How did you reason out/choose a home resort?

[Heather1979]

I'm going to preface this post by saying we are a planning family. We sit down and hash, rehash, and triple rehash where we are staying for each trip well before we book.

Right now with little kids who aren't in school we love going in the beginning of May and we loved staying at Bay Lake Tower. But I know that in a few short years we won't be able to go then, I'm not sure how I will feel about pulling my kids out of class vs. going in the summer vs other unknowns even as they get older.

Plus, as they get older they will enjoy the other parks even more than they do now and I see a split stay between BLT and one of the Epcot resorts as the ideal set up. How in the world do you try and project future needs into this decision? How did you decide where "home" was going to be?

(I'm pretty much looking at resale properties in the next few years, not purchasing direct from Disney). Thanks!

 

[jillmc40]

I never thought of DVC until VGF came out. That is my favorite resort and that is where I want to stay. Sometimes we will stay somewhere else, but VGF threw me into the DVC pool. I knew I would want to stay there in December, and I knew that would be next to impossible if I were not an owner there. In the future I might like to add on but not sure if location will matter, since we do like to explore all the resorts and we like places that are easy to get. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Take advantage of going when they are not yet in school!!! My kids are in pre-k and 1st grade and I don't take them out for vacation. For me, it doesn't make sense. I would have to find somewhere for them to go for school vacation (DH and I work full time), which would probably mean me stay home for the week, then take another week for vacation. We suck it up and go with the crowds, but it doesn't really bother me. We are in Disney after all. But ohhhhh do I miss the days of walking around at low season and riding the rides like crazy

My advice: Pick where you would like to stay.

 

[DannysMom]

Well, DH & I love Epcot. We have stayed at BC in 2011, so we knew we liked the location. We stayed at SSR in 2012, sort of trying DVC on for size, after that trip we started to seriously think about resale DVC & what we truly wanted.

I would have been OK with buying SSR points & seeing where else we could book at 7 months out. DH wanted to know that he could book a vacation at BCV. So we bought BCV points last summer.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards App, please excuse any typos or autocorrects!

 

[Missyrose]

I'm going to preface this post by saying we are a planning family. We sit down and hash, rehash, and triple rehash where we are staying for each trip well before we book.

Right now with little kids who aren't in school we love going in the beginning of May and we loved staying at Bay Lake Tower. But I know that in a few short years we won't be able to go then, I'm not sure how I will feel about pulling my kids out of class vs. going in the summer vs other unknowns even as they get older.

Plus, as they get older they will enjoy the other parks even more than they do now and I see a split stay between BLT and one of the Epcot resorts as the ideal set up. How in the world do you try and project future needs into this decision? How did you decide where "home" was going to be?

(I'm pretty much looking at resale properties in the next few years, not purchasing direct from Disney). Thanks!

I will preface this by saying a couple of things:
1) I bought BWV 18 months ago when BWV was $50 per point and BCV was in the $70s.

2) We're childless, for now at least

But here we go...

We love the Epcot resort area, it simply feels like home to myself and my fiance. We love the Food and Wine Festival. And we love walking to Epcot and DHS. Now when it came to choosing between BCV and BWV there were a couple of things in BWV's favor. I liked the feel of the resort a bit better, it felt a a little more sophisticated, a little more adult. Plus, it was cheaper at the time.

But I'm also a sucker for the castle, so that resulted in an add-on purchase of BLT (it helped that I was a huge Contemporary fan, I'm one of the few who loves the decor and sees the "Disneyness" in it.

And while I loved Grand Floridian's lobby and restaurants, I never loved the room decor. So I was completely shocked when they released the models for Villas at GF and I fell in love. This resulted in another add-on.

We're not huge fans of split stays, so we have specific plans for each contract with banking/borrowing so we stay put in one resort each time we go.

It all depends what your priories are. If you're dead-set on staying at one of the tougher-to-get resorts, then buy there. If you want to save money and don't care where you lay your head, then look at SSR or OKW (or you may really like the condo feel of SSR or OKW anyway!)

 

[cajunprincess]

We are looking at buying right now too... Well I've decided already, DH is still thinking on it. Anyways, for us, we will have little ones for a while so staying close to MK is a plus for us. I love the Contemporary and BLT and their annual dues are a little less than others, so we will probably let BLT be home. While never a huge GF fan, the VGF even tempt me. But I think we will probably do BLT. We started to do SSR bc at the end of the day, we'd be happy there or any other DVC resort, but DH would prefer the 11 month booking advantage.

 

[chalee94]

1) if you love one single resort and MUST stay there or your vacation is ruined, then "buy where you want to stay" and book at 11 months out.

