Let's Try A Poll For Weekend Point Use.

[lovwdwalot]

I cant imagine packing and unpacking and changing resorts so we just use the points for the weekends. We bought DVC for the convenience. I cant see maing the trip inconvenient just to save points IMO!

We are like you in this thinking also,we paid for the points that we have and we are going to use them to stay at one resort, and not have to move.

 

[pumpkinboy]

...As to the poll, right now, over 2/3 of those responding either always or usually use points on the weekends. I'd bet that the number is higher for the entire DVC owner population....

I suspect that Dr T and Diane are right, that most DVC owners mainly or only use points for weekend stays, and that's great. They can use their points any way they see fit.

In my case, I see my points as one of several means to pay for my vacation. Even with nearly 500 points, I for one can always use more points, so conserving points is often an attractive option, especially when points are not the most efficient means of payment for a particular room. Of course, being a finance wonk, I just had to figure out which method of payment would be the most efficient for which nights, and have a hierarchy of preferences for paying for various nights (wonk wonk wonk ). Plus, I keep hoping we'll have the opportunity to spend a glorious week in a BWV GV some time soon, so I want to be careful with my points. Yeah, I could buy more points (and that new incentive sounds awefully good), but for now, I'd rather keep my options open and not be wedded to going to WDW (or VB) all the time (as if someone with 500 points can avoid that). And I will use points for some weekend nights, in order to nab, say, a BW view over Columbus Day, or if I am unable to get the DVC discount... Hey, it works for me, and it's my money and my points. YMMV.

Also, I suspect there is a mistaken impression that if you have a cash night or two, you have to move. You don't. Our points and cash stays have been seamless: same room, same keys, same parking pass, no checking in and out, seamless. Sometimes we like to change it up and stay in a regular WDW hotel (like AKL!) for a weekend, and only then we would need to move.

Interesting poll Diane. Thx.

BTW, Cute baby, tigger2esq!

 

[DrTomorrow]

I hear you, pumpkinboy - optimizing the use of points is fun in.and.of.itself for you, sort of a hobby. (I'm guilty of that kind of thing, too. My family has one of those NCAA Bowl sheets every year, and I wrote some software to track the on-going results - with a button that tells me what teams I want to root for for the rest of the games ) I'm with jarestel, though - so far, we always have some points to bank, so there's no need to use Uncle Sam's DVC-Point Helper to stretch things.

One queston, though - the cash / points transistion isn't guaranteed to be seamless, is it? I thought that there could be a move needed - seems I've read stories of this happening (or my mind has slipped a few more gears....).

 

[crazywig]

If folks find themselves constantly paying cash nights to avoid high point weekend nights, then perhaps they didn't buy enough points to begin with.

yup. not enough points to begin with here. we only bought as many points as we could pay cash for, we refused to finance. so right now we only have 170.

we usually stay one or two nights at a non-dvc resort, then move to BWV. even with a 2yr and an infant i didn't find moving a pain at all (disney moved our bags for us while we went to a park). this september we are staying sat-sat though

oh and we have our name in to two resellers hoping for a small BWV add on right now!

 

[goofy4wdw59]

One queston, though - the cash / points transistion isn't guaranteed to be seamless, is it? I thought that there could be a move needed - seems I've read stories of this happening (or my mind has slipped a few more gears....).

This is Johnnie...
Cash booked through MS can officially be linked to your points nights. Therefore, it's one big reservation. Cash night booked through CRO can't be linked so you live on the edge. If your linking to a points stay, CRO cash is best booked if you are traveling in the low season.

 

[pumpkinboy]

...One queston, though - the cash / points transistion isn't guaranteed to be seamless, is it? I thought that there could be a move needed - seems I've read stories of this happening (or my mind has slipped a few more gears....).

