Best DVC Resorts To Have?

[cruisehopeful]

But that brings me to the ultimate question, if you’ve been doing the math… we are at 250 currently and may go up to 350-400 points between Riveira and Polynesian. Where else would be a good home? I keep seeing that we may want around 500 so we can have enough points for mixture of studio and 1 bedroom stays and occasionally rotating year of a grand villa type set up for my large family for a week.

If you are serious about a grand villa, you need to buy exactly where you want to stay. If you want to book a bungalow at Poly for a week, you'll need over 800 points and up to 1447 poly points to be able to book at the 11 month window. With banking and borrowing, you'll need at least 300 points at Poly. I suggest looking at the point charts for a week in a grand villa at all resorts you'd be happy staying at and then figure out how many points you need to buy to be able to book at the 11 month mark.

 

[intamin]

If you are serious about a grand villa, you need to buy exactly where you want to stay. If you want to book a bungalow at Poly for a week, you'll need over 800 points and up to 1447 poly points to be able to book at the 11 month window. With banking and borrowing, you'll need at least 300 points at Poly. I suggest looking at the point charts for a week in a grand villa at all resorts you'd be happy staying at and then figure out how many points you need to buy to be able to book at the 11 month mark.

Ehhh you really don’t need Poly points to book a bungalow. For the most part those are very easy to book at 7 months. If we’re talking about the 2BR penthouse then yeah you probably will need a lot of Poly points and actually need to own there since there are very few of them compared to bungalows even though availability hasn’t opened yet. Certain ones definitely need it like CCV, BW, VGF during certain times but if OP is flexible with split stays there’s no need to put them all necessarily at one resort. Lots of them don’t though like SSR, OKW, AKV etc.

 

[RickNJane]

We originally bought 250 BWV points back in 1996. More recently we added 250 BLT points. This makes a great split stay. We usually go for 2 weeks and this way we can walk to every park but AK. We also wanted to be closer to home so sprung for VDH. We usually only stay a week at DLR. We are now thinking of added a VGC through resale. That would give us the best flexibility. We looked at PIT, but the points really don't make sense to us. Seems pretty expensive point wise and we already own at BLT.

For us we wanted to be able to book at 11 months in the MK area and Epcot. BLT and BWV did this for us. Bonus is that the point charts for these resorts are extremely favorable.

VDH was more of an impulse buy. The ToT is a real killer expense. The Dues are high as well. That is why we are looking at VGC resale.

 

[kboo]

If you think you're going to end up with a total of 500 points, I'd keep it at 2 resorts. 3 resorts is a bit to keep track of. I'm a big fan of SAP+ points - meaning - if you travel at very hard-to-get times (Christmas week), then definitely pick a resort you will be happy booking at 11 mo (THE reason we got more VGF points).

Meant to add: for somewhat points heavy resorts, and also if you want flexibility to book larger units, it's helpful to have 200-300 points all in the same resort. We have 185 at BLT and it's not really enough for annual 1br trips, so we bank and go in a larger unit every other year now, and usually split with Riviera or VGF. If we are using VGF points at VGF, then we modify our BLT reservation at 7 months to stay elsewhere, so far we've stayed at: BCV, BWV, AKV on BLT points for a second half stay after VGF.

 

[kboo]

See Aulani with "waitlist" and "flexible" gives me a panic attack because your flights often aren't going to be flexible. You're probably going to have to book them way in advance and you're not going to have a ton of options. If your ideal resort at WDW isn't available at 7 months, you have a dozen viable backup plans. If Aulani isn't available at 7 months, you're fairly screwed.

If Aulani is going to be in your rotation even as often as once every 5 years, I think it's worth owning a contract 1/3 the size of your needs for a single trip. We like 8 nights in an Island Garden View 2BR in February (392 points) so we're in the market for a ~150 point resale.

I am not sure I agree, but that may also be because we've visited Hawaii fairly often (for East Coasters) and we wouldn't want to spend our whole stay only at Aulani or always stay on Oahu. I think I agree that if you want to be at Aulani and want to be sure you will be able to book Aulani each time you go to Hawaii, then you should look into buying Aulani points. BUT: there are many other islands, many resorts and condo resorts, and many things to do off-resort. So there are lots of viable backup plans, even with airfare booked, they just might not include Aulani for the whole time (last trip we split with a few days at Royal Hawaiian). Don't get me wrong, we really enjoyed Aulani when we were there last year and would definitely go again, and I did look at direct and resale contracts for a bit, but ultimately decided to add points at WDW since we go there more often, and we'd go to Aulani when we could book it. Also, joking about "flexible" was about having to "accept" Oceanview - which was amazeballs and I don't mind paying a bajillion points for OV. Funny, because I'm a points miser when it comes to WDW but we definitely felt like OV at Aulani was worth it!

I do agree, though, if you want a specific non OV room at a specific time, then you should buy Aulani points.

We usually don't manage to book airfare until 6mo or less just because of work and other schedules, so we'll book often a longer trip and then drop some days if the airfare doesn't line up. so the 7mo DVC window hasn't been a problem for us. Also tried to book Aulani for 2024 at various times and did not have any issues with 1br or larger, and OV, except for Christmas time.

For us we wanted to be able to book at 11 months in the MK area and Epcot. BLT and BWV did this for us. Bonus is that the point charts for these resorts are extremely favorable.

