Optimize Vacation Club Points/Reward Points at Disney

[vengle]

Ok so I want to go to Disney after Thanksgiving next year with 5 people. I want to stay on site not one of the other Orlando properties because that means renting a car and paying to park every day, I have both Destination Points and Rewards points. Anyone have any suggestions on how best to utilize and get on property? Do people ever do direct trades for Marriott stuff with DVC points? Help please.

 

[rthib]

Ok so I want to go to Disney after Thanksgiving next year with 5 people. I want to stay on site not one of the other Orlando properties because that means renting a car and paying to park every day, I have both Destination Points and Rewards points. Anyone have any suggestions on how best to utilize and get on property? Do people ever do direct trades for Marriott stuff with DVC points? Help please.

Dolphin and Swan are both Marriott Hotels.

 

[LUVourMarriotts]

I was able to do a direct trade with a DVC owner 4 years ago. I gave my 2BR Aruba Surf Club for a 2BR at Old Key West (7 nights on both sides). It happened to work with the woman that I traded with, as she and her family had been going to Disney for something like 15 years in a row, many times. They wanted a break and it was one of those, right place at the right time things. I don't remember if I found her via TUG or via a Disney forum. I received 4 or 5 other contacts about the trade before finding the woman I traded with, who was fantastic. In the other contacts, I was offered anywhere from 3 to 6 nights in exchange for my 2BR Aruba Surf Club week. So be prepared for that. Hopefully it will work out for you.

Outside of that, I'd maybe rent out your points to cover the cost of booking a Disney resort direct, or via dvcrequest.com.

 

[SMB1]

I'm sure Swan and Dolphin are great places to stay, but also a boat load of points. I know you said you want to stay on property, and I think a direct exchange with a DVC owner would be your best option if you can find one. But the title of the thread says optimize so, I'll share that I just learned the Marriott Village is about a mile from the parks and offers free shuttles to the parks. We plan to go to Disney in 2019 and to wanted stay on property for the free shuttles and do the meal plan. I did a little bit of research and found these hotels with the free shuttles and two of them offer free breakfast, so now we are weighing our options. The properties are all category 4, so pretty reasonable, and I can use travel packages. It is not staying on property, and we still want to do that, but this is tempting. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to use the three cat 4 TPs sitting in my account. I might just use two of them here.

 

[Dean]

One can often get some really good deals at the Swan/Dolphin on cash.

 

[heathpack]

Direct trades with DVC folks are hard.

First, your typical DVC owner who confines their vacation ownership to DVC doesn’t really consider their ownership as a timeshare. They associate “timeshares” with sleaziness and are wary, assuming they’re going to be somehow ripped off. And many assume DVC is hands down the best timeshare out there and that anything else they might trade for is going to be a huge step down in quality. (I’m not talking about the TUG type DVC owners, I’m talking about the ones who only own DVC and mostly vacation at Disney resorts).

Second, the rental market is so strong with DVC, and there’s brokers who will do all the work for the owner, folks can literally rent their points out for a good price within a few days. So they can convert their ownership readily into cash.

By way of example, an owner at Old Key West who might be willing to exchange with you could reserve a low season (Jan) week in a 2BR for 217 points, or they could rent those points for around $3000.

A higher dollar example would be an April (higher season) 2BR reservation at Grand Floridian, lake view, which is a 551 pt reservation that the owner could easily rent for $8200.

The thing in your favor is that if a DVC owner is open to trying some other timeshare type, it probably would be Marriott. But you’re reasonably going to need to offer a lot to get some exchanges, and it wouldn’t be a bargain for you. You could get lucky and find a DVC owner who is open to a trade, doesn’t want to rent their points out and then use that money to rent a Marriott week from Redweek say, and has the points you need to make the rental. But it’s something of a long shot and you’d need to be offering up something to the DVC owner that’s in the $3000-$8000+ range in value, or logically it doesn’t make sense to do. You might have to offer three 2BR weeks in your Marriott (depending on its value) to get that VGF reservation, making it not much of a bargain for you.

 

[vengle]

I'm sure Swan and Dolphin are great places to stay, but also a boat load of points. I know you said you want to stay on property, and I think a direct exchange with a DVC owner would be your best option if you can find one. But the title of the thread says optimize so, I'll share that I just learned the Marriott Village is about a mile from the parks and offers free shuttles to the parks. We plan to go to Disney in 2019 and to wanted stay on property for the free shuttles and do the meal plan. I did a little bit of research and found these hotels with the free shuttles and two of them offer free breakfast, so now we are weighing our options. The properties are all category 4, so pretty reasonable, and I can use travel packages. It is not staying on property, and we still want to do that, but this is tempting. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to use the three cat 4 TPs sitting in my account. I might just use two of them here.

I found those "good neighbor" hotels yesterday as well. Free breakfast and complimentary shuttle I think it was only to Magic Kingdom did seem like a good deal for Rewards points. Three Cat 4 TPs....what are those?

