Planning a DVC trip...

[Chili327]

Ok, so i've planned a trip before, but this time there are layers to deal with so i'm wondering the best way to game plan & have a backup plan set and ready to go when the 11 month window opens.
So if anyone wants to play along or has advice or even some kind of spreadsheet, or website to use (besides what i already use to check points, etc)

Couple of parameters...

• 2 studios, or a 2bdrm (not sure a 1bdrm will work with 2 couples and a child)
• 375 points available to use - AKV (103pts), BWV (150pts), & BLT (122pts).
• 8 Nights, Sat - Sun
• AKV has to be Savanna View
• Want to be staying at BWV on Monday night & BLT on Wed night.

Scenario 1.
AKV Sat & Sun (2 nights) **
BWV Mon & Tues (2 nights)
BLT Wed - Sat night (4 nights)
**If i had the points, i wouldn't mind coming in Friday night & getting to BWV a day sooner making it 3 nights.

But that way seems to be way more expensive. So maybe;
Scenario 2.
BWV Sat, Sun & Mon (3 nights)
BLT Tues, Wed & Thurs (3 nights)
AKV Fri & Sat night (2 nights)

I've been using https://tools.dvcvacations.com/points-calculator to take notes (and enter point totals into Google calendar), but i seem to get too caught up in side tracking myself to be able to determine the best way (switching between better views, bigger rooms, different nights of the week, etc). Also i can only use 2024 p0int charts, but i assume they will be close enough, using the same days of the week.

I may just end up winging it & reserving whatever i get, and still loving the trip, but... What is your way of planning, do you just use a word Doc & pt. chart site or..?


Also if there is a better place for this post feel free to move it, but since it was DVC specific i wasn't sure where else to put it.

 

[eticketplease]

I use David’s cost calculator to crunch the points and record them in to Excel to play with. If you use a computer it will show you the points total for all the resorts but if you use a phone you have to keep switching between resorts.

 

[Counting Stars]

When did you want to take this trip? You mentioned reserving 11 months out but don't say out from when? Also, the 2025 charts are available... Perhaps I am missing something?

 

[eticketplease]

I think the site mentioned only uses 2024? I know David’s uses the 2025 charts.

 

[Chili327]

When did you want to take this trip? You mentioned reserving 11 months out but don't say out from when? Also, the 2025 charts are available... Perhaps I am missing something?

Oct 2025

I think the site mentioned only uses 2024? I know David’s uses the 2025 charts.

I was thinking the stopped before Oct 2025?
I’ll have to use David’s next time I try to plan.

 

[eticketplease]

Since you mentioned 11 months I’m assuming you own at all 3 and can book the lowest point rooms then with the exception to AKV for which you want Savanna.

The period I was looking at AKV was equal or slightly more than standard BLT with BWV standard being the least amount.

Taking into account the extra evening hours schedule (mon = Epcot wed= MK) I get why you want to be at BWV and BLT on those nights.

I think I’m leaning more to #1 as you have the fewest AKL points and those rooms are the most expensive. Unfortunately BLT are not far behind AKL and you will be booking 2 premium nights there and none with BWV which has the most because of the Evening Hours schedule

 

[eticketplease]

Sorry should have clarified premium nights = Friday & Saturday

 

[Chili327]

Since you mentioned 11 months I’m assuming you own at all 3 and can book the lowest point rooms then with the exception to AKV for which you want Savanna.

The period I was looking at AKV was equal or slightly more than standard BLT with BWV standard being the least amount.

Taking into account the extra evening hours schedule (mon = Epcot wed= MK) I get why you want to be at BWV and BLT on those nights.

I think I’m leaning more to #1 as you have the fewest AKL points and those rooms are the most expensive. Unfortunately BLT are not far behind AKL and you will be booking 2 premium nights there and none with BWV which has the most because of the Evening Hours schedule

Yea I guess that should be the plan to go cheapest possible except Savanna AKV, and having points at each I should be able to get them pretty easily. (Studios x2) at 11 months. I may have some points leftover to combine for an extra night possibly at the beginning, but that’ll come later.
I’d just like to see it all faux booked so I can wrap my head around how many points I’ll need for each scenario, but I just need to write it all down and compare every way possible.
I’m taking some friends for their first time to WDW and I want it to be as great as possible.

Sorry should have clarified premium nights = Friday & Saturday

Yep, I understood, but good to clarify for anyone else following along.

 

[Kailunkat]

So I would start up an excel spreadsheet with your whole week of dates (Sat-Sat) for every resort.
You can check the 2025 points charts from Disney for each resort HERE. It looks like all of October falls under Travel period #5 so you can see the exact point cost for each night on the PDFs in that 5th grouping. I would put that data into a spreadsheet for the room type your looking to book and then sum/total up your two (or more) options from there. Just copy and paste the exact same data for each scenario and then color code/highlight the cells for the days you are going to use in that option and add them up.

Does that make any sense at all?

 

[Kailunkat]

Ok that didn't even make sense to me - so I just loaded it up as a table myself real quick. This is what happens when you are stuck at home with COVID too long.

