A hypothetical situation

[melissa70]

I’m confused as heck

 

[VGCgroupie]

So all of these I see on your portfolio, you regularly stay at? Or do you use the points from them? Out of all the DVC places I’ve stayed at BRV has been my favorite but I do want to stay at all , just to have variety. I’m sure each and every one has hidden gems, even SSR has something going for it, OKW has a lot of space, etc.

I do stay at all of them. I use my Aulani points as my points to sleep around at other resorts, and before I had as many Aulani points I used my CCV to stay other places. I took a 2 day trip and didn't go the parks, I just visited every DVC resort to see how I liked them before I made my last purchase of ( 2 direct, 6 resales) Many I thought I would like I actually strongly disliked. Some I thought I would love I only liked a little bit. It was very eye opening for me. As I said in my post above, before I bought I also came to the boards to get advice on what to buy and was told to buy SSR with 2nd runner up AKV. I made offers on them and everything. During my trip I stepped off the bus at SSR and almost cried with frustration of the busses and weather and gratefulness that I didnt buy there. I stayed at AKV and even as a die hard animal loving person it just wasn't a resort for me (mostly my husband) so I was also grateful that offer I made was turned down.

So if you have strong feelings for BRV it's great to own there. But if you potentially have strong feelings in one way or another for other resorts you should really know those feelings before spending so much money to own there.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Well since BRV really only has points for 16 years that gives you 3 years to stay at the resort along with visiting the rest of the O14.

Great point

 

[Brian Noble]

So that you can put my answers here (and elsewhere) in context:

I do not care about resale value. I assume that, when I'm done using a resort, it will be worthless. More specifically: the purchase has to still make sense even if the resale value is zero. Any residual value is found money. The value in owning DVC points is using them for DVC lodging.

I am not a Studio Person. I did not get into time sharing to stay in a glorified hotel room. For a short stay (maybe 3-ish nights) with one or two people, I wlll tough it out. But for my "typical" week-long stay, I'd rather be at Wyndham Bonnet Creek than settle for a studio. For example, I get downright grumpy about not having a proper coffee mug in the morning.

I'm about your age. What's more, I have some City Miles, so I've probably chopped a fair few years off of my healthspan if not my lifespan. Nevertheless, I am very much hoping that I will still enjoy travel by the time February 1st, 2042 rolls around, and that for me ruled out 2042 resorts.

I like the Epcot(-ish) area a lot. Unlike many, I'm not a *huge* fan of walking to the theme parks, in part because that means I never escape the frenetic pace in and around them. I think RIV is a great place---and if I am honest, part of that is because it is the resort everyone loves to hate. (See: City Miles.)

I want to visit WDW once a year, for about a week, during the springtime when point values are typically high. I value flexibility, but I also don't want to overspend if I can help it.

Putting this all together, my strategy was to accumulate roughly a 50/50 mix of direct and resale RIV points, sufficient for a "typical" 1BR each year. By banking/borrowing, I can alternate years between RIV and "somewhere else"---I use roughly two years of RIV resale points for a "RIV year" and two years of developer points for the "non RIV year." Having everything be at RIV simplifies booking there, which is helpful for Resort views, and because it is an expensive point chart. The downside is that my trips are a little less flexible, because if for some reason I have to cancel a trip, at least some of the points used for that trip are going to be stuck in that UY with no possibility of banking. The saving grace is that my annual trip is very early in my UY, so I will at least have plenty of time to use them up.

So, I think you have two different ways to play this. The first is to get a second batch of BRV points. That simplifies your life, and avoids the banking/borrowing thing, and reduce the risk of un-bankable points. You can book the 1BR at BRV for each trip, and swap out at seven months if you have some place else you want to be. Everything expires at the end of January, 2042, and you can move on with your life.

The second way would be to pick a different home resort for the other batch. If you do this, you can (a) book a split stay at the 11-month mark at each of your two home resorts, and then try to merge/move one or both of them at 7 months. Or, you can do the bank/borrow thing I am doing to get 11-months at one home resort one year, and 11-months at the other home resort the next year. You can also swap any trip out at seven months if you like.

If you want to stay at BRV more often than not, I think Option One makes the most sense. 1BRs are the easiest to book in the system, but even there you might need home resort priority for Fall Frenzy, and you will need it for the first half of December.

If you want to play the field a little more, I think Option Two with a non-2042 resort is a good idea. That allows you to hedge your bets about whether or not you want to be Done With Disney fifteen years hence, and drop to an every-other-year cadence, do shorter trips, etc. Which resort you choose (and whether or not you buy it directly from Disney) is a matter of budget, resort preference, etc. and we can't answer that.

“It’s a toy, treat it like a toy” @Brian Noble

I'd love to take credit for this, but it is something I learned from another TUG member who used to sell Hyatt timeshares.

 

[airjay75]

This resonates with me ..so more points at BRV? I can always combine them for a stay somewhere else

That is one strategy. Another would be to stay at BRV every other year with your 160 point contract (using 2 years worth of points) and then buy somewhere else with better economics as your SAP to stay elsewhere on the other years.

Edit: @Brian Noble just covered the differing strategies including this one very, very well.