Butterflies at an unexpected potential purchase

[CarolMN]

Congratulations and welcome home!

 

[rainpetal]

Did you get the UY that works best for you? How much did you spend total? Why didn't you buy 50 points for the perks and buy a resale contract for more points?

You have 10 days from signing to think it over and cancel or modify your purchase.

Bill

There about 5 VGF contracts with a September UY, probably get them for under $140 a point. We bought in June at $145 on a 150 point contract. The prices were a little higher then. Either way good luck and enjoy.

The reason we went direct was because DH wasn't willing to consider resale for a first purchase. The fact that they have taken benefits away from new resale buyers two different times makes him somewhat gun shy about resale and whether they could take more things away in the future. He wasn't comfortable gambling with that for the initial purchase.

We are spending $180/point, which I acknowledge is expensive and well over resale. I expect we will do resale for any future purchases, but DH was set on direct initially and after almost 2 years of attempting to convince him that resale was cheaper/better and not getting anywhere, I stopped trying to win that debate.

We decided to go with 100 instead of the 50 I originally thought because the more we looked at the number of points we would need, the more we realized that we would have to do a lot of banking and borrowing for most trips and it would cut down on the usefulness of having DVC until we were ready to add more. We also have no intention of adding any more points for at least 2+ years.

We did get the UY that will work best for us, which is Sept, though Aug or Oct would have worked as well. We weren't willing to buy if the details didn't perfectly match what we wanted.

I know direct purchase isn't a popular option on this board, but for us it is the decision we are most comfortable with and that is what matters in the end.

 

[Firepath]

Welcome Home and enjoy the Lodge in December!

 

[bwvBound]

We did get the UY that will work best for us, which is Sept, though Aug or Oct would have worked as well. We weren't willing to buy if the details didn't perfectly match what we wanted.

If OCT would have worked (if you didn't see yourself starting the Fall vacations in Sept)... then you might want to go back and ask for Oct as it starts you off with "double points" (sorta). Explained: You would start your membership with Oct 2015 points (as you are signing contracts before Oct 1st) and then receive your 2016 points on Saturday, 10/1. See? A double set of points just for choosing a UY that starts a couple days away. For this to work, of course, you'd have to act quickly.

Of course, if you might see yourself vacationing in Sept -- then stick with your Sept UY!

 

[Missyrose]

So, it looks like our stay in Dec is going to be a split stay. 4 nights at Wilderness Lodge (or whatever it is called now) and then switching to a savannah view in Jambo house for the last night. Anyone want to give me a brief run down on how split stays work and also how waitlisting works? I've read about both briefly during my research, but could use a quick refresher.

Call your salesperson back, they should be able to work some magic to get your in where you want for your first reservation.

 

[rainpetal]

If OCT would have worked (if you didn't see yourself starting the Fall vacations in Sept)... then you might want to go back and ask for Oct as it starts you off with "double points" (sorta). Explained: You would start your membership with Oct 2015 points (as you are signing contracts before Oct 1st) and then receive your 2016 points on Saturday, 10/1. See? A double set of points just for choosing a UY that starts a couple days away. For this to work, of course, you'd have to act quickly.

Of course, if you might see yourself vacationing in Sept -- then stick with your Sept UY!

I had thought about that briefly, but I can see us traveling in September because my birthday is Aug 31, which is why we went with Sept instead of Oct. Add in F&W and I think in a couple years, Oct would have been ok but not perfect.

And as strange as it may sound, I'm not sure how we will use all the points we currently have. The only trip we have planned is the upcoming one in Dec, and that isn't going to use all our points and I was planning to take a bit of a break from WDW after taking 5 trips in 2 years. Adding another year's worth would probably result in us having to rent them out to family or through a rental service and I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle that. Perhaps we will see what we can make work at VGC. Probably a total crapshoot, but worth looking at least. DH is really bummed about missing Electrical Light Parade, so DLR is on the calendar.

 

[rainpetal]

Call your salesperson back, they should be able to work some magic to get your in where you want for your first reservation.