2) if you are more flexible and want to try different resorts, then "buy where you don't mind staying" and book there at 11 months out. this is basically what i did. i love the theming at OKW and i love the 2 queen bed layout in the studios...so i book at OKW and sometimes try other resorts if they are available at 7 months out...i usually but not always get my 7 month pick, but when i have been locked out, i'm still happy to stay at OKW.

but if you are the sort to whine about "i don't wanna stay at SSR or OKW but that's all that's available and it's still 6.5 months out... " then buy at another resort, book early and quitcher whining...

3) if you cannot book earlier than 6-7 months out, then it doesn't matter where you own. buy the cheapest combination of upfront price and annual dues per pt that you can get (also taking into account the expiration date of the resort).

(and probably, learn to love SSR as it is the largest DVC resort and thus the most likely to have short-notice availability.)

you might also need to consider that a timeshare of any sort might not be a great fit for your vacationing style...

for more info, this is a little dated but this is still pretty detailed and accurate:

Choosing Your Home Resort - What to Consider?

 

[NoleFan]

sounds like you all are planners so I highly recommend buy where you want to stay. We love BCV & BWV. We did a split stay this last trip- 2 nights @ AKV & 1 night @ BWV. Although AKV was nice to experience, I was glad when we arrived @ BWV. Just our preference. We would be disappointed if we did not have the option to stay @ BWV or BCV. Would rather have the 11 month booking advantage & we decided to try something different, then do it at 7 mos. We are more likely to stay at our home resorts than try to switch so home resort advantage is huge for us.

Would love to also own @ MK resort area. Poly would be our first choice once it's available.

 

[MiramarQE]

We're still in the evaluation stage:

We stay at WDW frequently (almost always on AP or Fl resident 30% discounts) and have tried many of the CRO resorts.

Our favorite parks are Epcot and HS, MK is a close 3rd.

We want to be near AT LEAST one park - so resorts outside WDW and OKW, SSR, VWL and AKL in WDW are not on our list.

We've stayed at the Poly and loved it - but aren't waiting to see if there will be DVC Poly in the near future (possibly a future case of 'addonitis'?). Visited GF and just don't like the motif - seems too sterile with all that white! And the point inflation (likely would be worse for 'DVC Polynesian') and the crowding on the monorail just makes VGF seem like a poor value. Someday they'll figure out the civil engineering and build the Venetian resort between the CR and TTC and then the monorail will be completely jammed - and eventually every "water view" room will be looking at another room across the water like the Epcot resorts now. (guess once the Seven Seas Lagoon is filled up they'll start building more resorts on Bay Lake!)

Never stayed at a DVC resort - so we're trying a 4-day weekend on rented points (and some airline miles - a "BWV-BWV" split stay!) next month.

We do our big vacation in Oct - and can plan well ahead - so due to the congestion of F&W we're pretty sure it's BCV or BWV but we'll see after our test run next month.

Assuming that comes out well we'll look at the market - find something in BCV/BWV that we believe is a good deal - purchase this fall/winter.

Plan to purchase enough points for the Oct vacation and a couple of longer weekends in SSR/OKW or whatever's available short notice.

 

[sndral]

I'm @ the 'getting ready to pull the trigger, money's been sitting in my checking account waiting to be spent' stage.
The one thing I haven't seen mentioned is how many points you'll need - there's huge variation in points required depending on where you stay, for ex. a 1 br. standard view @ AKV is 188 pts. for 8 nights in January, whereas a 1 br. standard view @ VGF for those same 8 nights is 288 pts. - so the number of points you need to buy may vary depending on where you stay, how often you'll go and what you'll be happy w/. I found using David's rental points calculator to be super helpful in getting a handle on how many points I really would need to vacation as I wanted @ various DVC locations.

 

[rusafee1183]

My DH and I own at AKV and are adding on at VWL and are actually closing this week.

We love the architecture of both of those resorts, the rustic/secluded/serene feel and the over the top theming. Which is why BLT doesn't appeal to us at all. It felt sterile and cold to us, and was just not our scene. But, others love it and that is why DVC is great - there's something for everyone

We love all of the parks equally, and do not have children so being right next door to any park in particular didn't matter to us all that much. We stayed at VWL and fell.in.love with the place and it just felt like home. We really wanted to be able to stay there whenever we wanted, not just "if" it was available.

I do feel a little guilty about spending more money on properties when I could have bought in somewhere like SSR, but we wanted to be on the safe side of "buy where you want to stay" and didn't want to feel like we could ONLY book there.

So, I would suggest looking at the theming/location of the resorts, the upfront cost, maintenance fees and points cost for different stays during the year. Also, figure out like others have said if you are someone who NEEDS to stay somewhere in particular, likes to switch it up... or like me - wants to switch it up and doesn't want to not be able to do so.