I've had the same experience as Johnnie (goofy4wdw50); once the cash and points portions are linked by MS, everything should be seamless. We have done blended points and cash ressies the past three visits, all linked at MS, and they have in fact been seamless. There are certain room categories for which you cannot make cash ressies (eg most times in BW view rooms), so that might be a circumstance where you might need to move; which is why our Columbus Day BW view is an all points ressie. But those would be special circumstances; proper planning and consultation with MS should ensure that there is no moving needed.

Seamless, I tell ya, seamless!!

 

[tinkerbee]

For us it really depends on how long we stay. We will usually pay cash for the first weekend then use points for the second weekend. Or if we only stay for a week we will use the points for the whole trip.

 

[MagikMom]

I usually use all points, even for weekends. However, on our next trip we are staying 15 nights and also taking relatives with us for a portion of the time. It would just be WAY too many points if we included both of the weekends especially the one with the relatives. We are going to spend the 1st 3 nights of our stay (Thurs, Fri, Sat) at All Star Sports instead.

 

[littlestar]

On our January trips we usually come in on cash for a few nights (just in case of snow or ice delaying us). So this means two nights (Friday and Saturday) either at the Wilderness Lodge or a moderate and then we change over to points for 5 or six nights through DVC. Our other two trips a year are all points most of the time. Sometimes on the bigger units I might use cash for one of the weekend nights.

I don't like checking into a DVC resort late at night because it usually means slim pickens on our room choices. So if we had to fly out late, I might be tempted to stay at the Orlando airport or a Disney value/moderate and check in early the next day at DVC. But, so far all of our carriers out of Indianapolis have early morning flights to I can avoid this scenario.

 

[jaysue]

Tend to use points at WDW DVC and use cash for weekends at VB (point ratio for weekends at VB is really really high)

Cheers
jaysue

 

[Laurajean1014]

I don't understand why people would pay cash for weekends, unless you do not have the points.

 

[Lesley]

In the past we have done about half and half...used points and gone to another resort on cash. Now we're pretty borrowed out on our points...so we won't be staying on points over a weekend until we're "caught up" again. Unfortunately, since we'll need a 2br in a couple of years, we may not get caught up again.

As much as I'd like more points...we have too many things we want and need to do for our house (ya know...the place we live most of the year...as opposed to our home!) to be buying more points. Perhaps when our upstairs is finished, we have a new roof and windows and a new deck, we'll get some more points. We are getting one room finished soon...though it takes time as dh is doing the work himself.

 

[MJTinNH]

Personally, I want to keep it simple and just use points. So far I have used points only for weekend stays. However, if I wanted to extend my stay beyond my point allocation I would pay cash.

I would move to another resort just for a change of pace in the case of an extended stay.

 

[Credit Man]

We use our points for weekends, but minimize the damage by starting our vacation on a Sunday and ending it on the following Friday getting almost 2 weeks but just one weekend.

 

[crisi]

This next trip we will be booking a cash room....here is the deal:

We don't have a lot of points, and don't see us needing a lot of points long term. Booking one night cash in connecting rooms at AKL is going to be expensive, but its cheaper than adding on. We would normally fly back Saturday, but decided to fly back Sunday.

We joined DVC before we got a chance to try a lot of the resorts. The resorts themselves are interesting to us, this "lack of points" to get an extra day is a good excuse to get to stay some places we never did.

The other nice thing about the cash stay is that I'm not "committed" to it until I buy plane tickets. If I'm feeling cheap, we fly home Saturday.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I liked the idea of the buffer in case of bad weather. I never thought of that! We nearly missed one night of a ressie a couple years ago because our flight was 12 hours late!

