3 home resorts?

[Mary Ramos]

Hello all, We're a family of 6 who goes to Disney nearly every year. We're looking to purchase 350ish points since we want to stay in a 2-bedroom villa (at least). I'm thinking instead if buying one large contract, it would make sense to buy 3 100-150 point contracts at different resorts and stagger the purchases over 3 years so that each year we can use 3 years worth of points (banked, current year and borrowed) to stay in a 2-bedroom at a different home resort. I'm thinking of buying at least one direct (at least 150 points) if not all 3. I am a little wary of buying resale since those points could only be used at the L14 resorts. The home resorts we are considering are AKV, RIV and BLT (or maybe BCV or CCV). It would also be cool to skip a year sometimes to try to save for a 3 bedroom villa or the cabins at CCV, so I guess this would involve transferring points from one contract to another. My question is, are there any potential problems with this strategy that I might be missing? Thanks!

 

[Marionnette]

Hello all, We're a family of 6 who goes to Disney nearly every year. We're looking to purchase 350ish points since we want to stay in a 2-bedroom villa (at least). I'm thinking instead if buying one large contract, it would make sense to buy 3 100-150 point contracts at different resorts and stagger the purchases over 3 years so that each year we can use 3 years worth of points (banked, current year and borrowed) to stay in a 2-bedroom at a different home resort. I'm thinking of buying at least one direct (at least 150 points) if not all 3. I am a little wary of buying resale since those points could only be used at the L14 resorts. The home resorts we are considering are AKV, RIV and BLT (or maybe BCV or CCV). It would also be cool to skip a year sometimes to try to save for a 3 bedroom villa or the cabins at CCV, so I guess this would involve transferring points from one contract to another. My question is, are there any potential problems with this strategy that I might be missing? Thanks!

The every-3-year strategy is likely to result in "orphaned" points after the 3rd year. For instance, let's imagine that your 2BR villa cost 280 points for the week. That's 20 points less than you would have with banking and 100% borrowing. As a result, you end up banking those points. But they don't fit into your plans for the following year when you're using your B contract for a home resort stay. What do you do with those 20 banked points from your A contract?

There's also the issue that a lot of owners are dealing with right now...borrowing has been restricted to 50% of your next UY's points, per contract. So, a 100-point contract as described above could bank 100 points, have 100 current points but only be able to borrow 50 points. That's 250 points for what could be a 280-point reservation.

Lastly, DVC can throw an additional monkey wrench into well-laid plans by reallocation the points chart and suddenly that week that used to require 280 points now requires 310.

Every other year is a more manageable plan, with all of your contracts under the same UY so that you can combine points at 7 months for more flexibility if there are orphaned points.

 

[smisale]

also if you wait to buy if im on the right track.Staggering the purchase will be a lot more costly in the long run - prices have jumped up a lot resale or direct and I can only see them going higher

 

[Stargazer65]

Concur with this and the rest of Marionnette's post:

The every-3-year strategy is likely to result in "orphaned" points after the 3rd year.

I have accrued 3 resorts at 360 points total. Managing it is a little harder than I thought, I also envisioned a simple 3 year 3 resort rotation. I had one resort for 10 years, and added two last year. In hindsight I think 360 is good for me, but I wish it was divided between just two resorts. I may sell one and add on at the other two.

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

The every-3-year strategy is likely to result in "orphaned" points after the 3rd year. For instance, let's imagine that your 2BR villa cost 280 points for the week. That's 20 points less than you would have with banking and 100% borrowing. As a result, you end up banking those points. But they don't fit into your plans for the following year when you're using your B contract for a home resort stay. What do you do with those 20 banked points from your A contract?

There's also the issue that a lot of owners are dealing with right now...borrowing has been restricted to 50% of your next UY's points, per contract. So, a 100-point contract as described above could bank 100 points, have 100 current points but only be able to borrow 50 points. That's 250 points for what could be a 280-point reservation.

Lastly, DVC can throw an additional monkey wrench into well-laid plans by reallocation the points chart and suddenly that week that used to require 280 points now requires 310.

Every other year is a more manageable plan, with all of your contracts under the same UY so that you can combine points at 7 months for more flexibility if there are orphaned points.