Good luck! It really is addicting!! We only bought in a year and a half ago, and I never saw myself doing an add on this quickly

 

[DrewJB]

The choice boiled down to two main factors for me: 1) Buying where you want to stay. 2) Expiration year

I went for BLT because of the location. The premium over buying at AKV or SSR was relatively small when you consider the real cost is the amount in dues you pay over many years. It was worth it for me to pay that relatively small premium to have the 11 month window at BLT. Being able to walk to the Magic Kingdom when we are just starting a family is going to be amazing. I also love the contemporary and love the modern style of BLT.

I would have considered BWV and BCV for their location as well (I love Epcot), but the 2042 expiration ruins those for me. If there was a new resort in that area or even extended contracts available for those resorts I would have strongly considered it. I expect I'll probably be getting out of the DVC thing in about 20-30 years, but I would rather do that by selling a contract for some amount of money than by simply having one expire on me.

 

[DrewJB]

I will preface this by saying a couple of things:
1) I bought BWV 18 months ago when BWV was $50 per point and BCV was in the $70s.

I should add that if BWV was an option at $50 pp - I likely would have strongly considered it. At current prices for BWV and BLT - they simply seem very overpriced when considering a 2042 expiration. By my calculations there is MUCH more value in buying BLT at $90 than in buying BCV at $80 or BWV at $70.

 

[disneynutz]

Being a DVC owner caused several things to happen.

We vacation at WDW so often, we have seen everything and done everything that Disney has to offer. We spend less time in the parks and more time in the resorts. Our vacations are more relaxed and the resorts and rooms are more important to us.

After not getting the resorts we wanted at 7 months, we decided to buy where we wanted to stay. We due split stays only if we are staying for 10 to 14 days, moving is disruptive.

As an owner, what you don't see or do this trip, you will see and do next trip so the planning changes.

Bill

 

[michelleiada]

We bought where we wanted to stay, BCV. I would eventually like to try other resorts also and I'm considering adding on at AKV. My advise is tour the DVC resorts. There are pros and cons to all of them.

 

[lodge]

CHOOSE ONE! Yeah, it started with two, now up to 5 with one on the way!

 

[PlutoFan10]

We have 2 home resorts -- BLT and BCV. We have always loved stays at Epcot resort area (feels like home) and selected BCV to have SAB available. Both of our home resorts allow us walking access to a park, which was important to us. With your kids small, it's hard to say what the future will bring in terms of resort choice, so consider what the adults like, too. We are empty nesters, but our son usually meets us at WDW for each of our stays.

 

[JWG]

The original purchase was "the only choice", i.e. all Disney was selling. So Boardwalk. In the end, it was good luck. We love having an Epcot area resort and while everyone seems to love BCV, we really prefer BWV. The restaurants and activity along the Boardwalk is more preferred (in our minds) to a sand bottomed pool.

My favorite resort of all time was Contemporary, so BLT was a logical add-on when the time came.

1) Buy where you want to stay. As more owners come on line the popular resorts will only be more difficult to get at 7 months.

Yup, that's pretty much it.

 

[parlay]

We are a family of 5, and until 2007, the only way to sleep 5 in one accomodation was a 2Bedroom - way more points than we wanted to purchase. Then along came AKV with their sleeper chair and 5 could sleep in a 1 Bedroom (yes I know NOW that DVC would have let us sleep 5 in other 1 bedrooms but I am generally a rule follower - so I wasn't going to make a big financial commitment based on not following the rules). So we bought into AKV - and honestly if that was the only place we could stay - I'd be fine with that. We eventually added on more points at AKV and then purchased points at SSR - when the THV were declared. We bought the SSR points because it was simply a deal we couldn't pass on!

Oh and now my family usually gets a 2 Bedroom Villa.

 

[Minniesgal]

We bought AKV because it is the one resort the whole family love. We discovered we also love being on the monorail so I am toying with an add on at either BLT or VGF. We also want to visit the west coast sometimes so we added on at VGC. Everything we really want can be booked at 11 months once I do my last add on hopefully this month.

 

[chalee94]

We bought AKV because it is the one resort the whole family love. We discovered we also love being on the monorail so I am toying with an add on at either BLT or VGF. We also want to visit the west coast sometimes so we added on at VGC. Everything we really want can be booked at 11 months once I do my last add on hopefully this month.

just to clarify this type of comment for the n00bies reading along:

if you own 200 AKV pts and add-on a 50 pt BLT contract and want to book BLT at 11 months out, you can only use pts from the BLT contract - it's like you don't even have any AKV pts (when trying to book BLT) until you get to the 7 month window.

now you can bank and borrow from your BLT contract to get 150 pts every 3 years (50 banked BLT pts + 50 current BLT pts + 50 borrowed BLT pts = up to 150 BLT pts.) you can even transfer in more BLT pts from another BLT owner to use at the 11 month window, but you have to have BLT pts.

but there are always people who get confused and assume that if you add-on at BLT, then you can use your other resort's points at BLT at 11 months out, which is not the case. put another way: it is the points that have the home resort priority, not the owner.