VDH Favorite Weeks Chart

[PalmettoPath]

Nothing available in the Grand Villas?!?! I'll pass....

That was my exact reaction as well. Not enough of them maybe.

 

[Yankee626]

Looking at the chart closer I see they aren't offering every week as a "Favorite " week. Maybe that's why they changed the name from Guaranteed to Favorite ? I hope they don't do this with the Poly 2 offering.

 

[Sandisw]

Looking at the chart closer I see they aren't offering every week as a "Favorite " week. Maybe that's why they changed the name from Guaranteed to Favorite ? I hope they don't do this with the Poly 2 offering.

They did the same with the other resorts now too. Not all weeks are available any longer as an optio.

 

[Yankee626]

They did the same with the other resorts now too. Not all weeks are available any longer as an optio.

I wonder why they would do this. The buyer is paying 10% more and it makes things easier for DVC to manage. Why would they care what week it is?

 

[Sandisw]

I wonder why they would do this. The buyer is paying 10% more and it makes things easier for DVC to manage. Why would they care what week it is?

IIRC, the only ones being offered were weeks thst went above the 150 minimum for new purchases.

And, the charts were even updated to reflect the new amounts iit costs in current charts. So, the number of points required when first introduced no longer apply.

 

[CarolynFH]

I think they call it a Guaranteed week on my CCV contract . Not sure. I wonder why they would change the name ?

Maybe to help people understand they don’t have to visit that week? That they could use the points to stay another time? IOW, it’s the buyer’s favorite week to visit, but they’re not limited to that week.

 

[Jayunit09]

I assume a family who does plan to go the same week every other year, this won’t work as you need points to book the size room you want each year?

 

[CarolynFH]

I assume a family who does plan to go the same week every other year, this won’t work as you need points to book the size room you want each year?

Exactly. You have to buy enough points for the week you want in the size villa you want, plus 10% more points. IOW, you’d buy week #20 in a preferred view studio. You could cancel that week one year and bank the points, and the next year you could cancel the studio again and use both sets of points to book a 2BR, but that 2BR wouldn’t be guaranteed to you, only the studio. So it's not really practical.

 

[ehh]

I suspect the move to Favorite Week was mostly for marketing around flexibility, like @CarolynFH mentioned. Plus it might have just tested better in focus groups.

But I wonder if the move from Guaranteed Week to Favorite Week had anything to do with the fact that it's not necessarily the same week every year if you're trying to target specific calendar dates that align with a holiday or an expected school/work vacation week.

I'm not saying there's anything unscrupulous being done by DVC or other timeshares, this is just an artifact of having 365 or 366 days in a year when a timeshare calendar only covers 364 of them and always starts on the same day of the week. Due to the mismatch between the number of days between an actual year and 52 weeks, the actual dates within a designated week varies.

For example, if your priority is to have a week that contains Christmas, there is no Favorite Week that contains it every year. In 2023 it's W52, which starts 12/24, but in 2024 it's W51, which starts 12/22. It's W51 every year through 2027, too.

Thanksgiving, due its '4th Thursday of November' calendar placement always seems to be W47, but every fixed-date holiday has the same problem as Christmas. So if you target July 4th, Halloween, NYE, a birthday, an anniversary, etc., you're not guaranteed to get it.

 

[crvetter]

Thanksgiving, due its '4th Thursday of November' calendar placement always seems to be W47

Even this moves around but only 10-15% of the time I think. It actually worked to your advantage if you bought CCV thanksgiving week. Because when they sold it and created the favorite weeks it wasn’t week 47 so week 47 ended up cheaper than it will be for a majority of the time.

 

[ehh]

Even this moves around but only 10-15% of the time I think. It actually worked to your advantage if you bought CCV thanksgiving week. Because when they sold it and created the favorite weeks it wasn’t week 47 so week 47 ended up cheaper than it will be for a majority of the time.

Ah, I didn't go out far enough. Thanksgiving 2029 is indeed W46.

