Hoping this is allowed...

[Benihana]

I would love to buy in to DVC for a small amount of points and bank them to vacation at Disney every other year... which is how often we have always come. I do not have a ton of cash to purchase a large amount, and every other year seems to work well for our family anyway.

I see some resale listings such as this one...

Wilderness Lodge villas, $99 per point, 30 points...$2,970.

Am I allowed to purchase such a small amount? I know 60 points will still not buy me much, but 4-5 nights every other year is what we are used to anyway.

Ideally I would use them to rent an AKV value studio ever other year for 6 nights for 57 points. I know AKV would make more sense to purchase, but no small contracts available that I can find. Just need to know if this is allowed before I make myself crazy or is there a minimum point amount you must carry?

Thanks!!

 

[DebbieB]

I would love to buy in to DVC for a small amount of points and bank them to vacation at Disney every other year... which is how often we have always come. I do not have a ton of cash to purchase a large amount, and every other year seems to work well for our family anyway.

I see some resale listings such as this one...

Wilderness Lodge villas, $99 per point, 30 points...$2,970.

Am I allowed to purchase such a small amount? I know 60 points will still not buy me much, but 4-5 nights every other year is what we are used to anyway.

Ideally I would use them to rent an AKV value studio ever other year for 6 nights for 57 points. I know AKV would make more sense to purchase, but no small contracts available that I can find. Just need to know if this is allowed before I make myself crazy or is there a minimum point amount you must carry?

Thanks!!

The smallest allowed is 25 points.

Getting an AKV value room will be difficult at 7 months.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I would love to buy in to DVC for a small amount of points and bank them to vacation at Disney every other year... which is how often we have always come. I do not have a ton of cash to purchase a large amount, and every other year seems to work well for our family anyway.

I see some resale listings such as this one...

Wilderness Lodge villas, $99 per point, 30 points...$2,970.

Am I allowed to purchase such a small amount? I know 60 points will still not buy me much, but 4-5 nights every other year is what we are used to anyway.

Ideally I would use them to rent an AKV value studio ever other year for 6 nights for 57 points. I know AKV would make more sense to purchase, but no small contracts available that I can find. Just need to know if this is allowed before I make myself crazy or is there a minimum point amount you must carry?

Thanks!!

When buying resale you may purchase at whatever amount the contracts are for sale. So yes, you may purchase the 30 points.

 

[DizBub]

Getting an AKV value room will be difficult at 7 months.

I agree about AKV value room. Very difficult if you don't own there. Maybe you should look for a contract with a few more points, like 40, 50 or 60 at AKV or a resort selling for less, like SSR. I would hate to go for only 4 or 5 days every 2 years.

 

[Benihana]

thanks! that is helpful. Sounds like I should wait until I can find 30 points at AKV and then jump on it.

I know 4-5 days every other year doesn't sound like a lot, but for us it is huge. we cannot afford to go more than that and we always pack a lot of magic into those few days.

If I can get a small point contract for under $3000 I can purchase it with cash and it would pay for itself relatively quick. The main reasons for doing this are it will ensure that we continue to make it there every other year, and it would allow us to experience the deluxe resorts. I love POP, but I have always dreamed of staying at the Wilderness Lodge or AKL

 

[DizBub]

thanks! that is helpful. Sounds like I should wait until I can find 30 points at AKV and then jump on it.

Sounds like a plan. You should call one (or more) of the major brokers and tell them what you want. I think they can put you on a list to be called or send you alerts when they get something you are looking for before it goes on the website. If you aren't picky about the Use Year you may have better luck. Good luck!!

 

[kristenrice]

I would not recommend planning on a value studio for every stay, especially on the EOY plan. There are only 18 available and 10 of those are part of 2-BR lock offs. They are getting harder and harder to book, even at 11 months out. What will you do if the value studio is not available? You are buying into another 40 years of vacations. Think very hard before locking yourself into only one option. Good luck with your decision

 

[magicaldisney]

Don't forget you'll have annual maintenance fees on top of your purchase price.

 

[drusba]

There are certain categories of rooms for which you need to own at the resort so you can reserve 11 months out because they are seldom available at 7 months out to owners at other DVC resorts. AKV value is one of those and thus if you buy at VWL you should not expect to be able to reserve AKV value except once in a while you might get lucky, but don't buy counting on it. Others in that category are AKV concierge, BWV standard and boardwalk view, and BLT standard view. If your desire is to regularly stay in one of those then you need to be an owner at the particular resort.

