airjay75
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2025
- Messages
- 108
Been working on this new post for a few days. Probably have too much here, but if you can bear with the length, please have at me! Welcome any thoughts or feedback.
Background: I own 300 RIV points (direct) with an Oct UY. Our family loves RIV and are happy to own that amount of points there for the long run. That said, I knew when I bought I eventually wanted some points for one of the monorail MK resorts. We like the idea of split stays (3 days at MK resort, 4 days at Epcot/HS resort), although we could also go for alternating stays trip-to-trip with banking and/or borrowing. At the moment, I feel like BLT is the resort in which I have the most interest (whole thread on it here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/considering-blt-resale-purchase.3968016/). I have more research to do in this regard, but there are a lot of things that I think strongly point in the direction of us liking BLT better than VGF or Poly. I think we'd still like VGF or Poly, but just see us having a preference for BLT given what I know of overall vibes and points charts values. In addition to that, I think I am beginning to realize that we simply want more points for more stays every year - we like 1 BR villas and 300 points are pretty good for at least a 1 week stay, but they aren't going to get you much more than that. Sure, I'd love another 300 points, but I'm not sure I'm ready to go quite that far just yet. Thinking another 200 points or so would probably quench my thirst for now.
Option 1: 200 points, give or take, of BLT Oct UY resale contracts. Would have to hunt for these - Oct UY BLT contracts are about 5% of BLT contracts. Might eventually find the right contract(s), but I wouldn't be surprised if I need to pay somewhere between $135-$145 pp to get what I want, and I would guess it's going to be more than one resale contract (which means extra closing costs). If I assume $140 pp, $3k in closing costs (2 contracts, buyer paying closing costs and current year dues), would be looking at about $31k to purchase. Maybe I could score some really good deals if I am patient enough and give it enough time - but I'm not sure how easy that is going to be or how long it is going to take. Might end up with more than 200 points (which I'd probably be ok with). Pros - cheapest option and gives me access to the 7-11 month booking window at BLT; would likely lose the least amount of money on resale if it comes to that. Cons - will take time to find contracts, more time to close and access points, no guarantee I'll find what I want, and points can't be used at RIV (or future resorts) ever.
Option 2: 200 points of Poly direct add-on. I would have these broken up into smaller contracts for ease of resale down the road (either 4 50-pointers or 2 100-pointers). Using current promotions, I calculate the approximate cost of this to be about $40K. Pros: Gets me some priority booking at a MK resort even if I don't think it's going to be my favorite, points will have no restrictions on use at RIV or future resorts, highest resale value of all three options (and the delta between direct and resale right now is ridiculously small IMO), can be used at 7 month window to combine with my RIV points. Cons: Most expensive option, have had hesitations about how much we will like Poly over BLT, couldn't be combined with RIV points during 7-11 month window.
Option 3: 200 points of RIV direct add-on. Similarly, would break them up into smaller contracts. Using current promotions, I calculate the approximate cost of this to be about $37k. Pros: Gets me my extra points at a lower price point, provides some future proofing against future RIV stays where we may decide we want to upgrade our accommodations and we know RIV is a resort we love. Cons: Lowest resale value of the three - pretty big sunk cost; doesn't get us priority booking at a MK resort during 7-11 month window.
(Option 4: 200 points of BLT direct add-on. Ok, just for kicks, I ran the numbers on this. Assuming you can still get the AP, D23, and magical beginnings savings - not sure if you can - total cost would be about $50k. I don't really consider this an option, just putting it out there.)
Additional thoughts/questions:
1. BLT 1 BR bookings: Seems to be that, outside of high demand times, booking a lake/preferred 1 BR Villa is pretty easy within the 7 month window. If I'm happy with that, maybe I don't need direct BLT points. Could that change in the future? Maybe when new attractions open at MK (e.g. Cars Land), but that would likely be temporary right? I suppose you can never predict the future. Maybe BLT suddenly gets really popular and it is hard to book at 7 month period. On one hand, wouldn't mind having the ability to priority book in that 7-11 month window, but maybe I don't really need it if I'm ok using points for lake view rooms.
2. Combining Poly/RIV points at 7 month window for RIV bookings: If I ever want to do that, how difficult is it going to be? Maybe not so bad if I'm ok with preferred view bookings? I suppose another way to manage it would be to borrow RIV points if that's really want I want to do in a given year and bank the Poly points if I didn't want to use them. That said, I really don't know how much we're really ever going to need anything more than a 1 BR villa, at least not on a yearly basis (I know, never say never). I've also thought, in the past, the if I needed extra RIV direct points at some point in the future (e.g., planned to be booking 2 BRs for 4-5 years), maybe the better path would be a resale RIV contract that I would offload after those 4-5 years passed.
