Potential DVC member - questions

[Tink2312]

Hi there,
We’re not DVC members just yet, but are thinking of buying into it when we visit WDW in November.
We took a tour of BWV about 6 years ago, but worked out that it wouldn’t be economical for us to buy into DVC at that time (mainly because at that time the dollar was much stronger).
We went and viewed SSR this past December and almost bought, but felt that we needed to do more research before making the commitment.
So here I am, doing that research.
We would be looking to buy about 220-240 points at SSR to enable us to go for 2 weeks every year in a studio in Oct/ Nov/ Dec and to have the flexibility to use banked points to go in Feb/ March some years and also split our stays between a studio and one bed on occasion.

My questions are (yes, eventually I’m getting to them):

1. How easy is it to get a BWV studio at the 7 month window during the F&W festival? (as although we love SSR, we’d also love to stay at BWV due to the location esp. during F&W).

2. How easy is it to get a studio/ 1bed at OKW during Oct/ Nov/ Dec (not during Xmas/ Thanksgiving) using the 7 month window?

3. If you want to book at somewhere other than your home resort for say 7 out of the 14 nights, could you still book 14 nights at your home resort at 11 month window and then if you get the resort you wanted for the 7 nights at the 7 month window, cancel just 7 nights from your home resort without much hassle? (hope this makes sense - I know that you can book as few or as many nights as you like, but as were British we’d be looking at going once a year for 14 nights at a time).

4. Does it cost to book your stay through member services?

5. How far ahead of the end of the use year is the deadline to bank your current years points?

6. Is there a limit to how much time you can be in deficit of points (I.e. could I borrow 50 points from 2009 to use in 2008 and then a further 50 from 2010 to use in 2009 (therefore being 100 points down) and then bank 100 points in 2011?)

Hope all these make sense
Thanks in advance

 

[drusba]

1. Not easy to get BWV at 7 month window for F&W because it is a popular time. If anything is available it would be a preferred view (pool & garden) room because standard lower point rooms and preferred boardwalk view are generally gone before the 7 month window even arrives.

2. You can usually get Oct or Nov at OKW with 7 month. But low point cost Dec time is a very high DVC demand time and difficult to get with 7 month window.

3. Yes you can book at home resort and then cancel portion of it to switch that portion to another resort. However, to assure no problem, the safest course is to make two ressies at your home resort at 11 months -- one for the time you will definitely stay there and one for the time you may want to switch and link those ressies (which means if you stay the full time at your home it will all be in the same room if you link ressies together). |You can then just cancel the one reservation when you switch.

4. No cost to book your DVC stay or any outside of DVC in the Disney Collection. There is a $75 charge for other trade-outs (e.g., that trip to Hawaii you may want to trade for someday).

5. You have until the end of the sixth month of your use year to bank all points (e.g., you get points Feb 1 when Feb is use year, you need to bank by July 31). You can bank up to half through the ninth month and 25% through the tenth.

6. You can bank up to 100% of your points for any year into the next if you meet banking deadline. You can borrow up to 100% of your points from a use year into the prior one. So your limit is all points from any given use year. You can remain in deficit from year to year continuously if you borrow every time you reserve.