Buying direct - RRV, OKW or SSR?

[Mrs p]

Hello all, I hope someone has already considered this choice?
We are about to add on for a blue card-(I know, it’s not best value, but it’s a sort of present for the kids).
We have been discussing our options and are stuck - we want to decide this weekend. We travel every aug and sometimes Oct/ family of 6 (4 tall teen kids). Our options are:

1-riviera fw -130 pts = $193 /pt or 163 pts pref =£182/pt (fw for long term retirement food and wine)
2- SSR on current 150 deal = $157/pt
3 - OKW 125 = $165/pt
We would have gone for the SSR, as with the low dues and prices rising the direct gap is narrow- however we already own their. The OKW is less to outlay but £165 hurts! That leaves RR - putting aside the resale restrictions - we like the resort but mostly travel in august so assume a 2 bed won’t be hard to get at 7 months.

Any opinions welcome to stop us arguing !
Thanks

 

[princesscinderella]

Here are my thoughts:

I think the FW is the way to go with RIV if you end up buying there as it future proofs it a bit if you did have to resell it. We bought the standard view FW at RIV because we like that you can see Epcot’s fireworks if you get a high enough floor. They also allowed me to get a small 34 points additional contract so if you think you will need the additional points that a preferred View requires but would rather have the standard view you could do it this way. I like the small extra points because if I really wanted to make my fixed week go from Saturday to SundayI have enough to book the Saturday on it’s own at the 11 month window. RIV has a lot of food options which I think is nice too.

OKW direct will expire in 2057 so that’s a bit longer on the contract than SSR and has a nice low point chart for larger room stays.

We love the treehouses so that’s why we choose SSR to buy points at, even though maybe the bunk room wouldn’t maybe work as well with tall teenagers.

If you make the decision on numbers RIV is actually cheaper to buy in per point over the length of the contract between the OKW and SSR. It does have higher dues though as compared to the other two.

RIV will also require more points for a two bedroom than the others.

Dive into the point charts so see what would require points wise to stay in 2 bedrooms at each resort at the times you like to travel and for how long you like to stay, since you want to go annually. You might need more than 125 or 150 points, you might need 167 points. I’d add a couple more for cushion in case the charts get readjusted too. What’s nice about buying direct is you can get exactly the number of points you want even if it’s an odd number.

Best of luck with your decision.

 

[Wedgeout]

With already owning SSR, I’d go with the 150 there for the blue card. All your points can be combined at 11 months for grand villas, treehouses, etc. Plus you will have a 150 point direct point contract to use, bank, and borrow from for RIV trip planning. If didn’t already own at SSR, my suggestion would be what I did after buying resale. 125 at OKW for blue card and 2057 expiration.

 

[Theta]

2- SSR on current 150 deal = $157/pt
3 - OKW 125 = $165/pt

What is the 150 point deal at SSR for $157/pt. Is that for everyone or for existing DVC owners.

 

[RoseGold]

This isn't enough points to go far in a 2BR, especially at RIV. There's a big difference between 38 points for an SSR 2BR and a 54/68 points for a RIV 2BR. I'm not really clear where you want to stay.

I would wait until the Blue Card benefits actually come back to buy direct. Direct is not going anywhere, and this is a huge amount of money for some discounts that may or may not exist again.

 

[Mrs p]

Here are my thoughts:

I think the FW is the way to go with RIV if you end up buying there as it future proofs it a bit if you did have to resell it. We bought the standard view FW at RIV because we like that you can see Epcot’s fireworks if you get a high enough floor. They also allowed me to get a small 34 points additional contract so if you think you will need the additional points that a preferred View requires but would rather have the standard view you could do it this way. I like the small extra points because if I really wanted to make my fixed week go from Saturday to SundayI have enough to book the Saturday on it’s own at the 11 month window. RIV has a lot of food options which I think is nice too.

