New to DVC

[parndt]

Yesterday commited to DVC. Bought in to AKV. 160 pts. Getting the matching bonus pts and $500.00.

Many apprehensions, however in the end we pulled the trigger. I'm 52, a high school teacher. Wife is middle management banker. Have a 12 year old daughter. Truthfully not Disney Park fanatics but willing to learn. Hope non Disney options are of high quality as we want to travel the country

Do not have to finance this, but of course leary of cash outlay given the economy etc.

Tell me I made a good decision.

[KNWVIKING 2.0]

Hope non Disney options are of high quality as we want to travel the country

IMO, other brands are better suited for this.

[DBorges]

You have made a sound decision !!! I am a akv member and a founding member there as well as at Boardwalk welcome home and you will like the avk..

Dave

[KNWVIKING 2.0]

By "WE" he means himself and the voices he hears inside his head.

[DBorges]

By "WE" he means himself and the voices he hears inside his head.


"We" meaning anyone with common sence..

[TimK]

Yesterday commited to DVC. Bought in to AKV. 160 pts. Getting the matching bonus pts and $500.00.

Many apprehensions, however in the end we pulled the trigger. I'm 52, a high school teacher. Wife is middle management banker. Have a 12 year old daughter. Truthfully not Disney Park fanatics but willing to learn. Hope non Disney options are of high quality as we want to travel the country

Do not have to finance this, but of course leary of cash outlay given the economy etc.

Tell me I made a good decision.

Congrats on the decision!

There are so many DVC destinations at Walt Disney World now (7 unless my fingers and toes are letting me down) that you can practically travel the world hopping between those resorts. You don't have to be a Disney parks fanatic to enjoy the resorts. I wouldn't go into it expecting five star service, but the theming and amenities of the resorts is often second to none.

As for the non-Disney locations, just do a little bit of homework before accepting a trade (or when preparing your list of acceptable resorts.) DVC does have some control over the list of trade destinations but with hundreds available they can't do more than a cursory evaluation. Seek out resources like TripAdvisor.com to see what others are saying about specific resorts.

And make sure you plan ahead for trades. Being a teacher, I assume you know exactly when your vacations will occur. Whenever possible, start your searches at least a year in advance. Keep it open to multiple weeks and resorts whenever possible and you'll have a higher degree of success.

Welcome Home!

[delta dawn]

Hope non Disney options are of high quality as we want to travel the country


We used our points for the White Hall Hotel in Chicago and were VERY impressed with the hotel as well as the city.

[edward.lee8]

We have an II time share on Cape Cod Mass in August. It's really a tiny studio and we have had great luck trading, (altho it seems to be getting trickier).I went ont he II site to see what Disney would trade for. It seems they have allready culled out some of the less desireable resorts. I would have to say that if my wife and I went to the boardwalk or beach club, just the resort - pool - resturants and never went in to the park most Disney resorts are as good as most resorts II has. Granted some of the more expensive resorts have better ammenities but I dont think you can beat the Disney atmosphere (pass the kool aid:biggulp:) just kidding
We have one grandaughter :)who is 15 and she still loves to go to Disney every year (12 years now) we can only hope this continues.
My wife has used the concierge service in New York a few times and was very happy with it.
BWV since 1999

[jrbdad]

FWIW -- I think you made a wise decision. My kids are 12, 10, & 7 -- I wish we'd started going earlier -- we bought AKV this past July. Already have addonitis -- bad!

Talked to some folks this last trip that have used thier points at Concierge Collection in NY and were very impressed. Have "heard" others say on other board that they enjoyed Club Intrawest.

Most folks have said that the II trades are not the way to go -- guess we'll have to see about the change to RCI?

Also heard that using points for Disney Cruises is not the way to go.

We've only stayed at Saratoga Springs using our Developer Points -- but we LOVED it!

Again -- I think you'll be pleased.

[MatterhornMiss]

There are so many DVC destinations at Walt Disney World now (7 unless my fingers and toes are letting me down) that you can practically travel the world hopping between those resorts.

Welcome Home!

Curious to know how many fingers and toes you have if it takes both to count to seven :silly:

I agree, Welcome Home! It may not be the most point-efficient to ONLY vacation at non-DVC resorts, but maybe Disney will grow on you more.

[john machen]

Welcome, over time you will learn to work the system to your advantage. There are many options. Good luck and enjoy!

[parndt]

Thanx to all that have responded. Have made reservations at SS for June using Developer "Bonus" pts. Very much looking forward to it.

OK now on to using DVC points for non-Disney properties.

Could someone briefly and in terms a novice DVCer can understand tell me how this works. In a previous post the term "trade" was used. How does this work? I thought (perhaps totally) wrong that we just use our pts.

I suppose I could contact a Disney Agent and get the answers but....

Use this as a hypothetical: I'm from Wisconsin and I see there is a property under the umbrella of II or maybe even the RCI group up in Door County Wisconsin and I want to use left over pts for a weekend as I can't swing another trip to Disney. What do I do? How does it work?

