Direct Purchase Home Resort Considerations

[LillianBelle]

I'd love to get some perspectives on a contemplated direct purchase as I'm new to DVC.

Background: I'm a longtime Disney fan with school age kids and 30+ years left for my husband and me to enjoy Disney ourselves. We're international (Caribbean) but a quick flight away. My goal is to have 300 points with opportunity to book a 1BR for longer trips and enough direct points to be able to stay at all new/future resorts. I found/bought the perfect 175 point resale for Poly, where we love to stay. On a December visit I was able to do almost all the DVC open houses, so have seen the villas at which we've not stayed. Now I'm contemplating a 125 point direct purchase.

The quandary: I love Riveria. It's beautiful with well-designed villas, and the theming appeals to me. I love the Skyliner and dislike driving in the US. It's where I want to stay, and I would buy it in a minute if it weren't for the resale restrictions. While we don't plan on selling, I'd like to keep that option open for unforeseen circumstances.

We also love Animal Kingdom, even my husband who is missing the Disney gene but happy to come on family trips and will drive. I'd love to try AKL with Club access, and the point charts are of course friendlier than many. And we do plan at 11 months around our school breaks which fortunately don't always correspond with the U.S. breaks.

So a direct purchase of 125 points at AKL seems logical. I could still try to get into Rivera at seven months for shorter trips focused on Epcot festivals. My country isn't registered with DVC, so I'd need to wait for a good enough incentive and purchase on a visit. I come at least twice a year for WDW and shopping (I love Target almost as much as WDW.)

What haven't I considered? Any advice is appreciated.

 

[RoseGold]

The meaningful Blue Card benefits are all suspended right now. Even at pre-Covid benefits, you need to figure out whether the Blue Card would matter to you. If you stagger APs, like many of us do (late Aug - Feb - early Aug - repeat), maybe it never works out. I would at least wait until the benefits are restored. It would be really painful to buy your Blue Card and then find out you can never buy a DVC Gold Pass and instead have to buy a DVC 11 Day Explorer or whatever.

Buying AKL for club level is not a great bet. Those rooms are constantly walked and booked, and there are very few.

If you are set on buying direct, I think AKL is a decent pick with decent value and a great chart. I would pick it over RIV or CCV.

Another option would be resale BWV. Not the best value in $/point, but the chart can't be beat. If you use your 11 month, it works out well mathematically and ticks all the boxes you like at RIV, without the resale holdup and easy enough to sell if your situation changes.

 

[sethschroeder]

I love the Skyliner and dislike driving in the US.

We don't want to drive on a WDW either and a big benefit of park attached resorts like RIV or others.

It's where I want to stay, and I would buy it in a minute if it weren't for the resale restrictions.

Why are you concerned on resale restrictions. Most people that stay there end up loving it honestly.

In addition RIV is discounted compared to other resorts as well when you compare how much price difference there is. Are you really worried about potentially a $5-$10/point difference in resale price that you may or may not get? You are trading off your preferred experience and resort for $750-$1500 in 10/20/30/40 years time.

Using www.dvcresalemarket.com average resale price vs direct 150 Point Incentive (loss on sale):

1. Riviera - $41 ($149 resale)
2. CCV - $62 ($148 resale)
3. Riviera - $70 (if sold at $120/point)
4. BLT - $81 ($149 resale)
5. VGF - $81 ($169 resale)
6. POLY - $97 ($148 resale)

Others:

• SSR - $51
• OKW - $53
• AKV - $66
• BWV - $68
• BRV - $76
• BCV - $88

Animal Kingdom, even my husband who is missing the Disney gene but happy to come on family trips and will drive

If you are renting a car every time good. If you are fine using rideshare daily then good. Otherwise I am not a fan of needing to bus from AKV an entire trip. I have a personal bad experience but I like to eliminate bussing a good portion of the week.

I could still try to get into Rivera at seven months for shorter trips focused on Epcot festivals

During festivals its going to be harder to get at 7 months. AKV however is going to be easy to get in to pretty much any time of year.

I'd love to try AKL with Club access

Try or always have? If its just try then in reality you likely could get lucky for a split stay at some point in the future. Club Level is nice but you are paying a premium for the offering and most people will say its about the experience not about the "value" of the offering.

 

[Wedgeout]

For what you have and wanting the 125 direct add’on, just my own opinion of course. Your AKL idea is the better choice. I wouldn’t mix having a resale with a direct Riviera contract with those Poly points locked out. But with the AKL, you can pool points better for even the Grand Villa splurges and still slip into Riviera from time to time.

 

[What-r-ya Goofy?]

