Arrggghhh, I can't decide on a home resort.... :(

[Dagny]

Every time I think I have my mind made up.... I change it!!! I like BCV because of the pool (have two kids who love SAB), I like the WLV for its proximity to the Magic Kingdom (our favorite park), and BWV for its proximity to MGM and Epcot (my husband likes this location because he can just walk down to the ESPN club, LOL). How will I EVER make up my mind!!!

I also am not sure I have the patience for waiting for the "perfect" resale to come up. This, too, can be very frustrating when you are trying to plan your upcoming trip to the World! I would love to be able to stay at our "DVC home" in June

 

[Granny]

Dagny...well, that's the good thing about each DVC resort...each one has its own charm and attributes.

If money is not a deciding factor, then maybe BCV would be your best choice. It's the only one with access to SAB pool, and it's location is just about as good as Boardwalk. The ESPN Club especially is close to BCV too.

But like I said, each resort has its own strengths. We love VWL and its theming, but frankly I wouldn't stay there just because of the access to MK. The boats are great and no problem, but we've had no problem accessing MK from the Epcot resort area either.

Good luck...it's a great problem to have!

 

[yasuern]

We own at both VWL and OKW and love them both for different reasons(I favor OKW). I like the fact that you can try all the different WDW/DVC resorts no matter what your home resort is. Now that being said The 11month home resort advantage does come into play during heavy DVC use times ie: the 1st 2 weeks in DEC - so if you can't live without SAB then you should buy via Disney (although there are 100 BCV pts for sale at the Timeshare store right now) - If most your vacationing is done in June I think you could get a 1bdrm at BCV at the 7month window with little difficulty - We did for this upcoming June. We bought VWL through Disney and OKW through a resale and don't regret either.
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR DECISION!

 

[RweTHEREyet]

We own at OKW and at BCV. Mostly because of options available to us at the time we were ready to purchase. That being said.

You can get a reservation at OKW most of the time,using points from another home resort. You can walk to ESPN in about the same time from BCV as you can from BWV, just a little bit longer, kids will outgrow MK being their favorite park--so proximity of WLV is only important now. You can only go to Storm-a-long if you are staying at the BCV.

It has been easy to get reservations at BCV up to this point, only because more point inventory was being added on a daily basis due to purchases. I think that it will become increasingly harder to get into BCV, especially as Spring and Summer roll around. Last week, I tried to change my March reservations for a studio at BCV to one week earlier, and BCV was not available, but OKW and and WLV were.


Granted, my opinion only, and you will get lots of differing opinions on this board.

 

[crisi]

How big a contract are you talking about.....?

If you are in the 300 points (or more) range, you might want to buy enough points at BCV to stay every other year. And enough points a VWL to stay every other year.

(I'd go with BCV over BWV since SAB is a want and BCV is nearly as close (or closer) for Epcot/MGM or ESPN.)

 

[WDWguruDH]

One thing to remember about DVC is that you get to stay in ALL the resorts. We bought in a little over a year ago and have already stayed at each on-site resort. Each is great in its' own way, as you have alreay noticed.
Since you will get to stay at each resort over the next 40 years, you have to ask yourself if there is a particular resort that you will definitely want or want during a specific time - we bought a VWL contract(add-on) because we want to stay there during Christmas(decoration are amazing), thus did not want to have to worry about the 11 vs 7 months window for that one. As stated above, if you are going after enough points, you may want to split between resorts. Otherwise, pick the one that you know you will stay at most often.
Another thing to remember, say you buy BCV, you can book a ressie at the 11 month window. Then at the 7 month waitlist (if full) at another resort. If the waitlist comes through, you get to try another resort, if not, you are stuck with a beautiful resort . Either way, you get a great resort and the waitlist will come through enough to try the others.

 

[sitchu2]

I am offering this advice from my experience. I bought a large amount oa bcv because the resort is like the grand floridian of the epcot area.

Now that I am really into the dvc thing, I bought anual passes and want to visit more often I just love the place. If I were to start over I would have bought at BWV.

BWV will save you a significant amount of money over bcv via resale, and you have the awsome epcot area that is no different. You will no doubt be able to book at bcv during many seasons, if you want the experience, but bwv has a significant advantage:standard view point 11 month priority. Trust me , it really helps stretch those points, for more enjoyable family stays. I have a problem not I have enouth for a standard bwv stay for aug in a 2 br for 5 nights but I have to wait for that 7 month window. If I had bwv points, I would have it in the bag.

Save yourself a few hundred to thousand dollars, then have less stress planning, and get more value out of your points and have the same awsome location. BWV all the way!!

 

[CaptainMidnight]

How big a contract are you talking about.....? If you are in the 300 points (or more) range, you might want to buy enough points at BCV to stay every other year. And enough points a VWL to stay every other year.

(I'd go with BCV over BWV since SAB is a want and BCV is nearly as close (or closer) for Epcot/MGM or ESPN.)

This is a very interesting option to consider. You need to have 150 points at one resort. Anything over that can be at other resorts. You can only use resort specific points for the 11 month window, so if you have 150 WLV points you can only use those 150 WLV points in the 11 month window to book at that resort, you can also bank and borrow those 150 WLV points to have up to 300 points every 2 years or 450 available every three years. Meanwhile, if you have say 100 BWV points, you can bank and borrow those specific to use at BWV for 200 every 2 years or 300 every 3 years, and end switching resorts every other year or more to utilize the 11 month advantage with both contracts. I probably haven't explained this very well, but it might help create a 3rd option you haven't thought of.

We use this approach with offsite points and onsite points to get the best of both.

That said, we really like BCV for our onsite stays, it is beautiful. It doesn't allow you to stretch your points as far since standards view points stays aren't available, but we love BCV, it does seem nicer to us than BWV. In fact we sold out BWV points and bought BCV points. We like BCV that much better than BWV. Just our opinion.

 

[crisi]

We use the same approach with a single 150 point BWV contract, traveling every other year.

If I were to ever add on, I'd add on a 150 contract at a different resort, and bank/borrow to take every other year trips to that resort - Even years at VWL, odd years at BWV. Since I'm already used to looking at my contract as 300 points every other year, this should be easy.