Track Your 2018 Vacation Budget Here...

[kristenrice]

...

• Have enough SB balance to get a discounted gift card on 12/1 (at 655/2200)

...

It's funny you mention this...I have a spreadsheet with my "discounted" gift cards listed as "pending"...and they are all the way through March 1 because I have 9500+ SB currently in my account. I will always have enough for the next month's discounted one, right up until I cash out on October 1, 2018. That will total $300 in discounted GC's and save me $30 in SB. I will then cash in whatever I have left, up to my goal of $1200. Anything above that will rollover to my 2019 trip.

 

[tarheel618]

Ok here's mine: family of 4
Tickets-FL AP covered monthly payment plan- down payment already paid (Christmas gift for family)
3 nights at Pop March Spring Break- 467.30 down payment of 167.30 remaining balance 300.30
figured 150 to eat each day so 600 needed mostly counter service. 75.00 Disney Gift Cards bought with consignment sales. We will bring snacks and breakfast for in the room.
1 night at Rainforest Disney Springs (plan to earn swagbucks to cover meal)
1 night Buffalo Wild Wings (Swagbucks to cover meal- 25 SB already earned)
1 Lunch at BOG (hoping to earn enough Swagbucks to transfer money to Paypal to cover this)

My goal is to try and pay for this trip with as much free money as possible. Swagbucks, insurance rebates, ebates, consignment sales and buying 25 GC each paydate until we leave (50 a month)

122 days until we go

Total 900.30
paid 267.30
Bal 633.00

I know we could cut cost if we stay off site but we expect it to be busy and want to use Mk late night hours.

Also have a overnight trip in Jan- Hotel (off site) is already covered just need to save for food.

 

[grumpy28]

Ok here's mine: family of 4
Tickets-FL AP covered monthly payment plan- down payment already paid (Christmas gift for family)
3 nights at Pop March Spring Break- 467.30 down payment of 167.30 remaining balance 300.30
figured 150 to eat each day so 600 needed mostly counter service. 75.00 Disney Gift Cards bought with consignment sales. We will bring snacks and breakfast for in the room.
1 night at Rainforest Disney Springs (plan to earn swagbucks to cover meal)
1 night Buffalo Wild Wings (Swagbucks to cover meal- 25 SB already earned)
1 Lunch at BOG (hoping to earn enough Swagbucks to transfer money to Paypal to cover this)

My goal is to try and pay for this trip with as much free money as possible. Swagbucks, insurance rebates, ebates, consignment sales and buying 25 GC each paydate until we leave (50 a month)

122 days until we go

Total 900.30
paid 267.30
Bal 633.00

I know we could cut cost if we stay off site but we expect it to be busy and want to use Mk late night hours.

Also have a overnight trip in Jan- Hotel (off site) is already covered just need to save for food.

Are you in NC? Your screen name had me wondering. If so, are you driving? We are in NC (with APs) and we drive. Not sure if we would do it for 3 nights. Probably would, but its a good 11 hours. Just curious if others do it for that length of trip.

 

[tarheel618]

No we are in FL about an hour & 1/2 from Disney, most of our trips are day trips. User Name was my very first dog name been gone for a very long time. Love all my pups but that one has a special place in my heart.

 

[kristenrice]

Update

Disney Gift Cards and Equivalent: $614.35
Amazon Gift Cards: $25.00
Cash: $621.93

Total Have: $1261.28
Total Needed: $1738.72

...That's just $5.13 a day until I leave....
...or about $36 a week...
.... or about $158 a month...
...TOTALLY doable

 

[tarheel618]

Ok here's mine: family of 4
Tickets-FL AP covered monthly payment plan- down payment already paid (Christmas gift for family)
3 nights at Pop March Spring Break- 467.30 down payment of 167.30 remaining balance 300.30
figured 150 to eat each day so 600 needed mostly counter service. 75.00 Disney Gift Cards bought with consignment sales. We will bring snacks and breakfast for in the room.
1 night at Rainforest Disney Springs (plan to earn swagbucks to cover meal)
1 night Buffalo Wild Wings (Swagbucks to cover meal- 25 SB already earned)
1 Lunch at BOG (hoping to earn enough Swagbucks to transfer money to Paypal to cover this)

My goal is to try and pay for this trip with as much free money as possible. Swagbucks, insurance rebates, ebates, consignment sales and buying 25 GC each paydate until we leave (50 a month)

122 days until we go

Total 900.30
paid 267.30
Bal 633.00

I know we could cut cost if we stay off site but we expect it to be busy and want to use Mk late night hours.