October 2025										EACH RESORT	TOTAL PTS
STUDIO
SCENARIO 1	Friday (optional)	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
BLT	21	21	18	18	18	18	18	21	21	78
BVW	17	17	14	14	14	14	14	17	17	28
AKL	20	20	19	19	19	19	19	20	20	39	145
SCENARIO 2	Friday (optional)	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
BLT	21	21	18	18	18	18	18	21	21	54
BVW	17	17	14	14	14	14	14	17	17	45
AKL	20	20	19	19	19	19	19	20	20	40	139
SCENARIO 3?	Friday (optional)	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
BLT	21	21	18	18	18	18	18	21	21
BVW	17	17	14	14	14	14	14	17	17
AKL	20	20	19	19	19	19	19	20	20

 

[Chili327]

So I would start up an excel spreadsheet with your whole week of dates (Sat-Sat) for every resort.
You can check the 2025 points charts from Disney for each resort HERE. It looks like all of October falls under Travel period #5 so you can see the exact point cost for each night on the PDFs in that 5th grouping. I would put that data into a spreadsheet for the room type your looking to book and then sum/total up your two (or more) options from there. Just copy and paste the exact same data for each scenario and then color code/highlight the cells for the days you are going to use in that option and add them up.

Does that make any sense at all?

It makes sense, but I’m not an excel user so I’m not sure I could do it… unless I guess it doesn’t have to calculate anything just use it like graph paper?

Ok that didn't even make sense to me - so I just loaded it up as a table myself real quick. This is what happens when you are stuck at home with COVID too long.

October 2025										EACH RESORT	TOTAL PTS
STUDIO
SCENARIO 1	Friday (optional)	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
BLT	21	21	18	18	18	18	18	21	21	78
BVW	17	17	14	14	14	14	14	17	17	28
AKL	20	20	19	19	19	19	19	20	20	39	145
SCENARIO 2	Friday (optional)	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
BLT	21	21	18	18	18	18	18	21	21	54
BVW	17	17	14	14	14	14	14	17	17	45
AKL	20	20	19	19	19	19	19	20	20	40	139
SCENARIO 3?	Friday (optional)	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
BLT	21	21	18	18	18	18	18	21	21
BVW	17	17	14	14	14	14	14	17	17
AKL	20	20	19	19	19	19	19	20	20

Oh this is great!!!
I can use this for sure, I like being able to see which days are better all in one place.
Thanks

 

[eticketplease]

?? just realized this when looking at our upcoming trip in October that there are no extra hours in Magic Kingdom for this year and mostly not when you visit next year do to the MNSSHP going on.

Will this mean you would not have to be at BLT on Wed? That would certainly make things a little easier to Planning a little easier.

Remember if booking BLT or Kidani you will have 2 full bathrooms so that may allow you to get away with a 1 bedroom in those locations.

You will certainly save points booking 2 studios instead of a 2 bedroom but you will lose the full kitchen and laundry (and 3rd bathroom if BLT/Kidani). Not sure how much cooking or laundry if you are moving that much.

My SO would have my head if we moved that much .

 

[Chili327]

?? just realized this when looking at our upcoming trip in October that there are no extra hours in Magic Kingdom for this year and mostly not when you visit next year do to the MNSSHP going on.

Will this mean you would not have to be at BLT on Wed? That would certainly make things a little easier to Planning a little easier.

Remember if booking BLT or Kidani you will have 2 full bathrooms so that may allow you to get away with a 1 bedroom in those locations.

You will certainly save points booking 2 studios instead of a 2 bedroom but you will lose the full kitchen and laundry (and 3rd bathroom if BLT/Kidani). Not sure how much cooking or laundry if you are moving that much.

My SO would have my head if we moved that much .

View attachment 887041

Oh if there is no Extened Evening Hours it doesn’t matter at all about location on Mon or Wed. Maybe that’ll only be if we go in January?? (if planning or anything about this October trip doesn’t workout so well, I would just postpone it to Jan)

We’ll see how they feel about the sofa bed (or Murphy) this year and VGC, but we wouldn’t be doing too much cooking or laundry, but having the option would be nice, at least at one resort in the middle or end of the trip.

 

[Kailunkat]

Typically they just don’t publish the extended hours until much closer to the dates. There probably will be some but you won’t have that info to plan in advance :/

 

[Chili327]

Typically they just don’t publish the extended hours until much closer to the dates. There probably will be some but you won’t have that info to plan in advance :/

That’s what I was thinking, but hopefully they don’t switch nights or something to render my planning useless. lol

Truthfully the main reason is that the ONLY night that was a hassle on my 10 night trip earlier this year was taking a bus after EEH from MK back to BWV.
Every other night wasn’t a big deal from any park to any resort that I did. EEH at Epcot was no problem because I walked or took the boat, which was crowded, but I just can’t see being unhappy on a friendship boat.

Maybe I shouldn’t put so much weight on it, but it feels like I should try. lol

 

[eticketplease]

Typically they just don’t publish the extended hours until much closer to the dates. There probably will be some but you won’t have that info to plan in advance :/

True that they don't announce them that far in advance but you can look at the historical date range and see that MK Is not offered in October with all of the MNSSHP being sold instead.

That is why I would shift Wed & Thur to BWV.

New scenario allows you to bank points for another trip.

 

[eticketplease]

EEH at Epcot was no problem because I walked or took the boat, which was crowded, but I just can’t see being unhappy on a friendship boat.

Love it!! We are all very friendly

 

[eticketplease]

As far as extra hours goes it seems like Epcot remains constant but they have swapped in Animal Kingdom and HS.

For us going in Mid October it will be Epcot & HS

 

[Kailunkat]

As far as extra hours goes it seems like Epcot remains constant but they have swapped in Animal Kingdom and HS.

For us going in Mid October it will be Epcot & HS

I'm hoping that going into 2025 they will do some EEH at Animal Kingdom again. With the new Universal park coming online it seems like they are exploring options to keep people in the parks later.

 

[Sprinkles&Sprints]

Are you planning on heading to the parks your last day or is it travel only?