Made the Leap! Now what?

[LuigiSpice]

We made the call yesterday and purchased 75 points direct at SSR. Got 2019 points so looks like we are making a trip next summer. Anyway, I put in months and months of research and now that the decision was made I'm a bit at a loss as to what to do next. Any suggestions as to what next step would be most useful? Messing with the website? Plotting out how and when to use points? Any help would be great.

Thanks again to all who frequent these boards for for help and knowledge throughout this process.

 

[holden]

Keep reading these boards!
Know how to use the vacation planning section of the DVC website.
Know your banking deadline (mine's November for an April use year).
Understand banking/borrowing and their implications.
Read how to maximize your chances of getting what you want 7 months out.
Start planning your next trip!

 

[Ms.Minnie]

Congratulations and Welcome Home! Have fun planning, you will be surprised how far you can make those points go with a little planning.

Keep reading on the Disboards, you never know everything and you never know when a really good idea will show up.

Beware of the add-on bug, it seems to get all of us sooner or later.

 

[Sandisw]

Congratulations and Welcome Home! As already mentioned, just keep reading and learning! Be sure you understand the dates for your UY in terms of banking. Also, you can always book a trip at the 11 or 7 month window, regardless of when your UY is...just have to know which points you can use for the trips.

Fall travel is a busy DVC time so if you decide to travel from October to January, know you should book 11 months in advance at your home resort.

 

[kboo]

We made the call yesterday and purchased 75 points direct at SSR. Got 2019 points so looks like we are making a trip next summer. Anyway, I put in months and months of research and now that the decision was made I'm a bit at a loss as to what to do next.

Beware of the add-on bug, it seems to get all of us sooner or later.

Start planning a trip! when, where, how will you use your points? Will you try for something at 7 months?
And then, you'll see if you *just* had 25/50/75/100 more points, you could stay 1/2/3 more days/upgrade to a better view/larger villa, etc....

 

[LuigiSpice]

Fall travel is a busy DVC time so if you decide to travel from October to January, know you should book 11 months in advance at your home resort.

I'm a teacher so I'm currently bound by extremely busy times, or late summer so we are planning with that in mind. Based on @skier_pete 's booking spreadsheets i'm hoping that we will get chances to try other resorts in late August.

And then, you'll see if you *just* had 25/50/75/100 more points, you could stay 1/2/3 more days/upgrade to a better view/larger villa, etc....

I'm already certain we are going to want to add points to get 1 bedrooms regularly pretty quickly. Our son is 5 now so the Studio isn't bad, but I can see that changing quickly. We are paying in cash for this so I'm hoping we can do the same on a 100 point resale in a few years if we want.

Does it count as Addonitis if we haven't even gone anywhere yet? LoL

 

[Bellecruiser]

Home!!!

 

[skier_pete]

I'm a teacher so I'm currently bound by extremely busy times, or late summer so we are planning with that in mind. Based on @skier_pete 's booking spreadsheets i'm hoping that we will get chances to try other resorts in late August.

You should have a pretty good pick of resorts in late August - though as you approach labor day it can get tricky. Are you looking for a studio? You can probably get in just about anywhere except VGF, BCV, and CCV as long as you are not looking to get a low-point category room. (BWV pool/garden should be available for example). !-bedroom you can probably get in anywhere.

Does it count as Addonitis if we haven't even gone anywhere yet? LoL

Yes. Yes it does.

 

[LuigiSpice]

You should have a pretty good pick of resorts in late August - though as you approach labor day it can get tricky. Are you looking for a studio? You can probably get in just about anywhere except VGF, BCV, and CCV as long as you are not looking to get a low-point category room. (BWV pool/garden should be available for example). !-bedroom you can probably get in anywhere.

Thanks @skier_pete . I see you are from Buffalo, I'm in Rochester. Any tips on saving money in getting down there? We have a direct Southwest flight most days which isn't terrible, but I've never been more than an occasional traveler so I'm thinking of better credit cards to get flight points vs. my current Disney Visa which is OK a best in terms of rewards.

 

[skier_pete]

Thanks @skier_pete . I see you are from Buffalo, I'm in Rochester. Any tips on saving money in getting down there? We have a direct Southwest flight most days which isn't terrible, but I've never been more than an occasional traveler so I'm thinking of better credit cards to get flight points vs. my current Disney Visa which is OK a best in terms of rewards.

Hey neighbor! My wife's family lives in Rochester - though we don't get out that way more than 1 or 2 times a year. I like the city. I also try to get to an Amerks game every year.

We use the SWA visa. Here's the trick. You can join and you get 40,000-60,000 points (depending on the offer. Use the card for 24 months, and then cancel and resign up to get another 40-60K points. We do that every two years and they never stop us. It's enough points for usually 3-4 round trips every 2 years. Then you charge everything to the card and it's like 1.6% cash back but in flight points. The nicest thing about flying SWA on points is if you need to change your flight, they just credit the points back to your account - no flight credit you have to figure out how to spend.

What's the airfare out or Rochester - depending on when you are traveling, you can get direct SWA out of Buffalo for around $200-250. If you are paying a lot more out of ROC, might be an option to drive to BUF. (Not good at holidays when all the Canadians are flying out of our airport - we always have to fly from Cleveland or Pittsburgh for Feb break to be able to afford it.)

 

[LuigiSpice]

I'm actually going down In a couple weeks (I work at a school with a large Jewish population and we get 2 days off for Rosh Hashanah ) and ithink for direct down and back I paid just under 300. It would take a quite a big difference for me to make that drive. Haha

 

[skier_pete]

I'm actually going down In a couple weeks (I work at a school with a large Jewish population and we get 2 days off for Rosh Hashanah ) and ithink for direct down and back I paid just under 300. It would take a quite a big difference for me to make that drive. Haha

Agree. But for February break they had us looking at like $750 RT out of Buffalo vs $250 RT out of Cleveland. So yes $750 savings is worth a 3.5 hour drive.

 

[CanadaDisney05]

(Not good at holidays when all the Canadians are flying out of our airport - we always have to fly from Cleveland or Pittsburgh for Feb break to be able to afford it.)

 

[Jason_79]

We made the call yesterday and purchased 75 points direct at SSR. Got 2019 points so looks like we are making a trip next summer. Anyway, I put in months and months of research and now that the decision was made I'm a bit at a loss as to what to do next. Any suggestions as to what next step would be most useful? Messing with the website? Plotting out how and when to use points? Any help would be great.

Thanks again to all who frequent these boards for for help and knowledge throughout this process.

My wife and I also made the leap yesterday evening and put an offer in on resale at SSR. It was accepted today, so we now begin the next steps as well!

We actually spoke to the rep from the DVC Store (Jerry) that is appearing on the DVC Show on the DIS Unplugged. He is great, and answered all of our remaining questions!

We are quick study's and are already planning how and where to use these points next year. We just need to get past ROFR.

 

[Deb & Bill]

The biggest cure for addonitis is the member fees bill you get right after Christmas.