Trip plans gone awry, suggestions needed

[Nen_nenny]

Hello!
Bit of a newbie here, looking for some alternative suggestions from knowledgeable members

So I have been doing lots of research into a trip for summer 2022, but due to circumstances out of our control we were only able to book our flights last weekend. We had planned on renting DVC points through an agent, and had a few emails back and forth this weekend and the start of the week checking availability and then they've come back and advised they don't have anyone renting the points we need right now, so we've put ourselves on the waitlist.

Our holiday dates can't be moved, so we need to go from 23rd August - 4th September.

Our latest plans (based on DVC availability) looked like this:
OKW Studio 23rd-27th (52 points)
AKL Studio Savannah View -27th - 29th (38 points)
Poly Studio lake view 29th - 2nd September (118 points)
Loews Universal Royal pacific 2nd - 4th September (~$819)

At $19 per point we were looking at $3952 for Disney + $819 for Universal

We haven't done dvc rental before, and don't feel comfortable renting directly from an owner that we don't have a relationship with, so with DVC renting out the window we're now having to look at other options.
As I see it we have the following options:
1. Cancel the flights (7 day cooling off period until Saturday) and book a package deal, not ideal as we want to do Disney & Universal and this means we will lose the benefit of staying at a Universal Premier hotel & getting express pass OR Disney transport & early hours. Does give us flexibility in moving/cancelling (though I don't see that happening) and confidence in booking process & ease.
2. Book a villa - this would involve us hiring a car, which we hadn't planned on doing and adds a big expense, on top of fuel & parking in the parks, again means we lose the benefits of staying on site.
3. Book a hotel direct with Disney, we've found some deals for Yacht club for 10 nights & park tickets for ~£7k so it's quite a bit more than we'd planned on spending for accommodation, but in a great location & means we can keep our deluxe perks & then can still book Universal separately. Likely to sell out, and Disney don't have a cancellation policy if DVC rental does come up before the trip.
3.1 Have also looked at Art of animation cars suite, ~£4k for 10 nights, but quite a bit further out from the parks than we had wanted
4. Book another hotel, maybe something off site so it's inexpensive and has a good cancellation policy and stay on the wait list for DVC in case it comes up, but have split the risk in the likely event that it doesn't. I'm really not sure about this as it's just not what we had pictured, it feels like I'd rather try for 2023 than do this.
5. Break up our requests so that we have a greater chance of getting 2 of them and only having to pay full hotel prices for a shorter time.
6. As a last ditch attempt I've found a couple of people renting DVC points directly and contacted them asking if they'd be willing to rent to me through an agent

If anyone has any advice, suggestions or recommendations for us they would be gratefully received

 

[disneyholic family]

Hello!
Bit of a newbie here, looking for some alternative suggestions from knowledgeable members

So I have been doing lots of research into a trip for summer 2022, but due to circumstances out of our control we were only able to book our flights last weekend. We had planned on renting DVC points through an agent, and had a few emails back and forth this weekend and the start of the week checking availability and then they've come back and advised they don't have anyone renting the points we need right now, so we've put ourselves on the waitlist.

Our holiday dates can't be moved, so we need to go from 23rd August - 4th September.

Our latest plans (based on DVC availability) looked like this:
OKW Studio 23rd-27th (52 points)
AKL Studio Savannah View -27th - 29th (38 points)
Poly Studio lake view 29th - 2nd September (118 points)
Loews Universal Royal pacific 2nd - 4th September (~$819)

At $19 per point we were looking at $3952 for Disney + $819 for Universal

We haven't done dvc rental before, and don't feel comfortable renting directly from an owner that we don't have a relationship with, so with DVC renting out the window we're now having to look at other options.
As I see it we have the following options:
1. Cancel the flights (7 day cooling off period until Saturday) and book a package deal, not ideal as we want to do Disney & Universal and this means we will lose the benefit of staying at a Universal Premier hotel & getting express pass OR Disney transport & early hours. Does give us flexibility in moving/cancelling (though I don't see that happening) and confidence in booking process & ease.
2. Book a villa - this would involve us hiring a car, which we hadn't planned on doing and adds a big expense, on top of fuel & parking in the parks, again means we lose the benefits of staying on site.
3. Book a hotel direct with Disney, we've found some deals for Yacht club for 10 nights & park tickets for ~£7k so it's quite a bit more than we'd planned on spending for accommodation, but in a great location & means we can keep our deluxe perks & then can still book Universal separately. Likely to sell out, and Disney don't have a cancellation policy if DVC rental does come up before the trip.
3.1 Have also looked at Art of animation cars suite, ~£4k for 10 nights, but quite a bit further out from the parks than we had wanted
4. Book another hotel, maybe something off site so it's inexpensive and has a good cancellation policy and stay on the wait list for DVC in case it comes up, but have split the risk in the likely event that it doesn't. I'm really not sure about this as it's just not what we had pictured, it feels like I'd rather try for 2023 than do this.
5. Break up our requests so that we have a greater chance of getting 2 of them and only having to pay full hotel prices for a shorter time.
6. As a last ditch attempt I've found a couple of people renting DVC points directly and contacted them asking if they'd be willing to rent to me through an agent

