Did you stay onsite before buying?

[nuhusky123]

I hadn't ever stayed at the Grand Floridian before we bought in since I could never afford to! And I love it.

However. I would say stay at AKV before you buy in. We had never stayed there more than a night or two and always did Animal Kingdom those days. When we stayed 7 days this year...I hated it. We lost SO much time on the buses! Our Savannah View room was at the far end and we MAYBE saw one animal a day from the balcony if we stayed in until 11 when they'd put food in our area.

It was a BIG letdown and we crossed AKV off our purchase list. And it was #1 honestly if we were ever going to buy more points. Obviously if you usually rent a car that bus time won't impact you but...it's a never again for us.

The secret trick for owning akv is to have a car. If you have a car you can park directly under your room at kidani and it takes all of thirty seconds to go from room to car and then the drive is actually super fast and easy to all parks save mk

if you google maps the drive it’s no longer than any other resort once you avg out drive times subject to nearest and farthest park

anyone who says they like busses from any resort is delusional

 

[McCrae]

We are staying at BCR in three weeks and plan to see a few DVC rooms. I have been stalking resale for pricing. My thoughts are to buy AKV and BCV with enough points for 2 trips at 5 days in a 1 BR AFTER we visit in May, but I so want to put an offer in now to buy AKV. We haven't stayed onsite at AKV, but I love the look of the pics and know my daughters would take it over when we stop going to Disney. Is that crazy to buy before visiting?

I wouldn’t buy without seeing a DVC property first. You can never be sure that you will like a resort just by looking at pictures. Each DVC resort is very different and you may or may not like them all. Transportation links may or may not be to your liking.

 

[nuhusky123]

I wouldn’t buy without seeing a DVC property first. You can never be sure that you will like a resort just by looking at pictures. Each DVC resort is very different and you may or may not like them all. Transportation links may or may not be to your liking.

I do agree with this. On paper poly should be my favorite resort and tick all my boxes

after staying there ive graded it a solid C, just ok. Started a whole thread on poly being a just ok resort. I wouldn’t ever buy there. But others love poly

 

[sndral]

Yes I stayed where I was buying & am glad I did, because I changed my mind about one resort I’d planned to buy.
My first contract was AKV - resale. I’d stayed in a resort room once & liked the resort, but still stayed in the resort a second time in a 1 br. villa in Jambo to see how I’d like the size villa I planned to stay in - I loved the 1 br.s, so I bought a contract there. Those points were enough w/ banking/borrowing to get me through awhile & when the time came to add on I used those points for a split stay at AKV & to try out the Epcot area resort - BWV - I thought I’d want next. I’d stayed at the YC several times in the past & really liked the YC, but had wandered through the BCVs area & wasn’t a fan of their tucked in the back location. I also managed to grab a couple of nights at VGF - because my favorite place to stay during my pre DVC days was the GF, but I wasn’t sure if it would be popular w/ my son. After that trip I knew, no BWV for us, despite the fact that I like staying in that area. & it was full steam ahead on VGF.

 

[RoseGold]

I own a lot of SSR and I’ve never even been inside. I think it depends on how much you know about Disney in general and how much you care about the priority.

AKL has some major transportation downside and DVC in general has a lot of downside, some of which is more obvious when you’ve actually stayed DVC. Many of the rooms are very dated, the toilet paper and toiletries are embarrassing, no housekeeping, bang on your door at 8am day of checkout, and so on.

I am glad I stayed WL. I was able to eliminate WL because the theme just didn’t work for me.

 

[Bjaiken77]

I never stayed at SSR and that was our first resale contract (and first overall) that we bought. It seemed like one of the safest introductions to DVC.

 

[suebeelin]

Almost bought akl sight unseen bc it sounded “cool” but bought bwv instead (and stayed at the inn before buying).

So glad we did- We stayed at AKL Kidani once and never again. We were unhappy with pretty much the whole 5 days (in a 2bdrm, too). We switched over to BWV and let out a high sigh of relief.

Everyone is different. Akl was too remote, transportation was horrible for us, and not enough animals to make up for the inconvenience.

