Am I taking a real long-shot here? (renting Beach Club)

[torchlight]

Hey all - great community here, great resource - has been a huge help in making some plans for my family's first ever trip to WDW.

I wanted to ask a question here that I know already there is no concrete answer for. Still, I would greatly value anyone's opinion or educated feedback. I know upfront that there are no guarantees when it comes to resort or points availability.

After all my research, my top choice for our trip would be renting DVC points for a 2-bedroom villa at Beach Club in May 2022. This requires 252 points, and the 11-month booking window is now just open. I have put in reservation requests for this booking with the two most popular DVC point rental websites. No surprise, neither site currently has points available and I'm on the waitlist.

I know that Beach Club is one of the more challenging DVC resorts to rent points for, because of its popularity! I'd like to ask for any opinions on whether I'm on a total long-shot here sticking around on the waitlist for our preferred reservation plan. Again, I know anything can happen, but I'm finding myself wondering now if it is sensible or stupid to stay on the waitlist for this one, or if I really should be switching to an alternate plan. I would hate to wait it out, not be successful, and then by that time no other choices are available either. On the other hand, I (of course) would love to land our top choice! Really struggling with this one, so any experience or opinion or advice would be so greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[MomOTwins]

Because early May is one of the cheaper time periods to book on points, I expect the waitlist is not going to move too much. The most logical time for reservations to drop would be at the 7 month market when owners may switch to something else, but it seems like BC is one of those resorts where the owners buy there to stay there.

Waitlists do open, but with the surplus of points that have been banked into 2021 UYs, I'd be real wary of waiting to the 7 month mark to try to rent. I guess it depends on your second choice though--if your second choice is pretty easy to book at 7 months, then maybe waiting is a good strategy. Where would you want to stay if not BC?

 

[torchlight]

Appreciate the input, and that's a great question about our second or third preferences. It is one I've struggled with because I have a tendency to decide on the "perfect" choice for something and then I have a hard time viewing any other alternatives as worthwhile. But I know I'm doing my family no favors by taking that approach here. We landed on Beach Club as our preference because of 2-bedroom availability (we will have 4 adults and 2 kids), walkability to 2 parks, and Stormalong Bay.

I know Stormalong Bay is not comparable at any other resort, so I think my next alternative choice would be either Bay Lake Towers - there are 2 bedroom units there and easy walking access to Magic Kingdom (we will probably be spending more time there than any other park).

And then for another choice, I think for something completely different would be a Savannah view room at Animal Kingdom Lodge. I know you have to use vehicles to get to all 4 parks from there, but the experience of the room itself seems like it would be such a treat. I would need to get more knowledgeable about needing to rely on the bus network every day.

 

[MomOTwins]

Appreciate the input, and that's a great question about our second or third preferences. It is one I've struggled with because I have a tendency to decide on the "perfect" choice for something and then I have a hard time viewing any other alternatives as worthwhile. But I know I'm doing my family no favors by taking that approach here. We landed on Beach Club as our preference because of 2-bedroom availability (we will have 4 adults and 2 kids), walkability to 2 parks, and Stormalong Bay.

I know Stormalong Bay is not comparable at any other resort, so I think my next alternative choice would be either Bay Lake Towers - there are 2 bedroom units there and easy walking access to Magic Kingdom (we will probably be spending more time there than any other park).

And then for another choice, I think for something completely different would be a Savannah view room at Animal Kingdom Lodge. I know you have to use vehicles to get to all 4 parks from there, but the experience of the room itself seems like it would be such a treat. I would need to get more knowledgeable about needing to rely on the bus network every day.

I'd wait for 7 months. Looks to me that BCV still has 2-br availability on your dates, so if an owner decides to list their points you'd have a chance at grabbing it before 7 months, and who knows, maybe there will still be something left at the 7 month mark. And there are still 2brs at AKV (jambo and kidani) and BLT.

You can watch availability here (it's not realtime, but for your purposes should be good enough) and decide later to book one of the alternates if it looks like things are booking up before 7 months. https://tools.dvcvacations.com/points-calculator

 

[cvjw]

I just rented out 200+ beach club points with a broker, so there are owners renting. They said beach club points were very high in demand. Hang in there. A beach club owner could decide tomorrow to rent out points and you could get your 2 bedroom.

 

[Best Aunt]

I'm surprised you aren't contemplating BoardWalk Villas as a second choice.

I thought you weren't supposed to list your dates in a post. Maybe I'm wrong. You have to be carefuly about scammers.

