OKW Grand Villa points?

[jennz]

Hey everyone -

We're starting to plan for an October 2007 trip and would like to get a grand villa. Our home resort is SSR and the points there are 71/night...I saw that OKW is only 38 points per night. Is this correct or a typo? That's a huge difference!

 

[Dopey Sharon]

It's correct!

We stayed in a Grand Villa at OKW this past December and it was really nice! We were there from Sunday to Friday and it was 180 points.

Everyone should stay in one at least once...it was reaaallllyyyy nice.

I had a friend who's home is OKW, so she booked it for me at the 11 month mark, day by day. I then transferred the points to her. I don't think I would have gotten it if I waited until the seven month mark.

 

[jennz]

WOW! Do you know why there's suge a big difference? We toured the SSR GV and it's gorgeous - nicer and bigger than our first home!

I'll have to wait until the 7 month date to book it so I'll probably need to book SSR GV to make sure we get one and then cancel that if OKW is available.

 

[Dopey Sharon]

I don't know why there's such a big difference. OKW was the first DVC built. I guess that's why. The points are lower there for every room type AND they have the biggest rooms...go figure!

Good luck! I hope you get it...did I mention that it was reeeaaaallllyyyy nice?!!!

 

[Chuck S]

OKW was the first DVC resort, it was not known at that time how popular a Disney timeshare would be, and in fact, when we bought we were informed of the possibility that OKW may not even be fully completed...or that Disney may sell the management to another company. If Disney knew then what they know now, I'm sure OKW would have a very different point chart, but as you know, overall points for a resort can not change...only be re-allocated...so they had to reach a compromise about what chart works best of OKW. And in fact, OKW did have a full re-allocation in 1996 to increase the points required for studios and drop them for some other room sizes.

 

[ccw]

The OKW Grand Villa is amazing...huge living area plus FOUR bathrooms and a big porch. Although SSR is newer and the decor seems to be a little more upscale (granite, etc), I don;t think anyone should feel they'd be disappointed at OKW ... and the points savings is nothing to sneeze at!!!

 

[dtndfamily]

We just added on at OKW to guarantee we can book a GV every so many years Can't wait!!

 

[ILuvDVC2]

I had a friend who's home is OKW, so she booked it for me at the 11 month mark, day by day. I then transferred the points to her. I don't think I would have gotten it if I waited until the seven month mark.

jennz,

I have tried several times to book a GV at OKW at the 7-month window, and have had to settle for 2 2BRs each time. I would follow Dopey Sharon's lead and see if you can work something out with a OKW owner and transfer points to them. You can post on the Rent/Trade board here at DIS to see if you can find an OKW owner who'll work with you.

Best of luck!

 

[mickeywho?]

We've booked the GV at OKW for this coming february. We are SSR owners and were also amazed by the point difference. At 11months we booked a studio and a 2bdrm at SSR and when the 7month window came we called day-by-day to switch over to OKW and managed to rebook the entire week with no waitlists. I think it really depends on the time of year you want to go. Everything seemed to line up for us on our first try.

While we would have been happy at SSR if it didn't work out - we didn't book the largest room on the most points --studio plus 2 bedroom at SSR 312points. GV 512 points.
OKW GV for the same amount of time 348 points

We had a points "budget" set and planned on doing a small trip the following year so this was our way of getting both. If we had booked the GV at SSR and couldn't switch our stay over to OKW we would have been stuck and would have had to skip the next year.

 

[jennz]

Thanks for all the info!

I think the way we'll go is book the 2 rooms at SSR and call day by day - good suggestion. Or maybe do the 2 2bdrms at OKW as an alternative... ILuvDVC2, where you able to get them next to each other?

I'm going to check into the point transfer but I'm not sure where to start, I haven't heard of it before - of course I never needed it before either.

 

[ILuvDVC2]

Thanks for all the info!

I think the way we'll go is book the 2 rooms at SSR and call day by day - good suggestion. Or maybe do the 2 2bdrms at OKW as an alternative... ILuvDVC2, where you able to get them next to each other?

I'm going to check into the point transfer but I'm not sure where to start, I haven't heard of it before - of course I never needed it before either.

jennz,

We didn't get the 2 2BRs next to each other in the same building, but they did put us in buildings next to each other. We were fine with it, but I'm sure they weren't in the same building because of the week we were there.

The points transfer is pretty easy. I did one recently. I needed two points to complete a reservation, so I put up a points transfer request on the Rent/Trade board. Within no time, a DVC member contacted me and said he had points available. I gave him my member number, then he called MS and said he wanted to transfer two points to me. Once he did that, I was able to contact MS and make my reservation.

For your situation, you need to find an OKW member who owns enough OKW points to make the reservation. As you know, to use the home resort 11-month reservation window, all points necessary to secure the reservation must be associated with the home resort contract. The OKW member then calls and makes the reservation in your name. Once the OKW member secures the reservation, you can call Member Services and have them transfer points from your account into the OKW member's account. That way, you have your reservation, and they still have points to use, albeit at the 7-month reservation window.

If I'm missing anything in my description of the process, I'll count on other DISboard members to clear up anything I forgot or didn't explain correctly, but I think that should work.

Good luck in your OKW GV quest!

 

[shellbelle1971]

FYI, we tried to book a GV for this October at OKW at the 7 month mark, calling day by day. They had availability for all the weekend days we wanted and one of the weeknights. We waitlisted day by day for the other weeknights, but none of them came through before we realized we needed to split our group into two units (a 2 bedroom and a studio) because one bunch of people wanted the dining plan and the other didn't. So in the end we'll be happy in a studio and a 2 bedroom, and I don't know whether any of our waitlists would have ever come through.