Our next contract was BLT. We decided we like walking to parks.

Good luck.

 

[808blessing]

I stayed in each one, once and then bought after each stay.

 

[robinb]

I stayed at All Star Music before buying DVC. We toured the BWV demo. We bought at OKW as soon as we got home. We bought it sight unseen.

 

[aam808]

Opposing viewpoint here - I love animals, but AKV was not what I expected. I stayed at Jambo House. The animals felt very far away. Maybe Kidani is different. People talk about all of the places to view animals at AKV other than from your room, but we never saw a lot of animals at the lookout spots. The rooms are dark and it's hard to step over the bathtub ledge to get in the shower. I believe in "buy where you want to stay" to take advantage of the 11 month booking rule, and AKV is not someplace I would want to keep staying at.

BCV, on the other hand, probably does feel like what someone would expect. No surprises there.

Agree with you. March was our first time at Akl and although we were close to the lobby and saw many animals from our balcony, we may not return. The room was too dark for us and the property felt isolated. We visited beach club and hung out on the porch & didn't realize EPCOT was right there. I felt more relaxed there. our home is ccv, our guide brought us there to show us the beatiful lobby they are selling us.

 

[pineapplepalms]

I think it helps to have stayed on property and to do some research beforehand, even if you don’t stay at the resort you buy. Before buying DVC we had stayed at All Star Sports, POR, and some of the Deluxe resorts. On the trip that we bought DVC, we stayed in a 1BR at CCV through a DVC promo where you could get a discounted stay as long you did a tour. In addition, we got passes to try out the TOTWL and Epcot lounge. We loved our CCV stay and I had been doing a ton of research in the months leading up to that trip, so we bought at the end of our tour. For SSR, VGF, and RIV, we bought without having stayed there, and for BWV, we had only stayed on the hotel side before buying.

I would have to agree about AKV… I love a lot of things about AKV including the dining, animals, activities, Community Hall, etc. But after our stay at Kidani I’m not in a hurry to stay again. With young kids it just felt really far using bus transportation to get anywhere, and our room was at the end of a hallway that felt like it went on forever. Especially now with a double stroller, we are prioritizing staying where we can walk/gondola to a park. It also helps to think about whether you care about views. We considered BCV but bought BWV due to being able to select the view, and we want those Boardwalk view rooms! (plus access to Grand Villas)

 

[Marionnette]

We stayed at every one of our DVC resorts before buying. Not all of them were on the DVC side. For instance, We had never stayed in a Poly studio and only stayed on the cash side at VGF when we bought those contracts.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Never stayed at the property before we bought. I always just want to save money so cannot pay they deluxe prices. But I did visit AKL and I will always remember walking in during Thanksgiving looking at that lobby and xmas tree and hust being in awww. I fell in love with this resort then. No other place makes me feel like I am in a completely different place. So when finances finnally lined up there was no question where I wanted to buy. Also akl is the only dvc with a chance for club level and man I just stayed at club level and owning at akl is worth every penny. We normally stayed at Pop or off site hotel with points before dvc so the distance to parks is no big deal to us.

We bought aulani completely unseen. (Still have not been there yet, hopefully we will not regret, lol.) But with aulani we have traveled to Oahu before so we know we love the island and we always wanted to get a timeshare in Hawaii, we live in colorado so Hawaii is easier for us and we looove disney so aulani made since for us. It is combining our two loves together.

So far we have not regretted the decision. Our plan ia one year Akl and then the Aulani. Switching back and forth. (Using also akl for running trips)

 

[Her Dotness]

We bought in 5-1/2 years ago before there were all the vlogs and most of the blogs there are now so had no clear idea what a villa stay would be like. Only thing we knew was that we wanted VGF, having stayed almost entirely at the GF.

We didn't care that VGF was off-sale and would cost us. Our guide explained that Aulani and Poly, then on-sale, would cost much less and would close lots faster because we'd need to waitlist VGF. We politely emphasized that WE DID NOT CARE. We hated Hawaii (I know...weird!) and like nothing about the Poly but 'Ohana breakfast. We wanted what we wanted, and that was that.

