New to DVC and have a few questions

[sara mom]

We just got back from the Magic cruise and signed up for DVC while on board. Our closing is not until end of December. Question # 1....Does that mean we can not book anything until after December for next year? We are hoping to do 8 days in August...4 nights at Animal Kingdom and 4 at Beach Club or Bay Lake.

Now for the dining plan option....can I purchase the dining plan for 3 or 4 of the days of our stay? We had one on our last trip to Disney, but never used all the snack options. From my quick research, I think I can buy it for 3 days, but can only use it on those 3 days...no carry over onto day 4 or 5 if I have not used a counter service or snack? Correct? And to do it for only a few days, I have to book reservations in segments. Is that correct?

So for example

Day 1 arrive at AK...no dining plan
Dat 2 AK..no dining plan
Day 3 AK...need dining plan, so would need a new reservation
Day 4 AK..dining plan
Day 5 Beach Club, dining plan with new reservation
Day 6 Beach Club, no dining plan...new reservation
Day 7-8 Beach club, stay on reservation from Day 6


Next question?...Magical hours? How soon ahead of time can you find out what days/parks have extended magical hours? My thought is it would be great to do extended hours at Animal Kingdom on one of the days we are staying at AK.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Buying direct you'd be able to make your reservations as soon as DVC has your paperwork which I'm guess was right after the cruise finished. You will not have to wait until you close.

Segmenting was ended as an option for the dining plan so it will be more difficult to do what you want with the dining plan. You are correct that credits will not carry forward to additional days. The best at this point is to get the dining plan for the stay at one resort and to not have it once you move or vice versa. If you were to convince MS to book separate reservations for you then you could also be required to change rooms in the middle of your stay at a resort.

WDW usually releases park hours 6-7 months in advance. They can get modified though so you would want to check them closer to your trip to see if anything has changed.

 

[lions1995]

I agree, if you buy directly from DVC, you should have immediate ability to make reservations (friends of our bought this past Sunday and made reservations yesterday).

You can always make reservations for your home resort 11 months from your day of check in (for up to 10 days). For august of 2012, you are already inside the 11 inside window. If you wish to stay at another resort, you need to wait for the 7 month window. I always book my home resort at 11 months and then if I want to stay else where, call in at 7 months. If you don't get what you want at 7 months, you can go on a wait list. I have been very successful with waitlists at the 7 month point.

The other issue you may have is how many points you need and how many you will have. Depending on your use year and if you got any bonus points. My friends I mentioned have a use year of June (more like use month to me). That means every June 1st they receive 100 points. They also received 100 "bonus" points immediately. They banked those points into the next year (6/1/2012 to 5/31/2013) and made reservations for November 2012.

Dining has to be attached to your reservations. If you were to make your reservations now, you would probably book all 8 days (7 nights) at AKL and then call at 7 months for BC. BC is not easy to get into, so you will probably need to waitlist. If you do get two separate reservations, you can choose to have the dinning plan on one, both, or neither. The dining plan goes by the number of nights you stay. So if you were to check into the AK on day 1 for 4 nights, with dining, you could use that for dining on day 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. It starts the day you check in and expires at midnight the day you check out. I see you have day 3, 4 and 5 as dining days. If any of those are requiring 2 table services, it may work out OK for you, so long as you can use the quick Service up.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

The other issue you may have is how many points you need and how many you will have. Depending on your use year and if you got any bonus points. My friends I mentioned have a use year of June (more like use month to me). That means every June 1st they receive 100 points. They also received 100 "bonus" points immediately. They banked those points into the next year (6/1/2012 to 5/31/2013) and made reservations for November 2012.

Just to clarify - your friend did not receive bonus points although I would not doubt that is how the guide referred to them. They received current points which is the least that any direct purchaser should get. If the OP or any other buyer did not get current points when purchasing direct I'd recommend they recind the purchase immediately and start over.

With UY's not falling exactly in line with the calendar year many guides are taking liberties with how they refer to current points. For example - your friend with a June UY would have been in their 2010 UY up until June 1, 2011 so any purchase prior to June 1st should have started with 2010 points which it sounds like happened.

 

[disneynutz]

You can get the DDP for the AKV or BCV stay. Good luck and welcome to the neighborhood.

Bill