I'm going to be talking with him today to get my member number, but from what I understand from conversations yesterday, that is the result of working some magic. We could easily do OKW or AKV for the full 5 days, but because we are going for our DD's first birthday, we really wanted to be either at a MK or Epcot resort and VWL for 4 of the 5 days was the best he could do for a studio. We actually don't mind the split stay too much since we have never stayed at either Wilderness or AKL. However, I will still put in a waitlist request for that last day at VWL to see if we can just stay in one place.

Perhaps I should consider a 1 bedroom? Do you think I would have better luck with availability?

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I think it's fairly amazing he was able to get what he did for you - so yes, some magic was done. Now would he have more options for a 1BR? Very possibly so if you're willing to borrow for the stay you would probably have more options. VWL at Christmas though? Can't say there's much better! And Jambo with it's impressive lobby is also great at that time of the year. Personally I think that's a decent stay other than it's a 4/1 split where we'd like at least 2 nights each place. You can either go online or call in to MS to set up a waitlist - you could set up a waitlist for VWL for the 1 night or you could set up a waitlist for Jambo to exchange for the 4 nights. You are allowed up to 2 waitlists total so you also could pick out a different resort you'd like to try and for example set up the waitlist to replace the 1 night at Jambo and then also one to try and get the entire stay at say BLT or your home VGF.

Now, an FYI in case you weren't aware, they are in the process of building the Copper Creek addition at WL and there is construction going on. From all reports it hasn't been too intrusive and with half the main building being under construction the number of people staying there is approximately halved so that is making it rather pleasant. The lobbies are still going to be magnificent and the main pool available but there the pool at the Villas has been torn out and is under construction.

Congratulations and have a great trip!

 

[supersnoop]

We actually settled on 100 points at VGF with a September UY. DH wanted to go higher on the points so that we can actually use them regularly instead of banking/borrowing for every trip. Since I had always expected to do 100 points until the 50 point idea was mentioned, it wasn't really too much of a hard sell for me.

So the contract is being processed today/tomorrow and we will get our points to use starting tomorrow. Our guide is already scouting to see what he can get with our points for our upcoming December trip. This went so fast! Part of me is worried that it is an impulse buy, but how can it be impulse if I've been researching for at least 2 years?

I'm going to give you a piece of unsolicited advice. There's one major benefit to buying VGF direct: they can sell you a "fixed week" contract. Studios are incredibly difficult to book at VGF, especially late in the year, even at 11 months out. If you purchase enough points for one week, plus 10%, they'll automatically book that specific week for you before anyone else can. For the first week of December, that's about 138 points.

So, if it were me, I'd either:
a) buy a resale contract and then go back later to pick up 25 points direct for the perks, or
b) buy a 138 point contract with a fixed week option direct.

 

[rainpetal]

I think it's fairly amazing he was able to get what he did for you - so yes, some magic was done. Now would he have more options for a 1BR? Very possibly so if you're willing to borrow for the stay you would probably have more options. VWL at Christmas though? Can't say there's much better! And Jambo with it's impressive lobby is also great at that time of the year. Personally I think that's a decent stay other than it's a 4/1 split where we'd like at least 2 nights each place. You can either go online or call in to MS to set up a waitlist - you could set up a waitlist for VWL for the 1 night or you could set up a waitlist for Jambo to exchange for the 4 nights. You are allowed up to 2 waitlists total so you also could pick out a different resort you'd like to try and for example set up the waitlist to replace the 1 night at Jambo and then also one to try and get the entire stay at say BLT or your home VGF.

Now, an FYI in case you weren't aware, they are in the process of building the Copper Creek addition at WL and there is construction going on. From all reports it hasn't been too intrusive and with half the main building being under construction the number of people staying there is approximately halved so that is making it rather pleasant. The lobbies are still going to be magnificent and the main pool available but there the pool at the Villas has been torn out and is under construction.

Congratulations and have a great trip!

