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

[HayGan]

We are set on buying DVC and have been researching like crazy. We know the approximate amount of points that we want but we are having a hard time picking the resort. We do know that we do not want VB, HHI or SSR (but may consider SSR for the perfect contract.) Honestly I would be hapy owning at any of the others. I love OKW but knowing that it often has more availability than other resorts so having it as my home may not be as important as other resorts. The length of contract at AKV is appealing. The location of BCV and BWV are certainly nice. VWL in December is also so appealing! Each resorts really has positives and very few negatives. Ack - I just can't pick!

So how did you pick your first home resort? What was the deciding factor?

 

[luvindisneyworld]

Which resort we thought that appealed to us more. We have AKV points now and we are totally excited about our purchase and cannot wait till our first stay there in June. But the deciding factor in the end was the ending date for us because we wanted the extra years.

We have owned BCV and VWL and we sold both of those and bought AKV. I think what we did was perfect for us and we are totally satisfied right now.

 

[salmoneous]

I loved VWL. But when adding up all the pros and cons of ownership, BWV came out a bit ahead. And I do like the Boardwalk almost as much as VWL. So I picked BWV and starting waiting for the perfect resale contract to come along.

But the perfect contract wasn't there. This one was too expensive. That one had too few points. This one couldn't close for 6 months. While getting frustrated, I decided to look at the VWL listings (just out of curiosity mind you). And there it was. MY contract. It called to me. Really. So I picked up the phone, called the TSS, made an offer, and had an acceptance that day.

 

[MILLZ]

I loved VWL. But when adding up all the pros and cons of ownership, BWV came out a bit ahead. And I do like the Boardwalk almost as much as VWL. So I picked BWV and starting waiting for the perfect resale contract to come along.

But the perfect contract wasn't there. This one was too expensive. That one had too few points. This one couldn't close for 6 months. While getting frustrated, I decided to look at the VWL listings (just out of curiosity mind you). And there it was. MY contract. It called to me. Really. So I picked up the phone, called the TSS, made an offer, and had an acceptance that day.

The place where the money outlay was the cheapest possible My wife and dont understand the whole buy where you want to stay or this resort or over that resort gets a bit silly in my opinion. We have never had problems getting ressies or dont really care where we stay. Not there much and all the resorts are unique and nice in there own way. Again just my opinion. We knew that we would stay at a bunch of different places

 

[WALTSAGOD]

The place where the money outlay was the cheapest possible My wife and dont understand the whole buy where you want to stay or this resort or over that resort gets a bit silly in my opinion. We have never had problems getting ressies or dont really care where we stay. Not there much and all the resorts are unique and nice in there own way. Again just my opinion. We knew that we would stay at a bunch of different places

What time of year do you travel to not have problems booking sometimes?

 

[Chellymouse]

The general rule of thumb is to purchase where you plan to stay the most mainly for the 11 month booking especially if you plan to stay during a busier time (Christmas, F&W, ect) We bought at SSR simply because it was the best deal with the best incentive at the time we bought. We like SSR and we watched it being built from the ground up, but I know that eventually we will try to stay at AKV (DH REALLY wants to stay there once) and BWV (another DH "want") but if we don't stay there, then we are fine with SSR. I wouldn't buy in someplace that you really don't want or plan to stay very often especially if you tend to travel at "peak" times. You may be better off waiting for the place that you REALLY want to become available.

 

[tammymacb]

I chose BWV because I love the location and I like having the availability of the bargain standard view rooms at 11 months.

 

[dianeschlicht]

If you like them all, choose the resort that is going to be the most improtant for you to make 11 month ressies at. For example, if you think you always want to have access to a low point GV, then OKW might be your choice. If you feel it is important to want to do Christmas at VWL, then that should be your home. Or if you want that concierge level at AKV, you definitely want that as your home.

A little also depends on your age. If you are young enough to really be able to take advantage of the extra years, then you might want to consider buying either OKW or AKV direct from Disney. Both will get you to 2057. FYI, ALL resorts can be purchased direct from Disney if you want to circumvent ROFR. The only thing is that only AKV and SSR will get you the extra developer points for incentive.

 

[HayGan]

Thanks for the input everyone! I think that when the right contract comes up, I will know it. There are a few out there right now that are somewhat interesting but none that are making me quite pull the trigger yet.

 

[PutnamDS]

I called and had them send me one of those nice blue view-books. After looking through it at least 1000 times, I telephoned the contact named on the business card in the book, fully intending to buy in at SSR. Well, he talked me into buying AKV to get the incentives.

But honestly, I could have purchased any of the WDW sites and been completely happy. They all look spectacular to me. Maybe I will have a stronger opinion after staying at all the different resorts. I love all the different theming and would enjoy making myself at home at any of them.

