Ever wish you could change your home resort?

[candielips]

We are new owners, less than a year, and own at SSR. After being owners for the past 9 months I find myself wishing everyday that we would have bought AKV.
We bought at SSR because of the THV and now that they have gone up the 2 bdrms at AKV are more in our price range.
Anyone ever heard of someone changing their home resort?

 

[disneynutz]

One of our home resorts is BLT and honestly, we can live without it. IMO the dues there will continue to increase beyond the norm.

Bill

 

[Deb & Bill]

We are new owners, less than a year, and own at SSR. After being owners for the past 9 months I find myself wishing everyday that we would have bought AKV.
We bought at SSR because of the THV and now that they have gone up the 2 bdrms at AKV are more in our price range.
Anyone ever heard of someone changing their home resort?

Hear about it all the time. Owner sells home resort and buys another. But you usually wind up paying more.

 

[k3chantal]

I have never wanted to change my home resort(AKL) but I have wanted to purchase more points so that we would have two 'home' resorts. I like having the eleven month window. We have yet to do that.....maybe some day....

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Unfortunately the only way to change is to sell what you own and rebuy at your preferred resort.

However if you don't want to go through that expense and since AKV is a large resort you should have very good luck in booking at 7 months with the exception of concierge and value categories. I personally like the Standard category for room size and lower point cost. I'd recommend doing this until you consistently have problems booking AKV and if that happens and you feel a strong enough need then consider selling SSR and buying AKV.

 

[bwvBound]

Surprisingly, we are 'OK' with our 2004 decision to purchase SSR. At the time, we made the purchase with great reluctance given our love for BWV ... but it has worked out just fine for our travel habits. We've been very fortunate with our reservations booked across the DVC Resort family at the 7-month window.

THV was an added surprise long after our purchase. We've booked THV twice since they opened and can't really say how much the new point values will change our future visits.

One thing I've come to accept: I can't and won't own at each DVC resort I enjoy. I must rely on 7-month reservations. Given that, SSR works very well.

 

[twinklebug]

You're a new owner - I wouldn't rush right out to sell SSR & buy AKV. There is a lot of value in owning at SSR for the 11 mo window booking those tree houses and grand villas. My bet is that not every year of the next 40 years will be a Disney trip. Things come up, life changes. You'll start to enjoy banking & borrowing and will have plenty of points to book the relaxing tree houses. You may even buy more points within a decades time.

BTW - I've found the 7 month window and waitlists work very well if you're on top of checking on day 1 and getting yourself right onto that list. Only true exceptions are high occupancy periods and rooms that are even hard for owners to get at 10 months out. Top Example: Treehouses (other examples include AKV concierge and value rooms and anything VWL during the holidays).

 

[ACDSNY]

I wouldn't recommend it, but we did sell our SSR to buy VGC in a different UY. Luckily we did this before the pricing tanked. We're on the West Coast so VGC is a better home resort of us.

 

[Kidanifan08]

We have been AKV owners since 2008. We love our home resort and would not want to change, in fact, we have an add-on in ROFR currently (third small add-on in the past 2 years ). When we bought, we purchased enough points to stay in a 1BR savanna view for 7 days during Magic season. Within the first two years of ownership, there was a point re-allocation, and suddenly we were 4 points short for that room type. Plus, we found out that we really like to stay 8-9 days and often bring others, so we did not have enough points in the first place. Thus, the add-ons!

We have been able to stay at SSR, OKW, BWV and BLT in the past 4 years. All of those were made within the 7 months booking window. Our BWV stay was a 1BR boardwalk view which was booked a few days into the 7 month window for 3/9 - 3/14/12. We have not yet tried to get into VWL or BCV and we don't currently intend on going to VB or HHI, but that may change.

Since you like AKV, you should have no trouble getting into a 2BR that resort at 7 months most times of the year, other than perhaps Premiere season. At 7 months, you probably will never get the value or concierge level rooms. At this point in time, there are 2 BR standard views available less than 7 months from now.

As others have said, your DVC needs will change over the years and you may find different resorts that appeal to you for different reasons. If your good at planning far in advance, you have a very good chance of getting into another resort at 7 months, even if you have to use wait listing (which is how we got a BLT-LV studio in October last year).

Hang in there . . . your gonna love it!

 

[paults]

would never change. We bought BWV in 2002 and added twice at BWV. with 2 parks close by we couldn't pass on it. We love it there and so does our whole extended family.

 

[chalee94]

if i could switch home resorts for free, it might be tempting. but while i might try other resorts at the 7 month window if i can, i'm always happy to be at OKW.

I have never wanted to change my home resort(AKL) but I have wanted to purchase more points so that we would have two 'home' resorts. I like having the eleven month window.

to avoid confusion for newbies who might misunderstand this, i'll clarify that if you buy a second home resort, the pts from your 2 contracts cannot be combined until 7 months out.

say the OP buys a 25 pt AKV contract in addition to their SSR contract...their SSR pts would still be no good for booking AKV until the 7 month window. they would only have pts from the 25 pt contract for booking AKV at 11 months out.

 

[katieam1]

I am happy with my home resorts, however I do wish we had more points at each. LOL. Which I am looking into resale to correct that problem. We own at BLT and AKV. I would like to do small addons, but I have not found the right 50-75 point contract yet in my use year. It will take me a bit to find the right one but I am not going through Disney with the prices the way they are so we sit. I honestly could see myself being unhappy though if we did not buy these two so I could see why you have the feelings you do OP.

