Buy Cheap and Stay at Another Resort?

[cep101]

As I mentioned in another thread, my husband and I are looking into buying DVC points. Is it a good idea to buy cheap points but stay at a different resort?

Vero Beach and Hilton Head are cheap, but they have high dues. Old Key West and Saratoga Springs have pretty cheap points as well but neither of them seem very exciting.

I think we would mainly want to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Possibly in the value studio? I know that gets booked pretty fast, so I am not sure if we would be able to get it at the 7-month mark. I also like the Savannah View. We will probably want to stay at other resorts as well over time.

We always go during off peak times. What are your thoughts?

 

[mousehockey37]

That's one of the main differences of your "home" resort. The ability of booking at 11 months. But it's not a secret that people buy at certain resorts and then never stay there.

 

[CarolMN]

Off-peak times for the parks are not necessarily the same as DVC off peak times. For example, DVC resorts tend to fill very quickly for October, November, & December stays.

You will almost always need the 11 month booking window to book the value & concierge categories at AKV, the standard and Boardwalk view categories at the BWV, any studio at the VGF, and the standard & theme park view categories at BLT. Depending on the time of year, those villas tend to sell out within days (sometimes minutes) of the 1 month window opening. It is not unusual for availability to be limited at the near park resorts before the 7 month window opens for certain times of the year and those times may surprise you.

Check out this thread for more info on 7 month availability:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/an...vailability-for-days-7-11-months-out.3281173/

Scroll down to the posts by drusba & crisi.

If you want to be sure of getting a value studio, you need to own at AKV. Savanna views are easier to get and are often available at 7 months.

In general, you should buy where you won't mind staying if you can't change at 7 months. If you don't or can't book more than 7 months in advance, then it doesn't matter which resort you choose to buy. That said, DVC works best for those who can plan at least 7 months in advance. Trips planned closer to arrival date will often result in split stays or frustration.

Good luck with your research.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

On a total cost per point for ownership basis, looking at resale pricing, dues and contract length, the cheapest resorts to own:

1. Saratoga

2. BLT

3. AKV. Yes, AKV.

Vero is considerably down the list.

If you want to stay on property but do not care where, Saratoga is going to be your value leader. BLT can wash out some if you think you'll need to rent points now and then, as you can rent those via brokers with Home Resort booking for $2 more per point than Saratoga.

AKV is essential if you want AKV Value Studios or 2BR units. You will not get them with non-home resort points.

 

[Dean]

As I mentioned in another thread, my husband and I are looking into buying DVC points. Is it a good idea to buy cheap points but stay at a different resort?

Vero Beach and Hilton Head are cheap, but they have high dues. Old Key West and Saratoga Springs have pretty cheap points as well but neither of them seem very exciting.

I think we would mainly want to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Possibly in the value studio? I know that gets booked pretty fast, so I am not sure if we would be able to get it at the 7-month mark. I also like the Savannah View. We will probably want to stay at other resorts as well over time.

We always go during off peak times. What are your thoughts?

It really depends, the YMMV is definitely the mantra in this situation. IMO the first question is whether DVC makes sense in any form but if it does, I think the UY and home resort are important but less important decisions. As a rule I tend to feel that new buyers don't know where the want to own or stay even when they think they do. IMO it's about how one wants to use the membership and how upset they'd be if they could only get the home resort. One isn't going to buy SSR and stay AKV value or VGF studio routinely. The time of usual visit also has some affect. I agree that VB & HH just for WDW trips are poor choices. SSR is the cheapest, BLT next looked at long term. I tend to discourage focusing on the specialty stays for new buyers. For example, to make AKV value stays worth it as a savings issue, you've got to stay there almost all the time. Most new buyers want to buy in and try different things. I feel many new buyers get blinded by the new/exciting resorts and overspend then use the points mostly like they would if they own SSR, a choice that will cost thousands of $$$.

 

[BillPA]

If you want to go to WDW, buy at WDW, not VERO or HH. Don't buy where you would not enjoy staying, the switch at 7 months is getting much more difficult. The purchase price is NOT the main cost, the dues are. So buy where you will love staying. Start small if you're not sure and add as you find where you really want to stay.

 

[Deb & Bill]

If you want to stay in AKV Value villas most of the time, buy AKV and prepare to book your stays at exactly 11 months out. Savanna view is a bit easier to get. Buy the resort you want to stay at the most, where you will be the happiest. Then you will always be able to book it at 11 months out. If you have to wait until seven months out, it is much harder.

 

[Marionnette]

As I mentioned in another thread, my husband and I are looking into buying DVC points. Is it a good idea to buy cheap points but stay at a different resort?

Vero Beach and Hilton Head are cheap, but they have high dues. Old Key West and Saratoga Springs have pretty cheap points as well but neither of them seem very exciting.

