When going in the summer

[cpc430]

Although we would love to go to WDW in the off season, due to kids in school and my husband work schedule, we would most likely have to vacation in July (or late June) - during "magic season" for the next few years.

We aren't owners yet but are planning to buy where we want to stay. How hard is it to get summer room reservations at the 7 month mark if we wanted to stay at another property?

Also trying to decide how many points we would need. Ideally, we'd want to stay In a one bedroom for about a week which looks like I'd need about 300-400 PTs. What is usually best? Two smaller contracts? One large? If two smaller, would you do the same home resort or different ones to spread out the home advantage?

Thank you!

 

[chalee94]

We aren't owners yet but are planning to buy where we want to stay. How hard is it to get summer room reservations at the 7 month mark if we wanted to stay at another property?

summer is a busy period for wdw but not as much for DVC. summer is much easier to book what you want at 7 months out compared to early december or something. (it's always safest to own where you want to stay, but you should have more options in the summer.)

I'd need about 300-400 PTs. What is usually best? Two smaller contracts? One large? If two smaller, would you do the same home resort or different ones to spread out the home advantage?

buying one 300 pt contract would be cheaper. buying multiple contracts means more closing costs and sometimes higher cost per pt upfront...but it does give you more options if you want to sell off partial ownership down the road without completely giving up all your DVC pts.

buying multiple home resorts does not really spread the advantage. if you buy 375 SSR pts and 25 BLT pts and want to book BLT at 11 months out, you could only use pts from the BLT contract. you could only use the SSR pts at BLT at 7 months out (and the same with using BLT pts to book SSR or THV).

it's generally better to own at one resort unless you wanted to switch off each year...if you own 200 pts at BLT and 200 pts at BCV, you could bank 200 BLT pts the first year and book BCV with 400 BCV pts (current plus borrowed)...then the next year, you could use the banked and current pts from the BLT contract to book BLT at 11 months out.

 

[cpc430]

summer is a busy period for wdw but not as much for DVC. summer is much easier to book what you want at 7 months out compared to early december or something. (it's always safest to own where you want to stay, but you should have more options in the summer.) buying one 300 pt contract would be cheaper. buying multiple contracts means more closing costs and sometimes higher cost per pt upfront...but it does give you more options if you want to sell off partial ownership down the road without completely giving up all your DVC pts. buying multiple home resorts does not really spread the advantage. if you buy 375 SSR pts and 25 BLT pts and want to book BLT at 11 months out, you could only use pts from the BLT contract. you could only use the SSR pts at BLT at 7 months out (and the same with using BLT pts to book SSR or THV). it's generally better to own at one resort unless you wanted to switch off each year...if you own 200 pts at BLT and 200 pts at BCV, you could bank 200 BLT pts the first year and book BCV with 400 BCV pts (current plus borrowed)...then the next year, you could use the banked and current pts from the BLT contract to book BLT at 11 months out.

Thank you for the reply!! If we did buy two contracts and two resorts, I'd probably try to find a fairly even amount of points (200 and 200) So that we could bank and borrow. But if summer is fairly easy to get reservations at 7 months, then it may not matter. Great point though about splitting the contracts in case we want to sell one later down the line but not give it all up.

 

[disneynutz]

Thank you for the reply!! If we did buy two contracts and two resorts, I'd probably try to find a fairly even amount of points (200 and 200) So that we could bank and borrow. But if summer is fairly easy to get reservations at 7 months, then it may not matter. Great point though about splitting the contracts in case we want to sell one later down the line but not give it all up.

I don't understand the bank and borrow, you can bank any amount of points but you can only borrow the points needed for a reservation so the amounts don't really matter.

Bill

 

[supersnoop]

I don't understand the bank and borrow, you can bank any amount of points but you can only borrow the points needed for a reservation so the amounts don't really matter.

Bill

Do banked and borrowed points retain the home-resort booking advantage?

With equally sized contracts at two different resorts, you could bank/borrow every-other year, thus giving you twice the points to use, but at two resorts with the 11-month advantage.

 

[chalee94]

Do banked and borrowed points retain the home-resort booking advantage?

yes.

banked or borrowed OKW pts are still OKW pts, and will not book another resort at 11 months out.

so you can book BLT (for example) at 11 months out with banked BLT pts, current BLT pts, borrowed BLT pts or BLT pts transferred to you from someone else's BLT contract...but they have to be BLT pts.

 

[cpc430]

If I purchased two BLT contracts with the same use year, can I use the points seamlessly at the 11 month mark to book a weeks stay? Is their only one membership number if you have multiple contracts or do they all function independently? (Example: having two 200 point contracts, but I need 380 points for the stay I want)

 

[RobDoc]

If I purchased two BLT contracts with the same use year, can I use the points seamlessly at the 11 month mark to book a weeks stay? Is their only one membership number if you have multiple contracts or do they all function independently? (Example: having two 200 point contracts, but I need 380 points for the stay I want)

As long as the two accounts are titled the same way and have the same Use Year, DVC should be able to combine them as one membership. If this is a direct purchase, it will done that way. If resale, you may need to request that they be combined as one membership.

If you have multiple contracts for the same resort combined in the same membership, the points are automatically combined for Home Resort reservations.