Using points on the weekend

[susan@htcnet.com]

Ok,
I need some positive ways of looking at using points for a weekend night.
We usually spring for a two bedroom during the week, even though there are only four of us--so it's not like I do things the cheapest way.

But we are coming into VWL on a Saturday. We could only get a 1 bedroom for the Sun thru Thursday and so I took a studio for saturday night. I just have a hard time parting with the extra 28 points ($280 equiv extra) for the Saturday night stay.

We would still take a two bedroom for the Sun thru Thursday if it becomes available.

So besides the fact that we wouldn't have to move our stuff, how can I justify those extra points???? This really does drive me crazy....
Susan in Nebraska

 

[cruella devil]

I know exactly how you feel as a matter of fact I just cancelled on night(friday) in the one bedroom at VWL because it was 75 points. I understand the reason, premier season, but really! I just couldn't justify those 75 points to put my head on a pillow especially since we will be leaving on Saturday. Anyway, I am sure I will enjoy my stay and enjoy it even more knowing that with the 75 points that I just saved I can add that to the 75 banked and know that I have 427 points to work with of 2002.....yippeeee!!!!!

 

[PamOKW]

The $10 value is pretty arbitrary. It only "costs" you whatever your own actual costs are. Maybe it is $10 in your case, maybe it's closer to $7-$8. You are also not actually "spending" any money to stay. If you make a cash reservation somewhere you are spending additional money than what you've already allocated for your vactions. Your points are meant to spend on vacation. Unless you need to conserve your points for some particular reason, I say use them!

 

[Richyams]

By looking at it in total. I figure my vacation costs x points. Not struggling over the weekend cost. The weekends were set so high to dissuade Florida residets from using only weekends. They tried to split up the points to make 7 day vacations the norm.

Looking at it as a seven day stay, that is how you should have been sold your points.

They have already asked the question on a survey once, if people continue to avoud weekends like the plague, they will end up evening out the point differential. This will hurt everyone in several ways. This will take a day or two off the vacations of those that bought the least points and are most likely to avoid weekends like the plague AND it will allow FLorida residents to take weekend stays more easily and this would make reserving full weeks very difficult.

I really believe that avoiding weekends like the plague is doing us all a disservice and could cause some major headaches for some down the road.

Personnally, I like the idea of the twelve night stay. Arrive on SUnday and leave a week from the following Friday. This does keep one weekend on points while avoiding the second.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs", Karl Marx, pretty sick, huh?

 

[wdwnut]

hi: yes, the weekends cost way more points. we approached dvc the way rich does-we figured what we would need for the entire week and bought accordingly. never mind we originally figured on a studio and have only done 1brs. we added more points this past fall to make the necessary allowance for (2) 1 week vacations in a 1br.

 

[Lisa F]

In your specific case, since you are moving anyway and it's your first night, you might want to stay at someplace "cheaper", maybe even offsite? or try to get some other kind of discounted rate somewhere. I only say that because you will have to move anyway.

If it were a case where you didn't have to move, 9 times out of 10 I would choose to add on the day, even if it is a friday or saturday night. My reasoning is fairly simple... when I look at a stay of a week, I look at the cost of the room for the whole week rather than the cost of the weeknight nights vs. weekend nights. I couldn't even tell you what a weekend night at the BWV is but I know that in january, when we usually go, it is 85 points for a week in a standard. If I come in very late or leave very early on a day sometimes I will try to get a cheap room at the airport because it just makes the logistics of getting to/from the airport at weird times easier (and saves points, but that's not my primary concern generally).

When we go for longer, I try to plan frugally by staying for almost two weeks minus one weekend. This is a really nice sized trip for us and it's not very many points more than one week (including the weekend).

I bought into DVC because I wanted to be comfortable and I wanted to stop worrying about hotel rates. It kind of defeats the purpose if I am moving all over the place and doing all kinds of gymnastics to avoid paying weekend points. Again, I'm not against trying to get the most for your points but I won't give myself more stress on my vacation just to save a few points either!

Lisa

"You employ stone, wood, and concrete, and with these materials you build house and palaces. That is construction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly, you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say 'This is beautiful.' That is architecture. Art enters in."
-Le Corbusier

 

[susan@htcnet.com]

I will try to think of it as a total amount rather than mid-week and weekend points.

We generally arrive on Sunday night, spend Sun thru Thursday with points at a resort like the poly or gf, get an Ap rate for the weekend and spend the next Sun thru Thursday in a 2 bedrrom.

Guess it is just time to buy more points.

We had that kind of vacation planned earlier this year, but had to cancel due to my husband's hospitalization (he is fine now-thank you) and we can only stay over the two weekends to fit everything else in at home...darn.

We figured that staying in a studio and having them move us the next day (in the same resort)was far superior to staying off site and moving ourselves the next day. We can go to the Mk and just come back to our room, right? Or is that just wishful thinking?