I think we would mainly want to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Possibly in the value studio? I know that gets booked pretty fast, so I am not sure if we would be able to get it at the 7-month mark. I also like the Savannah View. We will probably want to stay at other resorts as well over time.

We always go during off peak times. What are your thoughts?

I don't have anywhere near the experience level that a lot of posters in this forum have, but here's my 2¢.

As Disney continues to add more DVC units to the mix, it will become harder and harder to book non-home resorts at 7 months. This will be due to the increased number of owners, while the number of units at some of the more popular resorts remains finite. IMO, the Poly was a mistake (overpriced bungalows and no 1- or 2-bedroom units). That left a lot of points in the Poly system with owners who may not want a studio every visit but also don't have enough points to stay in a bungalow...ever. Those owners will be looking to book elsewhere at 7 months. Maybe not in the first few years of ownership, but soon enough. It's the main reason why I did not purchase at Poly even though I was prepared to when they announced construction.

Online booking has made it easier for everyone to make their reservations. I can go online today and see what kind of availability there is for a non-home resort even before the 7-month window opens, which means that I won't waste my first "real" search on the first day of my 7-month window looking for availability at a resort that I know has nothing open for my dates. I would already have an idea of where my BWV points can be used without picking up a phone. And I can jump online at any hour (instead of having to wait for Member Services to open and as long as the DVC website is not being quirky) to book a resort.

Using brokers to "unload" points that owners would otherwise allow to expire means that the resorts run closer to capacity than before. Most of us try to use our points or gift them to friends/family before they expire. But there are people like my neighbors and my brother, both of them own at SSR, who have allowed a large number of points to expire because they absolutely could not get away and no one that they knew wanted them either. Using a broker to rent a reservation out is an option that wasn't available years ago and it seems to be a more acceptable method for both renters and owners in some situations. Adding that easy way to get reimbursed for the points they cannot use means that fewer points get forfeited. And those owners who are renting out a reservation will be trying to book reservations at any resort at 7 months, or if they own at one of the more popular resorts, they will be booking prior to 7 months in order to get their premium payment.

For those reasons, I think it is more important than ever to buy where you don't mind staying. Book your home resort as soon as you know that you will be staying at Disney and try to switch resorts right at 7 months if you feel as if you would like to stay elsewhere. But either love your home resort or accept that you will most often be "stuck" staying there.

 

[Missyrose]

Do not buy another resort and expect to book an AKV value studio at seven months out. Those are hard to get even in the home-resort window.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

You can do it, but it might be difficult to get rooms at WDW 7 months out at the time you desire them. It's all going to depend on when you want to go and which resort you want. Anyone booking at 7 months will have difficulty booking AKV value, AKV club level, GF studios, Boardwalk standard or theme park view at BLT at almost any time. First two weeks of December will be difficult. Any weekend hosting a RunDisney event will be difficult. It's also hard to get Epcot area at all between September and December.

If you want to be able to stay at WDW at pretty much any time, it's best to buy at WDW. If you want AKV value studios much of the time, buy at AKV. If you're good with either savanna or standard and you don't care if it's Kidani or Jambo, you have more leeway.

 

[disneynutz]

There is a reason why Disney created the 11 and 7 months rules. You can either buy where you love to stay, book at 11 months and be happy or buy somewhere else and take your chances at 7 months.

It all depends on you, some don't care where they stay, some do.

Some check for better availability several times per day and play the waitlist game, others just want to pay a little more, book their favorite room and be done with it.

Bill

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

What times you go could be important as they might not be as slow of a time for DVC as you think. AKV values will require owning there to consistently get them but you might be fine owning SSR and booking AKV standard or Savannah view as they are often available at 7 months. I do suggest being ok staying where you own though if you do decide to go at busy times and can't change.

 

[zavandor]

If you know how to use the system well and you are flexible enough with your travel dates, then everything is possible.
As a SSR owner I've stayed at VGC twice, AKV value studio once for two weeks and I have now a reservation for 4 nights at BWV standard view. These are the most difficult reservations that I got, I also stayed at OKW and going to SSR and PVB soon.

BUT

I often travel during very slow periods for DVC: early September and January. I have the flexibility with my travel dates. I've liked every resort I've stayed in, I have a favorite one (for the moment) but others are close, so I'm happy staying at any DVC resort. I know how to book right at 7 months, the best strategies of using a waitlist (I got BWV standard using a WL, it wasn't available at 7 months), I plan my stays way in advance.
So booking other resorts is more than doable, but it requires some effort. For the peace of mind if you have a favorite resort, buy there. My personal opinion is that the beauty of DVC is in the ability to stay at different resorts so every vacation has something new and that's why I bought SSR. Your mileage may vary.