I think Riviera will pan out to being the same as BCV and BWV when it comes to availability, maybe worse due to popularity. Renting options aside, the bottom line is you are going to need to own at a EPCOT area resort in order to stay there and get the room type you want when you want. It will continue to be slim pickings at 7 months.

Many people wanting to own at at EPCOT area resort won't consider buying at BWV and BCV due to the 2042 expiration date and current price point. Disney knows what they have with Riviera.

 

[LillianBelle]

The meaningful Blue Card benefits are all suspended right now. Even at pre-Covid benefits, you need to figure out whether the Blue Card would matter to you. If you stagger APs, like many of us do (late Aug - Feb - early Aug - repeat), maybe it never works out. I would at least wait until the benefits are restored. It would be really painful to buy your Blue Card and then find out you can never buy a DVC Gold Pass and instead have to buy a DVC 11 Day Explorer or whatever.

Buying AKL for club level is not a great bet. Those rooms are constantly walked and booked, and there are very few.

If you are set on buying direct, I think AKL is a decent pick with decent value and a great chart. I would pick it over RIV or CCV.

Another option would be resale BWV. Not the best value in $/point, but the chart can't be beat. If you use your 11 month, it works out well mathematically and ticks all the boxes you like at RIV, without the resale holdup and easy enough to sell if your situation changes.

Thank you for the insights! I am trying to disregard any Blue Point benefits in the decision; I really just want long term access for new resorts and RIV.

Good to know about AKL Club as being so slippery.

And congratulations on your VGF purchase - exciting. Perhaps you need a rose gold tiara to go with your monocle!

 

[limace]

Eh, if you are happy at AKV and would just like to try the other resorts I’d buy there. I think RIV resale will slide in value as more contracts hit the market, especially with the likelihood of no ROFR to prop up the market. We own at AKV and our very first trip using those points we were able to switch to BW at 7 months in 2019 during flower and garden. No guarantee, but definitely
not impossible, especially if you travel at times that are less popular for DVC.

But if you won’t use/don’t care about direct benefits, I wouldn’t buy direct at all. I’d buy resale and then rent a point transfer or a confirmed stay at riviera when I wanted to stay there. As I’ve said before, a $10k savings on your purchase pays for a lot of rented points.

 

[HappyDisneyWife]

I'd love to get some perspectives on a contemplated direct purchase as I'm new to DVC.

Background: I'm a longtime Disney fan with school age kids and 30+ years left for my husband and me to enjoy Disney ourselves. We're international (Caribbean) but a quick flight away. My goal is to have 300 points with opportunity to book a 1BR for longer trips and enough direct points to be able to stay at all new/future resorts. I found/bought the perfect 175 point resale for Poly, where we love to stay. On a December visit I was able to do almost all the DVC open houses, so have seen the villas at which we've not stayed. Now I'm contemplating a 125 point direct purchase.

The quandary: I love Riveria. It's beautiful with well-designed villas, and the theming appeals to me. I love the Skyliner and dislike driving in the US. It's where I want to stay, and I would buy it in a minute if it weren't for the resale restrictions. While we don't plan on selling, I'd like to keep that option open for unforeseen circumstances.

We also love Animal Kingdom, even my husband who is missing the Disney gene but happy to come on family trips and will drive. I'd love to try AKL with Club access, and the point charts are of course friendlier than many. And we do plan at 11 months around our school breaks which fortunately don't always correspond with the U.S. breaks.

So a direct purchase of 125 points at AKL seems logical. I could still try to get into Rivera at seven months for shorter trips focused on Epcot festivals. My country isn't registered with DVC, so I'd need to wait for a good enough incentive and purchase on a visit. I come at least twice a year for WDW and shopping (I love Target almost as much as WDW.)

What haven't I considered? Any advice is appreciated.

It sounds like you know what you want & you’ve thought it all through! We love (& own at) all 3 of those resorts!!

As to your Q about adding on direct- based on what you said, I would not hesitate to buy at the Riviera, since it is the resort you prefer, and will (likely) be much harder to reserve at the 7 month window than AKL (discounting the DVC club level as part of the decision process, as it is nigh unto impossible to book- and it is crazy fierce with the stalking/walkings).

I think it’s still only $9 more pp for RIV over AKL and has many more years on the contract. Don’t let the resale restrictions keep you from it. We’re seeing that they’re not meaning as much on the resale market as was originally thought. There will always be naysayers, so you have to determine your own comfort level. On the plus side, a RIV contract will give you 49 years to enjoy having unrestricted points, which is obviously valuable to you.

