Help with next DVC purchase (growing family, already own at VGF)

[AstroBlasters]

Own enough points at a single home resort where you can get the room type you want at the time of year you want to travel. You can always waitlist or change resorts at 7m from there… I would not lock myself into split stays….

 

[Lionezz]

I was haggling for a 200 poly contract which had been in market for 3 weeks last year (just before all poly was vacuumed from the market) for 134 but seller wanted 136 and said they had other bids at 136. I passed and someone else bought it. I ended up buying AKV instead.

I was afraid at the moment that I couldnt get room at AKV. But its a huge resort so room is not hard to come by even at cristmas. Its our familys avarage favourite and number 2 for everyone in my family (all have different number one). My parents dont like AKV. They think it doesnt feel like disney (they rather go to Africa if they want to see a savannah). Their favourite is poly which is why I put it on my buy list it since i want to take them with me when i can (when my wife let me). The second reason I bought AKV it its so easy to find contracts with the UY and points I was looking for. Third reason was buy where you want to stay. Fourth was the lower upfront cost compared to poly (but lower contract length. how much is every added contract year worth for you).

I had poly, BLT and AKV on my addonitis watchlist. If I could do it again I would probably buy BLT instead and use the points mainly at AKV and BLT.
The market value for renting out the AKV-points is not good. I found out that AKV is not easy to rent out compared to BCV and VGF if your family cant use the points or want to take a break from disney.
Also because of the lower dues at BLT compared with AKV and the high availabilty at AKV at 7 months. BLT is harder to get into and its fun to alternate disney hotels.. except when you need alot of points to invite parents and my sisters family (with high demands. they do not prefer akv, ssr or okw. And I want to try to make everyone happy since its a once in a life time experience ). When were so many I wish I had all my points at VGF so we can stay together! It started so easy but when family expands / more family members want to join its really hard to have the perfect amount of points at the right deluxe hotel .

I now own at VGF (200), BC (160) and AKV (160).

I think you did your homework and I recommend what you already found out, same UY and BLT .

 

[BuzzLightyr]

The early check-in required for a nap time is a deal breaker for a split stay unless you pay for an extra night to guarantee you space. Each kid is different but a well rested child is the key to a vacation feeling like a vacation.

I'd bank and borrow points, or add to VGF but stay in one place for now.

Staying at GF and driving to Epcot or HS isn't that bad. It's the TTC at MK which is the biggest problem. I prefer a rental car with young kids as you'll need more stuff. Not needing a driver for your car gives you space. 2 adults and 2 kids can be seated comfortably in almost any car, but throw in a driver and you'd want a 3 row vehicle and you give up luggage space.

If the $99/day 4 day 4 parks continue, that's a great deal in my opinion but also involves planning to go to 4 parks. At $150/day, I might be more selective on parks and just do MK and Epcot and have more pool time (time of year permitting).

Beach club and their pool (renovating in 2025) would be my suggestion for an add after you have borrowed all your VGF points. Great pool. Character dining breakfast. Compared to RIV, location wins. You need to fold a double stroller on the skyliner which is a deal breaker for me in your shoes. Beach club is a walk.

 

[jolynne28]

We've gone in Feb/May/Oct/Nov and have planned another trip for next March already. Basically any time outside of June-Aug and Thanksgiving/Christmas would work for us as we hate the heat/humidity and also extreme crowds. I do realize that may be problematic once the kids are older and we're bound by school schedules. My plan is to take them to Disney a lot while they're young and then go 1x a year once they're older/in school (most likely during Spring Break). We took my daughter 4 times last year when she was two.

I was you once, we always went in September to Disney and/or the beach b/c it was low crowds and the kids weren't in school. Now I have 3, they will be K-5th in the fall. We have been forced to fall into travel patterns that we don't particularly love b/c of school. I know it's hard to imagine and seems far away, but you'll be there before you know it! It's not reasonable to pull them out much anymore for trips, and we are close by. We have decided we will do a 5 night weekday trip every summer the first week of June, then possibly a shorter stay over a long weekend in December with them missing a day or two.
We did Spring Break last year, before we had DVC, and it was super crowded. It's also one of the highest point chart tiers, and is blocked out for our AP, so it just doesn't work for us.
All that to say, if I were you I would buy with the forward thinking of what your life will look like in 5+ years to get the most out of your purchase. I swore no to 2042 as well, but we are about to close on a small BWV contract b/c of the point chart and location. I agree that TTC sucks bad, we try to avoid it at all costs. But Deluxe buses to MK aren't horrible, and if you want to try it, I think split stays will work great for you in say 3 years. Also, things happen, I have a 5 year old to prove it, and you may end up larger than a family of 4, so keep that in mind when looking at resorts that sleep that many. I'm fairly certain BCV, BWV, and BRV will allow 5 in a 1 bedroom, they just don't provide the bed/bedding.

