Looking for seasoned DVC owners advice

[WisconsinDisney]

Hello All,
We are almost new owners of 250 at AK! We just found out the former owner had 250 banked points that need to be used before our month (December). We do not have our new member number yet, (coming) but are nervous these points will go to waste (banked from 2014- so can not be re-banked). We can come down in Oct or Nov to use..... but everything is booked at Magic Kingdom (Food & Wine and marathons) that I can see.
Looking for advice, as this is all new to us. We had rented points for the past 4 years and thought it was time to buy.... but now a bit confused. We are so excited, but not sure how to use these banked points before they are lost. I know we need our membership number to even begin to try waitlist? Our family needs only a studio... and the view is one of our first priorities as we love the Resort...... but we are most interested in using the points?
suggestions? advice? ideas?
Thank you!

 

[slappy magoo]

Welcome to the boards.
It's not a bad thing to buy DVC or buy resale, but yeah you're kind of in a perfect storm of stink, having points that must be used so soon, and the timeframe being a popular one for DVC members. Long story short, Animal Kingdom Villas do look pretty packed. When it comes to trips with a quick turnaround time from when they're booked, Saratoga Springs and Old Key West are always your friends. They are both IMO lovely resorts, both close to Disney Springs (Saratoga is within walking distance), but since they're more removed from the action that most other DVC resorts, they're not a lot of people's first choice for a stay, even people whose home resort is one of those resorts. You might need to do some "Split Stays" - a few days in one resort and a few days in another, or a few days in a studio and a few days in a 1BR. But with 250 points that you need to burn through, that shouldn't be much of a problem, you know?

Another thing you might be able to do - but with resale nowadays I'm not sure - is convert the points to be used for regular rooms at WDW resorts. It requires a $95 "exchange fee," but with 250 points you can (if they'll let you as a resale purchaser, and based on availability) book a week at a suite in the Art of Animation resort. Or nearly 2 weeks in a moderate. Sorry I don't know if the new rules regarding resales affect you this way - maybe someone else who reads this can confirm one way or the other?

But right now, there's a 10 day stretch in a 1BR in Saratoga still available, from check in 11/13 to check out 11/23. Any 8 nights would run you 234 points. And if they're use-or-lose may as well use them all so if you can get the points relatively soon, there's hope. Good luck.

EDIT: Oh, and once you book a room, then you can always still try to waitlist one or two places you'd rather stay, but with the knowledge that at least you've got something somewhere.

 

[sxeensweet]

Welcome Home!!!!
Don't fret you will likely still find availability at Saratoga Springs or OKW. Also usually AKV/Kidani (Kidani is nicer and has larger rooms than Jambo room wise in our opinion) your home also usually has availability (different than looking at public inventory as it's totally seperate inventory) at a shorter notice. I also own at AKV but do also love Saratoga as well.

 

[Todd L]

I own at AK and while We love it there weve only stayed there one time. We love old key west and try to stay there as often as possible.

The rooms are HUGE!!

Olivias is possibly the most under rated food in WDW.

The pool is fantastic.

The Gurgling Suitcase is a great Bar with some of the best Drink on property and the Water Taxi to Disney Springs is a great way to travel. Best wishes with your plans!

 

[dreamfinder]

At such short notice you will most likely have to be a bit flexible. November is showing a fair stretch of availability in a few chunks at SSR/OKW for 1BR. Take advantage of this opportunity to resort hop maybe? Try to string together a bunch of stays at different resorts? I see single night stays in several resorts in November for Studio or 1BR. October may be a lost cause at this point. Since you will lose the points if you don't use them, have fun with it. Pack light and don't be afraid to try out resorts/room types you really wouldn't normally consider.

If you have closed and gotten all the documents back you may be able to call Member Services and work with them over the phone. I know that I was able to do that years ago before I got the information to setup my account online.

 

[EastTNDisneyfan]

Hello All,
We are almost new owners of 250 at AK! We just found out the former owner had 250 banked points that need to be used before our month (December). We do not have our new member number yet, (coming) but are nervous these points will go to waste (banked from 2014- so can not be re-banked). We can come down in Oct or Nov to use..... but everything is booked at Magic Kingdom (Food & Wine and marathons) that I can see.
Looking for advice, as this is all new to us. We had rented points for the past 4 years and thought it was time to buy.... but now a bit confused. We are so excited, but not sure how to use these banked points before they are lost. I know we need our membership number to even begin to try waitlist? Our family needs only a studio... and the view is one of our first priorities as we love the Resort...... but we are most interested in using the points?
suggestions? advice? ideas?
Thank you!

