Hard to pass on such good incentives

[wnielsen1]

Clearly life is stressful at the moment because I'm still thinking about points. If we *wanted* to stay in a 2BD at GF what's the chance of getting in on a 7 month reservation? We have extended family that *may* want to use points as well. If they do, we need to buy more to still do everything we want to do. If they don't, we will have too many points. My mom thinks we can get away with only 100 additional points, though there aren't any incentives at that level. I'm more inclined to buy 200 to get a flagship property at a mid-tier price, but I haven't figured out how to justify it.

Not good. We also don't know what's going to happen, but many people think (myself included) that an influx of VGF2 points with their 11 month booking window it's going to make it even harder.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

That's what we were afraid of as well. We have never stayed there before, but I hate the idea of being locked out in case we decide we want to. Assuming that DVC keeps the 50% borrowing restriction we should probably go for 125 points just to be safe for 3 nights every 2-3 years. My son wants Bungalows as often as we can swing it. We also love AK (home resort) and CC (cabins usually available and we are curious to try them, the 3BD there was amazing), and BC (also a home resort) is a must. So many places to stay, and so little time!

 

[Sandisw]

Clearly life is stressful at the moment because I'm still thinking about points. If we *wanted* to stay in a 2BD at GF what's the chance of getting in on a 7 month reservation? We have extended family that *may* want to use points as well. If they do, we need to buy more to still do everything we want to do. If they don't, we will have too many points. My mom thinks we can get away with only 100 additional points, though there aren't any incentives at that level. I'm more inclined to buy 200 to get a flagship property at a mid-tier price, but I haven't figured out how to justify it.

With all these new points, I think 7 months will be tough for the larger rooms.

So, I would not count on it as being an option as a non owner.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

After MUCH soul searching and a rather complex excel spreadsheet I think that it makes sense for us to buy. Game changer is the ability to sleep 10 comfortably in a 2BD. We are currently 6 now, but as my kids get older they may want to invite friends along. My sister and her daughter may choose to come part of the time, but is not always capable of committing 11 months in advance. And we have other friends who are huge Disney fans who may also want to stay with us on occasion, but again can't necessarily commit that far in advance. Even this time around we are going to stay in the cabins (sleeps 8) so we invited friends, and afterwards thought "wouldn't it be nice to be able to add one more person?" I know that 3BD are available in different resorts, but this way we wouldn't feel bad if it just ends up being the 6 of us.

Now of course the question becomes how many points to buy. If I'm looking at the points chart correctly 4 nights in a GF lakeview 2BD would be 245 points in January 2023. 3 nights would be under 200 points. If we bought 125 points we would be in an every-other-year situation to GF for 4 nights. If the points charts change meaningfully we'd be in a bank/use/borrow situation or we would need to drop down to 3 nights. My son also LOVES the bungalows and would be happy there every year, but that's an awful lot of points to be committing to every year. We also really love Copper Creek and Animal Kingdom, and the idea of never staying at them again would make me sad. My mom refuses to hotel hop more than once in a trip. My brother and sister will want to travel some years (mostly BC, some exotic trips) but not all years.

We currently have enough BC points to cover any trips there, but my mom doesn't want to use them for SAP. We also have 200 AK and 150 OKW points accumulated over the years.

100 GF would probably work if we only wanted to go 3 nights. If we want to go up to 4, 125 is the minimum I would consider. 150 would be "safer." Pricing at 200 gets more interesting. I'm just afraid that at some point we'll have more points than we know what to do with, and we'll end up making stupid decisions just for the sake of spending points. I'd love to think that we could add trips, but realistically I don't know how likely that is, especially until APs come back. I would TOTALLY add a summer VB or HH trip though if we had points to burn, assuming we could get a week in the kind of room I would want (2BD, 3BD, or cottage).

What to do...what to do...?

 

[dvc lover 1970]

Also do not rule out the two connecting studios at GF. You will save on points and have four queen beds.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

Also do not rule out the two connecting studios at GF. You will save on points and have four queen beds.

I hadn't even thought of that! Even 3 studios would work as long as we would have a way to cancel the reservation if it isn't needed and redeploy those points elsewhere. Can I use points, cancel, and then bank them as long as I have at least 6 months to go on my use year?

You are BRILLIANT!

 

[CarolynFH]

Can I use points, cancel, and then bank them as long as I have at least 6 months to go on my use year?

You can bank as long as they’re current UY points, i.e. not already banked or borrowed, and you’re within your banking window, which is the first 8 months of your UY, when you cancel and bank.

