All About Fixed Weeks (RIV/CCV/AUL/VGF/POLY Charts)

[ShaneDJ]

That's amazing! I really see no downside to getting a fixed week then, unless you really wanted a precise number of points and don't want to buy the extra 10% of points

I agree with @intamin that there is really no downside to Fixed Weeks. We have a FW at the RIV and we love it!

We don't have to walk/stalk the reservation...it just automatically shows up as booked in our account. Love that!

And at the RIV, over time when resale buyers will be forced to use their resale RIV points at the RIV, we don't want to have a problem booking our preferred week.

Since you don't lose your 10% extra points if you cancel the Fixed Week, this was a no-brainer for us.

There was a chart in the past (can't find it now) that showed that the majority of Fixed Weeks were purchased from Week 47 (Thanksgiving) until Week 52 (New Years).

Since those weeks are also the super busy holiday times at WDW, renting out those points (or that confirmed reservation) should not be a problem...if we don't use our FW for that year.

In fact, we wish that all of our DVC contracts were Fixed Weeks!

Fixed Weeks do popup on resale occasionally, and they go right away.

 

[Tatebeck]

Yeah we would probably do one during early December for insurance. Then maybe during Food and Wine (October maybe?) if December is not available

 

[intamin]

Yeah we would probably do one during early December for insurance. Then maybe during Food and Wine (October maybe?) if December is not available

Yep that's the time I'd lock in too. I ultimately went with week 50 which is easier to book than week 48/49 but that's just because I feel like we might actually consider using week 50. Week 48/49 is the first 2 weeks of December and just thinking to the future with kids and etc. I may not want to pull them out of school then. If the kids are in college as well finals often happen during that first week of December. However, I am eyeing to buy a fixed week at Poly once sales for that starts up and do week 49 for that one which would be harder to book.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I'm thinking of doing a fixed week if I buy into RIV direct. I understand that they make you buy more points (around 10%) than the week normally costs booking points. If you cancel the reservation, do you get back the full amount of points you purchased? Or minus the 10%?

For example, If you bought a theoretical week that normally books for 100 points, but they made you buy and use 110 for the week. If you cancel do you get all 110 or just the 100?

Trying to decide if there is there any downside to buying a fixed week just in case, even if you end up cancelling it and going a different time every year. If you were already going to buy more points than required, there doesn't seem to be much downside, unless you lose those 10% of points every year no matter what

If you convert your FW back into points, you get the full allotment of points back into your UY.

 

[KeithSS]

I will start out by saying that while I did look over the 40 pages of responses here I may have missed the answer to this question that I had about fixes/favorite weeks. I know they go from Sunday-Saturday. But if you dont typically travel Sunday-Saturday, say you go Tues-Mon because of schedules/flights etc, what happens then? Can you modify the dates after your week is available to book at 11mo? Or is the only option to just flat out cancel it, get the points put back in to your acct and then risk rebooking it from scratch? If you can modify, I assume that it would then go back to the regular pts per night for the booking? We just typically dont go Sun-Sat so seeing if there is any way a fav week would be beneficial for us or not. Im thinking if you got a fav week booked, and then were able to modify it to change the dates( take off a few on the front and add them to the back) even if you had to wait till the 11mo mark of the 1st day you wanted to start the reservation, then it could be beneficial because the first days are alway the hardest to get booked while the days on the end typically are available to be modified into at 11mo, if that makes sense.

 

[intamin]

I will start out by saying that while I did look over the 40 pages of responses here I may have missed the answer to this question that I had about fixes/favorite weeks. I know they go from Sunday-Saturday. But if you dont typically travel Sunday-Saturday, say you go Tues-Mon because of schedules/flights etc, what happens then? Can you modify the dates after your week is available to book at 11mo? Or is the only option to just flat out cancel it, get the points put back in to your acct and then risk rebooking it from scratch? If you can modify, I assume that it would then go back to the regular pts per night for the booking? We just typically dont go Sun-Sat so seeing if there is any way a fav week would be beneficial for us or not. Im thinking if you got a fav week booked, and then were able to modify it to change the dates( take off a few on the front and add them to the back) even if you had to wait till the 11mo mark of the 1st day you wanted to start the reservation, then it could be beneficial because the first days are alway the hardest to get booked while the days on the end typically are available to be modified into at 11mo, if that makes sense.

