Buying PVB Direct

[VAMickeyFan]

So I think I'v decided what I need/want

-Since DVC is best used for DVC, I probably only need 50 points since we go every other year to a Disney vacation.

-Well never need/want more than a studio

So two questions for you all:

1. Any chance DVD sells me 50 Poly points direct?

2. I can always add on more points via resale or direct later for my same resort and UY, right?

This way I'll have my vacations set up as 1 year in the U.S./Disney and one year abroad, alternating.

 

[lawboy2001]

I asked this on another DVC thread but thought I'd ask here too ---

Say we close on a 100 point PVB April UY contract direct from Disney at the end of January 2016.
We'd get 100 points for the 2015 UY since we would still be in that UY (4/1/15-3/31/16).
We'd plan to stay in a PVB studio Sun 8/14/16 - Thu 8/18/16.
This would require 109 points according to the 2016 rate chart (23+23+21+21+21).
We would use 100 2015 UY points and 9 2016 UY points.

What are the chances we'd even be able to reserve a PVB studio for August 2016 in January 2016 since it's less than 7 months out? Does DVC MS help new owners with their first reservation?

TIA,
Debbie

Less than 7 months out will be tricky! Your best bet would be to ask for assistance when you buy your contract...I understand that the DVC guides can work around things and get you a reservation.

 

[VAMickeyFan]

Online, I've seen comments about Disney selling 50 direct to first timers, but that was back in 2010-2013

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

Less than 7 months out will be tricky! Your best bet would be to ask for assistance when you buy your contract...I understand that the DVC guides can work around things and get you a reservation.

Thanks. I thought that might be the case - both on the trickiness and DVC guides maybe being able to help.

I am just in the research phase now. DH & I might take a quick trip down to Disney in January to talk to a DVC guide and I'm doing some homework first!

 

[Eric Topp]

Would only buy on the resale market as otherwise, you are just throwing $ away! Started this journey years ago with analysis and actually entered into a Disney contract but came to my senses and cancelled it. Bought two years later with cash on the resale market and could not be happier!

 

[ziravan]

I asked this on another DVC thread but thought I'd ask here too ---

Say we close on a 100 point PVB April UY contract direct from Disney at the end of January 2016.
We'd get 100 points for the 2015 UY since we would still be in that UY (4/1/15-3/31/16).
We'd plan to stay in a PVB studio Sun 8/14/16 - Thu 8/18/16.
This would require 109 points according to the 2016 rate chart (23+23+21+21+21).
We would use 100 2015 UY points and 9 2016 UY points.

What are the chances we'd even be able to reserve a PVB studio for August 2016 in January 2016 since it's less than 7 months out? Does DVC MS help new owners with their first reservation?

TIA,
Debbie

DVC sometimes helps with your first reservation. If you bought before Jan 14, you should be inside the 7 month window and much more likely to get what you want.

Why not buy a few weeks early?

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

1. Any chance DVD sells me 50 Poly points direct?

2. I can always add on more points via resale or direct later for my same resort and UY, right?

1 - AFAIK there have been reports they will still sell 50 points direct to a first time purchase but the only real way to answer is to contact them.

2 - You would always be able to buy resale if you found a contract that fit your needs. And for at least a couple of years you'll be able to add on PVB direct too. Up until the last few months you could either add on or waitlist for any resort. The current DVC change to the program has been to close the purchase waitlist for VGF, VGC and BCV with the reason given that the waitlists are so long. That could happen in the future for any resort but I'd find it unlikely for PVB.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Thanks. I thought that might be the case - both on the trickiness and DVC guides maybe being able to help.

I am just in the research phase now. DH & I might take a quick trip down to Disney in January to talk to a DVC guide and I'm doing some homework first!

You can make it a condition of the purchase. My best guess is that odds are good they would find you a room.

 

[dizfan]

Online, I've seen comments about Disney selling 50 direct to first timers, but that was back in 2010-2013

There are many 50 point master contracts showing up on the county web site. Master contracts are a new UY for the purchaser. In most cases, these are new buyers. They have certainly been willing to sell 50 point contracts for PVB.
It is possible they changed their policy in the last 2 weeks, but unlikely. (I mention 2 weeks because deeds show up on the county web site anywhere from about 11 days to as far back as 7 months ago).

As KAT4DISNEY points out, the only way to know for sure is to contact DVD. If a guide tells you they won't sell you a 50 point contract, I would hangup and call again asking for a different guide.

 

[Dean]

The guide told us 100-150 points for a week long villa (1 br) for foreign travel. Having traveled abroad before, that would be good value for us.

Is it THAT frustrating to use? No one has real success doing it? Id have sworn a disney property would be attractive.

Is the maintenance issues that bad? You all feel the customer service is lacking too?

Anything you can share helps!

I realize you're altered your plans as this thread has progressed but I wanted to address some of these issues that it raises. Not only is RCI in general a poor choice for buying DVC, Europe specifically is a major problem other than easy areas like Canary Islands or off season. RCI doesn't give special consideration to the underlying property traded other than it's trade power. Contrary to popular belief here, there are many places that are higher demand than DVC from an exchange request standpoint. If F&W is your plan, I'd suggest you consider those locations as well.

Keep in mind that the ability to exchange for RCI can be removed without warning at any time. This is considered a "perk" and is not part of your sales contract. It would not be wise to count on this feature, despite the heavy marketing about RCI exchanges. I have also been told that although there are some comparable resorts on the RCI exchange, many are inferior to DVC.

