Questions about DVC from non DVC member

[canadiandisneynut]

Hi there
We are huge Disney fans and luckily had the opportunity to trade into BLT through RCI last September. We loved it. We are considering making a purchase into DVC and have been analysing point values.
A couple of questions for you wonderful members:

1) If we were to rent DVC points from a DVC member do we then have access to a login to book our week? I assume we would have 11 months out at their home and 7 months for other resorts?
2) We love BLT but notice points are cheaper to purchase at other resorts. How likely is it that we would be able to book at BLT 7 months out with our points from another home resort? Does anyone have experience with this?

Kind regards and thanks so much in advance!

 

[artesian]

I have not had any luck in getting BLT 180 out but I do go during a busier time of year. You would have a higher chance of getting it in off peak times.

 

[TagsMissy]

Answers below in coloured font

Hi there
We are huge Disney fans and luckily had the opportunity to trade into BLT through RCI last September. We loved it. We are considering making a purchase into DVC and have been analysing point values.
A couple of questions for you wonderful members:

1) If we were to rent DVC points from a DVC member do we then have access to a login to book our week? I assume we would have 11 months out at their home and 7 months for other resorts?
When you rent points you have 0 control or access to the points. The owner still owns both the points and controls the reservation, they just put the reservation in your name. Yes the booking would be 11 mos at whatever DVC the owner owns at and 7 mos at other DVC. When you rent to tell the owner what you want, often with 2nd and third choices and they try and book those.

2) We love BLT but notice points are cheaper to purchase at other resorts. How likely is it that we would be able to book at BLT 7 months out with our points from another home resort? Does anyone have experience with this?

It really depends on time of year and the category booking. Standard villas are difficult to get in most seasons if you aren't an owner, though that was eased up a bit since they re-evaluated the categories and more villas became available. For the most part LV is often available at 7 mos but again this can depend on events/time of year.

Kind regards and thanks so much in advance!

 

[supersnoop]

If you aren't a member, then you don't actually rent the points. You rent a reservation from a member; they use their points to secure the reservation. You can add the reservation to your MDE account which will give you all the same benefits as a normal on-site hotel reservation.

 

[canadiandisneynut]

Thank you everybody! I appreciate the assistance. We like to travel to BLT in September which seems to be a nice down time.
One more question- would an owner at BLT ever have an issue booking at their own home resort at 11 months out?

 

[gdrj]

2) We love BLT but notice points are cheaper to purchase at other resorts. How likely is it that we would be able to book at BLT 7 months out with our points from another home resort? Does anyone have experience with this?

Overall in my experience its been good, BUT lots of variables. Time of year Studio, vs 1 BR vs 2 BR vs Grand Villa. 7 day trip or 3 /4 days. Are you willing to do a split stay at 2 resorts. It is also a lot easier to play with reservation as owner vs renting and move dates around etc. I happen to be looking 7 months out now for myself and have full availability.

I have not had any luck in getting BLT 180 out but I do go during a busier time of year. You would have a higher chance of getting it in off peak times.

I have been fortunate and not had an issue again depends on the factors above

Thank you everybody! I appreciate the assistance. We like to travel to BLT in September which seems to be a nice down time.
One more question- would an owner at BLT ever have an issue booking at their own home resort at 11 months out?

I don't believe there would be any issue. Also realize months 8,9,10 will also give you advantage as well.

 

[MAO]

Thank you everybody! I appreciate the assistance. We like to travel to BLT in September which seems to be a nice down time.
One more question- would an owner at BLT ever have an issue booking at their own home resort at 11 months out?

I own at the Boardwalk and have made a reservation for October - during Food and Wine Festival - probably 13 of the last 15 years at the 11 month mark. I have reserved 1 room, 2 rooms, and last November I reserved 4 rooms for this year. I have never once had an issue getting the exact room I wanted. In fact, this last time I asked Member Services how likely it would be that I'd get my three 1-bedroom (standard view) and one 2-bedroom (Boardwalk view) requests and she laughed at the idea that there would be any problem. Nor was there the slightest issue.

If you own where you want to stay and make your reservation at that 11 month deadline, you should be fine.

 

[chalee94]

One more question- would an owner at BLT ever have an issue booking at their own home resort at 11 months out?

during very busy times for DVC bookings (which are not the same as very busy times at the parks) and for very limited supply villas (club level or value at AKV, standard view at BLT, studios at VGF) there might possibly be an issue. but it is very rare.

 

[jbish]

We own at BLT and while we've only made three trips on it, I've not had any problems getting something booked. However, for our next trip, I thought I would try and use less points and tried to get a standard view 1BR at 10 months out - it was not available. That's not to say that I may not have gotten it off the wait list, but it wasn't immediately available. So we are sticking with the lake view room. Lake view and Theme Park views seems to be more available (since they cost more). That's just my observations. I love BLT - the location is perfect for our family.

 

[Anal Annie]

We have owned at SSR since 2006 and have been lucky enough to secure ressies at ALL of the DVC resorts at 7 months (including Aulani, VGC and also a BLT LV studio during spring break). We have not tried VGF yet but COULD have snagged a few nights this summer as part of our summer trip if we'd have wanted to part with that many points. (We are trying to dig out of a borrowing hole so decided to hold off on VGF until another time.)