 

[d-r]

The wonderful thing about DVC is flexibilty. Before we had a child we stayed in studios, now we haven't for the past three trips. We used to go more for long weekends, now we tend to stay the week or spread it out to a 9-day week. Last year we brought enough family to fill 3 3-bedrooms. We used to bring enough friends to fill 3 or 4 studios. The flexibility is wonderful. We don't have to stay at the same place, the same time of year, the same number of days. We can do what we want or what seems like a fun idea. I've posted on here that last April after Easter points for a 2-bedroom at OKW were 100 a night on weekends, or <$350 with tax for cash. We'd have been silly not to book them for cash I think. If it makes more sense to pay for it, then why not. It is so wonderful not to be locked in to some format and only have a "week" at a certain place. Every trip can be different, every year can be different. Right now in Jan. we have the five weekend nights at WLV in a one-bedroom, and the two weekend nights in a studio at SSR. That's because we were running out of enough points for the weekend night at WLV because we've used a lot of points lately. So we could come home on Friday or go to SSR. I think it is a good one, because I want to stay at SSR since it is new but I can't convince my wife to stay there; so we get to try it a couple of days. As our child gets older, I bet that we will go to the universal hotels for the weekend for that front of the line thing. I would also like to stay at AKL for the weekend some time. I love that you can do whatever you want and go at different times of the year and stay in whatever room you want wherever for however many days. I think it is a great system. When we bought our first contract we thought we'd usually go a week in May. Since then we've gone in January, April, and October. We've stayed in studios, one- and two-bedrooms. We've stayed long weekends, we've stayed weeks and long weeks. We've stayed at BWV, BCV, OKW, and WLV. I like to alternate stays between WLV and do the magic kingdom and the restaurants over there and Ft. wilderness etc. those trips, and BCV and do mostly epcot and studios and restuarants over there. I think the flexibility is the best thing about DVC, especially when you think about how long we own the points and how our needs change over the years as you have children, they grow up, and so on. One of the things that concerned us about buying dvc was being "locked in" and not staying at the other resorts, but that hasn't been our experience really.

 

[Granny]

Originally Posted by DrTomorrow
As to the poll, right now, over 2/3 of those responding either always or usually use points on the weekends. I'd bet that the number is higher for the entire DVC owner population....

I am quite sure you are right about that. Most folks I know personally, are like me and only use points. I still figure there is not much point to owning DVC if I can't stay all the nights I want to on points. If folks find themselves constantly paying cash nights to avoid high point weekend nights, then perhaps they didn't buy enough points to begin with.

While we don't pay cash for weekend night stays, I can see that it doesn't necessarily follow that people didn't buy enough points. I have a feeling that if they do a cash value of weekend points vs cash reservations, DVC might come in second in being frugal.

Also, there is one scenario that we have considered which really isn't about just saving points. That is the "Universal Factor". I do think that it is a sound strategy that if someone wants to "do Universal", it can make sense to book at their hotels over a weekend to get their FOTL pass. This strategy allows for the best Universal experience as well as the side benefit of saving some DVC points.


PS. Diane....nice to see you too, and thanks for the kind words!


Dr. T...."asset-ified"???

 

[GCM13]

We're one of those families that don't have enough points to stay on the weekends, but would if we could. I'm starting to think that DVC is not a good choice for us because 1. dh does not want to add on points, 2. we want to vacation on the weekends too and 3. our family of 7 needs a 2 bedroom which takes a lot of points for the times we want to go. BCV, BWV, and VWL are really not options for us anymore unless we want to use up all our points. Probably not many will agree with me, but I wish that all nights were equal points. It does seem to defeat the purpose to have to pay cash to stay on the weekends. DVC is good if you can afford to have a lot of points or if you're a family of 4 that can stay in any size accomodations. I've loved DVC up until now when I sat down yesterday to try to find a way that we can stay at WDW for 4 nights then HH for 2 nights on the way home. Just can't be done with what we have. It's disappointing. I just had to get that off my chest!

 

[dianeschlicht]

GCM13, how many points do you have? Needing a 2 bedroom, is there any way you could go during mid school year breaks? I know folks in Minnesota often travel to WDW over our teacher break in mid October. New Jersey folks tend to go the first week of November during "Jersey week". That way, you can go during lower point cost times, and still get your 2 bedroom. Also, the end of August has lower points just before school starts in many parts of the country.