While technically true (maybe), I think it's unrealistic to think that the main exchange company will be removed for any owners. BVTC is a larger risk of being removed. I would strongly agree that MOST RCI resorts are not comparable in qualify and value to DVC but some are. The problem is getting the ones that are is very difficult.

So looking at these RCI lists, there are some really cool hotels in Greece we'd love to go to (Santorini) but I can pretty much rule out trading DVC for these, huh? Just doesn't work like that?

See above, getting anything specific such as HI can be very diffucult.

Thanks for everyones advice! The RCI and non-Disney timeshare world makes my head spin...I'd rather never venture into that water. I'd LOVE to buy DVC and make it my hub for all hotel accomodation stays, but it seems like thats not really possible. If the DVC resorts and RCI exchanges were seamless (even if some are hard to get) I'd do it. But from what it sounds like, it looks like I can't just go search European villas and pick an available one.

You simply don't have enough info at this point, your choice whether you want to become educated in that area. I'd suggest if you're not willing to learn, you're not ready to exchange reasonably.

So I think I'v decided what I need/want

-Since DVC is best used for DVC, I probably only need 50 points since we go every other year to a Disney vacation.

-Well never need/want more than a studio

So two questions for you all:

1. Any chance DVD sells me 50 Poly points direct?

2. I can always add on more points via resale or direct later for my same resort and UY, right?

This way I'll have my vacations set up as 1 year in the U.S./Disney and one year abroad, alternating.

They may or may not sell you the Poly at 50 pts. As for buying more later, maybe. They can't sell you what they don't have. If you owned VGF and wanted more right now, you couldn't because they don't have the points and are not taking new names on the wait list. If you want the Poly, I'd suggest you consider a fixed week at a time that works for your plans.

 

[Budshark]

1. Any chance DVD sells me 50 Poly points direct?

Others have answered, but I'll give you a first hand account - Yes, they will sell a first time buyer 50 points. They don't advertise it, but they will. We discussed multiple options prior to settling on 100.

 

[mjillard]

Fixed wouldn't work in their case because they only go every other year. I really wish dvc would offer a fixed every other year like some off property timeshares do. As far as a first time buyer getting 50 pts, would Disney finance it? They financed my 55 pt contract but I was already a member. My nephew wants his own small contract at pvb. He is young, but he would have at least 20% down.

 

[VAMickeyFan]

What is considered Europe's offseason?

These other companies have varying levels of points. 40k points? 50k points? 40k points on top of your week long stay? At that point, I'm better off traveling the world normally.

 

[Dean]

Fixed wouldn't work in their case because they only go every other year. I really wish dvc would offer a fixed every other year like some off property timeshares do. As far as a first time buyer getting 50 pts, would Disney finance it? They financed my 55 pt contract but I was already a member. My nephew wants his own small contract at pvb. He is young, but he would have at least 20% down.

I think it would work very well in this situation. They might have points to deal with here and there but they could guarantee their time since they have specific times they want to go. It might work like this. Visit the first year after buying, take points the second year then for the third year either use banked points or use the fixed week. For the extra points they could always rent them or they could roll them forward possibly for a larger, longer or more point intensive trip in the future. I would recommend against just buying 50 points and trying to bank and use EOY though I know some have done so successfully.

What is considered Europe's offseason?

These other companies have varying levels of points. 40k points? 50k points? 40k points on top of your week long stay? At that point, I'm better off traveling the world normally.

Generally off season is the same as here but it will vary from location to location so you've got to investigate each area and each resort independently. That's why I suggested if one weren't willing to put some work into it, timeshares in generally aren't a good choice. Even then the top options aren't likely to be available very often and when they are, it'll normally be for an ongoing search initiated a year or 2 in advance. As for how to compare other points systems, just figure out how much the units are for each, that'll give you a good idea of the crossover comparison. For example, a 2 BR with DVC might be 300 points, with Bluegreen 18K points, with Wyndham 154K and with Marriott 5K. You can use the same info to compare fees for each system as well. Other than specific situations one is almost always better off just on cash over exchanging unless one can be VERY flexible. Those that do end up getting the better options put a lot of effort and time in learning and working the system.

 

[TheGecko]

When I was speaking with DVC as a potential new Poly buyer, they were telling me 100 pt minimum to buy in. Kind of makes sense since the cheapest week is 118 points. They may have changed or if you take a hard stance that you want 50 and no more they will relent to get a sale. They are still offering fixed weeks which add on about 10% to the going price, but guarantee the reservation. You can also choose a use year other than your fixed week month which really makes it flexible.

 

[VAMickeyFan]

They offered to sell us 50! We may go for 65...exactly enough for a week during F&W

 

[VAMickeyFan]

Whats the Buena Vista Trading Company, and how is it different from RCI?

 

[Dean]

Whats the Buena Vista Trading Company, and how is it different from RCI?

It's DVC's own registered exchange company. It basically is only currently used for interchange between Club Cordial or Club Intrawest and DVC. Personally I believe they could abandon RCI or II and just expand this system if they could liaison with say Marriott and Hilton or possibly even with some of the others (Wyndham, Bluegreen, Worldmark, Shell, Diamond, etc) but if they did, they'd need to pick and chose from the better resorts within the lessor systems and likely exclude the Orlando options as a minimum.

 

[VAMickeyFan]

Is it easier to interchange into these resorts?

 

[Dean]

Is it easier to interchange into these resorts?

Theoretically yes and at a reasonable cost. Still top resorts and times will likely not be available.