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How Many Points

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Mon, 09/07/2009 - 15:38
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How Many Points

I bought 320 points for BLT right off the bat because we only go once a year and when we go we usually stay an entire week. I purchased two 160 point contracts - this way if something happens where I need to sell, it's easier to sell a small contract and I could (possibly) keep the other 160 (but I don't wanna think about that scenario! yuck )

The awesome thing? My UY is February so I got my 320 points for 2009 and I'll get my 320 points for 2010 in February. 640 points for our first trip as DVC members! I already banked my 320 for this year - we're using I believe 511 for our 2010 trip, so we'll have over 100 points to bank for 2011 yay

Eventualy though it will even out and we'll only have the 320 every year - so why do I suddenly feel as though that will nt be enough? waiting Because I am spoiled already? laugh

How many points do you have?

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Mon, 09/07/2009 - 15:53
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We have 340 points, all at SSR.

We originally bought 230 points. We later on added 110 points when the Disney Doorway to Dreams center here at the Woodfield Mall opened. They were running this ridiculous special where they had a $10 discount per point, and if you buy 110 points, they give you a bonus 110 points to use within a year. So essentially, that year, we got an additional 220 points on top of the 230 points that we had.

No plans to add more. With 340 points, and the points that we keep banking each year, we have more than enough for 2 to 4 visits per year.

Zz.

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Mon, 09/07/2009 - 16:07
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UL, We have 210 points at SSR and since there is only the wife and I we get along very nicely in a studio and if used during Value season, which we usually do, we can get at least two weeks at SSR or OKW and can STILL manage to bank a few points for the next trip. In fact my upcoming trip to AKL Jambo House from 1-16-09 to 1-31-09 is costing me 225 points for a Savanna view room.

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Mon, 09/07/2009 - 16:13
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Vettelover wrote:
UL, We have 210 points at SSR and since there is only the wife and I we get along very nicely in a studio and if used during Value season, which we usually do, we can get at least two weeks at SSR or OKW and can STILL manage to bank a few points for the next trip. In fact my upcoming trip to AKL Jambo House from 1-16-09 to 1-31-09 is costing me 225 points for a Savanna view room.

225 for 2 weeks. That seems like a really good deal. Is that typical?

Mon, 09/07/2009 - 16:28
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Brad wrote:
Vettelover wrote:
UL, We have 210 points at SSR and since there is only the wife and I we get along very nicely in a studio and if used during Value season, which we usually do, we can get at least two weeks at SSR or OKW and can STILL manage to bank a few points for the next trip. In fact my upcoming trip to AKL Jambo House from 1-16-09 to 1-31-09 is costing me 225 points for a Savanna view room.

225 for 2 weeks. That seems like a really good deal. Is that typical?


Brad that is typical ONLY if you go for a studio villas. The 1 bedroom villas are quite a bit more as far as points go but of course you get more amenities in a 1 bedroom, such as a washer dryer. larger kitchen and more "living area" to relax in.

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Mon, 09/07/2009 - 16:44
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ZapperZ wrote:
We have 340 points, all at SSR.

We originally bought 230 points. We later on added 110 points when the Disney Doorway to Dreams center here at the Woodfield Mall opened. They were running this ridiculous special where they had a $10 discount per point, and if you buy 110 points, they give you a bonus 110 points to use within a year. So essentially, that year, we got an additional 220 points on top of the 230 points that we had.

No plans to add more. With 340 points, and the points that we keep banking each year, we have more than enough for 2 to 4 visits per year.

Zz.

I suppose 320 is suffice for us - for now. Since we are a family of 5, who usually takes another family member or 2, we will most likely always need a 2 bedroom villa, which of course requires more points.

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Mon, 09/07/2009 - 16:45
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Vettelover wrote:
UL, We have 210 points at SSR and since there is only the wife and I we get along very nicely in a studio and if used during Value season, which we usually do, we can get at least two weeks at SSR or OKW and can STILL manage to bank a few points for the next trip. In fact my upcoming trip to AKL Jambo House from 1-16-09 to 1-31-09 is costing me 225 points for a Savanna view room.

Ahhh yes, for only 2 of you that sure is plenty!