Also have a overnight trip in Jan- Hotel (off site) is already covered just need to save for food.

Update- Electric bill went down by 50 dollars from what I had budgeted this month. So on Friday(payday), I will purchase a Disney Gift Card $50.00. Checked consignment account and there is 13.00 there to collect and I will take in winter clothes to sell on Saturday.

So new total 633.00
63.00

Still Owe: 570.00

 

[kristenrice]

I found a great deal at Target and I am going to dip my toes into trying to flip on eBay. I found Neutrogena sunscreen in the clearance section for under $3 a bottle. This is the 3.0 oz bottles that are normally $10 each and they are marked down 70% off. There are about 70+ bottles available. I only grabbed 3 because I know that even if I can't sell them, my family will use at least that many. Hopefully, I can make a little money from that deal.

I was bad this week and took a trip to the casino. I lost $30...then I was REALLY bad and went back the next day. Fortunately, I won $150 on that trip so I was able to repay the $30 I lost and add a little more to the fund. It made me a nervous wreck though, so I don't think I will be going back for a while.

The SwagBucks are piling up, I realized I have almost $30 in Discover rewards I'd forgotten about, and I earned another $15 in Target FWP on this week's shopping trip. I am almost halfway to my goal with just over 11 months to save. For some reason, I feel very pressured....it's so weird! I'm doing AWESOME...and I feel so stressed out!

Here's the current totals for today...

Disney Gift Cards and Equivalent: $629.35
Amazon Gift Cards: $25.00
Cash: $823.78

Total Have: $1478.13
Total Needed: $1521.87

...That's just $4.54 a day until I leave....
...or about $32 a week...
.... or about $138 a month...

 

[kristenrice]

Ugh...I'm so bad...I couldn't post for almost two weeks out of sheer guilt...I went to the casino and gave back the $150 that I won. There...I said it...I put it out there and I confessed it...I am a bad, bad budget-boarder. I selfishly spent my entertainment budget for my own agenda and now I have to refocus and get back to business...

The eBay experiment didn't pan out, but that's OK since we needed the sunscreen anyways and I got it for 70% off. I also cashed in on some great FWP gift card deals at Target this week. Even DH helped out when he bought toilet paper, paper towels and laundry detergent, USED HIS CARTWHEEL, and came home with the $10 FWP gift card for me. He was so proud of himself for remembering to use all of the discounts and tricks that I taught him. I went back to Target again this morning, bought (2) more laundry detergents and some more paper towels (saving $5 with coupons) to earn another $10 FWP gift card and I also bought $15 in soda to earn another $5 FWP gift card. I'm heading out to try for my final plasma donation of the week and month. If I am successful today, it will be my 7th one of the month which means I will get a $30 bonus in addition to the regular $50 for the 2nd weekly donation. I am really hoping that my iron and protein levels cooperate.

So here is the current totals (before I head out for my plasma attempt...)

Disney Gift Cards and Equivalent: $704.35
Amazon Gift Cards: $25.00
Cash: $686.93

Total Have: $1416.28
Total Needed: $1583.72

...that's $4.90 per day...
...$34.43 per week...
...and only $147.25 per month...

 

[tarheel618]

Update- Electric bill went down by 50 dollars from what I had budgeted this month. So on Friday(payday), I will purchase a Disney Gift Card $50.00. Checked consignment account and there is 13.00 there to collect and I will take in winter clothes to sell on Saturday.

So new total 633.00
63.00

Still Owe: 570.00

Cashed in enough SB for a $50.00 Gift card for Landry's Restaurant (Rainforest). Should have enough SB in a few days to cash in for additional $25- That should pretty much cover our meal at Rainforest. Also, earned 22 at consignment shop and I still haven't made it to turn in the winter clothes

 

[Andrea1975]

At the end of October I had:
$550 in my savings account,
$203 in credit card rewards,
and $37 in my mturk account
Total: $790

Wrapped up November with:
$750 in my savings account,
$240 in credit card rewards,
and $0 in my mturk account
Total: $990

Just $3010 to go. (That seems so huge, but a big chunk of that should be tax refunds, so it not quite so insurmountable as it looks.)

