Please Explain the Point System

[Neicer]

I'm a rookie. Please explain the point system and how do you know how many points you need for a specific place? I'm interested in a 2-bedroom at BCV for a week in August 2003. Thanks for your help.
----Denise

 

[Peterd]

A two bedroom may cost a DVC member 34 points a night between sunday to thursday night, on the weekends around 74 points per night. Disney will charge you between $650 to 750 a night plus 11% tax per night for these nights. Some DVC members may not be able to use all of their points from time to time, and are willing to rent them out to others. These members will charge you between 8 to 15 dollars a point depending on how desperate they are to get rid of their points. Some say the average rate is about $10 per point. I'm a DVC member myself, and have bought for 15 for family and knew it was a deal.

What it comes down to is you can get a Two bedroom at the BCv for 380 per night without tax, while Disney would charge you close to 800 with tax a night, not a bad deal. You could also get a studio at the Okw/bw/BC for 90 to 120 dollars per night without tax, while the All-stars would charge you more with the tax.
Some say call Disney, get a price, and I'll give it to you for half price. It's all who you deal with it.
Some people are desperate, make an offer, you can't believe some of the deals people are willing to give you.

 

[vernon]

Hi Denise, I'm presuming you are looking at renting some points from a member to provide your accommodation for a visit?

As Peter said, it's possible to get a great deal renting points, but you are dealing with an individual not a company so do make sure you take some steps to protect yourself legally, just incase you come upon someone who isn't 100% trustworthy, I haven't heard of this ever happening, but there is always the chance of a "first time". I think there are a number of people who rent out their points and will use a legal "middle man" to handle the money transfer. It's worth looking into that side of things before you take the plunge.

On the "fixed information" part of this site ( at http://www.wdwinfo.com ) you will see an area of that site for information on DVC, included in that information should be a "points calulator" you put in the dates you will be going, the resort and the size unit and it will tell you the total points cost. Again as Peter has said the Sunday to Thurdsday nights saving is a huge saving over the rack price. Weekends it is not so obvious. Depending on the dates you travel, you may want to consider avoiding a weekend if possible. If for example you arrive on a Saturday night at 7.00 in the evening, it's possible to make a case for staying in a motel near the airport, getting up early the next morning and travelling to WDW to check in. Granted you wouldn't get into your room until mid afternoon, but you can use the hotel facilities and any park tickets are valid from that morning. It could easily save you $500-600 by doing this, but it does depend on flight times and dates of travel, plus you may not think the $$s are worth the inconvenience. I travel light so packing etc isn't as big an issue to me as it can be for others. But for one night, when all you would be doing is sleeping , I think it's worth thinking about.

 

[CaptainMidnight]

Here's a link to some good information: http://www.mouseplanet.com/dtp/dvc/
They list point charts so you can get a sense of how many points it takes for defferent types of accomodations in different seasons.