New Member - Advice on 2019 Trip

[jrmosesso]

Hello all! My husband and I just got back from an anniversary trip to WDW where we signed up for DVC. We are pretty excited and hoping to take my family with us in 2019. This whole points situation is still a bit confusing though - we purchased 100 points at CC with our use month being April.

We will be having a group of approximately 10 people, and after more than a few family vacations, I think it is important that we have separate rooms, so instead of a multi-bedroom villa, I think I'm looking more towards 3 studios.

While I plan on putting together several options for stays, our target times are end of October and beginning of November. Additionally, we really like the Epcot resorts - specifically BWV, but I'm not opposed to staying at CC.

My concern is that we will need to bank our points from 2018, use 2019s and probably borrow 2020s, which means we wouldn't be able to book until April of 2019, correct? This is where i get a little confused. We already have 2018s points, which I will bank before 11/30. Then I have to wait until 2019s are available in April to be able to borrow 2020s? Is that how it works? If I'm correct on that, we would be about 7 months out of booking so we could get into BWV at that point, but I'm concerned about availability. Looking at these threads, Epcot resorts are difficult to get during wine and food festival. What about CC?

If my understanding is correct, I couldn't book CC until April either because I need the points?

Any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated!

 

[_auroraborealis_]

You can book CCV 11 months out. The points will be available for your stay. Booking is always 11 months out at home, the points simply have to be there when it is time to "pay," which is based on your dates of stay.

For an October/November trip, let go of any thought of multiple units, or even a 2BR, at an Epcot resort at 7 months. You won't get it.

 

[CraigInPA]

You can book your home resort at 11 months before. For an October 2019 reservation, that's November 2018.

You can book at other resorts at 7 months before. For an October 2019 reservation, that's February 2019.

Whether you are using current year points, banked points, or borrowed points, the reservation is made on the above schedule.

You need to bank your 2018 CC points for an April use year no later than November 30, 2018.

You will have difficulty getting 3 studios at BWV during Food and Wine. You might even have difficulty getting 3 studios at CCV during your home resort booking window during Food and Wine. It would be a LOT easier to get a 2 bedroom dedicated during Food and Wine.

 

[jrmosesso]

You can book CCV 11 months out. The points will be available for your stay. Booking is always 11 months out at home, the points simply have to be there when it is time to "pay," which is based on your dates of stay.

For an October/November trip, let go of any thought of multiple units, or even a 2BR, at an Epcot resort at 7 months. You won't get it.

Thank you! All of this is slightly confusing, although I thought I 100% understood it when leaving our tour. So I would be able to book a 2019 trip using 2018-2019-2020 points even though I technically haven't received them yet. What matters is when we are staying. Thank you very much!

 

[jrmosesso]

You can book your home resort at 11 months before. For an October 2019 reservation, that's November 2018.

You can book at other resorts at 7 months before. For an October 2019 reservation, that's February 2019.

Whether you are using current year points, banked points, or borrowed points, the reservation is made on the above schedule.

You need to bank your 2018 CC points for an April use year no later than November 30, 2018.

You will have difficulty getting 3 studios at BWV during Food and Wine. You might even have difficulty getting 3 studios at CCV during your home resort booking window during Food and Wine. It would be a LOT easier to get a 2 bedroom dedicated during Food and Wine.

This is also slightly related in that we would have 10 people and most of the 2 bedroom villas sleep up to 8 or 9. Three of our guests would be kids though - so don't need a lot of room. How do you get around this? Does DVC allow you to have more guests than occupancy?

 

[Frederic Civish]

Jrmosesso, you are falling into a typical rookie mistake. You do not need to wait until your new points are listed in your account to book with them. You do not need to wait until after your Use Year starts. The main value of the Use Year is mostly to tell you when your old points expire and when you can start borrowing or using points to schefule a reservation for a particular year. However the important part is when the reservations happen. If the reservations will take place in your 2019 Use Year, then you can book them now but use your 2019 points, because those are the points that will actually be available on the days when your reservation takes place.

 

[BillPA]

If you want 10, you need to get a VGF lock-off 2 BR. That is the only WDW DVC that will allow 10. I would not do that, too many in a unit with just 2 Bathrooms. Also beware, you will see many posts here about family and friends dropping out as it gets close to paying for air, passes... so don't lock all your points into a large unit that you may end up with just 4 people. Occupancy limits are enforced.

 

[Henwen88]

This is also slightly related in that we would have 10 people and most of the 2 bedroom villas sleep up to 8 or 9. Three of our guests would be kids though - so don't need a lot of room. How do you get around this? Does DVC allow you to have more guests than occupancy?

Are any of the children under 3? I believe you get one of those 'free' lol. So 7 adults, 2 kids 4-17, 1 infant is acceptable.

Personally, I agree with Bill in that I would never squeeze that many people in a room with only 2 bathrooms. Consider Lake View BLT or AKV at 7 months for a 2BR/3BA unit.

 

[jrmosesso]

unfortunately, no. Our youngest will be 4 next year. I don't think there is any way we can get anything larger than a 2 bedroom with the points we have, which is why I was leaning towards everyone having their own studio

 

[drusba]

Rule to remember: to determine which points you can use -- banked, "current," or borrowed -- you should wipe from your mind the day you will call or go online to make the reservation, and instead look only at the dates you will be at WDW.

