Newbie Needs Advice

[mommytobug]

Hi all! We are new DVC members and we bought at Saratoga. My question is about why people ask about where to buy if we can use our points anywhere that is DVC? I just need some understanding. I know we can book 12 montsh in advance at our home spot but we can book anywhere that is available 7 motnhs out correct?

Ok, second.........where do you all get tickets the cheapest? Do you buy the ones that never expire and can anyone usr them at any time or how do you do that? Our first trip was a "package" at the Poly so we did not have to think about it..........

I love the boards....so informative


Oh and HOW DO YOU GET THE THING AT BOTTOM ABOUT HOWMANY MRE DAYS TIL TRIP???

THANKS

 

[Disney Doll]

Basically, you can book your home resort 11 months in advance, and other resorts 7 months in adnvace. For some folks, who are absolutely married to staying at their home resort, having that 11 month booking window advantage is paramount, as they wouldn't be happy at one of the other resorts. For others, they can see the uniqueness in all the resorts, and would enjoy staying anywhere. Also, some of the resorts have cheaper common charges than others (OKW is cheapest) which figures into some folks decision-making process as to which home resort to choose.

I do not know of cheaper ticket offerings...perhaps other DISers can help. I do know that my DH figured it out one time, and if you are going to spend more than 8 days at WDW in a 365 day period, the Annual Pass is the way to go.

 

[crisi]

You can book what's available seven months out - but there is no guarentee that what you want will be available. For some things, there is very limited availablity at seven months and the people fortunate to book in that window are lucky. These are things like OKW Grand Villas (particularly over the holidays), BW Standard View rooms. Some places at particular times of year (VWL over the holidays, VB at Spring Break, Epcot resorts at Food and Wine) are hard to book. Some are easier to book - but its still luck at seven months - like Boardwalk Views. In general, the smaller the resort, the harder it will be to get what you want at seven months - BCV and VWL are the smallest. This will only get harder as there are more DVC members to compete for these rooms at the seven month mark. e.g. If 300 people book rooms at BCV between eleven and eight months and 10% switch at seven to SSR, that will free up 30 rooms. If 700 SSR members book, and 10% want to switch to BCV - thats 70 rooms. Obviously 70 is bigger than 30 and some SSR members would be unable to switch. (This is really simplistic - i.e. resorts don't fill at eight months, people cancel at five months, there are six resorts to switch between, etc).


Most DVC members either are AP holders (many schedule their "yearly" trips less than a year apart to get two trips from one AP) or buy hoppers that they save from trip to trip. This is usually considered the best value. Hoppers from ticket brokers (check www.mousesavers.com) are usually the best value. (We still prefer the UPH - a little more money, but its what we prefer at this time).

 

[dianeschlicht]

The home resort is important for the 11 month booking window if you want to go during popular times at DVC. Keep in mind that popular times at DVC may be different from the other resorts. For example; between Thanksgiving and the middle of December is VERY popular among DVC owners, because point costs are low, crowds are low, and the decorations are up. At those times, it might be important to have the 7-11 month priority booking window at your home resort. If you are flexible and travel at all different times of the year, you should have no problem booking at 7-4 months out. Some think owning at the resort with the lowest cost and lowest maintenance fees is the smart thing to do. That would be OKW. Resales would be the only way you could buy into DVC with OKW, BWV, VWL, or BCV. SSR is the only DVC currently be sold by Disney itself.

Tickets: We have found over the years that the annual pass works best for us. We buy APs for a late January trip, then go 1 or 2 more times before the next January. Then we wait 365 days and start the process over again. It means we buy tickets every other year, but travel to WDW every year. Most of our passes get 20-30 days of use.

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

Congrats and welcome home...I will let the other DVCers answer the technical questions since I am a newbie myself but here is the countdown link
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=381216&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

trying again lol
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=381216&perpage=15&pagenumber=1