Good decision?

[Minniesgal]

We bought most of our points a AKV and did a small add on at VGF. we will use AKV to stay at AKV, SSR and BLT to do the park and our VGF points for just few nights to chill and have nice dinners at VGF before going home.

 

[MrsB919]

Ok so I have reached out to my sales rep and inquired about what the difference in price will be to get VGF. He is supposed to call me back tomorrow and I guess I will take it from there.

 

[lovin'fl]

Ok so I have reached out to my sales rep and inquired about what the difference in price will be to get VGF. He is supposed to call me back tomorrow and I guess I will take it from there.

VGF is $150pp. One good thing about AKV is that you can book the value villas which are the best deal going (low points). They are tough to book and you really need to own AKV to book the value villas. You may not always want to get the value villas, but if you find you need to conserve points it will be a good option. Standard view is also a good deal and it's nice to be able to book that at 11 months out but not as necessary as it is with the value villas. And I hear the club level is REALLY sweet at AKV and you also need to book that at 11 months out. We added on 100 AKV points this year and will be going for our 1st stay in Dec...can't wait.

Congrats on whichever resort you go with...and WELCOME HOME!!!

 

[MrsB919]

I'm so torn. I really love grand Floridian. Like I mentioned its special to us. And yes I want to be able to stay there, however I don't necessarily plan on staying there every stay. As for the value studios those r the ones we are looking to stay in for now. We don't have kids yet. I'm assuming if I buy VGF that it'll be easier for me to get a studio At 11 months out. However is it hard to get studios at other resorts 7 months out? Not just AKV ?

 

[dbs1228]

I would buy where you want to stay so you are not disappointed. I love AKV for the resort and animals so peaceful but would not stay there for an entire wdw stay due to location. We prefer location and that is why we own at BLT (walk to MK), BWV (walk to epcot and HS) and SSR (for dtd and THV) We are staying 4 nights at VGF in Feb then switching to AKV for 4 nights. AKV was easily booked at the 5 month mark VGF was booked right at 7 months and when I checked at 6 months out there was no availability and the resort is far from being sold out. It will be much harder to stay there.

I agree with most posters that if you are considering AKV buy resale. Many do not like the resort since they feel it is too dark and far away. As I said I love it. VGF is point expensive to stay there so less nights for the same amount of points. Cancel the contract and read, read, read! Good luck

 

[Nabas]

I'm so torn. I really love grand Floridian. Like I mentioned its special to us. And yes I want to be able to stay there, however I don't necessarily plan on staying there every stay. As for the value studios those r the ones we are looking to stay in for now. We don't have kids yet. I'm assuming if I buy VGF that it'll be easier for me to get a studio At 11 months out. However is it hard to get studios at other resorts 7 months out? Not just AKV ?

The VGF is small. It's sure to be difficult to book a Studio there whereas AKV is much larger and should remain relatively easy to book a Standard or Savannah View Studio.

Given your love of the Grand Floridian, don't worry about the slightly higher price for direct sales and just go with VGF.

If you stick with AKV, you might always second guess yourself but given your string attachment with the Grand Floridian, I'm sure you won't regret going with VGF.

Do it now before prices go up!

 

[sndral]

Direct from Disney:
160 pts. at VGF =$24,000 + closing costs ($150 per point)
160 pts. at AKV =$21,400 + closing costs (($150-$10 per pt.) -$1000)
Resale:
160 pts. at VGF cannot be found yet
160 pts. at AKV =$12,800 + closing costs ($80 per pt.)

What will 160 pts. get you?
VGF studio standard view 9 nights in early Oct. = 165 pts.
AKV studio savannah view 9 nights in early Oct. = 152 pts.

Hope this helps your decision making, if I was comfortable spending $20,000+, I'd go for VGF, I'm too frugal, tho', so I'm going AKV resale

Numbers for Disney direct based on DVC news site and for resale based on my best estimate from ROFR and listing prices @ resale co.s. Resale could be less if you are patient or more if upward trend continues.

 

[zavandor]

Ok so I have reached out to my sales rep and inquired about what the difference in price will be to get VGF. He is supposed to call me back tomorrow and I guess I will take it from there.

Please consider that you have 10 days to cancel your contract with absolutely no penalty. After that you'll be stuck with your purchase.
Your guide sells AKV and GFV everyday, so he certainly knows very well the difference in price. The only reason I can think of for delaying an answer is to make you approach the 10 days marks.

