Using DVC for alternate year/less than annual trips-- experiences?

[EWL]

I'm curious to hear how many DVC owners use their points to go every 2-3 years instead of annually, and how you find that works for you? We are considering DVC and can easily see how it would be great and not terribly complicated for going every year. But we'd be more likely to go alternate years or even every 3rd year. Doing that seems to make logistics and planning more complicated since we'd be banking and borrowing with all the relevant rules and deadlines coming even more into play. If you use your DVC for trips every 2-3 years, do you find it to work well and be worth the extra effort in planning the best use of your points? Have you ever felt compelled to visit WDW when you might not have otherwise because you had points that would expire? Appreciate anyone willing to share their practical experiences in using DVC in this way. Thanks!

 

[TandyR]

We go every other year and that is how we have done it since we bought in in 2001. It works really well for us. I keep a spread sheet that keeps track of point usage and banking and borrowing and there has been no problems.

It might not be the financially the best way to use the points because the real cost of the stay is two years of dues and the cost of the points, we could have gotten a hotel room cheaper...I calculated it out once and per night DVC has cost us about $500 per night, but that is partly because we tend to go to WDW during school vacations and the number of points needed for a week is higher then other times during the year.

With that said, we didn't buy in to DVC because of financial issues. We bought in because we liked having a full kitchen on vacation and we liked having two bed rooms so our DDs have a separate from us...which was very nice when they took naps during the day...now that they are 11 and 14....we just like that they have their own space for their mess.

The other reason we bought in is my DH is a total workaholic and if we didn't have points to use I am not sure how many family vacations we would have had over the last 10 years. With DVC I can say to him easily that we have points we need to use it is time to go to WDW and he loves WDW so he makes the time.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

We go twice during our UY (2 trips on one AP) but then skip the next UY. Every other year like this is pretty easy to plan. Every third year is much more complicated and may result in some leftover points or the need to buy up to 24 one time use points from DVC. -- Suzanne

 

[Dean]

I'm curious to hear how many DVC owners use their points to go every 2-3 years instead of annually, and how you find that works for you? We are considering DVC and can easily see how it would be great and not terribly complicated for going every year. But we'd be more likely to go alternate years or even every 3rd year. Doing that seems to make logistics and planning more complicated since we'd be banking and borrowing with all the relevant rules and deadlines coming even more into play. If you use your DVC for trips every 2-3 years, do you find it to work well and be worth the extra effort in planning the best use of your points? Have you ever felt compelled to visit WDW when you might not have otherwise because you had points that would expire? Appreciate anyone willing to share their practical experiences in using DVC in this way. Thanks!

You'll get those that say DVC is less of a value for EOY and mousesavers article on buying DVC says that as well. However, it was written assuming a min of 150 points and having enough points for EY. IF one goes every other year and owns around the number of points they own, the value is exactly the same as owning half the points EY. Once you get to every 3rd year, you have to worry about going over the 3 years and losing points.

 

[Skpnw]

We don't go every year - we have two young children and it is easier to go for a longer period of time every 2 years. I don't know what our DVC trip schedule will be like once the kids are in school, though. It is a long haul from Seattle so short trips are not feasible anyway.

We are using 3 years worth of points for our upcoming trip - we are straddling our use year so during the latter half of our trip, we can borrow from the third year.

When we purchased, we figured we would only be going every 2 years, giving us a chance to vacation on the west coast on the off-year or go do something non-Disney in that year as well.

 

[ogguls22]

We have not been going every year and when we don't go I rent or trade my points and use the cash for a non-Disney vacation. Last year I traded by points and the $$ paid for a cabin on a Caribbean cruise (not Disney) for my two teens (18 and 20) - I was able to book them their own inside room across the hall from our room which was an outside/verandah cabin. Of course the hung out in our room but had their own space to sleep and shower and get ready to go out and about.

 

[nolanboys]

We are a family of 6 and bought 200 points- enough to go EOY, with one shorter trip for DH and myself every 4 years. We are going in 13 days, and will not be back again until NYE 2012. We tend to take one major trip a year and love the national parks a's well. We do WDW and then a national park the next year. When the kids are older and DH and myself have more flexible vacation time because we won't have to worry about the kids school and sports, we plan on going more frequently.

 

[KerTggr]

Since we essentially lose 2 days every time we go (flying cross-country), we like to plan longer trips. We do WDW every 3 years for 1 to 2 weeks at a time - whichever allows for using 2 years worth of points for this. We then go to DL every year and use our points for the smaller, long-weekend type trips (sometimes we do end up supplementing with a cash day).

We actually plan across my sis & my accounts when we do family trips to WDW too. Since we got a good spreadsheet set up that works logically for the both of us, it has been pretty easy to manage.