What would you do?

[Rock'n Robin]

We are working on next year's trip (remember last year when I spent all of July on this board getting DVC info? You guys will want to ban me for the month of July soon!). My thought is 4 days VWL, 3 night cruise, paying cash for the kids so next year we have points to go back.
DH now says he wants more park time, so add some days to the end of the trip. SO, here is the question. Would you....
1) pay cash for one of the adults as well, use the points to add 3 days in BWV (we have points at VWL and BWV).
2) still pay for both adults on points, but pay cash for another resort room--say YC/BC.
I'm guessing the cash cruise payment for an adult and 3 nights in a deluxe resort are comparable price-wise.
ALSO will I hate myself if I book this for June 30-July 10 (cruise leaving July 4) for crowds?
Robin M.

 

[Chuck S]

A lot depends on your situation. Do you have an annual pass, and are eligable for discounted room rates? If so, I'd think that the room would be cheaper than the adult cruise fare, so cruise on points and pay cash for a room.

Or, you may see if you can rent points from another member, or maybe try to purchase a small add-on contract through resale.

I can't answer about the crowds, we usually go in January and the end of May through first part of June.

 

[Rock'n Robin]

No, we don't have an annual pass. That won't work for us until 2003 the way I have it figured. We'll buy one then, go in mid-July (my 40th BDay trip) and then go earlier in 2004.
We cannot buy one for 2002-2003 because my son will have safety town in 2003 and we will be unable to go earlier than we go this year.
As I said, this is DH's idea and I would be happy with the 4 days at VWL, but if he forces me to do the extra 3 days I need to figure out which way is best.
Robin M.

 

[Rock'n Robin]

Here's some more info:
The 2nd adult cash price is $1,424, making a total of $2,651 with the cash for the kids. This leaves us enough points for 4 VWL 2 BR nights before the cruise and 3 BWV preferred view nights after, with enough left for a week at BWV in 2003.
If we use points for the second adult, we are 8 pts. short for a week in 2003 (can you just rent 8 points from somebody???)
HOwever, the cost of 3 nights in a hotel (based on 2001 prices on the DIS resort calculator, Disney won't figure 3 nights without a package deal) are:
Beach or Yacht club water view $1,082.25 (tax. inc.)
Poly garden view 962.37
Poly lagoon view or GV concierge $1215.45

Again, those rates are based on 2001. I seem to save $ by booking hotel after the cruise, but go from a 2BR villa to a regular room and cut a night off of 2003.
Does everyone beat themselves up over decisions like this?
Any opinions?
Robin M.

 

[Lisa F]

I think you really need to look at all of the numbers when you make your decision. My husband and I tend to be fairly frugal with our DVC points because we like to make them go as far as possible.

It really has never seemed to us like using DVC points for a cruise vacation was a great use of our points. We have never cruised before but just booked a cruise for Jan 2003 so this has been a subject of debate for us. I will spare you the gorey details of our long, drawn out decision but we essentially ended up with a 7 day cruise in early January for $3000. The cost for points for this cruise is 382 for two people. For the same 382 points, we could have an entire MONTH in a studio at the BWV in January. That's pretty much what swayed us.

I think there are two possible ways of looking at DVC points and you pretty much need to decide which camp you fall into. I think both camps are valid ways of using the program and I think at various times in our life we will fall into one camp or the other, so I'm not trying to make a judgement here.

One kind is the person treats their DVC like THE vacation budget rather than one component of the vacation budget. If they are going to travel, they are going to do it with DVC points. They already spent the money on DVC and aren't going to go through the hassle of nickle and diming themselves on every point and they take their one vacation per year (or whatever it is) and use DVC to do it, whether it is a week at WDW, a week somewhere else or a 4 day cruise. My friends bought into DVC for this reason.

The other kind (and the one we are in right now) is that DVC points are the WDW vacation budget. We try to use them as frugally as possible and get the most WDW vacation we can. Although we don't have a month's vacation to use those 382 points the cruise would've cost on, this past year we spent 12 nights in January, 6 nights in March and are spending antoher 7 nights in August. Even assuming we could get AP rates in January and August (not during spring break though), that would've cost almost $6000 for equivalent rooms for those 3 trips! To me that's really maximizing use of our points.

If this is your only trip of the year and it doesn't involve borrowing points to do either, I would do the thing that cost me the smallest cash outlay. But if using those points means not having a trip later, or having to pay cash for accomodations later, you might as well use the points for the thing you get the best value on for your money, ESPECIALLY those weekday DVC nights.

Sorry to be so long winded but if you could've been a fly on the wall of the discussion we had about our cruise you would realize that this is the short version!

PS, about the crowds in July... I can't answer that question, but the cruise leaving on the 11th of July costs about $300 less than the cruise leaving the 4th of July!

Lisa

 

[Dumbo]

Robin,

Keep in mind for your planned Boardwalk Villas trip in 2003, you can always borrow points from 2004.

Dumbo