Aulani or AKL now or wait?

[sleepymouse]

So I am considering buying my first contract resale. I am thinking Aulani because I live on the West Coast, but I am also considering AKL. I have stayed at both resorts and plan to visit WDW and Hawaii many times in the future. I want to dip my toe in with a smaller contract (100-120 pts) so that I can be ready to purchase some points at Disneyland when new DVC property goes on sale. With all that being said, thoughts on making an offer this month or waiting until early next year? I am wondering about thoughts on where pricing is headed as well as any pros or cons on one property or the other that may not be obvious.

Adding: Is there an easy way to search for contracts other than checking every resale site I can find?

 

[AC168]

I have a VGC resale and am thinking about adding a AUL or WDW like u. I’d suggest going up to 150 points or more. A lot depends on what times you want to go. For AUL and AKL, there are times where 7 month window is plenty but some others where u need home resort advantage.

 

[enkiktd]

I am also west coast (Seattle) and picked Aulani due to proximity, and am considering the Disneyland tower. There are some good deals for Aulani, and the subsidized dues are great if you can get them.

 

[sleepymouse]

I have a VGC resale and am thinking about adding a AUL or WDW like u. I’d suggest going up to 150 points or more. A lot depends on what times you want to go. For AUL and AKL, there are times where 7 month window is plenty but some others where u need home resort advantage.

Thanks for the input. We often travel at the end of August, right before labor day. Other than that, early April and possibly the week leading into Christmas. I would want to book hotel room or studio at Aulani or studio at AKL (doesn't need to be value). Do you know from experience if this is very difficult at any of these times?

 

[sleepymouse]

I am also west coast (Seattle) and picked Aulani due to proximity, and am considering the Disneyland tower. There are some good deals for Aulani, and the subsidized dues are great if you can get them.

I too am up in Seattle, hoping to move to the Bay Area. So either way, west coaster. The deals and proximity make Aulani my first pick.

 

[RoseGold]

I wouldn't buy any timeshare in Hawaii because of all the Hawaii laws. If you are going this route I would do a lot more research. I seriously considered a subsidized Aulani and decided against it because IMO Hawaii's changes over time have not been in favor of owners, and I wouldn't want to probate in Hawaii. And I wouldn't want to be selling Aulani when DVC is still holding so many bags of it.

If I were just buying SAP for WDW, and maybe selling them soon I would buy SSR or BLT. No problem selling either if you choose to.

There are some aggregators, but they are banned on these boards.

 

[AC168]

Is there anything in the horizon to make an AUL purchase worse? Can't you put your timeshare in a trust and avoid probate pretty easily?

 

[RoseGold]

Is there anything in the horizon to make an AUL purchase worse? Can't you put your timeshare in a trust and avoid probate pretty easily?

Sure, if you already have a lawyer and a trust.

But Hawaii has a lot more complication that that. A lot of them we just call dues (like property tax). But there's also transient tax and transfer tax and special title companies and all of that. Very different than Florida. Maybe that matters to you, maybe it doesn't.

Aulani's math is razor thin as SAP. All it takes is a big dues increase to kick it out of the top few, easily possible in a beachside resort in an expensive state, with a government that keeps adding tourism taxes. Maybe you feel that way about Florida, and your crystal ball is different than mine.

 

[AstroBlasters]

FWIW, there may some east coast bias going on. I can fly to Hawaii for $550 round trip in 5-6 hours and use the Alaska Air guest pass for $99, which is cheaper than flying to FL from the Pacific NW.

Also, IMO Hawaii > Florida.

I recently purchased my first Aulani resale contracts and am already planning to bring my in-laws (who are afraid to fly, but love the ocean) with us to stay in a Grand Villa in August.

 

[sleepymouse]

100% agree about flying Alaska with companion certificate. Really, flight length and cost are comparable to either HI or FL for travel from West Coast. My husband and I love Hawaii, especially Ko Olina, but my kids think it is boring . My youngest is all about the theme parks so his vote is FL. I also love WDW and DL. My oldest is off to college next year so not really factoring him in. Decisions, decisions.

