What about us (4 nights buys 7)?

["Got Disney"]

Most EXCELLENT points. I hadn't thought about how the MYW tickets are front-loaded anyway and how deceptive that really was. And you're right, 40% isn't that unusual anyway. As an AP holder for years, I got 40% off a lot of times for cash.

GREAT points.

We have found at times it is more beneficial to get the AP rates at 40% off than to use our points....right know Disney is offering a 30% off on AP...just refer to AP8 when calling

We do that only when the AP rates are cheaper than what our points would be. Also the AP rates right know are cheaper than the special they are offering that is being discussed now.

 

[mikeandkarla]

Disney does not offer promotions and discounts to be nice to people, or to reward loyalty. They offer promotions and discounts to encourage people to spend even more money with the Mouse instead of on some competing discretionary purpose. Most DVC Members are already "locked in"---they are coming no matter what, because they have paid for their lodging in advance.

Perfectly said!
Lets put the shoe on the other foot. If the economy was booming and hotel rates were going up 5 - 7% a year, your DVC membership would look extremely good. Be patient, your DVC membership is as good of a deal now as it was when you purchased it. You must take averages and not sudden peaks and valleys to evaluate your purchase.
DVC members always have flexibility and options that non members do not have. As far as the economy putting a cramp on someones vacation, there are many ways to scale back the cost. Just as you may scale back on everyday expenses at home. Hang in there, it will get better. Hopefully soon!

 

[disney1474]

Yes, Disney is making money on us DVC members. But, we can still go down and not go to the parks to save money. Disney wants us to venture into the parks so we can drop our wallets there.
If attendance in the parks is an issue, start giving DVC members good discounts on non-exp passess. Not all of us can afford to go to disney more than 1 time a year so a AP is out of the question.
Maybe upgrading 7 and 10 day passess to non-exp ones would be a good perk!

 

[Tinkerbellcrafter]

So, I may have missed this while reading the thread but I went over and checked out the deal and it only works if you don't have annual passes. Ours expire August 1st and it still cheaper to have DH's 40th b-day trip in a 2bdrm using points (some purchased in for family use) than it is to book our same trip using the 7 for 4 staying at Pop Century. Deaper discounts on passes would be nice. We have also curtailed our "souvenir" spending and always have cooked a majority of our meals. The thing is, this 7 for 4 should be available w/out tickets because we often extend our DVC trips with cash nights at moderate resorts. We do this using AP rates. This almost happened with our upcoming trip except we are flying jet blue and to change the air fare is more than our tickets cost in the first place.

 

[DVC Grandpa]

I called yesterday and booked at POR the first week of February. I still have reservations for a studio at the Beach Club but because I was looking for points to use in October, I took a good look at this offer. The studio has a point value of 123 points. The room at POR has is priced at $832.52 and comes with $200 gift card, (2) one day passes, (1) Arcade Play card voucher, miniature golf voucher, Planet Holliday Merchandise voucher, Sea raycer voucher and a $15 Planet Hollywood meal voucher. Our plans are to upgrade the 1 day passes ($80 ea) and the gift certificate ($200) to an AP. Our pass is up for renewal today, but we had no plans to renew until the February trip. Oh, by the way we still will be moving over to the BCV studio for the last three weeks of February.
Although I have booked the special rate, I still have not cancelled my first weeks studio ... want to read everyones comments before letting the studio go.

 

[CheapMom]

You may see nice perks spring up for us - as they try to entice new folks to buy into the DVC system. With the addition of the very upscale BLT, we may see some nice warm-fuzzy feeling "you belong" kind of perks. (ie: special lounges in the parks, or even just free ice cream for dvc members at DVC kiosks, VIP fireworks viewing areas...) What I would love the most, would be a discount on NYW tix- but don't know if that is feasible.

 

[DVC Jen]

We drive. It saves us a ton of money and it isn't a hardship at all...plus we then have our car with us. We are in NE CT and the drive takes us 20 hours, door-to-door. From Northern NJ it would be 16-17. We leave at 2am and arrive at WDW at 10pm. It's perfect!

I figure that it will cost us approximately $350 to drive, round trip, to FL in December. Compare that to the $1000 for airfare and you can see that we get nearly 3 driving trips for the same cost as flying once.

I know that many people refuse to even try the drive, but I'd definitely recommend trying it. We've been doing it since our DD was 2 years old (our kids are now 16 and 13) and never had a problem.

That is exactly what we do as well. We don't do it all at once though. We convert DH's frequent flier miles to Hilton Honor points and get free hotel rooms for the trip. I bring food with us so we have breakfast (if it isn't provided by the hotel) and a picnic lunch on the road and then we get a decent hot meal for dinner.

There is no way the four of us could fly to WDW - especially out of DFW - the cost is just insane.

 

[itsreally4mommy]

Why does it feel like a fortune to fly anywhere out of state from DFW?

Perhaps I'd make a good candidate to drive the first shift. I can NEVER sleep a wink the night before anyway, LOL!

 

[Deb & Bill]

Why does it feel like a fortune to fly anywhere out of state from DFW?

Perhaps I'd make a good candidate to drive the first shift. I can NEVER sleep a wink the night before anyway, LOL!

Try having to fly into DFW first before you can get anywhere. I'd bet we could take care of the national debt for the price of three tickets for us. That's why we always drive.