How important are future resorts to you?

[Brittleebee]

I am currently in the market for my second DVC contract. I am 30 years old, and the more I look into it, the more direct points are attractive to me due to future resorts being built that will likely be unavailable to book with resale points (I’m looking at you, rumored Adventureland gate resort).

Conversely, of course the resale market looks more attractive financially. How do you navigate your DVC decisions and how important is access future resorts for you?

 

[davidhr]

very important. My first contract was resale because I initially thought it wasn’t a big deal. When I toured Riviera and realized I couldn’t stay there or future resorts, I added direct and sold my resale.

 

[kilik64]

Depends on how well you manage fomo.

The o14 has a lot of variety that you get access too buying one of those. For us we are good getting to use them until they expire, our contract expires, or we expire, whichever comes first.

 

[Ruttangel]

Unless there is a great deal direct it doesn’t make sense
The perks are limited unless you value highly having lounges in the park (waiting 30-60 mins), moonlight magic (limited number admitted) and guaranteed discounts (non direct have had luck at times)

The main selling point for direct was to get savings on Annual Passes and people posted financial justifications to buying a property 30-40% more as they would save more after 10-15 years but this discount was removed and their reasoning up in smoke

You quote the new properties being a reasoning but there’s enough variety available to resale owners

last 3 years two new properties have been added to existing associations to increase options for resale

Most people on this site are focussed on having a perfect room at WDW, just remember that if you have children they are really not bothered about that, they just want to go to parks and swim and would probably want you to spend more on food if my teenagers are anything to go by!

 

[ak517]

Our first contract was resale to get us in the door. I truly thought that was going to be it, because I was the Disney fan in our family, but after a few trips my DH decided he wanted to stay at VGF which meant we needed more points. We were lucky and bought our second contract during the 2023 VGF firesale, otherwise a direct contract would have been more than we were comfortable paying. When we were just resale, the direct perks didn't really matter too much to me (I also had an AP), but now having direct points I am happy to be locked into certain discounts should I drop my annual pass or perks like Moonlight Magic which I hope to take advantage of someday. I am not as excited about staying at the new resorts (and to be honest my DH will fight me if we have to stay anywhere but VGF LOL), but I do really like that our direct points give us unrestricted access as members.

 

[CWTC]

My initial response was “not very” but it’s also easy for me to say that since about 2/3 of our points are grandfathered/direct. We have no interest in the FW cabins, no desire to stay at RIV, and own at VGC (so we are very unlikely to stay at VDH for that reason and the ToT).

Our most recent purchase was a BLT resale - 110$ vs 275$ direct per point. The direct benefits can come and go. That savings was more than enough to offset the fact we can only use those points at the O14.

If a new resort comes on line in the future that we love, we figure we can always buy direct there or resale for that resort only.

 

[Joroc0801]

Until there is a new resort that completely blows the o14 out of the water I have no intent to buy direct. The point charts and maintenance fees continue to rise in the new builds. I don't think the cost of entry and cost of ownership will ever make sense compared to the resale prices. With some of the o14 having 40+ years left, there is still a ton of value that will last the rest of my lifetime. Yes, there will be less selection come 2042 but the landscape for DVC may be completely different by that point and quite frankly my life and Disney consumption may be completely different based on my kids ages at that time. Everyone's circumstances are different though. I'm also in my early 30's. We are the type of family that will only be doing 1-2 trips per year and won't be doing enough park days to justify an annual pass or rely on being able to attend a Moonlight Magic.

If you made me get another contract right now I'd no doubt buy more resale points. The prospect of getting more points and booking more nights or bigger rooms at the o14 would greatly outweigh the prospect of booking at the newer resorts. I've also never been the type to need to have the newest thing to wear as a badge of honor.(ie. cell phones, cars, etc.) Some people really like being part of what's new and I get that.

All this to say, go with what your heart wants. You should be happy with your contract and avoid regrets.

 

[Disdreaming479]

The points charts of the newer resorts prevents the fomo for me at this time.

