Buying 2 contracts..? Home resort?

[pennylane16]

Hello!

We're pretty sure we're at the point where we are ready to start keeping an eye on resales and purchase soon. We considered buying direct, but after seeing the price per point resale vs direct, I changed my mind. One thing is holding us back, and here comes my question -- We are very interested in being able to stay at the Polynesian, but since there are no Poly resales, only direct, we obviously can't buy a Poly contract if we go the resale route. My question is, if we buy a resale contract, do we have a good shot at getting a room at Poly if it's not our home resort? My husband is a teacher, and his school has a summer program as well, so the only times we could do a big Disney trip are: February school vacation week, April vacation week, late June/early July, late August or holiday vacation week. I realize these are mostly busy times at WDW.

My second question is - let's say we'd like to go every 2 years, and we might need a bit under 500pts per trip, so we plan to buy 250pts and just do the bank/borrow method, should we try to buy a 125ish contract at one hotel and another 125ish contract at another hotel? Does that mean we'd have 2 home resorts? Any downsides to buying 2 contracts as opposed to one?

Any responses are greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time to read and respond!

 

[supersnoop]

ebruary school vacation week, April vacation week, late June/early July, late August or holiday vacation week. I realize these are mostly busy times at WDW

Those are slower times for DVC. Since PBV is so new, it's hard to say how reservations will play out in the future. For the next couple years, it should be pretty easy to get a room at 7 months.

 

[pennylane16]

Those are slower times for DVC. Since PBV is so new, it's hard to say how reservations will play out in the future. For the next couple years, it should be pretty easy to get a room at 7 months.

Thanks! That's reassuring!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

First, there have been and will be Poly resale even if there don't happen to be any now. So far it's few but that will increase the further we get from the initial sales. But they'd have to have a decent discount vs direct to have it make sense and you'd also really want to always stay at Poly to justify the high price you'd pay. As far as booking there at this time it's relatively easy to book at 7 months although as sales continue that will likely change a bit. But there still should be some times that you can get in there even if it's waitlisting. As long as you'll be ok staying elsewhere at times buying another resort should probably work out ok.

Since you'll only go every other year then unless you would be wanting to do split stays there really isn't a reason to buy 2 resorts. If you had 2 and only wanted to stay at 1 each trip it would work out to be 4 years between each resort and that won't work with only being able to bank or borrow points - 3 years between trips is the most you can do and even that gets to be difficult to not end up with stranded points. I'd suggest just one resort.

 

[pennylane16]

First, there have been and will be Poly resale even if there don't happen to be any now. So far it's few but that will increase the further we get from the initial sales. But they'd have to have a decent discount vs direct to have it make sense and you'd also really want to always stay at Poly to justify the high price you'd pay. As far as booking there at this time it's relatively easy to book at 7 months although as sales continue that will likely change a bit. But there still should be some times that you can get in there even if it's waitlisting. As long as you'll be ok staying elsewhere at times buying another resort should probably work out ok.

Since you'll only go every other year then unless you would be wanting to do split stays there really isn't a reason to buy 2 resorts. If you had 2 and only wanted to stay at 1 each trip it would work out to be 4 years between each resort and that won't work with only being able to bank or borrow points - 3 years between trips is the most you can do and even that gets to be difficult to not end up with stranded points. I'd suggest just one resort.

It's funny you mentioned that because I didn't realize that & then I ended up seeing one! Just so I understand, if you have 2 different contracts (each for a different resort), can you use ALL the points total from both contracts added together to book one trip? For instance if had 100 at WL and 100 at Poly and wanted to book a Poly stay that required 200pts, could I use 100 of the WLpoints? Thanks

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

It's funny you mentioned that because I didn't realize that & then I ended up seeing one! Just so I understand, if you have 2 different contracts (each for a different resort), can you use ALL the points total from both contracts added together to book one trip? For instance if had 100 at WL and 100 at Poly and wanted to book a Poly stay that required 200pts, could I use 100 of the WLpoints? Thanks

Yes, you could use the points from both contracts but only at 7 months. But if you're just going to use them at 7 months then you ought to purchase a DVC resort that costs the least overall. At 11 months in your example you could book with the 100 Poly points at the Poly resort and then the 100 VWL points at VWL and you would have a split stay. At 7 months you could take one or both of those reservations and book at any DVC resort.

 

[pennylane16]

Ahhh I understand. Thank you!

 

[Dean]

Hello!

We're pretty sure we're at the point where we are ready to start keeping an eye on resales and purchase soon. We considered buying direct, but after seeing the price per point resale vs direct, I changed my mind. One thing is holding us back, and here comes my question -- We are very interested in being able to stay at the Polynesian, but since there are no Poly resales, only direct, we obviously can't buy a Poly contract if we go the resale route. My question is, if we buy a resale contract, do we have a good shot at getting a room at Poly if it's not our home resort? My husband is a teacher, and his school has a summer program as well, so the only times we could do a big Disney trip are: February school vacation week, April vacation week, late June/early July, late August or holiday vacation week. I realize these are mostly busy times at WDW.