 

[Sandisw]

I’ll add one aspect. It is easier to book at AKV..sans CL..than the SV rooms at RIV, even the 1 bedrooms at 7 months.

I’d ask yourself if you will have any regrets while using the contract if you can’t get RIV? Will you be happy elsewhere? If you visit RIV and realize how much you love it, will you regret buying AKV?

For me, the potential loss in the end isn’t worth it to own and be frustrated. I’d choose RIV

 

[sethschroeder]

I wouldn’t mix having a resale with a direct Riviera contract with those Poly points locked out.

If you really like RIV though you can make it work either with or without split stays. The idea would be to borrow/bank to have exclusive years.

I know Sandisw always talks about doing a Epcot / MK split stay and just going to that park. Poly is fairly easy to get in to so you book the RIV portion of your trip and fit Poly around it for your days.

 

[LillianBelle]

If you really like RIV though you can make it work either with or without split stays. The idea would be to borrow/bank to have exclusive years.

I know Sandisw always talks about doing a Epcot / MK split stay and just going to that park. Poly is fairly easy to get in to so you book the RIV portion of your trip and fit Poly around it for your days.

Oh, I do dream about that trip! Poly/MK immersion then Monorail to Epcot (soon come I hope), exit though the IG and "home" to RIV!

 

[LillianBelle]

I’ll add one aspect. It is easier to book at AKV..sans CL..than the SV rooms at RIV, even the 1 bedrooms at 7 months.

I’d ask yourself if you will have any regrets while using the contract if you can’t get RIV? Will you be happy elsewhere? If you visit RIV and realize how much you love it, will you regret buying AKV?

For me, the potential loss in the end isn’t worth it to own and be frustrated. I’d choose RIV

I like this perspective - am trying to employ logic and reason but for me it's essentially an emotional buy. I didn't expect to love RIV as a die hard "Poly person" but I really do!

 

[havoc315]

I'd love to get some perspectives on a contemplated direct purchase as I'm new to DVC.

Background: I'm a longtime Disney fan with school age kids and 30+ years left for my husband and me to enjoy Disney ourselves. We're international (Caribbean) but a quick flight away. My goal is to have 300 points with opportunity to book a 1BR for longer trips and enough direct points to be able to stay at all new/future resorts. I found/bought the perfect 175 point resale for Poly, where we love to stay. On a December visit I was able to do almost all the DVC open houses, so have seen the villas at which we've not stayed. Now I'm contemplating a 125 point direct purchase.

The quandary: I love Riveria. It's beautiful with well-designed villas, and the theming appeals to me. I love the Skyliner and dislike driving in the US. It's where I want to stay, and I would buy it in a minute if it weren't for the resale restrictions. While we don't plan on selling, I'd like to keep that option open for unforeseen circumstances.

We also love Animal Kingdom, even my husband who is missing the Disney gene but happy to come on family trips and will drive. I'd love to try AKL with Club access, and the point charts are of course friendlier than many. And we do plan at 11 months around our school breaks which fortunately don't always correspond with the U.S. breaks.

So a direct purchase of 125 points at AKL seems logical. I could still try to get into Rivera at seven months for shorter trips focused on Epcot festivals. My country isn't registered with DVC, so I'd need to wait for a good enough incentive and purchase on a visit. I come at least twice a year for WDW and shopping (I love Target almost as much as WDW.)

What haven't I considered? Any advice is appreciated.

I would not worry about the resale restrictions at Riviera, if that's where you want to stay. The resale restrictions diminish the value -- but that's baked in to it being cheaper than the other resorts as a direct purchase.
Riviera resales have been happening, at 20-30% less than the direct price -- just what you get with any resort.

And as time goes on, the various restrictions will really hurt all resale. Riviera not much more than anyplace else.

So... if you sell 5-20 years down the road, will it really matter if the resale price of Riviera is slightly lower?

If it's where you want to stay, I'd go for it.

 

[Sandisw]

I like this perspective - am trying to employ logic and reason but for me it's essentially an emotional buy. I didn't expect to love RIV as a die hard "Poly person" but I really do!

I was a diehard never ever buy RIV person either.l.stated I would not buy if points were $50/each. Then I went to presentation, talked with my kids, and visited and OMG...hook, line and sinker. Sold BWV and bought RIV.

Have yet to stay...darn virus got in the way of all the 2020 stays..but visited in December of 2019, October and literally earlier today and confirmed how much it is just my kind of place!

We own other points and simply decided that RIV will always be the last to sell off if the resale market tanks, but having home resort priority for fall into December trips was a must for us!

I have it booked for February, and then split stays with VGF for March and July...booked for September...October...and December, along with some split at BLT!