Direct purchase Poly or VDH dilemma

[juliebee]

One thing that keeps me from buying VDH as a west coaster that goes to Disneyland more than WDW is what an afterthought DVC seems to be at Disneyland. Currently, I love VDH, but I have zero faith that they will handle refurbs of VDH appropriately. Even the hotel side of the resorts seems like an afterthought at Disneyland. Resorts are such a juggernaut at WDW, and it’s just not the same at Disneyland.

So far, I’ve been able to book five night stretches at VDH in a studio at seven months. If you are flexible with the time of year/dates you want to visit, you will likely be able to use direct poly points there. Since you are ok staying off property, you could book a back-up offsite reservation and then book the nights that are available at VDH and waitlist any missing nights.

That is great to hear that you've had good luck getting VDH at 7 months! Yes, we are flexible with the months we want to stay at Disneyland and prefer to avoid Friday/Sat so I'm hoping that will help us.

And with early entry going away in a couple weeks, you are right that DVC is not given much priority on the West Coast. I can see why you'd be concerned about refurbs at VDH since their crown jewel, VGC, wasn't given a great refurb. Although there are promises it will be resolved, it gives me pause too.

 

[AstroBlasters]

I feel like the title of this thread should be “I convinced my spouse we need more DVC points for Disneyland, but I really want to justify Poly”

 

[intamin]

After learning more about walking, this is where I wish I had picked an Oct UY instead of a Dec use year for Dec visits. Although I wanted to make sure I was able to get early summer travel covered before the banking deadline at the same time.

Yeahhh that's why I tell people if they care about December stays to do an September or October UY to have the ability to get a head start on their walk.

Is it possible to walk across use years? Because for let’s say with a Dec use year for a trip anytime in December it seems like I would need to start walking before Thanksgiving.

Not by yourself. I think you may be able to do it if you call MS to cross the use year and then once you've gone past December 1st with the latter half of the stay, drop the nights that are in November and then bank the points. Once January 1st rolls around, add those nights back to the end of December so you now have December 1st to the 8th and then keep walking.

The good news is you can probably do this and only have to call MS once to do it assuming you have enough points to hold a long enough stay.

 

[DisneyFanSea]

Yeahhh that's why I tell people if they care about December stays to do an September or October UY to have the ability to get a head start on their walk.

Although with a Sept/Oct UY I’d then be worried about using it during summer.

I’ve come to the conclusion that two use years with contracts that can be used independently from each other is the only way I would be truly satisfied. So I just closed on an Aug UY contract for late summer / fall / Dec trips.

Not by yourself. I think you may be able to do it if you call MS to cross the use year and then once you've gone past December 1st with the latter half of the stay, drop the nights that are in November and then bank the points. Once January 1st rolls around, add those nights back to the end of December so you now have December 1st to the 8th and then keep walking.

The good news is you can probably do this and only have to call MS once to do it assuming you have enough points to hold a long enough stay.

How would you drop and bank points in November if banking deadline for Dec UY is July 31st?

 

[Sandisw]

Although with a Sept/Oct UY I’d then be worried about using it during summer.

I’ve come to the conclusion that two use years with contracts that can be used independently from each other is the only way I would be truly satisfied. So I just closed on an Aug UY contract for late summer / fall / Dec trips.



How would you drop and bank points in November if banking deadline for Dec UY is July 31st?

Because you would be booking in Dec/January.

For example, let’s say you want to walk for a Dec 2026 trip.

Your banking deadline for your Dec 2025 points isn’t until July of 2026.

You’d be starting that walk now. So you use the 2025 points to start and then once you cross Dec 1st, you then bank the 2025 points to be used.

This assumes though that your 2025 points are not yet tied up in other 2026 trips.

We have multiple UYs, and Dec is one of them and I use those points for my early Dec trips.

I decided walking wasn’t worth it so just book the PV rooms and then use waitlists and stalking to get the better views.

Last year, I got lucky and got a RV studio at RiV the first try!!!

 

[intamin]

Although with a Sept/Oct UY I’d then be worried about using it during summer.

I’ve come to the conclusion that two use years with contracts that can be used independently from each other is the only way I would be truly satisfied. So I just closed on an Aug UY contract for late summer / fall / Dec trips.



How would you drop and bank points in November if banking deadline for Dec UY is July 31st?

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying. I'm saying to drop the nights that you have booked for November (this is happening in January) so that the points go back into lets say your 2025 use year. Then you bank those points into the 2026 use year and then add nights back to the end of your walk in December against once January 1st rolls around so you now have December 1st to the 8th at the 11 month window

 

[juliebee]

I feel like the title of this thread should be “I convinced my spouse we need more DVC points for Disneyland, but I really want to justify Poly”

Not quite My husband is fixated on the dues, so he is leaning Poly.

I'm just wanting these points to be "perfect" for ALL of my wishes, and it's becoming clear that there will be a sacrifice somewhere. So now I'm in analysis paralysis. If I could do two contracts- 150-160 at Poly and 60-75 at VDH, then that would probably be the best situation but we are only purchasing one contract right now. Buying a 150 pt VDH would have the majority be sleep around points.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Not quite My husband is fixated on the dues, so he is leaning Poly.

I'm just wanting these points to be "perfect" for ALL of my wishes, and it's becoming clear that there will be a sacrifice somewhere. So now I'm in analysis paralysis. If I could do two contracts- 150-160 at Poly and 60-75 at VDH, then that would probably be the best situation but we are only purchasing one contract right now. Buying a 150 pt VDH would have the majority be sleep around points.

As someone who also lives in Oregon, I can say that we are one major Alaska Airlines price hike from Disney World being unjustifiable relative to Disneyland, Aulani, and other options.

