Is It Possible to Change Your Home Resort?

[moericus]

We're new members (signed up on a cruise this summer) and our home resort is Aulani - it's fun to say that's our home, but we might go there once or twice in our lifetime. It's not a benefit to have it as our "home" when we go to Disney World every year. Is it possible to change it out for a WDW resort?

Well as others have said (some not very nicely), Aulani as a home resort is going to be difficult for you. The 11 month reservation window is important for peak DVC times at WDW. Keep in mind the peak DVC season does not necessarily match up with the peak season for cash customers. I don't think you'll have the trouble some people are warning you about. You should generally get your preferred room type at 7 months, but it will be from a variety of resorts.

I believe Aulani points do well in the rental market. I've used David's service before and it was quick, painless, and cash in my pocket. So that's one option to make sure you get everything you can from your Aulani points.

As others suggested, if you have a large Aulani contract you might want to sell a portion of those points. You can then buy a smaller contract at a WDW resort. I wouldn't rush to do anything just yet though. See what happens first.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

As others suggested, if you have a large Aulani contract you might want to sell a portion of those points. You can then buy a smaller contract at a WDW resort. I wouldn't rush to do anything just yet though. See what happens first.

Fyi, it isn't possible to just sell some point from a large contract. It must be the entire contract.

 

[bumbershoot]

And resell will? At the end of the day it is up to the consumer to decide what they think is best for them.

If you're looking into resale you are already taking it upon yourself to research. If you're buying direct it doesn't feel as necessary. The op bought on a cruise. She bought a resort she will only go to once or twice ever. I'm saying this as someone who bought direct, and financed, which isnt necessarily the brightest move (but we had researched for 1.5 years and it worked for us), buying aulani while on a cruise doesn't indicate that tons of research time was invested. Whereas if the op had bought resale there's a stronger chance that research would have been done.

I bought direct a very, very long time ago and found that our guide was forthright.

So was ours. Our guide was let go. Is your guide still around? DVC doesn't seem to want those types of guides.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I think based on things I see, if I had to recommend one thing to anyone considering buying, I would say never ever buy while on site/on a cruise.

If the decision holds up outside the sales bubble, pull that trigger.

 

[gdrj]

IMO. The issue is not if you buy direct or resale. The issue is knowing what you are buying and what you are NOT buying. I have been to a number of timeshare presentations and none of them are going to volunteer info that is going to cost them a sale. When you go to a Chevy car dealer are they going to tell you the Ford dealer down the street will provide a better product or price?

Buying resale will give you the same issues.

 

[southerngirl528]

So was ours. Our guide was let go. Is your guide still around? DVC doesn't seem to want those types of guides.

Our original guide was Diane C. and she has been gone for around 20 years. There are still a few guides at DVC that have been around a long time that will not push DVC on someone that it is not right for, but that said I have to at least partly agree with you that DVC seems to have changed it's culture quite a lot from those wonderful early years….

 

[Halle]

Our original guide was Diane C. and she has been gone for around 20 years. There are still a few guides at DVC that have been around a long time that will not push DVC on someone that it is not right for, but that said I have to at least partly agree with you that DVC seems to have changed it's culture quite a lot from those wonderful early years….

Our guide was Kim M., we bought in1993, he was a delight to work with. Ironically I was in line at Earl of Sandwich two years ago and the Disney group in front of me was talking about him!!!
Recently dealt with Wallace who was fabulous.

 

[southerngirl528]

Hi Halle, hmmm. I have heard that name, Kim M but don't really know much else. Happy to hear he was wonderful too! And I have met Wallace though a long time ago. I'm not sure he is still a guide. He seemed super nice to me too.

 

[senadler]

I would not worry too much about being able to use your points for WDW resorts. When we purchased our resale contract about 4 years ago we did buy where we wanted to stay (BCV), but we have already stayed at BLT twice, and have a trip booked next spring for the Poly. We also wait listed a studio for BCV this past October for family at around 4 months that came through. If you stay flexible and book or wait list right at 7 months you should have many options.

 

[chalee94]

IMO. The issue is not if you buy direct or resale. The issue is knowing what you are buying and what you are NOT buying. I have been to a number of timeshare presentations and none of them are going to volunteer info that is going to cost them a sale. When you go to a Chevy car dealer are they going to tell you the Ford dealer down the street will provide a better product or price?