If you are uncertain: cancel the purchase now. You can buy tomorrow with exactly the same conditions.


About your plans: you are going to visit the third week of September. This is one of the lowest demand period for DVC. Most of the booking categories will be open for this period. I've just came back from WDW were I spent the 2nd and 3rd week of September in a AKV value studio. Due to its low price this is a very very very difficult room to get, but I got it at 7 months with my SSR points.

But... don't try this at home!
I mean: if you know that you want to stay in a specific resort in a specific time of the year, buy that resort (and buy resale if that option is available).
3rd week of September was in low demand this year, but none knows what will happen in the future. If Disney extends the food and wine to that week, it might became an high demand week!

So my checklist:
- are you 100% comfortable about your purchase? If not, cancel and research a little more
- are you set to a specific resort and would be upset to not be able to book there? Buy that resort. Otherwise consider a low cost resort (like SSR, cheap to buy and cheap Maintenance Fees)
- is resale available for the resort you are interested in? Then buy resale (every resort except GFV), buy direct otherwise (GFV)

 

[DenLo]

AKV is a wonderful resort. But not everyone thinks so. If you really like Grand Floridian, you might find Animal Kingdom Lodge and villas not to your taste. The rooms are more rustic and entire resort is darker--literally. But despite that AKV is one of my favorite resorts (including Aulani). So we bought there. But we also love BLT and we bought there too. We bought at the resorts we really love. So if we have to stay at our home resorts we are still happy. We always book our home resort at the 11 month mark and then sometimes we will try to switch to another DVC resort at the 7 month mark.

VGF is sort of unknown as to the booking patterns. However, we know thanks to wdrl's articles on the DVC News, that the majority of fixed weeks are being purchased in November and December. That means up to 35% of the villas will not be available for DVC member using points during those months. So the available rooms at VGF drop before you could even book them at the 11 month mark.

I think buying where you want to stay is important. More so today than in past years. But until you stay at another DVC resort, how will you know if you like it?

 

[crisi]

Direct from Disney:
160 pts. at VGF =$24,000 + closing costs ($150 per point)
160 pts. at AKV =$21,400 + closing costs (($150-$10 per pt.) -$1000)
Resale:
160 pts. at VGF cannot be found yet
160 pts. at AKV =$12,800 + closing costs ($80 per pt.)

What will 160 pts. get you?
VGF studio standard view 9 nights in early Oct. = 165 pts.
AKV studio savannah view 9 nights in early Oct. = 152 pts.

Hope this helps your decision making, if I was comfortable spending $20,000+, I'd go for VGF, I'm too frugal, tho', so I'm going AKV resale

Numbers for Disney direct based on DVC news site and for resale based on my best estimate from ROFR and listing prices @ resale co.s. Resale could be less if you are patient or more if upward trend continues.

To me, this basically spells out that if I'm willing to fork over $9k for the convenience of buying direct, I might as well fork over the extra $2.6k to get what is special to me. However, I can't, in a million years, imagine forking over an extra $9k to start with - but I'm frugal that way. If it were me, I'd rent points, save my money, and wait for VFG resales to reach a "reasonable" cost (which may be a few years). A new resort direct from Disney is like buying a new Mercedes, wait a bit and someone else will take the depreciation hit.

OP, you keep using the word special and talking about your honeymoon. I'm a "buy where you won't mind ending up" fan - with the exception that if your HEART is at a certain resort, you should own there. It seems to me that your heart is at the Grand Floridian. And I believe that for two reasons - one, people who have their heart at a resort are more than disappointed when they can't book there. And two, whatever resort you own you are likely to feel ownership in - even if it isn't your favorite (once in a while we get SSR owners who never stay at SSR, but if you 'bash' their home - oh my!) You might as well feel that ownership at the place you love, not the place you feel an obligation to defend.

 

[bwvBound]

OP, you keep using the word special and talking about your honeymoon. I'm a "buy where you won't mind ending up" fan - with the exception that if your HEART is at a certain resort, you should own there. It seems to me that your heart is at the Grand Floridian. And I believe that for two reasons - one, people who have their heart at a resort are more than disappointed when they can't book there. And two, whatever resort you own you are likely to feel ownership in - even if it isn't your favorite ... You might as well feel that ownership at the place you love, not the place you feel an obligation to defend.