 

[LUVourMarriotts]

Direct trades with DVC folks are hard.
...
The thing in your favor is that if a DVC owner is open to trying some other timeshare type, it probably would be Marriott. But you’re reasonably going to need to offer a lot to get some exchanges, and it wouldn’t be a bargain for you. You could get lucky and find a DVC owner who is open to a trade, doesn’t want to rent their points out and then use that money to rent a Marriott week from Redweek say, and has the points you need to make the rental...

While I was able to find the right person, previously, to do a trade, I do agree with this info. As I mentioned, I was contacted by 4 or 5 other DVC owners about my trade request, and those went very much like what heathpack describes. I was told by 2 of them that MVC resorts are not even close to the quality of the DVC resorts. Others were comparing my MF, which they found on TUG, to their rental potential when they determined how many nights they'd be willing to book for my week in Aruba. But, in the end, I found a very nice woman that wanted to trade 7 nights for 7 nights, and it was great.

I will say, comparing Aruba Surf Club to Old Key West, I felt Surf Club was superior in the villa itself, the onsite amenities (pool options, beach, etc). Where Old Key West beats MVC resorts is just in the convenience of a Disney vacation. I'm sure some of the newer DVC locations may be nicer, since OKW is the oldest, I believe.

 

[SMB1]

I found those "good neighbor" hotels yesterday as well. Free breakfast and complimentary shuttle I think it was only to Magic Kingdom did seem like a good deal for Rewards points. Three Cat 4 TPs....what are those?

TPs are travel packages. Just means I have 3 five night certificates to be used at category 4 hotels.

 

[Dean]

Direct trades with DVC folks are hard.

First, your typical DVC owner who confines their vacation ownership to DVC doesn’t really consider their ownership as a timeshare. They associate “timeshares” with sleaziness and are wary, assuming they’re going to be somehow ripped off. And many assume DVC is hands down the best timeshare out there and that anything else they might trade for is going to be a huge step down in quality. (I’m not talking about the TUG type DVC owners, I’m talking about the ones who only own DVC and mostly vacation at Disney resorts).

Second, the rental market is so strong with DVC, and there’s brokers who will do all the work for the owner, folks can literally rent their points out for a good price within a few days. So they can convert their ownership readily into cash.

By way of example, an owner at Old Key West who might be willing to exchange with you could reserve a low season (Jan) week in a 2BR for 217 points, or they could rent those points for around $3000.

A higher dollar example would be an April (higher season) 2BR reservation at Grand Floridian, lake view, which is a 551 pt reservation that the owner could easily rent for $8200.

The thing in your favor is that if a DVC owner is open to trying some other timeshare type, it probably would be Marriott. But you’re reasonably going to need to offer a lot to get some exchanges, and it wouldn’t be a bargain for you. You could get lucky and find a DVC owner who is open to a trade, doesn’t want to rent their points out and then use that money to rent a Marriott week from Redweek say, and has the points you need to make the rental. But it’s something of a long shot and you’d need to be offering up something to the DVC owner that’s in the $3000-$8000+ range in value, or logically it doesn’t make sense to do. You might have to offer three 2BR weeks in your Marriott (depending on its value) to get that VGF reservation, making it not much of a bargain for you.

I think you've just got to luck out and find the right person, have a top option like Maui or be willing to do an asynchronous trade like a 2 BR for a studio (or pony up cash in addition) much of the time.

 

[TravelTime]

While I was able to find the right person, previously, to do a trade, I do agree with this info. As I mentioned, I was contacted by 4 or 5 other DVC owners about my trade request, and those went very much like what heathpack describes. I was told by 2 of them that MVC resorts are not even close to the quality of the DVC resorts. Others were comparing my MF, which they found on TUG, to their rental potential when they determined how many nights they'd be willing to book for my week in Aruba. But, in the end, I found a very nice woman that wanted to trade 7 nights for 7 nights, and it was great.

I will say, comparing Aruba Surf Club to Old Key West, I felt Surf Club was superior in the villa itself, the onsite amenities (pool options, beach, etc). Where Old Key West beats MVC resorts is just in the convenience of a Disney vacation. I'm sure some of the newer DVC locations may be nicer, since OKW is the oldest, I believe.

I think you should stop comparing and just pay for what you want.

 

[californiagirl]

Another thought would be to rent your week and use the cash to rent DVC points/reservation either through a rental company or private party. We have both rented points and rented out points using a rental company and both experiences were good. You can add the dining plan and use the Disney magical express to get to/from the airport by renting points. The cost is MUCH less than renting directly from Disney. It may seem like a lot of work, but it’s another option.

We own both Marriotts and DVC (Boardwalk and Saratoga Springs). I think the comparison of which is nicer is entirely dependent on the property. A couple of years ago we stayed last minute in an Old Key West studio. It was comparable to a cheap Motel 6 room. I was appalled at the condition of the room. Having said that we have also stayed in the Grand Villa at Aulani and it was probably the nicest room we have ever stayed in. Amazing room!