Chewing my fingernails, what would you do?

[Pamlur]

When I planned our family trip for last September, I had the Disney Club membership that seemed to open doors everywhere. We stayed at BCV, had (2) 2-bedroom villas and (1) 1-bedroom villa.

We want to go back in December of 2005, and have the same size accomodations for 9 nights. We would really like to stay at BWV, but BCV would work almost as well; we LOVE being able to walk to Epcot.

CRO says they can't do anything for me until about 8 months out; that makes me nervous. It would be a LOT of points to rent, so I assume I would have to rent from several people. That makes me MORE nervous.

Are my chances of getting these villas from CRO any good at all? What would you, the more experienced folks, do?

Thanks!

 

[Cruelladeville]

You didn't say when you wanted to return--December again? Depending upon which date in December you are hoping for, you might want to try an AP passport/rate for the villas, but it's still not cheap, regardless whether you are using money or points. I usually get the fall special, which comes out in September, for December, but trying to get so many accommodations would make me very nervous if I waited till fall to make ressies. Perhaps you could make ressies 8 months out, but call in the fall to see if you can get the cheaper rate.

 

[DebbieB]

What part of December? The first 2 weeks are very popular with DVC'ers because it is the lowest point season and all the Christmas activities are in full swing. For the heck of it, you may want to call and ask CRO about availability for this December just to see what it might look like. Two bedrooms can be hard to get through CRO. If you want a villa, OKW usually has the most availability but it's not as close to the parks. I think renting is your best bet, make arrangements early next year. Better yet, have you considered buying into DVC? BCV and BWV are available through resales.

 

[Pamlur]

I'm sorry, we want to go in early December. Last year was September, but we'd love to see the Christmas decorations next time, and have cooler weather.

It's DH and me, oldest daughter with her husband and three children, oldest son and his wife, and middle son. The youngest of the grown-up kids will be 32 at the time.

I thought about a resale, but for that much time and that many villas, it would be over 800 points; that would cost a fortune! And I don't know that we would be going back again any time soon. Last year, DH was just out of the hospital with CHF, so he was on an ECV and we didn't get to do everything we wanted to.

With three kidlets, we would really like to have the laundry facilities and kitchens, and DH really wants his "space".

 

[KellyDVC]

Howmuch was CRO, including all taxes etc, when you went last time? I doubt there is too much discounting (AP, etc) during Dec, but I think renting DVC is a great value all the time. I have rented to others and rented from others on several occasions.

If you want to rent DVC, do so at least 11 months out and you will be guaranteed what you want. For Dec '04 you will have to waitlist and keep biting those fingernails for a few more weeks, if not months.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Pamlur]

Last time, we started out with (2) 2-bedroom villas, and I don't really remember how much it was going to be. I added a studio, then the Fairy Tale Package discount happened; the 2-bedroom wasn't covered by that discount, so I broke one apart to be (2) 1-bedroom villas. With patience and a lot of phone calls, I managed to get the last 2-bedroom villa covered. We saved about 40%, so ended up paying around $10k for:

(1) 2-bedroom
(2) 1-bedroom
(1) studio

UPH passes for 7 adults, 1 junior and 1 child (had one under 2) for 7 days.

This was all at BCV.

We were there Sept 6-13. We honestly wasted two days of the UPH because we got in about 6:00 pm on the first day and left before noon on the last day, but with the FTP those days were "free" anyway.

I guess that originally it was going to be upwards of $15k, but I didn't keep all the paperwork after we came home. I had a sheaf of papers/confirmations, since we had made several changes, and I took them with me (thank GOD: they couldn't find all our reservations at first).

I could go through a broker/wholesaler, I guess; we could have last time, but it would have been nearly $20k for what we wanted.

I'm patient, and I don't mind making phone calls. But I'll be nervous until I know what we can get.

I do appreciate the viewpoints.

 

[dianeschlicht]

And at $10 per point, renting would save you a couple grand. If you bought a sizeable resale now with the ability to bank all 2004 points and then add it to the 2005 points and borrow 2006 points, you would feasibly be able to do it with a purchase of a 200 point contract. There is a resale at the Timeshare store right now that is $71/point for a 210 point contract. That is roughly $14,900, and you could repeat the 2005 trip in 2008! The idea here is to repeat your trip every third year, or rent the points out when you can't use them.

 

[Pamlur]

Oh, that's so tempting! I'll see if I can get my husband to "see the math", but I don't know if he will or not. I'll let you know, thanks!

BTW, I've read about "maintenance"; how much is that, and how often do you pay it?

 

[dianeschlicht]

Maintenance is a per point fee that depends on the resort. Lowest is OKW at around $3.68 to Vero which is about $4.90.

 

[BWVDee]

Maintenance dues are paid once yearly or monthly (your choice) on the number of pts that you own. Keep in mind, dues are NOT a constant, they fluctuate from year to year and from resort to resort. The rate of increase has been very good over the years, however the dues generally do go up almost every year and will most likely continue to do so.

 

[TroyWDW]

Pamlur,

There are folks on this board who easily rent that many points. If you can plan 11 months ahead, you can be guaranteed what you want at the price you negotiate with DVC member.

Are you really serious about wanting to rent that many points?

