Hi Laura,
Thank you for the Moms Panel love! We truly love answering questions for our guests and you keep us motivated to go deeper and deeper into the jungle. Oops that is Jungle Cruise!
With the Disney Vacation Club (DVC), you purchase points to use at any of the Disney Vacation Club Resorts. With a small fee, you can then use these points to take a Disney Cruise, an Adventure by Disney or stay at a Disney Collection hotel or other hotels and resorts around the world.
Each day and room is assigned a point value. Based on when and where you vacation, you can take as many vacations as you like. For example, a studio during September will be less points than a studio during Christmas week. You can look on line at the points calendar to determine how many points you will need for a vacation. In addition, you can bank and borrow points from another year to use for a bigger trip. I have done this to save for a two bedroom with my extended family or take the Disney Cruise.
The Disney Collection is a group of hotels which are not Disney Vacation Club resorts but are available to book using your points. The Polynesian is one of these resorts. However, it will cost you more points to stay at the Polynesian than at Bay Lake Towers because this is not a DVC property. In addition, a studio would provided you with a microwave and refrigerator at Bay Lake.
You can look at the
Disney Vacation Club website to see all the resorts and points.
Wishing you a magical day!
Beth