How many points do you REALY need?

[TW1]

As a proud, but meager, owner of just 150 points I often dream of how many I'd actually like to have.

What I actually have versus what would be sufficient for my needs and availablity to travel are different. Thus I could stand to own 260 points in all, but not much more before I would run into the problem of expiring points and needing to rent or sell.

So, using Tagrel's awesome point calculater and trying to plan out how often you can really go and the type of accomodations you really need, how many points are ideal for you?

[lllovell]

I have had this arguement in my head MANY MANY times already. We bought 250 points with our original purchase and I really think it will work out for the best (even since we are starting to do the one bedroom things versus the studio). I am a points stretcher though, trying to get as many trips as possible out of our points.

The trick for me is that I have several weeks of vacation but hubby doesn't have near as much (and he just started a new job a couple of weeks ago, so once again, his total paid time off starts from zero). So, I get add-on-its and then I remind myself that there are other vacations we need to take *gasp* and that logically it won't pay for me to add onto our 250 at the moment.

Once the kids are older, I might start taking a week here or there with just myself and them if hubby can't go, so we may add on then. I just can't do baby, 3 and 5 year old by myself at the moment lol

Laura

[PoohsPal]

I really don't think we can go more than 1 week a year. SO, 150 should be plenty for the two of us. The Alaska cruise shows me that I could need more, but that's an every 10-yr kind of thing. I'm sure that after Aug 07, we'll have plenty of points! ;)

[Tagrel]

We bought enough to enjoy a couple weeks, typically with weekends spent elsewhere. (Beach or Universal, etc.) NOW that I have been doing MouseFest each year, a few more to cover that would be nice. ;)

Now if this was what I would WANT vs NEED, then it would be a different story! ;) Let's see... 12809 points to spend the year in a BCV one bedroom .... Hey, or ONLY 10285 points at OKW! :peri: OK - that's a bit over 50 GRAND in dues for the year.... I'm thinking I'll be sticking with what we NEED! :yes:

[mark&sue]

I think we probably have too many points with 520 as we can only come over once a year at the moment. This year I am using some points for Disneyland Paris and an exchange in England which I have been told is not a good use of points.

We also are using our points to take friends with us. The next time we go in October 2006 (flights already booked!!) we are taking two other families with us. They will have to pay for their flights but the accommodation with be on us. I can't wait to start booking all the restaurants etc.

Looking forward to the next 48 years. I love DVC. I never feel down now I have DVC so worth every penny.


Susan

[WDWDen]

We bought 250 from the begining and I have always used them quickly. 500 points would be great for us. I only like going in the one-beds. Those are why I bought into DVC in the first place. I would also like to get a grand villa for a week and be able to bring my family and friends. Well, that and be able to have a BW GV one year for MouseFest, so I can host a party in there. :-)

I don't mind paying the intial payment, but $2,000 a year in maintance fees would get old quick.

Since that is alot, I will set for an extra 100 points. 350 would be sweet! :-)

[nono]

We have 305 and that's exactly what we can use for now. However, as some of you know, my husband's dream is 800 points so we can spend 4 weeks straight in the dead of winter at WDW.

[kathleena]

Oh, I love to dream of more points......... :stairway:

We have 385 - started with 170 at BWV, then 30 add-on, then 40 at BCV, then 45 more at BCV, then 100 at BCV. My only regret is that I didn't do the last 100 at BWV instead, but I figure I could always sell BCV if I needed to!

If I get any more - it would only be a 100pt add-on at VAKL, and then I would probably sell some BCV as 485 would be too much.

Too much in fees - not too much in points however. I could never have enough points!

Right now, the 385 feels like enough - enough to do a studio if we want to save for a 2br. Enough to get a 2br in a higher season when the grandkids can only go during vacations. Enough to get a 1br for DH and me when we really only need a studio.

To Mark & Sue: I say anyway you want to use your points is a good use of points! It's your money and your vacation! Enjoy!

To Den: That GV idea sounds kind of cool. And doable even without one person having all the points - if some people get together and pool their points. The point poolers can stay there, and everyone else can come party! Of course, we would never go over the stated occupancy! :angleCute: I can see it now - Taginator BWV Grand Villa meet for Illuminations! Just a thought.