3. Number of Points: I did the math above on 200 BLT resale points to keep things apples to apples, but, TBH, I'd probably be happy currently with something less than that (maybe 150-175). But, when I start looking at direct points, I have a really hard time not going up to the 200 point level since incentives increase a bit there and you avoid multiple sets of closing costs should you do more add-on later.
4. Timing: Going to Disney 7/12-7/19, so plan to do an official tour/offer crossing the current incentive period. If past is prologue, you'd probably predict just incremental changes to current incentives. Plan to use our existing 300 points for a stay in February 2026. Next most likely booking would be mid to late June 2026 (to get a 3rd trip in with planned AP purchase for July 2025 trip). If I do go direct and, assuming there isn't some huge incentives offered and/or price increases post-7/14, maybe it makes sense to wait on pulling the trigger on any direct add-on purchase. That gives me more time to look at BLT resale market to see what comes along, and, if I add-on in Jan/Feb, could probably use those points for another "welcome home" booking in June 2026 (although now that I think about that, it would screw up my numbers above, because I'm assuming I'd take advantage of the "magical beginnings" buy back for Oct 2024 UY points, and I wouldn't get those points post-October 2025, so maybe need to pull the trigger by end of September if I decide this is the best option).
5. Direct purchase and contract size: If I do buy direct, should I go with 4 50-point contracts or 2 100-point contracts? I feel like the traditional wisdom is the smaller the better, but I have to say, having gone through the resale contract hunt this past week for the first time, I sort of think that there is point at which contracts are so small relative to closing costs, that they just almost seem like they're not worth the trouble. I feel like if I were looking for an add-on, I'm not sure I'd care about whether it was 50 or 100 points - would be more focused on price per point, UY, available points, etc.
Although I was BLT resale contract hunting this past week, I think I have finally convinced myself I need to wait until at least our July trip - go back to PIT, tour VGF, take the monorail over to Contemporary and BLT, and continue doing my research on these 3 resorts. If my current thoughts about the monorail resorts doesn't change, and incentives post-7/14 are just another incremental adjustment (as opposed to some big sale), probably lean towards the direct Poly points.
Alright, this is a long post. Welcome any and all thoughts, even if it is just to one part of my post. You guys are all so awesome, and the feedback I've received on this forum to date has been invaluable.
Background: I own 300 RIV points (direct) with an Oct UY. Our family loves RIV and are happy to own that amount of points there for the long run. That said, I knew when I bought I eventually wanted some points for one of the monorail MK resorts. We like the idea of split stays (3 days at MK resort, 4 days at Epcot/HS resort), although we could also go for alternating stays trip-to-trip with banking and/or borrowing. At the moment, I feel like BLT is the resort in which I have the most interest (whole thread on it here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/considering-blt-resale-purchase.3968016/). I have more research to do in this regard, but there are a lot of things that I think strongly point in the direction of us liking BLT better than VGF or Poly. I think we'd still like VGF or Poly, but just see us having a preference for BLT given what I know of overall vibes and points charts values. In addition to that, I think I am beginning to realize that we simply want more points for more stays every year - we like 1 BR villas and 300 points are pretty good for at least a 1 week stay, but they aren't going to get you much more than that. Sure, I'd love another 300 points, but I'm not sure I'm ready to go quite that far just yet. Thinking another 200 points or so would probably quench my thirst for now.
Option 1: 200 points, give or take, of BLT Oct UY resale contracts. Would have to hunt for these - Oct UY BLT contracts are about 5% of BLT contracts. Might eventually find the right contract(s), but I wouldn't be surprised if I need to pay somewhere between $135-$145 pp to get what I want, and I would guess it's going to be more than one resale contract (which means extra closing costs). If I assume $140 pp, $3k in closing costs (2 contracts, buyer paying closing costs and current year dues), would be looking at about $31k to purchase. Maybe I could score some really good deals if I am patient enough and give it enough time - but I'm not sure how easy that is going to be or how long it is going to take. Might end up with more than 200 points (which I'd probably be ok with). Pros - cheapest option and gives me access to the 7-11 month booking window at BLT; would likely lose the least amount of money on resale if it comes to that. Cons - will take time to find contracts, more time to close and access points, no guarantee I'll find what I want, and points can't be used at RIV (or future resorts) ever.