 

[AstroBlasters]

100% agree about flying Alaska with companion certificate. Really, flight length and cost are comparable to either HI or FL for travel from West Coast. My husband and I love Hawaii, especially Ko Olina, but my kids think it is boring . My youngest is all about the theme parks so his vote is FL. I also love WDW and DL. My oldest is off to college next year so not really factoring him in. Decisions, decisions.

100% agree about flying Alaska with companion certificate. Really, flight length and cost are comparable to either HI or FL for travel from West Coast. My husband and I love Hawaii, especially Ko Olina, but my kids think it is boring . My youngest is all about the theme parks so his vote is FL. I also love WDW and DL. My oldest is off to college next year so not really factoring him in. Decisions, decisions.

Full disclosure, I am currently deep in my post Aulani purchase bliss. Now, with that out of the way.

I understand where you are coming from. I have a 9 and 13yr old boy and my wife was a cast member at DL who has ensured that we go at least once a year. Our consideration points:

1) It doesn’t seem to hard to get a WDW property that we would be happy with based on historical availability charts I found on the web. This works for the occasional WDW or Universal trip.

2) We might buy in at VDH or VGC, but the new Westin seems like a reasonable deal at $350/night. We used to ALWAYS stay at DLH or DGC, but for $600/$800 a night? No thanks! Paying blue card prices for a windowless room in Tomorrow Land lounge? Pass.

3) Our kids like the theme parks now, but over the next 39 years, are they going to want to go to theme parks or Hawaii? What about future spouses? Will it be more affordable for them to just buy a plane ticket vs plane, theme park tickets, etc?

4) Where will my wife and I want to travel on our own if they don’t want to go with us in the future?

5) What properties have reverted back to their pre-pandemic pricing levels?

 

[NVDISFamily]

Sorry if I missed it in the thread, are you considering the new Disneyland tower (VDH) in the mix? Out of any potential trips between WDW, Hawaii, or Disneyland Resort, having 11 month booking at Disneyland will likely have the most value for your family if you want to have that as an option in the long run. Not likely as good of a value in total points per $ in the short run, but still a good way to buy in to points at Disneyland vs the premium people pay for VGC. I love VGC buy the way, but given your purchase goals it's not the best value by a long shot.

Between Aulani and WDW, I'd rather have my booking priority at a WDW resort I love vs Aulani. Aulani, seems to have plenty of rooms that I could grab at 7months as I want a 2BR ocean view, and those don't seem too hard to get. The value of AKL seems to be going in a strong direction. I'm very tempted to try and pickup a contract there.

 

[RoseGold]

FWIW, there may some east coast bias going on. I can fly to Hawaii for $550 round trip in 5-6 hours and use the Alaska Air guest pass for $99, which is cheaper than flying to FL from the Pacific NW.

Also, IMO Hawaii > Florida.

How cheap it is to fly to Hawaii doesn't change that owning a Hawaii timeshare is very different than owning a FL one, and more risky IMO. I am talking about the logistics of owning any timeshare in Hawaii, not how nice Hawaii is. You can go to Hawaii and stay in hotels, or rent weeks on Redweek, you don't need to spend five figures on a Disney timeshare to do that. There are a lot of nice places I don't own property.

I'm sure Aulani is very nice. But as a timeshare, I think it's generous to call its past troubled. Reality is that Disney is still holding the bag on millions of points, many years later. That's not the property I want to be holding or trying to sell down the line. I'd much rather be holding a sold-out WDW property than an aging, one-off, off-site timeshare, clearly not Disney's focus, in a state which I perceive as hostile to timeshare owners.

Heck, I'd rather own a WDW timeshare even if I'm using all the points at Aulani.

If the goal is just to buy something before DLT goes for sale, I'd just stick to the old standard SSR. It has a known market price, there's tons of it coming and going. When you get tired of it, you sell. I do think pricing will go down in the next few months, but not a ton. I'd be starting now and making offers. It might take a while.