A little background on our usage...we only use studios and typically only go in the summer with an occasional spring break or long holiday weekend here & there (MLK or Memorial Day). For any hard-to-get ressies I ALWAYS book online promptly at 8:00 on my 7 month window. The shortest notice trip we ever did was booked at 2 weeks out (and yes, availability was slim to almost none). We like our SSR just fine but we like to mix it up & enjoy resort hopping and like to stay someplace different on each trip so that each trip is unique. When we go to make our ressies we always approach it with 2 or 3 resorts in mind (with a 1st, 2nd & 3rd choice). This eliminates any disappointment if we don't have an all or nothing mentality. (The exception to this was when we were planning for VGC and Aulani - that was all or nothing.) We have stayed at AKV the most often, for several reasons. It is a beautiful resort and the point charts are very forgiving (reasonable) for those of us who are "points challenged". It is our DS's fav resort which is why we're doing a split stay there this summer before he heads off for his freshman year of college. It's also very large so it's easy to book at 7 months (unless you want concierge or value - you can forget those categories at 7 months).

It is my opinion (based on my personal experience) that you could most likely buy at a cheaper resort and get still into BLT MOST of the time. But go into it open minded that you may need to stay elsewhere from time to time.

 

[canadiandisneynut]

All of you are so amazing. Thanks so much for you help. Anal Annie you mentioned that you are points challenged. How many points do you survive on each year?

 

[keishashadow]

I own at the Boardwalk and have made a reservation for October - during Food and Wine Festival - probably 13 of the last 15 years at the 11 month mark. I have reserved 1 room, 2 rooms, and last November I reserved 4 rooms for this year. I have never once had an issue getting the exact room I wanted. In fact, this last time I asked Member Services how likely it would be that I'd get my three 1-bedroom (standard view) and one 2-bedroom (Boardwalk view) requests and she laughed at the idea that there would be any problem. Nor was there the slightest issue.

If you own where you want to stay and make your reservation at that 11 month deadline, you should be fine.

imo it's dependent upon type of unit and time frame. For really popular times, members often 'walk' reservations for better chance of success, then modify.

Booking studios (especially the standard) during F&W for the first two weeks in October has been a completely different story for me over the years, even at the 11 month window. This year I had to waitlist but it did come thru within a week or so of the 11 month window (perhaps the walking affect for those who wanted to book Columbus Day weekend). Other times the waitlist never materialized & we wound up staying offsite or booking a room-only for missing dates during our stay. As a disclaimer - I am not flexible enough to book a 1 BR or interested in staying at some of the DVC resorts.

OP - we have often had good luck switching to BLT at 7 month window, even into the standard view studios. However, we have bought into the resorts where we typically want to stay, just like to switch it up to other resorts now & again.

 

[luckyman_apd]

We own BLT. It's my wife's favorite. I wanted to buy SSR because it would have been cheaper, but she said no....she didn't want to run the risk of NOT getting BLT if she wanted to stay there. For the most part it's worked out well for us as we are able to save some points by booking Standard view....but we must do that at 11 months out. We could get LV most of the time at 7 months, but if I own there, i'd rather save the points.

 

[canadiandisneynut]

@luckyman_apd That's a great way to approach it. Seriously considering ownership and its flexibility

 

[Anal Annie]

All of you are so amazing. Thanks so much for you help. Anal Annie you mentioned that you are points challenged. How many points do you survive on each year?

We own 250 points. There are certainly people with less points but there are also a LOT of people around the boards who own many, many more too. In comparison to those who own enough points to book a 2-bedroom we're "points challenged". When we bought in we decided to buy based on our SSR point charts the amount of points that would be required to spend either 2 weeks in a studio during "magic" season rates or 1 week in a 1 bedroom during "magic" season (at SSR). We figured most of our trips would be during the summer so the "magic" season was our minimum season to go by. We figured we may as well plan for an average of 2 trips a year in some combination (the 1-bedroom isn't something we'll do very often at this point but we figured we may as well buy enough points to do it if we wanted to). You can see our past trips in my signature - we've had some pretty spectacular trips since we bought in and I think we've managed the points pretty well. Some years we've only done 1 longer trip, some years we haven't gone at all to WDW (did something else like HHI to save money or a DCL / Europe trip and last summer we went to DL and Aulani). If you read the beginning of my trip report for last summer you'll see why we were in a borrowing hole last year and why we tried the 1-bedroom (once) AND why we booked a trip at only 2 weeks. I was really thankful for our SSR being so big that time and for the flexibility of how DVC works. Now, if you study the point charts for all the resorts you will see that those 250 points can actually be spread pretty far if used in the right way (using SSR & AKV a fair amount of the time). They won't go nearly as far if we would consistently stay at places like VGC or VGF or the new Poly resort. Those resorts are points hogs. We'll try them from time to time on shorter stays but can't afford to stay there often or for extended trips. BLT is higher too but not AS BAD as those. The LV points are pretty reasonable in most seasons and I would like to stay there again one day. Where to buy is a huge decision but you could definitely save several thousand by buying someplace else. But you should be willing to stay somewhere else sometimes if necessary. We have really enjoyed almost all of the resorts and appreciate and embrace that they're all different. At the time that we bought, SSR was the only resort for sale direct from DVC. AKV had just been announced but wasn't for sale yet and our guide said it would be more expensive so we decided with our wallet not to wait on it and it's worked out great for us.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

All of you are so amazing. Thanks so much for you help. Anal Annie you mentioned that you are points challenged. How many points do you survive on each year?

Another way of becoming "points challenged" is that it is extremely easy to get yourself into a borrowing hole. Having those points there to use is so tantalizing! It's like someone dangling a chocolate bar in front of you day in and day out. For us it's very easy to book an extra Disney trip or two because the vacations end up seeming cheaper than if we went anywhere else since out of pocket we usually only need to buy food. Lodging and tickets have already been paid for through annual passes and annual dues.

 

[CMOORE185]

The beauty of DVC to me is that I love all the resorts almost equally. Booking at 7 months has been very good to us and actually the hardest we have found to book has been Wilderness. If you have to stay at one most of the time I would pay the extra money to own there, if you are like me owning the least expensive resort is the best. Remember take dues as well as selling price into consideration.