Questions about DVC for FL residents..

[FSUGrad97]

Hi,

After spending 4 wonderful days at the WL last week, I started thinking about buying into the DVC, but I had a question or 2.

1. Would it be silly to buy into DVC if we are FL residents? We live about 45 minutes to an hour away but I think we will be doing a lot more weekend trips as we have APs.

2. How easy is it to book a quick trip? For example, if we wanted to go in February for a few days, would a room be available or would we have to book much earlier?

3. I LOVE the WL, but I read somewhere that the only DVC that was open was SSR. Would we have to buy there? If we do go DVC, I would love to have the VWL as our home resort - is that possible if everything is sold out?

I know some of these questions are probably pretty silly, but I figured you all would have the best answers for me.

Thanks!

 

[SleepyatDVC]

It wouldn't be silly to buy DVC as a Floridian.

But if you intend to use DVC for mostly weekend trip, it will be cost prohibitive, since the points for weekends are almost double. You'd be better off getting hotel rooms at a discount instead.

Good luck

 

[ErinC]

As Sleepy said, the weekend points are higher, so probably not a great deal for you unless you can include some weeknights in there. You can buy VWL on the resale market, you can check the sponsor of this board on the banner above for some DVC resales. Some people have bought some of the "sold out" resorts from DVC directly, but you might not get them right away. You could talk to a DVC guide and see what they say. My guess is that they will try to steer you toward SSR. You might be successful getting some weekends with short notice, but in general DVC is better suited for those that can plan in advance. There are several people that live close by and still own DVC. They use it for long weekends or when relatives come to town. I'm sure some Floridians can fill you in on how they use their points. Good luck with your decision!

 

[JimMIA]

Hi,

After spending 4 wonderful days at the WL last week, I started thinking about buying into the DVC, but I had a question or 2.

1. Would it be silly to buy into DVC if we are FL residents? We live about 45 minutes to an hour away but I think we will be doing a lot more weekend trips as we have APs.

No, it's not silly. However, DVC works best for those who can plan ahead, and you also need to be aware of the fact that Fri/Sat point costs are roughly double the costs for Sun-Thurs.

2. How easy is it to book a quick trip? For example, if we wanted to go in February for a few days, would a room be available or would we have to book much earlier?

Well...you'll either get it or not. Depending on the exact time you're trying to book, of course, you may be able to get something on relatively short notice. The bad thing with short-notice reservations is that cancellations within 31 days will put the points in "holding account," which is a bad thing. On the other hand, you will probably find that a lot of people cancel ressies 32-33 days out for that reason, which would improve your chances.

3. I LOVE the WL, but I read somewhere that the only DVC that was open was SSR. Would we have to buy there? If we do go DVC, I would love to have the VWL as our home resort - is that possible if everything is sold out?

First of all, that is bad info. You can buy all resorts on the resale market, or you can buy any of the resorts directly from Disney. Guides will push SSR, but they can sell you any of the resorts, subject to availability. There is currently a big difference in price. With the promotion now in effect, SSR is $83.30 direct from Disney and other resorts are $92.

Keep in mind that "home resort" only matters MORE than seven months out. At seven months, "points is points," and it doesn't matter at all what your home resort is.

I know some of these questions are probably pretty silly, but I figured you all would have the best answers for me.

Nope...not silly at all.

 

[allshookup]

We debated this too, even though we don't live in Florida presently, we will be moving there in 1-2 years. We used to think it wasn't worth buying DVC with the great Florida resident rates we will eventually be getting. Now we're thinking that we will most likely go to DW when the kids are on school vacation like Christmas week & Spring break. I think the resident discounts during that time are slim to none, so it finally made sense to us to go ahead & purchase. If we do decide to head over for a weekend, it will be off-season when the resident rates are excellent & we will just go ahead & pay cash.

 

[Cinderelli]

We live just north of Tampa and bought in 2000. I regret not doing it when we first discovered DVC (back in 1993). We usually go alot one year, and then skip the next. We have 160 points so that gives us 320 points on the years we go. We usually buy APs and get 2 - 3 really nice trips each year we go, and we also plan at least 2-3 weekend trips and stay at the various Disney hotels (even off-site sometimes, shhhhhh!). We get lots of use out of our APs when we have them. The first year, we got the seasonal passes, but quickly decided the holidays were too cool to miss and got the regular APs.

We haven't been into the parks (we did do a couple of days of R&R at SSR this past summer) with the kids since Spring Break in 2004. They are itching to go back now, but were ready for a break. We've used most of our 2005 and 2006 points (rented them out) to pay for our upcoming Disney Cruise. We'll probably borrow some 2007 points to add on a few Disney days in early June, after our cruise. We're also hoping to rent some points from a fellow DISer next month to plan a New Years trip for 2006/2007. As you can see, even being a FL resident doesn't help the addiction. After taking a year off - you're ready to go again.

We've had goodluck getting ressies on short notice, but not absolute peak times. We've called just several days out and booked VWL for a few days BEFORE thanksgiving a few years ago. We've always gotten lucky and have gotten into OKW or SSR with only a few weeks notice (not during holidays, tho). And got into BWVs at the 7 month window for a spring break trip. The only thing we haven't been able to get during short notice was for Vero over the 4th of July (we cancelled a month out thinking we couldn't make it, then 2 weeks out decided we could - but no go).

We've enjoyed visiting HH and Vero and so far have no desire to trade-out (except for renting out points to pay for the cruise).

Good Luck with your decision!

Lissa

 

[FSUGrad97]

Thank you all for your advice!

Now if I can just convince DH...