[duckfan]

How many do I need? Zero. How many do I want? How many do you got? I have about 650 right now, and I'm stuck with about 350 I'm going to have to unload before next aug. because my wife got pregnant (100% not my fault...well maybe not 100%) and we took almost two years off. Now we went from always in a borrowing mode to having extra. I would buy tomorrow if they did a Contemp. and I want BCV anyway. My wife, on the other hand thinks we have more than enough.

[SuzyQ]

We have 250, but I could see us easily using another 150. :shock: Like you all said, it's the maintenance fees that keep us from adding on right now. Those 250 have gone fast! With two studios at BCV for 5 nights (S-Th) and 10 nights at the BWV in a 2br, we have used up this use year AND next use year's points!! So either we add on in the near future or leave our families at home. ;) (not necessarily a bad idea :lol: )

We, also, will be one of the first in line to add on if they open the Contemporary. That would be terrrrrrrific!

[Joe]

We originally bought in with 240 and that allows us to go for a week in a 1BR with no problem. Now we are headed to the Poly next month and paying cash. Given how much we love both the OKW and Poly, we may have just the right amount of points:?

Joe :mickeyHalloween:

[gopherit]

Ah points.... the delicate balance between what we WANT and what we can afford (both in terms of cash and vacation time!)

We started out at 175. Foolish mortal kids that we were, we knew nothing of resales and bought what Disney was offering at BWV. We did our calcs for 175 based on (a) going 5 nights up to MAYBE a week per year, every year (b) in January! :roll: What were we thinking? At least we did have the foresight to plan that out as a 2br stay from the get-go... but with 2 kids and a 3rd on the way at the time, we figured we may as well, based on DVC "occupancy laws", LOL!

It didn't take us long, however, to see where our "math" and calculations had failed us...

(1) Kids can't be readily yanked out of school. What was easy to do at the preschool level gets VERY hard to do as they get older.... and not because of the teacher or school - our kids just hated either loading up beforehand or afterwards! And there is always some "other" thing that is scheduled during school year, too, like sports or scouts or such... so basically our vacations are limited over the next several years to holidays and the month of August!

(2) We like LOOOOOOONG vacations! We really didn't WANT to hoof it down to WDW and have to turn right back around 5 or 6 days later! We upped it to 6.. then 8.... then 9.... then 13 days! We feel optimal time is right around 12-14 days (though even THEN our kids were of the opinion, "Can't we stay just onnnnnnnne more day?!?")

(3) We like sharing the magic, and family really LOVES this DVC stuff. Way too much, too. Meaning, we never get turned down when we offer accommodations to family. Mind you, the turkeys may never visit us at our OTHER home... but for WDW, count them in. We took BIl/SIL and their kids twice now. It required us to use a 2BR even when, for our fam at the time, we didn't need it. That can eat the pts faster.

SOoooo.... when they opened up some BWV pts for purchase through Disney, we bought a small add-on (30 pts). I regret not just picking an even 50 to give us 225, but oh well -- I didn't want to add too much, becuase I thought I'd rather have pts at either OKW or HHI (for summer advantage at HHI or GV advantage at OKW). Plus, those places have LOTS CHEAPER DUES, haha! I figured maybe I'd look at a resale for one someday...

But alas... we've gone no where on that. I keep us in a continuously BORROWED state (in fact, we have only enough pts next year for 8 nts in a 2br at OKW, so we're stretching our trip to its preferred 12 day length with 3 or 4 nts over at a Universal resort - oh the scandal! :P ) Our last vacation was in the 400 pts range, and so was the one before that. Our recent 6 nts at HHI was in the 250 pts range. I'd like to be able to do WDW every other year and a concierge collection or HHI or Vero on the off-year for variety, so I'd like about 300-400 pts total, I guess. My sister only has 225 pts and she has used them for Tanque Verde (arizona), inns up in New England area (von Trapp and 2 others), Hawaii, California (Claremont / shutters), Vero, HHI... I am amazed because I can't seem to get my family to cough up the points away from WDW!