OKW direct will expire in 2057 so that’s a bit longer on the contract than SSR and has a nice low point chart for larger room stays.

We love the treehouses so that’s why we choose SSR to buy points at, even though maybe the bunk room wouldn’t maybe work as well with tall teenagers.

If you make the decision on numbers RIV is actually cheaper to buy in per point over the length of the contract between the OKW and SSR. It does have higher dues though as compared to the other two.

RIV will also require more points for a two bedroom than the others.

Dive into the point charts so see what would require points wise to stay in 2 bedrooms at each resort at the times you like to travel and for how long you like to stay, since you want to go annually. You might need more than 125 or 150 points, you might need 167 points. I’d add a couple more for cushion in case the charts get readjusted too. What’s nice about buying direct is you can get exactly the number of points you want even if it’s an odd number.

Best of luck with your decision.

Thanks for your comments
That was our thoughts on the fixed week but our guide wouldn’t sell us the small additional contract - the standard fw should hold value better but the good incentives kick in at 150. Not sure if our guide is being difficult?

We were planning to bank and use every other year to allow 2 beds in august - long term if it’s the two of us we can use the fw as it is in October.
We will defiantly try the treehouses, they look great and the points seems good value

 

[Mrs p]

With already owning SSR, I’d go with the 150 there for the blue card. All your points can be combined at 11 months for grand villas, treehouses, etc. Plus you will have a 150 point direct point contract to use, bank, and borrow from for RIV trip planning. If didn’t already own at SSR, my suggestion would be what I did after buying resale. 125 at OKW for blue card and 2057 expiration.

Thanks, today im edging towards OKW as it’s the cheapest way in, plus OKW was our first visit and we like it, although the kids don’t !

 

[Mrs p]

What is the 150 point deal at SSR for $157/pt. Is that for everyone or for existing DVC owners.

It’s an existing owners deal - not sure when it expires though

 

[Mrs p]

This isn't enough points to go far in a 2BR, especially at RIV. There's a big difference between 38 points for an SSR 2BR and a 54/68 points for a RIV 2BR. I'm not really clear where you want to stay.

I would wait until the Blue Card benefits actually come back to buy direct. Direct is not going anywhere, and this is a huge amount of money for some discounts that may or may not exist again.

This isn't enough points to go far in a 2BR, especially at RIV. There's a big difference between 38 points for an SSR 2BR and a 54/68 points for a RIV 2BR. I'm not really clear where you want to stay.

I would wait until the Blue Card benefits actually come back to buy direct. Direct is not going anywhere, and this is a huge amount of money for some discounts that may or may not exist again.

I agree about the discounts. We like RRV and we use our resale SSR all over. The blue card points are really to give us access to RRV if we want but not exclusively and any new resorts long term. Blue cards not going anywhere but I have a feeling there maybe a direct price increase coming - resale prices have risen so much the gap has closed So who knows?
The not buying now at all is real option though and the cheapest !

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

You could also just do 125 at SSR for $165/pt. Having them all at 1 resort is nice. Will 125 at OKW get you the room you want at 11 months?

 

[princesscinderella]

Thanks for your comments
That was our thoughts on the fixed week but our guide wouldn’t sell us the small additional contract - the standard fw should hold value better but the good incentives kick in at 150. Not sure if our guide is being difficult?

We were planning to bank and use every other year to allow 2 beds in august - long term if it’s the two of us we can use the fw as it is in October.
We will defiantly try the treehouses, they look great and the points seems good value

I had very specific wants when we bought RIV and they were able to meet them all. I had to go into great detail as to why I wanted the UY I wanted because they wanted me to have DEC which meant I would have had three UYs which was a no go for me. I added RIV to my April UY. I told my guide we were ready to buy if she could get me what we wanted and she made it work it took about 5 phone calls back and forth to make it happen. If you explain why you want the extra small point contract to get an additional night if you want to add it to your fixed week and I think they can make it happen. If you want to PM me I can give you my guide’s info she’s based out of CA instead of Orlando.

