Where to go on Fri. and Sat.

[Tagrel]

Another Dis-servicer who uses their points as best fit their needs. IMAGINE!

We go for two weeks, (airfares being what they are - multiple trips are too much if we fly more than once a year)

We have family in Florida, so we spend one weekend visiting them. The remaining weekend we go and stay on universal property. The hotels there are great, and the front of the line privledges are unbeatable! It doesn't hurt that you can get an entertainment rate there either!

If we have an odd Sat night (typically the first night) we look for a good deal somewhere on property (love to try the various resorts) or use pricelice to find something close, but nice. Since we aren't staying there a whole week, its fun to 'gamble' with that one night's stay.

As to moving, the packing and unpacking can be a hassle. We pretty much have it down to a science as we've always moved around even before DVC. Moving the luggage is easy. Just call bell services, head for a park that day, and then return to the new resort and checkin. The bags are always there waiting.

 

[Muushka]

We always stay at USF on at least Fri and Sat nights. We love the hotels there, and have found that the parks are great to visit. We sure do enjoy that AP from USF.

 

[MdmMim]

I stay on points during weekends. I paid for the points--I don't want to pay for a hotel room, too. I look at the weekly point total, not the daily, when I plan a trip.

 

[ncligs]

We bought into DVC to stay in 1st class, spaciuos accomadations.
For now we go twice a yr staying 6 nights(Sun-Fri).
We also look at the pts used as "weekly". I would rather not move and pay $$ when DVC is paid for already.

 

[Dean]

The more people that do this, the more likely it is that Disney will one day even out the weekend point difference, this will permenantly take a day or three off some people vacation for the next forty years.

I would suggest using point wisely, arrive on a Sunday and stay through the next weekend, only staying one weekend, six night stays, there are many ways you can do this without hurting everyone.

Avoiding weekends like the plague does a dis-service to all members....although living in Florida, I do wish they would even out the weekdays and weekends, I have found myself doing exactly what they feared, only using points for weekends.....good thing I have enough

Rich, there you are going liberal on me again. While I'd agree that the habits of members may affect any decisions DVC might make reguarding points balance, I think to blame those members for those decisions is unreasonable. Bascially DVC has set the rules and we use them to our advantage. As long as members are following the rules, it is not their responability what DVC decides to do including rebalancing the points in any way. It seems anecdotally that weekdays are used more than weekends. If this continues, you can expect a rebalancing at some point. Since it hasn't happened yet, I wonder if they're waiting until most everything is sold out before doing so. Those that want to avoid weekends can do so and those that want to use weekends can as well.

So you can say to avoid weekends resulting in rebalancing may hurt certain members (and help others), to blame the members for the decision or say they shouldn't avoid weekends is unreasonable.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Rich,
I have enough points also. BUT......if I avoid weekends, I can go more often with my "enough points". I just started doing this on the last two trips and I like it. I am following the rules, I don't see it as a Dis-service to anyone. BUT.....since you seem to have an overflow of points, I will be happy to spend yours to stay for the weekend.

 

[CaptainMidnight]

I'm not sure I understand why a poster who is asking about weekend alternatives to using DVC points is getting some of the sanctimonious "you should have enough points for weekends too" lines that I'm reading above, that wasn't my understanding of what the original poster asked.

If we feel like saving weekend points by using an alternative (we're got a fair amount of points), we've used this DIS site to find great rates at the Dolphin and Swan Resorts. It's worked out very nicely, and we still had that first class feeling and Disney magic (even though they are not owned by Disney). We're going to give the Courtyard a try in Downtown Disney too.

 

[SueOKW]

We do both! We bought our points through re-sale and I'm short 28 points a year for a 2BR during spring - I forget what the season is caled... anyway - i borrow or buy the points and stay the whole week.

Since it is such a hassle for all 6 of us to get there, we stay 2 weekends - the first at Universal.. then we check into our beloved OKW on Sunday and stay the week. This year we are going to stay on site at Universal to get front of the line passes.

FWIW - last year we stayed the two nights at Hawthorne Suites and our spoiled Disney kids kept asking over and over again.. "Mommy, when do we get to go to OKW??????"

Sue

 

[heidihiden]

It has been very interesting reading this post. But I have a couple of reactions. The first would be that Disney cannot recalculate the points because when you buy, the amount per night of points can NEVER increase during your contract period. This is for the DVC owned properties only. I would be very upset if the points went up because I purchased a certain amount of points to accomodate our needs. Secondly, people leaving for the weekend is all part of the game. I would have loved to have been able to purchase more points. But I bought what we could afford. We usually stay Sun-Sat. 6 nights at the Boardwalk preffered view. And it takes 83 points for that time. To stay one more night it would go from 83 to 106 points. Now I purchased 170 points. That means I can take almost 2 full weeks of vacation per year. And we also love to travel in the fall. It would almost impossible to charge the same amount of points year round. That just doesn't make sense and would not be smart financially for disney to do.. We usually start our vacation by going to Seaworld. So we stay at resort over there. Although we love to go to Disney, Orlando and Florida has so much more to see and do, you would be cheating yourself if you only did Disney!!
t

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by heidihiden
The first would be that Disney cannot recalculate the points because when you buy, the amount per night of points can NEVER increase during your contract period. This is for the DVC owned properties only. I would be very upset if the points went up because I purchased a certain amount of points to accomodate our needs.

