How did you plan for evolving life stages / interests?

[JPKnapp]

With kids 11,8,& 6 - we love Disney, but our days of being Magic Kingdom centric are coming to an end.

How did you plan for different life stages? I am debating on 3 contracts of 100 points at each: BLT, Aulani, & AKL. Thinking it'll allow for using all 300 points at different resorts along the way as our family interests evolve.

Will this work and allow for using 300 points at BLT for next 10 years, then onto AKL, then onto Aulani.

Can you merge contracts into one so I get 11 month booking window for any of those three?

Thanks!

 

[wnielsen1]

No, you cannot merge different home resorts at the 11 month mark. 7 month mark, yes, but that will limit the resorts and rooms available depending upon the time of year that you travel.

However, you can use the banking/borrowing strategy effectively to accomplish something similar (by using 3 years of points at a single home resort, which will permit the use of the 11 month window). Then you can stagger where you stay - a different place each year, on a 3 year rotational basis.

 

[CraigInPA]

It sounds like you hope to somehow change home resorts using those same 300 points every 10 years. That's not possible. Resort points are tied to a specific resort.

If you have 3 different home resorts each at 100, each one has home resort 11 month booking, but only for the points from that home resort. You cannot combine multiple home resorts together to book at only one resort until 7 months.

You could buy 3 100 point contracts and rotate their use. This is best explained by an example:
2020 using banked, current year, and borrowed points, book 300 points of accommodations at BLT. Bank points for Aulani
2021 using banked, current year, and borrowed points, book 300 points at Aulani. Bank points for AKV
2022 using banked, current year, and borrowed points, book 300 points at AKV. Bank points for BLT
This is not an ideal plan, since you're always using banked points that could be lost if you needed to cancel a reservation.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Don't buy three contracts so you can gift them to your children in the future. The way the annual fees are running, they might not be able to afford the fees when you gift them.

Just buy what you can afford now and add on later on if you decide you need more.

 

[crisi]

We bought a resort that would service our long term needs and we wouldn't mind staying at regardless of how old the kids were or how old we were. We did buy a long time ago, when our options were more limited. Aulani doesn't appeal to us - Oahu is not our favorite island - it isn't our third favorite island - and we don't get to Hawaii very often.

 

[bwvBound]

Ages and Stages is an interesting question!

FWIW, we've owned for 15 years at SSR. For the first 10+ years, our focus was booking BWV for an annual IBM conference at the Dolphin/Swan/etc. Once that was done, we've been "free" to use our points for vacation purposes, anywhere. We've hopped around the DVC system, staying at most of the WDW properties, Grand Cal, Aulani and Vero Beach. We've cruised and enjoyed a Concierge collection. But, mostly, we come back to WDW locations during the cooler months.

Indeed, you won't likely be MK-centric forever. But you don't have to cover all your bases as "home resorts." Target your purchase selection to that which gives you the most inner joy however you choose to measure or forecast that understanding. (For some that will be based on numbers, for others that will be based on location, or theme, or ...???) You'll eventually make it to all the ones you want to visit by booking at the 7 month window. Some might even surprise you, 'Oh, my. I thought I wanted this resort ... but now that I've stayed here, I realize it failed my expectations. Didn't see that coming!"

Don't try to reach your ultimate point goal in one shot. Give yourselves a chance to get to know the system a bit, as owners, to discover through experiences your likes and dislikes.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

Three contracts in annual rotation will set you up for stranded points. You will never use exactly 300 points. So, the leftover points will be banked into a year that will not be in the right rotation order.

So, if you take a BLT trip in 2020 and don't borrow all your 2021 points, they need to be banked and used in 2022. But your next BLT trip will be 2023.

If you're only taking 1 trip per year, I'd not buy more than 2 home resorts and try to use any banked, all current + some borrowed if necessary for most trips. You could always then combine some points once in awhile (or even every other year - stripping out one contract and using any banked from the other) at the 7 month mark, to set up your points well for the next year and try a new resort, go to Aulani (from what I've heard Aulani is pretty easy to book at 7 months.) I'd skip owning there and buy 2 WDW resorts.

