Bottom line for our family, I just don't see the value in spending so much more for direct points when the benefits aren't that beneficial for us. We are not bothered by the resale restrictions either.
I completely agree. I can't imagine buying one of the original fourteen resorts direct.
Others, I'm sure, have different and valid opinions, but for me, the reasons to buy direct are pretty small:
(1) access to newer resorts, ideally with a home resort being one of those resorts for the 11 months window. For me, I'm thinking about a small add on at VDH for this. My wife goes about half of the time with me. Other times I meet up with friends. Or go solo. A duo room in VDH is a significant cost savings over GCV, even with the TOT. I spent six nights in GCV solo this past year. I think GCV is a better resort than VDH--love the pool at GCV. But still if I had the option to go solo in a duo room at VDH, I probably would've done that and saved about 70-75 points. That's somewhere around $1,500 for the year--but I should probably subtract out the TOT from the potential savings. So $1,300-ish. And that's a typical year. So to me, this makes some financial sense, also create access to something that I don't have with resale. Again, I'm looking at a 75 point add on, not 150, so the cost delta here is smaller. (Side note: I'm fine solo in a duo room, but man, they feel cramped with two people.).
(2) access to sorcerer's passes (available to FL locals and
DVC), which are about $500 cheaper than incredapasses (available to anyone--and are the only option for most DVC resale owners living outside FL). If you had a family of four, the savings between these two options would add up to $15k in about seven years, which would also justify the purchase price difference.
For me all of the other things--various discounts, lounges, etc.--are nice, but simply can't justify the the additional $15k-ish for direct over resale, especially for an older resort, like AKV (which I love).
