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.

 

[melissa70]

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.


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

I love this reply. I like option 2 as I would probably do BVR every other year in December . Or I think I may have enough points to borrow half from the next year for a total of 220 BRV points should get me what I want every December. Now, which resort is the question do I buy for my second and I know you can’t answer this for me… but if you were me-would you buy direct? I see you have..do you feel it’s worth it or would you do it differently ?

 

[Brian Noble]

I bought direct points as a "Congratulations on the divorce!" gift to myself. That probably doesn't generalize. But I did it because it's a toy, and I had the money. It was that or a Mustang convertible, and that was too cliche even for me.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I just wanted to add that I realized while responding to another thread that dues increase announcements will come out soon. If dues matter to your overall choice waiting for that information before making and your final decision could be worthwhile.

 

[ClaraOswald]

It seems to me that the BRV people are very much BRV people…. @ClaraOswald

Hey now @ClaraOswald is just a wilderness girl remember she loves VGC too!!

I just though bringing a current BRV owner into the conversation could add some insights.

Thanks for the shout outs. Yes, I am a huge BRV lover. We did think about buying points at CCV instead and then just trying to use them at the 7-month mark (since CCV rooms don't appeal to me much.) But in the beginning, we thought we'd only go every other year and stay in a studio so we just bought a small 50 pointer at BRV. I know studios are much harder to get at 7-months so that was really why we decided to go with BRV. That way we can book at 11-months.

We decided we wanted to stay in larger rooms after we already purchased that 50 point contract. Larger rooms are easier to get at the 7-month mark so we could have added at a different resort instead and likely been able to get in a 1 or 2 bedroom at BRV at the 7 month mark (we don't travel during busy times.) But for simplicity, I just went with another BRV contract. I'm fine with the 2042 expiration. We got a good price and I'll be happy to get over a decade of vacations out of it.

There's not one right way to buy into DVC. I think you should go with your gut. But definitely look at the times of year you want to travel, the type or room, the points needed, etc. I haven't seen your other posts so maybe you've already talked about all that.

Of course, you may be like me and end up changing your mind how how often you want to go. We really thought we'd go every other year. Now we're on a schedule of going two Januarys in a row, then taking a break for one January and banking. This way we may actually be able to get into a 2-bedroom some years. (We also travel to Disneyland in the winter of that 'off' year....but using VGC points.)

As nice as it would be to still have Wilderness Lodge points after 2042 that I could use or sell.....I'm still happy with choosing BRV over CCV. I like that it's a separate building. And I like the rooms much better too.

Down the road, if we want to continue going to WDW after 2042, I'm not sure what we'll do. That's future me's problem.

 

[ClaraOswald]

I love this reply. I like option 2 as I would probably do BVR every other year in December . Or I think I may have enough points to borrow half from the next year for a total of 220 BRV points should get me what I want every December. Now, which resort is the question do I buy for my second and I know you can’t answer this for me… but if you were me-would you buy direct? I see you have..do you feel it’s worth it or would you do it differently ?

My husband and I have been throwing around the idea of direct points. Especially since so many resorts expire in 2042 and all new resorts will likely have restrictions. Though, if we buy direct, we'd be more likely to purchase at VDH.

At WDW, I am definitely going to be keeping my eye on the new Lakeside Villas or whatever it's called (I should probably google that.) Because that could be a direct option for us if we decide we aren't interested in VDH points.

The main reason we are even considering direct now has very little to do with any of the benefits or perks and mostly to do with the restrictions on all the new resorts.

 

[MyDogTink]

If you want larger accommodations, it’s going to depend on your travel season and length of stay. Apologies if you provided this info. I’m just catching up.

I have ~180 point contracts at several resorts. We travel during high point seasons but for 4 or 5 days. I purchased thinking a 1 BR would suffice but turns out we like 2 BRs. That said, I’d load up on BRV if you love the resort. It’s much easier to have a lot of points to play with at the 11 month mark rather than worrying about stretching them out or borrowing.