Troy

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

You pay maintenance every year. This is erring on the high side but assume $4.25 per point for BWV or BCV. The only reason I'm saying that is you would need to buy one or the other to guarentee accomodations at an EPCOT resort.

The other thing is...you didn't say which nights you would be staying... I used Disney's software for a worst case scenario of checking in Friday night and checking out on Sunday. The reason why that is worst case is because Disney charges more points for Friday and Saturday nights and that gets you two of those... Anyway for that scenario a studio is 148 points, a one bedroom is 290 points and a 2 bedroom is 390 points (checking in Sat & checking out Sunday or Monday would make a significant difference by the way). So duplicating your prior reservations would be 1070 points.

You would need buy at least 357 points at BWV or BCV with that amount banked in a Dec use year. Nothing out there I can see now but in my lengthy experience with DVC (just kidding I'm a VWL owner) resales stay on the market longer in the fall so what you want will probably come up then.

Maybe I'm wrong about these numbers but lets assume I'm not...buying a resale would cost you mebbe $1800 in closing (assume you pay for a full year's maintenance) plus 25,300 (ish) for the contract(s). And then you'd have to turn around and sell it again when you were done with it if you thought you wouldn't use it again. Two more years of maintenance....another $3,000 plus whatever the cut would be to the selling broker.

If you only do this once I think you might be better off renting unless you can find a broker who will only take $1,000 to sell the contract.

 

[Pamlur]

Oh yikes! I forgot about closing costs, didn't I? And as much real estate as my husband has bought and sold, that earns me a BIG slap on the hand! Back to the drawing board, thank goodness I hadn't talked to him about this brainstorm of mine.

As to the question, I want to stay Thursday night through the next Friday night, so I know I have a lot of prime cost time wrapped up there. My ideal situation would be to rent (1) 2-bedroom and (1) 1-bedroom for the first two nights, then add another 1-bedroom and a studio for the last seven nights. DH and his son would be coming down to meet us on Saturday, and I could bunk in with one or the other of my kids until they got there.

My only fear with renting points several months out is DH's health; when I go through CRO, I can buy trip insurance. I haven't checked to see if I can buy it independently some other way, but I will be researching that soon. I wouldn't commit to point rental and then cancel on the member I was renting from, but that would be a BIG financial hit if we couldn't make the trip.

Thank goodness I have a little while to research. Or maybe I have that much time to drive myself insane.

We want to go. I had booked a DCL cruise for next May, but just couldn't get happy with it, so I cancelled it and started planning this trip. Every once in a while, my daughter and I look at each other and break into the "We're going back to Disney World" song and dance. We are worse than her kids!

(I found the dates we are looking at; Dec 8-17. My daughter homeschools, so we can go whenever it works out.)

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

Your new scenario is 827 points which is a bit better. But at $10 per point that's $8,270 just to rent the unit. No hoppers or anything else included. At the same time (IMHO) inflation and an increase in interest rates is something to be concerned about.

Oh...someone mentioned that you could rent out the points yourself if you purchased a contract and it fell through for some reason. For the 827 you'd need at least a 280 point contract with 280 points banked. Almost $20,000 plus closing and then of course the resale.

I might have screwed up one place in my first post...I'm not sure you'd have to pay 3 years of maintenance...but I guess that would depend. You'd need 2004, 2005 and 2006 points to make your Dec 2005 reservation. If you purchased in 2005 with the 2004 points banked you could save the one year of maintenance (about $1200 this time around). The resale commission is your big problem.

 

[JudyS]

It's possible to sell a DVC contract without a realtor; check our www.redweek.com or www.myresortnetwork.com Also, at least one of the four main DVC resellers has a flat fee, I believe.

If you've stayed at BCV or BWV once and liked it, and are planning to do it again, I'd say buy. After a couple more trips, the contract will have paid for itself.

A standard view at BWV would be cheaper than BCV. These go *right* at the 11 month window, though.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

That's what I was thinking so I didn't even bother with the Standard view numbers.

 

[Pamlur]

Well, DH says that no way will he even consider buying the points, so I'm back to square one, I guess. In the long run, we'll take whatever we can get, as long as we are all in the same resort. We just like being able to walk to Epcot, but we'll ride a bus or a boat if we need to.

I appreciate all your insight!

Pam

 

[Poorman]

If you can stay at OKW you could do 2 - 2BR for 596 points for the 9 nights. You could do a 1 BR and a studio but it ends up costing more. If the 2-2BR works for you it would be less than $6000.00 for the 9 nights.

There are pleanty of options and a lot of time to explore all options. No matter what it is still cheaper to rent points.

And most owners will work with you if you have to cancel,they will try to rent the rooms out,and at that time of the year there will be no problem re-renting the rooms.

 

[Pamlur]

We would need two 2-bedroom AND a 1-bedroom. I know that we sound really demanding, but my husband needs to be able to get away from all the kids and kidlets because he isn't as family-oriented as the kids and I are; we could manage with our middle son in the other bedroom. Our daughter and her family have to have two bedrooms with the three kids, because...well, because they have to separate the older two at night in order to get them to go to sleep. And our oldest son snores so badly that only his wife can sleep anywhere near him.

I'm just going to tell myself that somewhere there will be what we need. If it's OKW, then we won't walk to Epcot.