So for now... I figure, if push comes to shove, I can pay for a pts transfer, if needed, to get me through any "lean" times until we can justify an add-on. What I really need is for that AKL or Contemporary DVC resort to come through.... I figure LOTS of folks will be ditching their little contracts to make room for a piece of that, and then I'll cash in on just the right points on a resale, LOL! :wink:

[WithDisneySpirit]

I may have more than I need :shock: I started with 230 points and then I decided, we would want two trips per year and we have to have a two bedroom with two big teen boys...so I bought another 190 pt contract for a total of 420 :peri:

Then, my mom jumped in on the action and bought her own points and now she has a total of 330! Now, we vacation together and we can stay in a GV with her cheaper than our 2br. Anyway, I am trying to save a whole year extra points now to use in 2008 and lodge all my family for a VR - DH and my 10 yr anniversary :bigkiss:

[WDWDen]

Ok, so you can pool your points with another DVC member on one reservation?? Lets say that myself, Tagrel and SuzyQ wanted to stay together for 3 days in a BWGV. We could all use one night worth of points on the same reservation??

[SuzyQ]

Ok, so you can pool your points with another DVC member on one reservation?? Lets say that myself, Tagrel and SuzyQ wanted to stay together for 3 days in a BWGV. We could all use one night worth of points on the same reservation??

:shock: :shock: :shock:

The THOUGHT!

:rofl:

Actually, I'm pretty sure that you can pool points (so each of us would put some of our points in on a reservation) in order to stay in a GV. Basically, it's not really any different than transferring our points.

[WDWDen]

hehehe, I KNEW you'd like that Suzy. Ok, I'm feeling dumb here, but what is 'transferring' points??

[gopherit]

hehehe, I KNEW you'd like that Suzy. Ok, I'm feeling dumb here, but what is 'transferring' points??

You can transfer pts between owners. If you want, for example, to give me 200 pts, you and I get online with DVC MS and badaboom, from your account to mine it can be done and the pts are then in my account for my use.

Let me know when you want to give that a try... :wink:

[WDWDen]

LOL, thanks gopherit!! :-) That is pretty cool. I didnt know you could do that!!

Well, maybe one year, if I have surplus of points I need to get rid of, you'll be the first person I give them too!! :-)

[lllovell]

Its a sweet thing for those of us that are members. Most other members are willing to transfer points at a little bit less than the going rate because once you get your money and transfer the points to another DVC member, you are done. (same for the person "renting" from another member - there is no chance of something going wrong with a reservation that is not under your control)

The trick is that once you transfer the points, the other DVC member has total control of them as if they belonged to them all along. Its definately a win/win for members.

I just rented some points from another member, had them transfered to my account and have now made my reservation with them through MS for next April. If I change my mind, I can call and cancel and reschedule - where as a typical renter would have to get the owner of the points to do so. It was a pretty painless transaction!

Laura

[SuzyQ]

LOL, thanks gopherit!! :-) That is pretty cool. I didnt know you could do that!!

Well, maybe one year, if I have surplus of points I need to get rid of, you'll be the first person I give them too!! :-)

Hey! Where's the loyalty here?! We're the ones sharing the room! :fainting:

[gopherit]

LOL, thanks gopherit!! That is pretty cool. I didnt know you could do that!!

Well, maybe one year, if I have surplus of points I need to get rid of, you'll be the first person I give them too!!


Hey! Where's the loyalty here?! We're the ones sharing the room!


Ummm, loyalty probably got ditched at the DVC desk with this less-than-enthusiastic response:

Ok, so you can pool your points with another DVC member on one reservation?? Lets say that myself, Tagrel and SuzyQ wanted to stay together for 3 days in a BWGV. We could all use one night worth of points on the same reservation??

:shock: :shock: :shock:

The THOUGHT!

:rofl:

Hey .... no shara da room.... no shara da points! :wink:

[SuzyQ]

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[WDWDen]

hehe :-) You got it gopherit!! The nerve of that girl!! Talks to me like that and then wants to bunk up with me. :evil:

[jnrrt]

We've got 175, and my problem now is that I can talk myself into adding on EVERYWHERE!

Hey, let's add on at OKW, low points, good maintenance fees, and cheap GV's!

Hey, let's add on at BCV, the pool, the pool, the pool!

Hey, let's add on at VWL, we love the theme, it's the smallest and I'd love to be there at Christmas, need the advantage for that.

Hey, let's add on at HH, we saw it this summer, and I LOVED it, definitely need the 11 month advantage for summer.

