Looking at paying for a Fri/Sat - Tips?

[The VWL Five]

Hi,

We've been members for about 4 years and have taken 7 trips within the past 3 years. Always using our points for each day. I'm considering paying for a Fri/Sat stay next July instead of using points. It would be a total of 150 points just for these two nights at WL. Might be looking to use those for a separate trip.

Looking for some tips from members who have paid for a Fri/Sat stay recently. Anything specific I should keep in mind? I'd like to ensure we stay in the same room so I guess we need to 'link' the points and cash ressie together?

Any help is always appreciated.

Tony

 

[unixadm]

You can make the ressies right through the same Member Services number that you book point ressies. You can even book it at the same time. They will give you separate reservation numbers but as long as the cash ressie is the same type of room as the point ressie, they will keep you in the same room.

I just booked 2 separate vacations where I am paying for a weekend night OOP.

 

[DebbieB]

If you book it through member services, they will link the reservations and it will be treated as one stay. I did a Saturday night on cash at OKW in May, then Sunday to Thursday nights points. We got keys and parking permit for the entire stay when we checked in on Sunday and trash & towel was on Tuesday.

 

[Scoootch]

As mentioned, if you are able to book the cash nights through DVC MS, they will link your ressies and it will be treated as 1 reservation. However, this assumes they have the room available for cash. Sometimes they have it available right away (depending on how far out you book) and sometimes you have to keep calling until you get closer to your check out date to see if they have it available yet. They only make rooms available for cash (and usually with the 25% member discount) once they feel that those rooms will not be booked with points. Sometimes not until around 60 days out. The other thing is that you may want to check with CRO too and see who has the better price on the room and if one or the other does or doesn't have availibility CRO has their own separate albeit small inventory of rooms so MS may not have availibility and CRO may or vice/versa...also MS may have the room for pts but not cash. If you decide to go with booking through CRO though, you run the risk of having to move and at the very least you almost definetly will have to check out and back in getting new room keys (even if they can keep you in the same room) because the rooms are booked on 2 separate systems. If you do book with both ...you can have both MS and CRO note that you will have a continuous ressie and they'll try to keep you from moving....but because they won't guarantee it, you could end up having to move. Just some things to keep in mind.

If you can get the cash nights through DVC MS, then it's totally worth it even if it costs a little more IMO since they can link the ressies but depending on how busy a time of year,price and availibility....those are pretty much your options.

Best of luck and pixie dust and let us know how you make out

~*~*~*~*~ ~*~*~*~*~*

 

[Dean]

At the risk of being somewhat redundant, you have several options that include.

• Full price through DVC - if available, you definitely would not have to move.
• 25% off Full price through DVC - if available, you definitely would not have to move. But it is frequently not available.
• Using your points, which you already know is a lot.
• Cash through CRO either full rack rate or with any available discount, you might not have to move but cannot be guaranteed.
• Finding cheaper points to rent possibly on the Rent/Trade Board. Then linking to your reservation.
• Trying another resort for that weekend, it's an excellent opportunity to grab a couple of days at Universal or another WDW hotel or even VB on cash.

 

[goofeydec]

Hi,

We've been members for about 4 years and have taken 7 trips within the past 3 years. Always using our points for each day. I'm considering paying for a Fri/Sat stay next July instead of using points. It would be a total of 150 points just for these two nights at WL. Might be looking to use those for a separate trip.

Looking for some tips from members who have paid for a Fri/Sat stay recently. Anything specific I should keep in mind? I'd like to ensure we stay in the same room so I guess we need to 'link' the points and cash ressie together?

Any help is always appreciated.

Tony

if you have an annual pass go to disneyworld.com and go to passholder and log in. then go to special offers and you can get room rates for cash at a BIG SAVINGS. if you dont have an annual pass go to dvcmembers.com and buy one. you get a BIG SAVINGS on purchasing one. you can call disney on the phone and book your room with passholder rates and you show your pass at check in. we did this in april and picked up our passes at downtown disney before check in. this pass is good for one year and you get lots of benies. we wanted to pick up the pass instead of having it mailed so we could get longer use year. we are going down labor day weekend thursday thru monday and paying cash we are staying at animal kindom for 4n/5d for only $575 with annual pass rate and requested room with bunk beds you get a queen and 2 double bunks. for the same weekend we could have stayed at any of the moderate resorts for $396. or value for $220. Great savings. on our next trip i am purchasing the dining card (20% off all food and beverage including alcohol) passholder rate of $50 instead of the $75 rate. the dvc member services gives you regular rate no savings because we own timeshare.

 

[LSchrow]

word of warning re mixing DVC & CRO ressies:
last year we had booked (8 months in advance, asked both DVC & CRO to note the ressies should be "linked"):
AKL, then........
BWV 1 bdrm standard thru DVC for sun-thurs,
then same BWV thru CRO fri & sat (CM discount),
THEN same BWV thru DVC for sunday.

BWV front desk happily informed us that we had been UPGRADED to preferred view on our CRO ressie.
i think we all "uh-oh"ed at the same time . resort was "overbooked", & there wasn't a 1bdrm available for those consecutive days ~ we would have to move 2x (3 diff rooms) in 6 days, including the dreaded 11AM-4pm "homeless" periods . (btw, there were a LOT of upset ppl in lobby: guaranteed BW views were "unavailable", etc).
we spent the first few hours of our vacation pleading & finally managed to get it down to one change of room. btw, we didn't do much the 1st 2 days, but once settled in the last room, we had a wonderful time .

as we do spend time in the room (unpack everything, put away our many groceries ~ basically do treat it as a "home away from home" ), we "learned our lesson" & booked sat & sun as cash thru DVC this year.

btw, front desk blamed DVC, DVC (MS) blamed CRO for the "overbooking".

