Which DVC resort for one night before a cruise?

[RX8]

Looking for DVC expert advice. We have a cruise coming up in March and want to spend the night before in a DVC resort. We are not doing any parks and arrive at 5;30 am so we will have all day. We will not have a rental car. Our experience with Florida DVC is limited and that is one time at Saratoga Springs. We liked that location being so close to Disney Springs. Our plans are to visit Disney Springs and maybe travel around checking out the other resorts using Disney Transportation. Looking at a studio for points savings and right now the only availability is OKW and Animal Kingdom Kidani. I saw earlier today, now gone, Saratoga Springs and Boardwalk. I put in a waitlist for Boardwalk pending some suggestions here.

What would you do? Book one of the available or put in a waitlist for something else?

Related, our Aulani resale just closed and we have points burning a hole in my pocket!

Thanks in advance!

 

[heathpack]

Looking for DVC expert advice. We have a cruise coming up in March and want to spend the night before in a DVC resort. We are not doing any parks and arrive at 5;30 am so we will have all day. We will not have a rental car. Our experience with Florida DVC is limited and that is one time at Saratoga Springs. We liked that location being so close to Disney Springs. Our plans are to visit Disney Springs and maybe travel around checking out the other resorts using Disney Transportation. Looking at a studio for points savings and right now the only availability is OKW and Animal Kingdom Kidani. I saw earlier today, now gone, Saratoga Springs and Boardwalk. We have a waitlist for Animal Kingdom (only 14 points) but I know that may be unlikely to ever come up.

What would you do? Book one of the available or put in a waitlist?

Related, out Aulani resale just closed and we have points ready!

Thanks in advance!

You should waitlist something.

IMO its a pain to travel around WDW on Disney busses so if you need to choose your priorities.

One option would be Copper Creek or Boulder Ridge, from which you can take a boat to Fort Wilderness and the Contemporary, and from the Contemporary do the monorail loop all the way the Bay Lake to visit Poly and VGF and then to the Magic Kingdoms from whence you could go to any resort via bus. For example: Rivera. After visting Riveria, you could do a walking tour of the Caribbean Beach resort and All Stars (this is skippable IMO) and then take the Skyliner over to the Epcot back entrance and from there tour Beach Club, Yacht Club and Boardwalk, and then take a bus to Disney Springs.

You could accomplish similar by grabbing that studio at OKW. From there you can take a boat to Disney Springs, and after visiting Disney Springs, you could take a bus to any of the resorts I previously mentioned (Fort Wilderness would be a bad idea though because it requires an internal bus to get around), and hop around by boat, monorail or skyliner as previously mentioned.

Uber is another option for skipping waits with Disney transportation. For example if you wanted to get from the Boardwalk to Animal Kingdom Lodge, you could just save yourself some time (over bussing from Boardwalk to Disney Springs and then to Animal Kingdom Lodge.

If you priority is dining, drinking or shopping- then try for OKW or Saratoga. If your priority is the Grandest Possible WDW Tour, then I would try for Poly or Bay Lake Tower.

 

[heathpack]

Sorry I should say: Grab the OKW and then if you think you'd want something else, waitlist that. You can set up the waitlist to automatically swap out the OKW reservation for something else you'd prefer.

 

[elaine]

Our plans are to visit Disney Springs and maybe travel around checking out the other resorts using Disney Transportation. Looking at a studio for points savings and right now the only availability is OKW and Animal Kingdom Kidani.

I'd definitely grab OKW and WL 2 other resorts. OKW has the boat or you can walk (20 minutes) via the trail by the golf course to DS-or it's a quick bus ride. It's a good bird-in-hand back up if your WL doesn't come through and a good points saver.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Rick would choose OKW over any other resort. He loves that one, even when he has to shlep the luggage up the stairs (because I cannot carry much).

 

[TheHolleys87]

I agree with booking what you can and waitlisting your top two preferences, setting up the WL to replace what’s booked. I also agree that SSR and OKW are great for boat and walkway access to DS, while a MK area resort provides easy access to the monorail resorts and boat to WL and FW.

After visting Riveria, you could do a walking tour of the Caribbean Beach resort and All Stars (this is skippable IMO) and then take the Skyliner over to the Epcot back entrance and from there tour Beach Club, Yacht Club and Boardwalk, and then take a bus to Disney Springs.

This is another option with the addition that you can Skyliner from CBR to Pop and AoA (not the All Stars). Pop and AoA are fun to walk around and view their larger than life icons.