Thanks so much.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I agree with Rich too. We tend to look at the week total instead of the week day versus weekend rates. I think it may have been how it was presented to us when we purchased. We added on 150 points last year for this very reason. We wanted to be able to stay longer and have points for an exchange if we wanted them. I too hate to move, and have never done this at WDW. Once we stayed off site for one of the weekend nights because we didn't have enough points to do our GV on the weekend. I vowed never to do that again!! We bought into DVC to stay on site, so why worry about the points it costs for a weekend night. A timeshare is a prepaid vacation, so we use it as such. ºoº

Disneydiane

 

[BobH]

Everyone has a different way of trying to maximize their usage of points. My opinion is that buying only 150 points makes it difficult to enjoy the flexibility of the DVC Vacation system when you consider higher points needed on weekends and the number of points it takes to spend more than a week at DVC. It is my theory that to get some type of payback on your money as quickly as possible (considering annual dues in the process)you should be able to spend more than 1 week at DVC each year. Or you need to utilize expensive acccomodations such as the Grand Villa as I read in one of Rich's posts on this board.
When I figured how many points it would take me to get more than a week out of the system each year, and how many exchange points it might take to get a non DVC Vacation it seemed to me that you ned to buy something in the range of 220 to 240 points. I think DVC is (intelligently) allowing purchases below this (150) to get people started, but a friend of mine quickly found out he
needed more than 150 points and he bought an add-on contract less than one year after his original purchase. In short I think weekend points should not be a major worry as long as you have at least
220-240 points. I think Disney even used to post warnings in their literature that the minimum point contracts might not be enough to permit the most effective use of the DVC.

 

[Richyams]

I agree with the small contracts not really being capable of using DVC to its best advantage. I disagree with Disney's decision to sell such small contracts. I think they are doing us, prior owners with larger minimum contracts, a serious diservice.

The smaller contracts force people to avoid weekends. This could lead to Disney evening out the point differential between weekdays and weekends, this would hurt those people that are forced to avoid weekends because of the small point packages the most.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs", Karl Marx, pretty sick, huh?

 

[DavidRoss]

When I purchased my membership, I right then and there decided that I was going to use my points and only points for rooms. After all, that is the whole point of buying in isn't it? I do not want to have to deal with having to pay cash for a room because to be honest - it just kills me when I have to cough up the money for a hotel room that is so expensive. By using points, I have been sort of pre-paying for the room all along. It also kills me to have to pay 11% tax for a hotel room in Florida. At this point, I don't ever plan on paying for a hotel room while at Disney ever again. This is why I bought into DVC.

 

[dianeschlicht]

As stated in other posts on this thread, we started out with 230 because we felt that was the minimum for doing a week in a 2 BR each year. We later found we liked traveling more often or for longer, so added on 150 points when they became available at OKW last year. I finally feel like I have the right number of points for us. We are a near retirement couple with two adult children. We like to take family and friends with us to WDW, so we needed the extra points to do any exchanging at all. We just completed an exchange for Hawaii (haven't taken the trip yet), but don't forsee doing that again any time soon, as we like our extended WDW trips too much. Rich, Bob and David are right. It is silly to have DVC if you are then going to have to buy an additional room besides. It kind of defeats the purpose. As I said in my earlier post, we just have always looked at it as a week and not weekdays and weekends.

Disneydiane

 

[Maxwell]

When you think about the equivalent as you mentioned and what Disney charges a night, that price really isn't that bad.

 

[susan@htcnet.com]

Hi Maxwell--I agree that $280 would be reasonable--but a 1 bedroom on the weekend would be 60 points or $600--that's where the problem comes in for me.

Diane, We bought 210 points...generally we go in Jan or early Feb so we can get Sun thru Thurs (pay AP rate for the weekend) and another Sun thru Thurs...by borrowing or banking combinations.

Then last year, we decided that it was silly not to use the points and borrow ahead instead of paying $$ for hotel rooms....

Now we are in the midst of looking to buy about 150 -250 more points if we can get a resale in the Oct, Nov, Dec use years at OKW.

So sooner or later, we will bite the bullet and use points for weekend rooms....although I can't imagine that my tiny amount of points would somehow cause a problem will allocation of points of DVC as a whole.

Thanks so much for all the opinions...
Susan in Nebraska

 

[Richyams]

Obviously, yours wouldn't....even you and them, even you, them and those other guys, even you, them, those other guys and that other family, but eventually, it is and it already does cause a problem.

Kind of like littering, my bottle top is not big deal, but look at a field after a Grateful Dead concert and there is a major problem that needs to be cleaned up....and Dead Heads are metter then most crowds.

If they ever do even out the days of the week, it will be those with the least points that are hurt most.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs", Karl Marx, pretty sick, huh?

 

[Pluto4President]

When I bought thru DVC 11/99, Veronica at the time, was our rep. She broke out the calculator on the computer, left the room for about 10 minutes letting me play with different point values at different times we would stay. We ended up buying enough points for a 2 br at the BW for 1 week between Thanksgiving & Christmas every year. I also made sure that in those points I would be able to "afford" a week at the GF instead. Well, it did work out correctly, however, I decided that I like to resort jump a little more than I thought, so this past Dec I purchased a resale that more than doubled the points. Now I can go a couple of times per year, get 2 rooms for a week at a resort, go on a cruise etc. Come on, 42 years, I've almost paid for my first contract in 1½ years worth of stays. You only live once, live it right

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