docsoliday1
DIS Dad #834 Cubs, Dolphins fan forever
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2008
- Messages
- 4,800
I've never done a TR or a PTR before, but I've been inspired by the wonderful TR writers (@Captain_Oblivious, @Steppesister, @ariane37, @afwdwfan and @pkondz to name a few[Please do not be offended if you're not listed...this is far and away not an all-inclusive list]). I'm hoping this can be interesting or of help to someone, but I'm not a great photographer, so you have been warned.
WHO?
Me: 53yo (hence the way past college days title)
DW: 29+
Thanks Andy!
DD: 17
WHAT?
Trip to Disney. Duh!
WHERE?
From Atlanta to... (thanks to @pkondz for pointing out I forgot this point initially)
Beach Club Villas (1 day)
Board Walk Villas (3 days)
Sheraton Vistana Resort Villas (2 days)
WHEN?
February 18th-22nd (maybe 24th), 2018
HOW?
Well, this is a bit of a comical story and/or screwup on my part. We've been DVC members since 2008 and although I'm very good at math, I cannot, for the life of me, seem to get the use year and banking deadline straight.
A little background to explain my screwup... We have to arrange our trips around when the kids (well just 1 kid now) are out of school. The schedule for Atlanta area schools have almost no summer break now, but have multiple 1 week breaks spread throughout the year. February was a break this year (2017) and will be again next year, so, we went to AKL in February and I thought I had used all our points and borrowed from next year.
I logged into my account to start planning for next year and looked at my points. I had a message that both concerned and surprised me. The message was you've past your banking window or something similar to that. I was like whaaa??? What points? Well, my December use year points that I thought I'd used up of course. So, since I was past the banking window, I was confronted with two choices:
1) Book something
2) Lose the points
I suppose I could've tried calling customer service and explaining to them what a bonehead I am and hoping they'd take mercy on me, but didn't really think that was at all likely. Besides, we had to cancel our trip in September, so I was more than ready to get back to the wonderful bubble that is WDW.
So, option #1 became the obvious choice even for a bonehead.
Our home resort is SSR. I know there are a lot of folks who don't like it, but our DS (Disney Style not Son) is alternating days at the park and just relaxing at the resort, so SSR is great for the non-park days.
BUT
We've been trying out other resorts as much as possible. So far, my favorite is WLV, DW's is either OKW or BLT and DD's is AKL or WLV. Two we haven't tried out are BCV and BWV, but I thought since I didn't do this exactly at the 7 month point, no chance. I plugged in the dates and I was very pleasantly surprised...3 days were at BWV. I went ahead and grabbed those since I figured that must be a fluke. This used up most of our points, but then I noticed BCV had Sunday the 18th. I don't like switching resorts that much, but figured could try out two resorts in one trip. It may end up being 3 before we're done...stay tuned. We don't have any more DVC points, but may try to book a day or two out of pocket somewhere.
So, Sunday the 18th at BCV and then the 19th - 22nd at BWV. I couldn't find anything on property for the 23rd and 24th because of the princess marathon weekend, so we had to stay off property.
TABLE OF CONTENTS (yay! Figured out how to make this work!!!)
Let the contest begin
The joys of ADRs
T is for Thank you very much and happy thanksgiving and merry Christmas to you too!
A is for ADRs
Well, this was supposed to be the first round of scoring...
Okay, it's confession day!
Up next: ADRs and park plans
WHO?
Me: 53yo (hence the way past college days title)
DW: 29+

DD: 17
WHAT?
Trip to Disney. Duh!
WHERE?
From Atlanta to... (thanks to @pkondz for pointing out I forgot this point initially)
Beach Club Villas (1 day)
Board Walk Villas (3 days)
Sheraton Vistana Resort Villas (2 days)
WHEN?
February 18th-22nd (maybe 24th), 2018
HOW?
Well, this is a bit of a comical story and/or screwup on my part. We've been DVC members since 2008 and although I'm very good at math, I cannot, for the life of me, seem to get the use year and banking deadline straight.
A little background to explain my screwup... We have to arrange our trips around when the kids (well just 1 kid now) are out of school. The schedule for Atlanta area schools have almost no summer break now, but have multiple 1 week breaks spread throughout the year. February was a break this year (2017) and will be again next year, so, we went to AKL in February and I thought I had used all our points and borrowed from next year.
I logged into my account to start planning for next year and looked at my points. I had a message that both concerned and surprised me. The message was you've past your banking window or something similar to that. I was like whaaa??? What points? Well, my December use year points that I thought I'd used up of course. So, since I was past the banking window, I was confronted with two choices:
1) Book something
2) Lose the points
I suppose I could've tried calling customer service and explaining to them what a bonehead I am and hoping they'd take mercy on me, but didn't really think that was at all likely. Besides, we had to cancel our trip in September, so I was more than ready to get back to the wonderful bubble that is WDW.
So, option #1 became the obvious choice even for a bonehead.
Our home resort is SSR. I know there are a lot of folks who don't like it, but our DS (Disney Style not Son) is alternating days at the park and just relaxing at the resort, so SSR is great for the non-park days.
BUT
We've been trying out other resorts as much as possible. So far, my favorite is WLV, DW's is either OKW or BLT and DD's is AKL or WLV. Two we haven't tried out are BCV and BWV, but I thought since I didn't do this exactly at the 7 month point, no chance. I plugged in the dates and I was very pleasantly surprised...3 days were at BWV. I went ahead and grabbed those since I figured that must be a fluke. This used up most of our points, but then I noticed BCV had Sunday the 18th. I don't like switching resorts that much, but figured could try out two resorts in one trip. It may end up being 3 before we're done...stay tuned. We don't have any more DVC points, but may try to book a day or two out of pocket somewhere.
So, Sunday the 18th at BCV and then the 19th - 22nd at BWV. I couldn't find anything on property for the 23rd and 24th because of the princess marathon weekend, so we had to stay off property.

TABLE OF CONTENTS (yay! Figured out how to make this work!!!)
Let the contest begin
The joys of ADRs
T is for Thank you very much and happy thanksgiving and merry Christmas to you too!
A is for ADRs
Well, this was supposed to be the first round of scoring...
Okay, it's confession day!
Up next: ADRs and park plans
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