Problem with 2010 & 2011 Points allocation?

[StitchFan73]

I have been reading tons of info in order to help my DVC purchase decision and I have notice a few references to the "....new points allocation the last few years..." and similar statements. But I don't know what that means. I know that Disney cannot change the total number of points in a year needed to stay at a resort-they just can change the seasons and if they require more points for one period they have to balance it by making it less points in another period (or at least that's how I understand it). But what happened for 2010 and 2011 that sounds as if something negative occurred? Why would Disney apologize for the 2010 allocation?

Thanks for the help

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

You essentially have it correct but reallocation can go beyond seasons. In the 2010 and 2011 reallocations, in general, weekend point requirements were reduced and weekdays were increased. Also, points for different room sizes changed such as a 1BR now requires more points and something else was reduced to compensate (just a general example). Total points need to remain but there are lots of changes that are allowed.

DVC is restricted by the percentage that point requirements can change for a unit/day in a single year which is probably why they did back to back changes.

But - for everything that went up something went down. And they could do it again if they felt the system needed more balancing.

 

[AirGoofy]

We fell victim to this. We were told the basic sales pitch that this rarely happens and probably would not be a big deal.

So, we bought in 2008, but with the 2009 points allocation, we did not have enough points. We are pretty set on the times we traveled. So, I used the charts and added up the number of points I would need for our trips, and bought a resale contract for the exact number. With the 1st reallocation, I was 10 or 20 points short.

Initially, I was ticked, but then decided it would be more fun to just try out all the different DVC resorts at WDW, which would make me creative with borrowing and banking points. We also did a small addon contract to make sure we had enough points.

 

[DebbieB]

What I didn't know before the recent reallocations is that they can reallocate between room sizes. For example, they can make studios more overall and grand villas less.

Where did Disney apologize?

 

[CarolMN]

I...(snip)...... But what happened for 2010 and 2011 that sounds as if something negative occurred? Why would Disney apologize for the 2010 allocation?

Thanks for the help

Generally, points for the weekend nights (Fri & Sat) were decreased and points for the other nights of the week were increased.

Those members who traveled mainly Sun - Thur were unhappy with the change.

Those who traveled for long weeeknds were generally happy and those who usually travel for a week were pretty much neutral.

The unhappy people posted more often.

FWIW, I never saw any apologies for the reallocation. DVC is limited to the % change in any one year. Apparently, the demand was out of whack enough such that 2 years were needed to bring it back into balance. IMO, the only apology they should make is for letting it go so long before they did something.

 

[StitchFan73]

Debbie it's possible I read the "apology" part somewhere else and I am not even sure it's fact-I was just trying to understand why it was being viewed by some as a negative thing.

So in the end the new points allocation was simply to put back in balance something that had gone askew? I guess the question I am trying to ask is why was lower point requirements during a Sun-Thurs a bad thing? Or was the difference (between a Fri/Sat as compared to Sun-Thurs)just so drastic that they needed to address it?

What were they trying to accomplish with this?

 

[ldo]

fri/sat were 2X the points of sun-thurs. We bought for sun-thur stays in 2008 and we affected by this. But, I understand the rebalance. Many were moving out of DVC on the weekends or paying cash for DVc rooms b/c of the double points. The original thought was to encourage weeklong stays and so that FL residents didn't take all the rooms for just weekends--well, it worked a little too well. The rebalance really was needed---think about it--WDW did not charge double for its rooms at WDW hotels.
You should not count on the exact points number staying the same for at same unit and same week, expect up to a 20% fluctuation over the years---up or down, with peak times getting more upwards pressure.

 

[4everluvDisney]

What I didn't know before the recent reallocations is that they can reallocate between room sizes. For example, they can make studios more overall and grand villas less.

Where did Disney apologize?

We weren't aware of this either. When we purchased our DVC contracts (all through Disney) we were not told this. We were under the impression that if you stayed for 1 year at Animal Kingdom Lodge standard view studio and it was say 500 points that's all it would ever be...the seasons would change, days of the week could change but at the end of the year it would still be 500 points . To find out now that the total amount of points for the year has changed really bothers me.

 

[DebbieB]

Debbie it's possible I read the "apology" part somewhere else and I am not even sure it's fact-I was just trying to understand why it was being viewed by some as a negative thing.

So in the end the new points allocation was simply to put back in balance something that had gone askew? I guess the question I am trying to ask is why was lower point requirements during a Sun-Thurs a bad thing? Or was the difference (between a Fri/Sat as compared to Sun-Thurs)just so drastic that they needed to address it?

What were they trying to accomplish with this?

It was out of balance because weekdays were hard to get but there were alot of empty rooms on Friday and Saturday nights. The reason for that is many people only stayed Sunday to Thursday nights to save points. Now with reallocation, they need more points to stay those nights. I usually stay Saturday to Thursday nights so that I only have 1 weekend night. For example, for a 1 bedroom at OKW in May for 6 nights, it used to be 148 points. For 2011, it's 167. So 19 more points needed.

 

[Tiger926]

Although we are glad that the re-allocations have made things more even, we got hit hard, as we come for approx. 2 weeks each July. Between the last 2 allocations, we have taken a hit of 40-45 points (can't remember exactly). Now, we will have to adjust our vacation to August next year, with a few days in the higher season, and most in the lower season as to stretch our points.