I think maybe in 2011 we will see of we can get in at AKL mickey

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Mon, 09/07/2009 - 18:20
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I'm starting to think AKL will be my next destination. I've missed that place. Such a good resort.

Mon, 09/07/2009 - 18:27
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cdub wrote:
I'm starting to think AKL will be my next destination. I've missed that place. Such a good resort.

We've ever been there - not even to visit/eat. I think the main reason was convenience - I always loved being near the monorail. However, now that the kids are getting older it'll be easier to get around so we may need to stay at AKL in 2011!

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Tue, 09/08/2009 - 13:48
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UnbalancedLibra wrote:
cdub wrote:
I'm starting to think AKL will be my next destination. I've missed that place. Such a good resort.

We've ever been there - not even to visit/eat. I think the main reason was convenience - I always loved being near the monorail. However, now that the kids are getting older it'll be easier to get around so we may need to stay at AKL in 2011!

Your kiddos will really be able to appreciate AKL in a year or two, also. For now, being right next to the Magic Kingdom is going to be excitement a-plenty!

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Wed, 09/09/2009 - 01:14
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SpaceAce wrote:

Your kiddos will really be able to appreciate AKL in a year or two, also. For now, being right next to the Magic Kingdom is going to be excitement a-plenty!

I agree - being close to the MK is important at this point! LOL

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Mon, 03/15/2010 - 03:22
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I've got 150 SSR points. I am usually running out of points but this year gave away a few points to family for a honeymoon so already working on next years points. I'm constantly borrowing points from the next year.

I finally ended up buying a Hilton because staying in DVC bigger units is just too points expensive. Hilton was a much better deal and I can rent all the units I need from them very cheaply as a club member.

This is my second trip to Orlando this month using my Hilton club membership.
At this rate I'm gonna go broke. eek

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Mon, 03/15/2010 - 05:26
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chriskre wrote:
I've got 150 SSR points. I am usually running out of points but this year gave away a few points to family for a honeymoon so already working on next years points. I'm constantly borrowing points from the next year.

I finally ended up buying a Hilton because staying in DVC bigger units is just too points expensive. Hilton was a much better deal and I can rent all the units I need from them very cheaply as a club member.

This is my second trip to Orlando this month using my Hilton club membership.
At this rate I'm gonna go broke. eek

Chris:

Do you not miss all the Disney treatment when you stay there? Also do you use the Hilton points places besides Orlando?

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 01:00
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dsoup wrote:
chriskre wrote:
I've got 150 SSR points. I am usually running out of points but this year gave away a few points to family for a honeymoon so already working on next years points. I'm constantly borrowing points from the next year.

I finally ended up buying a Hilton because staying in DVC bigger units is just too points expensive. Hilton was a much better deal and I can rent all the units I need from them very cheaply as a club member.

This is my second trip to Orlando this month using my Hilton club membership.
At this rate I'm gonna go broke. eek

Chris:

Do you not miss all the Disney treatment when you stay there? Also do you use the Hilton points places besides Orlando?



Honestly, Hiltons are very nice. Very much like the DVC units sans hidden Mickeys. I'm new to the Hilton Vacation club. I just bought in, in January so I haven't broken in my points yet. I bought an every other year points use and honestly I won't use my points in Orlando but bought them to use at the beaches of Marco Island and Sanibel.

I plan on renting rooms from the club instead as they are very reasonable prices for members and always seem to be available in Orlando, even in high season when DVC is impossible to get on a spur of the moment trip.

It just makes sense when travelling with 3 or more people as no one wants to sleep on a couch bed at this stage of our lives and we like to do breakfast in the room to save time.

The Hiltons do look nice elsewhere. I'm looking forward to using my points next year.

As far as missing the magic, yes it's not "magical" but still very nice so it's a nice trade off and I can always drive to the World to experience the magic.

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Tue, 03/16/2010 - 03:25
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We were thinking of buying into a Marriott membership; I wonder how that stacks up next to Hilton or DVC...

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Fri, 03/19/2010 - 02:25
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bali wrote:
We were thinking of buying into a Marriott membership; I wonder how that stacks up next to Hilton or DVC...


