For those owners at more than 1 resort

[Jkpark]

How did you make your decision to own at two resorts? Do you own same # of points at both? Same or different UY?

We currently own 160 SSR pts (Dec UY). We are only one year in and so far we have booked a 2BR Theme park BLT in Sept (only one night and as soon as 7 month window opened), a week in an ocean view studio at Aulani (again, I was online right at the 7 month window), and two one night studio stays at VGC have come through via waitlist. I live in AZ so my trips to Hawaii or Florida are mapped out in my head more than a year out. My trips to Disneyland are much more last minute. We stayed at SSR through an RCI exchange before buying and loved it there - so we bought there knowing we would be happy to stay there.

I have addonitis and am wondering what makes the most sense for me and how I travel. As much as VGC is close - I wouldn't get any benefit there as I would usually be booking within the 7 month window. I don't think I would visit Aulani enough to justify buying there. For me, that leaves the WDW resorts.

Let's say I try BCV - I would only be able to use my BCV pts at 11 months out. So would a 50 pt contract at a different resort do anything for me? At the same time, if I wanted to treat the whole family to SSR, I couldn't use the new BCV pts until 7 months out. How do people juggle this? It would give me more points to use at any resort at 7 months out, but am I forced to buy a sizeable contract (and not just an add on) at another resort to make it worthwhile? I haven't stayed at a ton of resorts yet - so I don't know what my favorite will be. Assuming it will be an EPCOT resort, I don't want to wait 5 years to decide and further shorten the years on the contract.

And then the UY question - is it easier to keep the same UY so you can bank at the same time, or to stagger them so you have more flexibility with cancelling. Does that just further complicate things. I don't travel the same month each year to the same place. Would it make me more confused guessing which contract to use based on priority booking versus what if I cancel?

These are all the questions running through my mind. Anyone who can shares their experiences? Appreciate you reading through my rambling and any help you can offer

 

[Deb & Bill]

How did you make your decision to own at two resorts? Do you own same # of points at both? Same or different UY?

We currently own 160 SSR pts (Dec UY). We are only one year in and so far we have booked a 2BR Theme park BLT in Sept (only one night and as soon as 7 month window opened), a week in an ocean view studio at Aulani (again, I was online right at the 7 month window), and two one night studio stays at VGC have come through via waitlist. I live in AZ so my trips to Hawaii or Florida are mapped out in my head more than a year out. My trips to Disneyland are much more last minute. We stayed at SSR through an RCI exchange before buying and loved it there - so we bought there knowing we would be happy to stay there.

I have addonitis and am wondering what makes the most sense for me and how I travel. As much as VGC is close - I wouldn't get any benefit there as I would usually be booking within the 7 month window. I don't think I would visit Aulani enough to justify buying there. For me, that leaves the WDW resorts.

Let's say I try BCV - I would only be able to use my BCV pts at 11 months out. So would a 50 pt contract at a different resort do anything for me? At the same time, if I wanted to treat the whole family to SSR, I couldn't use the new BCV pts until 7 months out. How do people juggle this? It would give me more points to use at any resort at 7 months out, but am I forced to buy a sizeable contract (and not just an add on) at another resort to make it worthwhile? I haven't stayed at a ton of resorts yet - so I don't know what my favorite will be. Assuming it will be an EPCOT resort, I don't want to wait 5 years to decide and further shorten the years on the contract.

And then the UY question - is it easier to keep the same UY so you can bank at the same time, or to stagger them so you have more flexibility with cancelling. Does that just further complicate things. I don't travel the same month each year to the same place. Would it make me more confused guessing which contract to use based on priority booking versus what if I cancel?

These are all the questions running through my mind. Anyone who can shares their experiences? Appreciate you reading through my rambling and any help you can offer

You can use banking and borrowing to get a larger number of points with smaller number contracts. For example, we have a 100 point VWL contract that was bought pre-opening. We banked and borrowed points for our eight night two bedroom in January for the marathon. But these are the same UY as the majority of our points, so they are all equal at seven months out if we want a longer stay at OKW (which usually has availability at seven months out).

