High/Low season and maximizing MVC for a newbie

[3wheelin]

Brand spanking new MVC owner here(Holy snickey's there is a lot of info to absorb) I was wondering if there is a chart somewhere or just some good old veteran owner info about best times to book certain MVC properties to ensure we get the days/weeks we want,where we want to go? TIA

 

[tschwa2]

Do you have points and if so how many? Did you buy a week? Where do you want to go and when?

 

[3wheelin]

6000 points and 1 wk(gotta use the week within a yr)........We LOVE the Caribbean and Vegas. We typically travel most heavily in the summer months and aside from cruising never go anywhere for more than 5 days.

 

[Steve Fatula]

Points are good for < 1 week stays. In general, the earlier the better. Many book 12 months in advance. I am not aware of a comprehensive when to book by resort type chart, might be nice. However, in many properties, easier with points. But not all. Your best bet is to poke around mvci.com and pretend search for the resorts you might be interested in while it's still summer. What is available this short term? If the place(s) you want to go are not, then, it's going to be better to book much earlier for next year.

As of right now for example, the only Caribbean resort available via points for August 2018 for 5 nights is St Kitts. 4 nights would add Aruba Surf Club. If I look however for June 2019, I see all but the Ritz available.

A trick to conserve and make better use of your points for 5 days is to not arrange a Fri or Sat stay. 5 days without those 2 days is much cheaper points wise, depending on the resort and the season. 5 days St Thomas for example in June 2019 is 1875 if you skip those days. But you can do Aruba in Sept for 2/3 of that too.

 

[Fasttr]

Here is the points chart
http://www.marriottvacationsworldwi...Tools/resorts/charts/pdfDisplay/2018_full.pdf

As for when to book, because booking is based on availalbity, its always best to plan ahead and book right when booking windows open up, be that 13 months, 12 months or 10 months prior to check in (based on your ownership level and # of nights in your reservation).

A good place to start your education is to read is the Points FAQ Sticky here:
https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/faq-mvc-destinations-points-program.197346/

 

[bazzap]

6000 points and 1 wk(gotta use the week within a yr)........We LOVE the Caribbean and Vegas. We typically travel most heavily in the summer months and aside from cruising never go anywhere for more than 5 days.

Just bear in mind that Summer is right in the middle of the the hurricane season in the Caribbean, so much as I love St Kitts I wouldn’t go there in August which may explain why Steve Fatula found availability with Points.
St Thomas is similarly a risk.
Aruba is a better bet at that time of year.

 

[3wheelin]

Points are good for < 1 week stays. In general, the earlier the better. Many book 12 months in advance. I am not aware of a comprehensive when to book by resort type chart, might be nice. However, in many properties, easier with points. But not all. Your best bet is to poke around mvci.com and pretend search for the resorts you might be interested in while it's still summer. What is available this short term? If the place(s) you want to go are not, then, it's going to be better to book much earlier for next year.

As of right now for example, the only Caribbean resort available via points for August 2018 for 5 nights is St Kitts. 4 nights would add Aruba Surf Club. If I look however for June 2019, I see all but the Ritz available.

A trick to conserve and make better use of your points for 5 days is to not arrange a Fri or Sat stay. 5 days without those 2 days is much cheaper points wise, depending on the resort and the season. 5 days St Thomas for example in June 2019 is 1875 if you skip those days. But you can do Aruba in Sept for 2/3 of that too.

Thank You!!! That definitely answers a couple of questions. I kinda figured staying M-Th would be easier on the points balance,and don't anticipate any roadblocks there. Pleasantly surprised(and pumped) that St Kitts and Aruba are still available for August. Any destinations that are perpetually booked,that are going to require a personal algorithm/spreadsheet to get us into??

 

[3wheelin]

Just bear in mind that Summer is right in the middle of the the hurricane season in the Caribbean, so much as I love St Kitts I wouldn’t go there in August which may explain why Steve Fatula found availability with Points.
St Thomas is similarly a risk.
Aruba is a better bet at that time of year.

I hear ya,we just returned from a float a couple weeks ago visiting Aruba and St Thomas and learned that Aruba is not in the "hurricane belt".....actually a deciding factor on pulling the trigger on MVC.

 

[Pamplemousse]

I’ll add that I did a points trip to Marco island 2 years ago (in Feb- esp busy then since the weather is great and it’s spring training) and I was able to book 4 nights with DC points and then add another with Marriott reward points. I was able (eventually!) to get everything booked in the same view so we didn’t have to move. The great thing about using rewards points is the amount doesn’t change on weekends like DC points. Once I had it all worked out I did a chat on Marriott and had the reservations combined into one.

 

[Steve Fatula]

I don't mind any of the islands even during hurricane season. What I do is go in the fall, when it's low season due to hurricanes. I'll arrange it a few days or 1 week out. Typically, the long range hurricane forecasts are pretty good, you only have to look out a week or so. So, if all clear and I can get a decent last minute flight, great time to go. It's cheaper too in off season.

But Aruba is definitely outside the zone and is ok any time.