 

[Sandisw]

Yes. I started out small with a contract at VWL, thinking it would be my 2nd choice resort while BLT was just starting to sell.

It wasn't two months after buying, that I realized I wanted my points at BLT only so sold VWL. Since it was only a 50 point contract, the loss I took was managable, but it was the best decision I made.

I know own BWV as well and realize that owning the places I know I want to stay is important so I can book things the way I want from the start and if I have to stay somewhere else, I can, but am perfectly content if home resorts--BLT and BWV--are the only place I can be.

But, unless you want the value or conceirge rooms at AKV, I think you have a good shot at 7 months of trading in so I wouldn't worry about it until you get to a point that you have trouble.

 

[CMOORE185]

7 month is pretty easy to get at AKL and your dues are lower at SSR. Enjoy the savings unless you have problems booking AKL at the 7 month mark.

 

[permavac]

Yes. I started out small with a contract...

This is where we are. We were lucky to only have had enough money at the time to buy a 25-point resale contract at HHI. Fast forward a few years and now that we have the cash to buy again, we are (hopefully) buying a small BWV and OKW contract (in ROFR right now). We will sell the HHI once we close on the other 2. Funny though - we may find ourselves doing this again. We've never stayed at OKW and while I think we might enjoy it we LOVE BWV and would rather have all our points there. But, we needed to pull the trigger quickly because we wanted to close in time to book a trip for early next year with our in-laws and the OKW contract was loaded. So we'll see. I know in the long run it will cost us to add-on at BWV and then sell the OKW but I would do it if we kept finding ourselves not able to get into BWV at 7 months... That's really the only problem I see.

Terri

 

[candielips]

This is where we are. We were lucky to only have had enough money at the time to buy a 25-point resale contract at HHI. Fast forward a few years and now that we have the cash to buy again, we are (hopefully) buying a small BWV and OKW contract (in ROFR right now). We will sell the HHI once we close on the other 2. Funny though - we may find ourselves doing this again. We've never stayed at OKW and while I think we might enjoy it we LOVE BWV and would rather have all our points there. But, we needed to pull the trigger quickly because we wanted to close in time to book a trip for early next year with our in-laws and the OKW contract was loaded. So we'll see. I know in the long run it will cost us to add-on at BWV and then sell the OKW but I would do it if we kept finding ourselves not able to get into BWV at 7 months... That's really the only problem I see.

Terri

I would never sell SSR to rebuy AKL. To me, that is just too much of a loss. If I had that extra money, I would simply buy more points at AKL and keep my SSR.
I was curious if there was a way to change it through member services and pay a price per point.
But thanks for all of the great replies.
We took our 1st DVC vacation in Jan of this year and had the pleasure of staying at BLT and loved it!
We are hoping to stay at AKL next new years eve for 12 nights

 

[Dean]

We are new owners, less than a year, and own at SSR. After being owners for the past 9 months I find myself wishing everyday that we would have bought AKV.
We bought at SSR because of the THV and now that they have gone up the 2 bdrms at AKV are more in our price range.
Anyone ever heard of someone changing their home resort?

The cost to sell and rebuy is a min of one closing cost plus 10% commission. In this case, you'd also need to add the difference in price between the 2. That's maybe $3500 on 200 pts, it's usually better just to add a smaller contract using those dollars as a portion.

 

[candielips]

The cost to sell and rebuy is a min of one closing cost plus 10% commission. In this case, you'd also need to add the difference in price between the 2. That's maybe $3500 on 200 pts, it's usually better just to add a smaller contract using those dollars as a portion.

That was exactly my thought.

 

[Kathi OD]

Yep, all the time. We own at BWV and would much rather be at OKW. We bought when that was all there was and there was nothing available at OKW (at least through Disney. at that time we had no knowledge about a resale market. I wonder now if there was much of one back then). Too expensive to change it now, and fortunately we haven't ever had a problem getting what we want at OKW, so not a big deal.

At any rate, we just OKW. Wish we had been in a financial situation to purchase when it first opened, but alas...sometimes that personal responsibility gene..

 

[ELMC]

Yep, all the time. We own at BWV and would much rather be at OKW. We bought when that was all there was and there was nothing available at OKW (at least through Disney. at that time we had no knowledge about a resale market. I wonder now if there was much of one back then). Too expensive to change it now, and fortunately we haven't ever had a problem getting what we want at OKW, so not a big deal.

At any rate, we just OKW. Wish we had been in a financial situation to purchase when it first opened, but alas...sometimes that personal responsibility gene..

One thing to keep in mind is that you can almost always get a contract at any of the DVC resorts. They really push the "current" DVC resorts (right now it's AKV and AUL with a little BLT left), but if you ask enough they will give up that fight to get you what you want. You might have to be put on a waiting list, but DVD can always ROFR a resale contract and sell it to you.

In your case though, assuming you don't have a balance, you could probably sell your BWV and buy a replacement contract at OKW. Even after the commissions, you would probably end up with more money or more points. Keep in mind that you would lose the privileges of owning direct. Seems like a lot of hassle to go through, but it's something to look into anyway.