Swan/Dolphin - value of paying with points?

[olive]

We currently have a reservation with points - the 11K/night for resort view - for January for the S/D portion of our split stay; the second half will be at a one bedroom villa at BLT for the extra space. It will be my husband and I and our two sons, 5 and 6 months at the time of the trip. Sleep has been good for the little one so far, though who knows what it will be like in January. We are considering one bedroom options instead in case that will be much easier for the 5 year old. I know we can switch to a suite for 20K/night at S/D. I can't decide whether it makes sense to switch to the suite on points, or to pay cash instead based on the value. It isn't 100% clear to me which category of room we would be getting for the 20K points. Not sure how much this matters, but it would be for 6 nights, so we would get one night "free" on points. Of course, getting two regular rooms on points instead of the suite is also a possibility. Since promotions are limited for 2013 now for S/D, it is hard for me to estimate the value. We have never stayed there on points before, and our prior S/D stay was Memorial Day to early June in an Epcot fireworks view room at Dolphin for which we secured a great cash rate. Any thoughts? Thanks so much!

 

[afcgirl]

Hi, we just booked the Swan yesterday using points, but we only had enough points for three nights in a standard room (10,000 per night) so we are paying cash for the other 4 nights of our stay. The standard room has always been plenty of room for me, my husband and two boys. My kids are older now but I don't think when my kids were five that they would have wanted to sleep in a hotel room separate from the rest of the family. Especially not in an entirely different hotel room. Maybe your son is more independent than mine were at that age. (Unless your husband will stay with your older son and then you would sleep with the baby).

In any event, I always like to use points if I have them rather than put out cash.

 

[olive]

Oh no! I didn't mean to be confusing! If we had two rooms, we would each sleep in one room with one child (and if possible get adjoining rooms and leave the door open). For a suite with a separate bedroom, it would probably be the same thing with one of us sleeping in the bedroom with the baby and the other in the living space with our 5 year old. The 5 year old might not care about being in a separate space by himself but we would never allow it. Sorry if I was unclear about that.