To Upgrade Or Not To Upgrade: Is That Even a Question?

This needs to be a badge. Or a tag. :grin:

3 Likes

Points are so non-existent in January itā€™s practically laughable. In an insane maniacal laugh sort of way. Iā€™ve had BLT waitlisted for 1/7-1/10 since June. crickets.
Because the airlines are jerks, we want to fly in the night before. Last week we ended up booking 1/6 at Jambo on cash. The DVC rate was $370 for a value studio for the one night. I think the 30 day dump of excess reservations is going to be a thing for this trip. I should check to see if I have my waitlist set on 7 days, instead of 30. I donā€™t want it to drop it before everyone starts rearranging if that makes sense.

Have you played stalky mcstalkerson though? Everything I have is by stalkage.

1 Like

If youā€™re flying in late the Hyatt at MCO is a good place to crash and allow an early start the next day. Way less than that cash price for Jambo

Iā€™m hoping so. It will mean AKL-J and Poly because even if Poly comes through on points, the BCV booking I have is a package with 30day PIF so Iā€™ll let that go if I havenā€™t secured Poly on points before then. If all the planets align I will end up with my
BCV package (cash) and Poly on points. But Iā€™m expecting to land with AKL and Poly on cash, mainly because I just need the one night at AKL. But who knows. I could end up with BCV on cash and AKL on points. In any case I doubt muchly that I will be at POR at all now that I have these other things.

Itā€™s super messy but maybe you are following my tangly thread LOL

2 Likes

My DVC dashboard is looking mighty ugly lately :laughing:

3 Likes

Maybe you should make it a game to book and cancel every dvc resort at least once before committing :rofl:

3 Likes

I have single nights booked at several resorts and I keep playing the DVC slot machine like a gambling addict to try and find the matching night at any of them.

I keep reminding myself that everything I hold is because of that method. I still have 26 days to make a match.

4 Likes

:crossed_fingers:

1 Like

(This was the best slot machine gif I could find ā€¦ I guess it fits? LOL)

1 Like

Thatā€™s exactly how it feels, actually.

And some days there is a ton of movement, while other days itā€™s locked up solid

2 Likes

So while I was in flight yesterday apparently one of my wait lists came through! I was going to sort it out last night, modifying this and cancelling that, but I decided I better wait for light of day and a clear, not travel exhausted brain before I did anything that could screw it all up.

Off to sort it out!

8 Likes

And now Iā€™m dying to know which wait list request came through ā€¦

1 Like

:smiley:

Iā€™m going to keep it under wraps until Iā€™m certain of the Final Plan.

Per our conversation, Iā€™ll be calling today to remove the tickets from the Beach Club reservation I have, and buy the tickets separately so as to turn that into a room-only reservation and extend the cancel range to within 5 days of travel.

So based on this you may be able to figure out which one came through, but maybe not!

2 Likes

I think I know, but I wait with bated breath for your final plan!

2 Likes

Just got even closer to my ideal situation!!

Stalking that DVC site night and day is paying off. My Dashboard is cleaning up, and my plans are getting more and more solid all the time!

Just need one more teeny-tiny shift to happen and we are THERE!!

8 Likes

It is FINISHED!

With a little Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust my trip has been perfected!

My sister and I will start our trip in a deluxe studio at Beach Club, where we will stay on cash. Halfway through we will move over to a deluxe studio at Poly where we will stay on points!

I canā€™t even tell you how excited I am right now!

And I canā€™t wait to surprise her (and am not quite sure when to do that!)!!!

18 Likes

Someday Iā€™m gonna stay at Poly!

2 Likes

Yay! Iā€™m so glad you got your perfect trip! What was the last piece? Just curious what ended up being the hardest thing to get. Also kinda curious what the different phases were and how it morphed into what it is.

2 Likes

(you know the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie??.. )

Well, we started out at Pop for all 4 nights. I was trying to keep costs down for my sister and when I mentioned that she didnā€™t say anything at all.

But she mentioned to someone we both know that she was surprised we were staying there since she had stayed there before and thought I might pick somewhere else based on that.

Around that same time I stumbled upon a single night (1/9, after the marathon) at GFV, so I snagged it. And I also found that we could move to POR for roughly the same price for the 3 nights as we had been spending on the 4 nights at pop. So I did that.

But then I started thinking about how it might be a bit of a cluster trying to move hotels and be ā€œhomelessā€ for the day of the marathon. So when I found TWO nights (1/8, 1/9) at AKL Jambo it seemed meant to be, especially since the number of rooms at GFV is so small I thought I would never find that second night anyway. So I dropped GFV and snagged AKL-J.

But then I realized we were going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and wouldnā€™t it be great if we could be in MK area on those last two nights, especially if we could get on monorail. OR, wouldnā€™t it be nice to be in Epcot area and walk to the two parks since we have such a short trip planned. And this is where things got nutty.

I found single DVC nights everywhere, but no two nights together. So I started contingency planning and snagged first BCV on cash, then CR on cash, and then Poly on cash. I had single rooms booked at BWV and Poly and was stalking the DVC site like you donā€™t even know. I researched more to find out my odds of getting the matching room for any of my nights. And wound up deciding it was going to end up being either AKL on points and Poly on cash, or BCV on cash and if there was some kind of miracle, any MK area DVC.

About 10 days ago I found BRV for my 2 nights; not quite ideal (really, really wanted monorail) but better than cash and the BCV cash price was better than the Poly cash price so I grabbed the BRV and dropped Poly cash. Mind you I still had a single night at Poly on points and had by that time figured out that I could safely waitlist the second night until the 31 day mark but not beyond.

Now it was coming together!! I was missing my beloved AK but I landed a better time for Ogaā€™s and a Space 220 so it felt meant to be just the same. I got a better time for CdF, then dropped that completely when I found an even better time for Le Cell. I found takers for my extra Ogaā€™s ressies (one of which was part of this contingeny planning I had been doing) and successfully dropped them into their hands.

And I kept stalking. Not UNHAPPY with BRV, but not excited about it either. Still, I was accepting the idea because I had just 2 more days left to find the room match at Poly. Everyone seemed to be dropping 1/9 everywhere (seriously, DVC friends if youā€™re looking for 1/9 lodging - itā€™s out there now as it has become the redheadded stepchild of marathon weekend LOL). But no 1/8

I had given up for the night last night - no really - but decided to check one. last. time.

If you have done any modifying of any DVC stays, you know that if any of your selected resorts have full availability they pop up to the top of the list. Otherwise the list seems to be in a semi-alphabetical, semi-random order.

Well Poly popped to the top. I died. I acted quickly. And I snagged those two nights faster than you can blink an eye!

And then smugly went about cleaning up the rest of everything, including re-booking the Sept 2022 trip I have planned with just DH. Iā€™d had to cancel it to have enough points to play this mad game and as we are still well outside of our 7month mark, and I know availability at OKW is not a problem, I was comfortable doing that for the short period of time that I was engaged in this crazy rearrangement. It is now re-secured.

And I have walked away with leftover points in my bank which will be nice if I decide to take another short trip at some point!

My sis has no idea about any of this and now I have to decide when to surprise her! I have constructed the perfect trip to show her how I Disney (except AK) and maybe get her to love it as much as I do. But if not, thatā€™s on her not me because this trip is epic :slight_smile:

Heyā€¦ you asked :wink:

10 Likes

Ooooo this is my split for next fall!! Canā€™t wait to hear all Your thoughts!

1 Like