Let's Try A Poll For Weekend Point Use.

[GCM13]

Thanks for the idea, Diane. Unfortunately, our schools don't have a mid year break. We used to go when during lower point times, but now it seems to be getting harder to take the kids out of school plus there are more sports now to work around. I'm almost embarrassed to say this, but we only have 100 points due to having to sell a couple contracts a couple years ago. At the time, we thought we could get by with banking and borrowing until we could add on more points again. My dh is not budging and does not want to add on points. With the current promotion, I thought he might change his mind. He is satisfied with going every other year or so, then paying cash the other years. Doesn't make sense to me. For example, last year we paid cash for the Polynesian. Looking back, we should have put that money towards DVC. We just booked SSR using this year's and all but 29 of next year's points. To get enough points for another trip, we will have to wait until our 2006 use year (Oct.). So my opinion is either have enough points or none at all. No point in paying dues and still paying cash for rooms. Even if we did a small add on, we still wouldn't have enough points for a yearly trip in the summer or spring break with the size of our family. It would take at least another 120 points. Yesterday was the first time I've ever considered selling the rest of our points because I wanted to. Sorry this is so long and sort of OT.

 

[beachwalk]

Thanks for the poll

 

[dkddis]

For the next few years to stretch my points I will only do six nights max so I only do one weekend night, but it is with points. Sunday night through Saturday morning works well for our points and our driving schedule as we tend to drive.

 

[crisi]

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.

Points are a long term investment. If you need a few extra points here and there because you want to squeeze in an extra day while the kids are little (our case), or take extra guests for a one time trip - it doesn't make sense to add on forty/fifty years of points. You can do a few things: stay on cash, rent short term to cover your shortage, or decide to make a bigger longer term committment to Disney than you have.

And there are other factors. Yes, its inconvienent to move - but a lot of people enjoy the other resorts, they want to revisit old favorites or see something different. The Universal factor - I think that idea is wonderful. We may eventually move to an evening flight after school is out from the Twin Cities, in which case, the Hyatt MCO is calling our name for that Friday night - I'm not getting off a plane at 11pm and driving to Disney.

 

[SCDizneyDawn]

We always stay at least 7 nights on points. But, occasionally we fly in on Friday night or fly out on Sunday morning and will move to a cash room for the 8th (or even 9th) nights. I look for the best airfair prices, then book an extra night or two if needed. (dont worry, I know the extra night in a hotel offsets the savings of the airfare, but my DH has not made the connection yet )

 

[DebbieB]

I have 250 points. Our December BWV 1 bedroom 6 night stay (Sat-Thurs nights) is 155 points (now that I'm addicted to the BW view, standard would be 121) and OKW in May is 100 points for Sun-Thurs. I like to add an extra night at OKW, which means either Friday or Saturday night, which is 48 points. Since I'm already short points, I pay cash for the extra night. It seems like a waste to borrow 48 points for 1 night. I have a member discount for this coming May, it's $330 with tax. $330/48 points = $6.88 per point, which I think is about equal to buying additional points plus dues.

 

[JimC]

We generally stay at DVC resorts for a week or eight days each visit and don't worry about weekend point use. If the stay is shorter than a week (such as a short holdiay trip) we might try to mitigate the weekend point use. If we split an AP code at a deluxe resort and a DVC trip we will schedule the cash portion of the trip for the weekend.

 

[dianeschlicht]

The current results show about 69 % are usually using DVC for weekends. An interesting statistic that is a bit surprising to me.