If you have an April use year and intend to go October or December 2019, the "current" use year points for that trip will be the April 2019 points, you will need to bank the 2018 points any time before making the reservation to be able to include them in your reservation. Since the trip will occur in your April 2019 use year, you will be able to borrow 2020 points when you make the reservation even if you make the reservation in 2018, 11 months out.

The times you are mentioning, Oct or beginning of Nov, are part of DVC's high demand time of the year that runs from late Sep to marathon weekend in Jan. It is unlikely you will be able to even get one studio at 7 months out at any resorts other than SSR, OKW or AKV Kidani savanna view, and even OKW and AKV could be gone completely, or could be quite difficult for three studios. Moreover, even SSR studios could be gone at 7 months out if the time you want includes the the Thurs to Sunday of the Wine & Dine race weekend that occurs in early Nov, which is the highest DVC demand weekend of the year. Wait lists often work but it it becomes very difficult if you want more than one room at same location, and you should consider it impossible because you will be allowed only two wait lists and thus cannot waitlist three rooms at the same time.

For the time you want, you should reserve at 11 months out at CCV to assure having rooms.

As to 2BRs, BWV, VWL lock-offs, BCV lock-offs, BLT, and AKV other than value rooms, allow only up to 9 occupants three years or older because they each have an extra bedding space, a pull-out twin size chair in the living room at AKV and BLT, or the pull-down murphy bed in the the second bedroom/studio portion at BCV, VWL and BWV. VGF's dedicated 2BRs also have the murphy bed in the living room to allow 9, and for lock-offs at VGF you can put 10 because there is also a murphy bed in the studio/second bedroom.

 

[CraigInPA]

With 10 people, and only 300 total points to work with, you're going to be short on points at CCV for a week long reservation. A 2BR is 278 points for a week. A studio is 107 for a week. If you could get 3 studios, you could stay 6 days in each, and add the seventh day at 7 months with one time use points (now $19 each). But, as noted earlier, it's going to be difficult to get 3 studios during Food and Wine, even at exactly 11 months. If you do the studio and 2BR, you can get it under 300 points by only going 5 nights. If you have your heart set on a full week, I think you should start looking for a purchase of a transfer of about 100 points to make this work. You'll want CCV points, and that could be a problem, due to the newness of the resort. Alternatively, you could buy another 50 points (you really need 35, but I don't believe DVC offers an add-on for CCV at less than 50, but I may be wrong).

 

[Deb & Bill]

Getting almost anything but your home resort at seven months out in October is going to be tough, let alone three studios. Better idea, take a trip with just your family first. Then think about a group trip later on. With only 100 points times three years, is not going to get you much. 100 points is not really enough to treat the whole family. And then there are the horror stories of invited guests who bail on you at the last minute leaving you holding the bag with a reservation too late to cancel and get your points back. When you tell them about the price of tickets, the price of Food, the cost to just get there, that's when they start to back out because they didn't plan on that cost. Or their normal life gets in the way of your trip plans.

Make your first DVC trip just your immediate family.

 

[crisi]

I'm going to second what others have said about a big group trip. While its exciting to share, they have their issues....people drop out as they decide that the time you are going is also when they have a wedding to go to - or a kid has a soccer tournament. (In our case, over 15 years we've had three drops - one pregnancy, one recovering from cancer, and one passed away from cancer - all more understandable than a soccer tournament, but we had four people in a Grand Villa, and ended up taking a trip with last minute replacements to not waste space that became a trip from hell (they got divorced a few years later))....or that they'd rather spend the money on something else when given the budget for park tickets and transportation. You have to have a firm grasp of booking policies - particularly if you are banking and borrowing points - to make sure doing something nice doesn't end up costing you points (and the related dues).

Take some time to think about it and figure out how you'll cover yourself if people back out - or don't buy in to start with.

We love sharing our DVC and taking friends and family, but it isn't necessarily the best DVC novice activity with that many people.

 

[Deb & Bill]

One more thing. Even if they give you enough time to cancel on or two studios, you cannot unborrow those 2020 points. You'll have to use them before the end of your 2019 use year.

 

[Corwin]

One more thing. Even if they give you enough time to cancel on or two studios, you cannot borrow those 2020 points. You'll have to use them before the end of your 2019 use year.

Deb & Bill, I think you meant to say, "you cannot unborrow those 2020 points."

jrmosesso, that is because borrowing and banking points are both irreversible transactions.

To add on to what others have said, 100 points is not a lot of points, especially if you are trying to get rooms for 10 people. As a new member, if you are looking at combinations of borrowing and banking to make the reservations you want in a given year, you don't have enough points. Add the risks of people bailing on you, and you are setting yourself up for trouble.

If you think this will be a one-time occurrence, I would look into a one-time point transfer to make these reservations. Another possibility is making cash reservations. As a DVC member, you can generally get a 25% discount off the rack rate for DVC resorts.

Going forward, I would look into adding points. A more typical point allocation is more like 150 points per year. You can do a lot more with that.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Deb & Bill, I think you meant to say, "you cannot unborrow those 2020 points."…

Yep, the tablet corrected my correct spelling. Much rather use the keyboard with the desktop computer.