Using Points for other vacations

[tmclanton]

My husband and I are considering buying DVC after our trip (he has never been to WDW and is hesitant to jump in before he goes.)
Honestly, although I would love to go to WDW every year, realistically, I think there are other places I would like to spend our travel dollars. If we are going to have to come up with airfair, tickets, meals... I would like to see the world too!
I know you can use points for other vacations, but I have not seen anyone on here talk about those vacations. Is it not as good a value? What are y'alls (gives away where I am from) opinions on this?
Thanks,
Tammy

 

[Deb & Bill]

There are a lot of cheaper timeshares out there to use for trading than DVC. DVC points are best used at DVC resorts.

 

[Dean]

My husband and I are considering buying DVC after our trip (he has never been to WDW and is hesitant to jump in before he goes.)
Honestly, although I would love to go to WDW every year, realistically, I think there are other places I would like to spend our travel dollars. If we are going to have to come up with airfair, tickets, meals... I would like to see the world too!
I know you can use points for other vacations, but I have not seen anyone on here talk about those vacations. Is it not as good a value? What are y'alls (gives away where I am from) opinions on this?
Thanks,
Tammy

There are few trade options that are a reasonable value but most are a very poor value. IMO, it is an extremely poor choice to buy DVC points you plan to use for non DVC trips including Concierge Collection, other timeshare exchanges, DCL or other Disney hotels. Cost too high, guarantees non existent, too many risks and variables to hope to "break even" at best on the exchanges. Buy less DVC points and consider other options for the non DVC trips. I'd agree that other timeshares can be a great option if you buy resale and do your homework.

 

[tmclanton]

Thanks for the advice. That is kind of what I figured. The whole Timeshare thing is very confusing and overwhelming. I will wait to see what he says after we go to WDW next May!
There is just something so romantic thought about spending the next 45 years vacationing at Disney with the son (now 5) and our future grandkids... I don't think my DH is buying into my dream world!
Thanks,
Tammy

 

[tillerrw]

My wife and I have been DVC members since December 2002 and we've only used our points to stay at Disney twice (once was a quick two night stay the other was for a week). We've used points to stay at a hotel in London, the Grand Hotel on Mackanaw Island in Michigan, a week in California on the ocean, a long weekend in Washington D.C, four nights at Disneyland Paris and we even gave my sister and her family 5 nights in a one bedroom at the Wilderness Lodge.

We bought 200 points at the time (I think 150 was the fewest we could buy) for the Beach Club. If we were to look at it now we wouldn't do it, for many reasons one being we just had our first child. BUT we are so glad we did do it when we did. The timing was just right and now we feel we are reaping the benefits of making the decision we did.

We are already planning to go in December of 2009 when our son is not quite three (he won't need park admission then!). Without the DVC we woudn't know when we would go back. Now we have an excuse or a reason. And when we don't feel like going back each year (more my wife than me ) we can look to going somewhere else. But we've always got a place at Disney.

 

[BriarRose59]

We have used our points to stay in the Royal Garden Hotel in London and the Biltmore Coral Gables in Florida. When you take the approximate price per point that someone figured up a long time ago which is roughly $5-$6 per point over the life of the contract, multiply that by the number of points it took us to stay at each of those places, we broke even on what it would have cost us to pay cash at those hotels. It was nice to not have to pay cash, but use our points instead. A lot of people feel it is a waste of money to spend your DVC points elsewhere, but my DH would never have agreed to the purchase had we not looked into using them at other resorts or hotels. Its still a good value to me. We are taking a 4 day trip to WDW in February 2008 to take our DD16 to look at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota. We are using our points at SSR and driving down to Sarasota for the day. I think its a good use of points, some may not.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I have a search on for Maui, HI for 2009. I think this is a great deal for only 160 pts. I also plan to spend points at Grand California also, unless I can wait till the end of 2009 when the villas will be available. And I will probably use points for a cruise as well. There have been many who have done the same and figured out the cost was about the same, cash vs. points.

 

[BriarRose59]

I have a search on for Maui, HI for 2009. I think this is a great deal for only 160 pts. I also plan to spend points at Grand California also, unless I can wait till the end of 2009 when the villas will be available. And I will probably use points for a cruise as well. There have been many who have done the same and figured out the cost was about the same, cash vs. points.

BWV Dreamin, thanks for reminding me! We also just used points at GC to stay over MLK weekend in January 2008. The cost for the rooms was outrageous so we used points instead. That actually saved us some money.

 

[Dean]

I have a search on for Maui, HI for 2009. I think this is a great deal for only 160 pts. I also plan to spend points at Grand California also, unless I can wait till the end of 2009 when the villas will be available. And I will probably use points for a cruise as well. There have been many who have done the same and figured out the cost was about the same, cash vs. points.

One of the few good options from a value standpoint but what are the odds it'll come through, spotty at best for the top choices, a little better if you include second tier options.

 

[epicureangirl]

Since most people on the board will recommend to ideally use your points for DVC resorts (in that you get the most value for your points that way), why not buy just enough points to do the type of trip you want to WDW every 2 or 3 years? On the years you don't do DVC, you can make trip plans for anywhere in the world and not have to plan so far out or be limited by the choices on II.