It is always booked as a Sunday-Sunday reservation. You cannot modify the reservation. You would have to cancel it and then re-book it. If you know in advance that you didn't want to do the whole week you can let member services know before it's booked not to book it and then try booking the dates you want at 11 months like normal and yes it would go back to regular points without the markup for a fixed week.

You could always walk the reservation prior to the time you're trying to go if you're concerned about it being booked up again like a normal reservation. If you have a reservation already booked using the fixed week points, obviously member services would not be able to book your fixed week for you and you wouldn't need to call in to cancel the reservation.

 

[KeithSS]

It is always booked as a Sunday-Sunday reservation. You cannot modify the reservation. You would have to cancel it and then re-book it. If you know in advance that you didn't want to do the whole week you can let member services know before it's booked not to book it and then try booking the dates you want at 11 months like normal and yes it would go back to regular points without the markup for a fixed week.

You could always walk the reservation prior to the time you're trying to go if you're concerned about it being booked up again like a normal reservation. If you have a reservation already booked using the fixed week points, obviously member services would not be able to book your fixed week for you and you wouldn't need to call in to cancel the reservation.

Ok that answers my question then. If I never plan on using it from Sun-Sat then a fixed week really has no benefit to me with the exception of resale being possibly more desirable and therefore commanding a higher price. If you could modify it then I could see the benefit for me, but without that, I dont think it does. Thanks!

 

[intamin]

Ok that answers my question then. If I never plan on using it from Sun-Sat then a fixed week really has no benefit to me with the exception of resale being possibly more desirable and therefore commanding a higher price. If you could modify it then I could see the benefit for me, but without that, I dont think it does. Thanks!

Yep exactly. Its really just for resale value at that point which is also fair because at the end of the day the contract can still be used just like any other contract. Even if you never go week 48, a week 48 150 pt contract will go for more than a 150 pt plain contract.

 

[Sprinkles&Sprints]

Bumping this back up - for those of you who bought FW44 (or 43) for race purposes, does Food & Wine 1/2 just alternate between the two weeks or does it always fall into one?

 

[MerlinandtheMouse]

We’re very much considering a FW for the tower but I’m thinking a slightly different route than the normal. Idk why but I feel like the tower will be incredibly popular during July 4th week, and more specifically the PV, which goes against the normal thought process for FWs. I know we don’t know what the rooms or views look like yet but my hunch is that the SV will be as popular as always, but in this case week PV will be, as well?

I figure it’ll give us more points to play with when we don’t want the FW? We’re a family that would book a PV over SV to enjoy for ourselves so maybe that’s why my thoughts are skewed this way. I’m not sure so we’re still contemplating the usual early December weeks too but this has been in my mind lately thought I’d get a read from others.

 

[Sprinkles&Sprints]

We’re very much considering a FW for the tower but I’m thinking a slightly different route than the normal. Idk why but I feel like the tower will be incredibly popular during July 4th week, and more specifically the PV, which goes against the normal thought process for FWs. I know we don’t know what the rooms or views look like yet but my hunch is that the SV will be as popular as always, but in this case week PV will be, as well?

I figure it’ll give us more points to play with when we don’t want the FW? We’re a family that would book a PV over SV to enjoy for ourselves so maybe that’s why my thoughts are skewed this way. I’m not sure so we’re still contemplating the usual early December weeks too but this has been in my mind lately thought I’d get a read from others.

I think if there’s a week/room that is popular for you AND for everyone else it’s a win-win…even if that means a Preferred View vs Standard. At that point the FW is less of a hedge in case you sell (like mine will be at RIV) but more so that you don’t have the headache of fighting for it…which is worth a lot IMO.

 

[FFMickey]

I think if there’s a week/room that is popular for you AND for everyone else it’s a win-win…even if that means a Preferred View vs Standard. At that point the FW is less of a hedge in case you sell (like mine will be at RIV) but more so that you don’t have the headache of fighting for it…which is worth a lot IMO.