Option 2: 200 points of Poly direct add-on. I would have these broken up into smaller contracts for ease of resale down the road (either 4 50-pointers or 2 100-pointers). Using current promotions, I calculate the approximate cost of this to be about $40K. Pros: Gets me some priority booking at a MK resort even if I don't think it's going to be my favorite, points will have no restrictions on use at RIV or future resorts, highest resale value of all three options (and the delta between direct and resale right now is ridiculously small IMO), can be used at 7 month window to combine with my RIV points. Cons: Most expensive option, have had hesitations about how much we will like Poly over BLT, couldn't be combined with RIV points during 7-11 month window.
Option 3: 200 points of RIV direct add-on. Similarly, would break them up into smaller contracts. Using current promotions, I calculate the approximate cost of this to be about $37k. Pros: Gets me my extra points at a lower price point, provides some future proofing against future RIV stays where we may decide we want to upgrade our accommodations and we know RIV is a resort we love. Cons: Lowest resale value of the three - pretty big sunk cost; doesn't get us priority booking at a MK resort during 7-11 month window.
(Option 4: 200 points of BLT direct add-on. Ok, just for kicks, I ran the numbers on this. Assuming you can still get the AP, D23, and magical beginnings savings - not sure if you can - total cost would be about $50k. I don't really consider this an option, just putting it out there.)
Additional thoughts/questions:
1. BLT 1 BR bookings: Seems to be that, outside of high demand times, booking a lake/preferred 1 BR Villa is pretty easy within the 7 month window. If I'm happy with that, maybe I don't need direct BLT points. Could that change in the future? Maybe when new attractions open at MK (e.g. Cars Land), but that would likely be temporary right? I suppose you can never predict the future. Maybe BLT suddenly gets really popular and it is hard to book at 7 month period. On one hand, wouldn't mind having the ability to priority book in that 7-11 month window, but maybe I don't really need it if I'm ok using points for lake view rooms.
2. Combining Poly/RIV points at 7 month window for RIV bookings: If I ever want to do that, how difficult is it going to be? Maybe not so bad if I'm ok with preferred view bookings? I suppose another way to manage it would be to borrow RIV points if that's really want I want to do in a given year and bank the Poly points if I didn't want to use them. That said, I really don't know how much we're really ever going to need anything more than a 1 BR villa, at least not on a yearly basis (I know, never say never). I've also thought, in the past, the if I needed extra RIV direct points at some point in the future (e.g., planned to be booking 2 BRs for 4-5 years), maybe the better path would be a resale RIV contract that I would offload after those 4-5 years passed.
3. Number of Points: I did the math above on 200 BLT resale points to keep things apples to apples, but, TBH, I'd probably be happy currently with something less than that (maybe 150-175). But, when I start looking at direct points, I have a really hard time not going up to the 200 point level since incentives increase a bit there and you avoid multiple sets of closing costs should you do more add-on later.
4. Timing: Going to Disney 7/12-7/19, so plan to do an official tour/offer crossing the current incentive period. If past is prologue, you'd probably predict just incremental changes to current incentives. Plan to use our existing 300 points for a stay in February 2026. Next most likely booking would be mid to late June 2026 (to get a 3rd trip in with planned AP purchase for July 2025 trip). If I do go direct and, assuming there isn't some huge incentives offered and/or price increases post-7/14, maybe it makes sense to wait on pulling the trigger on any direct add-on purchase. That gives me more time to look at BLT resale market to see what comes along, and, if I add-on in Jan/Feb, could probably use those points for another "welcome home" booking in June 2026 (although now that I think about that, it would screw up my numbers above, because I'm assuming I'd take advantage of the "magical beginnings" buy back for Oct 2024 UY points, and I wouldn't get those points post-October 2025, so maybe need to pull the trigger by end of September if I decide this is the best option).
5. Direct purchase and contract size: If I do buy direct, should I go with 4 50-point contracts or 2 100-point contracts? I feel like the traditional wisdom is the smaller the better, but I have to say, having gone through the resale contract hunt this past week for the first time, I sort of think that there is point at which contracts are so small relative to closing costs, that they just almost seem like they're not worth the trouble. I feel like if I were looking for an add-on, I'm not sure I'd care about whether it was 50 or 100 points - would be more focused on price per point, UY, available points, etc.
Although I was BLT resale contract hunting this past week, I think I have finally convinced myself I need to wait until at least our July trip - go back to PIT, tour VGF, take the monorail over to Contemporary and BLT, and continue doing my research on these 3 resorts. If my current thoughts about the monorail resorts doesn't change, and incentives post-7/14 are just another incremental adjustment (as opposed to some big sale), probably lean towards the direct Poly points.
Alright, this is a long post. Welcome any and all thoughts, even if it is just to one part of my post. You guys are all so awesome, and the feedback I've received on this forum to date has been invaluable.
the choices are endless 