Our direct non-red eye flight for Spring Break was outrageously expensive… even with the companion fare.

 

[ClaraOswald]

As someone who also lives in Oregon, I can say that we are one major Alaska Airlines price hike from Disney World being unjustifiable relative to Disneyland, Aulani, and other options.

Our direct non-red eye flight for Spring Break was outrageously expensive… even with the companion fare.

How much was it? I'm always curious in what people pay for airfare in other parts of the country. It's getting high for us to fly anywhere these days.

 

[juliebee]

As someone who also lives in Oregon, I can say that we are one major Alaska Airlines price hike from Disney World being unjustifiable relative to Disneyland, Aulani, and other options.

Our direct non-red eye flight for Spring Break was outrageously expensive… even with the companion fare.

I've been flight shopping for our May trip to WDW. United and American are almost half the cost of Alaska. I don't love those airlines because there is always a stop and plane change, but at those prices, I might switch our preferred airline. I'm waiting to see if Alaska drops a deal. I used to be able to find similar costs between the airlines with Alaska being a direct flight, but those days may be over.

 

[juliebee]

How much was it? I'm always curious in what people pay for airfare in other parts of the country. It's getting high for us to fly anywhere these days.

For a May trip from Portland to Santa Ana on Alaska- $287
For a May trip from Portland to Orlando on Alaska- $560
For a May trip from Portland to Orlando on United- $372
so not half the cost, but significantly less on the same dates if you don't fly Alaska.

 

[atthebeachclub]

As someone who also lives in Oregon, I can say that we are one major Alaska Airlines price hike from Disney World being unjustifiable relative to Disneyland, Aulani, and other options.

Our direct non-red eye flight for Spring Break was outrageously expensive… even with the companion fare.

Growing up in the PNW, airfare to Florida was always so outrageous that only pretty well off families traveled there. I didn’t go to Florida until I was an adult. Most people went to Disneyland instead. Most of our family vacations were in the west. It could easily happen again.

 

[atthebeachclub]

Not quite My husband is fixated on the dues, so he is leaning Poly.

I'm just wanting these points to be "perfect" for ALL of my wishes, and it's becoming clear that there will be a sacrifice somewhere. So now I'm in analysis paralysis. If I could do two contracts- 150-160 at Poly and 60-75 at VDH, then that would probably be the best situation but we are only purchasing one contract right now. Buying a 150 pt VDH would have the majority be sleep around points.

Dues ARE important. They are the bulk of the cost over time. But they are not front loaded as a cost, so more digestible for owners. Also, you can’t predict future dues.

Let’s pretend Poly dues are $3 per point less than VDH. It’s less, but let’s pretend it isn’t. At 150 points, that’s $450 per year. Honestly worth it for California priority IMO.

 

[tx911]

How much was it? I'm always curious in what people pay for airfare in other parts of the country. It's getting high for us to fly anywhere these days.

I feel like we are always in the $400-600 per ticket range flying from Texas anywhere we go in the continental US. I feel good if I can get under $500. But I'm not very good at waiting for the best bargains, I just buy tickets when I plan a trip unless they are outrageous.

 

[AstroBlasters]

How much was it? I'm always curious in what people pay for airfare in other parts of the country. It's getting high for us to fly anywhere these days.

$3600 for the 4 of us for Premium Class. Round trip, direct, normal times (8am outbound flight).

 

[AstroBlasters]

A

For a May trip from Portland to Santa Ana on Alaska- $287
For a May trip from Portland to Orlando on Alaska- $560
For a May trip from Portland to Orlando on United- $372
so not half the cost, but significantly less on the same dates if you don't fly Alaska.

Are those direct or connecting? Saver, Main, Premium? Normal times or red eye?

Also, May is a much less expensive time to fly than December….

 

[ClaraOswald]

I feel like we are always in the $400-600 per ticket range flying from Texas anywhere we go in the continental US. I feel good if I can get under $500. But I'm not very good at waiting for the best bargains, I just buy tickets when I plan a trip unless they are outrageous.

Do you get non-stop flights usually? That's about what prices seem to be here too (though limited when it comes to nonstop.) We're really picky on times so we are willing to pay more for times that work better for us. We paid around $700 per person, roundtrip OMA to SNA (with 1 stop) for our trip a couple weeks ago. That was on Southwest with their top tier ticket. I think it will be more with them next time we fly though. I still reminisce about when my husband and I were dating long distance and we could fly OMA to SNA, roundtrip for $250. Of course, our top tier APs at Disneyland cost us around $360 back then too. Those were the days!

 

[tx911]

Do you get non-stop flights usually? That's about what prices seem to be here too (though limited when it comes to nonstop.) We're really picky on times so we are willing to pay more for times that work better for us. We paid around $700 per person, roundtrip OMA to SNA (with 1 stop) for our trip a couple weeks ago. That was on Southwest with their top tier ticket. I think it will be more with them next time we fly though. I still reminisce about when my husband and I were dating long distance and we could fly OMA to SNA, roundtrip for $250. Of course, our top tier APs at Disneyland cost us around $360 back then too. Those were the days!

Yes, nonstop pretty much everywhere we go. I miss the days of $250-300 tickets!
I can't imagine if I had a larger family. I'm guessing the Brady Bunch took a lot of road trips

 

[ClaraOswald]

Yes, nonstop pretty much everywhere we go. I miss the days of $250-300 tickets!
I can't imagine if I had a larger family. I'm guessing the Brady Bunch took a lot of road trips

Yeah, I often think about how much airline tickets and park tickets would cost if we had the amount of kids we originally "planned" to have. At least there are some perks to a smaller family!