Buying resale will give you the same issues.

like i said before, knowing enough to look into resales means you will ask owners like those on this board - and we (for the most part) aren't selling anything.

but even resale "dealers" give you more info than direct typically does, including information about the limitations of what you are purchasing:

http://www.dvc-resales.com/faq.htm

Will I receive the same treatment as DVC members who purchase direct through Disney?

The real estate interest (Membership) that you purchase through The Timeshare Store, Inc.® will not be eligible to use those Vacation Points to make reservations within the Concierge Collection, the Disney Collection or the Adventurer Collection. Those Vacation Points will instead be valid for reservations at Disney Vacation Club resorts, as well as for the RCI® exchanges, Club Cordial and Club Intrawest.

 

[chalee94]

If anyone is willing to talk resell by PM, I might be interested. I keep seeing people say they are getting stuff for 70-80 a point and now that might be worth it for us! Fiance loves AKL so if he could get an AKL contract he'd probably go for it.

pricing can depend on the size of the contract (as larger contracts go for less per pt) and how patient you are and how willing to get turned down over and over (not to mention lucky enough to get through ROFR if you push for too low of a price).

 

[AshleeH]

Looks like you normally travel in October or June/July based on your signature. What resorts are you hoping to get into? For October the Epcot area DVC are almost always booked at their 11 month window due to Food and Wine.

Worst case my friend who owns at Aulani says he can always seem to get into Saratoga Springs.

Yes, we tend to go in October (Columbus Day week, typically) which isn't horribly crowded, but not the low season either. We prefer Bay Lake Tower, which we've booked at the 7 month window in the past, so I'm not terribly worried, but would have been that much more convenient if it was the 11 month window . I have a distant plan to buy resale points at BLT, which will work to my advantage, but that probably won't happen before our next trip.

AshleeH, first…..WELCOME HOME!!! I have visited your home resort 3 times on my points and am looking at going back in a year. LOVE, LOVE Aulani!! Don't know if you've been there or not but it's fabulous!

As for booking at WDW, if you are wanting popular times, please be flexible with where you are willing to stay. I really do like all the DVC resorts, but for different reasons. Some I definitely like more than others, but they are all very nice. And here is my BIG tip to you: Make SURE you are calling in to MS and/or logging onto the member website the moment inventory is opened at the 7 month window. Book SOMEWHERE if your dates are available. Then wait list for the resort that you really prefer. Start the wait list right then, after you secure what is available. If nothing is available, get on that w/l. Though you can read lots of naysayers about the DVC w/l, I've been a member for over 20 years and have used w/l dozens of times. Literally. And without exaggeration I have gotten my w/l fulfilled more times than not. Caveat: there are no guarantees. I think one reason I often get my w/l is that I start it several months out. Generally right at the 7 month window.

Thank you! We have no immediate plans for Aulani, but it is on the back burner (2019, possibly, or somewhere around then). I'm a planner, so we'll be calling and booking the minute our window opens up. We don't go at peak times, but we do go when it's busy (Food and Wine) - however, we prefer BLT, so F&W doesn't affect those resorts as quickly as the Epcot area.

You could add on points at another resort and buy resale. We started with OKW and really would rather not own at OKW but we use them at the 7 month window. Then we added on at HHI, AKV and BWV (then sold the AKV because we can use our OKW to book AKV at 7 months).

That's actually my plan - I wanted to double-check that it wasn't possible to switch the resort before going that route. Since we just bought in this summer, we want to wait a little bit to buy more points, but it makes more sense to buy resale, since we will always use them on Disney property of some kind (not the affiliated hotels), so resale for our future points is the best option - not needing the additional perks. When that time comes, we'll buy those for the home resort of our choice.

I would not worry too much about being able to use your points for WDW resorts. When we purchased our resale contract about 4 years ago we did buy where we wanted to stay (BCV), but we have already stayed at BLT twice, and have a trip booked next spring for the Poly. We also wait listed a studio for BCV this past October for family at around 4 months that came through. If you stay flexible and book or wait list right at 7 months you should have many options.

That's good to know - I'm hoping to get resale points for our favorite resort in the future. As far as I can see, that's the only negative to the DVC (not being among the first to actually book where you want) but there are a lot of positives so far, so I'm not disappointed. Every deal has some drawbacks. Aulani isn't an ideal home resort, but at least we got a great signing perk when we bought in, so I can overlook it until we buy resale . And it is fun to say we own property in Hawaii lol!