Wow, Weekend night in a 1br kill your point total!!

[1000th happy haunt]

We treated friends to a two-bedroom unit in May 2006 for a weekend (Thursday to Monday) at BCV, and that weekend cost us 212 points. We're just now starting to bail out from that.

 

[LisaS]

I know ALOT of people like it there but it just really wasn't for us. The ONLY thing we liked about it was the two beds. Thats IT. When we go on vacation we are staying somewhere we are excited to go to. Weather is 50 150 points less, you still have to enjoy where you are going.

I assume based on your comments about two beds that you stayed in a studio. For a studio stay I wouldn't be inclined to stay at OKW either. The reason we love to stay at OKW is because of the 1BRs there. They are HUGE and the veranda is such a wonderful place to have breakfast with the large table and chairs and the ceiling fan. In general, DH and I prefer the hotel-style DVCs but those spacious 1BRs at OKW really feel like a vacation home to us.

 

[ScottOKW2K]

I really do not like to move either. DH likes it even less.

The last couple of years, we have worked out our 1 bedroom stays by staying 12 nights and averaging the points over the entire stay.

DVC really is our second home, so we like to move in and settle in for a nice long stay. It is easier to move when working out points on paper than it is once we are in the heart of our vacation.

Now that said, the SSR 1 bed points for Dec 28 and 29 are killing us! 68 points a night! We did it last year, but we had our family reunion this year in a GV and 9 studios, so I am willing to move so that we can still pull off our 2 week Christmas stay this year.

There are no discounts for those dates and the cash rate is over $500 per night so I am still struggling with having to move twice during our Christmas trip. My consolation is that we have AKV 1bed Concierge Christmas week then a BCV studio on points for the weekend so we will get to visit some of our favorites in that area and then off to SSR 1 bed for NYE festivities the last week.

Have you tried to see if there was any availability for the 25% member services discount ? When we booked our Christmas/ New Years trip back in January we too balked at the weekend points (Holiday Season !) I asked the castmember to check on the cash price and was able to book that weekend with the discount at 11 months out. No moving and I saved 146 points - enough for another vacation. I actually used 116 of those points to book 4 nights at the Grand Californian, which would have cost me far more in cash than what the OKW 1 bedroom was for those two nights - I think it would have been around $1,900 to stay the 4 nights at the GC.

So - we paid cash (with a discount) to save points, which allowed us to save cash ! As they say in the promos "It's the Flexability !"

 

[LIFERBABE]

Have you tried to see if there was any availability for the 25% member services discount ? When we booked our Christmas/ New Years trip back in January we too balked at the weekend points (Holiday Season !) I asked the castmember to check on the cash price and was able to book that weekend with the discount at 11 months out. No moving and I saved 146 points - enough for another vacation. I actually used 116 of those points to book 4 nights at the Grand Californian, which would have cost me far more in cash than what the OKW 1 bedroom was for those two nights - I think it would have been around $1,900 to stay the 4 nights at the GC.

So - we paid cash (with a discount) to save points, which allowed us to save cash ! As they say in the promos "It's the Flexability !"

Thanks! I will call MS and find out.

The AP discounts are out for Jan 2008 and the 1 bed at SSR is $275 total per night during our stay.

 

[Pennyguy23]

I assume based on your comments about two beds that you stayed in a studio. For a studio stay I wouldn't be inclined to stay at OKW either. The reason we love to stay at OKW is because of the 1BRs there. They are HUGE and the veranda is such a wonderful place to have breakfast with the large table and chairs and the ceiling fan. In general, DH and I prefer the hotel-style DVCs but those spacious 1BRs at OKW really feel like a vacation home to us.

Well maybe we will have to try OKW again sometime. We just didn't like having to take a bus to our resort, then get on another bus to take us to our room. It was just to hard to get around that resort. Kind of a hassle, you know?

 

[tvwalsh]

Rather than a one bedroom for the weekend, how about reserving a Fort Wilderness cabin for about the same points (or less depending on the resort). If the reservation is made before first of the year, you can save the $95 fee.

It is a wonderful experience.