future planning

[simba20]

We already own a 160 pt contract.

So I'm pondering an add-on.....in the future.

Is it better to add-on points at your home resort on your existing contract or buy points for a different resort? If I were to buy points for a different resort would I get the same use year that I already have?

 

[drusba]

If you add on through Disney you get same use year . What is better is individual choice. You cannot mix the points from two resorts at 11 months out to reserve at one resort; only points identified with a particular resort can be used 11 months out at that resort, so you do not gain any home resort advantage other than you will just have points for another resort. Personal view is that I would not buy at a second resort until I first had enough to cover a week vacation per year at one resort in a room no smaller than a 1BR.

 

[Buckeye Fan]

Depends on what you want. I really debated about this. We have 2 contracts with a Dec UY (100 pts at OKW and 150 pts at VB), and we just sold 2 SSR contracts with an Aug UY. We sold planning to repurchase, and only sold because of so many run-ins with the UY. Once we sold, the "where to buy" debate started.

God willing, we plan to hang onto our points until they expire. I LOVE SSR, so my initial thought was to just repurchase there (I still think it's the best overall buy out there given price and length of the contract). However, we wanted to be able to book 2-2BRs or a GV down the road. We thought long and hard, and since we own 100 pts at OKW already and absolutely love it, we made an offer on 3-150 pt OKW contracts. That will give us 550 pts at OKW, which is enough to get us a GV for a week or almost enough to do 2-2BRs for a week during the summer.

Longer term, I do want to add a few more points, and if I do, it probably will be a different resort (BCV, SSR or potentially the Poly if it ever happens). I would only buy a different resort if I had enough points to bank and/or borrow to take advantage of the 8 - 11 month booking window and planned on doing so. Otherwise, you're probably better off just sticking with the resort you have, unless you enjoy resort hopping during your stay.

 

[disneynutz]

We already own a 160 pt contract.

So I'm pondering an add-on.....in the future.

Is it better to add-on points at your home resort on your existing contract or buy points for a different resort?

It depends on if you want the home resort booking advantage at more than one resort.

Bill

 

[Sandisw]

We are considering a purchase of another resort but only because we are finding that we enjoy split stays between one of the Epcot resorts and BLT.

We also think DH and I will begin to go to F & W yearly, starting in a few years.

If we do this, we will look for a contract that gives us enough points to book the 2 nights we want in the summer or the 2 nights we need in the Oct.

If you have a reason for owning elsewhere because we want to be able to have home resort advantage, then go for it! Just make sure that what you buy allows you to book something that you want.

Good luck!

 

[Joey7295]

It all depends on you and your plans.

 

[simba20]

OP here.

Thanks for all of the thoughts.

Right now we own 160 pts at AKV with a Dec use year.. We are able to usually take two trips a year staying in a studio. Usually trips are for one week and then another for four days or so....It's just me, my husband, and our three year old.

However, last year we stayed at BCV. I fell in love. We also did a split stay and stayed at AKV. We've started thinking, and due to laundry issues last year at both resorts, how nice it would be to start staying in 1 bedroom units so we have our own washer/dryer to use (I'll never forget the lady at AKV who used all six dryers for her clothes). However, if we stay in 1 bdrms, then we want to be able to own enough points to give us two trips per year (with one trip being in a studio would be okay). I admit, I'd love to own at BCV (and gain home resort advantage), but last year we didn;t have an issue booking BCV at 7 months out. I also like SSR and knowing how those points are "cheaper...." and then there's the option of adding however many points we want onto our current AKV contract.

 

[simba20]

If you add on through Disney you get same use year . What is better is individual choice. You cannot mix the points from two resorts at 11 months out to reserve at one resort; only points identified with a particular resort can be used 11 months out at that resort, so you do not gain any home resort advantage other than you will just have points for another resort.

Thank you, I did not know this.

 

[kenny]

Simba,

As everyone has said, it really comes down to personal choice. I would look at how many pts you are thinking of adding. Then figure out if you bought a different resort, how would that work with banking/borrowing in order to get your 2 trips per year or would you even need to do that (depends on # of pts your purchased at new resort).

Also while your plans change, what are your plans for your contracts. Is this something you only plan on keeping for a few years or are you keeping them for the life of the contract. We plan on keeping ours until the end and giving them to our children when we are older. That being said, the 2042 expiration may be important.

We owned SSR and BLT. However, we sold our SSR and bought all BLT. We really liked SSR but it was just too much hassle for us to have multiple contracts and have to borrow/bank or combined pts at 7 months. We tried split stayes and werent a fan. We also like the 2 vacations 1 in a 1br, 1 in a studio. For us it worked easier to make it all one resort.