 

[Lvsdisney]

My Budget Updated for December 2nd:

Updated to reflect actual $ amounts.

Budget is for 2 adults and 2 children

Hotel: 5 nights BWV standard, rented through a DISer, splitting the cost with my parents but they are paying more (they offered) since they decided to join us and I was originally getting a studio. $1000 for our share. I've been earning money through SB and at this point I have $300 more to earn to pay for it completely with no money OOP. Final payment due end of Feb.

Transportation: So far I have 4 one way tickets on SW booked, paid with RR points, so fees and EBCI, total $82.40. Currently pricing out flights to MCO, I'm hoping to get less than $400 for the 4 of us. I have the Disney Visa where I can apply points to airfare, so I'm doing the math to see if that's a better deal than using them to buy tickets. Parking at my airport is $11/ day so $66 unless I can find a better deal on Groupon. No other costs as we are using DME and buses.

Tickets: I had enough free Disney money through my Disney Visa for 2 adult 6 day tickets. I had enough between free Disney GC money and Disney Visa Rewards money to purchase 1 of the kids tickets for no money OOP. So I still need 1 6 day ticket which will cost me anywhere from $370-$395 OOP depending on where I purchase from.

Food: we are planning on breakfast and dinner in the room, I priced out what we need on Instacart and it's about $250 and we'll split with my parents, so about $125-$150. I also have budgeted QS lunch for DH and I for the 5 days plus snacks around the world the night we arrive. I usually order kids meals so I'm budgeting $20-25 per meal (for the 2 of us combined), and I figure no more than $100 on arrival night, so we'll say $250 for the week for QS meals (last time we went we did the same thing and we spent less than $300 and that included a TS dinner so I think it's realistic). So $400 total for food

Memory Maker: $169 (again, hoping to use Disney Visa points since I'll have bought my tickets prior to Feb, so any other Disney points I earn will go towards this and the food budget mentioned above)

So, as you can tell, my main focus is as little OOP as possible! Right now if I did nothing and only paid the remainder OOP, it would be $1812. My goal is to get that number below $1000. Wish me luck!!

 

[kristenrice]

I may have stumbled into a "deal" on my airfare. Last year, my dad opened a SWA Visa card and got the 50K RR points. Well, my parents really don't fly anywhere and he was planning on using the points for a trip in 2019. He thinks that by then, he will have about 80K points accrued but they will only need bout 30K max. Since I am using my DVC points to cover 5 of the 8 nights, he offered to use some of his RR points to cover some of our airfare. I might have him tramsfer the points to my account this year and then I'll just use them now which will allow me to save up for another year to cover 2019's trip.

I have positive and negative vibes for December for my plasma donations. First, the positive...there is a $5 bonus for the second donation of each week. That means I can get $75 per week instead of $70. On top of that, the 8th donation of the month (*if* I can pull it off!) gets a $40 bonus! That would be a single payout of $95! There is a potential of $345 for the month of December. My hematocrit (iron) has been cooperating which is promising so I was very excited... but then I hit a huge pot hole. Now the negative... On Thursday, my first poke was unsuccessful and when they went to my other arm (the better vein), they were unable to complete the first cycle. In short, if it happens again in the next 8 weeks, I have to wait 8 weeks from the next occurrence before I can even attempt to donate again. On top of that, when they did the second poke, it left a small bruise which has to clear before I can donate. Hopefully, it will be clear by Tuesday which is my next scheduled donation. I can't miss any days in December or I won't qualify for the $45 bonus for 8 donations.

 

[richkaryn]

October 2018 - 7 night trip (aka My 40th bday bash!)

7 nights in rented DVC BWV garden/pool view studio: $1926 (deposit already paid, remaining balance $749)

Airfare: Probably going to drive, but if we decide to fly I have points to cover most, if not all (possibly $100-200 not covered)

Tickets:
Bought DS a 7 day PH for $496 (all paid for with free giftcards from upgrading our phones at Target BF!!) Most likely upgrading to annual pass once there $333
Myself: Going to buy a PH then upgrade to Annual Pass $829
DH: 5-7 day PH (haven't decided how many days in parks yet) $516
MNSSHP for the 3 of us: $300

Food: $1400 (I am including in this the TIW card I will be purchasing)

Miscellaneous (souvenirs, etc) $500

I am also helping my sister (single parent with no child support as of yet-- he has a way of evading and moving to another state every time they get close to serving him and then she has to re-file in new state each time), and my dad to take my niece on this trip. (Though I couldn't bring myself to share a room with everyone lol)
Budget for this : ???

~~~~~~
Total left to save: $4627 + ?
~~~~~~

Disney Gcard $ on hand: $80 ($25 was a bday gift I've saved and the other $55 left over from the $550 in free cards from target with phone purchases)

SB :Cashed in $50 in Walmart gcards, and will be cashing out another $25 next week when pending SBs hit.

