Buy Saratoga Springs to Stay at Aulani?

LOL, it's like 50% sold. At this rate, it will take a while...

I wouldn't buy Aulani as a timeshare because of Hawaii's laws. Hawaii has taxes and hoops that other states do not, and HI has changed laws in ways that have not benefited owners. I wouldn't want to own it because it is clearly not Disney's focus, they'll be selling it direct for such a long time, and the demand is just not there for the resale when it's time to sell, at least that's what recent years have shown.

At least with SSR, the most bought and sold timeshare in the world, you know you can get in and out of easily enough.

When will Aulani points become the new VB???
 
LOL, it's like 50% sold. At this rate, it will take a while...

I wouldn't buy Aulani as a timeshare because of Hawaii's laws. Hawaii has taxes and hoops that other states do not, and HI has changed laws in ways that have not benefited owners. I wouldn't want to own it because it is clearly not Disney's focus, they'll be selling it direct for such a long time, and the demand is just not there for the resale when it's time to sell, at least that's what recent years have shown.

At least with SSR, the most bought and sold timeshare in the world, you know you can get in and out of easily enough.

Your thoughts definitely ring true to me, as I also worry about owning a HI timeshare and also future Maintenance Fee increases.

SSR seems like the best alternative for price, maintenance fees, duration till expiration, and liquidity unless I’m overlooking a resort???
 
I think your plan will work. I am in the middle of buying SSR resale right now to mainly use at vero. We own 100 at vero already and the dues are ridiculous and are only going to get worse. So we decided buy SSR for the lower maintenance fees (even tho purchase price for vero is much less) I would rather have less to worry about yearly in dues. But I am also 100% ok with using the points at SSR if I have to. But worst case you can always rent out your SSR points if for some reason you can’t get Aulani, but I don’t think that will happen with your flexibility.
 
Our experience of traveling almost yearly to Aulani has made it advantageous for us to buy there. The resale Aulani contract cost us about the same amount per point we paid for our VGC contracts in 2010, so we thought it was a great deal.

I don’t see where the extra taxes are added, besides at Aulani hotel check out and selling the timeshare.

To be honest, I think there is a big demand to buy at Aulani, maybe not direct, but definitely resale. Resales go quick from most of the popular listing sites. At the time of our Aulani offer, we were one of the four bidders on the Aulani subsidized contract. We eventually got the contract but it was very stressful.
 

I was thinking along the same lines, but the lower maintenance fees (not many subsidized Aulani became available) and our travel flexibility push me towards SSR.

I’ll keep watching though, but long term I could definitely see some price pressure on Aulani with large jumps in MF’s which won’t impact you as much.
 
We are west coasters who bought SSR to go Aulani. Worked like a dream. Get plenty of points, stay in better view rooms, lots of availability!
 
I'd go with the cheapest resort in your case. While we own some Aulani points, we book our trips there at the 7-month window since ~75% of our points are WDW properties and we need those for the long stays at Aulani. Being flexible in your travels, especially in the months of February or October, should work for you.

Why not try a dummy booking right now for October dates since Its inside the 7-month window?
We picked up an Aulani contract for 91 dollars a point and passed ROFR. This is far below any resale SSR we could find (that was our initial strategy). 7 months at SSR is almost completely available but not in reverse so we rolled the dice. Add in the extra 8 years on the contract and its a no brainer.
 
We picked up an Aulani contract for 91 dollars a point and passed ROFR. This is far below any resale SSR we could find (that was our initial strategy). 7 months at SSR is almost completely available but not in reverse so we rolled the dice. Add in the extra 8 years on the contract and its a no brainer.
How long ago did you get an Aulani contract for 91 dollars?

A lot of SSR contracts have double points for 2021 which is nice.

Just not seeing much Aulani available and I see the MF’s being a long term issue.
 
When will Aulani points become the new VB???

Mathematically, all it would take a is a nasty dues increase or tax increase, both of which seem plausible to me. The tax increase could come from multiple places at once. Aulani is an aging beach resort, which isn't a great combination as the other properties have shown -- and HI has cash strapped state and local governments. The beach dues have increased faster than even the aging WDW properties, and HI's historic behavior towards timeshare owners is not what I consider friendly.