 

[Sandisw]

I hadn't even thought of that! Even 3 studios would work as long as we would have a way to cancel the reservation if it isn't needed and redeploy those points elsewhere. Can I use points, cancel, and then bank them as long as I have at least 6 months to go on my use year?

You are BRILLIANT!

As long as the cancelation is at least 31 days or more before check in. Anything less than that and the points will go into holding. That not only prevents them from being banked, it also limits them to be booked for trips 60 days or less from check in.

If you cancel more than 31 days out and are still in your banking window, then yes, those points can be banked.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

We bit the bullet and decided to buy 125 points. That should let us go to the GF every other year in a 2BD. I had all but decided to buy more, but then the Poly announcement came out and really threw me for a loop. Poly is my son's favorite resort, and the prospect of 2BDs really made us reconsider.

We had a family meeting to discuss the following 3 options:
1. waiting and only buying into Poly
2. buying 200 GF points and giving up the idea of Poly - $186 makes for great SAP along with GF stays.
3. buying 125 GF now and then re-evaluating if/when Poly opens.

My husband pointed out that as we still don't know how many points my brother's family will want to use and we have more than enough for everything that we and my sister want already it made sense to buy some points now and then look at usage once Poly is announced. We can add another 125 points (or more!) at that time as long as we think we'll use them. My guess is that the points chart for MK view 2BD are going to be a lot higher than at GF and we'll want enough points for at least 4 nights every other year there as well. Plus eventually this will become my son's contract (I'd still be the owner but the points will be earmarked for his family).

125 is a weird number of points so I'm still second-guessing myself a little bit (I strongly considered 150 just so that it would be a nice round number), but I think it will end up alright in the end.

Now I just need to hope that Poly pricing is somewhat close to where GF is being offered and that we still have some extra income floating around that we can put to use. Otherwise I might look back and think "why didn't I get more when we had the chance?"

 

[RoseGold]

Late 2024, so probably 2025 points, is a long way away.

If you want to trade them in, you have to decide if you think the resale market in 2-3 years will support the pricing you paid now.

This also opens another path, Poly resale. If you think this will be in the original association, which hopefully will be resolved soon enough, maybe that's the best choice. You can do that in the next few years and don't have to wait for direct sales of the new tower.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

Late 2024, so probably 2025 points, is a long way away.

If you want to trade them in, you have to decide if you think the resale market in 2-3 years will support the pricing you paid now.

This also opens another path, Poly resale. If you think this will be in the original association, which hopefully will be resolved soon enough, maybe that's the best choice. You can do that in the next few years and don't have to wait for direct sales of the new tower.

Very true. Unfortunately we are a December UY family so we won't be using our points until 2025 at the earliest.

My mom has no interest in resale and I refuse to pay direct pricing on a sold out resort.

I think we have enough points to get us through until then using split stays with BC. At least I hope so. 2024 will be a 2BD at GF. If Jan 2025 doesn't work out for Poly it will be up to wherever we can get a 7m reservations (AK, bungalows, or cabins depending on how my family votes and how many points are available to the extended family). 2026 will probably be GF again. 2027 is definitely a bungalows year (DS graduates from high school). I have a hard time accepting that is happening, so I can't make any plans beyond that.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Very true. Unfortunately we are a December UY family so we won't be using our points until 2025 at the earliest.

I don't understand how Dec UY has anything to do with not using points until 2025? By that time you're 2022 VGF points will have expired even if you bank them into your 2023 UY.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

I don't understand how Dec UY has anything to do with not using points until 2025? By that time you're 2022 VGF points will have expired even if you bank them into your 2023 UY.

For Poly we won't be able to use them until 2025 anyway because we mostly travel in January. Also we'd have to buy enough to be able to only stay there on borrowed points. For Jan 2025 we should be able to use use year and borrowed, hopefully.

We'll use VGF 2022 and 2023 points for the January 2024 trip. If we had waited and only bought Poly then January 2024 would have been somewhere else, likely AK.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

I don't understand how Dec UY has anything to do with not using points until 2025? By that time you're 2022 VGF points will have expired even if you bank them into your 2023 UY.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. It has been a long week.

 

[RoseGold]

Dec UY might actually help. If this opens “late 2024” the points don’t exist to sell a summer 2024 UY. You might be able to get a December UY with an extra year of points.

VGF didn’t do this and only sold missing the current year points, probably to avoid the obvious increase in value for an extra year of points for late UY contracts.

