Home Resort Selection Help

[princesscinderella]

I agree with you Rileygirl. Dropping 25k-30k on something I haven't even stepped in makes me a bit nervous and we were just talking about that last night. We had an adult only Universal trip planned in September but I think we are going to switch it to a DVC exploratory trip. My husband was really excited about going to Universal since we haven't been in almost 10 years but I think it makes the most sense considering we would be buying around that time.

If we end up doing Riviera I will have to look into fixed weeks since that is an option when buying direct. That is something I wasn't really aware of until recently.

We watched some resort tours last night. My oldest wants Riviera, my middle child wants AKL and my husband wants whatever I want haha IMO MK is the most pain to get to since even with Lyft/Uber you need to take a monorail/ferry so that <10min walk to MK plus better expected resale value if a life emergency happens calls to me but I love the Riviera rooms and the price is significantly better. I am usually a decisive person but with DVC I have no idea.

I agree with you mamaofsix that eventually two bedrooms will become the norm, especially with two teenage girls. This will be the main justification to my husband for adding on

Does anybody know if the DVC offers onboard a Disney Cruise are the same or better than the on land offers? We went to the presentation on our last cruise but I don't remember if the deal was the same or not.

While RIV appears to be more affordable direct it costs a lot more points per room category for a stay there than the older resorts.

 

[Bobby2443]

I agree with you Rileygirl. Dropping 25k-30k on something I haven't even stepped in makes me a bit nervous and we were just talking about that last night. We had an adult only Universal trip planned in September but I think we are going to switch it to a DVC exploratory trip. My husband was really excited about going to Universal since we haven't been in almost 10 years but I think it makes the most sense considering we would be buying around that time.

If we end up doing Riviera I will have to look into fixed weeks since that is an option when buying direct. That is something I wasn't really aware of until recently.

We watched some resort tours last night. My oldest wants Riviera, my middle child wants AKL and my husband wants whatever I want haha IMO MK is the most pain to get to since even with Lyft/Uber you need to take a monorail/ferry so that <10min walk to MK plus better expected resale value if a life emergency happens calls to me but I love the Riviera rooms and the price is significantly better. I am usually a decisive person but with DVC I have no idea.

I agree with you mamaofsix that eventually two bedrooms will become the norm, especially with two teenage girls. This will be the main justification to my husband for adding on

Does anybody know if the DVC offers onboard a Disney Cruise are the same or better than the on land offers? We went to the presentation on our last cruise but I don't remember if the deal was the same or not.

One piece of advice I can give from experience is if you feel confident you want to invest in dvc and you’ve done your research, trying before buying for me left a sick feeling in my stomach. Before I owned dvc I took my family on a 10 night trip and stayed in beach club, this was the same time that rise of the resistance was opening. We had a blast, we stayed in a one bedroom villa rented through Disney (I have small kids so having the kitchen is important). It was a great trip. I came home and realized I wanted to buy dvc points there, then I looked at how much I just paid to try before buying. I had spent almost 9 grand and had nothing to show for it. In hindsight I wish I would have just put that money towards a contract because I had been to Disney enough times to know I was going to enjoy it and want to stay there. So a scouting trip isn’t a bad idea but I think it’s good to keep the try before buying in perspective depending how much money you’re going to spend trying it out first.

 

[gisele2]

Because AKL and OKW show great availability at 7 months , I would choose SSR.
Points charts good , dues are ok , and with direct you will be able to book RIV .

 

[RoseGold]

I haven't seen any reason you need a Blue Card or to buy direct. With so few points, sounds like these are short stays, so you don't even need an AP. If you did, you could buy an annual pass every other year and then stagger your stays. Example: late Aug, early Aug, no AP for one year, repeat. Then, blue card AP savings is minimal.

I would buy sleep around points for what you were going to spend on that RIV. They stay 1BR wherever pops up. Maybe Kidani, maybe OKW, maybe VGF. Fun! Unless you are traveling super peak, 1BR is easy enough, especially in the spendier rooms, like savannah view or BLT theme park view. You don't need home resort points for these most of the time.

BLT resale would be an awesome pick, as the 1BR BLT booking is a great 11 month choice. My other contender would be resale CCV, because it has no ROFR right now. It has a really long contract, and there are some DEALS out there on it. If you get a deal on any of the top six or seven in this list, you can flip the math, and any of them would be a good value for sleep around points. Watch the ROFR thread, there are deals to be had if you are watching. Of course, the old standard is SSR, but if you want a longer contract, that's def possible, while still getting good value per point on resale. However, I probably wouldn't suggest Poly for you, as it doesn't have 1BR options. I also wouldn't buy outside WDW for many reasons, outside the scope of this short comment.

https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/blog/best-economical-dvc-resort-to-purchase-fall-2020/
Buying resale is much less commitment than buying direct, especially RIV direct. Reality is recent direct purchasers can lose a lot when they go to sell, which wasn't true in DVC, historically. I bought resale, because I believe I can get out for more or less what I paid when I'm done with Disney or life happens. The RIV resale restrictions are a complete non-starter for me. I bought VGF resale planning to pass it down, but I like knowing that I can sell it with minimal loss if that plan doesn't work out.

And no one knows what RIV availability will be. They will be selling it for years, as there is no construction to back it up happening right now. They recently declared 43% of the inventory, which is all that can be booked or sold right now. Then in a few years, RIV resale will create a new class of only-RIV members. Maybe they will only be booking grand villas. No one knows.

 

[ABE4DISNEY]

Just my two cents for your first purchase:

Buy the most points you possibly can.

I recommend going cheaper on your resort to get the max level of points. Rule of thumb is that you will want more eventually and at the point you will begin to differentiate on your choices. If you are a longterm holder, your tastes will probably change. We started out liking the hotels(AKW/BWV) and have now switched to the condo style more.

However, we ALWAYS need more points. So go big!!