using points for non Disney hotels

[jns]

OK have you used your points for booking other hotels / resorts if so how easy is it to do
did you think it was value for your points

 

[Sue's Mum]

I have thought about it a couple of times for other WDW hotels but, in the end, I decided it wasn't worth it. In one instance (Fort Wilderness, I think, but can't remember the time of the year), it worked out cheaper to book a room, get an AA discount, and rent out points at $10 per point. It meant we had points left over instead of not enough points!

 

[mark&sue]

We have used points for three different types of non-dvc trips

Points for Disney cruise - Easy to book and we thought very good value as would never have gone on the cruise and included food and cabin service etc.

An exchange in Devon in February half term - again easy to book. Asked for anything in the UK during the half term week. Good value for us as we were short of cash for flights etc and had a very good week for nothing which we would otherwise not had

Disneyland Paris - had to wait while the points table to come out, but again not a lot of travel costs as we drove and includes breakfast and park tickets.

Would definately do non DVC again


Susan

 

[gilld]

I really don't think it matters when others say it isn't a good use of points. What matters is what is good for each person. We used nearly a year's points to stay 3 nights at the Grand Floridian Royal Palm Club.

Many people told us this wasn't a good use of our points but we had the points available and for us, it meant we didn't spend a penny when staying there - not even food as we're not large eaters and ate from the Concierge Lounge.

It is up to you what you do with your points.

 

[TinkTatoo]

If you want to stay at another Disney hotel then it's not the best use of points. You'd be better off renting them out and using the cash to pay for your resort stay.

 

[gilld]

If you want to stay at another Disney hotel then it's not the best use of points. You'd be better off renting them out and using the cash to pay for your resort stay.

Remember though that any income from renting points is taxable, which means it isn't as good a deal as you'd think. I lost 40% in tax and had I rented out my points and used the prcoeeds to pay for my GF stay, it would have cost me more money than I made. So for me, it made absolute sense.

 

[TinkTatoo]

.....So for me, it made absolute sense.

I agree with what you said before - each situation is individual so there's no right or wrong.

We decided to pay cash for two weekend nights at Vero Beach as I couldn't justify using 106 points for two nights when I could get 5 week nights for almost the same points

 

[brightspark]

We made a trip in Jan that we thought would be our last for a year or two (haha circumstances changed if you look at my ticker)... so we decided to treat ourselves to a couple of nights at the Animal Kingdom Lodge (we didn't know about the upcoming villa's at that point). I don't think it's great value for money.. BUT we had already paid for our points, so we didn't have to layout any more money... It was a lovely treat which we wouldn't have had otherwise!

 

[gilld]

That's exactly the way we view it.

 

[jjpenguin]

We had some points available and used them for AKL concierge, specially to do the sunrise safari.
Also used them to exchange to spain when we had extra points just after buying.

the way we look at it, we've paid for them and the value is in how much we enjoy them, not the relative cash value.

 

[Princess_Melanie]

I agree that it's down to personal choice - we would much rather stay in a resort in WDW and use our points but we can't get there till next year now (not enough annual holiday left this year for either of us!!)

So - we're going to DLRP in December for a few days to get away, get our Disney fix and have a belated anniversary celebration. We were lucky to get the cheapest Eurostar prices on the direct service so it's worked out ok this time.

Possibly won't do this again as it is an "expensive" way of using points, but we are staying in the Disneyland Hotel and it's costing us a LOT less than if we were to book and pay using £'s instead of points!!

 

[Sue's Mum]

Remember though that any income from renting points is taxable, which means it isn't as good a deal as you'd think. I lost 40% in tax and had I rented out my points and used the prcoeeds to pay for my GF stay, it would have cost me more money than I made. So for me, it made absolute sense.

Tax - what's that!

 

[CustardTart]

I really don't think it matters when others say it isn't a good use of points. What matters is what is good for each person. We used nearly a year's points to stay 3 nights at the Grand Floridian Royal Palm Club.

Many people told us this wasn't a good use of our points but we had the points available and for us, it meant we didn't spend a penny when staying there - not even food as we're not large eaters and ate from the Concierge Lounge.

It is up to you what you do with your points.

I totally agree! We've used points to book a stay in concierge at the Disneyland Hotel next August. We're doing a DCL Mexican Riviera cruise and wanted to extend the vacation to include an LA stay but it was looking like it was going to cost an arm and a leg! Luckily, we were able to book 2 of our 3 flights with VA using Flying Club miles and the DVC points took care of our 6 night post-cruise stay. When I think of the cash we spent going to GCH for NYE in 2005, I'm over the moon we finally bought into DVC and, as long as you're using them, IMO there's no wrong way to enjoy the points...

 

[pampat]

Jackie,

You asked about staying in non-Disney hotels. Do you mean the ones in the Concierge Collection? Everyone has replied about the Disney Hotels, but we've used the CC several times. It is very easy, the hotels are marvellous and you get to see places well out of the Disney domain.

Pam