Agreed! OP: cancel the AKV purchase and switch it to Grand Floridian!

 

[SFlaDisneyfans]

I'm so torn. I really love grand Floridian. Like I mentioned its special to us. And yes I want to be able to stay there, however I don't necessarily plan on staying there every stay. As for the value studios those r the ones we are looking to stay in for now. We don't have kids yet. I'm assuming if I buy VGF that it'll be easier for me to get a studio At 11 months out. However is it hard to get studios at other resorts 7 months out? Not just AKV ?

Just to clarify. Studios are available at all DVC locations. The value studios are specific to AKL and are very limited in number. Based on my understanding they are not easy to get even for AKV owners due to the low number.

As I follow the thread, if VGF is special for you and you can financially afford direct prices ( I dont recommend financing a timeshare but that is another story), then I suggest swapping your purchase to VGF.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

We were at WDW Sept. 20-28. We wee supposed to go to Vero Thurs to Sat the 26 to 28. We decided we would rather stay at WDW the whole time. SSR was available each day when we checked. AKL had one night but not both. OKW had rooms but we would have to move--one in HH area and one not. On Wed the 25th I checked and we got both nights standard view at AKL Jambo.
I think AKL is usually available--we could get a studio there over Thanksgiving weekend now--not a value or savannah view but a room.
I love AKL, have added points there recently, but would not consider buying them direct. They would lose half their value the day you closed. Look for resale and pay about half or get twice as many points.
As parents of older kids, we avoid the monorail resorts. You might love Grand Floridian now but hate it in 10 years. We feel the same about Beach Club and Stormalong Bay.

 

[nalajms]

I think you need to ask yourself what kind of vacation you want. Are you looking for a room or a resort? Do you care about maximizing your points or getting the best room options?

We purchased at AKL for the hard to get concierge rooms. We have been unsuccessful at booking those over the last 2 years (for more than 2 days at a time). Because of the long bus rides to the parks, we don't feel the standard or value rooms are worthwhile. We book the Savannah rooms, which are higher points. I don't care much for the dark rooms, but the view more than makes up for it. If I had known 2 years ago that we wouldn't get the concierge rooms, I would have bought SSR.

If you're really unsure which resort you like, why not rent or buy a resale at SSR? When you do figure it out, you can always sell the SSR. Closing costs and commissions are small costs in the long run.

 

[MrsB919]

I emailed my rep. He is currently on the dvc members cruise. He said he will call me tomorrow. Told me what you guys basically said it'll be another $2600. In the long run I know it's not that much considering the rest. Dh said he's happy with either one. He wants to stay in all of them. He's ok with staying at VGF every now and again. I would be as well. I guess I can always just stay at AKV and hope to get in there every now and again or wait til they go on resale and buy a small contract. I figured Ill speak with him more about my options and then make a choice. Nalajams asked if I prefer a room or resort. I guess in the long run I prefer rooms and points bc that means more disney vacations.

 

[disneynutz]

The problem is that most people don't really know what resorts they love until they stay there a couple of times.

We thought that we knew, bought BCV, loved the place but soon discovered that it doesn't have the greatest views.

Bought BWV, love the resort, love the views, love the location.

Bought VWL, not the best views but love the location and the feel of the place.

Bought BLT, don't care for the TP view, lake is OK, don't care for the quality of furnishings, modern look and increasing dues.

Bought AKV, not as many animals as expected, dark interiors, pretty remote from any activities.

Bought VGF fixed week, one bedroom, lake view. Love the GF, wanted a guaranteed lake view for the Christmas holiday.

And this was after being an owner for years and thinking that we knew what we wanted.

Bill

 

[GiantsNiners11]

When I crunched the numbers for my smallish contract, the price per point was closer to 10pp difference (or less) comparing direct to resales for AKV. My 100 point contract (that I subsequently split into 2, 50 point contracts) came with all 2013 points (for which I paid pro-rated MFs) and of course all points moving forward. Also the incentives, much reduced closing costs, and lack of administrative or credit card processing fees (that one of the resales agent said was needed for deposits, and which are illegal to pass onto customers in the state of Florida btw), closed the gap even further. There are a plethora of AKV stripped contracts for resale currently, with outrageous listing prices IMO. I elected to save myself the time and hassle of resale (especially after being constantly cajoled by resale agents for failing to offer the asking price) and went direct. The extra money was well worth it to me. The entire process took about 2 weeks. It was effortless and stress free. Resale may have been a much better way to go a month ago, but it's kind of ridiculous now IMHO.

