First Time Buyer Question

[tracee22]

Gut check me on something....

In the grand scheme of direct vs. resale, my biggest concern about resale is not being able to stay at Riviera. In looking at options for my budget, I could....

Buy 150 points from Disney Direct for Riviera - with questionable resale value if I ever wanted to get out of it
OR
Buy two resale contracts, one 100 pt contract for Riviera and one other resort for 150 points

Perhaps I am missing some of the magic of the blue card though....I live in WI so I'm thinking member only events are not super realistic and I already have an annual pass anyway for discounts. Let me know if I am way off here though. I want the blue card but I might want 100 more points more....Thanks!

 

[Spark65]

You can only use RIV resale points at RIV that may or may not hog tie you as well it would depend on your travel agenda.

 

[kerrylacherry]

Perhaps I am missing some of the magic of the blue card though....I live in WI so I'm thinking member only events are not super realistic and I already have an annual pass anyway for discounts. Let me know if I am way off here though. I want the blue card but I might want 100 more points more....Thanks!

Yes, the DVC shopping/dining discounts are the same as APs, but the blue card would get you a discount on buying/renewing the APs. I bought resale then used the member discount to buy at Riviera direct for the blue card. My family and I travel multiple times a year, so we buy APs every year, saving $200-400 per person annually will add up for us. The math for a direct contract worked for me but YMMV.

As the previous reply mentions, if you pick up 100pts at Riviera resale, they're locked into Riviera. Would you be ok with only using those points there?

 

[Deb & Bill]

Buy your resale and save money. Then if you really want to stay at RIV, rent out your points and use the proceeds to purchase another member's reservation.

 

[RanDIZ]

Soda

Gut check me on something....

In the grand scheme of direct vs. resale, my biggest concern about resale is not being able to stay at Riviera. In looking at options for my budget, I could....

Buy 150 points from Disney Direct for Riviera - with questionable resale value if I ever wanted to get out of it
OR
Buy two resale contracts, one 100 pt contract for Riviera and one other resort for 150 points

Perhaps I am missing some of the magic of the blue card though....I live in WI so I'm thinking member only events are not super realistic and I already have an annual pass anyway for discounts. Let me know if I am way off here though. I want the blue card but I might want 100 more points more....Thanks!

I’d buy somewhere where you’d be fine staying for the term of contract if it came down to that. The magic of the blue card is the $1000’s more you’re going to spend. Oh already have AP and other perks seem to be disappearing. And yes I see the resale of RIV not going over so well in the future. Just rent points when you want to stay at RIV.

 

[sethschroeder]

I want the blue card but I might want 100 more points more....

From WI as well and own at RIV and BWV.

What you could do is buy 125-150 at RIV direct to start. Then add on resale later either at another resort or RIV.

Adding on resale at RIV later means you can consolidate all points for a trip but if you happen to be able to move at 7 months you could bank the RIV resale points and instead just borrow your RIV direct points for that specific year (followed by a RIV only stay the following year).

While yes RIV will likely sell for less it's also priced less than other park adjecent resorts in DVC Direct so long term it's sort of a wash.

Only other thing is the primary benefit is getting the Gold Pass for cheap but it does have a couple black outs. It's not being sold right now but should return.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Be sure and look at the cost of dues and the # of points required for your stay. RIV is on the very high end for both. If you are going to buy a combo of direct and resale, buy the resale first. You can match the direct point use year to your resale contract, but if you buy the direct first you will have to search around to find a matching resale use year.

 

[limace]

A. Will you benefit from direct perks? Use the AP regularly, mainly?
B. If Riviera isn’t your very very favorite resort, and you’re thinking about resale value, I’d either buy resale or buy direct elsewhere so you won’t have to worry about restrictions if you have to sell.

 

[sethschroeder]

B. If Riviera isn’t your very very favorite resort, and you’re thinking about resale value, I’d either buy resale or buy direct elsewhere so you won’t have to worry about restrictions if you have to sell.

I never really agree with this unless you are instead looking at SSR/OKW. If you are looking at other parks connected resorts then Riviera's price point means its a lower gap of lost value.

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

 

[smisale]

Riviera is beautiful site but the rooms are that much smaller I think that's the way there going too be going forward. that
said always pick your home resort where your gonna want to stay. but i agree to buy resale first to match use years and buy 125 direct so that you get your blue card

 

[DVCSunDevil]

Gut check me on something....

In the grand scheme of direct vs. resale, my biggest concern about resale is not being able to stay at Riviera. In looking at options for my budget, I could....

Buy 150 points from Disney Direct for Riviera - with questionable resale value if I ever wanted to get out of it
OR
Buy two resale contracts, one 100 pt contract for Riviera and one other resort for 150 points

Perhaps I am missing some of the magic of the blue card though....I live in WI so I'm thinking member only events are not super realistic and I already have an annual pass anyway for discounts. Let me know if I am way off here though. I want the blue card but I might want 100 more points more....Thanks!

We were in the same boat as you and decided to buy resale. We live in NY, so the AP savings and other perks that are more for "locals" didn't have any value for us. And with the money we were saving on the actual contract we would have to buy like 25,000 t-shirts or something to break even. So....yeah....we didn't see enough value in the merchandise savings either.

For us, it all came down to if we would want to stay at Riviera or not. We decided staying at Riviera wasn't worth it. There are 10 WDW resorts to stay at, and that is plenty! If we ever want to stay at Riviera once or twice, we will just rent points. Goodness knows we saved enough buying resale to do that.

 

[ChipNdale8887]

Gut check me on something....

In the grand scheme of direct vs. resale, my biggest concern about resale is not being able to stay at Riviera. In looking at options for my budget, I could....

Buy 150 points from Disney Direct for Riviera - with questionable resale value if I ever wanted to get out of it
OR
Buy two resale contracts, one 100 pt contract for Riviera and one other resort for 150 points

Perhaps I am missing some of the magic of the blue card though....I live in WI so I'm thinking member only events are not super realistic and I already have an annual pass anyway for discounts. Let me know if I am way off here though. I want the blue card but I might want 100 more points more....Thanks!

Not just Riviera but all new resorts too. This was a big reason for us we wanted some Direct Points. If you plan on going for a long time, not sure your age, We are 30, we wanted to be able to stay at Reflections or Riviera or any new resorts in the future and with resale now you can't.

 

[RoseGold]

RIV is a giant resort they will be selling for many years at this point. It won't be that hard to add on a night or two cash to try it out.

 

[tracee22]

You guys are awesome - thanks for all your guidance here. I'm going to start resale and then see about adding on. BWV here I come!

 

[sethschroeder]

RIV is a giant resort they will be selling for many years at this point.

It is sizeable but not exactly Giant like SSR which is well over 2x the size of Riviera.

Riviera is:
Points - 5th of 15 Largest in DVC / 4th of 11 Largest in WDW
Rooms - 6th of 11 in WDW

Agreed though shouldn't be an issue getting a cash night or finding someone to rent points from to stay there.