Hating to love Riviera: Do resale add-ons align with my goals?

[pianomanzano]

Appreciate the feedback so far.

I think we need to do some soul-searching here because combining direct RIV with resale O14 will add some overhead in terms of alternating resorts or taking multiple trips. Adding on direct will be tough on the wallet.

We've only visited RIV once but loved the rooms, skyliner access, and dining. We previously stayed at AKV twice on rented points and loved it as well, initially pegging it as our future home resort. We could buy 200-250 resale points at AKV for the same price, but I'm worried that not being able to book RIV (and likely other future resorts) will be in the back of my mind.

This is tough to get right. It would be ideal to start with the direct RIV contract, then feel out our vacation patterns to see how we want to add on, but that initial purchase has an immediate ripple effect on future options. As the title states, I'm hating to love this resort.

We were in the same boat when we first explored DVC. Wanted to start with resale and loved the idea of RIV, but hated the resale restrictions. We started with an SSR resale in the 200pt range and shortly thereafter added RIV direct. We were back and forth on adding RIV direct or resale and ultimately went direct so as not to be tied down to one resort. But, I'll add that so far we've only used our RIV points only at RIV, to the point where we switch out reservations we have at other resorts initially booked with RIV points to our SSR resale (even if it means borrowing from that contract). Which at the end of the day makes me think maybe we should've just bought RIV resale instead since we're treating our direct points as RIV-only ones (at least for the time being). We are thinking about adding some RIV resale as "upgrade points" (since RIV is very points heavy) so that we can stay in 1BRs+ during our stays there. Probably not being helpful, but just wanted to give a perspective from a O14 resale/RIV direct owner.

 

[stlrod]

I bought two resale RIV contracts and am very happy with them. They were a steal since Disney does not exercise ROFR on them and the nicest thing is that someone else took the "restriction" hit on price. Unlike an original owner, I can probably sell my contracts for the same or more than what I paid. I probably would not suggest RIV resale for a first time buyer unless the buyer is also considering a direct purchase. Personally, I think your best option is a VGF direct for the benefits and flexibility and a Riv resale for staying at Riv, then either do split stays for your trips or each every other year. It's also been incredibly easy to rent Riv at premium price to help defray the initial investment. And if they ever take away the restrictions (doubtful in my opinion), you definitely come out a winner.

 

[hglenn]

I bought two resale RIV contracts and am very happy with them. They were a steal since Disney does not exercise ROFR on them and the nicest thing is that someone else took the "restriction" hit on price. Unlike an original owner, I can probably sell my contracts for the same or more than what I paid. Personally, I think your best option is a VGF direct for the benefits and flexibility and a Riv resale for staying at Riv, then either do split stays for your trips or each every other year. It's been incredibly easy to rent Riv at premium price to help defray the initial investment.

Great point on someone else taking the resale restriction hit. Never thought of it that way. We know we would want to stay there, too, so we may also look at resale.

 

[stlrod]

I compare it to buying a 6-month old car with 5,000 miles. Someone else paid the "hit" you take when driving a new car off the lot. You just cant drive the car out of state but it's a great ride otherwise. lol If you do go the RIV resale and direct route, get your RIV locked down first so you can match the direct Use Year (it's just easier). Although, I do keep my RIV contracts in a separate use year from my others which were all direct.

 

[kboo]

We were in the same boat when we first explored DVC. Wanted to start with resale and loved the idea of RIV, but hated the resale restrictions. We started with an SSR resale in the 200pt range and shortly thereafter added RIV direct. We were back and forth on adding RIV direct or resale and ultimately went direct so as not to be tied down to one resort. But, I'll add that so far we've only used our RIV points only at RIV, to the point where we switch out reservations we have at other resorts initially booked with RIV points to our SSR resale (even if it means borrowing from that contract). Which at the end of the day makes me think maybe we should've just bought RIV resale instead since we're treating our direct points as RIV-only ones (at least for the time being). We are thinking about adding some RIV resale as "upgrade points" (since RIV is very points heavy) so that we can stay in 1BRs+ during our stays there. Probably not being helpful, but just wanted to give a perspective from a O14 resale/RIV direct owner.

I'm a RIV direct owner who also pretty much only uses my points at RIV.

Our resale O14 points are grandfathered, so we could use them for RIV. So back in spring 2019 I was very much thinking I would wait for the cheap RIV resale points and plan on using them only for RIV, and/or rent/trade them if I really wanted to stay at a different resort. My price point was $130pp or lower, which has not yet hit. Spring 2019 we did a tour and saw the model rooms (as well as CCV model rooms) and thought they were gorgeous, and at our # points and the incentives at the time, I think we paid $1500 more than the lowest developer incentives during the pandemic (but then again, we got 2019 points and an amazing NYE 2019 trip out of it).

Anyway - since then we have had 5 amazing stays at Riviera, we still love the resort, and the bottom has not yet fallen out of resale prices. If the pandemic had never happened, we'd probably always use our points at Riviera, but when we made a few last minute trips in 2020-21, we were glad we had the ability to use our points elsewhere. That said, we have never left a point behind, so if we couldn't rebook a trip for ourselves I think we would have just rented them out. If I were to get more RIV points to get us more easily into 3br, I would definitely look at resale in the same UY as my direct points, especially if prices start dropping. But as of right now I'm more interested in adding another home resort, if anything.