DH cashing in employee reward incentive points for $100 Disney gcard.

I opened a Discover online savings account I am using specifically for this trip right now. I put money I earn from doing coworkers' bus duty in to this account.
Right now the balance is $287.43

Current Walmart Savings Catcher: (will use to buy Disney GC) $45
~~~~~~~~~~~~

$4627- 587.43 =
$4039.57 +

Hoping for enough SB balance to get another $25 before end of December.

ETA: Will also have a $25 birthday reward on my Landry's Select club card during our trip, and we plan to eat at Yak & Yeti. So, updated: $4014.57 +

 

[HuskyGal]

I love this idea and would love to join in posting my budget for our Feb 2018 Disneyland trip. Question re pp: what exactly is dvc and why is $ not posted in the budgets? Is it some kind of time share or similar? Is it for Disney world only?

Airfare (opened alaska cc, companion pass, points) $300
Hotel Courtyard Marriott 6 nights $1500
Disneyland 5 day hoppers 2 adults, 2 kids lmtclub $1177
Subtota paidl ~$3000

Amazon now delivery $100
Stroller rental $87 bob or $67 city mini
Lunch $200
Dinner $100
Souvenirs $50
DLRE shuttle $70
Goofys kitchen dinner $160?
Plaza inn breakfast $120
Subtotal unpaid ~$950

Using:
Disney visa rewards ~ $220
Disney gc with target gc 10% off $300

Total ~$3950
Paid $3500
Unpaid $450
Savings $1150 (alaska cc cp+pts $700, lmtclub tickets $200, Disney rewards $220, target gc deal $30)

Probably should increase budget by about $300 for maxpass and food. So realistically unpaid ~$650.
ETA: could’ve gone cheaper with airfare but With young kids I chose convenient flights; and Marriott is a more expensive option but with 6 nights wanted comfortable beds so my DH doesn’t go crazy and my DD fell in love with the bunk bed concept and marriott was the best Bang for my buck as far as ft2 and bunk beds. But oh man, after Disney released their deals, I realized I could’ve stayed on Disney property for $500 more.

 

[Andrea1975]

Well my sister just put a crimp in my planning by announcing she's making a rare trip with her family to the East Coast next summer (overlapping with the time I was planning to take the kids to Disney). It's great that she's coming--my kids will be thrilled and we'll have fun but I need to figure out a whole new plan now. We may just end up delaying a year (boo!) which I guess gives me more time to save up money and maybe splurge on something (I will divert some of the vacation money to do something else this summer but it won't cost as much). I hadn't booked anything yet anyway, so at least there's that. On the positive side of waiting--my son will definitely be tall enough for the 40" rides and being a year older both kids should have more endurance.

My goal was $3800-4000 by August.

I currently have about $1250 saved up between my various accounts/rewards programs. I'm taking a little bit of a break from swagbucks and mturk this month--just too much going on this time of year. I'll probably pick back up in a week or so when I have vacation time but not expecting this to be a big earning month (except for credit card rewards--ha ha).

 

[kristenrice]

Updated totals...

Disney Gift Cards and Equivalent: $779.35
Amazon Gift Cards: $28.00
Cash: $749.19

Total Have: $1556.54
Total Needed: $1443.46

I am officially over halfway there! ...and I still have 10 more months until we leave!

The next step is going to be the airfare. I'm not sure when Southwest will release their fares, but right now, the options on American and Delta are not looking too appealing. I budgeted $1200 for airfare, but I am *really* hoping to stay around $1000. I think I have another 3 months until SWA releases their fares for the end of October so I really only need about $100/month. Hopefully, I can generate that from plasma donations. Right now, that is my main source of cash earnings. I had a cell loss on November 30 which means between now and January 28, I cannot have another one. If that happens, I cannot donate for 8 weeks from the second loss. I was unsuccessful on my second donation attempt last week which means that I will not make 8 donations in December (no $45 bonus for me), but that's OK. I have time and I have to be patient.

