Spreading points???

[bigfish]

Hi...My hubby and I are trying to decide exactly how we want to buy into DVC. We are pretty sure it's something we want to do, but are now trying to figure out the logistics. It seems the more I read about it, the more confused I get.

What if we bought into mulitple resorts? Is there a minimum amount of points you have to own to book 11 months out? If we bought 100 points in one resort and 120 in another..... would there be an advantage with having two home resorts? Or am I missing something and setting myself up for issues in the future?

TIA for any advice!!

~ Mindy

 

[MFMont]

Hi...My hubby and I are trying to decide exactly how we want to buy into DVC. We are pretty sure it's something we want to do, but are now trying to figure out the logistics. It seems the more I read about it, the more confused I get.

What if we bought into mulitple resorts? Is there a minimum amount of points you have to own to book 11 months out? If we bought 100 points in one resort and 120 in another..... would there be an advantage with having two home resorts? Or am I missing something and setting myself up for issues in the future?

TIA for any advice!!

~ Mindy

It is not a bad idea if you have enough points for your omplete stay at each resort. I have heard others do this and Bank/Borrow every other year. Good strategy if you like two different resorts. Is that why you would go this route? If i am not mistaken I think you would need to buy resale to get anything less than 150 points?

 

[Deb & Bill]

You just need to find out how many points your stay will take. Then either buy half as many as you need or one third as many. Then use banking and borrowing to get your trip.

So if you have 100 BCV points and you need 250, bank 100, use 100 and borrow 50 to get the points you need.

You can only use home resort points at 11 months out. At 7 months out, they can be combined for any resort.

 

[Buckeye Fan]

Hi, Mindy! to the DisBoards!

There are definite advantages to owning at multiple resorts. You can use those points (no minimum required) to book 8 - 11 months out at your home resort, and then any DVC member can book at any DVC resort at the 7 month window.

Thing is, let's say you buy 100 BCV points and 120 BLT points. You can't combine the 220 BCV/BLT points to book at BCV 8 - 11 months out. However, since Disney does allow you to bank/use/borrow, that 100 point BCV contract (if you plan and time it right) can give you up to 300 BCV points to use. Obviously, though, you'd use 3 years worth of points with that one transaction. But, you'd have 120 points (and up to 360 points with banking/using/borrowing) to plan a future trip. Once you get to the 7 month mark, you can combine points from any contracts you have to make a reservation (since at 7 months the home resort priority doesn't matter anymore).

With that being said, I wouldn't purchase multiple home resorts unless I was buying enough points to alternate stays every other year, or was happy with split stays. For example, a 50 point contract could get you 4 week nights per year in a studio at OKW, but only ~2 week nights at BCV. Weekend stays require more points, so if you're planning on staying F or Sat night, it's even less. If you do decide to buy resale, make sure the contracts you purchase have the same Use Year. It's not the end of the world if they don't, but it makes combining points from multiple contracts at that 7 month mark so much easier.

Just keep reading and it will start to make more sense. Also, ask away! There are so many great people here to help! I love these boards!

 

[ldvcshop]

We first bought when the kids were very little. 300 points got us where we wanted to be since we were able to travel in the off months. Our preschool had a modified traditional school schedule and gave us 2 weeks off 3 times during the year. This was amazing, we could travel at value times and avoid the crowds. Then our next school had ski week, another bonus!

Sadly, high school puts us in a bind. There is only one true week during the summer that we can travel, right in the middle of everyone else and right in the middle of the high season. So, we ended up buying 300 more points at another resort so that we can travel when we must. Eventually, this will probably be too many points for a retired couple to use, however, we are hoping that there are grand kids...

There are restrictions to combining points and using points from canceled plans. Now, we try to figure out every two years to go on a great trip using current and banked points.

For cruises we get 2 rooms since the kids are too big for all 4 of us to be comfortable together. We love to spread out in the timeshares and prefer a 2 bedroom; however, we have squeezed into a studio or even a 1 bedroom when they were small.

Basically, it seems that our points needs grew over the years so 600 points total suits us well now (personaly, I would like more, but DH says no) which only allows us to go every other year. I supplement with cash when we need to.