The point difference is way, way more than $10 per point.

On Sept 25th this month, I sent off a 250 point contract loaded with 500 points for free where the seller paid all closing costs and all maintenance fees for 2012-2013. Cost per point was $67. This was not a "diamond in the rough" deal necessarily as in August, just last month, we had a 240 point contract at $63 that we ended up passing on after there was a contract problem (one of the possible downsides/headache issues of resale), but we still could have purchased at $63 pp if we weanted. We then had our choice of about 3 contracts in the 60's and ended up with the one above.

While sites ask $80+ per point...it's just an asking price. One look at Don's thread will show many contracts passing in the 60s and low 70s which is a far cry from $10 per point savings.

I was also not charged a credit card processing fee for the deposit and the balance will be paid by cashiers check (standard practice on resale market for any timeshare).

Is it worth the 60 day+ wait and possible contract headaches of negotiating and getting it finalized? For me and my family....thousands of dollars is worth saving. We were able to purchase more than DOUBLE the points via resale for the same price with hundreds of free points thrown in. For others, perhaps it is not worth it....but my personality type wouldn't let me sleep at night if I overpaid by that much for basically the exact same thing.

To the OP, I would definitely cancel the contract and think things over a bit more. I would buy VGF if I were going direct since you can't get them at resale and the contract is longer. I would also do this because if you wanted to add on AKV, you could very easily do that via resale.

If you have $21000 to spend, I would probably do 100 points direct at VGF and 80-100 points resale at AKV. I'd start with Direct and see how you like it first though, but be actively watching for AKV resale for the same UY and contract size/price.

This would leave you likely with more points than the 160 and two 11-month booking windows.

 

[Dean]

I emailed my rep. He is currently on the dvc members cruise. He said he will call me tomorrow. Told me what you guys basically said it'll be another $2600. In the long run I know it's not that much considering the rest. Dh said he's happy with either one. He wants to stay in all of them. He's ok with staying at VGF every now and again. I would be as well. I guess I can always just stay at AKV and hope to get in there every now and again or wait til they go on resale and buy a small contract. I figured Ill speak with him more about my options and then make a choice. Nalajams asked if I prefer a room or resort. I guess in the long run I prefer rooms and points bc that means more disney vacations.

You'll have to make your own decisions but for me, this decision would be between AKV resale and VGF retail, likely as a fixed week for the number of points close to I wanted. Or if one is just trying to get into the system, SSR resale might even be a better choice. IMO, the inherent cash value of the GVF is more than the retail cash difference of AKV. Put another way, the AKV contract retail is worth barely half what one paid retail day one. I believe VGF will hold a much better value than AKV comparatively.

Owning GVF doesn't prevent you from using the other resorts at the lower points.

 

[ddixon1]

The point difference is way, way more than $10 per point.

On Sept 25th this month, I sent off a 250 point contract loaded with 500 points for free where the seller paid all closing costs and all maintenance fees for 2012-2013. Cost per point was $67. This was not a "diamond in the rough" deal necessarily as in August, just last month, we had a 240 point contract at $63 that we ended up passing on after there was a contract problem (one of the possible downsides/headache issues of resale), but we still could have purchased at $63 pp if we weanted. We then had our choice of about 3 contracts in the 60's and ended up with the one above.

While sites ask $80+ per point...it's just an asking price. One look at Don's thread will show many contracts passing in the 60s and low 70s which is a far cry from $10 per point savings.

I was also not charged a credit card processing fee for the deposit and the balance will be paid by cashiers check (standard practice on resale market for any timeshare).

Is it worth the 60 day+ wait and possible contract headaches of negotiating and getting it finalized? For me and my family....thousands of dollars is worth saving. We were able to purchase more than DOUBLE the points via resale for the same price with hundreds of free points thrown in. For others, perhaps it is not worth it....but my personality type wouldn't let me sleep at night if I overpaid by that much for basically the exact same thing.