Thanx in advance for this.

[TimK]

Could someone briefly and in terms a novice DVCer can understand tell me how this works. In a previous post the term "trade" was used. How does this work? I thought (perhaps totally) wrong that we just use our pts.

I suppose I could contact a Disney Agent and get the answers but....

Use this as a hypothetical: I'm from Wisconsin and I see there is a property under the umbrella of II or maybe even the RCI group up in Door County Wisconsin and I want to use left over pts for a weekend as I can't swing another trip to Disney. What do I do? How does it work?

Thanx in advance for this.

Before I forget to mention it, bear in mind that you can always BANK your points one year into the future. If you have a few points left from your 2008 Use Year, you can bank them into 2009. 2009 points could be banked into 2010. I suspect that's what most people do with their odd points. As long as you are visiting at least 1x per year, those banked points should always be used.

As for booking something in the World Passport Collection, that is technically a TRADE. Right now the company that facilitates the trades is called Interval International. Essentially what happens is you deposit a room into the II trade pool (via the points you use) and are able to withdraw an equivalent accommodation from the pool. Success is almost entirely dependent upon what is deposited by others. If nobody deposits your Door County Wisconsin destination, you aren't going to get it.

The kicker here is that, as you may have read, DVC is in the process of switching from Interval International to RCI. We know almost nothing about RCI at this point. With II, DVC limited the number of properties we could trade into. II has about 2400 resorts under its umbrella but DVC members only had access to roughly 500. The same is likely to be true with RCI.

II remains in place until the end of the year. If you want to try booking thru them now, it's certainly an option. To do so you work through DVC Member Services. They are our liason with II and can walk you through the entire process. There is a fee for using II ($95, I believe) and they may or may not be able to match you with something right when you call.

Over the next couple of weeks we will certainly learn more about the RCI relationship if you'd rather work through them. I'm almost certain that our point of communications will still be DVC, but the roster of resorts into which we can trade is certain to change. There may also be changes to the fee structure and other aspects of the trading process.

[lllovell]

Welcome Home!!!

I had terrible buyers remorse after we signed the papers but have honestly never had any negative thoughts since I just said "too late now you goofy woman!" and let it go.

Hang around here and you will learn the ins and outs pretty quickly. Ask questions and you will get lots of answers (with some humor and life tossed in as we are a friendly group!)

Congrats on your purchase!

Laura

[ffpmme]

We used our points for the White Hall Hotel in Chicago and were VERY impressed with the hotel as well as the city.


Thanks for the complment. How was that hotel , my wife and I have been meeing to go see it? You are the first person I have heard that has stayed there.

[ffpmme]

Thanx to all that have responded. Have made reservations at SS for June using Developer "Bonus" pts. Very much looking forward to it. .....

.....Use this as a hypothetical: I'm from Wisconsin and I see there is a property under the umbrella of II or maybe even the RCI group up in Door County Wisconsin and I want to use left over pts for a weekend as I can't swing another trip to Disney. What do I do? How does it work?

Thanx in advance for this.

I am not the person to answer this because I have limited experience with DVC (Aug'08) but I see two questions here that may be issues.
1) Are you going to try to use developer points that uyou have left over for the weekend stay? Can you?
2) If not will you be able to use your regular points for this stay because of the opening of the new building? We have a Oct. use year, but we can not use any points until the new resort opens in May, I think.

I will admit that the questions may be diffuclt to answer and maybe way off but I think they have a bering on your plans and I would hate to see you stuck out in the cold.

[parndt]

Yes our plan was to stay a week at SS and we would use our Developer Pts. We would have some left over. Plan on Banking our 1st year 160 Pts.

Use the "left over" developer pts for a weekend (maybe one night) near our home, like Door County. Other option is to use them with the CC at the Whitehall Hotel in Chicago. Again, if we can use our developer pts.
I think we will have 37 Developer pts after our vacation at SS. Gosh I hope we don't "eat" them.

[ffpmme]

I was asking because my contract specifically says that I have 5 night stay at a 1 br at SSR. I do not believe that it offers me another option besides that, because it does not mention a point vaule of the stay.

I have asked this before on the boards and have not really gotten an answer as to my ability to break it up or not. I have to talk with MS to get a solid answer and I have not had the time to do so.

But come to Chicago, we are a fun town!!! A little cold but fun!!!:biggulp:

[parndt]

Did some investigation into Interval properties. Could have used Developer Pts towards it BUT NOT Concierge Collection. Decided to upgrade a few nights from Studio to 1 Bedroom at Saratoga this June. Have to do it on the "frontside" of vacation so that might be a mental downer to move from 1 Bedroom for 3 nights to a Studio for four nights. So all Developer Pts (160) have been used. I feel good about our decision.

On another note, I know down the road we will want to use Pts for non Disney probably within the RCI Group. I hope the properties are of high quality and the booking of them is not complex. Was told by agent that RCI comes on board Jan 2 so I/we will know more then.