My Sister In Law and I will be taking our kids to Disney again this year in December (before Christmas). My kids and I have gone every year for about 10 years around this time. I have noticed that it has become more crowded year after year at this time but from what I read, that is pretty standard as attendance continues to go up. Usually we try to stay at a different resort each time we visit and this year we would like to stay at Disney's Polynesian Resort. I have talked to a number of different people and read online that it is cheaper to rent DVC points for your vacation than pay for the hotel room directly. DVC stands for Disney Vacation Club and is a Disney timeshare program where you buy a real estate interest equal to an allotment of points that you can use yearly at a participating Disney resort.
Step 1: Decide where or how to rent your points
There are a few different ways that you can rent points for your Disney Vacation. You can rent directly from the owner. If you know someone who has a DVC interest personally, you could rent directly from them. There are also message boards online where DVC owners list how many points they have available, where they are available (some are resort specific), and when they are available. Mouseowners is an example of a forum where people post availability or if they are looking to rent points. I spent some time on here and was unable to find anything within my time frame. Finally, you have websites that specialize in renting DVC points that do the legwork for you. I have decided to go with David's Vacation Club Rentals.
The reason I chose David's is because it is the most legitimate source I can find online. Many blogs endorse and link to David's and it is very prevalent on google search. The website has tons of information and the person that I chatted with (using their chat link) was super knowledgeable, even when I threw her some curveballs.
Step 2: Figure out which resort you would like to stay
On David's site, you will first go to the cost & points calculator, where you will enter your dates. It will then lay out your options. You will want to write down your top 3 choices in order. For me, we would like to do either 2 studios at the Polynesian (which will require 2 reservations), a 2 BR at Bay Lake Towers, or a 2 BR at the beach club. We would really like to be on the monorail route which is how I made my first 2 choices. The cost & points calculator will allow you to see how many people you can fit in a room and approximately how much it will cost. During this process I went to the DVC Rental link to see the layouts of the rooms, as well as pictures and videos of the resorts to help me finalize my decision.
Step 3: Fill out the reservation form
Ok, I'm all decided, it's time to input my information and my request using the DVC Reservation Form. I input our dates and our first resort choice resort (Polynesian) and type of room that we want. After this, you have the option to enter alternate choices. I am entering mine: Bay Lake Tower #2 and Beach Club #3. Next you fill out your name and contact information and in the comments, any special requests that you may have. For instance, our first choice will be to do 2 studios, which requires two separate reservations. I will need to tell them that the second reservation for the studio will be entered next and that if the 2 studios cannot be secured, they should revert to choice #2 which would be a 2 BR in Bay Lake Tower. Complicated, right? The chat agent was very helpful in telling me how to handle that so it actually is not as complicated as it seems!
Next, you will enter more information (address, phone number) and information for all of your guests (names, ages, gender). On the next page you will confirm your information and read disclosure information. You are charged $112 per reservation at the time you put in your request. If your request is booked, you will be charged for the entire trip. If your request is not booked, you will be refunded your deposit of $112. Very important - these reservations are non-refundable once they are placed. There are no cancellations for any reason. We will be looking into travel insurance for this reason. I will post more about how I choose travel insurance at a later date.
Lastly, you will enter your payment (credit card or paypal).
Step 4: Hope for the best
Now it's time to cross my fingers and hope that we get our first choice. I will update the results and our next steps in this process in my next post!