To the OP, I would definitely cancel the contract and think things over a bit more. I would buy VGF if I were going direct since you can't get them at resale and the contract is longer. I would also do this because if you wanted to add on AKV, you could very easily do that via resale.

If you have $21000 to spend, I would probably do 100 points direct at VGF and 80-100 points resale at AKV. I'd start with Direct and see how you like it first though, but be actively watching for AKV resale for the same UY and contract size/price.

This would leave you likely with more points than the 160 and two 11-month booking windows.

Dude, you are comparing apples to oranges here (e.g., comparing 200+ pt contracts to 50-100 pt contracts).

To be clear, I was careful to preface my comment with the fact that I was looking at 50-100 pt contracts (as the OP had mentioned at one point, possibly splitting the contract). Smaller contracts seem to represent a distinct sub-market amongst resales.

The smaller contracts tend to list higher; be fairly stripped of points; and sell faster, with sellers pretty much refusing to budge on asking prices, and refusing to pay any fees or closing costs. This was my experience while submitting 30+ offers (based on the ROFR data) in the past several months.

So my numbers stand (for the smaller contracts), and the gap has been narrowing even further. Current listing prices for 50-100 pt AKV contracts are $87-$97 pp -- I submitted offers on every one of them, and the sellers refused to budge. The majority of these contracts don't even have points available until 2015!

Each person has to make his/her decision based on his/her unique experience. You mentioned that your personality is such that paying more would cause you too much stress. That makes sense, of course.

However, currently my life is way too stressful and complicated (e.g., I run my own business; I tend to a spouse with a chronic, life-limiting illness; all while trying to provide a somewhat "normal" life for our 8 y/o son). The 10pp difference (even less now) lent me to abandon my own perception regarding the stress and aggravation of dealing with the resale market, so I went direct. It was much simpler and stress-free for me. (Oh and while Fidelity does not charge a CC processing fee, other brokers do --$45 for one).

Anywhoooo... I wish the OP best of luck with their own decision.

 

[GiantsNiners11]

Dude, you are comparing apples to oranges here (e.g., comparing 200+ pt contracts to 50-100 pt contracts).

To be clear, I was careful to preface my comment with the fact that I was looking at 50-100 pt contracts (as the OP had mentioned at one point, possibly splitting the contract). Smaller contracts seem to represent a distinct sub-market amongst resales.

The smaller contracts tend to list higher; be fairly stripped of points; and sell faster, with sellers pretty much refusing to budge on asking prices, and refusing to pay any fees or closing costs. This was my experience while submitting 30+ offers (based on the ROFR data) in the past several months.

So my numbers stand (for the smaller contracts), and the gap has been narrowing even further. Current listing prices for 50-100 pt AKV contracts are $87-$97 pp -- I submitted offers on every one of them, and the sellers refused to budge. The majority of these contracts don't even have points available until 2015!

Each person has to make his/her decision based on his/her unique experience. You mentioned that your personality is such that paying more would cause you too much stress. That makes sense, of course.

However, currently my life is way too stressful and complicated (e.g., I run my own business; I tend to a spouse with a chronic, life-limiting illness; all while trying to provide a somewhat "normal" life for our 8 y/o son). The 10pp difference (even less now) lent me to abandon my own perception regarding the stress and aggravation of dealing with the resale market, so I went direct. It was much simpler and stress-free for me. (Oh and while Fidelity does not charge a CC processing fee, other brokers do --$45 for one).

Anywhoooo... I wish the OP best of luck with their own decision.

All fair points. FWIW, there were two 100 point contracts that sold for $70 and $71 respectively not less than three weeks ago. There is definitely that premium for smaller contracts, but it isn't a $10 pp difference in all cases and with a bit of patience, you can still get 100 point contracts at $70 per point. The $71 one had 90 loaded points too and neither was stripped. I agree, many many many are overpriced and stripped, but if you are dilligent, you can get a lot of contracts before they even list and all it takes is one motivated seller. The cost difference is at least $25+ per point and much higher in many cases. I'm just trying to give the whole picture to the OP because if I incorrectly thought it was only $10 per point, I probably wouldn't have cared either....but finding out later that it's actually thousands of dollars more would not have been a fun discovery. On a 160 point contract, it's a massive cost difference between resale and direct. $10 per point difference is just not accurate and the OP should know that. She can save a lot more than that by going resale.