Question from Newbie

[CC197823]

Not sure if I am even posting this on the right board. I have questions about the buying of points.

How does this work? How do you find out how many points you need? Does it have to be for a full week or can you reserve a weekend?

Unrelated question: anyone know if Disney has florida resident rates on hotels?



Suggestions?

 

[Quilter007]

We figured out how many points we thought we'd need like this:

- we thought about how long we usually liked to stay (you don't have to stay a full week -- a one night stay is OK)
- we thought about how big of a room we'd need right now, how big of a room we'd need in 10 years, how big of a room we'd need in 20 years, etc....
- we thought about how often we liked to go
- we thought about how much we could afford

Then we realized that the 160 points minimum would not be nearly enough points for us and bought 220! When we bought we got "developer points" which were a whole extra year of points that had to be used right away. We've used those, plus our 1st year's points, and half of our 2nd year's points. We'll use the 2nd half of our 2nd year's points in another 5 month's and then be borrowing from the 3rd year. So bottom line, we really could buy another 100 points.

Now our kids are 6 and 9. We are 39. Are we really going to use DVC when they are in college, out of college, etc? Well, we went to Disneyland a lot before we had kids, so I think so. You can bet that once they are old enough to wander about by themselves that you'll be able to find me in the spa at the Grand Cal at least one hot afternoon...especially when as I get further away from 39. Once they start having kids, I know we'll want to take the grandkids & then we definitely won't have enough points again...sigh!

I'm in California, so I don't know about Florida rates on hotels. I know that in California, Disney has Annual Passholder rates on the hotels here.

You should also look at the resale market. If you are only looking at going for a weekend and don't need 160 points, you can buy a small contract by resale and try it out without buying the 160 points Disney wants you to buy to start out.

Good luck with your decisions!

 

[Deb & Bill]

Not sure if I am even posting this on the right board. I have questions about the buying of points.

How does this work? How do you find out how many points you need? Does it have to be for a full week or can you reserve a weekend?

Unrelated question: anyone know if Disney has florida resident rates on hotels?



Suggestions?

If you are looking at purchasing a real estate interest, then you will have that for years to come as long as you pay the annual member fees.

If you are looking at renting a reservation from a member for a single trip, that is considered "renting a reservation". Points are worthless to you if you are not a member. Check at the top of the page for DVC Points Charts and it will tell you how many points are needed for your number of nights and location.

You can stay as many nights as you have available points for the villa and resort you want to stay in. So one night or 30 nights, if you have the points available.

Yes, WDW does usually have FL resident rates that are advertised from time to time, but they aren't standing rates that can be used anytime or anyplace. You could call Disney Reservation Center (DRC) and ask them about possible FL resident rates or even check Mousesavers.com. Mary usually has the most recent discounts listed on her website. Sign up for her e-mails and you will get her newest listing every month. Also, the DIS will usually have discounts listed as well.