non-DVC vacations

[TXdeVille]

Is there anyone out there that banks their points one year and chooses to pay out-of-pocket for non-Disney non-DVC vacations?

We haven't joined DVC yet but seriously considering it. All this talk about the market makes me uneasy but I already don't have the best financial picture anyways. We were originally considering doing an all-inclusive in Cancun at the end of the year. Saw the offerings DVC has for Cancun and the all-inclusive seems nicer.

Opinions welcomed!

 

[Diznut84]

We love the Royal Resorts in Cancun. They blow all the other choices away in the area. Four of the top ten resorts in the world (according to TUG) are the Royal resorts in the Cancun area.

 

[TXdeVille]

The pics that I can access online show differently that they are the best IMHO. I found Iberostar Paraiso Beach to be much nicer. Are the rooms at the Royal Resorts what they show on their home website or something different??

 

[Deb & Bill]

We love Marco Island. So we pay cash there and add the stay to our drive to WDW. Makes a nice two week vacation.

 

[Dean]

We love Marco Island. So we pay cash there and add the stay to our drive to WDW. Makes a nice two week vacation.

Are you going to buy at the new Marriott there with the best 2 BR units pushing $100K and 3 BR $140K?

 

[TXdeVille]

Wow! Never even heard of Marco Island before but now I'll check it out. Thanks.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Are you going to buy at the new Marriott there with the best 2 BR units pushing $100K and 3 BR $140K?

Probably not. We're staying at Club Regency on this upcoming trip.

 

[gracelrm]

We've owned DVC since 2001 and we've taken several non-DVC/non-points vacations. We went on a 7 night non-Disney cruise in 2004. We went "out West" for three weeks in 2006 and we're going on another 3 week adventure to the Northwest this summer. We also stayed at the beach for 5 nights before going to WDW last summer. When we went on our 2006 trip, we did use points for 3 nights at DL and 3 nights through the concierge collection at the Hotel Del Coronado, but that was all the points we used. Although we would love to go to Disney every year, we want our children to experience many different places - and you can only vacation so much Owning DVC has worked for us. We do like to go to VB and HH, so the years that we don't use our points at WDW, we're using them for VB & HH during fall break. We also used our points to take DH's extended family on a trip to WDW. Something most of them would have never done if we hadn't offered to take care of the rooms. We plan on doing WDW as our "big" trip every two years, but then have the opportunities to see the rest of the "world" so to speak the other years.

 

[bwvBound]

Is there anyone out there that banks their points one year and chooses to pay out-of-pocket for non-Disney non-DVC vacations?

Personally, I feel it is a great strategy to own DVC points for "every other year" use.

We do go every year (business conference) - but our first 4 years of ownership were run on fewer points than needed for these visits. We managed by trading into DVC every other year and banking our DVC points for the years in between. It worked!

 

[maciec]

The pics that I can access online show differently that they are the best IMHO. I found Iberostar Paraiso Beach to be much nicer. Are the rooms at the Royal Resorts what they show on their home website or something different??

We can't trade into the Iberostars so that means paying cash. They are all-inclusive hotel rooms whereas the Royals are 1 & 2 bedroom units. The Royals are top rated on Trip Advisor and on TUG. We traded into the Royal Sands for October 2008 and it is costing 144 points. It's much less than what it would cost us to stay in a regular hotel room at the Iberostar.

 

[Diznut84]

The pics that I can access online show differently that they are the best IMHO. I found Iberostar Paraiso Beach to be much nicer. Are the rooms at the Royal Resorts what they show on their home website or something different??

I have stayed at all of the Royal resorts and all of the DVC properties. While the Royal resorts are decorated more sparingly, they are much cleaner than DVC and feature daily maid service. Believe it or not, the service is also much better at the Royal resorts. Head on over to Trip Advisor or sign up for TUG and read the reviews. I'm not alone!

The Royal resorts are also a wonderful family vacation destination. Great service, decent restaurants onsite, and a world class beach (although not as nice as 10 years ago).

Don't get me wrong: Our first preference is WDW and DVC. But a close second is the Royal resorts, followed by the Hawaii Marriotts.

 

[eliza61]

We have done and will probably do many non-disney vacations. Now that my kids are older, Dh & I find we use our points for short getaways to the world (5 days) and do other things for family vacations.

This year, I'm using my points with my girlfriends and will pay out of pocket for a family vacation. I think that is one thing I love about my membership, so far it has been very easy to bank my points and do other things.

I have also used my points outside of disney (yes, I know it's not the most economical use of points). We've used them to go to London, NYC & Washington DC.

 

[tomandrobin]

We don't limit ourselves to just Disney Vacations. We usually end up splitting our vacation time between Disney and other destinations. This year we are going to Disney twice, Atlantis, Maui and Vero Beach for a long weekend.

 

[maciec]

We don't limit ourselves to just Disney Vacations. We usually end up splitting our vacation time between Disney and other destinations. This year we are going to Disney twice, Atlantis, Maui and Vero Beach for a long weekend.

Out of curiosity, did you trade into Atlantis? Did you have to wait long for your dates to become available? What kind of accommodations did you get? I have heard that it is very hard to get in, but I am willing to try. What would it hurt?

 

[tomandrobin]

We traded into Atlantis, but not with DVC.

 

[ldo]

we bought only enough points to use for ever other year. We try to tag a WDW trip onto a second week at Hilton Head (not at DVC), so that travel time is less (we live in DC area). When we skip that trip, we have gone skiing out West, to the Pacific NW, to Hawaii, and on a cruise at Spring Break.
I love the banking and borrowing--it gives a lot of flexibility for our needs.

 

[DbleTheFun]

We are fortunate enough to have almost a month in holidays each year at both my husband and I's work... so this allows us 2 trips to Disney using DVC (One in the spring for fun, and the second right before Christmas for the WDW Baseball tournament he particpates in) and leaves us another week or two for holidays elsewhere. We normally like to do one all inclusive or cruise, and then one "city getaway" for shopping!

 

[musical2]

We also bought into DVC with the expectation that we would use it every other year. Thus, we bank and borrow depending on the year and what time of the year we stay. We also own at Marriott Manor Club in Williamsburg with the expectation that we will use that one every other year and trade it every other year for a different Marriott. This year, for example, we traded it in for the Marriott Ko Olina on Oahu. We also own a week at the Renaissance Aruba Resort and Casino and use that as our main trader for other things. It has always traded into Marriott or some other nice resort.

 

[hockey_chauffeur]

Out of curiosity, did you trade into Atlantis? Did you have to wait long for your dates to become available? What kind of accommodations did you get? I have heard that it is very hard to get in, but I am willing to try. What would it hurt?

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I've been on a wait list for the Atlantis for several months for April vacation week 2009 - they told me it would be difficult when I got on the list and since then haven't heard anything

 

[Dean]

Personally, I feel it is a great strategy to own DVC points for "every other year" use.

We do go every year (business conference) - but our first 4 years of ownership were run on fewer points than needed for these visits. We managed by trading into DVC every other year and banking our DVC points for the years in between. It worked!

How do you do that with DVC points since you can't deduct the costs and very few employers will reimburse for things you own anyway.