And if you want to visit Riviera and the Crescent Lake resorts, you can take Disney transportation from your resort to DHS and then use Skyliner and Friendship Boats for the round trip.

 

[littlestar]

I would grab Old Key West. Saratoga is a large resort and I wouldn’t be surprised if the next time you look, it will be available. If you go to Disney Springs, you could take a resort bus to one of the monorail resorts and then hop the resort monorail to see the Poly, Contemporary or Grand Floridian. From the Contemporary you can take a boat to the Wilderness Lodge.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Animal Kingdom. Is it a Savannah View? Those are great.

 

[TheHolleys87]

From the Contemporary you can take a boat to the Wilderness Lodge.

That boat starts running at 3 PM, so to visit WL earlier you can use the boat from MK.

 

[heathpack]

Animal Kingdom. Is it a Savannah View? Those are great.

A Savannah view studio at AKV and never leaving that resort would be my personal approach to a 1 night studio stay prior to a cruise. But it’s not the easiest choice for touring the “world”. Now if OP were ok with not touring the world, a SV studio would be hands down my top reccomendation!

 

[RX8]

Thank you all for the input. I was able to book the studio at OKW (thankfully as OKW is now waitlist only). I cancelled the waitlist for Boardwalk and added a waitlist for AK Value studio. It obviously isn't a Savannah view, but I assume that there are plenty of spaces around the resort for the views. If that comes available, and I am not so sure it will, then I will need to decide if saving the 5 points will be worth it. Both OKW and AK would be a new stay for us.

Thanks again for the suggestions!

 

[heathpack]

Thank you all for the input. I was able to book the studio at OKW (thankfully as OKW is now waitlist only). I cancelled the waitlist for Boardwalk and added a waitlist for AK Value studio. It obviously isn't a Savannah view, but I assume that there are plenty of spaces around the resort for the views. If that comes available, and I am not so sure it will, then I will need to decide if saving the 5 points will be worth it. Both OKW and AK would be a new stay for us.

Thanks again for the suggestions!

If the waitlist comes through, you won’t be able to decide which you want. The WL request will be filled and replace your OKW reservation which you will only get back if you’re lucky. With DVC, never WL something unless you’re sure you want it.

 

[RX8]

If the waitlist comes through, you won’t be able to decide which you want. The WL request will be filled and replace your OKW reservation which you will only get back if you’re lucky. With DVC, never WL something unless you’re sure you want it.

When I did the waitlist, I chose to not replace OKW so I can decide which one to cancel. That should work, no?

 

[silentg]

Old Key West if you have it keep it. I’ve never done a Disney cruise, do they take you to Port Canavaril from the Disney resorts?

 

[RX8]

Old Key West if you have it keep it. I’ve never done a Disney cruise, do they take you to Port Canavaril from the Disney resorts?

If you opt for Disney Transportation ($45 pp) they will pick up at the resort.

 

[heathpack]

When I did the waitlist, I chose to not replace OKW so I can decide which one to cancel. That should work, no?

I believe in the option you chose, you would keep the OKW and the waitlist reservation. If you cancel one >30 days out, there’s no penalty. The points from the cancelled reservation will be returned to you.

However it gets tricky if your WL comes through past your banking deadline (then you have to use the returned points before the end of your UY) or low enough on points that the waitlist reservation requires points to be borrowed (borrowed points won’t be returned to their original UY, you have to use them by the end of the UY they were borrowed into) or less than 30 days from the time of your stay (the returned points go into holding.

So yes- it’s possible that you could successfully obtain both reservations, and then drop one without penalty. I am so rarely in a situation where one of the above constraints doesn’t apply that I didn’t consider fully that you might not be!

 

[RX8]

I believe in the option you chose, you would keep the OKW and the waitlist reservation. If you cancel one >30 days out, there’s no penalty. The points from the cancelled reservation will be returned to you.

However it gets tricky if your WL comes through past your banking deadline (then you have to use the returned points before the end of your UY) or low enough on points that the waitlist reservation requires points to be borrowed (borrowed points won’t be returned to their original UY, you have to use them by the end of the UY they were borrowed into) or less than 30 days from the time of your stay (the returned points go into holding.

So yes- it’s possible that you could successfully obtain both reservations, and then drop one without penalty. I am so rarely in a situation where one of the above constraints doesn’t apply that I didn’t consider fully that you might not be!

The 30 days will be in February and I opted to have the waitlist cancel 31 days out if it doesn’t come through. However, based on your post I think I will also add a calendar reminder. Thanks.