 

[crisi]

I would not recommend planning on a value studio for every stay, especially on the EOY plan. There are only 18 available and 10 of those are part of 2-BR lock offs. They are getting harder and harder to book, even at 11 months out. What will you do if the value studio is not available? You are buying into another 40 years of vacations. Think very hard before locking yourself into only one option. Good luck with your decision

I agree, You'd be far better off with a small SSR contract and using the points to book the bargain OKW studios than counting on those value studios to be open for you when you need them to be. You have a good plan in theory, but the reality is that I don't think its going to work for you. Or if you feel like OKW isn't doing it for you resort wise, buying a small BWV contract for their more plentiful standard view rooms.

 

[auralia]

We do something similar. We started with 50 points at okw 5 years ago... Back then it was like 75$ pp resale if that. We added in 30 more last year. Now we can go every other year for 2 weeks at okw in a studio. We usually stay somewhere else for 10 days though. We have actually never stayed at okw lil

 

[Benihana]

Thanks everyone. This has been very helpful, glad I asked.

I think I have a strategy figured out...

Keep searching until I find 25 points at either AkV or BKV for around $80pp. ($2000 buy-in).

Then bank the points so I can take a 50 point vacation (5 nights in an akv value studio or standard bwv studio during adventure season for 45-50 points.)

Annual dues at akv would be 25x5.679...totalling about $142 or $284 per biannual trip. That amount divided by the 5 nights per trip is $56.80 per night.

Now factoring in the initial $2000 .... Divded by the 20 vacations we would take in the 40 years of ownership is $100 per trip... Which adds $20 per night to the room cost for each trip.

So with all said and done we can stay at a deluxe resort every two years for the next 40 yeArs and only pay $76.80 per night!! That's nearly half the cost if an All Star resort let alone a deluxe.

Disney currently charges $367 for an akv value stuido so over the course of 20 trips we would save over $28,000!!! :-D

 

[Benihana]

Only thing I wonder is if I would be entitled to member discounts and perks or if they are only offerered if you purchase direct from Disney

 

[dmunsil]

Only thing I wonder is if I would be entitled to member discounts and perks or if they are only offerered if you purchase direct from Disney

The only things that are reserved for direct purchasers (at this point) are exchanges into three non-DVC hotel and cruise options, basically Disney cruises, non-DVC Disney hotels (like the Disneyland hotel in Anaheim), and a handful of other high-end hotels. Those exchanges are not a good deal in terms of how many points you have to use for them, so most folks around here will tell you they aren't, financially speaking, a good reason to buy direct.

The other stuff like RCI exchanges, Annual Pass discounts and merchandise discounts and so forth, all transfer with the deed. All members enjoy them no matter how you purchased.

There's no guarantee that Disney won't add more restrictions at some point, but when they created the initial restrictions in 2011, all the current resale buyers were grandfathered in. It's a good bet that they'd do the same in the future. Nothing is guaranteed. But nothing is guaranteed for direct buyers either in terms of perks and benefits, other than the ability to book nights at a DVC resort.

 

[Annielkd22222]

Only thing I wonder is if I would be entitled to member discounts and perks or if they are only offerered if you purchase direct from Disney

Member discounts are for members....no matter how you purchase

 

[Benihana]

Member discounts are for members....no matter how you purchase

Yay

 

[crisi]

Member discounts are for members....no matter how you purchase

However, that could change any time - they could put a minimum point restriction on certain perks - say an AP discount that only kicks in at 150 points and is larger at 300 points. There have been surveys sent to members about doing something like this.

But you should never buy for perks and discounts - they are not guarenteed and subject to change. There are not very many of them, and I suspect very few that will be applicable in a situation where you go for less than a week every other year on a tight budget.

 

[disneynutz]

However, that could change any time - they could put a minimum point restriction on certain perks - say an AP discount that only kicks in at 150 points and is larger at 300 points. There have been surveys sent to members about doing something like this.

But you should never buy for perks and discounts - they are not guarenteed and subject to change. There are not very many of them, and I suspect very few that will be applicable in a situation where you go for less than a week every other year on a tight budget.

I'm still waiting for the VIP club for 1000 point owners. Access to club level lounges, special MS phone number with concierge assistance, free cabin upgrade on member cruises.

Bill

 

[Benihana]

However, that could change any time - they could put a minimum point restriction on certain perks - say an AP discount that only kicks in at 150 points and is larger at 300 points. There have been surveys sent to members about doing something like this.

But you should never buy for perks and discounts - they are not guarenteed and subject to change. There are not very many of them, and I suspect very few that will be applicable in a situation where yo
u go for less than a week every other year on a tight budget.

Mostly just hoping for the dining and merch discount doesn't make it or break it for me tho

 

[disneylover1980]

We recently went to a DVC open house. I asked about the resales and they told me that in the original owners contract Disney always had that DISNEY has the first right of refusal...so if you wanted to sell me your DVC points at say $50 a point....Disney will come in and buy them, at $50 a point....even though I am willing to buy them...so then that way I would be FORCED to pay the current price per point for DVC. Anyone else hear this??