Deb

 

[dolphingirl47]

We were very much pointed into the right direction by our guide (bought direct from DVC). We really had no clear idea which resort we might be interested in as we had never stayed onsite. He asked us loads of questions about how we like to vacation and then guided us gently towards Old Key West. We have our first trip home later this year, but for what it is worth, I think he was spot on. He read us perfectly. We had a walk around the public areas after the tour and just fell in love. Being just a boat ride away from DTD is a distinct advantage. The combination of bigger rooms, lower point values and relatively low dues also really appealed to us as did the length of the contract.
I did the virtual room tour on the Disney website the other week and the only rooms that I really liked the look of were Old Key West and the Inn rooms at Vero Beach.
I would like to try out Saratoga Springs at some stage and also Animal Kingdom Villas, but I am sure we will be very happy at Old Key West.

dolphingirl47

 

[vicki_c]

We chose strictly based on the financial incentives offered. We purchased at SSR. My first choice would have been BCV. I think we will be happy at SSR and hope to try and get to stay in the other DVC properties as well. We just couldn't pass up the incentives. It was a huge purchase for us, and we felt we had to make the best financial deal for our family. If we had a lot more disposable income, I would have chosen BCV.

This year (with all our incentive points), we are traveling in June (booked in March) and Christmas, so obviously our reservations are at SSR. My first choice would have been elsewhere, but going at high times, I knew not to expect that.

Normally, we travel in January, so I'm hoping we will be able to have better luck getting other reservations at the 7 month mark.

 

[ransom]

Here was our process for deciding on our home resort:

1) We wanted a resort that was on-site since we only planned on using our points for staying at WDW. So that eliminited HHI and VB.
2) We wanted a compact resort, so that eliminated OKW, SSR, and AKL (we didn't like the layout of the new/old resort buildings at AKL).
3) Of the Epcot resorts, we prefer BCV, so that eliminates BWV.
4) Whether to buy BCV or VWL came down to theming; we chose VWL.

 

[DW-Admin]

We bought into SSR because of a great incentive deal, at least I thought so

anyways we are trying to build our points ownership and are already ready to make down-paymeny on Kingdom Tower.... just waiting for an announcement... Kingdom Tower and anything around the CR and MK is perfect in my eyes.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

We chose where we would be happiest staying most of the time, which was AKV for us. We pretty much like all the DVC resorts with the exception of SSR. We definitely will stay at DVC resorts other than our home resort, but have the comfort of knowing that if we can't swap to another resort at the 7month window we would not be bummed about being at AKV.

 

[La2kw]

So how did you pick your first home resort? What was the deciding factor?

OKW used to be called "Disney Vacation Club" and it was the only resort that existed. That's how we picked, and we haven't regretted that decision ever! The only other resort we ever were interested in was SSR and that was only after we were "forced" to stay there during a last minute trip. We did our first ever add-on at SSR, after we fell in love with it. We never were intested in the other resorts (and still aren't). We wanted a vacation "home", not a hotel room. The other resorts are nice, but feel like a hotel, and we spend enough time in hotels as it is.

 

[MomDad&2boys]

We just bought today! It was a very easy decision for us since we are a family of five. We bought at AKV since they have the one-bedrooms that will sleep five. It was nice to not have to scour over the info on the other resorts since it was such an obvious choice for us.

 

[SnowWhite2]

We own at SSR and AKV. We purchased SSR signt unseen and did not know much about the resort or how it was different from BWV which we toured in 1999 or so. We were unable to afford DVC at that time, but when we re-discovered it last year, SSR was the only option at the time. During our first trip we fell in love with SSR. I love the fact that you can pull up to your building and walk right in.

We went to BWV for the Member Wedsnesday party and we walked down the hallway FOREVER before we got out of the villas and to the dance hall. I was not so sure about that walk. I'm a tad nervous about AKV and the same 'hotel' format.

We have BWV booked for the F&W festival this year and we'll see how we like it. I'm thinking that SSR is going to be my favorite. BUt I'd like to try them all out just for fun.

 

[javamom]

Well, we fell in love with the Boardwalk area. Never done more than walk through the Boardwalk lobby, but we bought this Fall.

We did take the SSR tour, but knew going in that we were going to want either BCV or BWV. We ended up buying a resale contract at BWV.

 

[wdwfan0123]

I also liked each DVC resort at WDW for different reasons but the real deciding factor to buy at OKW was because we plan on taking our kids and their kids (have 1 grand daughter now, hope for more grandkids in the future!!) on trips and staying in Grand Villas. Since OKW has the largest and most point affordable Grand Villas, I wanted the 11 month booking window. Also, since me and my DH are already both in our 50's, I think the ability to park right outside our villas will come in real handy after long days of park touring as we get older .

Most people that have stayed there talk about the relaxing and peaceful atmosphere there and that is something we would both enjoy. We just bought a few months ago and are really looking forward to our first trip home in October of this year

Kristi