As an example for a 2 BR savanna view at AKV Easter week, I need 270 points. My contract is 185 so I’m borrowing or banking with alternate years there. That’s why I say load up on BRV if you love it.

 

[Patmcpsu]

Someone should own enough points at their preferred home resort to book the room category they want at the time of year they want to go. Only at that point should the diversify; IMO.

This assumes the owner has a resort they're absolutely in love with. I own at BLT and Poly without loving either. I just saw BLT as the best value for SAP, and Poly as the last chance to buy an unrestricted resort directly.

The situation you speak of should be called "marriage points". Me personally, I'll keep sleeping around.

 

[melissa70]

My husband and I have been throwing around the idea of direct points. Especially since so many resorts expire in 2042 and all new resorts will likely have restrictions. Though, if we buy direct, we'd be more likely to purchase at VDH.

At WDW, I am definitely going to be keeping my eye on the new Lakeside Villas or whatever it's called (I should probably google that.) Because that could be a direct option for us if we decide we aren't interested in VDH points.

The main reason we are even considering direct now has very little to do with any of the benefits or perks and mostly to do with the restrictions on all the new resorts.

That’s what concerns me..the restrictions! Not so much the perks which don’t seem to be much different than what you can get with a Disney Visa card

 

[eticketplease]

That’s what concerns me..the restrictions! Not so much the perks which don’t seem to be much different than what you can get with a Disney Visa card

No the Disney Visa gets you discounts on a few Disney Springs restaurants and merch. It is much different than the discounts you get with an AP or DVC.

Also with an AP or DVC Discount you can pay with a discounted disney gift card to really rack up the savings where the Disney Visa or Visa debit card you must use that card for the discount.

The only perks for me are the 0% financing on DVC add-ons and vacation packages and the photo opps.

 

[VGCgroupie]

That’s what concerns me..the restrictions! Not so much the perks which don’t seem to be much different than what you can get with a Disney Visa card

There are many more other perks different than the Disney Visa discounts. Also the discount is usually higher for DVC/AP than Visa IIRC

Perks dont have the same value to everyone. Moonlight Magic, Lounges, Welcome Home Weeks, Sorcerers Pass to name a few.

 

[AstroBlasters]

This assumes the owner has a resort they're absolutely in love with. I own at BLT and Poly without loving either. I just saw BLT as the best value for SAP, and Poly as the last chance to buy an unrestricted resort directly.

The situation you speak of should be called "marriage points". Me personally, I'll keep sleeping around.

I completely disagree with your statement. It just ensures that you know you’ll get a room you want at a location you want at the time of year you want to travel at 11m and then can do whatever you want based on availability at 7m.

The only points that are “marriage points” are restricted resale points.

 

[🍀TwinsMom]

We have 300 direct Riviera and 100 direct Poly, and we only do 1B and now 2B with the kids as a family of four. We often take my cousin, so that's five of us in a 1B, and at almost 12 and 13, our kids are adult size now and getting bigger for years to come.

300 is a great amount for peak weeks 1B with leftovers for a longer stay/long weekends. I'd add to BR so you have a good chunk to play with. Our 100 Poly is kind of almost useless at PIT (we don't like the OG longhouses, only the tower,) because the point chart is so high. I did try a TPV just to try it out, and it's a one and done. The pocket gardens are better views than the room, and the point spread for a view is crazy.

Point being, our 100 points at a high point chart resort is more frustrating than anticipated. We keep going peak weeks and upping the room size -- and going more often on the years I buy APs, so I like having the big 300 pool at Riviera to work with. I'd go ham on BR and just waitlist your secondary trips at other resorts.

 

[melissa70]

How much per point is fair for resale at BLT? On a larger contract that has full points available?

 

[AstroBlasters]

How much per point is fair for resale at BLT? On a larger contract that has full points available?

https://www.fidelityrealestate.com/blog/september-2025-average-dvc-resale-price-per-point/

 

[melissa70]

I see what the chart says, but I’m wondering what your opinions are

Also, is it OK to buy stripped if you don’t need the points right away as I have a trip planned and other points I have to use for 2026?