Our next venture hopefully will be Europe or back to Maui at the Grand Wailea, one of our other memberships. My advice is try to get a hold of a point book which shows when and where you can go for how many points. Points seem to be going up for rentals over the years (owners since 1996). Also, new things are added like Adventures by Disney, which require a lot of points. Some we will never go on with all points because we don't have enough to cover the costs.

I remember they wanted to sell us the 100 point package at first and I'm glad we bought more, since the price has gone up tremendously since then. Occasionally, after you are a member they will roll back the prices and offer incentives, but when i think of what those first DVC members paid, I am envious. We debated for years before we jumped in.

Good luck and think about what you will use and how you will use your points in the future.

 

[Sandisw]

If there are really two resorts you want to be able to book at 11 months, or want to be able to book a resort during a special time of year, then I would consider two resorts.

If not, then I say get all your points at one to start out. We own all our points so far at BLT , but are realizing that we want to start going down for F & W in October at least every other year. Because of that, and how easy it would be to do if we were at either BCV or BWV, we have decided that we will be adding on a small contract at BWV so that we can book there 11 months ahead for those Oct. trips.

What I think is most important, however, is to be sure that whatever you decide, you can book your entire trip at the 11 month window in the way you want.

We did own VWL at the beginning, but it was so small, that even with what I owned at BLT at the time, it wasn't enough to book my entire summer trip, without having to borrow, which I did not want to do. That is why we sold and then re-bought at BLT.

Good luck!

 

[ToddyLu]

Welcome to the DIS. I would stay on these forums and read, read read, then read some more before you purchase. It is an expensive timeshare that we love being a part of. Read all the stickies at the top of the forums. You can also get a DVC guide book from the Passporter website that you can download for a small fee. You can also read newbie primers at DVCNews.com. It was a good year of reading before I felt really comfy with our Membership.

You need to understand UY (Use Year) because it can affect your cancellations. You need to be aware of how many points your usual trip will cost and base your purchase on that. If you purchase RESALE points you can only use them a DVC resorts, no longer at DCL or ABD. If you purchase points DIRECT from Disney then there is no limitation on how you use these points. It is not very "cost effective" to use points for trips outside of the DVC resorts themselves. Many of the cruises take lots of points and then other destinations are very expensive "points wise".

Good luck with your decisions. DVC completely changes your Disney trip.

 

[bigfish]

Thanks everyone! We were looking at having two home resorts just because we can't decide which resort we want as our home resort. We like BLT because of the convenience with our small kiddos right now and we like AKV because of the view and enviroment. By owning at both, I thought we may be able to book 11 months out at both.

HOWEVER.... NEW QUESTION....

If I only own 100 pts at BLT (and I borrow 100) can I book a 270 pt room 11 mos out??? Then apply 70 pts from my AKV at 7 mos out to my BLT booking? Sorry... I know this is getting specific. I'm reading as fast as I can... but my everytime I get an something answered... three more questions pop up. LOL!!

Thanks!!!

 

[tjkraz]

HOWEVER.... NEW QUESTION....

If I only own 100 pts at BLT (and I borrow 100) can I book a 270 pt room 11 mos out??? Then apply 70 pts from my AKV at 7 mos out to my BLT booking?

In that scenario you can only book 200 points worth of rooms at 11 months. The 70 AKV points could not be used until the 7 month window, and that's assuming there is still availability for the same room size and view if you want it to be one continuous stay.

With 100 points you could use BANKED points plus current year and borrowed to give you up to 300 for a single reservation. But you can only do that once every 3 years.

I will say that I bought a smallish contract with the intent of doing this (3 years worth of points for one booking) and it's a pain more than anything. Having walked that road myself, I would at least buy enough points so you can get the room that you want every TWO years. In other words, if your typical BLT stay will be about 270 points, buy at least 135. If you try to do it with a 100 point contract, you will quickly run into situations where it's hard to use straggler points for anything meaningful.

 

[nolanboys]

You would have to bank 100 points one year, and then use those, along with your current years points and borrow 70 points from the next year to book at the 11 mo. mark. You can only use your other home resort points at the 7 mo booking window and you cannot return the borrowed points you used to book at the 11 mo. window. If you split up your points between two resorts I would make sure you have enough points to make sure book the room size and length of stay in the season you want. You can always book at your other home resort at the 11 mo window and then either keep a split stay or hope that you can switch to all the same resort right at the 7 mo window. It may work out, but there are no guarentees. Good luck with your decision.