Actually this is not correct. While the OVERALL points for a "unit" cannot increase, they can rebalance weekdays vs weekends and different seasons. They have only done this once but the Adventure points went up 16% compared to the prechange costs. A studio went from 69 points to 80 points for a week with a corresponding decrease for all unit sizes that season. There were minimal decreases across the rest of the seasons but not enough to matter. IMO, if one buys exactly enough points for their planned stay and that planned stay is not at least a 2 BR Magic season, they are asking to lose the ability to stay the full anticipate time. If they rebalance, one could easily lose one weekend or 2 weekday nights off their usualy stay using a full years worth of points. That's especially true for those that plan to avoid some or all weekend points.

 

[Lesley]

Captain Midnight, thank you for your attempts to get this thread back on track. The original poster did not ask whether or not s/he should skip out on the weekends, but to where s/he should go!

We've done a little of everything....staying on weekend nights, taking a studio for weekend nights, going to a hotel for weekend nights....When we wanted to use all points but conserve we set up our trip to stay at a studio in the beginning (for 5 days)and switch to a 1br on Sunday. Our upcoming trip has us taking 2 weekend nights in a 2br, 1 in a studio, and the last Saturday at the Polynesian.

I love all the WDW resorts that I've stayed at....and the number I haven't tried is dwindling. But we have found a few we love so much we've gone there again rather than try something new. We've also saved some money by staying an arrival or departure night off property....and there are some very nice places out there too.

I guess my point is....you have to decide what you like best, or what most appeals to you and works for your family! It's hard to go wrong, really!

 

[HookdonWDW]

We're joining the rest of those who make the exodus for US/IOA for the weekend. The APs are priced right, and you can't beat those FOL passes

 

[Punkswife]

Well, I have to say that I agree with Lesley. In a nut shell, you need to do what is right for your needs with the points that you have. We love our home resort BWV and don't like to move around. We like to get there and stay put. We look at the total points for our stay and not the daily number. And we like to use both weekends so it gives us a longer time at our favorite place in the world. Leave from our regular life obligations at the end of our work/school week, stay the week of our vacation and thru the next weekend getting back just in time to start our regular routine again on Monday. I don't know, guess I am just a simple girl. Wanna be at WDW for as long as we can, not worrying about how many more points we are using one day compared to the next.

 

[jimmytammy]

I must say I never expected this kind of response and how quick it came. Thanks to everyone who posted and I got some great ideas plus some things I hadnt really considered. A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL!!

 

[musical2]

We are going to do both in the future. Sometimes we will stay the whole week including Friday and Saturday night. This year, however, we are staying Sunday - Thursday night, driving to my sister's house in West Palm Beach for a weekend visit, then returning for another Sunday - Thursday night stay. This stretches our one week vacation out to almost two weeks.

Bart

 

[baileybrad]

I always remember when the conversation comes up about DVC monkeying with the higher weekends totals that the main reason not to do it is to keep local folks from loading up the resorts on the weekends. By keeping the pain so high on weekends, it keeps this from happening and allows those that choose to book week or more consective stays the opportunity to do so.

We keep our stays at HH to 6 nights to avoid the point pain on Saturday nights. We also tend to just stay at Vistana for cash when our point totals are down. Doing just that for 9 nights in early December...we chose a 1 bedroom there over a regular cash room at CSR at $84.00 a night.

 

[trishy]

We use to stay outside WDW on the weekends, but after our last trip in July we will definitely do Animal Kingdom Lodge again. What a trip that was! I would highly recommend it. We have stayed at the Lake Buena Vista Embassy Suites right outside the world which is a very nice place "Non-Disney". We'll do AKL next time, too, though since we had such a blast. Why do we move? That's 2 answers: (1) to see something else, (2) because of the high weekend points. If it was a major inconvenience we wouldn't do it, but we haven't had any complaints yet from the "youngins".

Oh, and it's not that we don't have enough points - not that it matters. This family of 5 needs a 2 br unit when we travel and we have 900 points split between BWV & VWL.

 

[EROS]

Originally posted by jimmytammy
Im still new to DVC and I keep reading about pulling out of DVC resorts on Fri and Sat because of pts.

Tooooooooooooooooo much hassle.