Adding a contract at second property/pros and cons/Aulani

[MommiePrincess]

We have a few contracts at the Grand California Villas and love it! I am very interested in Aulani, but not enough to buy an ocean view- one week stay -one bedroom contract (which is what we would want). I called our guide today and he reiterated that we would need to purchase 350 points in order to get the above requirements and obtain home resort booking privileges (we can't use any of our Grand Cal points to book at Aulani if we want the 11 month booking option). My questions are:

1) why benefits do you get, if any, of buying a contract at a second property if you buy less points then the minimum stay you would want?

2) Any thoughts of how the seven month booking availability might look down the road at Aulani for one bedroom ocean views?

3) Would it make more sense to add onto Grand Cal Villas (I know there is a waiting list...we just closed on a waiting list contract purchase through Disney adding 150 more points) contracts to have enough points for what we like at Grand Cal plus a week at Aulani and cross our fingers with the seven month window to book there?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[Breyean]

We just added on at Aulani. We are in AZ and figure we're probably looking at one visit every two years, so we went with 160 points.

If I could ask, we are also on that VGC wait list and I was wondering how long you waited to get your points. We were told there are a LOT of people ahead of us and that there wasn't much movement in filling requests.

Also, the impression on these boards seems to be Aulani is so big and so new there probably won't be difficult in getting a room at 7 months. Now maybe a specific view might be different, but if you're flexible it might not be too hard given those factors.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We just added on at Aulani. We are in AZ and figure we're probably looking at one visit every two years, so we went with 160 points.

If I could ask, we are also on that VGC wait list and I was wondering how long you waited to get your points. We were told there are a LOT of people ahead of us and that there wasn't much movement in filling requests.

Also, the impression on these boards seems to be Aulani is so big and so new there probably won't be difficult in getting a room at 7 months. Now maybe a specific view might be different, but if you're flexible it might not be too hard given those factors.

It doesn't matter how big or how new a DVC resort is. The only villas available for points stays would the the inventory that was already sold. So if 35% of the resort was sold, 35% would be available for points and 65% available for cash.

But, like you did, if you only want to go to Aulani every other year or every third year, you get enough points to use banking and borrowing to your advantage.

 

[chalee94]

I called our guide today and he reiterated that we would need to purchase 350 points in order to get the above requirements and obtain home resort booking privileges (we can't use any of our Grand Cal points to book at Aulani if we want the 11 month booking option).

yep, you can't combine aulani pts with GCV pts until the 7 month window.

1) why benefits do you get, if any, of buying a contract at a second property if you buy less points then the minimum stay you would want?

if you buy 120 aulani pts, you would have 360 aulani pts every third year. so if you called now to book june 2012 in aulani, you could use 120 banked 2011 aulani pts + 120 current 2012 aulani pts + 120 borrowed 2013 aulani pts. (then you probably couldn't go again until your 2015 use year.)

also, be aware that aulani seems to have a higher ROFR fee than the other resorts, so that may make selling aulani more expensive down the line.

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

Yup, we bought 165 points. Through borrowing, we have enough points to go every other year. 68 days to go until 1 week in a 1BR Ocean view at Aulani...............

 

[Rest&Relax]

We bought enough to go every other year also, but we also realized that MF were cheaper there than some of the other resorts at WDW so if we don't go to Aulani we will definitely use them at WDW or VB. Still a long 307 days before 1 BR ocean view at Aulani!

 

[Sandisw]

I think it really matters how important it is to you to get the ocean view and how often you are going.

As already mentioned, you can certainly by less points and use banking and/or borrowing to get the home resort advantage every other or third year and then hope for those off years, you can book it at 7 months.

At this point, however, I think I might at least wait to see how the 7 month window works with what you have before deciding on where to add. If you find that you can get things at 7 months, then you might decide to go for less points at Aulani and just combine them with the VGC.

If you find that the 7 months is an issue, then you can always add on to fit your needs.

Good luck!

 

[DenLo]

It doesn't matter how big or how new a DVC resort is. The only villas available for points stays would the the inventory that was already sold. So if 35% of the resort was sold, 35% would be available for points and 65% available for cash. . . . .

Actually DVC members can book based the percentage declared not sold. For example, BLT has declared 99% of the resort so members can book 99% of the villas, despite the fact that only 89% of BLT has been sold.

MommiePrincess, I agree with the other posters, you could purchase a smaller contract and travel to Aulani every two or three years, by banking and borrowing and using current year points. You mentioned you need 350 points for your the view you want in a 1BR. So you could by 175 points (or a little more for a cushion in case you change seasons or for point reallocations) and then bank one year and use two years at once. Or buy even less and go every three years.