How did you pick your first "home" ???

[DVCLiz]

I bought my first DVC contract direct from Disney - 165 points at Hilton Head, which gets us a 2BR for 5 nights during the summer "high" season. I bought HH because I thought my family might get tired of WDW occasionally, but no one who lives in NC ever gets tired of a week at the beach in the summer!!! So I knew we could always use those points and that HH in the summer was a hard reservation to get without the 11 month advantage.

At about the same time, I noticed a resale contract available for BCV for the exact same number of points. The same number, in fact, that it costs to stay a Friday and Saturday night at HH. So I knew that if we didn't use those BCV points at WDW, we could extend our 5 days at HH to 7 and still use all of our points. I was counting on the fact that weekends would be easier to get at the 7 month window because the point totals are double and triple on the weekends.

I recently added on 100 AKL points because it's one of my favorite resorts!!!

In actual practice we have used our points in all sorts of ways - banked some into the next year, borrowed all of the next year into this year, stayed on cash during the weekends to conserve points, used points on the weekends so as not to pay cash, and even taken a couple of cash - only trips when the opportunity to travel with friends came up and we were out of current AND borrowed points!!!!

I hope to do some future add-ons - I'd still like to have 200 points each at BCV, AKL, and VWL, as well as my HH points!!!

 

[jedspad]

We had our's narrowed to BCV or BWV as my brother already owned at BCV and we do vacations sometimes together so we wanted to be in the same general area. We had seen BCV but had only seen the outside of BWV. We did the tour of SSR but didn't like being so far away from all the parks. With 3 young grandchildren we liked the idea of being close to Epcot & HS. We found a good deal on a resale BWV with about 3 years worth of points available, so that made our final decision. We love it. Planning on our 3rd trip there in Oct and have used points at OKW too. We liked OKW for just a quiet trip for DH & me but still like the Boardwalk area for the whole group.

 

[WolfpackFan]

When we bought our first contract we had the choice of BCV, BWV and VWL. We just happened to be staying at WL and love the peace and quiet and how it seemed you were really away from the hustle bustle of WDW. So we bought VWL. Looking back on the decision now, I wish we had bought BWV as Epcot is my favorite park by far and I really like just being able to walk to there and also the Studios. But we still do like VWL a lot and looking forward to staying there at Christmas.

Our second contract was HHI and that was a no brainer. DW actually bought that contract because she loves the beach and she wanted to be assured of going to the beach at least one week every year.

Our third contract is AKV and we bought that one because we love animals and AK.

 

[Terri2007]

Having just recently bought we were in the same situation. SSR was appealing because of the length of the contract, the ability of booking a grand villa at the 11 month window and the lower maintenance fees. Beach Club also looked great to us because of SAB and the location, but I wasn't too cr azy about the higher cost and the shorter contract. Regardless, I kept in mind alot of the advice from Disers to "buy where you want to stay". In order to try to have the best of both worlds we purchased half of the points we needed at SSR and the other half at BCV figuring that we will alternate resorts every year. At least that's the plan... Good luck on your purchase.

 

[Buckalew11]

We loving staying at the Swan or Dolphin so we knew we would love that area. We were going with OKW though because I thought it looked beautiful in the photos! Then, we looking up resales, we ran across one at BCV that looked good to us so it was dsort of a last minute change over for us from OKW to BCV.

The first time I walked by BCV and then went in to eat at Beaches and Cream, I was in awe of its beauty. Could not ever imagine staying there! Then, when DVC happened, we bought there and love it!

So far we have stayed at BCV, BWV and OKW. I have loved them all. We're trying VB in Oct. I expect to love it (and miss WDW though).

OKW was MORE beautiful than the pics in the book or on the net. It was the first place we stayed at using our DVC. I can tell you I just could not believe the beauty of it or believe we were finally "home" with DVC. We'd been looking forward to it for 6 years. (I didn't want to make payments).

You can't go wrong. DVC is one of the best things to happen to me in my life. I enjoy every trip and hope I never, ever walk onto any DVC property and forget that or take it for granted.

 

[Starr W.]

We actually stayed at SSR before we purchased it(via a package deal on Expedia).

We did buy VB sight unseen, I was a little nervous about it, but we did our first trip at Easter. We all loved it, thank goodness.

Now we are thinking we might want to add on to VB and maybe hold off on KT.

 

[Sabor]

When we Purchased the only WDW DVC resorts were OKW and BWV. OKW via resale was less $$ for points , had cheaper annual maintenance fees, much larger rooms and costs less in points for the rooms.

Pretty much a no brainer for us to go with the original DVC.

We have stayed at every DVC resort except AKV(but have stayed at AKL) , and Vero.

The only one we didn't real enjoy were BWV and SSR. BCV gives you vitrually the same local as BWV but much nicer and SSR for many reasons.

 

[DisFlan]

We wanted an Epcot area resort and we liked both BWV and BCV. The BWV point structure won us over. It turns out that we don't just like BWV, we love it. It also helped that our "perfect resale" contract came through just when we were looking for one.

DisFlan

 

[HayGan]

Thaks for all the input everyone!

We just put an offer in our first DVC home. We had narrowed our choice down to 2 resorts and we found a contract at one of them that would be great for us. I am excited to hopefully be an owner soon!

 

[JaxDisneyFans]

Thaks for all the input everyone!

We just put an offer in our first DVC home. We had narrowed our choice down to 2 resorts and we found a contract at one of them that would be great for us. I am excited to hopefully be an owner soon!

Here's some pixie dust Hoping your contract comes through.

 

[Pennyguy23]

We were and are pretty young. 24 and my wife just turned 23 a few days ago. So the extra years are very BIG to us. 12 extra years at SSR and 15 extra at AKV. So bought at those two resorts. We liked them both so that was good. So if you are young and don't mind having to stay at SSR or AKV then I think that is your best bet. Plus we have gotten into to BCV 3 or 4 times, BWV a couple of times. VWL once and we don't really go in High or Low seaons besides NYE.

 

[HayGan]

Here's some pixie dust Hoping your contract comes through.

Thanks! Our offer was accepted Now it is on to ROFR!

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Thanks! Our offer was accepted Now it is on to ROFR!

Congrats! Which resort did you guy go for in the end? Not that it really matters, since they are all beautiful.

 

[HayGan]

Congrats! Which resort did you guy go for in the end? Not that it really matters, since they are all beautiful.

We ended up with OKW. Since we will mostly stay in studios, it made sense! Plus the fact we LOVE it there! I'm sure we will stay at others but I can't wait till my first trip "home"!

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

We ended up with OKW. Since we will mostly stay in studios, it made sense! Plus the fact we LOVE it there! I'm sure we will stay at others but I can't wait till my first trip "home"!

That's awesome! I love OKW! Beautiful and relaxing resort. Love that you can park by your room and that the units are so big. Good luck. I hope that ROFR goes very quickly and without a hitch.