 

[sleepymouse]

I just talked to my husband, and we decided to wait for DLT to go on sale. He would much rather own in California than elsewhere. If DLT doesn't seem like a good idea after price and details released, I can always go back to scouring resale contracts at other resorts.

 

[AstroBlasters]

I just talked to my husband, and we decided to wait for DLT to go on sale. He would much rather own in California than elsewhere. If DLT doesn't seem like a good idea after price and details released, I can always go back to scouring resale contracts at other resorts.

I am curious if he knows that 100 points would cost $9500 at Aulani and an estimated $22,500 at VDH….

 

[Sun_soakin]

I just talked to my husband, and we decided to wait for DLT to go on sale. He would much rather own in California than elsewhere. If DLT doesn't seem like a good idea after price and details released, I can always go back to scouring resale contracts at other resorts.

That’s my plan as well. We’re West Coast (nearly Bay Area) and love our trips (at least once a year) to HI but my kids are mostly teens now and they are over Aulani, they think it’s super limited, geared toward babies, they prefer to explore, change up islands, etc. And, I agree. We still enjoy visiting the parks and regret not having purchased GCA when it released.

 

[NVDISFamily]

I just talked to my husband, and we decided to wait for DLT to go on sale. He would much rather own in California than elsewhere. If DLT doesn't seem like a good idea after price and details released, I can always go back to scouring resale contracts at other resorts.

I kind of misread your original post the other night (been working long days recently). If you know you will own in the long run at more than one resort the value of buying a small contract at AUL or AKL to get you current member pricing could be a good strategy. The big wildcard that's hard to predict right now seems to be how much Disney is going to raise (or not raise) prices before VDH goes on sale. It seems like they are on a path to push prices up and unless they offer really strong discounts I think you might not get the best prices at VDH during the initial sale of it. I was tempted to consider buying 300 points at VDH if its discounted to the 180s a point (or perhaps 200 points in the 190s a point). If it's north of 210 a point, I'd rather dance with the ROFR monster and buy more VGC in the 240s.

There's a lot of benefit of having your points in one large pool (same resort and same UY) vs spread out unless you are able to get plenty of points to make them do well on their own. If you can do that, than you can also consider breaking up your UY to have more coverage of the calendar.

Hope all goes well in your quest to become a member.

 

[HIRyeDVC]

7 month booking at Aulani and AKL is generally easy if you’re going for the higher point category rooms like ocean or savanna views. But you’ll burn through your points really fast. If you’re trying to book Aulani hotel rooms or AKL value or concierge, then you better be an owner. I used to be a huge proponent of NOT buying Aulani but I ended up buying a subsidized contract and love it. We are a local Hawaii family that own here, DLR, and at WDW. We use our contracts to mainly stay at the hard to book rooms at the 11 month window. My biggest advice is to buy where you want to stay the most,…unless it’s a 2042 resort. I would not buy those.

 

[enkiktd]

I am curious if he knows that 100 points would cost $9500 at Aulani and an estimated $22,500 at VDH….

Plus if you're buying direct you might as well buy the min points for the blue card, so (as of today) 150.

 

[kevtlas]

7 month booking at Aulani and AKL is generally easy if you’re going for the higher point category rooms like ocean or savanna views. But you’ll burn through your points really fast. If you’re trying to book Aulani hotel rooms or AKL value or concierge, then you better be an owner. I used to be a huge proponent of NOT buying Aulani but I ended up buying a subsidized contract and love it. We are a local Hawaii family that own here, DLR, and at WDW. We use our contracts to mainly stay at the hard to book rooms at the 11 month window. My biggest advice is to buy where you want to stay the most,…unless it’s a 2042 resort. I would not buy those.

I definitely agree that it is almost impossible to book Aulani hotel rooms (there are only 6 I believe) unless you own there or rent from someone who does. That said, I'm a big advocator for SSR resale. To me that provides the best balance of value (costs on lower side of DVC spectrum and decent longevity). I have always had luck booking at other resorts with 7 month window, but would be willing to rent from another owner to get that one off reservation at the 11 month window if necessary. I think buying SSR saves money in the long run, and it still has decent resale value if you decide to sell after a few years.