The one devastating thing we didn't know was how hazardous staying in a 1br our first time at VGF would be. Yup, a very bad thing to do. Stayed in a studio the following year which was mega-meh in comparison. Promptly added 25 points as a result so that we could bank/borrow for a 1br every other year.

And now we've just closed on a 150pt VGF resale and are eyeing a 50 somewhere else for SAP points.

Still not sorry we bought so many points direct before buying resale. Got us what we wanted faster and much easier than the ROFR wait.

While that's one of the odder DVC ownership stories, it worked well for us.

 

[RamblinWreck]

The secret trick for owning akv is to have a car. If you have a car you can park directly under your room at kidani and it takes all of thirty seconds to go from room to car and then the drive is actually super fast and easy to all parks save mk

if you google maps the drive it’s no longer than any other resort once you avg out drive times subject to nearest and farthest park

anyone who says they like busses from any resort is delusional

This is why, especially with little kids, I want to always be at one of the resorts where buses are minimized.

Whether it's via Monorail, via a nice walk, or via Skyliner, as long as I don't have to get on a bus I am happy.

Not to mention, if I'm at the VGF or BLT, I can sleep in like an hour later than someone who is at AKV and I can rest easy knowing I can just walk a few minutes down a path and easily rope drop the park!

 

[nuhusky123]

This is why, especially with little kids, I want to always be at one of the resorts where buses are minimized.

Whether it's via Monorail, via a nice walk, or via Skyliner, as long as I don't have to get on a bus I am happy.

Not to mention, if I'm at the VGF or BLT, I can sleep in like an hour later than someone who is at AKV and I can rest easy knowing I can just walk a few minutes down a path and easily rope drop the park!

100% agree that being able to walk to a park beats bus, train or boat any day

the skyline I don’t trust, it goes down way too often and we hear too many horror stories of people being trapped for hours

personally I would not rely on skyliner as a reputable mode of transit

 

[zavandor]

When I bought DVC I had stayed on Property only once, in a Value. I visited BC and AKL for dinner and entering the AKL lobby (wow!) is what really pushed me to investigate DVC.

However, it was 10 years ago and it was "only" $50pp. Currently prices are much higher and I'm not sure I would buy unseen (or at all). Especially BCV is very expensive for the number of years left on the contract, I would want to stay there before committing.

AKV is one of my favorite resorts and I stay there almost every time (I like to do split stays and AKV is the best for the AK and BB portion of the trip). It is an absolute masterpiece of themeing.

 

[DeeBee3]

We stayed at BRV before buying, but we had no idea or intention of purchasing DVC at that time. We had no idea even what it was. Never did a tour but did see signs and then looked into it. Did our own math, etc and then just talked a few times on phone with a guide. Bam - purchased.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

This is why, especially with little kids, I want to always be at one of the resorts where buses are minimized.

Whether it's via Monorail, via a nice walk, or via Skyliner, as long as I don't have to get on a bus I am happy.

Not to mention, if I'm at the VGF or BLT, I can sleep in like an hour later than someone who is at AKV and I can rest easy knowing I can just walk a few minutes down a path and easily rope drop the park!

Yeah we have two small kids so staying on something that has monorail, a walking trail, AND boat service is just honestly the best! It's close to MK, which is their favorite park, and having multiple options for getting back to the resort is amazing for getting them out of the parks (let's walk! We haven't done the boat yet! Yay monorail ride! etc.)

 

[DsneyDude1]

We bought site unseen at OKW when it was the Disney Vacation Club Resort in Dec. 1993. There was a 30 day rescinding period at the time. So we justified an Jan. '94 trip to check it out. We never planned on backing out. But it was a good excuse to get out of the Jan. NY weather. It was so cold that we drove down and stopped overnight in Santee, SC. It was 17 degrees when we got up in the morning to complete the drive. I had gotten the car washed the day before we left. The locks were frozen when we were going to leave. But we have never regretted the purchase once in 30 years. And we check into VGF tomorrow!