Not only do you risk orphaned points, you risk losing big chunks of points. Let's say you have planned for this year at BLT by banking last years points, using this years points, and borrowing next year's points (assuming borrowing returns to normal at some point in the future). A month before your trip, you realize that you cannot go. A child has a soccer tournament, there is a death in the family, someone gets sick, etc. So you have to cancel the trip. Can you reschedule the trip before the end of the use year? If not, you risk losing the points you banked from last year. You borrowed points from next year, which is a one-way transaction, so you can't move them back. But you can still bank your current year points into next year - but you may not need them next year, so you will be scrambling to use them at 7 months out so you can combine them with your other points so you don't lose them, too.

So it is very possible to do what you are saying, but be aware of the risks. If you have to cancel, it may cause a large loss for you. You might mitigate the loss somewhat by renting out your points.

 

[HickoryDickory]

Except for Club and Value rooms, you won't need home resort priority for AKV most of the year. Get all your points at two home resorts and swap out to AKV at 7 months for some trips.

 

[PalmettoPath]

We own at three home resorts with a total of 484 points. It's not hard at all to manage. We pretty much use all our points every year. Occasionally we may have to bank or borrow 20 points or so, but it's no hassle at all.

 

[Happy2BMommy0812]

I think it would be fine if you get a use year that starts when you usually travel. For example, we have an October use year, which worked great for us because my kids had a long break in October. So, if something happened and we could not go unexpectedly, we had nearly a full year to reschedule and use our points before anything that had been banked or borrowed expired.

If you want to travel different times through the year, I think 3 resorts may be risky for all the reasons everyone else said. Or, at least be willing to maybe do split stays and use the current year’s points to books nights at each place during your stay and modify to reduce to a 1-2 resort stay at the 7 month mark.

We have 2 contracts and our DVC agent basically suggested something similar (vacation at resort A on odd years using current year points and banked or borrowed points from an old or future use year, then stay at resort B on even years doing the same). The thought of borrowing points raises my anxiety, so I prefer to just use the current use year’s points and split stay. We bank a handful of points we have not used and use them up the next year and sometimes have enough to stay an extra night. At 7 months sometimes I modify to get to 1 resort or a different property altogether. We may add on a 3rd, but I’ll probably still be too nervous to borrow.

 

[RoseGold]

If 2020 has shown anything, it's that you're better borrowing than banking.

I have three home resorts in two UYs. This allows me to plan winter and summer trips.

If you know the season you are staying in, you don't need to do all of this. If you only plan to go in summer, then just pick a resort or two and do that in an UY that is good for summer.

People do this all this time to split stay with their favorite resort and then use cheap SAP to stay the rest of the nights wherever they can or to split stay, say RIV and AKL. But there's no reason not to keep this in the same UY.

Planning to use three years of points is too much, and I am very, very extra when it comes to my DVC spreadsheets.

 

[Mary Ramos]

You all make some very good points. I think I will stick to just two home resorts. Thank so much for the feedback!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Hello all, We're a family of 6 who goes to Disney nearly every year. We're looking to purchase 350ish points since we want to stay in a 2-bedroom villa (at least). I'm thinking instead if buying one large contract, it would make sense to buy 3 100-150 point contracts at different resorts and stagger the purchases over 3 years so that each year we can use 3 years worth of points (banked, current year and borrowed) to stay in a 2-bedroom at a different home resort. I'm thinking of buying at least one direct (at least 150 points) if not all 3. I am a little wary of buying resale since those points could only be used at the L14 resorts. The home resorts we are considering are AKV, RIV and BLT (or maybe BCV or CCV). It would also be cool to skip a year sometimes to try to save for a 3 bedroom villa or the cabins at CCV, so I guess this would involve transferring points from one contract to another. My question is, are there any potential problems with this strategy that I might be missing? Thanks!

I agree with the others, especially since you're considering larger room sizes. Of the 5 resorts you mentioned, I would consider buying in at Riviera or Bay Lake and Copper Creek.

Why?
AKV usually has availability at 7 months.
BCV is the most expensive on a per point basis, given the years remaining (or lack thereof).
BLT often has lake view rooms at the 7 month mark but a fairly long contract length and a nice points chart.
Riviera has the longest expiration, but resale restrictions and a high points chart. I would only buy this resort direct if I bought it at all. Also, if you get RIV, I'd buy direct for the other points too, so you can combine them at 7 months.
Copper Creek is difficult to get in to if you don't own there, and it has a lower points chart and long contract length. You also mention wanting to stay in the cabins sometimes.

Good luck with your decision!