 

[drusba]

DVC's high demand season at WDW: late Sep to marathon weekend in Jan. If you intend to go during that time of year on a regular basis, then you should buy where you want to stay. That time of year has been getting increasingly worse in the last few years, and now even OKW and AKV are at risk a number of times of not being open at 7 months out, and even SSR is having issues with some dates.

DVC's low to moderate demand season at WDW: the Monday after marathon weekend in Jan to late Sep. If you will usually go during that time and can live without certain usual suspects that can be gone before 7 months out any time of year, then purchasing a lower cost (overall) resort such as SSR can seriously be considered. Those "usual suspects" are AKV value and club level, BLT standard view, BWV standard and boardwalk view studios (and 2BRs), VGF studios, and to some extent BLT theme park view and BCV.

What you should not do is buy AKV to get value rooms. Those do not just have a 7 month problem. They now have a serious 11 month problem. During the high season, they often book so fast that even many owners are blocked out from reserving at exactly 11 months out, and the same happens frequently at times during the low to moderate season. In other words, there can be valid reasons to buy AKV but one of them is not the hope of getting value rooms most of the time.

I look at SSR in resale as an ideal purchase if you do not mind staying there once in a while and intend to travel mostly in the low to moderate DVC demand season, and frankly it is actually a very nice resort with two large, themed pools now, multiple counter service places, a good restaurant, easy access to Disney Springs, easy access to and views of a golf course, and a recent correction that should have been made years ago. Disney changed the point system for SSR to a standard and preferred category starting January 1, 2017; that puts 60% of the resort in the standard category at nightly point costs that are now in the same range as OKW, where SSR should have been from the beginning. I do not own SSR but that change to me, along with its 2054 end date and lower resale prices, should make far more consider owning there.

 

[dsnydaddy]

Agree completely with drusba. SSR is not the red-headed step-child it used to be. Especially with the point re-allocation.

As far as buy where you want to stay... I agree with many of the previous posters, the Poly has really changed things up with DVC. Owners there really only have one choice. Studios. But if they find that they really want a one-bedroom or two bedroom (as many will when their families grow) they will find that their only option is to look elsewhere at the 7 month mark. This will really put a lot of pressure on the system at 7 months particularly at the smaller resorts.

I'm glad that the buy where I want to stay is SSR

 

[MrInfinity]

As I mentioned in another thread, my husband and I are looking into buying DVC points. Is it a good idea to buy cheap points but stay at a different resort?

Ok, so why not just buy where you want to stay? Buying a timeshare at a place you never intend to stay throws up red flags for me. We tour timeshares when we can to get the free $200 or whatever, and they always try that sales tactic. Just buy here, it's cheap, and you can stay anywhere! Even tho we cringe and think about how we'd never want to stay there. You're setting yourself up to be at a permanent, frustrating disadvantage. I really recommend buying somewhere that you'd want to stay. Book your 11-month window, then try to transfer into others, knowing that if you don't get another, you're happy with your primary. In your shoes I'd buy into the AK. It's a great resort, it's where you want to stay, and you can occasionally stay elsewhere too.

 

[chrisaman]

We like all the resorts at Disney World for many different reasons. That is why we go with the best bang for the buck when we buy. We look at 7 months for something we want to try like beach club or boardwalk, but if it isn't there, we do not get upset staying at OKW or SSR. So for people like us, we get more points so we can go more often by buying cheaper contracts. Ask yourself, do you want to go more and stay at your less desirable locations sometimes, or go less but stay where you want every time.

Also, the only stay we plan 11 months out is the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend, so if you don't plan vacations more then 7 months out, what is the point of buying one of those contracts anyway.

 

[gharter]

I would agree with other posters. It really depends on when you want to go to WDW. This was our first year in DVC, at slightly more than 7 months we could only get 4 of 7 nights at Board Walk during Food and Wine. I was happy to get than many nights. We went through several combinations of rooms before getting the other nights all at Animal Kingdom. For next year, booking at 11 months, I expect to get all of our night there. In off season for DVC, it probably would not be an issue.
We went with the philosophy of buy where you want to stay most often. By 7 months out, there were few rooms left anywhere during a high occupancy time like Food and Wine ( except 1 night here and there) at least the week we were going to be there.

 

[cep101]

I want to thank everyone for your input! We decided to get a SSR contract. We will use that to stay at different DVC resorts, but if we get "stuck" at SSR we will still be happy

This seemed to make the most sense for us. When you start considering DVC it is hard to get a real grasp of what is going on, so I really appreciate all of the advice.

 

[Cyberc1978]

....We will use that to stay at different DVC resorts, but if we get "stuck" at SSR we will still be happy

Having stayed at both SSR(1br) and AKV (studio) I would prefer to stay at SSR. I would however miss the view of the savanna.
Regards