The other thing that may have "saved" me some money is that there has been some availability issues in our lodging plans. Our original plan was to try and split our stay between 3 nights at either BCV or BWV and then 3 nights at BRV or CCV with our arrival night at the airport Hyatt. That plan would cost me $280 for the airport hotel and another $51 to buy one-time use points to complete our DVC reservation. As of right now, I have all 7 nights booked in a studio at our home resort (AKV) which uses exactly the number of points that I had available. The girls and I wanted to change it up and try something new so I am fine with spending the extra money to stay somewhere else, but when I checked the availability tool, we may be out of luck. As of now, BCV is completely booked and BWV has three nights available, but they are the three nights right in the middle of the trip. I'm not interested in moving twice so that's not an option. So, now we have a few different choices. We can either stay the whole week at AKV which will save me the $280 Hyatt bill AND the $51 OTU cost, or we can stay the first 4 nights at the AKV and the last three nights at BRV or CCV (same number of points) which would cost me $153 in one-time use points but save me the $280 at the Hyatt...or...since we really can't decide between CCV and BRV, we can stay the first night at the Hyatt and then do 3 nights at each which is what I have in the original budget ($51 for the one-time use points), but that's assuming that there is still availability at 7-months. If we end up "stuck" for all 7 nights at AKV, it would save me $330!

 

[Lvsdisney]

UPDATED Costs in RED:

Budget is for 2 adults and 2 children

Hotel: 5 nights BWV standard, rented through a DISer, splitting the cost with my parents but they are paying more (they offered) since they decided to join us and I was originally getting a studio. $1000 for our share. I've been earning money through SB and at this point I have $300 more to earn to pay for it completely with no money OOP. Final payment due end of Feb.

Transportation: 4 one way tickets on SW booked, paid with RR points, so fees and EBCI, total $82.40. Originally was strict on fly-out date, but now we can do a day earlier which actually saves us money. SW didin't have any good flight times for our original arrival day, but they had some great times the day before and I had enough RR points to cover so only $22.40 OOP (I went without EBCI since I'll be at work and will set an alarm to remind me to check in!). I got a hotel near the MCO airport since we'll be arriving later in the evening with free airport shuttle and free breakfast, and it is cheaper than paying OOP for 4 one-way tickets: $141. Parking at my airport is $11/ day so $66 unless I can find a better deal on Groupon. No other costs as we are using DME and buses unless we decide to UBER or Lyft from hotel to WDW $40

Tickets: I had enough free Disney money through my Disney Visa for 2 adult 6 day tickets. I had enough between free Disney GC money and Disney Visa Rewards money to purchase 1 of the kids tickets for no money OOP. So I still need 1 6 day ticket which will cost me anywhere from $370-$395 OOP depending on where I purchase from.

Food: we are planning on breakfast and dinner in the room, I priced out what we need on Instacart and it's about $250 and we'll split with my parents, so about $125-$150. I also have budgeted QS lunch for DH and I for the 5 days plus snacks around the world the night we arrive. I usually order kids meals so I'm budgeting $20-25 per meal (for the 2 of us combined), and I figure no more than $100 on arrival night, so we'll say $250 for the week for QS meals (last time we went we did the same thing and we spent less than $300 and that included a TS dinner so I think it's realistic). So $400 total for food

Memory Maker: $169 (again, hoping to use Disney Visa points since I'll have bought my tickets prior to Feb, so any other Disney points I earn will go towards this and the food budget mentioned above)

So, as you can tell, my main focus is as little OOP as possible! Right now if I did nothing and only paid the remainder OOP, it would be $1615.80. My goal is to get that number below $1000. Wish me luck!!

 

[kristenrice]

I love this idea and would love to join in posting my budget for our Feb 2018 Disneyland trip. Question re pp: what exactly is dvc and why is $ not posted in the budgets? Is it some kind of time share or similar? Is it for Disney world only?

DVC is the Disney Vacation Club. You may see it referenced here in two different ways. The first would be the DVC owners. As a DVC owner, I paid for a contract up front which gives me an annual allotment of points which I use to "pay" for my lodging each year. I pay annual maintenance fees based on my resort(s) and number of points that I own. Each vacation uses a different number of points based on time of year, length of stay, resort and room size. It would be way too difficult to approximate a "cash equivalent" cost and since we don't actually have to come up with the cash for the trip, we don't factor it in to the overall vacation cost....but, no...it's not "free".

