We’ve been looking into renting DVC points from a broker for the first time on our next trip to WDW (next September). As I’ve worked it out, it looks like a Polynesian studio would be quite a bit less; however, if WDW offers free DDP next September, then the difference is small (although still favorable to renting DVC). Which leads me to two questions…
According to some brief research (including @brklinck’s excellent blog post), it appears that there is very little difference in the experience. I know we will be considered “guests” of the DVC owner and I know there is no refund. Are there any other intangibles that we should consider? Either good or bad?
Secondly, I tend to believe that, despite the higher attendance figures this past September, WDW will still offer the free DDP for Sep 2016 for Poly. Any dissenting opinions? Any reliable rumors at this early stage?
A couple of things to consider:
Have the Poly DVC studios been included/available during past Free Dining promotions? I don’t follow the Free Dining offers as they are not money savers for my family, so I have no idea about this. Also, is Free Dining really a money saver when you are in a Studio where you can make your own breakfast and pack lunches/snacks?
Has there been much availability of rental points/slots for Poly? Given its newness I would think that there would not be many Home Points available at the 11 month point and few (if any) Studios available at the 7 month mark when any owner can rent there.
On the DDP, my understanding is that DVC members don’t get free DDP offers, so it wouldn’t be available if we rented those points but it would if we booked regular rooms directly. And I agree about the DDP not being a money saver, but it is a political hot-button in our household with my wife and daughters being convinced I will “cheapen up” on them if we don’t have the DDP.
The broker I inquired with has Poly studios available. But I thought the Studios were just the old “hotel rooms” not the new bungalows?
This is too funny!! I was about to reply to say that without the DDP, you could save a lot of extra money by going cheap with dining, but clearly that is NOT good advice for you.
Correct - WDW already has them on the hook, so no further incentives are necessary.
Not gonna win that one, even with the best of spreadsheets. ;-). My concern would be that Free Dining would not be available for PVB reservations as they are new and in demand - why offer an incentive if they are going to be rented anyway?
Yes, they are old rooms that have been converted to DVC Studios with kitchenettes.
We have rented points twice and had zero issues in terms of the experience - got the same treatment we would have if booking through Disney. We also added the DDP to our trip both times. I have calculated the costs a zillion different ways and renting points has always come out cheaper when comparing deluxe resorts. I have ran the numbers for the room only discounts, free dining, etc. and renting points always wins - sometimes only by a $100 but that’s still a win!
I’m in the same boat as you when it come to the DDP - I know we could get our food costs lower if we paid out of pocket but it’s nice to have it all paid for ahead of time and not worrying about counting pennies while on vacation or “cheaping out”
I’ve gone through the rental process twice with David’s. For my family, I would never do it any other way. We don’t visit every year, so it works out great for us. We are treated just as well as any other guest. We stay in a Deluxe for Value/Moderate prices. According to my math, the amount we save renting points in a Deluxe, completely negates any savings we would have gotten had we booked through Disney and got free Dining (which is never offered the week we travel anyway and we feel DDP is not a good deal for our eating habits). Hope my input helps.
I have run the numbers several times as well. Renting points was a bit cheaper than free dinning with an expensive deluxe like Poly. However you do save money getting free dinning with a moderate over renting a deluxe.
Whether or not free dinning would be offered is a gamble. Renting points through a 3rd party like Dave is pretty definitive. We are staying at AKL (standard) and BC in November for perhaps 10% off a moderate.
I could be wrong… If I wanted to buy the dinning plan with Dave I had to give the owner of the time share my credit card information so they could book it for me. Not something I wanted to do. Especially when the dinning plan is not a good value. I have the same problem with my wife about going cheap with food. I just booked a sit down meal on most days and it became a non-issue.
About giving rental owners c.c., you could get a prepaid credit card and only load the cost of the dining plan. If you really wanted the DDP. That way they only have access to the DDP money and not your line of credit. I don’t know the cost factors involved in having a prepaid card
I checked Dave’s website. You either give your credit card information to the DVC owner or you give them Disney gift cards to use (up to 6). The owner has to buy the dinning plan for you.
We just got back from our late Sept/early October visit. I ran the numbers the way that we did it ($3500) and then I put our “next” stay in my cart. So after adding BCV and the Park Hopper tickets with the hopes of grabbing free DDP (big assumption,) the total was just over $5000. We decided to buy a DVC resale, get AP and buy a TiW card. It will cost less than that 6 day trip and we can go whenever we want (which won’t ever be in September again.)