 

[The VWL Five]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I called MS and they do not have the discount available at this time. He wasn't sure when it would become available.

My next question:

Would you book around the Fri/Sat night using points and wait until the cash discount becomes available or is that too risky to leave a hole in your vacation plan?

Thanks

Tony

 

[Scoootch]

word of warning re mixing DVC & CRO ressies:
last year we had booked (8 months in advance, asked both DVC & CRO to note the ressies should be "linked"):

You are right to send out the word of warning However, just as an FYI to all....if you book through both DVC and CRO they are booked with 2 different systems and they cannot "link" the ressies. They will note on both ressies that you have a reservation with both but they cannot actually link them. They will just do their best to try to keep you from moving and they will still make you check out and back in again on the computer systems having to get new keys even if they don't make you move. This is why they won't guarantee you to not have to move. If the saving's is a dramatic difference to book via CRO, then if you end up having to move and being homeless during a good portion of the day - it may be worth it to you. If it's not though, you may want to pay the extra if it's available to just book it through DVC. DVC can "link" the ressies because it's all in the same system. If DVC does not have it available (which they may not until much closer to your check in date if at all) you just need to be aware that you may have to move ...and you may want to consider booking one of the moderates (and have it cost less since you'll be inconvenienced) or even just a different resort in general for change of scenery if it suits you -- and if you don't want to have the hassle of having to move at all, you may want to spend the pts for the wknd nights if you've got them. But unfortunately pts and cash via MS DVC are the only way to go to guarantee to not have to move

As for the question of "would you book with pts for now". ..all depends on if you have the pts to book, if you'd need to borrow them or not, and if you book them do you have enough of a window to put them back without penalty if you decide to cancel the wknd nights....? If you can do it without penalty then sure. If not, and it will be use them or loose them...you may not want to go that route unless you know for sure you'll be able to use them before they expire on another trip

 

[JimMIA]

I have not personally done this, but I've read of others spending Fri/Sat at Universal to save points and take advantage of their "Front of the Line" privilege.

 

[pumpkinboy]

Thanks for the replies so far.
I called MS and they do not have the discount available at this time. He wasn't sure when it would become available.
My next question:
Would you book around the Fri/Sat night using points and wait until the cash discount becomes available or is that too risky to leave a hole in your vacation plan?
Thanks
Tony

In answer to your question, YES. I would either book them with points, or better still, save the points and book at rack rate thru DVC, and call back for the Discounted rate later.

For my own purposes, I did a spreadsheet detailing points cost, rack rate and DVC discouted cash rates at various times of year (the time we are more likely to vacation). From this it became clear that there are some time of year where rack rate is actually preferable to points for some weekend nights (VB much of the time, 1BRs at WDW resorts much of the time...). But in other cases, the points vs cash price is comparable, which has sometimes led us to book the rack rate and save the points, hoping for a DVC discount later.

How you compare the prices is going to be based on our assumptions, especially the price per point. I usually use $10 per point, but rejigger it sometimes to $10.50 or $11 depending on what I am seeing out on the rent/ trade board at the time. I know my points are readily available, and will reserve BWV (home) at 11 months, so replacing those is my standard. You will also need to consider the after-tax cost of the out of pocket price. It may be that renting the points for that weekend stay is the more cost-effective solution, but you will need to figure that out yourself.

Good luck!

 

[LSchrow]

You are right to send out the word of warning However, just as an FYI to all....if you book through both DVC and CRO they are booked with 2 different systems and they cannot "link" the ressies. They will note on both ressies that you have a reservation with both but they cannot actually link them. They will just do their best to try to keep you from moving and they will still make you check out and back in again on the computer systems having to get new keys even if they don't make you move.

& an FYI re the FYI
we've done the DVC/CRO ressie dance in prev years, & the re-check-in was easily accomplished multiple times (as they are seperate entities, they cannot "link" per se).
last year we did the same as always, requesting from both CRO & DVC to make a note on the ressie.
alas, the "notes" mysteriously disappeared.

hence, the word of warning ~ "stuff happens"

tony, i would use the pts (as long as it does not require borrowing), then keep calling for the DVC discount on those days.
best of luck!

 

[DebbieB]

if you have an annual pass go to disneyworld.com and go to passholder and log in. then go to special offers and you can get room rates for cash at a BIG SAVINGS.

AP rates for higher priced rooms have not been as good as the member discount lately. In May, it was a flat $100 off. On an OKW 1 bedroom that racks for $395, making it $295, almost the same as the 25% member discount. I believe the last AP rates were only $75 off for deluxe and home away. So the member discount might be better for 1 bedroom & larger.

 

[Scoootch]

we've done the DVC/CRO ressie dance in prev years, & the re-check-in was easily accomplished multiple times

I'm sure as long as they were able to keep you from having to move it would go smoothe as silk for the re-check-in but your "word of warning" still holds as

{snip}....(as they are seperate entities, they cannot "link" per se).last year we did the same as always, requesting from both CRO & DVC to make a note on the ressie.
alas, the "notes" mysteriously disappeared.
hence, the word of warning ~ "stuff happens"

Again, if you book pts or cash MS they can "link" them...it's the only way to guarantee to not have to move.

 

[ForeverFriends M&M]

We just stayed this past Saturday night at BWV. FL resident rate was 218.00, which worked out to just about match points cost for the room.

So, to save even more money move on down!!!

Michael