Good luck.

 

[DizGirl20]

I think it is good idea to have enough points at 1 resort to get the type of stay you want for every trip. Once you have that, then you might want to add points at a different resort to have options/mix things up. Or at least that's what we just did!

 

[DeeCee735]

It definitely depends on personal preference, however for us it was also a matter of contract expire dates. Not that we'll be around in 2057, but God willing our children and hopefully someday, grandchildren, will be in a position to use these DVC contracts until they expire.

Our initial purchase was at BWV, our favorite resort and location, but we also fell totally in love with AKV and like it for the "quieter" trips.

BWV expires January 2042. We have an October UY. We are in a perpetual state of borrowing since we go when we want without much concern about losing that last year due to our ages at that time (if we make it that long and are healthy enough to travel).

Back to the kids.....we fell in love with AKV and the contract is 15 years longer, so we added a bunch there too. Having the 11 month window at two resorts is a definite plus for us. We're always guaranteed a place at one of our two fav places at the 11th month (I book to the day! ) mark.

That is also something to consider. BTW, we added on slowly at each resort. BW, we added on 2 small contracts at 2 different times. AKV was 5 small contracts at 3 different times.

This is another consideration you may want to think about....when you do add on, take the total number of points you want and break them down in smaller contracts. Easier to split for the kids later on, and God FORBID, they ever have to be sold, it's easier to get rid of smaller contracts than larger (easier on the heart too I think! )

Good luck with your decision and happy planning!

 

[simba20]

Simba,

Also while your plans change, what are your plans for your contracts. Is this something you only plan on keeping for a few years or are you keeping them for the life of the contract. We plan on keeping ours until the end and giving them to our children when we are older. That being said, the 2042 expiration may be important.

That's is a good point to consider (i.e. future plans for the contracts).

I think it is good idea to have enough points at 1 resort to get the type of stay you want for every trip. Once you have that, then you might want to add points at a different resort to have options/mix things up. Or at least that's what we just did!

Another good point and a good way to look at things.

It definitely depends on personal preference, however for us it was also a matter of contract expire dates. Not that we'll be around in 2057, but God willing our children and hopefully someday, grandchildren, will be in a position to use these DVC contracts until they expire.

Back to the kids.....we fell in love with AKV and the contract is 15 years longer, so we added a bunch there too. Having the 11 month window at two resorts is a definite plus for us. We're always guaranteed a place at one of our two fav places at the 11th month (I book to the day! ) mark.

That is also something to consider. BTW, we added on slowly at each resort. BW, we added on 2 small contracts at 2 different times. AKV was 5 small contracts at 3 different times.

This is another consideration you may want to think about....when you do add on, take the total number of points you want and break them down in smaller contracts. Easier to split for the kids later on, and God FORBID, they ever have to be sold, it's easier to get rid of smaller contracts than larger (easier on the heart too I think! )

Good luck with your decision and happy planning!

All very good points to consider and ties in with what Kenny suggested above. Right now it's just the three of us (don't know if another child will be added to the mix), but we will be looking into what to do with our contracts when we get older and DD gets older. So far we just do Disney and haven't traded out points to go anywhere or do anything else, although exchanging for a Disney Cruise might be a possibility in the future.

I also like the idea about smaller contracts (easier on the pocketbook and easier to sell off if needed) and allowing our points to grow over time, as opposed to buying x number of points all at once.

Right now I am in grad school, our initial purchase was made with some inheritance money I received, and I plan on going back to work this summer, so maybe next year we will do an add on. I have done some calculations and the number of points needed to stay at the different resorts we like to stay at varies between needing anywhere from an extra 75-125 points (extra points counted in for changes in point values). So the possibility of doing a small 50 pt contract to start our add-ons looks doable.

:::ondering:::: and ::ondering::::

 

[JWG]

It depends on if you want the home resort booking advantage at more than one resort.

Bill

This.

We were a 1 resort family for many years. Bought the first contract. Added more points on to the same resort and enjoyed that within the family for 10 years. BWV was our home and we only stayed elsewhere when it wasn't available.

Then BLT was announced. And for 2 years we thought about whether we could manage and live with 2 home resorts. We decided that if we spent the time to calculate correctly, we could work it out so through banking we could enjoy BLT every other year. We purchased enough points to enjoy a studio at BLT in most seasons every other year. That was August, 2010. We're in ROFR for an additional add on to bump up to a 1BR in a majority of seasons.

I don't think we'll go beyond 2. We're not into split stays. But having an Epcot resort and MK resort location we can flip between is great. We made suer ALL points were the same use year so we could pool at 7 months if needed for one big stay.