Adding on

[Johndubbya]

My wife & I bought in to DVC in 2018. We bought 120 points at AKL thinking our travel plans are flexible and we can get value studios (We book at 11 months and always get value studios) Go figure our needs have changed and while we love Disney dining I am on a strict diet and don't like spending $100.00 a day on food... I do Carnivore/Keto and we mainly ate one meal a day.
We decided that we want a kitchen so that I can cook my eggs and so we can cook a meal a couple of times a trip. We managed to do an 8 day trip and I only gained a pound. Compared to September last year where I gained 25 over the same amount of days.
Here is my quandary... We have a value studio in July and are staying with my brother and my niece. I want a one-bedroom and we are maxxed out on points and we have found that we have been renting points because we add nights here and there. We were looking at Bonnett Creek for a two bedroom but why drop 1400 into an offsite hotel when we can plop that money towards more points. My thinking is we will use the 2020 points towards a one bedroom in July
I know y'all are going to shout from the rooftops RESALE, RESALE, RESALE but I have scoured every site and cannot find a contract that has 2020 points and with DVC doing 8% financing for members in good standing it makes it kind of a slam dunk for us.
Our last trip we stayed at Boulder Ridge and my wife loved the compactness of the resort. So here are my options
We are looking at 120 points adding on
#1 Buy at Copper Creek (We wont buy at boulder ridge because of the shorter contract. ) We can alternate contracts and save them for one bedrooms for our typical length trips. Wife crows about the cost of CC but this is what she truly wants. I know because thats all she talked about this past trip...
#2 Buy more points at AKL... They will give us the same use year (Dec) and we can just pool our points together instead of alternating contracts and banking.
#3. Buy at Riviera (Our guide brought this up to me given the incentives)

What are the PROS/CONS of alternating contracts or pooling points...

What would you do?

 

[skippytx]

These are my personal feelings, but I'm not a fan of dealing with separate UY contracts UNLESS you 100% are going to use them for separate trips. It's common for folks to say have a Boardwalk contract with an October use year for Food and Wine, and another contract somewhere else for Spring visits. It can get messy when you're trying to pull points for 1 trip from different UY contracts.

Personally I would buy another 120 at AKL, but that's what I would do. If you feel Copper Creek is your home, buy there, and then maybe think about selling AKV and buying more CCV when it becomes available via resale and then you have all your points at one resort.

Riviera is nice, but if you don't have any desire to stay there, I wouldn't pick it. The resale restrictions are a bummer as well.

 

[Johndubbya]

These are my personal feelings, but I'm not a fan of dealing with separate UY contracts UNLESS you 100% are going to use them for separate trips. It's common for folks to say have a Boardwalk contract with an October use year for Food and Wine, and another contract somewhere else for Spring visits. It can get messy when you're trying to pull points for 1 trip from different UY contracts.

Personally I would buy another 120 at AKL, but that's what I would do. If you feel Copper Creek is your home, buy there, and then maybe think about selling AKV and buying more CCV when it becomes available via resale and then you have all your points at one resort.

Riviera is nice, but if you don't have any desire to stay there, I wouldn't pick it. The resale restrictions are a bummer as well.

Yeah she tried to sell me on Riviera and cited the skyliner and I am a consumer of all things Disney and shared how I think the skyliner is the most convenient/inconvenient system there is. (We stayed there in September)

 

[DebLovesPooh]

I originally bought direct at AKV and added on there because it was a small add-on with my use year and I wanted to be able to pool all of my points at once without any complications. Its been awesome to be able to treat my contracts like 1. The negative is that I only have 11-month priority at 1 resort. For folks who love split stays, I can see how two home resorts would be awesome! As of now, I like settling into one place for the week.

 

[Johndubbya]

I originally bought direct at AKV and added on there because it was a small add-on with my use year and I wanted to be able to pool all of my points at once without any complications. Its been awesome to be able to treat my contracts like 1. The negative is that I only have 11-month priority at 1 resort. For folks who love split stays, I can see how two home resorts would be awesome! As of now, I like settling into one place for the week.

We have done 5 resorts in 8 days before... I love it we do not have kids and we wanted to try other resorts... I am really leaning towards the other resort to give us a change of pace

 

[princesscinderella]

I think it’s nice to have more than one home resort. I love AKL and found the rooms as CCV to be a little small and won’t fit our family of 5. We never stay for a week so I can’t speak to split stays. If you haven’t seen all of the DVC rooms look them up on YouTube to get a feel for all of them. They all have their pros and cons. It’s definitely nice to have a kitchen, we have a gluten free diet which Disney does a great job accommodating, but it’s nice to have our favorite pancakes in the room for breakfast. So I totally get the need and want of a kitchen.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

We are looking at 120 points adding on
#1 Buy at Copper Creek (We wont buy at boulder ridge because of the shorter contract. ) We can alternate contracts and save them for one bedrooms for our typical length trips. Wife crows about the cost of CC but this is what she truly wants. I know because thats all she talked about this past trip...