Hey, let's add on at Vero, never seen this place, but I hear it's nice, and whoa! are those points cheap!

Hey, let's add on at SSR, never seen this place either, but I hear it's nice, and you get 12 EXTRA YEARS!

Hey, you gonna build DVC at CR? Yeah, I'd want that. I don't even like CR, but you could walk to MK, and everyone else would want it, so if we couldn't use the points, renting would be easy (I'm abviously going insane...)

Hey, you gonna build DVC at AKL? I'm so there, I love AKL! But what if I've already added on at 5 other places...

Hey, you gonna build DVC at DL? Well, we're probably hardly ever going to be there, but it would be nice sometime, and see comments for CR, baby.

So you see my problem. It's bad. And realistically, I know that actually 175 is pretty good. That's about what we'll use. And then there's that pesky money thing. And the fact that hubby is patient with me, but not that patient. You see. And there's the whole rest-of-the-world-to-see thing that seems to keep cropping up in conversation.


So, I have 175 points. Yup. That's what I've got. And as long as I stay stymied by all the possibilities, that's what I'm keeping.

[Leftcoaster]

Ideally, I'd like to end up with about 300 points. I'd want enough for a week in a studio and a week in a 1 bedroom. Right now, I'm at 230 points and am content with that.

[MJTinNH]

I currently have 200 BWV points. I have thought about this and I would really love to have 150 more. That would allow twice annual trips and a shot at a GV once every couple of years.

I'll just have to put that on hold until the major home repair is done. :cry:

[TW1]

I'll just have to put that on hold until the major home repair is done. :cry:

That's what we've been saying, finish the addition that's been in progress two+ years, get central air and then buy more points. But then, if we just buy more points, we can spent more time at our "other home" that already has air and a bathroom, right?

Ahhh, to dream of what we want only to be awaken by what we need.


jnrrt - you have my head spinning! You're right, so many choices, so little time...

So, after reading through all this and hearing from others about what they need, I wonder where my add-on would be? Since its a few years away at best I'd probably just buy whatever is newest to start a new 50 year cycle, rather than OKW, which we love.

I imagine the rumors about CR would be years away until SSR sales reach capacity. Then I'd buy at CR (or whatever is newest) for sure.

We also spent time thinking about what the kids (now just 11 and 7) would want in a few years. We imagined that when they are in college (knock wood) and afterwards, it'd be nice to give them their own vacation times, so having more points would be nice just for that reason.

Anyway, its Friday and I have all intentions of dreaming the day away, thinking of points....

TGIF everyone!

[kathleena]

Ok, so you can pool your points with another DVC member on one reservation?? Lets say that myself, Tagrel and SuzyQ wanted to stay together for 3 days in a BWGV. We could all use one night worth of points on the same reservation??

There's a yes to the points transfer answer that's been discussed - although I think there is a limitation on how many times you can do that in a year, so everyone transferring into one account may not be possible.

However - if you each had 74 points to fork over for one night in Dec, then you each make your one night ressie and then link them all together. And that's just for the weeknights - the weekend nights are 94.

I could be talked into one of the 94 point nights if I get the master bedroom. :wink:

[DizneeDad]

I originally started out with the basic 150...while talking to my DVC guide I asked him if it were possible to trade up the discount of $10.00
for MORE points! Yes, you can! Is what I heard! So, now I'm up to
168 points...so, 3 months go by and our planned trip home to SSR is
revamped to include MIL. now I start thinking...maybe I should have bought more points? I decide to take a chance...I call up my DVC guide
and ask to add on even before my 1st home visit..after a little while
with him he asks his boss(being that I initially bought already) if I could
add on with the $10.00 discount...Yes, I can! Well now...150,168,218...
224! I feel 224 is fine for now...I can alternate every year between stays
at SSR(home) and a favorite of ours...The Polynesian! Just remember...
20-25 years down the road we'll STILL need the $ for annual dues...year after year...so, too many points bought now could cause havoc in the distant future! Be careful of what you ask for and greatful for what you have...A PIECE OF THE MOUSE!

[LuvmeDisney]

This is a great thread for those of us who have always been dreaming about DVC. Thanks for sharing all of your thoughts! It is extremly helpful.

Linda