 

[Sandisw]

Dec UY might actually help. If this opens “late 2024” the points don’t exist to sell a summer 2024 UY. You might be able to get a December UY with an extra year of points.

VGF didn’t do this and only sold missing the current year points, probably to avoid the obvious increase in value for an extra year of points for late UY contracts.

With RIV they sold 2019 UY points for the resort that opened in late 2019. But, you did not get the previous UY's points. I bought an Aug UY in October of 2019, and my points started with 2019 points. Had I bought earlier, I would have still only been given 2019 points.

So, I think a Dec UY contract would start with Dec 2024 UY points if the opening date is late 2024.

 

[RaymOOOnd]

I too am considering adding on w/ this but to comment on the "good incentives" we're all talking about -- they are good from a relative perspective alone, no? Look how many points it takes to stay in a 1 bedroom villa for 1 week -- 300 points on average during the cheaper times of the year. That's $54,000 even with incentives.

It's very difficult with DVC to think logically about what the money is buying. We have a 200pt AKV contract which we bought at $69pp years ago, and are considering selling to make up for some of the cost of a ~300 point VGF2 contract (higher point volume to make up for the adverse difference in point charts). The practical question isn't really though "do we want to own at Grand Floridian?!", but instead it is something more like this:

"Is it worth an extra ~$25-30,000 for a 4-month booking advantage at the Grand Floridian when we stay most often in 1 or 2-bedroom villas?" It really boils down to just that but it's so easy to get caught up in thinking of ourselves as prospective "owners at the flagship resort!"

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

I too am considering adding on w/ this but to comment on the "good incentives" we're all talking about -- they are good from a relative perspective alone, no? Look how many points it takes to stay in a 1 bedroom villa for 1 week -- 300 points on average during the cheaper times of the year. That's $54,000 even with incentives.

It's very difficult with DVC to think logically about what the money is buying. We have a 200pt AKV contract which we bought at $69pp years ago, and are considering selling to make up for some of the cost of a ~300 point VGF2 contract (higher point volume to make up for the adverse difference in point charts). The practical question isn't really though "do we want to own at Grand Floridian?!", but instead it is something more like this:

"Is it worth an extra ~$25-30,000 for a 4-month booking advantage at the Grand Floridian when we stay most often in 1 or 2-bedroom villas?" It really boils down to just that but it's so easy to get caught up in thinking of ourselves as prospective "owners at the flagship resort!"

Wow! $69/pt AKV points is amazing. And here we're getting excited about paying $200 because at least it isn't $250!

Forgetting about the points chart for a minute, I think the question boils down to whether you would be happy at AK (or whatever else you can get at 7 months) or whether you feel like you *need* to be able to stay at VGF. That's something only you can answer. We ultimately decided that walkability to a MK resort was really important for us, and my mom doesn't like the pools at BLT. Based on everything I read here, we thought that it would be too hard to count on getting a GF 2BD at 7m with any regularity. If not AK where else might you want to stay?

One other thought...if your cost basis for AK is really only $69, can you somehow keep them and rent the points out on a regular basis to help offset some of that cost, or do you need the money in order to help fund the VGF purchase?

We're going to use our new VGF points to stay there every other year or so. If we buy Poly points we'll probably stay there on the "off" years, mostly in the 2BD but occasionally in something nicer. We also love AK (there's a reason why we bought there) and CC, so those will be in the rotation somehow and use the VGF points as SAP for Bungalows or CC.

There are so many trips I want to take, and so little time to do them all in...

 

[RoseGold]

So, I think a Dec UY contract would start with Dec 2024 UY points if the opening date is late 2024.

This also would have been possible with VGF2, opening in summer 2022, but DVC intentionally didn’t do that. Dec UY 2023 is a long way away.

It’s possible they sell with the extra year of points, but also maybe not.

 

[Rochester Disney Fan]

I've considered that same thing, but the BLT incentives make me hold out hope that we might see a similar crazy discount at a resort I prefer, like AKV, OKW, or even Copper Creek or the Poly.

Currently AKV is at 186 which is cheaper then most WDW direct resorts. AKV has not had a price increase in a couple years so it's coming. This will of coarse will also raise the resale rate. I was actually going to add about 50 points this week ( I own AKV and bought all my points direct at an avg off 100/pt). I contacted DVC via the member site last Sunday but by the time they got back to me Tuesday Poly was announced with all the traditional room sizes so I decided I'm going to wait a couple years and get enough points to stay every 2-3 years in a 2BR.