Please note, this is my first attempt at a Pre-Trip report, so please bear with my ramblings. 
So after many years of being tempted to buy into DVC, my wife and I finally decided to bite the bullet and take the plunge into the DVC pool. On our last trip in October 2016, we stopped by a DVC booth in AK. We scheduled a DVC consultation meeting at the Poly for the following day. This would be the second time we would go through the sales pitch. The first time was at Saratoga Springs in 2015. We were tempted to buy at that meeting but decided against it. This time, we were pretty sure we wanted in, and that we wanted to buy direct from Disney (at least for our first points purchase). So we ended up buying in that day and we now have points at our home resort: Disney's Polynesian Village Resort.
For those who aren't familiar with how DVC points work, our first year of points would be good from October 2016 through September 2017. We were pretty sure that we would not be using the points within that timeframe so we banked all of those points to use in the following year (Oct 2017 - Sep 2018). This means that we now have the ability to use those banked points, the current year's points, and we could borrow against next year's points.
So now that we have points to use, we need to find a time to use them. We are in the process of planning a large (10 - 12 people) family trip for August 2018. Should we make this a DVC trip?? When we normally go as a family, we usually rent DVC points from a friend. The last trip was Aug 2016, staying in three Deluxe Studios at the GF. Because we normally rent points for this trip and because no one else in the family is a DVC member (yet), we decided it would be better to not use our points for that trip. Well, it turns out that I needed to attend a conference in March for work. The 2017 conference was held in San Diego, but they didn't announce where the 2018 conference would be. When the location was finally announced, it ended up being at the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek!!! At first, I didn't know exactly where that was so I looked it up on Google Maps.
Found it!!!
So basically, my conference is being held on Disney Property (or about as close as possible). The conference runs from Sunday - Wednesday. Why not schedule our first ever DVC trip after the conference?? The plan is for me to fly down on Saturday or Sunday for the conference and my wife will join me on Wednesday after the conference ends. Yeah!!! We have a basic plan for a Disney trip!!!
So here are the details:
WHO: Just me and my DW (Which I learned stands for Dear Wife, or Disney Wife, definitely not Damn Wife)
WHEN: Wednesday, March 21, 2018 - Monday, March 26, 2018
WHERE: Deluxe Studio at Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge.
So far, no thoughts on dining reservations. On our last trip, we decided to try out the dining plan and discovered that we liked it. Not so much for the savings, but for the convenience. We will be looking into doing the dining plan again, but at this point we aren't sure.
Since we were there last, there are quite a few new things that we are looking forward to experiencing including Pandora, Rivers of Light, and Happily Ever After. There is also a bunch of new restaurants open at Disney Springs that we haven't tried yet. (Looking at you, Art Smith's Homecomin!!) Also, this will be the first time that we have been there for the Flower and Garden Festival.
I will try to remember to update the pre-trip report as the plans start to come together. Hopefully, I will remember to take enough pictures and take enough notes to put a full trip report together afterwards as well.
So after many years of being tempted to buy into DVC, my wife and I finally decided to bite the bullet and take the plunge into the DVC pool. On our last trip in October 2016, we stopped by a DVC booth in AK. We scheduled a DVC consultation meeting at the Poly for the following day. This would be the second time we would go through the sales pitch. The first time was at Saratoga Springs in 2015. We were tempted to buy at that meeting but decided against it. This time, we were pretty sure we wanted in, and that we wanted to buy direct from Disney (at least for our first points purchase). So we ended up buying in that day and we now have points at our home resort: Disney's Polynesian Village Resort.
For those who aren't familiar with how DVC points work, our first year of points would be good from October 2016 through September 2017. We were pretty sure that we would not be using the points within that timeframe so we banked all of those points to use in the following year (Oct 2017 - Sep 2018). This means that we now have the ability to use those banked points, the current year's points, and we could borrow against next year's points.
So now that we have points to use, we need to find a time to use them. We are in the process of planning a large (10 - 12 people) family trip for August 2018. Should we make this a DVC trip?? When we normally go as a family, we usually rent DVC points from a friend. The last trip was Aug 2016, staying in three Deluxe Studios at the GF. Because we normally rent points for this trip and because no one else in the family is a DVC member (yet), we decided it would be better to not use our points for that trip. Well, it turns out that I needed to attend a conference in March for work. The 2017 conference was held in San Diego, but they didn't announce where the 2018 conference would be. When the location was finally announced, it ended up being at the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek!!! At first, I didn't know exactly where that was so I looked it up on Google Maps.
Found it!!!
So basically, my conference is being held on Disney Property (or about as close as possible). The conference runs from Sunday - Wednesday. Why not schedule our first ever DVC trip after the conference?? The plan is for me to fly down on Saturday or Sunday for the conference and my wife will join me on Wednesday after the conference ends. Yeah!!! We have a basic plan for a Disney trip!!!
So here are the details:
WHO: Just me and my DW (Which I learned stands for Dear Wife, or Disney Wife, definitely not Damn Wife)
WHEN: Wednesday, March 21, 2018 - Monday, March 26, 2018
WHERE: Deluxe Studio at Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge.
So far, no thoughts on dining reservations. On our last trip, we decided to try out the dining plan and discovered that we liked it. Not so much for the savings, but for the convenience. We will be looking into doing the dining plan again, but at this point we aren't sure.
Since we were there last, there are quite a few new things that we are looking forward to experiencing including Pandora, Rivers of Light, and Happily Ever After. There is also a bunch of new restaurants open at Disney Springs that we haven't tried yet. (Looking at you, Art Smith's Homecomin!!) Also, this will be the first time that we have been there for the Flower and Garden Festival.
I will try to remember to update the pre-trip report as the plans start to come together. Hopefully, I will remember to take enough pictures and take enough notes to put a full trip report together afterwards as well.
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