We have done 5 resorts in 8 days before... I love it we do not have kids and we wanted to try other resorts... I am really leaning towards the other resort to give us a change of pace

Given the information you provided, I'd buy CCV direct, but get 125 points (instead of your planned 120) so that contract is also blue card-eligible.

If you get the same use year, you can combine them at 7 months. Otherwise, you can alternate years at each resort or do split stays.

 

[DVCsloth]

I would considering adding on at AKL, the points charts are good and it is a beautiful resort. This will give you plenty of points at 11 months and you can usually trade out and and try different resorts at the off peak times. I own at GFV and CCV but lately I have been booking at the Riviera since there has been some decent standard view studios and 1 BR availability.

 

[Johndubbya]

Wife wants a separate contract at riviera and with the incentives and price per room we are getting 150 points

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Wife wants a separate contract at riviera and with the incentives and price per room we are getting 150 points

Nice! Hopefully this works well for you and you are happy with it. Does she not want Copper Creek anymore?

 

[Johndubbya]

Nice! Hopefully this works well for you and you are happy with it. Does she not want Copper Creek anymore?

With the incentives it brings it down to 182 a point and we researched a bunch when we travel and riviera is what she wants

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

With the incentives it brings it down to 182 a point and we researched a bunch when we travel and riviera is what she wants

Riviera looks very nice. I saw the model rooms pre-Covid, but haven't seen the finished product except for going past it.

 

[Johndubbya]

Riviera looks very nice. I saw the model rooms pre-Covid, but haven't seen the finished product except for going past it.

We stayed at a tower studio in September and I liked it I think the bathroom was bigger than the room itself though

 

[starfrenzy]

Riviera is absolutely fabulous. I think you’ll both like it there. Great choice.

 

[Sandisw]

I didn’t think I’d ever buy Riviera and then did a complete turn around. First stay in 11 days.. only one night but so excited.

All my other trips booked are split stays there. It is at the top of my list! Congrats

 

[nangosix]

‍♀ Now I’m thinking about Riviera again.... especially with the price per point being less. Any chance your guide was giving you some incentives to buy direct? I know it’s wishful thinking but if they were to throw in a manual pass as silly as that incentive might sound, this year I would take it!

 

[Johndubbya]

Now I’m thinking about Riviera again.... especially with the price per point being less. Any chance your guide was giving you some incentives to buy direct? I know it’s wishful thinking but if they were to throw in a manual pass as silly as that incentive might sound, this year I would take it!

We were told if you buy 150 points you get 11 bucks off plus 8 dollars which brings it down to 182 a point

 

[kanerf]

I own at both AKL and RIV. The advantage of RIV is that is very easy to get to Epcot and HS via Skyliner. This is great during the Epcot festivals (which seem to be almost every month now). If you are buying direct the resale restrictions don't really impact you unless you want to sell it later. I have heard complaints about the distance of the bus stand from the lobby, but I don't think it is that much different than many other resorts.

 

[Sandisw]

Now I’m thinking about Riviera again.... especially with the price per point being less. Any chance your guide was giving you some incentives to buy direct? I know it’s wishful thinking but if they were to throw in a manual pass as silly as that incentive might sound, this year I would take it!

One thing DVD never does is add incentives to close a sale that are not available to all.

Incentives get better if you buy more points, but they don’t offer a sweetener for someone on the fence.

Now, they may try to persuade you to go with a UY that they say they are marketing, but in the end, will get you what you want on resorts in active sales like RIV.

Other than that, they don’t negotiate and I don’t see that changing since in the age of the internet, it be out there in a second!! Lol

 

[Ginamarie]

I mean if you're booking at 11 months and the idea is to combine your contracts to book a 1 bedroom instead of a studio, the right move is to buy more AKV. This way you have access to all of your points at the 11 month mark.

We own at AKV and at Riviera and I still think Riviera is a decent deal because of the incentives, plus we totally fell in love with the resort when we toured it. So if you think you'll have enough AKV points to book a one bedroom for as many nights as you need and can use the Rivera points for different trips/nights on a split stay, then I also think Rivera is a decent option.