A shift in the dues math would impact resale value, assuming SAP level is maintained, which it has been historically.
 
I don’t see where the extra taxes are added, besides at Aulani hotel check out and selling the timeshare.

Your taxes are in your dues. That's how things like property taxes are paid. Just because you see it as a dues increase, doesn't mean it isn't a tax increase.
 
SSR seems like the best alternative for price, maintenance fees, duration till expiration, and liquidity unless I’m overlooking a resort???

I think anything in the top few SAPs is a good choice, except VGF, which has gone off the rails in the last couple months.

https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/blog/best-economical-dvc-resort-to-purchase-fall-2020/
If you're planning to hold longer term, there have been some screaming deals on CCV, and tons on the market right now, so they will negotiate. There's a loaded deal at www.**********.com right now.

Short term, hard to go wrong with SSR. Less money upfront, easy to unload. I think BLT is a nice balance, and has 11 month priority that is quite useful and can get you some savings, if you will use it, but that requires buying carefully.
 
How long ago did you get an Aulani contract for 91 dollars?

A lot of SSR contracts have double points for 2021 which is nice.

Just not seeing much Aulani available and I see the MF’s being a long term issue.
We just passed ROFR with 95, not as low as 91. We did a low bid first. I think it was listed at 105. We actually thought we would have to go up higher but they accepted our first bid. So just keeping trying. :)
 
How long ago did you get an Aulani contract for 91 dollars?

A lot of SSR contracts have double points for 2021 which is nice.

Just not seeing much Aulani available and I see the MF’s being a long term issue.
We just got our loaded April 2021 contract (got 200 points for April 2021 UY) - 100 point per year. That took about 4 months got go through all the hoops. For the years remaining its a steal even with higher dues. Also, we like DVC so we can take family with us. My wife and I are so lucky to be able to afford it but sad that none of our family has money to go with us. For that reason we also LOVE Hawaii and the hotel rooms with 2 queens are hard to book unless right at 11 months from what I can see. These rooms plus standard studios run almost 1000 per night and we travel to Hawaii eery 2-3 years..we just love it. So Aulani does make sense or us for sure but if you are in the long term game of owning, the 2062 UY is great. Also I would not bank on SSR or any DVC resort holding low dues. Yes ocean side resorts have wear and tear but they are aggressive increasing wages in Florida which will bring dues close in line I'm sure. We have already seen that this year.

Hope that helps. Saratoga is beautiful but seems to be going for 120+ points right now. I think both are good to be honest but don't go for Aulani over 105PP. Thats the sweet spot to offset the dues. Also if you need to rent, Aulani 7-11 months in hard to book times fetches more on rental market than SSR for sure. Food for thought.
 
We just got our loaded April 2021 contract (got 200 points for April 2021 UY) - 100 point per year. That took about 4 months got go through all the hoops. For the years remaining its a steal even with higher dues. Also, we like DVC so we can take family with us. My wife and I are so lucky to be able to afford it but sad that none of our family has money to go with us. For that reason we also LOVE Hawaii and the hotel rooms with 2 queens are hard to book unless right at 11 months from what I can see. These rooms plus standard studios run almost 1000 per night and we travel to Hawaii eery 2-3 years..we just love it. So Aulani does make sense or us for sure but if you are in the long term game of owning, the 2062 UY is great. Also I would not bank on SSR or any DVC resort holding low dues. Yes ocean side resorts have wear and tear but they are aggressive increasing wages in Florida which will bring dues close in line I'm sure. We have already seen that this year.

Hope that helps. Saratoga is beautiful but seems to be going for 120+ points right now. I think both are good to be honest but don't go for Aulani over 105PP. Thats the sweet spot to offset the dues. Also if you need to rent, Aulani 7-11 months in hard to book times fetches more on rental market than SSR for sure. Food for thought.

It definitely is a tough call, the issue now though is there are hardly any Aulani contacts for sale.

Lots of options for SSR, so we’ll see how it that stays the same as I figure out what to do.
 
All DVC resorts via resale prices are up, except CCV and RIV. Very few contracts out there driving up the price.
 











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