How important is staying at your "FAVE RESORT".... OR is just being at Disney all that matters?

[Golden Rose]

We're in a phase with our kids right now where they want at least a couple of nights at AKV. The last trip we didn't stay there at all caused enough tears that now we try to do a minimum of two nights at AKV a trip, and we plan to spend a lot of time at the resort while we're there. It's important to them, it's not that big a deal for us, so we just do it now. This stage won't let forever, and AKV makes a trip more magical for them. We own there, and it's usually available even when we book more last minute trips.

When we travel with my mother, she wants certain resorts, or she won't go with us. (She will put up with AKV for a couple of nights, but she wants to be at BWV, BCV, or VGF. And BWV is her preference.)

DH and I don't care and like something about all the DVC resorts that we've tried, but since resort matters so much to other family members, we do base trips around resorts.

 

[edk35]

We're in a phase with our kids right now where they want at least a couple of nights at AKV. The last trip we didn't stay there at all caused enough tears that now we try to do a minimum of two nights at AKV a trip, and we plan to spend a lot of time at the resort while we're there. It's important to them, it's not that big a deal for us, so we just do it now. This stage won't let forever, and AKV makes a trip more magical for them. We own there, and it's usually available even when we book more last minute trips.

When we travel with my mother, she wants certain resorts, or she won't go with us. (She will put up with AKV for a couple of nights, but she wants to be at BWV, BCV, or VGF. And BWV is her preference.)

DH and I don't care and like something about all the DVC resorts that we've tried, but since resort matters so much to other family members, we do base trips around resorts.

When our kids were younger they too liked to stay at certain ones. Now that they are older.....it is not that big a deal. Our youngest is 16 now and he did request Beach Club this past trip but I could only get 3 nights so we went to SSR for the next 6 and he was fine.

 

[Fastpassminus]

I would never ever cancel a trip because I couldn't get into my FIRST choice resort. Nope. I bought at SSR to visit ALL the resorts. So far I am using it at AKV, BLT and Poly. I have visited OKW as a renter in the past. I hope to visit SSR, VGF and BCV in the next few years, but am pretty content to " get what I get" at the 7 month window.

I kinda look at DVC the way Ellie Frederikson looked at life in Up. " Adventure is out there" LOL!

 

[n2mm]

We own 3 homes so choose those locations for certain needs. For F&W we use our 11 month window at bwv. When the grandkids are with us we book BLT to be close to mk and to reserve the standard rooms. But in the spring we book at the 7 month window and put down a list in order what I want and go from there. So at the 11 month window, I want what I want and anytime I book at the 7 month window I take what I can get. I booked a last minute trip for August (next month) at 6 months out and got BLT standard one bedroom via a waitlist. Once I got the waitlist I gave up a 1 bedroom standard at bwv. I was amazed both times to get either for the first week of August.

 

[Anal Annie]

We all have different faves and in general we're just happy to be there. We RARELY ever book at 11 months - the important thing to us to resort hop from trip to trip if we can so that our trips are always different from the last one. We usually book at 7 months and start out with a 1st, 2nd & 3rd choice resort preference. We have ended up staying at AKV the most often because it is very "points friendly" and we're usually trying to stretch our measly annual points allotment to get 2 trips / year OR 1 biggie trip. This summer DH and I wanted to stay at either VWL or BCV (BCV being great for a summer trip) but DS wanted to stay at AKV 'cuz that's HIS fave and this is his last trip before he goes off to college. Soooo we settled on a 50/50 split stay between BCV and AKV with 5 nights at each. It's our first split stay and I hope we don't regret it - I am hoping with a minimum of 5 nights at each that it's long enough not to feel pushed. I am planning to pack 1 large bag for each resort and 1 smaller bag with our swimming gear so we'll have minimal repacking to do to move. We are driving on this trip so we'll have a car - planning to have Bell Services transfer our luggage & Owners Locker while we hit a water park for that day so we don't worry about hitting any morning EMH's. Then we'll just drive to our new resort after the water park. DS isn't interested in trying VGF as it doesn't really look like our style and it's such a points hog we'll save that for a shorter off-season trip one day. We WOULD however love to try the Poly studios and hope to be able to book that for our summer trip NEXT summer. We booked our home resort of SSR prior to the 7 mo. window for next January because of the timing with the Marathon folks coming in the 2nd half of our week dates. We thought about switching out to someplace else at 7 months but the SSR points are reasonable and we like it just fine so we opted to stay put so we could better plan for the points required for the Poly next summer. Win. Win.

 

[DougEMG]

I'm going to be happy no matter which resort I'm at, but I do try to always book early enough to get my top choices.

 

[Nanajo1]

I book at 11 months so I know I have a room. I may switch up at 7 months for a split stay. Of the WDW resorts I still need to hit Poly,BCV and VGF. They are on my bucket list.

 

[eliza61]

As is normal with me, the answer is "it depends".
For example I would never be happy at a value resort so I can't say "just being at disney is what matters" becasue I won't go if the values are the only option.

Now as far as a dvc, I think the room is probably more important than the resort. We are trying to hit every dvc resort at least once. so far the poly and BLT are the only ones we haven't stayed at (although we have stayed at the contemporary). Saratoga Springs is probably the only one we didn't like, but I would stay there again in a pinch.

 

[crisi]

There are a number of resorts I'd be happy at. And some I'm unlikely to book unless it were the only option available and I needed to travel on short notice. That's never happened. We always know what we are booking in plenty of time.