Question about II and DVC

[Juniortrooper]

Hi,
I'm brand new and working on planning our first trip as a family to WDW in November 2007 (week after Thanksgiving).

My husband's grandparents have several weeks of timeshares and they offered us one to use on our trip. I first read where II is affiliated with DVC on this board--thank you! His grandmother didn't know that until I told her.

Realistically, I'm not counting on getting a week on Disney property. She has requested the 5 onsite and a few more (Vistana something and who knows what else). I am going to edit the reservation to say that we'd take a 1 bedroom (currently it's two...don't laugh, I know I'm dreaming...).

My questions are: my first option would obviously be a Disney property. Since there are others listed in the request, do they stop looking once one is found?

Would we increase our chances of a Disney property if we entered 2 weeks versus one?

How late do they "throw in the towel" and say nothing is available?

What other resorts would you suggest putting on the reservation? After reading the reviews I was thinking of taking off the Vistana place and putting on a couple of Marriott properties that sounded nice.

Thanks so much everyone for your tips and advice!

 

[RobDoc]

There are certainly times when you might have good success trading into DVC, depending on the trading power of your timeshare - but the week after Thanksgiving can be a very tough week for DVC availability. September and January will often have good availability thru II, but late November and early December will be a challenge.

As for your question about the II ongoing search, the answer will depend on the instructions you have for that search. If you will be contacted to approve of an exchange, then you can decline one and still wait - otherwise you may need to accept the first match that comes up for your week.

Good luck!

 

[gianna2006]

With II the more options you have available to them, the better your chances are of getting - not making any promises now!!! Try to expand your available timeframe for going away, and leave flexibility for the size of your room.

Personally I requested Disney property with my II week 11 months in advance, left a month timeframe with which to vacation, and told them either a one or two bedroom - nothing!!! NADA!!! NIENTE!!!! I finally called off the Disney property search after 9 months of waiting and stayed off-site as I had done so many times before....and then visited DVC and bought with Disney!!!! My brother now owns my II week and I have since bought more points with DVC. My next challenge is using my point to trade into II...but I think that will be a little easier than the other way around. There's a whole lot of power with Disney ownership!!!!

 

[Dean]

It really depends on what you want. It's true that the more choices you give II, the more likely you are to match however you are almost certainly going to match one of your least desirable choices. For that time you can easily get something only 2-4 months out at a decent resort. If you can do with a 1 BR, here's what I'd do. I'd edit the search for a 1 BR but for ONLY the on property locations. For that time I'd be surprised if you didn't get it as long as the deposit in question has sufficient trade power and resort quality to do so and is not an Orlando deposit. You should be able to find that out by searching other times with II to see if you can see the DVC deposits that are there. Just make sure you're seeing the ones that are greater than 2 months out. You can do this online with their help or they can do it.

Then if nothing had matched by about 4 months out, I'd change it back to a 2 BR and add in all the Marriott's and Vistana Villages as well as a few others. You can also ask them to put a note in the comment section that you would only accept a 1 BR at DVC but a 2 BR for the others at that time. Your only major road blocks I can see would be if their property had a QRS rating that was too low (even some 5* resorts do), if they deposited too short notice (less than 4-6 months possibly) or if it's an Orlando unit they deposited (which would lock you out of DVC altogether).

 

[Dean]

Personally I requested Disney property with my II week 11 months in advance, left a month timeframe with which to vacation, and told them either a one or two bedroom - nothing!!! NADA!!! NIENTE!!!! I finally called off the Disney property search after 9 months of waiting and stayed off-site as I had done so many times before....and then visited DVC and bought with Disney!!!! My brother now owns my II week and I have since bought more points with DVC. My next challenge is using my point to trade into II...but I think that will be a little easier than the other way around. There's a whole lot of power with Disney ownership!!!!

Given I will have exchanged to DVC for 5 stays within a 16 month period and have seen enough weeks I could have traded for to qualify for FL residency based on that alone, I'm guessing there's another issue with your DVC II request. These would include one of the issues I touched on above, asking for a 2 BR or asking for times that are not likely to be deposited. And it's not that I've traded expensive high demand deposits, in very case it was an uptrade for me and two of them were with a bonus week (only had two bonus weeks).

 

[emerymt]

I requesting DVC through II in about a two-week time period for late/May early June and got it without any problems. In fact, I got it faster than I received many other trades, like to Hawaii, where I have never been able to get into Kauai.

But, don't list other properties if you want Disney, you can always get another one later, even one of the Marriotts ought to be fairly easy to get. I personally would wait until you're approaching the two month mark and then throw in the towel.

 

[emerymt]

Our trade was in to OKW, 2BDR. I requested it a year in advance and got it 2-3 months later, and have been planning every aspect of our trip ever since!

Also, whatever you do, stay out of the Westgate Vacation Villas. What a nightmare.