Where do you stay on the weekends?

[Desnik]

For those who use their points for Sun-Fri only, where do you stay on the weekends? Do you do the weekend portion non DVC stay before or after your DVC stay? In the past we have done the non DVC stay after our DVC stay. I'm not sure how to do it this time! Just curious what others do.
Thanks!

 

[Deb & Bill]

We never stay Sun-Fri. We spent our entire vacation at our DVC resort. Unless we are arriving late and then we might spend a night at CS, PO or CB. I'd hate to move down to a hotel room from a villa, so I'd choose not to move to another room after staying in my DVC villa.

 

[beccasmom]

We usually bite the bullet and use the extra points, but at a studio and then we move to larger digs if it's just the 4 of us. We try to arrive on Saturday. Sometimes not, though. We have stayed at POR/POFQ and once at A/S Sports when we had an extended family trip.

 

[MikeyNS]

For those who use their points for Sun-Fri only, where do you stay on the weekends? Do you do the weekend portion non DVC stay before or after your DVC stay? In the past we have done the non DVC stay after our DVC stay. I'm not sure how to do it this time! Just curious what others do.
Thanks!

Tried doing that with our latest trip since we don't have a huge amount of points.. paid cash for the Sat. night but decided to try a value resort for the Friday night. Will *NEVER* do it again. Just more of a pain waiting for the bags to arrive and doing the whole checkout/checkin thing. It sounded no problem when I booked everything, but when it came into practice it made me grumpy. Everything went smoothly, etc, but it just seemed like a downer moving from the Villa to a room. Not the way to finish up a vacation.

 

[bobbiwoz]

When we stayed at a Value for the weekend, we would do that first, and then book DVC. DH didn't mind doing that, but I didn't like it, so we're staying at BWV for the entire stay this December.

Bobbi

 

[Granny]

For those who use their points for Sun-Fri only, where do you stay on the weekends? Do you do the weekend portion non DVC stay before or after your DVC stay? In the past we have done the non DVC stay after our DVC stay. I'm not sure how to do it this time! Just curious what others do.
Thanks!

We have often booked an off-site hotel room (look for best deal) for the night before our DVC stay begins. We drive to WDW, and usually get there late at night, usually a Saturday night.

Hard to justify spending the weekend points when all we do is sleep and shower and then go over to check-in at the DVC resort in the morning. Since we drive, we leave the car mostly packed and only bring in an overnight bag for that first night.

In any event, we would ALWAYS want to stay non-DVC first, then end with DVC. Doing it the other way would be way too sad of an experience in the middle of a vacation. Much more fun to upgrade accommodations than to downgrade them!

 

[packetminnie]

We take the opportunity to visit other places. We have family in other parts of Florida and we may go visit them. Also, we stay at Universal hotels if we go to USO (they aren't as good as DVC but you can't beat fotl) and we stay at a hotel near SW if we are going there. On our next trip we will be at RPR, OKW, Marriots Cypress Harbour, SSR, and VB. And that is just the first week . . No, we will be gone for 2 1/2 weeks. We arrive late Thurs and stay at or near the airport then we will move to RPR and spend the weekend at USO and IOA then move to OKW,then to the Marriot and visit SW, then to SSR for a couple of days, then finish up at VB to recuperate before going back. We will probably spend the last weekend down around W Palm Beach visiting relatives. We don't mind switching hotels and we always rent a car.
I can't wait. I need to fix my ticker.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We purchased DVC to have pre-paid vacations, and having to move defeats that purpose, so we usually go for 10-12 days and stay the weekend in the middle right where we stay the whole trip.

 

[Caskbill]

We do the Sun-Thurs routine all the time. I'd rather have the extra days you get that way than use the points for a 2-day weekend that will otherwise give me 5-days during the week.

We have family not too far from Disney and are aways invited for the weekend. Sometimes we'll stay in the Orlando area at a hotel somewhere, and do non WDW things. We avoid the parks on weekends anyway because of the crowds, so no reason to stay at DVC either.