My second question is - let's say we'd like to go every 2 years, and we might need a bit under 500pts per trip, so we plan to buy 250pts and just do the bank/borrow method, should we try to buy a 125ish contract at one hotel and another 125ish contract at another hotel? Does that mean we'd have 2 home resorts? Any downsides to buying 2 contracts as opposed to one?

Any responses are greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time to read and respond!

For the Poly I don't think it makes sense to wait or fool with resale, there wouldn't be enough price difference to fool with and resales early on are likely to be stripped (less current points). As noted, it is new and we don't know how availability will turn out. I think most of us feel availability for studios and 2 BR will be good most of the time due to the numbers and high prices. IMO that likely will change if they do a reallocation such that standard view is lower points but we'll see how that goes. If they reallocate and lower the 2 BR points, availability will likely be very difficult there.

You mentioned 500 points every 2 years, that seems like a lot for the situation you've described. Are you looking at multiple weeks or a 2 BR for part of a week? My answer would be different depending. Assuming it's 2 weeks with 2 studios, realize you can't guarantee they'll be connecting though it's likely they would. For this situation (2 weeks/2 villas or 4 weeks/1 villa). I'd buy elsewhere maybe for 200 to 250 points or so and see how it goes. IF staying at the Poly is important, I'd likely buy elsewhere and see how it goes but for the lower points. If it appears likely you'll need to own there with your usage, then you could do an add on there to what you owned resale to get the higher points. That plan might leave you with points you couldn't use for an EOY strategy but you could always go more or rent them out about once every 4 years. If I were going to buy the Poly, I'd buy fixed weeks. Obviously there are a number of variables here, we could give better information with more of your plans.

 

[disneynutz]

If you really want PVB, you have stayed at other resorts and PVB and you know that PVB is the one, I would buy direct 50 or 100 point contracts. Later if you decide that you don't need so many PVB points you can sell a contract while keeping others.

Our mistake was buying prior to staying so we own some resorts that aren't our favorites.

Bill

 

[pennylane16]

For the Poly I don't think it makes sense to wait or fool with resale, there wouldn't be enough price difference to fool with and resales early on are likely to be stripped (less current points). As noted, it is new and we don't know how availability will turn out. I think most of us feel availability for studios and 2 BR will be good most of the time due to the numbers and high prices. IMO that likely will change if they do a reallocation such that standard view is lower points but we'll see how that goes. If they reallocate and lower the 2 BR points, availability will likely be very difficult there.

You mentioned 500 points every 2 years, that seems like a lot for the situation you've described. Are you looking at multiple weeks or a 2 BR for part of a week? My answer would be different depending. Assuming it's 2 weeks with 2 studios, realize you can't guarantee they'll be connecting though it's likely they would. For this situation (2 weeks/2 villas or 4 weeks/1 villa). I'd buy elsewhere maybe for 200 to 250 points or so and see how it goes. IF staying at the Poly is important, I'd likely buy elsewhere and see how it goes but for the lower points. If it appears likely you'll need to own there with your usage, then you could do an add on there to what you owned resale to get the higher points. That plan might leave you with points you couldn't use for an EOY strategy but you could always go more or rent them out about once every 4 years. If I were going to buy the Poly, I'd buy fixed weeks. Obviously there are a number of variables here, we could give better information with more of your plans.

Thank you for the insight! The 500 points per trip came from me looking at some point charts and it looking like we'd need a bit less than 500 and wanting to cover myself. We are a family of 4 (myself, DH, and our 2 kids ages 5&10), but my mom comes with us on our Disney trips. After having stayed at a LM room at AoA when DD was 2, and then in a suite at AoA a couple years later, having that extra space/separate bedroom thing was really nice, especially for DH. So since we are aiming to go to WDW every couple years, we like to try to stay for a week (last time our trip was 9 days), and like I said, it'd be nice to get something bigger than a studio since there's usually 3 adults, 2 kids in our party.

Also worth mentioning, is that we would really like to travel to Aulani in the future (probably not for awhile, I think it'd make more sense for our situation to save it for when DD is older), so I want to make sure we have enough points for a stay there. We usually pay an arm & a leg for airfare for the 5 of us since we travel during school vacations because of DH's line of work, so we try to stay for a whole week. If we could travel at times where airfare wasn't as pricey, I could see us taking smaller, more frequent trips, but that't not the case.

Thank you very much for the help!

 

[pennylane16]

If you really want PVB, you have stayed at other resorts and PVB and you know that PVB is the one, I would buy direct 50 or 100 point contracts. Later if you decide that you don't need so many PVB points you can sell a contract while keeping others.

Our mistake was buying prior to staying so we own some resorts that aren't our favorites.

Bill

Bill - we have not stayed at PVB, just visited for breakfast. It's the #1 hotel we'd all love to try. Do you mean buy several of the smaller contracts for PVB? If I bought just one 50pt contract direct for PVB, those 50pts wouldn't cover much of a stay for us. Can one book a stay with their 50pt contract at 11months and use points from another contract (different resort) to cover the PVB stay in conjunction with the 50pts from the PVB contract?