The problem with BCV isn't merely its popularity. You just don't know how many BCV owners are choosing to rent out their points. Most people buy the contracts with the intent to use the points themselves, not rent them out.

 

[torchlight]

Thank you for additional great feedback! A lot to think about. That link to monitor fairly up to day availability will be helpful. I think for now it does not hurt to wait a bit and see what happens. If anything on my list starts to "fill up" then might be time to consider making a specific choice.

And I will take a second look at BoardWalk. For some reason I thought it doesn't have a pool at all? But that's not actually the case.

And thank you for the tip about dates in my post! Seems like a good rule - I have edited it accordingly.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Goodness. Every DVC resort has a pool. Every Value resort has a pool. This is Florida!

 

[Sandisw]

Just a reminder to the OP...please be careful about doing any business with anyone who contacts you directly via PM in which you did not initiate the contact. We appreciate that you did not post specific dates as those would not have been allowed.

 

[crisi]

So you aren't on a waitlist for the two bedroom - those are likely available for several months past the eleven month window in May. You are on the waitlist for an owner with the BCV points to rent. So someone who wants to rent 252+ points and the window for that rental includes next May. That could happen tomorrow, or it could not happen until the resort completely books up.

Personally, I would never rent DVC points for my first Disney trip - you are working with a private individual and too much can go wrong. Book through Disney where it removes one of the MANY complications from a Disney trip.

 

[torchlight]

Thank you for the additional advice. Will certainly be careful if anyone contacts via PM - that's a good heads up. You know, we did look at just renting regular hotel rooms direct from Disney, but unfortunately doing so - either a 2 bedroom suite or two singles - this almost triples the cost compared to renting the DVC points. Not in our budget, unfortunately.

 

[10CJ]

So you aren't on a waitlist for the two bedroom - those are likely available for several months past the eleven month window in May. You are on the waitlist for an owner with the BCV points to rent. So someone who wants to rent 252+ points and the window for that rental includes next May. That could happen tomorrow, or it could not happen until the resort completely books up.

Personally, I would never rent DVC points for my first Disney trip - you are working with a private individual and too much can go wrong. Book through Disney where it removes one of the MANY complications from a Disney trip.

I feel like going through one of the brokers is a good compromise to this. While not technically our first Disney trip, we rented points after having been away for years. Having a two bedroom made the most sense for our group (kitchen, laundry, a shared living space). The cost for something like that direct from Disney is really high.

We have rented a Beach Club 2BD for Spring Break. We did not get the booking right at 11 months because the company did not have a renter. I think we got it around July, it was after the 11 month window but before the 7 month window. This was pre-covid though.

I would not give up on Beach Club yet, but I would have a back up plan in place. If you are approaching the seven month window and still do not have a Beach Club reservation I would probably try to get something else before the 7 month window opens. That being said, my kids may have been too young for Beach Club when we were there (oldest was 6). They said they preferred the DVC pool.

I think BLT and AKV are great back up options. I think a Bay Lake Tower TP view great option if you can afford. My kids loved being able to see the castle out all the windows. Assuming fireworks are back by then, being able to see fireworks from your balcony is great. They enjoyed the BLT pool. They also enjoyed our stay at AKV. Being able to see animals from your room and while walking the hallways is great.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Hey all - great community here, great resource - has been a huge help in making some plans for my family's first ever trip to WDW.

I wanted to ask a question here that I know already there is no concrete answer for. Still, I would greatly value anyone's opinion or educated feedback. I know upfront that there are no guarantees when it comes to resort or points availability.

After all my research, my top choice for our trip would be renting DVC points for a 2-bedroom villa at Beach Club in May 2022. This requires 252 points, and the 11-month booking window is now just open. I have put in reservation requests for this booking with the two most popular DVC point rental websites. No surprise, neither site currently has points available and I'm on the waitlist.

I know that Beach Club is one of the more challenging DVC resorts to rent points for, because of its popularity! I'd like to ask for any opinions on whether I'm on a total long-shot here sticking around on the waitlist for our preferred reservation plan. Again, I know anything can happen, but I'm finding myself wondering now if it is sensible or stupid to stay on the waitlist for this one, or if I really should be switching to an alternate plan. I would hate to wait it out, not be successful, and then by that time no other choices are available either. On the other hand, I (of course) would love to land our top choice! Really struggling with this one, so any experience or opinion or advice would be so greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I wouldn't consider that a long shot at all. It's just waiting for a BCV owner with enough points to want to rent and someone almost certainly will.