We change resorts between the weeks too, thus giving more variety than staying at one resort for a long time.

Check-in/Check-Out is not a problem. Before retiring, I traveled a lot on business and learned how to pack. And we always drive so leaving things in the car works OK. (Just unpack the 'weekend bag' and leave the main bag in the car, etc.)

Since we have AP's, it's easy to go to a park and then get the DVC room later in the day.

 

[spiceycat]

sometimes Pop Century or All star - other times - offsite.

use too back in the 90's stay at a deluxe resort - but at WDW prices now - no way!!!

 

[n2mm]

We go to WDW for 6 weeks a year (between 4 trips) and we always arrive on Saturday and stay at Pop. We pack a small overnight bag and leave the other bags in the car. We usually will book a nice breakfast at the resort we're moving to and afterwards we go and checkin. We stay for 12 nights in May and 12 nights in October, so certainly do the weekends then, but we just find traveling on Saturday (sometimes Friday) works better for us than traveling on Sunday (which we find the airport/Dulles/very busy then). We like staying that one night prior to checking in to our DVC resort and this works great for us. I guess if I only went once a year, or even twice a year, I would do a cash night, but I would rather spend a little and go for a longer amount of time. Of course, once I check into the DVC resort, that's it for me, we unpack and make it our home whether it's a one week or two week trip. Also having an AP and getting a cheap room (like the $59 a night room at Pop in February) helps alot too.

 

[beachblanket]

We purchased DVC to have pre-paid vacations, and having to move defeats that purpose, so we usually go for 10-12 days and stay the weekend in the middle right where we stay the whole trip.

We have exactly the same mindset and approach - why put down the sort of investment involved in being able to stay in DVC quality property, only to end up behaving like some sort of poor refugee in the middle of your vacation?

 

[FLYNZ4]

We purchased DVC to have pre-paid vacations, and having to move defeats that purpose, so we usually go for 10-12 days and stay the weekend in the middle right where we stay the whole trip.

Diane, we do the same. We go for 12 days and do not move in the middle of the two weeks. We just pay the higher points.

However, since we fly in from the west coast... we cannot get in till late, so we generally spend our arrival night at some other Disney hotel or local condo... but we do not unpack any luggage... we simply have an overnight bag packed with clothes for the next day.

/Jim

 

[kimberh]

We have stayed only a few times on points but we have done both. Stayed the weekend and checked out and went to Universal and used a AP there for RPH. It is a beautiful resort. The Front of the line passes are wonderful. We drive so we have a car.

 

[HUFF590]

We purchased DVC to have pre-paid vacations, and having to move defeats that purpose, so we usually go for 10-12 days and stay the weekend in the middle right where we stay the whole trip.

Same here.

 

[byoung]

We have the Ap and use the discount a lot on the weekends. We don't mine moving at all, Disney does all the work except packing. Plus we like staying at the other resorts.

 

[jdvm]

Everyone is different but once my gang unpacks, that's it. We ain't moving. Sometimes we switch to cash for the weekend nights when we can get a member discount.
J

 

[littlestar]

We like the Marriott Vacation Club resorts (Cypress Harbour and Horizons Orlando). We book some cash nights at these for the weekends sometimes. Or pick up an extra night at a moderate or standard view at the Wilderness Lodge for a night or two.

Also, my daughter likes using Comfort Inn Lake Buena Vista for a night before checking into DVC in the winter - just in case her flight gets delayed due to weather.

 

[jjpenguin]

We might be doing this for the first time next year but then only for our arrival night on Friday and then we will stay at the Airport and then go to WDW early the next morning. DH doesn't like moving in the middle of a stay.

And as someone said, why have the points if you're going to have to have all the hassle of moving mid stay..

 

[DisDaydreamer]

We will pay cash for weekend nights. Can't fathom the thought of ending my vacation in an offsite downgrade.