We own at AK as well, if you can't use them you can always try to sell them. Or at the least get a room at SSR and sell the rest. I wouldn't just let them go to waste. Congrats on your purchases you can't go wrong with AK, IMHO.

 

[dreamfinder]

We own at AK as well, if you can't use them you can always try to sell them. Or at the least get a room at SSR and sell the rest. I wouldn't just let them go to waste. Congrats on your purchases you can't go wrong with AK, IMHO.

Except that if they can't find enough consecutive days to use the points, I'd imagine it would be pretty hard to make a booking for someone else to use the points. Doing point transfers, they might be able to find someone who could tack on a single night at either end of their existing booking, but technically transfers cannot be done for money.

 

[DisDadWoz]

Also too, if you are interested you could always look into Vero Beach and use some points there for part of a trip as it's not a bad drive out that way. You can book a short stay there and then head over to the world to as well. That way you get to experience some other DVC offerings.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Hello All,
We are almost new owners of 250 at AK! We just found out the former owner had 250 banked points that need to be used before our month (December). We do not have our new member number yet, (coming) but are nervous these points will go to waste (banked from 2014- so can not be re-banked). We can come down in Oct or Nov to use..... but everything is booked at Magic Kingdom (Food & Wine and marathons) that I can see.
Looking for advice, as this is all new to us. We had rented points for the past 4 years and thought it was time to buy.... but now a bit confused. We are so excited, but not sure how to use these banked points before they are lost. I know we need our membership number to even begin to try waitlist? Our family needs only a studio... and the view is one of our first priorities as we love the Resort...... but we are most interested in using the points?
suggestions? advice? ideas?
Thank you!

Oh, my! We're probably considered "seasoned DVC owners" (13+ years) but we don't have any advice. I wish we did, but we're in a similar, but not as bad, position-just bought an add-on that has banked points, yet we've already made all our reservations for this UY. I read somewhere that Member Services MIGHT take pity on you and be able to shuffle around points to get those points into existing reservations. At least make the call-you've got nothing to lose! By the way, see you marathon weekend. Which race(s)? This year, DH is in for the half-marathon, did the Dopey last year.

 

[dreamfinder]

I read somewhere that Member Services MIGHT take pity on you and be able to shuffle around points to get those points into existing reservations. At least make the call-you've got nothing to lose!

Re-balancing points usually requires the points to be usable. IE you had made a booking with your 2017 points, but then banked 2016 points, re-balancing would use those banked points first. You can try to call, but where you don't have any other bookings you will really just need to get whatever you can booked as soon as you can.

 

[EastTNDisneyfan]

Except that if they can't find enough consecutive days to use the points, I'd imagine it would be pretty hard to make a booking for someone else to use the points. Doing point transfers, they might be able to find someone who could tack on a single night at either end of their existing booking, but technically transfers cannot be done for money.

However, you can sell them to Davids DVC for money people do it all the time. You might not get full price but a little is better than letting them go to waste and getting nothing.

 

[dreamfinder]

However, you can sell them to Davids DVC for money people do it all the time. You might not get full price but a little is better than letting them go to waste and getting nothing.

Except that David's is a broker that handles rentals, and not transfers. There is a big difference between the two. They are still going to be limited by the same occupancy and point expiration that the OP is. So yeah, in theory David's may have a few clients who are looking for 1-2 day trips that the OP might be able to get a few bucks for, but if the OP cannot make find enough consecutive days to make a vacation out the points, then David's won't be able to either.

 

[EastTNDisneyfan]

Except that David's is a broker that handles rentals, and not transfers. There is a big difference between the two. They are still going to be limited by the same occupancy and point expiration that the OP is. So yeah, in theory David's may have a few clients who are looking for 1-2 day trips that the OP might be able to get a few bucks for, but if the OP cannot make find enough consecutive days to make a vacation out the points, then David's won't be able to either.

Well I don't think they wanting to transfer them, they are wanting to use the banked points or sell them which is exactly what Davids does. They wouldn't really need to be looking for a 1 or 2 day trip if there is a week open that David needs then they can sell a weeks worth of points. That was just a suggestion if they are not going to be able to use them all, then selling is an option, is all i'm trying to say.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I just got off the phone with member services about this exact situation. She was able to "reallocate" my points so that the banked points we recently purchased are now in an existing reservation. I must admit that I was nervous when she said she was going to do this. The existing reservation is the one we have at BCV for the F&W festival. I've heard horror stories of people losing their reservations in that few seconds while the CM is fooling around with it. If anything goes wrong at 2 months out, we'd never have a prayer of a Waitlist getting it back. But apparently it worked, and now all our points are "new", bankable points.