Hiltons are very nice. I just bought one and have stayed in them before.

I also love the Marriotts. I've been a pretty loyal Marriott customer for years.
The Marriotts are really nice for places other than just Orlando. If you want to see one I stayed in recently check out this Trip report.
http://www.mouseowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34051
This one was in Spain. It's a beautiful resort. I don't own a Marriott but I rented it from II for a very reasonable price.

Marriott really does timesharing great except that it's a weeks system which is sort of going the way of the dinosaur. The reason I opted for buying Hilton is that it's a points system which is much more flexible and you are able to trade back into DVC if you want to without any restrictions. Marriott's don't trade into DVC anymore because DVC joined ranks with RCI and dropped II which was a bad thing for DVC members but a good thing for DVC. More fresh meat visiting the resort and possibly purchasing.

I think Marriotts and HGVC as well as DVC are all pretty comparable. I'd only buy DVC if I was going to use it strictly within the Disney system. HGVC can obviously be used to get into DVC or elsewhere. Marriotts are not going to get you a DVC anymore but are wonderful resorts as well.

They all have their learning curve so study the systems before you buy a unit.
There is sooooooooooo much to learn. And definetely buy resale.

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Mon, 03/22/2010 - 17:43
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Chris:

I have a ton of Hilton loyalty points due to work, but I absolutely hate the Hilton on Kauai. The Marriott there however is lovely and I believe they have timeshares. Do they all do the week system? (Which is I assume where I buy weeks instead of points) Is there any way to have this work out to your benefit?

Thu, 04/08/2010 - 01:41
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cdub wrote:
Chris:

I have a ton of Hilton loyalty points due to work, but I absolutely hate the Hilton on Kauai. The Marriott there however is lovely and I believe they have timeshares. Do they all do the week system? (Which is I assume where I buy weeks instead of points) Is there any way to have this work out to your benefit?



Chris,
The reason that weeks are not as popular as in the past is that most people can't vacation all the time for 1 week at a time and also there are many times when you won't get an equitable trade for your week if you own at the top tier resorts like Marriott's or Four Seasons etc.

Many Marriott owners maximize their weeks by buying 2 bedroom lock off units and depositing the 2 units seperately and using the Marriott preference to trade up during flexchange. It's risky but many people routinely get good trades. I don't want to mess with it so I stick to points from now on. I do own 3 weeks at non top tier resorts but I use them as they are on the beach in FL.
near my home so they are kind of like my second home.

There have been rumors for years that Marriott is going to roll out a points system but so far nothing official yet and they are still selling weeks, so it doesn't seem they are in any hurry to join the pack.

If you do consider a timeshare then definetely buy it resale as they go for pennies on the dollar compared to developer purchases.

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Thu, 04/08/2010 - 16:41
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I can't understand why any timeshare wouldn't start working on a points system. It's so much more flexible!

Fri, 04/09/2010 - 02:07
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admin wrote:
I can't understand why any timeshare wouldn't start working on a points system. It's so much more flexible!

Yeah, that seems like they're just WAY behind the times. What do people want to do if they want to stay for like 9 days or something?

Fri, 04/09/2010 - 02:58
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admin wrote:
I can't understand why any timeshare wouldn't start working on a points system. It's so much more flexible!


I think it requires more management for the resort so the MF's are higher as there is more housekeeping required and more turnover of the units.

Developers usually just want to build and make their killing and turn over the resort to the owners and some of the hotel groups like Hilton and Marriott stay on board to manage but many other resorts are managed like condos with a board who hires management companies. Some are good and some are not but doing points really requires hotel experience more than timeshare experience IMO.

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Fri, 04/09/2010 - 03:05
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dsoup wrote:
admin wrote:
I can't understand why any timeshare wouldn't start working on a points system. It's so much more flexible!

Yeah, that seems like they're just WAY behind the times. What do people want to do if they want to stay for like 9 days or something?



Usually what I end up doing is booking two weeks and just basically throwing away the days I don't use.

For example, I went to Spain for 11 days but since I stayed in a Marriott TS they only had full weeks available so I did 2 weeks of exchanges and checked in on Tuesday instead of Saturday and then checked out on Friday instead of Saturday. It was still much more economical than trying to rent the days from Marriott.com directly. We saved about $3000 by doing it this way over renting the days directly from Marriott.