We are OK with the 4/1 split because we actually have reservations at Whispering Canyon Cafe the morning of check out, so we will be headed to the lobby anyways, so two birds, one stone and all.

I think we are going to waitlist the 1 night at VWL and then do a waitlist for all 5 nights at probably BLT or Poly. I'm not silly enough to try to waitlist for VGF at this point. Besides, we have stayed at the Floridian once before which is why we knew we wanted to buy there, buy we haven't tried any other Deluxe yet, so we are OK with checking the other ones out.

I'm going to give you a piece of unsolicited advice. There's one major benefit to buying VGF direct: they can sell you a "fixed week" contract. Studios are incredibly difficult to book at VGF, especially late in the year, even at 11 months out. If you purchase enough points for one week, plus 10%, they'll automatically book that specific week for you before anyone else can. For the first week of December, that's about 138 points.

So, if it were me, I'd either:
a) buy a resale contract and then go back later to pick up 25 points direct for the perks, or
b) buy a 138 point contract with a fixed week option direct.

DH's job would most likely never work with a fixed week, so it isn't really not something I ever considered, but I will look at it a bit more before we sign anything. As to buying resale with the 25 point add-on, if it were just me buying, I'd do that in a heartbeat, but the hubby is set on direct and has been for the 2+ years we have been thinking about this. We will probably buy resale at HH in the future to help significantly cut the price per point average. And we really love HHI so we really will use points there.

I do appreciate the advice though. It does make me think through everything before we sign anything.

 

[Matty B13]

When they were renovating Poly for DVC the construction wasn't to bad, hardly noticeable.

 

[rainpetal]

I noticed on the regular Disney reservation page that a Beach Club Studio was available for our full stay coming up in December, so I called our Guide to as if he could get us switch to Beach Club and he was able to. So we are actually staying at Beach Club in December. I'm so excited because I really think we may eventually want to buy BCV (resale, I promise) and I want to stay there and check it out to be sure.

 

[MountainMouse]

I noticed on the regular Disney reservation page that a Beach Club Studio was available for our full stay coming up in December, so I called our Guide to as if he could get us switch to Beach Club and he was able to. So we are actually staying at Beach Club in December. I'm so excited because I really think we may eventually want to buy BCV (resale, I promise) and I want to stay there and check it out to be sure.

Beach Club will be awesome, but if you would rather have VGF I would wait list it...and stalk the website. You never know.

 

[disneynutz]

When they were renovating Poly for DVC the construction wasn't to bad, hardly noticeable.

The VWL construction converting rooms won't be to noticeable but the construction of the 26 lake side cabins, the new restaurant building, the new pool is definitely visible and IMO takes away from the resort experience.

Bill

 

[rainpetal]

Beach Club will be awesome, but if you would rather have VGF I would wait list it...and stalk the website. You never know.

We stayed at the Floridian on our honeymoon which is why we knew that was where we wanted to buy, but I've never stayed at any of the other Deluxe hotels/DVC properties and I have been dying to stay at Beach Club since we wandered around it on our anniversary 2 years ago. I figure VGF is our home resort and we will stay there plenty of times in the future. This is a great chance to try out a different property and I'm super excited about it. My DH just laughs and says that I just want to check out the pool, which might be true.

 

[rainpetal]

The VWL construction converting rooms won't be to noticeable but the construction of the 26 lake side cabins, the new restaurant building, the new pool is definitely visible and IMO takes away from the resort experience.

Bill

I didn't realize they were converting rooms as well, though I did know about the cabins and the pool. I'll have to wander around a bit when we go there for breakfast as Whispering Canyon. I guess it is a good thing we were able to switch to Beach Club then.

 

[disneynutz]

I didn't realize they were converting rooms as well, though I did know about the cabins and the pool. I'll have to wander around a bit when we go there for breakfast as Whispering Canyon. I guess it is a good thing we were able to switch to Beach Club then.

Reportedly half of the lodge is the new DVC copper canyon rooms, the half closest to the DVC villa building.

Bill