DVC Resorts with the best “home court” advantage and why?

Bjaiken77

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 19, 2021
One of the major considerations (beyond the “buy where you want to stay” logic) in choosing a home resort is picking a location that gives you an advantage at 11 months. I own SSR, but pretty much anyone can get in there whenever they want. That said, which resorts do you think have some of the greatest advantages of owning there and why? It could be to get certain rooms? It could be to get in during certain times of year? It could be to get into a certain accommodation (value, tower studio, club level, studio, 1BR, etc.). It could be simply to get in at all! What do you think?
 
If you want to stay in summer months at DHHIR, you pretty much have to owner there. Especially the GV, Studio, or 1 Bedroom since they are so limited.
I have heard this is similar situation at other DVC beach resorts for certain seasons (VB- Turtle Season, AUL- Holidays)
 
BWV and BCV immediately come to mind, but VGF, CCV, BLT, and AKV have significant 11 month advantages as well. BWV standard studios, you can’t beat the point chart. BCV is tough to get into at 7 months, as are the others I listed. Owning at AKV, you at least have a shot at the value accommodations and club level. The only resorts that really don’t carry much of an advantage would be SSR, OKW, PVB, though I have heard that the OKW grand villas can be hard to get.
 


One of the major considerations (beyond the “buy where you want to stay” logic) in choosing a home resort is picking a location that gives you an advantage at 11 months. I own SSR, but pretty much anyone can get in there whenever they want. That said, which resorts do you think have some of the greatest advantages of owning there and why? It could be to get certain rooms? It could be to get in during certain times of year? It could be to get into a certain accommodation (value, tower studio, club level, studio, 1BR, etc.). It could be simply to get in at all! What do you think?
BCV - for Jan & Feb, and AKV for Value Rooms
I also own at SSR - and put my 11-Mo. placeholder in there before I go shopping around! :P
 


VGF studios are hard at 7 months, depending on time of year, If you are interested in SV at RIV or the tower studios, you want to own there.

But, I think all resorts, other than SSR, OKW, Poly, and AKV..minus Value and CL...have have reasons for home resort advantage.
 
One of the major considerations (beyond the “buy where you want to stay” logic) in choosing a home resort is picking a location that gives you an advantage at 11 months. I own SSR, but pretty much anyone can get in there whenever they want. That said, which resorts do you think have some of the greatest advantages of owning there and why? It could be to get certain rooms? It could be to get in during certain times of year? It could be to get into a certain accommodation (value, tower studio, club level, studio, 1BR, etc.). It could be simply to get in at all! What do you think?

Basically, the most valuable home court is the one you want the most, but is hard to get at 7 months.

If you go Thanksgiving week every year, then I'd say almost every home resort is equally valuable.. since it's hard to get anything at 7 months. So whichever resort you like the most, that's your most valuable.

But some other notes:

Animal Kingdom is generally not considered a home resort priority. It's so large, that you can generally get Savannah view rooms at 7 months. But a huge caveat: AKV is the only DVC to offer concierge level rooms, which book at 11 months. And they have the value rooms that book at 11 months. So for those 2 special things, AKV is a super valuable home resort.

Studios at CCV: Maybe it's due to all the points allocated for the cabins, that end up being used for studios instead. But if you really want a studio at CCV, you better own there.

GFV studios: Grand Floridian is a relatively small DVC. Studios tend to book fast.

Boardwalk: Especially studios and 2 bedrooms. And especially around popular Epcot festivals. There is very little 7 month availability. And walking to Epcot and DHS is a huge advantage.
Beach Club: on a very similar plane as Boardwalk, very hard to book around popular Epcot festivals

Riviera -- Tower studios and anything "standard view": Riviera's point chart is on the high side, and "preferred view" rooms outnumber standard view. And some of the standard view rooms really have what should be a higher category-- some of them have an excellent view of Epcot. So this all combines to make all the standard view rooms disappear pretty quickly. Those standard view rooms that have an Epcot view are nicer than the theme park view rooms at BLT!

Generally not home ownership priority outside of the super busy times of year:
SSR and OKW, which always are the last to book up.
Regular rooms at AKV.
Poly: Being "all studios" (apart from the bungalows), there tends to be studio availability remaining at 7 months.
BLT outside of busy seasons: they tend to have a mix of room types and views available in lighter seasons.
 
Akv. I’ve booked value rooms at least 50% of our stays over the past 6 years. It’s a nice points stretcher-a bonus if I can book it. If not value, then we prefer jambo house standard rooms with pool or “lesser” savannah views with a reasonable points chart. Jambo is smaller so isn’t as plentiful at 7 months.
 
I’m really torn with Boardwalk. My favorite resort; It’s generally easy to get in there at 7 months if you’re chasing one bedrooms. I bought here due to the want of a guaranteed F&W standard view. But I’ve never missed out on a P/G view one bed any time of the year using cheaper SSR points.
The only resort I’ve struggled with is GFV as my travel times have always seen only spotty availability. Having said that I just scored a week long July 4th one bed for a renter... wish I could go.
 
BWK is mentioned above and I agree with that, but I'll add that Boardwalk view rooms go fast at 11 months. We bought BWK for priority to get those rooms, not standard view. Preferred view have more availability but they don't excite us as much as a boardwalk view.
 
I love owning the two I have. SSR because although you can get in there after 7 months no problem... I like how cheap my price per point of owning here has given me.
AKL because I just love this resort, and getting the option of Club level or Value rooms at 7 months is fantastic.
 

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