Our original plan was to go 50-50 BLT and BWV and we were flexible which came first. Then we got a little distracted once Riviera news came out, and decided to wait and see. We have young kids so 2042 wasn't so appealing, and the fact that every 2br is a LO - didn't love the layout and we knew we'd be in 2br eventually, and didn't want to compete for studios. So we added on at RIV, and we've also had no problem switching to BCV or BWV at 7mo when we've wanted to (which is, admittedly, never over Christmas).

 

[sndral]

…
Polynesian was always what I originally wanted
…

This is your answer.
DVC is a luxury, not an investment. Buy where you want to stay. Buy enough points at the resort you want to stay at for the villa size you want to stay in for the number of days you want to stay there.
You bought Riviera 9 months ago, why not get another couple of stays under your belt before you buy more points? Unless there’s a planned stay in the next 2 years that you will not have enough points for, there’s no rush to add on - Poly likely won’t sell out before 2026, meanwhile, leaving your DVC purchase cash in a CD will help ameliorate any DVC price increases.
Dreams of extended family trips are just that - dreams. Sometimes the stars align & your guests are available & can afford a WDW visit (tickets/meals/getting there is expensive even w/ lodging paid for.) Many times things don’t work out. Someone has an unexpected expense or illness or whatever & can’t go. I’ve owned over a decade & think the stars have finally aligned & I’ll be able to host family in a GV next year, at least everyone has committed & started saving for the airfare/tickets .

…
We bought AUL because it’s the cheaper of the two options between DL and AUL but also I see us using vacationing more frequently here (currently writing this from a 2BR at AUL ) than at DL. If I were going to DL even somewhat regularly I’d buy a DL resort and gamble at 7 months here at AUL though.
…

AUL was first offered for sale over 14 years ago, it’s still not sold out for a reason. It is a lovely resort, however, timeshares are abundant in the islands & w/out the lure of the world’s most popular theme parks, consumers wanting to commit to vacationing in Hawaii regularly have many options. Personally, my favorite island is Kauai, so I’ve no interest in a timeshare located on Oahu . My second visit to Kauai I stayed in a lovely timeshare unit I had rented, if I’d had the funds back then I would have happily bought there, but it’s long gone thanx to Hurricane Iniki.

 

[intamin]

This is your answer.
DVC is a luxury, not an investment. Buy where you want to stay. Buy enough points at the resort you want to stay at for the villa size you want to stay in for the number of days you want to stay there.
You bought Riviera 9 months ago, why not get another couple of stays under your belt before you buy more points? Unless there’s a planned stay in the next 2 years that you will not have enough points for, there’s no rush to add on - Poly likely won’t sell out before 2026, meanwhile, leaving your DVC purchase cash in a CD will help ameliorate any DVC price increases.
Dreams of extended family trips are just that - dreams. Sometimes the stars align & your guests are available & can afford a WDW visit (tickets/meals/getting there is expensive even w/ lodging paid for.) Many times things don’t work out. Someone has an unexpected expense or illness or whatever & can’t go. I’ve owned over a decade & think the stars have finally aligned & I’ll be able to host family in a GV next year, at least everyone has committed & started saving for the airfare/tickets .

AUL was first offered for sale over 14 years ago, it’s still not sold out for a reason. It is a lovely resort, however, timeshares are abundant in the islands & w/out the lure of the world’s most popular theme parks, consumers wanting to commit to vacationing in Hawaii regularly have many options. Personally, my favorite island is Kauai, so I’ve no interest in a timeshare located on Oahu . My second visit to Kauai I stayed in a lovely timeshare unit I had rented, if I’d had the funds back then I would have happily bought there, but it’s long gone thanx to Hurricane Iniki.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ to each their own. We find it as a nice alternative away from the parks. And yeah, it hasn’t sold out because it has such large inventory and is not park adjacent but I don’t think the quality of the resort is what’s doing it. And true, timeshares in Hawaii are a dime a dozen but only one of them lets me use my points at Disney World and has Stitch and Moana out there taking photos on a daily basis.

I did consider another island but we wanted Aulani to be our home base at least. We’re not really a fan of the Waikiki area but we like the Ko Olina area because of the seclusion it brings with it.

 

[VGCgroupie]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ to each their own. We find it as a nice alternative away from the parks. And yeah, it hasn’t sold out because it has such large inventory and is not park adjacent but I don’t think the quality of the resort is what’s doing it. And true, timeshares in Hawaii are a dime a dozen but only one of them lets me use my points at Disney World and has Stitch and Moana out there taking photos on a daily basis.

I did consider another island but we wanted Aulani to be our home base at least. We’re not really a fan of the Waikiki area but we like the Ko Olina area because of the seclusion it brings with it.

Hawaii and Mickey all in one place.

 

[BuzzLightyr]

I would add RIV resale if I were the OP.
RIV direct can work as direct SAP, including the cabins at Fort wilderness which is a different experience and great if you don't need all that space for kids.
Combine RIV direct and resale if you need a big stay at RIV.
The resale restrictions result in a steep discount but you've got the direct points to navigate around it.

 

[bakerworld]

We joined DVC when we were older, so our focus was villa point cost, contract length and theme. We were drawn to AK-J because we could access a value 1Br for the same point cost as other venues, like BC or BW, plus the membership length. Our second home was BLT which was also based on the ability to access lower point cost villas and contract length, along with being a monorail location. Our final home was based solely on location being walkable to two major parks. Being older the contract length didn't affect us enough to steer us away, although it is our smallest contract. If it had existed at the time, we would've selected RIV.