What are my options?

[wilma-bride]

We are planning a family trip for next April, with the in-laws. There will be 7 of us (me, DH, 3 kids, MIL & FIL) so we are planning to get a 2-bed. Our home resort is SSR but, even with banking and borrowing, we do not have enough points for a full 2 week stay at a SSR 2-bed.

We have a Sep UY and currently have 200 points banked into 07/08 UY, 164 07/08 UY points (borrowed 36 for a 3-night stay this August) and can obviously borrow 200 08/09 UY points giving us a total of 564 points. Are you still with me?

As far as I see it, we have a few options:

We can either book the 2-bed at SSR and pay cash or check out for the weekends (or 1 of them at least).

Or we can try and book at a resort which requires less points (OKW or AKV value). My guess is that it will be nigh on impossible to get a 2-bed value at AKV for April next year at the 7-month mark but what about OKW? If we coudl do a week at OKW and a week at AKV, we could just manage it on the points we have.

The alternative, of course, would be to rent the additional points required from another member but, with needing approx. 70 points, we're talking around $800. Can't see DH going for that seeing as this is supposed to be our first trip without having to pay for accommodation.

Another option, I suppose, would be to rent 2 studios as opposed to a 2-bed but then that means us having to share a room with the 2 teenage girls which we really don't want to do.

Decisions, decisions. Has anyone got any decent alternative ideas or any advice on our chances of getting the 2-bed at OKW or AKV.

Obviously, the best thing to do would be to book at SSR at the 11-month mark so we at least had something. Would they let me reserve weekends without points at this stage? Otherwise how do I get around the 'not enough points for the full stay' scenario?

Would appreciate any advice at all - never expected our first proper trip 'home' to be so complicated

 

[dianeschlicht]

Have you considered changing your dates a bit so you can get near 2 weeks with only one weekend? Or maybe 3 weekend nights instead of 4? We usually adjust our dates so we only have two weekend nights with 13 days. You could also do it with 3 weekend nights ( i.e. Sunday-Sunday-Friday or Sunday-Sunday-Saturday)

 

[phyllisnnj]

Obviously, the best thing to do would be to book at SSR at the 11-month mark so we at least had something. Would they let me reserve weekends without points at this stage? Otherwise how do I get around the 'not enough points for the full stay' scenario?

Yes you can book at the 11 month mark.

Since you're planning a April 2008 trip you can use points from your Sept 2007 and Sept 2008 use years (total of 564 points)

Based on the vacation planner you need 632 points for 2 weeks in a two bedroom at SSR. You're short 68 points which is the exact number of points for a Fri or Sat stay.

I suggest just staying 13 nights instead of 14 or pay cash for the extra night if you really need to stay the full 14 nights.

Good luck