 

[Mrs p]

You could also just do 125 at SSR for $165/pt. Having them all at 1 resort is nice. Will 125 at OKW get you the room you want at 11 months?

Yes that’s another option, but we use our SSR as sleep around. 125 won’t get us far at OKW but banking every other year to 250 gets us enough. The extra 25 pts to get the incentive at SSR in effect are only 117 each which is what pushes us back there ! This is exactly our problem, a case can be made for any of our options!

 

[Mrs p]

I had very specific wants when we bought RIV and they were able to meet them all. I had to go into great detail as to why I wanted the UY I wanted because they wanted me to have DEC which meant I would have had three UYs which was a no go for me. I added RIV to my April UY. I told my guide we were ready to buy if she could get me what we wanted and she made it work it took about 5 phone calls back and forth to make it happen. If you explain why you want the extra small point contract to get an additional night if you want to add it to your fixed week and I think they can make it happen. If you want to PM me I can give you my guide’s info she’s based out of CA instead of Orlando.

Thanks for the info - if we can decide what we actually want I will be able to insist with our guide! They have the Oct fw for us but the aug use year is a must. When we purchased our resales we were decisive; the opposite this time.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Thanks for the info - if we can decide what we actually want I will be able to insist with our guide! They have the Oct fw for us but the aug use year is a must. When we purchased our resales we were decisive; the opposite this time.

Not all guides have ever sold a fixed week and aren't very well versed on them. You can get any fixed week in any UY but it's best to have it be somewhat close. An Oct week in an August UY is decent I would think but some guides may start out stating it has to be an Oct UY - and it doesn't. In the 1st year they probably can't book the week if it's already gone and you'd just receive points and your week would start the next year. There's been enough other reports of people being able to add on a small contract to the fixed week to reach a certain total that it probably only takes some pushing to get it done.

 

[princesscinderella]

Not all guides have ever sold a fixed week and aren't very well versed on them. You can get any fixed week in any UY but it's best to have it be somewhat close. An Oct week in an August UY is decent I would think but some guides may start out stating it has to be an Oct UY - and it doesn't. In the 1st year they probably can't book the week if it's already gone and you'd just receive points and your week would start the next year. There's been enough other reports of people being able to add on a small contract to the fixed week to reach a certain total that it probably only takes some pushing to get it done.

My guide had no clue about how fixed weeks work either . She told me once the room was booked it couldn’t be canceled ever. She said she learned so much with my deal. I asked her how long she had been a guide and she’s been there 3 years.

 

[WanderlustinFP]

I was able to purchase a FW for 130 points and an additional 70 point contract to hit the 200 point incentive for the RIV.

My guide wasn’t too familiar with FW either. He has never sold one in the 20 years since he has been with DVC. He always got back to me with all the questions I had.

 

[Mrs p]

Thanks all for your info and comments - no doubt our family will continue to debate tomorrow !

 

[dvc lover 1970]

I would opt for a split of 75 RIV and 50 SSR that gets you to 125 for blue card and lower fees.

 

[The Jackal]

I was able to purchase a FW for 130 points and an additional 70 point contract to hit the 200 point incentive for the RIV.

My guide wasn’t too familiar with FW either. He has never sold one in the 20 years since he has been with DVC. He always got back to me with all the questions I had.

They ( fixed weeks) haven’t been around long and I don’t know if any of the resorts that have them have ever sold out of them.

 

[sethschroeder]

They ( fixed weeks) haven’t been around long and I don’t know if any of the resorts that have them have ever sold out of them.

They sell out of certain weeks for certain categories of rooms. At RIV they do not even offer FW for the Tower Studios as an example and Standard Studios are sold out in Weeks 49 and maybe 48 last I heard.

Fixed week is a good way to go though if you are buying RIV since it insulates you against possibly room booking issues in the future and possibly you get lucky with the point chart shift.