 

[cncm]

Own enough points at a single home resort where you can get the room type you want at the time of year you want to travel. You can always waitlist or change resorts at 7m from there… I would not lock myself into split stays….

I think what I may do if split stays end up being impractical with 2 young kids is just bank/borrow enough points so I can stay at VGF 1br for a week every other year and then use the 2nd contract (leaning toward BLT) to book a 1br for the alternating year. This way, we'll always have a home base in a monorail resort and can drive/take the bus to the other parks (which I don't mind since there's no TTC nonsense).

It's hard for me to swallow buying VGF resale right now since it'll effectively cost the same as my direct contract last year (I bought during the summer promotion when direct contracts were going for <$170/pt). BLT seems much better value if I can score resale at ~$120-125/pt range - plus it will have way more inventory of 1- and 2-br (with extra bathroom!).

I was haggling for a 200 poly contract which had been in market for 3 weeks last year (just before all poly was vacuumed from the market) for 134 but seller wanted 136 and said they had other bids at 136. I passed and someone else bought it. I ended up buying AKV instead.

I was afraid at the moment that I couldnt get room at AKV. But its a huge resort so room is not hard to come by even at cristmas. Its our familys avarage favourite and number 2 for everyone in my family (all have different number one). My parents dont like AKV. They think it doesnt feel like disney (they rather go to Africa if they want to see a savannah). Their favourite is poly which is why I put it on my buy list it since i want to take them with me when i can (when my wife let me). The second reason I bought AKV it its so easy to find contracts with the UY and points I was looking for. Third reason was buy where you want to stay. Fourth was the lower upfront cost compared to poly (but lower contract length. how much is every added contract year worth for you).

I had poly, BLT and AKV on my addonitis watchlist. If I could do it again I would probably buy BLT instead and use the points mainly at AKV and BLT.
The market value for renting out the AKV-points is not good. I found out that AKV is not easy to rent out compared to BCV and VGF if your family cant use the points or want to take a break from disney.
Also because of the lower dues at BLT compared with AKV and the high availabilty at AKV at 7 months. BLT is harder to get into and its fun to alternate disney hotels.. except when you need alot of points to invite parents and my sisters family (with high demands. they do not prefer akv, ssr or okw. And I want to try to make everyone happy since its a once in a life time experience ). When were so many I wish I had all my points at VGF so we can stay together! It started so easy but when family expands / more family members want to join its really hard to have the perfect amount of points at the right deluxe hotel .

I now own at VGF (200), BC (160) and AKV (160).

I think you did your homework and I recommend what you already found out, same UY and BLT .

I love AKV and definitely planning on staying there again in the future, especially once we're out of the toddler stage so bus transportation isn't such a hassle. I found the same when it comes to AKV availability - much more plentiful compared to BLT and the monorail resorts.

The early check-in required for a nap time is a deal breaker for a split stay unless you pay for an extra night to guarantee you space. Each kid is different but a well rested child is the key to a vacation feeling like a vacation.

I'd bank and borrow points, or add to VGF but stay in one place for now.

Staying at GF and driving to Epcot or HS isn't that bad. It's the TTC at MK which is the biggest problem. I prefer a rental car with young kids as you'll need more stuff. Not needing a driver for your car gives you space. 2 adults and 2 kids can be seated comfortably in almost any car, but throw in a driver and you'd want a 3 row vehicle and you give up luggage space.

If the $99/day 4 day 4 parks continue, that's a great deal in my opinion but also involves planning to go to 4 parks. At $150/day, I might be more selective on parks and just do MK and Epcot and have more pool time (time of year permitting).

Beach club and their pool (renovating in 2025) would be my suggestion for an add after you have borrowed all your VGF points. Great pool. Character dining breakfast. Compared to RIV, location wins. You need to fold a double stroller on the skyliner which is a deal breaker for me in your shoes. Beach club is a walk.

Never stayed at Beach Club before but really tempted by the location/pool amenities. It's just sooo expensive, even resale, and much harder to justify financially given the short contract life. I'm holding out hope that the price will come down in the next few years and if it does, that would make a great 3rd contract (when the kids are bigger and can actually take advantage of the pools/handle split stays).