 

[pennylane16]

Thank you everyone for your responses and helpful input!!

 

[Dean]

Thank you for the insight! The 500 points per trip came from me looking at some point charts and it looking like we'd need a bit less than 500 and wanting to cover myself. We are a family of 4 (myself, DH, and our 2 kids ages 5&10), but my mom comes with us on our Disney trips. After having stayed at a LM room at AoA when DD was 2, and then in a suite at AoA a couple years later, having that extra space/separate bedroom thing was really nice, especially for DH. So since we are aiming to go to WDW every couple years, we like to try to stay for a week (last time our trip was 9 days), and like I said, it'd be nice to get something bigger than a studio since there's usually 3 adults, 2 kids in our party.

Also worth mentioning, is that we would really like to travel to Aulani in the future (probably not for awhile, I think it'd make more sense for our situation to save it for when DD is older), so I want to make sure we have enough points for a stay there. We usually pay an arm & a leg for airfare for the 5 of us since we travel during school vacations because of DH's line of work, so we try to stay for a whole week. If we could travel at times where airfare wasn't as pricey, I could see us taking smaller, more frequent trips, but that't not the case.

Thank you very much for the help!

It sounds like 500 every 2 yrs is more than you need. It sounds like 400 EOY is more reasonable and should give you what you describe. As a minimum it'd work for now while you get the real story in how it works for you. I wouldn't buy for a maybe single future trip, there are always ways to cover that situation. And there are ways to save points. What you might do is let the best contract decide your exact points if you go resale. IF you decide on retail for the Poly (very expensive options and likely not necessary for Lake view) then I would do fixed weeks either concurrently or consecutively.

 

[disneynutz]

Bill - we have not stayed at PVB, just visited for breakfast. It's the #1 hotel we'd all love to try. Do you mean buy several of the smaller contracts for PVB? If I bought just one 50pt contract direct for PVB, those 50pts wouldn't cover much of a stay for us. Can one book a stay with their 50pt contract at 11months and use points from another contract (different resort) to cover the PVB stay in conjunction with the 50pts from the PVB contract?

If you are buying direct, I would buy several 50 or 100 point contracts. The contracts are combined for your 11 month booking at that home resort. You can't combine other resorts for an 11 month booking.

Later if you decide to reduce your PVB holdings, you can sell one or two contracts and add the new latest DVC property to your holdings. Another possibility is that you will use PVB for MK stays and buy BWV for Epcot and DHS stays. As a DVC owner no need to park hop, a couple of parks this vacation, other parks next vacation.

50 point contracts sell fast and at a premium. We sold a couple of AKV 50 pointers in 1 day.

Bill

 

[supersnoop]

You said you wanted more space. PVB only has studios (and ridiculously expensive bungalows). That doesn't sound like the best option for you.

 

[pennylane16]

It sounds like 500 every 2 yrs is more than you need. It sounds like 400 EOY is more reasonable and should give you what you describe. As a minimum it'd work for now while you get the real story in how it works for you. I wouldn't buy for a maybe single future trip, there are always ways to cover that situation. And there are ways to save points. What you might do is let the best contract decide your exact points if you go resale. IF you decide on retail for the Poly (very expensive options and likely not necessary for Lake view) then I would do fixed weeks either concurrently or consecutively.

So you're saying you think we could get away with a 200ish pt contract instead of 250? I saw some very nicely priced VWL contracts but then remembered that BLT has a later exp date & started looking at those.

 

[pennylane16]

You said you wanted more space. PVB only has studios (and ridiculously expensive bungalows). That doesn't sound like the best option for you.

Yes, very true. I guess it's just that we'd LOVE to try Poly, so we'd deal with the reduced space for that resort, but in general would prefer more space.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

So you're saying you think we could get away with a 200ish pt contract instead of 250? I saw some very nicely priced VWL contracts but then remembered that BLT has a later exp date & started looking at those.

Have you looked at the point charts and the requirements for the average stay you'd like to do? 500 points will generally be a 2-3 week stay in a 1BR at most of the resorts.

 

[pennylane16]

Have you looked at the point charts and the requirements for the average stay you'd like to do? 500 points will generally be a 2-3 week stay in a 1BR at most of the resorts.

I have been looking at point charts, yes - considering 2br for some trips bc if DH & I take the bedroom, I don't want that to mean my mom ends up on a fold out couch.

 

[supersnoop]

Yes, very true. I guess it's just that we'd LOVE to try Poly, so we'd deal with the reduced space for that resort, but in general would prefer more space.

Don't buy there if you just want to try it. Unless you're going to stay there 75% of the time, it just doesn't make sense.

I have been looking at point charts, yes - considering 2br for some trips bc if DH & I take the bedroom, I don't want that to mean my mom ends up on a fold out couch.

Use the calendar at http://www.dvcrequest.com/cost-calculator.asp and click the "Show Point Amount" button. A two-bedroom for a week should be much closer to 300 points on average.