We do have one resale purchase contract, different UY, small number of points, but they are OKW points. So we either transfer them into our Sept OKW contract or make a separate reservation and have them linked. We bought this contract many, many years ago when our guide told us that we would not be able to get any more OKW points (like pre-2000) before they tore down the Commodore House and built three more buildings.

We are long done with adding on points. We have 325, mostly OKW with 100 VWL. We sold off two contracts about seven years ago and sold both for more than we paid for them. You won't see those days again.

 

[Sur]

Great questions OP....I'm interested in the replies too.

 

[DizBub]

We have 310 points at BLT and 160 at BCV. Both have the same UY, are titled the same and work seamlessly at 7 months. We have used both BLT and BCV points to stay at all WDW DVC resorts except VWL.

50 points at another resort besides SSR really won't get you much if you want to treat family in a 2br. If you buy 50 points at BCV you can bank them and the next year you can have access to 3 full years of points, using banked, current year's points and borrowing next year's points. 150 to book a vacation at 11 months at BCV.

If you buy another 50 points at SSR that would certainly give you more flexibility at the 7 month mark to take your chances at other resorts. Depending on the time of year you want to go and a little luck you should be able to get almost anything.

I know some people have multiple UYs and make it work for them. Personally I think it's just easier to keep track if they all have the same UY. Why make things harder than they need to be?

 

[disneynutz]

We own at 5 resorts for the home booking advantage.

VWL and BLT for MK stays.
BCV and BWV for Epcot/DHS stays.
AKV for AK stays.

I would keep one UY to make life the simplest that you can.

Choose the best UY possible to give you free banking trip cancellation insurance.

Bill

 

[ali in wonderland]

We have two contracts, 175 at SSR, and later purchased a resale for 50 at VWL. Both of our contracts have the same UY. We did this to make it easier for banking, borrowing, and 7 month rules. Our add on contract was simply picked based on the number points, use year, and price. We have been members since 2006, and only once stayed at SSR. We go every year and have never had a problem with the seven month date. When we plan to go at high seasons, I book SSR, AND VWL at 11 mos to guarantee that I have a place to stay, then transfer my stay at the 7 month point to the other resorts. We like to stay at BLT, because a one bedroom sleeps 5, plus a child in a crib, which fit our family of six perfectly. We also like OKW for the same reason, and the rooms are a little larger there.

 

[Jkpark]

These replies are very helpful - thanks! Sounds like I will try to stick to my Dec UY and if I think I need 11 month at another resort, get at least 75 pts there. If I want to treat the bigger family, we will have SSR at a minimum with then a large number of points.

 

[eandesmom]

How did you make your decision to own at two resorts? Do you own same # of points at both? Same or different UY?

We currently own 160 SSR pts (Dec UY). We are only one year in and so far we have booked a 2BR Theme park BLT in Sept (only one night and as soon as 7 month window opened), a week in an ocean view studio at Aulani (again, I was online right at the 7 month window), and two one night studio stays at VGC have come through via waitlist. I live in AZ so my trips to Hawaii or Florida are mapped out in my head more than a year out. My trips to Disneyland are much more last minute. We stayed at SSR through an RCI exchange before buying and loved it there - so we bought there knowing we would be happy to stay there.

I have addonitis and am wondering what makes the most sense for me and how I travel. As much as VGC is close - I wouldn't get any benefit there as I would usually be booking within the 7 month window. I don't think I would visit Aulani enough to justify buying there. For me, that leaves the WDW resorts.

We are in the same boat, living on the West Coast. While I do think we will visit Aulani fairly regularly, we have the luxury of readily available, relatively cheap flights and year round flexibility, esp if we are not taking children with us And that lets us go slightly off season and should theoretically make 7m booking largely a non issue. I booked our upcoming trip past the 7m mark, but under 6, without issue.

We started with 105 at SSR. While I knew we needed more points than that, I didn't want to be tied to SSR if I needed the 11m advantage but I did want the 11m advantage for THV.