The second reference to DVC that you will see mentioned is a DVC renter. When a DVC owner decides that they have extra points or that they aren't going to use their points in a particular year, they are allowed to "rent" them to someone else. This allows others to stay in DVC accommodations at a much cheaper rate than what you could get if you went directly from Disney. Basically, you contact an owner (easily done through a broker or the Rent/Trade board here on the DIS) and tell them your travel information. They book the reservation in your name, using their points, and you pay them up front for the reservation. The biggest downside is that the reservation is usually 100% non-refundable and you will have no control over it until check-in. Since timeshares are designed to run at near-100% occupancy year-round, availability can be limited and reservations are generally made 9-11 months in advance. You have to be sure of your travel dates and have your money ready. It's not for everybody, but it is a great way to have very nice accommodations at a reasonable price.

Right now, there is only one DVC property at Disneyland and it is VERY hard to get into due to it's very small size. It is possible to rent points there, but you would probably need to book your reservation 11-months out in order to do so, or get very lucky. I wouldn't say it's impossible...you could always try.

 

[kristenrice]

Disney Gift Cards and Equivalent: $793.35
Amazon Gift Cards: $28.00
Cash: $774.37

Total Have: $1595.72
Total Needed: $1404.28

I'm hoping that some of my Swagbucks offers actually come through and credit. I submitted two of them that should each credit 1500 SB, but I'm not sure how it's going to work out. They were from the same company, but different offers. I only made one purchase, but I submitted the same receipt for both offers. There was nothing in either offer that stipulated that you had to make separate purchases so I don't think I broke any rules, but I don't know if both offers will credit. We shall see. I'm also still waiting for another offer to credit which will hopefully hit my account sometime in mid-January for 2250 SB. That will net me another $25 gift card which I have not factored into my earnings yet. So far, I really only need to average about $30/month in gift card earnings and I will hit my goal of $1200. That's all FREE money. I get my longevity bonus from work in April and at the rate I am going, I will not have to use any of it for this trip. That would be amazing! I am really hoping to have enough cash saved up from my plasma donations to cover airfare once SWA releases the October flights. They aren't releasing the next batch until February 8 and those will only be through September 28 so I think I will have until at least the end of March, maybe even April, to save. Even at $20/week (1 donation), I would be at $1000 by the end of March so I *should* be OK...as long as I don't have any deferrals, cell losses, or illnesses...must stay healthy!

 

[HuskyGal]

DVC is the Disney Vacation Club. You may see it referenced here in two different ways. The first would be the DVC owners. As a DVC owner, I paid for a contract up front which gives me an annual allotment of points which I use to "pay" for my lodging each year. I pay annual maintenance fees based on my resort(s) and number of points that I own. Each vacation uses a different number of points based on time of year, length of stay, resort and room size. It would be way too difficult to approximate a "cash equivalent" cost and since we don't actually have to come up with the cash for the trip, we don't factor it in to the overall vacation cost....but, no...it's not "free".

The second reference to DVC that you will see mentioned is a DVC renter. When a DVC owner decides that they have extra points or that they aren't going to use their points in a particular year, they are allowed to "rent" them to someone else. This allows others to stay in DVC accommodations at a much cheaper rate than what you could get if you went directly from Disney. Basically, you contact an owner (easily done through a broker or the Rent/Trade board here on the DIS) and tell them your travel information. They book the reservation in your name, using their points, and you pay them up front for the reservation. The biggest downside is that the reservation is usually 100% non-refundable and you will have no control over it until check-in. Since timeshares are designed to run at near-100% occupancy year-round, availability can be limited and reservations are generally made 9-11 months in advance. You have to be sure of your travel dates and have your money ready. It's not for everybody, but it is a great way to have very nice accommodations at a reasonable price.

Right now, there is only one DVC property at Disneyland and it is VERY hard to get into due to it's very small size. It is possible to rent points there, but you would probably need to book your reservation 11-months out in order to do so, or get very lucky. I wouldn't say it's impossible...you could always try.

Thank you so much for the explanation! What the price range of dvc owning for 1 week/year? it’s likely out of my budget but would like to be educated about what’s out there. Disneyland vs Disney World. Thank you again for taking the time out to write this excellent explanation.