So no holiday is safe

 

[crvetter]

Ah, I didn't go out far enough. Thanksgiving 2029 is indeed W46.

So no holiday is safe

They might have fixed CCV so week 47 costs Thanksgiving points after I bought. They figured out the chart had it week 46 when they were confused why I wanted 47 when I said I wanted Thanksgiving. I might have been to happy to find their flaw.


Edit: interestingly enough for CCV they actually sold weeks that were attached to floating events. They sold rundisney nights that guaranteed your week would cover the race event of your choice. No idea if that is still an option or what happened when the events weren’t all going on.

 

[CarolynFH]

Edit: interestingly enough for CCV they actually sold weeks that were attached to floating events. They sold rundisney nights that guaranteed your week would cover the race event of your choice. No idea if that is still an option or what happened when the events weren’t all going on.

Yes, I thought those runDisney weeks were quite attractive. They were the only guaranteed weeks that didn't have to be Sunday to Sunday, although they were pegged to a specific race, e.g. Marathon Weekend in January or Food & Wine in November. The owner could choose the start date, make it Wednesday to Wednesday, for instance, since the Expo always opened on Wednesday and the first race might be Thursday or Friday. It was quite flexible! But I haven't seen any mention of them since RIV opened, and I'm not sure they're offered anymore.

 

[got4boys]

They might have fixed CCV so week 47 costs Thanksgiving points after I bought. They figured out the chart had it week 46 when they were confused why I wanted 47 when I said I wanted Thanksgiving. I might have been to happy to find their flaw.

View attachment 773698
Edit: interestingly enough for CCV they actually sold weeks that were attached to floating events. They sold rundisney nights that guaranteed your week would cover the race event of your choice. No idea if that is still an option or what happened when the events weren’t all going on.

Now there are some weeks worth more points if a guaranteed or favorite week is purchased through Disney. Your 118 points back (week 47) then is now worth 140 points.

 

[crvetter]

Now there are some weeks worth more points if a guaranteed or favorite week is purchased through Disney. Your 118 points back (week 47) then is now worth 140 points.

I figured they must fix them when they rebalance the charts. So that answers that question.

 

[DVCmeesh]

Do we know if any of the favorite weeks have sold out? I'm interested to gauge a pattern as I'm debating to wait until September to close. First time buyer here, on average have there been better offers after summer incentives?

 

[emchen]

No idea. But last year they changed it when they updated the charts. Maybe they just figured it sounded better?? Lol

I think that, but also same initials as "fixed weeks" which is used almost as often as "guaranteed weeks".

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Even this moves around but only 10-15% of the time I think. It actually worked to your advantage if you bought CCV thanksgiving week. Because when they sold it and created the favorite weeks it wasn’t week 47 so week 47 ended up cheaper than it will be for a majority of the time.

How interesting! I'm trying to think if the CCV points charts also might have been prepared by the employees that calculated the point reallocations that would have increased the total points at most resorts. Seems like a similar (lack) of understanding of the process.
With the first resorts with fixed weeks the way it was explained was that they were figured based on the average over all years of the contract for that week. Future point reallocations of course would change those amounts but were outside of the calculations since they were unknown. However in this case it sounds like they didn't use the figures for all the years for CCV to arrive at the average. At least until you helped them find the error.

 

[crvetter]

How interesting! I'm trying to think if the CCV points charts also might have been prepared by the employees that calculated the point reallocations that would have increased the total points at most resorts. Seems like a similar (lack) of understanding of the process.
With the first resorts with fixed weeks the way it was explained was that they were figured based on the average over all years of the contract for that week. Future point reallocations of course would change those amounts but were outside of the calculations since they were unknown. However in this case it sounds like they didn't use the figures for all the years for CCV to arrive at the average. At least until you helped them find the error.

Maybe they do now that I highlighted the issue to them, they seem more aligned with that. They just kept telling me I was wrong that Thanksgiving was always the same week # every year and I wanted to buy the wrong week. Just took lots of convincing and proof to show them they were mistaken that it changes every 5 or so years for 1 year.