We added 105 at BWV. We chose BWV as it is where we prefer to stay and where, at peak time, we wanted the advantage. I have considered a smaller contract elsewhere but came down to the fact that adding on to where we were already at, made the most sense. I'd like to have the 11m advantage at Vero. I don't see us regularly going there for at least a decade though so why pay those dues now? in a decade, I'll look at it again. Adding at SSR makes more sense from a dues perspective, but if BWV is where I want to stay and contract length not a concern, it makes more sense to add on there. And, that's what we are looking to do for cotnract #3.

All that said, I've used the combined points easily at the 7m mark and both individually at the 11m advantage as well, for NYE.

And then the UY question - is it easier to keep the same UY so you can bank at the same time, or to stagger them so you have more flexibility with cancelling. Does that just further complicate things. I don't travel the same month each year to the same place. Would it make me more confused guessing which contract to use based on priority booking versus what if I cancel?

Same UY is dramatically easier and avoids transfer restrictions if they are titled the same. At 7m, it's just a pool of points. Easy, peasy.

50 points at another resort besides SSR really won't get you much if you want to treat family in a 2br. If you buy 50 points at BCV you can bank them and the next year you can have access to 3 full years of points, using banked, current year's points and borrowing next year's points. 150 to book a vacation at 11 months at BCV.

I agree, if you choose a 2nd resort I would think it should be somewhere you really want that 11m advantage at, and not just for more total points. If you get enough that every 3 years you could book what you'd really want, at 11m, then it can make sense. Even 150 doesn't get you much on the studio side so it makes it hard to look at just 50 somewhere, unless you want a split stay, 60-75 ups your options quite a a bit.

 

[TinkTatoo]

We own at 2, and hopefully soon to be 3, resorts we have

260 points at OWK made up of a few smaller resale contracts and we've used these points to stay at OKW and all of the other Florida resorts. We initially picked this resort as it was the lowest buy in at, we didn't really know much about any of them having never even stayed on site before we bought Luckily we loved DVC and the add on bug soon bit.

We also own 230 points at BLT which we bought as soon as the resort went on sale (a smaller contract and then an add on) this is our favourite resort and we use the points only to stay at BLT

We're going through ROFR on a 160 point AKL contract. Up until now I haven't been that fussed about the resort but we stayed there for a week this past Christmas and it just felt magical. We plan a return trip for Christmas 2014 and as we'd have to rent points for the stay it made more sense to buy some (well at least that's the justification I gave DH ) Initially I plan to only use the AKL points for stays there.

All our contracts have a June UY as we take our main vacations in July / August so that works well for us. Having all the contracts the same makes it easy to handle especially if we did need to make a booking with points from all 3. I was initially looking at a different UY add on at AKL but after reading some posts on here I decided to hold out until a June one came along

 

[DMKEDM]

We have 515 points--one master contract (150 points at SSR) with 5 add-on's (3 at BCV and 2 at SSR)--all the contracts are relatively small (the 150-point master is the biggest)--that was really because of affordability--I bought what I could pay for (and needed for a particular trip) at the time I purchased...

I bought the BCV points for two primary reasons: to get home resort advantage (11-month out booking) for BCV at T-giving. Our T-giving trips were the only trips I knew I would be booking 11 months out. Every other trip gets booked much closer to arrival, rarely prior to the 7-month window opening--

The second reason for BCV was purely emotional. I love it, but DS REALLY loves it. I bought my first 50-point contract as a "gift" to him (it's my contract, but it let me take him to BCV for our T-giving trips, something he was thrilled about)...

We also love SSR and are always happy to stay there...

For us: bottom line is 11-month advantage. If you can't use it, it makes no sense at all to buy to get it. And the 11-month advantage is more valuable at certain resorts/times (holidays, the smaller resorts, the in-demand/small-supply choices like concierge at AKV or treehouse villas at SSR)...But if you're doing most of your booking at 7 months or sooner prior to your vacation, the home resort advantage really doesn't matter much.

