of the vacation club resorts on points in the summer of 2016, earier in the summer on the same annual passes. For us it makes economical sense. We love our travel trailer and we love having all of the ammenities of home, everything that we could possibly need right there with us. Another bonus is that our dog gets to vacation at Disney with us when we stay at the Fort. We will use 3 use years of points for the two vacations and do a non Disney trip on the 3rd year.

Our home resort is Saratoga Springs. We have stayed at OKW, Treehouse Villas, BWV, SSR, Vero Beach and our absolute favorite Aulani!!

I have not had issues booking FW using point except when trying to book over a holiday and having checked reservations for cash there were none of those available either. I will admit that I am a planner and typically try to book when the window opens. This time I thought that the booking window opened at 7 months, but when I called to check with DVC she said we could book the campground at anytime. We were at 10 months out when I booked this trip.

I hope this helps.

Deb

 

[Teamubr]

Deb,

Thanks for the info. Like Ed, I heard others say it was difficult to use DVC points at the Fort.

Just curious, how many points would a similar night be at SSR or another DVC for a 1 bedroom or regular room? Friends bought into DVC (also at SSR) several years ago. We went down last year and stayed with them in a 3 BR at SSR. Very nice, but I didn't know how the points per night compared to a spot at FW.

I have considered buying into DVC, but we have only stayed outside of the Fort twice (2nd time last year at our friends DVC). If the Fort nights are available and appear to be a "deal", it may be the way to go.

j

 

[my3princes]

Deb,

Thanks for the info. Like Ed, I heard others say it was difficult to use DVC points at the Fort.

Just curious, how many points would a similar night be at SSR or another DVC for a 1 bedroom or regular room? Friends bought into DVC (also at SSR) several years ago. We went down last year and stayed with them in a 3 BR at SSR. Very nice, but I didn't know how the points per night compared to a spot at FW.

I have considered buying into DVC, but we have only stayed outside of the Fort twice (2nd time last year at our friends DVC). If the Fort nights are available and appear to be a "deal", it may be the way to go.

j

It's hard to compare given that you are bringing your own accommodations, however I'll give it a shot.
Fort Wilderness allows up to 10 people per site and there is no extra cost for any of those 10 people. To accommodate 10 people in a DVC resort you would need a minimum of 2 one bedroom villas depending on the resort.

For our dates: July 16 - Aug 8

Fort Wilderness cost us 271 points. We had banked 200 pts from last year which means we have 329 points to use in 2016 for a vacation.

If we had booked Saratoga Springs in a 1 bedroom it would have cost 799 vacation points. Saratoga one bedrooms only allow up to 4 people and we have 5. Old Key west is the most cost effective of the DVC resorts and a one bedroom there would house 5. I would cost 738 points to stay there. Our contract is for 200 points so it would take nearly 4 years worth of points to do a 23 day stay.

With our remaining points we'll be able to book about a week and a half in a DVC resort in 2016. Hopefully we'll book a last minute cruise out of Florida (probably not Disney) which will give us a second long vacation without excessive cost.

Had we paid rack rates for Fort Wilderness it would have cost us $1868 plus tax at 12.5% = 2105.50 plus and additional $2/night per additional adult (we have a 19 year old son)($46) = 2111.50. I'm not clear if the additional $5 per night for a pet is just for the cabins or campsites as well, but you get the idea.

 

[Teamubr]

Thank you. This is perfect. From your numbers, it seems like the Fort is nearly 3 for 1 on the points. I know the days of the week and the seasons make a difference, but just doing easy math to get a general idea, it looks like the Fort is "costing" you just under 12 points/day where SSR is a little under 35/day.

OKW is still 32 points/day.

There are only 3 of us, so buying in to DVC at a 1 BR rate (points) for a weeks worth of points would be a great deal if we just intended on staying at the Fort.

And it looks like we could stay a week at the Fort each year and every other year or so stay a week in a DVC resort. Hmm. Something to think about.

I work in healthcare informatics so I play with numbers all the time. I am constantly doing the math to see if it is "worth" it to drive down (from St Louis, 1000 miles) and stay in a value or moderate vs towing the 5th wheel down and staying at the Fort. The math usually comes out that towing down or driving a car and staying in a value is nearly the same price. The advantage is saving on food with the RV.

And we would miss all the Fort things.

j