If anyone has any advice, suggestions or recommendations for us they would be gratefully received

are those the DVC dates that are on waitlist?
you weren't able to get anything that's definite?
there are several rental companies. Have you tried all of them?

 

[Plague]

Disney don't have a cancellation policy

That's not exactly right. (Edited - I quoted the change, not cancel section originally)

Walt Disney World Accommodation only or Package Bookings:
Days before scheduled departure date --- Cancellation Fee:
100+ days --- £50 / €65 pp
100 – 8 days or more --- £50 / €65 pp
7 days or less --- 100%

(This is extracted from a table in -
WALT DISNEY TRAVEL COMPANY INTERNATIONAL BOOKING TERMS AND CONDITIONS (EFFECTIVE 1 JULY 2018
UPDATED 8 December 2021).
Section 12. If you Cancel Your Booking
If you have a flight in the package it's more complicated.)

If you are moving the booking to a later date, like next year, they might well give you a credit if you ask nicely.

 

[cheryl.UK]

Hi,

Saratoga Springs has studios for all of the nights you need if you can find a renter.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

I was looking at the exact same dates you are for WDW and there was decent availability still, especially if you’re willing to do a split stay (as you seem to be). I can’t give you specifics as that is against board rules but I second the earlier suggestion to try to find a different broker. These dates are within the 7 month window so any owner (except Riviera resale) should be able to book these for you. If you’re flexible on where to stay then that’s even easier.

Yacht Club looks great and I’d love to stay there sometime myself. And if you do find some points and stay there part of the time, that sounds pretty great.

(I’m not sure how much traction you’d get with asking owners to rent to you via a broker. If they wanted to rent through a broker, they would already be doing that.)

Good luck!

 

[Nen_nenny]

That's not exactly right.

Oh brilliant, I clearly didn't do enough reading of the small print, I couldn't see that when I was looking. Great find, thank you!

there are several rental companies. Have you tried all of them?

I've contacted a second one to see if we get any joy there, my concern is their booking processes work when they take a deposit if they then find the points the booking is made, if by some miracle we have 2 brokers find the right thing at the same time we'd be paying twice. I think we might look at coming off the waitlist at one and speaking to another though, that is a good suggestion

If they wanted to rent through a broker, they would already be doing that.

Absolutely, that's what I think, I'm not holding much hope for that.

Have found another option for us, to do a transfer of points as a colleague of my partner is a DVC owner and would be willing to do the booking for us if she had points. There is still risk when doing the initial payment, but once that is done we have confidence in knowing that she won't change our reservation once it has been made. So I'm now frantically messaging owners to see if they would be willing to do a transfer. If anyone knows of anyone looking to do a transfer of ~210 points please send them my way

 

[ChipTheRescueRanger]

A couple of things. Might be worth checking some of the confirmed stays as you might find some dates that pair with yours in some of the resorts you like.

To cut costs down you could allways look at the rental board on here. If your willing to take a risk with a private renter as anyone should be able to book any resort as in the 7 month window. If you want to use a renter with a broker. its probs just easier to go to one of the broker sites direct.

I rented points privately this year. So PM me if you want any advise or info on what I did.

 

[Nen_nenny]

Have just had some kind of miracle happen and the timeshare store has come through with a member with the points we needed and we have a reservation booked now!

Thank you all so much for your willingness to help when I was in a panic. I've spoken to some lovely forum members who have all been incredibly generous with their advice, I look forward to speaking to more of this lovely community

 

[disneyholic family]

Have just had some kind of miracle happen and the timeshare store has come through with a member with the points we needed and we have a reservation booked now!

Thank you all so much for your willingness to help when I was in a panic. I've spoken to some lovely forum members who have all been incredibly generous with their advice, I look forward to speaking to more of this lovely community

congratulations!!