I actively chose to keep the same UY/contract titling (add-on's as opposed to new master contracts)...there are lots of "convenience" reasons for this, but the most compelling to me is the fact that at 7 months out master and add-on points are completely combine-able--so, if I have 15 points at SSR and 10 points at BCV and I need 25 points for a night's reservation, no problem...with different master contracts, you can't combine to get to a single night's point requirement (you can transfer points among contracts, but there are restrictions on the number of times you can transfer (varying reports about how flexible Disney is with respect to same-owner transfers)...that made it worth sticking to add-on's for us.

Good luck with your choices!

 

[bakerworld]

Started out at AKL - we bought direct at the minimum buy in to get the biggest incentive = 160. DH wanted BLT - 100 because of the higher pt values needed to stay and also to get the 3D cruise . Now we're wait-listed for 55 pts at BWV and BCV. We staying at BCV for 6 nights over memorial day weekend for 106 pts and that is what we based the 55pt WL total so we can stay every other year for a week in a studio. When, if, the BWV WL comes available we'll probably drop that down to 45 pts because of the standard room availability.

All our purchases have been direct because we finance and pay it off over 5 years, altho the 45/55 pointers we'll probably pay over 3 years. We bought in '08 and '09 before discovering the resale market. If we'd know how trustworthy the resale market was we might have purchased our largest contract via that route. Now we want the Home resort advantage at BWV and BCV but we have a goal amount for our annual dues that we feel we can handle in our retirement. It's too hard to find small contracts in a specific UY that aren't snapped right up plus DH doesn't want to pay cash up front.

I just want my DVC so whatever makes him comfortable with the purchase - have to say after all the research I did on resale it was a bit irritating to just have the possibility cut off.

 

[DeeCee735]

How did you make your decision to own at two resorts? Do you own same # of points at both? Same or different UY?

We originally purchased at BWV because we LOVE the location (and it was the only resort for sale in 2000 ) and own most of our points there.
We made the decision to add on over the years at AKV because of it's remote quiet location and it's proximity to the AKP which is our favorite park to be in.Same UY because its so much easier to keep track of 11 and 7 month windows, especially if we want to split a stay...half at BW and half at AKV....we can book at the 11 month mark for both

We currently own 160 SSR pts (Dec UY). We are only one year in and so far we have booked a 2BR Theme park BLT in Sept (only one night and as soon as 7 month window opened), a week in an ocean view studio at Aulani (again, I was online right at the 7 month window), and two one night studio stays at VGC have come through via waitlist. I live in AZ so my trips to Hawaii or Florida are mapped out in my head more than a year out. My trips to Disneyland are much more last minute. We stayed at SSR through an RCI exchange before buying and loved it there - so we bought there knowing we would be happy to stay there.

I have addonitis and am wondering what makes the most sense for me and how I travel. As much as VGC is close - I wouldn't get any benefit there as I would usually be booking within the 7 month window. I don't think I would visit Aulani enough to justify buying there. For me, that leaves the WDW resorts.

Let's say I try BCV - I would only be able to use my BCV pts at 11 months out. So would a 50 pt contract at a different resort do anything for me? At the same time, if I wanted to treat the whole family to SSR, I couldn't use the new BCV pts until 7 months out. How do people juggle this? It would give me more points to use at any resort at 7 months out, but am I forced to buy a sizeable contract (and not just an add on) at another resort to make it worthwhile? I haven't stayed at a ton of resorts yet - so I don't know what my favorite will be. Assuming it will be an EPCOT resort, I don't want to wait 5 years to decide and further shorten the years on the contract.