I often do this with Orlando stays in TS's because RCI has lots of "last call" inventory for a week in a 2 bedroom TS for around $300. Since I'm usually going with other people even if we stay for only 2 nights and split it we do much better than having to stay in motels in Kissimmee and we have a full kitchen and washer/dryer and all the amenities of a resort as well for as little as $45 a night if we stay all 7 nights or as much as $150 a night if we only do 2 nights and throw away the 5 nights.

Now with a points system this wouldn't really make much sense as you pay with points for each night and would be just throwing away points but in weeks it definetely makes sense alot of times. It's a very easy system to exploit. That's the reason I'm always going to Orlando.

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Fri, 04/09/2010 - 15:26
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Totally off topic, but where were you in Spain, Chris?

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Sun, 04/11/2010 - 03:04
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bali wrote:
Totally off topic, but where were you in Spain, Chris?


I went to Andalucia, Costa del Sol.

If you want to see a little about the trip check it out here:

http://www.mouseowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34051

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Sun, 04/11/2010 - 15:25
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chriskre wrote:
bali wrote:
Totally off topic, but where were you in Spain, Chris?


I went to Andalucia, Costa del Sol.

If you want to see a little about the trip check it out here:

http://www.mouseowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34051

That's an awesome trip report. Tons of great pics. I didn't get a chance to read it all. How was the food?

Tue, 04/13/2010 - 02:37
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dsoup wrote:
chriskre wrote:
bali wrote:
Totally off topic, but where were you in Spain, Chris?

I went to Andalucia, Costa del Sol.

If you want to see a little about the trip check it out here:

http://www.mouseowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34051

That's an awesome trip report. Tons of great pics. I didn't get a chance to read it all. How was the food?



Honestly I didn't care much for the food as I thought I would.

I get better Spanish food in my town of Miami and much cheaper.

Fresh food is very expensive in Spain and in Europe in general. They don't eat salads and fresh fruits and vegetables and everything is "unclean" seafood for the most part along with this extremely overated IMO serrano ham.

Europeans are having a hard time affording food and it shows in Spain. They serve you lots of bread everywhere and it's cheap white bread. It's good but not healthy at all. I was very disappointed in the food honestly. yuck

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Tue, 04/13/2010 - 17:10
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chriskre wrote:

Honestly I didn't care much for the food as I thought I would.

I get better Spanish food in my town of Miami and much cheaper.

Fresh food is very expensive in Spain and in Europe in general. They don't eat salads and fresh fruits and vegetables and everything is "unclean" seafood for the most part along with this extremely overated IMO serrano ham.

Europeans are having a hard time affording food and it shows in Spain. They serve you lots of bread everywhere and it's cheap white bread. It's good but not healthy at all. I was very disappointed in the food honestly. yuck

How disappointing! It LOOKS like someplace that should have good food. I always worry that I'm buying into the hype when I see pictures of Europe. I always visualize fantastic seaside restaurants. I'm also a bit of a stickler for good service, so it seems like I should probably stay away. Or am I over reacting again?

Tue, 04/13/2010 - 17:58
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As with any place, if you go to the wrong areas or venues you'll be dissapointed. I suspect there is a difference between traditional Spanish food as served in Spain and the American interpretation of Spanish food as served in Miami, I've not been to Miami though, so wouldn't know for sure.

And as a European (the UK is part of Europe) I have no trouble affording food mad

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Tue, 04/13/2010 - 19:04
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Tony wrote:

And as a European (the UK is part of Europe)

We'll see what David Cameron has to say about that! biggrin
I suppose he can't take you out of the continent, even if he does "distance" you fro your continental mates.

Tue, 04/13/2010 - 20:53
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He's got to win the general election first crossfingers

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Wed, 04/14/2010 - 15:28
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When I was in Spain (10 years ago!!!) I ate a lot of granola, bread, and cheese, because that's pretty much what I could afford on a backpacker's budget Smile

But eating granola on the beach in Marbella is better than eating granola at home, that's for sure!

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