If you're thinking about changing needs, you can buy 4 75 point contracts (2 at HR#1 and 2 at HR#2 for example) so, you can sell some off if you find you're needing less points. Or in the event your kids do want them and can afford them, each can be offered 1 75 pt contract and you still get 1 for yourself. Really, mix them up in whatever way works. You can start by buying 1-2 small contracts to test the waters, add on, sell off..... you get the idea.

Another thing you can consider is split stays. MK area for a few nights, somewhere else for the a few.

So, I'm trying to understand your thought process ..... BLT (for MK area with young ones) and Aulani for retirement?, where does AKV fit in? Grandkids? Or would you just go back to BLT??!!!! Honestly, I don't think any resort is age specific, so I guess I'm not quite following..

I have teen / adult kids and we still like all of WDW. We own at BWV, but I still would like a MK area resort or SSR...Low dues and walk to DS.

Sorry, just spewing some random thoughts of my own.

Good luck!

 

[kboo]

Three contracts in annual rotation will set you up for stranded points. You will never use exactly 300 points. So, the leftover points will be banked into a year that will not be in the right rotation order.

So, if you take a BLT trip in 2020 and don't borrow all your 2021 points, they need to be banked and used in 2022. But your next BLT trip will be 2023.

If you're only taking 1 trip per year, I'd not buy more than 2 home resorts and try to use any banked, all current + some borrowed if necessary for most trips. You could always then combine some points once in awhile (or even every other year - stripping out one contract and using any banked from the other) at the 7 month mark, to set up your points well for the next year and try a new resort, go to Aulani (from what I've heard Aulani is pretty easy to book at 7 months.) I'd skip owning there and buy 2 WDW resorts.

If you're thinking about changing needs, you can buy 4 75 point contracts (2 at HR#1 and 2 at HR#2 for example) so, you can sell some off if you find you're needing less points. Or in the event your kids do want them and can afford them, each can be offered 1 75 pt contract and you still get 1 for yourself. Really, mix them up in whatever way works. You can start by buying 1-2 small contracts to test the waters, add on, sell off..... you get the idea.

Another thing you can consider is split stays. MK area for a few nights, somewhere else for the a few.

So, I'm trying to understand your thought process ..... BLT (for MK area with young ones) and Aulani for retirement?, where does AKV fit in? Grandkids? Or would you just go back to BLT??!!!! Honestly, I don't think any resort is age specific, so I guess I'm not quite following..

I have teen / adult kids and we still like all of WDW. We own at BWV, but I still would like a MK area resort or SSR...Low dues and walk to DS.

Sorry, just spewing some random thoughts of my own.

Good luck!

Good points here. We have 2 home resorts and 2 UY (intentionally), and our plan was to use points banked, current and maybe some borrowed every other year in the home resort. i.e. similar to your plan but only 2 resorts and every 2 years. So far we are doing fine with planning, but it takes a lot more planning than you'd think to avoid losing points. We are loosely thinking and planning into 2021-2022 already.

EDITED: so we have BLT and VGF, so we thought we'd do BLT 1 year, VGF the next year, and so on. So far it's turned out to be BLT 2x in a row (we had banked points to use), then VGF 2x in a row. In 2020, we are likely only taking trip that year, and we will have both BLT and VGF points to use. Not sure what we will do - we may have to do a split stay in order to get our points on track.

 

[bwvBound]

So, I'm trying to understand your thought process ..... BLT (for MK area with young ones) and Aulani for retirement?, where does AKV fit in? Grandkids? Or would you just go back to BLT??!!!! Honestly, I don't think any resort is age specific, so I guess I'm not quite following..

I have teen / adult kids and we still like all of WDW. We own at BWV, but I still would like a MK area resort or SSR...Low dues and walk to DS.

Now that we are entering the retirement transition period, I rather like the vision of non-park vacations at either Aulani or AKV. I could be quite happy with those destinations! But only for vacations ... I need to be home playing with my horses.