Yes, if you buy BCV you can only use the 11 month window to book at BCV at that 11 month mark, and you would have to use the 7 month window to book at the other resorts, you can borrow from the following use year and bank from the prior use year to accumulate 150 points (on a 50 point contract)

If we wanted to treat the whole family with two different resorts (again buy the same use year - see above - as it's easier to book at 11 months out in two separate resorts), I would book as much as I can at BW, being the larger contract, and the rest at AKV. Then at the 7 month mark, I would look to switch the room at AKV to BWV, and hope for availability. If it works, perfect...if not, we can deal with being in two different places, as long as we are there

And then the UY question - is it easier to keep the same UY so you can bank at the same time, or to stagger them so you have more flexibility with cancelling. Does that just further complicate things. I don't travel the same month each year to the same place. Would it make me more confused guessing which contract to use based on priority booking versus what if I cancel?

I suggest same use year, for the reasons stated above

These are all the questions running through my mind. Anyone who can shares their experiences? Appreciate you reading through my rambling and any help you can offer

Buy the add on at another resort that you love to be at (even if it's adding on to your current SSR contract if that's your favorite place). This way, if you are in the mood for one this year, you can book at the 11 month window, and if you want to experience the other favorite location the next time around, you also have the 11 month advantage. For us, sometimes we really really want to be at AKV and after a vacation or two there, we are craving for BWV. It works out beautiful for us. Since you are a year out planner, you will do well with more than one home resort. It confuses a friend of mine, and she's lost points more than once

Best of luck and enjoy your vacations

 

[Vodo]

We bought our 3 contracts within a 3 month period having decided on an overall point requirement of ~500 points/yr and based on this reasoning...

1st contract 225 points at SSR - overall cost (initial purchase and MF), loaded contract and happy to stay there if nothing else is available at 7 months

2nd contract 200 points at BWV - Epcot location, 11 month access to standard view rooms to stretch points and a loaded contract

3rd contract 100 points at AKV - We really enjoy staying at AK, 11 month access to value rooms to stretch points if necessary, loaded contract​

We also made sure to keep all on the same use year and membership # to make things simple for us to track and to combine points at 7 months, like we did for a large family trip to Aulani last September. We were also lucky enough to time our purchases to when resale contracts were selling for record lows and placed somewhat low ball offers on suitable contracts until one was accepted.

By working banking and borrowing we can put together up to 600 BWV or 300 AKV points towards a specific trip if necessary (i.e. BWV Grand Villa), or simply book BWV, AKV and SSR at 11 months then look at switching at 7.

 

[RSWA2]

How did you make your decision to own at two resorts? Do you own same # of points at both? Same or different UY?

And then the UY question - is it easier to keep the same UY so you can bank at the same time, or to stagger them so you have more flexibility with cancelling. Does that just further complicate things. I don't travel the same month each year to the same place. Would it make me more confused guessing which contract to use based on priority booking versus what if I cancel?

I'm on the West Coast as well.

I have 2 sub 100 pt contracts at AKV and BCV, with the same UY.

The decision was based on that at AKV, there is the most value *if* I get the value accommodations at 11 months out and is valid until 2057 and a smaller contract at BCV is used for F&W and Epcot stays at 11 months out. I like BCV more than BWV so that's purely a choice since BWV resales are cheaper.

The same UY was chosen (lucky actually), to help simplify things and if we were to do a split stay and it would help with banking and borrowing. With small contracts to stay more than 2 weeks without banking or borrowing we would need to do a split stay. If I need more pts for larger or longer stays without moving, I can bank and borrow, which would give me more than enough.

Oh and I guess if I were to ever sell, it looks like small contracts are easier than big ones to sell.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

Keep in mind that DVC is a long term commitment, and your vacation needs will probably change over time. What may seem like the perfect number of points today, may or may not still work for you a few years from now. What surprised me was how quickly our needs and desires changed, and how our DVC use has transformed in the 7 short years we've owned.

We now own at three different resorts.

Our initial purchase was 250 points at SSR. We based the number of points for our initial purchase on one week a year in a one bedroom. (It's just the two of us -- no kids in the house.) We bought this contract site unseen over the phone shortly after returning from a wonderful vacation in a cash room at Wilderness Lodge.