 

[cncm]

I was you once, we always went in September to Disney and/or the beach b/c it was low crowds and the kids weren't in school. Now I have 3, they will be K-5th in the fall. We have been forced to fall into travel patterns that we don't particularly love b/c of school. I know it's hard to imagine and seems far away, but you'll be there before you know it! It's not reasonable to pull them out much anymore for trips, and we are close by. We have decided we will do a 5 night weekday trip every summer the first week of June, then possibly a shorter stay over a long weekend in December with them missing a day or two.
We did Spring Break last year, before we had DVC, and it was super crowded. It's also one of the highest point chart tiers, and is blocked out for our AP, so it just doesn't work for us.
All that to say, if I were you I would buy with the forward thinking of what your life will look like in 5+ years to get the most out of your purchase. I swore no to 2042 as well, but we are about to close on a small BWV contract b/c of the point chart and location. I agree that TTC sucks bad, we try to avoid it at all costs. But Deluxe buses to MK aren't horrible, and if you want to try it, I think split stays will work great for you in say 3 years. Also, things happen, I have a 5 year old to prove it, and you may end up larger than a family of 4, so keep that in mind when looking at resorts that sleep that many. I'm fairly certain BCV, BWV, and BRV will allow 5 in a 1 bedroom, they just don't provide the bed/bedding.

Yea I'm really not sure what we'll do when both kids are in school and we can't travel as freely. I think I'm still okay pulling them out for vacations during early elementary years but as they get older, we'll probably only be able to do Disney over Spring or Winter Break (not setting foot in Florida during the summer lol)

 

[AstroBlasters]

I think what I may do if split stays end up being impractical with 2 young kids is just bank/borrow enough points so I can stay at VGF 1br for a week every other year and then use the 2nd contract (leaning toward BLT) to book a 1br for the alternating year. This way, we'll always have a home base in a monorail resort and can drive/take the bus to the other parks (which I don't mind since there's no TTC nonsense).

It's hard for me to swallow buying VGF resale right now since it'll effectively cost the same as my direct contract last year (I bought during the summer promotion when direct contracts were going for <$170/pt). BLT seems much better value if I can score resale at ~$120-125/pt range - plus it will have way more inventory of 1- and 2-br (with extra bathroom!).



I love AKV and definitely planning on staying there again in the future, especially once we're out of the toddler stage so bus transportation isn't such a hassle. I found the same when it comes to AKV availability - much more plentiful compared to BLT and the monorail resorts.




Never stayed at Beach Club before but really tempted by the location/pool amenities. It's just sooo expensive, even resale, and much harder to justify financially given the short contract life. I'm holding out hope that the price will come down in the next few years and if it does, that would make a great 3rd contract (when the kids are bigger and can actually take advantage of the pools/handle split stays).

I think you should take the points required to get a room into account with BC/BW.

 

[bimmertt]

Pretty similar dilemma here. We own direct at VGF, but feel we need more points. We just stayed at the RIV and loved everything about it. I’m still researching options, but it seems like the best solution might be to buy more direct points at RIV. Resale is tempting due to the low cost, but as you know, they can’t be combined with the VGF points unless they’re all being used at the RIV. With this setup, we’d be able to do split stays at VGF and RIV and split the parks accordingly.

 

[Skicks35]

Another vote for adding more resale at VGF

My wife and I are also expecting baby #2 in September (congrats!). We own three contracts, all at VGF (75 for blue card, 200 resale, then 125 more from BPG expansion), so we had a similar decision. We decided it was best to have all our points in one place (it's our favorite resort anyway) instead of purposely splitting up contracts for split stays, mostly to make things simpler.

I totally understand the appeal of being able to walk to three different parks during your trip, but the logistics of split stays (especially with kids/large groups) is just not worth it in my opinion, especially when you are already staying at VGF.

YMMV, but it usually takes us 30 min from VGF monorail to EP, which isn't bad, so if those are the two parks you will be at the majority of the time, the monorail is a decent option.

The other advantage is that you can simply book your rooms at VGF at 11 months, then check at 7 months to see if anything is available. If so, you'll usually get points back, since most 1BR rooms will be less than VGF.

 

[odouglass]

I’m in a similar boat. We have 3 littles - 9, 3 and 1. We have 200 direct to VGF and with the current RIV direct promos, it seems like a good time to add but do I want to do split stays! We are in MD and go 1x a year right now for a week. The older my kids get the bigger room we’ll need for sure.

 

[marmentrout85]

If you’re looking at 1bdrms, you have a pretty decent chance of getting even standard view rooms at RIV at 7mos most times of the year (for now). Preferred rooms are pretty much no issues at all.

I still have a bit of FOMO when it comes to not owning direct (anywhere), but this (above) is why RIV resale made sense for us since we knew we wanted to mainly stay in the standard 1BR. We knew we were going to use more points so we didn't want to spend more $ on those points. And if we happen to not want to own there for ~45 years then I won't feel as bad about letting it go.

 

[marmentrout85]

The idea of packing/moving mid-trip with a baby/toddler sounds pretty unappealing but in the long-run those early baby years are short and maybe we'll be glad to have two convenient locations when the kids are older.