 

[EastTNDisneyfan]

I just got off the phone with member services about this exact situation. She was able to "reallocate" my points so that the banked points we recently purchased are now in an existing reservation. I must admit that I was nervous when she said she was going to do this. The existing reservation is the one we have at BCV for the F&W festival. I've heard horror stories of people losing their reservations in that few seconds while the CM is fooling around with it. If anything goes wrong at 2 months out, we'd never have a prayer of a Waitlist getting it back. But apparently it worked, and now all our points are "new", bankable points.

That is Awesome!!!

 

[dreamfinder]

I just got off the phone with member services about this exact situation. She was able to "reallocate" my points so that the banked points we recently purchased are now in an existing reservation. I must admit that I was nervous when she said she was going to do this. The existing reservation is the one we have at BCV for the F&W festival. I've heard horror stories of people losing their reservations in that few seconds while the CM is fooling around with it. If anything goes wrong at 2 months out, we'd never have a prayer of a Waitlist getting it back. But apparently it worked, and now all our points are "new", bankable points.

I tried to explain this before, unfortunately re-balancing won't help the OP. Re-balancing takes points that are banked, and thusly would expire at the end of the current use year, and uses them in place of points from the current use year. So in your case, I believe you got banked 2015 points and that you already had a booking with 2016 points. So they returned your 2016 points to your account, and applied the 2015 points to your booking instead. When member services re-balances points, the points can still only be redistributed the bookings where the points are valid. So you couldn't have them re-balance your banked 2015 points for a reservation in your 2017 use year. If the OP had a booking within the next few months, then you are definitely correct in that re-balancing would benefit them. But since they have no existing reservation that the banked points can be applied to, there is nothing for member services to re-balance.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

I just got off the phone with member services about this exact situation. She was able to "reallocate" my points so that the banked points we recently purchased are now in an existing reservation. I must admit that I was nervous when she said she was going to do this. The existing reservation is the one we have at BCV for the F&W festival. I've heard horror stories of people losing their reservations in that few seconds while the CM is fooling around with it. If anything goes wrong at 2 months out, we'd never have a prayer of a Waitlist getting it back. But apparently it worked, and now all our points are "new", bankable points.

Yeah, that's really pretty much a myth nowadays. When MS changes reservations or points in their system, nothing is lost. If you had tried it on-line, then yes, it would be possible since you would have had to cancel the reservation, and then make a new one. MS just transfers the points internally with no cancellation needed.

When we want to switch at the 7 month mark, we always call MS for just that reason. If you try it on-line, and don't have enough points to cover both, then you have to cancel and re-book, taking the chance that you might lose both. MS can hold the new one while transferring the points, so you can't lose either. Much safer.

 

[llrain]

If you bought direct take a disney cruise with the points ...these days dcl is better than being in the parks

Hello All,
We are almost new owners of 250 at AK! We just found out the former owner had 250 banked points that need to be used before our month (December). We do not have our new member number yet, (coming) but are nervous these points will go to waste (banked from 2014- so can not be re-banked). We can come down in Oct or Nov to use..... but everything is booked at Magic Kingdom (Food & Wine and marathons) that I can see.
Looking for advice, as this is all new to us. We had rented points for the past 4 years and thought it was time to buy.... but now a bit confused. We are so excited, but not sure how to use these banked points before they are lost. I know we need our membership number to even begin to try waitlist? Our family needs only a studio... and the view is one of our first priorities as we love the Resort...... but we are most interested in using the points?
suggestions? advice? ideas?
Thank you!

 

[ford91exploder]

Hello All,
We are almost new owners of 250 at AK! We just found out the former owner had 250 banked points that need to be used before our month (December). We do not have our new member number yet, (coming) but are nervous these points will go to waste (banked from 2014- so can not be re-banked). We can come down in Oct or Nov to use..... but everything is booked at Magic Kingdom (Food & Wine and marathons) that I can see.
Looking for advice, as this is all new to us. We had rented points for the past 4 years and thought it was time to buy.... but now a bit confused. We are so excited, but not sure how to use these banked points before they are lost. I know we need our membership number to even begin to try waitlist? Our family needs only a studio... and the view is one of our first priorities as we love the Resort...... but we are most interested in using the points?
suggestions? advice? ideas?
Thank you!

I'd recommend David's DVC rental service and sell these as 'distressed' points www.dvcrequest.com you'll get about 2500 bucks for the points which is better than a sharp stick in the eye so to speak.