I booked us in a studio for our first DVC trip, and after discovering that we were perfectly happy with those accommodations, we decided that our points were better used for two studio weeks rather than one one-bedroom week. We did this for several vacations, splitting stays to try as many DVC resorts as we could in the first few years of ownership. We quickly developed some favorite resorts, and found a few that we didn't necessarily need to visit again.

After a few years of ownership, we invited our first guests to join us for a trip. We got a week in a tree house and invited the extended family. It was so much fun we decided we wanted to to invite friends and family more frequently. We didn't want to give up our ability to travel for two weeks a year, and didn't want to give up our alone time, either. This was our first addonitis experience. But where to add? By this time, we'd tried most of the resorts that existed. We really loved BCV, and decided to add on there instead of increasing our SSR holdings. We found a resale contract for 125 points in the same use year as our SSR contract, and went with it. Our thought was that we'd use the SSR points for years 1 and 3, and the BCV points for year 2. With banking and borrowing, that would give us 375 points a year.

It wasn't long before we were craving more points, again. Our first grandchild was born not too long after BLT opened, and our immediate thought was Grandkids = Magic Kingdom = Contemporary. So we bought another 200 points direct at BLT. We figured having 11-month booking priority wouldn't be a bad thing for when we wanted a theme park view. We'd also developed the habbit of one week in a two-bedroom and a second week in a studio each year. We'd also slipped in a few long weekend trips to take full advantage of annual passes, and to be able to experience other holidays and times of year at WDW. With 375 points, we were in a constant borrowing mode. The influx of another 200 points really helped.

The plans to bank and borrow to have exactly the same number of points available each year never worked out. Our borrow, borrow, borrow, buy mode saw to that. However, the fact that we enjoy doing split stays meant that having points from multiple resorts was never an issue. I always book at 11 months with whatever points we have available. At 7 months, if we want to try for a non-home resort we give it a shot. If the waitlist doesn't come through, we're happy to stay at the home resort.

Starting next year, we'll have a lot more points to work with without having to buy a thing. My school teacher is retiring, and we'll no longer be tied to those expensive Dream and Premier season bookings. My vacation time is very flexible, so I anticipate that we'll be doing a lot more travel in the Adventure and Choice seasons. Maybe we'll even have enough points to get the occassional one-bedroom when it's just the two of us.

 

[sandieb]

What interesting replies. We have 3 contracts at BCV for 450 points - we love it there for ambiance, the pools, and location. We also have 200 points at Hilton Head - we have had many wonderful summer vacations there and bought the points for peace of mind in booking the popular summertime. We have absolutely magical vacations at WDW. We have borrowed points the past couple years so only had a handful of points for this year (a short stay at Vero Beach). So this year we are taking our RV to Fort Wilderness for 12 nights. Sigh - a couple months ago I couldn't stand it and waitlisted for 8 nights at the BCV, borrowing isn't that bad, is it? Not holding my breathe though as it is the first week in July. Sigh again.

 

[mac_tlc]

We have one master contract and 4 small add-on contracts. The master is at OKW, bought in 1992. Two small add-ons at OKW purchased in 1995 & 1996. We then bought a 100pt add-on ( two 50-pt contracts) at BLT in 2009, just to be able to get a few nights in a theme park view 1 bdr in December for our annual pilgrimage. Total of 385 pts, which has always been sufficient for us and we typically have a few points to bank each year.

We recently purchased a house in Orlando, so I think our add-on days are done -- but we have no intention to sell. Will probably use points to go to VGC.

mac_tlc

 

[rtod5]

We bought based on "buy where you want to stay " and what parts of the family will be with us.
For trips with grand kids we have 660 pts.at BLT because MK is the center of attention.
For other trips we have 300 pts. at my favorite-BCV.

 

[hsattler]

We have two contracts. 100 pts at VWL bought direct and a 60 pt resale contract at BCV. They are different use years because it was hard to find what we wanted on the resale market with the same UY as the direct contract. It hasn't been a big deal though. We just treat the contracts separately and bank/borrow to book each trip using only one contract. Then the next vacation we use the other contract. Has worked just fine so far!