Congrats on the 2nd! It can be a bit of a hassle moving mid-trip for sure as we just had our first trip with our 1yr-old back in January and did a split stay at BCV and SSR. Moving to a different resort wasn't the rough part, it was the consistent loading/unloading from the buses while staying at SSR that was the largest inconvenience IMO, so location was the prime factor that led us to where we own. I'm a big proponent of diversifying your DVC portfolio which is why we ended up at multiple locations to different parks where buses are theoretically taken out of the equation the majority of the time.

 

[Patsaizan]

Congratulations on baby #2! Personally I would focus on getting the number of points necessary for the room type and length of stay at the resort you already own at, in the same use year. Once you have that, then add on another resort when addonitis strikes again (mark my words, it will strike again). So, my two cents would be to add on at VGF to get enough points for the 1 bedroom for the length of stay you desire (same use year).

If you want another resort, I would highly recommend Riviera (direct only). The resort is really great, convenient with the Skyliner to Epcot and HS, great little coffee shop, and overall pleasant to stay at.

I am not a fan of split stays at all. You have to be out of room number 1 at 11am and “normal” check in is 4pm at room number 2. Too much hassle and upheaval for a vacation imo.

 

[Jack Kerouac]

We have three kiddos, ages 9, 6, and 4. We had 220 points at PVB (resale) but sold that contract in May. By the end of the summer we will have 395 between OKW (direct), AKV, and BRV. We added on so we could got from studios and 1BRs to 1BRs and 2BRs. Split stays have always been easy for us. My wife would prefer to stay put, but that’s not due to any difficulty from Disney.

 

[kboo]

I guess my main questions are: 1) is it realistic to do split stays with young toddlers/kids - would love to hear other's experiences; 2) what's the best combo of resale/direct contracts if I want to branch out to a HS/Epcot resort (and is Riviera the best one?)

Pretty similar dilemma here. We own direct at VGF, but feel we need more points. We just stayed at the RIV and loved everything about it. I’m still researching options, but it seems like the best solution might be to buy more direct points at RIV. Resale is tempting due to the low cost, but as you know, they can’t be combined with the VGF points unless they’re all being used at the RIV. With this setup, we’d be able to do split stays at VGF and RIV and split the parks accordingly.

1. I'm a split-stay lover and have been doing them since we bought DVC (and dd2 was a baby), usually splitting between our first contract at BLT and swan/dolphin It is totally doable; much easier now that I'm not nursing/pumping, but it was feasible even then. We usually split between MK (BLT or VGF) and then RIV. I've done a 3-resort split stay with a single umbrella stroller, but most of our splits are 6+days with at least 3 days in each place, only 2 resorts. We travel carryon only and use an Owner's Locker, and bring 3 days' worth of clothes. The night before move day, we do laundry, and just throw all the clean clothes into our bags (I like to unpack fully if it's more than 2 nights). DD2 was REALLY good at baby carrier and stroller naps, so we'd just treat move day like a longer park day. We'd usually schedule an early sit down dinner at the arrival resort, so even if the room wasn't quite ready, we'd be ok. We used to use Disney luggage transfer ALL the time; sometimes we will all pile into a car service to the new resort, store luggage, and then go on to the park for the day. We love it because it makes the trip feel longer (in a good way).

2. If you are VGF direct, I'd strongly consider RIV resale but have an idea in your head of what price point you might consider RIV direct, which is what we did. All of our points are either grandfathered resale or direct so we've had maximum flexibility, but i was definitely on the "I'll wait for a good Riviera resale deal" train until RIV direct, pre-opening deals dropped. At the time we were looking at adding on BLT (after 2019 restrictions) or RIV direct, and RIV direct was "only" about $20pp more, so there you go. We took our tour on move day (from Swan to VGF!) and got easy transportation from hotel to tour to park. Disney did the luggage transfer, and later that trip the points were in our account and we booked our Dec 2019 New Year's stay at Riviera. I've sometimes felt an urge to add on to Riviera and if we do, I may consider resale if I can find a good deal. If you love the resort, it's much easier to be "stuck" there. I would never suggest buying RIV resale unless you also had points you could trade around.

3. Use Years: we have 2 different UY to cover different months. Now our kids are school age so we rarely pull them (or if we do, 1-2 days before or after a longer holiday). your preferences will change over time. 2 different UY is fine if you're doing split stays or alternating years. I've only pooled points at 7 months last year to book Aulani. Everything else I book at our home resort(s) at around 11 months as a split stay, and then I have many more options at 7 months - I can modify just the first half, just the second half, or both. Last summer we did a BWV and AKV-savanna split. Our family's favorite resorts are still our home resorts, so we easily spend 3/4 of our time there (upcoming stay: BLT+RIV), last month we stayed at VGF. It will only get easier going forward when you're out of strollers and everybody can walk. We used to spend more time at MK and now we spend more time at EP-HS. We usually go to AK 1-2 days of a long trip, so if we book AKV we will do it at the end and really wind down with shorter trips to AK and spending a lot of time at the resort.