 

[Sandisw]

They are really important to us. When we first bought, we thought BLT would always be our top resort…and nothing could exceed it.

Then VGF came along and now RIV. So, having access to everything is really important because you just never know.

Of course, with RIV being tops leaves resale, other than RIV, out for us if we were to buy new points.

And, when the 2042 resorts expire, there is a very high probability t whatever replaces them will also be restricted so as time goes on, the resorts you have access to will shrink.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

I am currently in the market for my second DVC contract. I am 30 years old, and the more I look into it, the more direct points are attractive to me due to future resorts being built that will likely be unavailable to book with resale points (I’m looking at you, rumored Adventureland gate resort).

Conversely, of course the resale market looks more attractive financially. How do you navigate your DVC decisions and how important is access future resorts for you?

Very important. We've bought and sold several times and I can say we have never been loyal to one resort for more than a few years without wanting to try something else. We do love RIV though and plan to stay there exclusively for now. We have 2 direct contracts and just adding on a resale RIV.

 

[Sprinkles&Sprints]

Very important bc I love the Crescent Lake properties and given when they are set to expire, I want the option to use my points at whatever comes next in that area. On the other hand, if I spent the bulk of my time at the MK and favored those properties, I would find it harder to justify going direct.

 

[MonkeyKnifeFight]

It’s going to be at least 10 years before they open a future resort I may be interested in. So not very important.

If they do open something I like at that point I can buy then.

I did just buy direct points at the riviera because the incentives were so good. But if they weren’t I would still be waiting. The original 14 already have all the best locations.

Unless they build a new park with an adjacent resort anything new has a subpar location to me.

 

[Chili327]

I’ll worry about future resorts in 18 years, and if it makes sense buy something when it’s needed.
We can’t possibly predict what will happen in our life or in DVC so why bother stressing about it now.

 

[lovin'fl]

Not important.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Being West Coast based…. any new DVC resorts built as part of Disneyland Forward will likely be restricted. So, that does impact my thought process to a point.

 

[foodiddiedoo]

I bought direct for my first contract this past month. I wanted to be able to stay anywhere I’d like, get the discounted AP (I’m not a Florida resident so I had to always buy an Incredipass) and get all the member “perks”. Granted when I bought in last month BLT had a 50 dollars per point discount for new purchasers and I since I got a December UY I was able to also get 9000 dollars back in points buy back. It ended up being 205 per point for me. Originally I was planning on buying about 200 direct and then 250-300 resale, but my guide talked me into doing a single direct purchase with two smaller contracts. I know I could probably have saved like 25k buying it all resale, but I wanted to not have to worry about the future at all.

 

[D-Trick]

Future resorts are not important.

I don't care how nice or close a new resort is to the parks, an OKW Grand Villa for 46 points per night will never ever be beat.

 

[Mikey15]

I will eventually buy at least 150 direct either because there will be a new resort I want to own at, or I begin going often enough for the math to make sense for the $500pp cheaper APs.

I’ll probably end up buying resale before then though (don’t own yet). The future resort use isn’t the deciding factor either way for me… yet. It helps that O14 resale still gets to use the new Polynesian tower!

 

[DonkeyHoTay]

Glad to have access to new resorts with my direct points, but I was fully intent on buying SAP resale points until the OKWe fire sale earlier this year. Of all the recent options, the one that would have given me the most FOMO is access to the Poly tower and that one turned out to be attached to the existing association and thus not restricted anyway. Especially with the addition of the Poly tower, the O14 options are great for me even if the 2042 resorts disappear.

 

[JackosinDIS]

Future resorts are pretty important for me. I don’t want to feel like I’m missing out by not having the opportunity to stay at new places if and when they come along.

Yeh, I could just rent points for new resorts or even pay cash, but it’s just not the same as having your own points.

I bought my first direct contract recently, although under a different membership with my sister so that she can also benefit from some of the direct perks. I felt like the extra money direct was worth it for 4 people to have the benefit of APs and discounts (although to be fair we did always get those with resale so can’t really count that as a saving).