 

[chainkid]

I bought in 1999 at BWV and added on several resale contracts since ,all same resort and use year except for a small AKV one. I have never lost a point in all my years of ownership as I have kept it simple. Why buy at Aulani where the dues are sky high and if you are retired or kids are out of school you will have the flexibility to book there at 7 month window. I have been twice already in june and while last time was a challenge other times of year are easy. Having all your points in one resort makes it easy to change size of units , walk reservations during high demand periods for longer than others with less points. If you are on a rigid vacation schedule then buy where you want to stay now. later you will have the flexibility to choose vacation spot based on best availability. I've stayed at pretty much every resort with no trouble because I find what is open and plan my vacation around it.

 

[Katie L]

I bought in 1999 at BWV and added on several resale contracts since ,all same resort and use year except for a small AKV one. I have never lost a point in all my years of ownership as I have kept it simple. Why buy at Aulani where the dues are sky high and if you are retired or kids are out of school you will have the flexibility to book there at 7 month window. I have been twice already in june and while last time was a challenge other times of year are easy. Having all your points in one resort makes it easy to change size of units , walk reservations during high demand periods for longer than others with less points. If you are on a rigid vacation schedule then buy where you want to stay now. later you will have the flexibility to choose vacation spot based on best availability. I've stayed at pretty much every resort with no trouble because I find what is open and plan my vacation around it.

I know 'walking' is controversial. As I understand it you can book up to a week from day 1? So people are basically maybe starting at 12 months and just "modifying" their travel date by one day every day til the get to their actual vacation dates?

 

[BillPA]

You mean starting at 11 months for home and 7 months for other resorts.

 

[Katie L]

You mean starting at 11 months for home and 7 months for other resorts.

Correct. But same idea - say non-home resort - starting at like 8 months before ACTUAL travel date and modifying by one day every day until you get to 7 months before actual travel date?

DVC has really changed, man. The internet changes everything.

 

[DduzDis]

We have two young DDs as well (6 and 3). We bought BLT two years ago and have also rented a couple of other places in previous years. MK is our favorite park (mom and dad too) so we know that will always be in the plan. We also just bought BWV because we are also DHS fans and I love being able to walk into World Showcase in less than 15 mins. We have plans to visit at least once per year for as long as we can.

My oldest DD will be 29 and the younger will be 26 when the BWV contract expires. At that point we still have BLT even if it is just DW and I. If we choose/need to sell, we feel BLT will hold value okay with the walk to MK and we got a great price. We can't possibly look 25 - 50 years into the future with any certainty. But, we feel we have set ourselves up pretty good to enjoy these trips for as long as we are able. We have an idea that our girls (or one or the other) may get our BLT contracts, but again who knows what things will look like then.

We will also bounce to other resorts as they are available and we want to. But, we own where we would prefer to stay.

We did buy the same UY just to be able to combine easier at the 7-month mark if we wanted to.

 

[princessbride6205]

We didn't plan for changing resort tastes/locations. We figured as long as we were still interested in going to WDW, we'd figure out somewhere to stay. We ended up buying 2 different UY when adding on since we had changed when we travel.

 

[bwvBound]

We ended up buying 2 different UY when adding on since we had changed when we travel.

We considered the same when toying with add-ons at either Grand Cal or Aulani when these first opened. Our CA and HI travel dates are rather opposite of our WDW travel making our current UY really unpleasant for the intended add-on. We decided to simply skip the add-ons rather than deal with a bad UY.

 

[striker1064]

Correct. But same idea - say non-home resort - starting at like 8 months before ACTUAL travel date and modifying by one day every day until you get to 7 months before actual travel date?

DVC has really changed, man. The internet changes everything.

This is far more risky and unlikely to work compared to an 11-month walk. At 11 months, you're competing only with other walkers (and everything that comes with that, namely people who even know about it in the first place) for all available units. From 8 months to 7 months and 1 day, you're competing with all home resort owners for a limited number of units (possibly even only one), and a single home resort owner could swoop in and book a week in advance you don't have access to yet (say at 7 months, 2 weeks) and ruin your plan.