This is our reasoning with getting a FW in the tower. Just want to get our room regularly without dealing with the fall frenzy.

 

[MerlinandtheMouse]

I think if there’s a week/room that is popular for you AND for everyone else it’s a win-win…even if that means a Preferred View vs Standard. At that point the FW is less of a hedge in case you sell (like mine will be at RIV) but more so that you don’t have the headache of fighting for it…which is worth a lot IMO.

Yeah that’s true. I guess I can just get the SV and cancel it to book the “easier” PV for whenever we want. I wonder if it will be difficult to book any other time of year since PVB has usually had decent availability even during the busiest seasons.
Getting a December FW at CCV or VGF made a lot of sense since the lobbies attract people to stay there at that time, but I don’t think PVB is as popular during that season so will it actually be as attractive for a potential buyer in the future?Problem is we won’t really know booking/popularity trends for a few years and I don’t want to miss out on a popular week by waiting too long. Ahhhh first world problems amirite?

 

[CarolynFH]

If the Tower rooms have good fireworks views, they'll be popular for both 4th of July and New Year's. So if I were buying a FW in the Tower, I'd want a Theme Park/Fireworks (or whatever they might call it) view for one of those weeks - whichever one I'd be likely to use myself. (That would be New Year's, because I don't like Orlando in the summertime!)

 

[got4boys]

If the Tower rooms have good fireworks views, they'll be popular for both 4th of July and New Year's. So if I were buying a FW in the Tower, I'd want a Theme Park/Fireworks (or whatever they might call it) view for one of those weeks - whichever one I'd be likely to use myself. (That would be New Year's, because I don't like Orlando in the summertime!)

Note that the fixed week points for July 4th - could be week 26 or 27 are a lot less points to buy than week 52.

 

[CarolynFH]

Note that the fixed week points for July 4th - could be week 26 or 27 are a lot less points to buy than week 52.

Yes, but we bought DVC to use, not to rent or resell. So we would buy the week we wanted to use - if we were buying one of those FW!

 

[J-Dog]

Okay, so stupid FW question:

Once the reservation has been made, it's my understanding that it can't be modified unless you cancel and rebook, right? So how do you modify the people on the reservation?

I hadn't thought about this ever before, until I clicked on the "Add DDP" link to my more recent FW res, and only my wife and I (the ones on the deed) were on the reservation.

Other than the DDP, I'm not sure that it matters that much, and I'm not really sure that I want to do the DDP (never have before because the cost to value ratio is low, but was considering doing it for FOMO, because I had never done it). But shouldn't there be a way to add people? I mean, a way other than calling MS?

 

[PolyRob]

Okay, so stupid FW question:

Once the reservation has been made, it's my understanding that it can't be modified unless you cancel and rebook, right? So how do you modify the people on the reservation?

I hadn't thought about this ever before, until I clicked on the "Add DDP" link to my more recent FW res, and only my wife and I (the ones on the deed) were on the reservation.

Other than the DDP, I'm not sure that it matters that much, and I'm not really sure that I want to do the DDP (never have before because the cost to value ratio is low, but was considering doing it for FOMO, because I had never done it). But shouldn't there be a way to add people? I mean, a way other than calling MS?

You do not have to cancel to change the guests on the reservation. You can call MS and change the names.

You need to cancel if you want to modify dates, room type, and/or resort.

If you just want to add additional days you can book additional dates on a separate reservation and ask MS to note it is a continuing reservation. You cannot drop days from the Favorite Week.

 

[J-Dog]

You do not have to cancel to change the guests on the reservation. You can call MS and change the names.

You need to cancel if you want to modify dates, room type, and/or resort.

If you just want to add additional days you can book additional dates on a separate reservation and ask MS to note it is a continuing reservation. You cannot drop days from the Favorite Week.

Thanks. I was hoping that there was a simpler way than having to call.

 

[FFMickey]

Thanks. I was hoping that there was a simpler way than having to call.

You could also chat the updated names to MS.