This is a lot of points for us - I swore I would never add-on, but this year, we had to. And now, we are thinking we might have to add-on again. We refuse to borrow as we've dealt with many family emergencies as of late, so we deal with the amount of points we have.

It has been frustrating, because as the guides explain it, they leave you with the impression that this scenario would never happen. So, as new members, you add a small cushion of points, which is nowhere near enough for the big allocations as of late.

It is very frustrating, but nothing we can do about it, except sell, add-on or limit vacations. Don't want to sell, don't want to knock off too many days, as this actually makes our points too expensive, and so adding on is the best option for us.

I can say that as a new member, you'll learn way more on this board than with your guide. Our guide is really good and honest as well, but this board will best teach you all about points, how to use them, what DVC can do with them, etc.

Best of luck to OP, Tiger

 

[NewDCLGuy]

the only apology they should make is for letting it go so long before they did something.

And for not releasing the point charts until almost the day they were needed.

 

[lucyem]

It has been frustrating, because as the guides explain it, they leave you with the impression that this scenario would never happen. So, as new members, you add a small cushion of points, which is nowhere near enough for the big allocations as of late.

I know the point reallocation was mentioned by our guide but it was kind of smoothed over. It was not as clear as it probably should be. We were lucky that we had the disboards so were more clear about this then many are. Due to our vacationing needs we normally can only travel sun-thurs. This did make it a little more difficult making decisions as to how many points to buy.

 

[bookwormde]

It is also important to understand that DVC can change the mix (room count) of views/classes that can change the points per night and as in the case of AKV it can cause all the rooms to go up per night.

So no was to know how many points you will need in the future, I think this is a big part of the reason DVC stated selling up to 24 yearly points to members.

bookwormde

 

[Tiger926]

It is also important to understand that DVC can change the mix (room count) of views/classes that can change the points per night and as in the case of AKV it can cause all the rooms to go up per night.

So no was to know how many points you will need in the future, I think this is a big part of the reason DVC stated selling up to 24 yearly points to members.

bookwormde

Good reminder - for us though, we are always in same season, as it's July. So for us, our exact same vacation has increased by quite a bit over both reallocations, so no amount of extra points would have been enough. I think we added a cushion of 8-10 extra. Little did we know, that we would need 4-5 times that amount...

Tiger

 

[Muushka]

We took a 60 point hit so now our normal 2 weeks will be one week
(and an occasional 2 weeks when we have the points).

Disney therefore took a hit too. Less park tickets, less meals.

 

[CarolMN]

We took a 60 point hit so now our normal 2 weeks will be one week
(and an occasional 2 weeks when we have the points).

Disney therefore took a hit too. Less park tickets, less meals.

Disney may get less $$ from your family, but someone else will be there in your place. They're not likely to see a noticeable difference, IMO. They don't care who is in the rooms -they just want them filled.

Sorry the reallocations hit you so hard.

 

[Muushka]

Disney may get less $$ from your family, but someone else will be there in your place. They're not likely to see a noticeable difference, IMO. They don't care who is in the rooms -they just want them filled.

Sorry the reallocations hit you so hard.

Thanks Carol, I do realize that. I am but one fish in a large sea.

 

[castleri]

We weren't aware of this either. When we purchased our DVC contracts (all through Disney) we were not told this. We were under the impression that if you stayed for 1 year at Animal Kingdom Lodge standard view studio and it was say 500 points that's all it would ever be...the seasons would change, days of the week could change but at the end of the year it would still be 500 points . To find out now that the total amount of points for the year has changed really bothers me.

I just added up the points needed to stay in each size villa in each time peiod for a week at OKW and found that yes they had changed - they are lower - wonder where the extra points went?

Year 2010 2011

Studio 518 513

1BR 1054 1052

2BR 1415 1412

GV 2245 2227

Total 5232 5204
Can't get the numbers to look like they do on my draft but hope they are okay to understand

Haven't looked at the other resorts but may do it later just for fun. I think the biggest reaction as others have said is the change in WE and weekday allocations as that impacted the most people. For those staying 7nights, at least at OKW you could come out ahead.

 

[DebbieB]

Haven't looked at the other resorts but may do it later just for fun. I think the biggest reaction as others have said is the change in WE and weekday allocations as that impacted the most people. For those staying 7nights, at least at OKW you could come out ahead.

I looked at my May trip in a 1 bedroom, if I stayed the full 7 nights it went from 196 to 199. Only 3 points but it is more.

Weekdays went from 20 to 27 per day = +35
Weekends dropped from 48 to 32 per day = -32

 

[CarolMN]

I just added up the points needed to stay in each size villa in each time peiod for a week at OKW and found that yes they had changed - they are lower - wonder where the extra points went? .........(snip).......

It's not that simple. For one thing, you have to know how DVC treats lock off units - do they use the 2 bedroom points or the 1 bedroom + the studio points? Or do they have some formula that uses a combination of 2 bedroom points and 1 bedroom + studio points??

Also, how do you account for the differing number of weekend nights?? Not all years have the same number of Friday and Saturday nights. Which year are you using? Some believe DVC uses a "base year" for the reallocation exercises. We'd have to know which year that was to accurately "check their work". And we don't know if there is a different "base year" for each resort or if DVC uses the same one for all the resorts.

There may be even more considerations that impact the reallocation calculations. For example, does the reallocation have to be exactly the same or can it be close, say within some very small percentage of the original?

It may be fun to add up the points on the chart, but doing that really doesn't mean DVC did it right or did it wrong.