I am still confused on "home resort" add-on.

[loveit]

Why would you even bother to add-on at another resort? We own 200 points at BCV. Why would I buy an add-on of 100 points at AKV? I can ONLY use 100 points at AKV at the 11 month mark right? So that will get me, say, 2 nights in a 2-bedroom at AKV during premier seasonat the 11 month mark, but I would have to wait until the 7 month mark to get the rest of the nights with my BCV points and hope they are available to add on to the rest of my trip?? (This is just an example). I guess I just don't understand the big draw of adding-on for 11 month priority! Can you help me understand??!!

 

[Caskbill]

The draw is the home resort advantage of booking at 11-months.

This works by using banking and borrowing. Suppose you purchase 100 AKV points. You bank the 1st year's points, and during the 2nd year you borrow the 3rd year's points. This gives you a total of 300 AKV points to use that one year.

Banking and borrowing gives 3x the number of points every 3rd year. In the other two years, you use your BCV's points and stay at BCV, or use any of your points at 7-months if you desire

Hope this helps.

 

[3DisneyKids]

As always, CaskBill did a great job of explaining. And just to take it one step further for those who are daft like me...if you have, say, three home resorts...you stay at each one once every three year. (Variety is the spice of life, they say! )

With banking and borrowing, even 100 points at each resort can give you a nice stay at each resort every three years. And since many folks like to pay cash up fron for their DVC purchase, a 100-point contract is often more affordable than a larger one (plus will be easier to sell down the road). And since DVC has so many great options, people have a hard time choosing a home resort. The good news is that you don't have to choose just one!

 

[loveit]

Thanks Caskbill! I guess I wasn't thinking the banking/borrowing route! I have actually never done that yet....I plan vacations with my current points and never have enough to bank!! ...I guess I need to do an add-on!!

3DisneyKids, I need "a nice stay at each Disney resort every 3 years"!! I really do need an add-on. We just got back from SSR 2 days ago and I already have my calendar out planning our next trip!!

 

[CarolMN]

That "every three years" strategy sounds good, but how do you "3 year" people avoid losing points if your stay doesn't cost something divisible by 3?

Or is losing a few points every year just the cost of having the home resort booking advantage at 3 different resorts? I suppose it is worth losing a few points to know you'll get what you want, LOL.

 

[Dean]

3DisneyKids, I need "a nice stay at each Disney resort every 3 years"!! I really do need an add-on. We just got back from SSR 2 days ago and I already have my calendar out planning our next trip!!

Every 3 years can be risky with DVC. If one travels at different times of the year or the use year falls in between your times of travel, you could easily end up having points you could not use and would likely lose. For example.

Lets say your goal was to travel every 3 years in the summer and you needed 300 points each stay and owned 100 with an August use year. The first trip was in July 2007 with banked and current year points plus borrowed 2007 points, yes you'd have to borrow the 2007 points since your use year started after your trip which falls in the 2006 use year. Then fast forward to 2010 and you want to travel in August after you use years starts. You banked the 2008 to 2009 and the 2009 to August 2010 but would lose the banked 2008 points on 31 July, 2010 just before your trip. I do think every 3 years is possible for many if you know what you're getting in to but one slip or vacation change and you easily lose 1 years points or more.

 

[LisaS]

That "every three years" strategy sounds good, but how do you "3 year" people avoid losing points if your stay doesn't cost something divisible by 3?

Or is losing a few points every year just the cost of having the home resort booking advantage at 3 different resorts? I suppose it is worth losing a few points to know you'll get what you want, LOL.

We do the "every other year" strategy which makes things a little easier. But you're right that unless you are buying points to stay in the same villa size, the same number of nights in the same season every trip, you do run the risk of losing a few points.

We wanted enough points at VWL to stay for 6 nights in a 1BR every other year during either Dream or Adventure season. Dream season requires 196 points but for Adventure season, 200 points gets us a full week, so we opted to purchase 100 VWL points. So if we stay at VWL in Dec or Jan, we'll use up exactly 2 years' worth of VWL points but if we go in May we'll end up with 4 points left over that we may end up losing. With only one transfer per UY, it would be difficult even to give them away which is a shame. On the other hand, we would like to stay at OKW every other year, so I think that will be the solution for us: all stray points will go into the OKW fund!

 

[3DisneyKids]

There is no question that in order to manage this you need to be DVC-savvy. This program is among the most flexible of all of the timeshare programs available, which is its major strength, IMO (that, of course, and the fact that it is on Disney property...duh!) However, with this level of flexibility comes the necessity to really be able to manage it well and navigate the ins and outs in order to truly be able to maximize your usage. You definitely don't want to waste even one precious point...perish the thought!

 

[El&Asmom]

I think this post consolidates some of the reasons we are looking into a small contract to begin with. I don't forsee us going to Disney every single year for the next 40+ years. Especially when the kids become teens.
Rather than having enough points to get a 1-2 bedroom every single year, a small contract of 100ish makes more sense for us. Some years we can get a studio at OKW, and others we can splurge on 5 nights at BCV, other years we can bank our points to save for the next. We also plan on booking weekends through CRO to save on points. In that way, we can also keep trying the rest of the Disney hotels like the Poly, GF, CR, that we wouldn't stay at with DVC points.

 

[Caskbill]

The bank/borrow scenario can do wonders for some cases. I.E., someone who does more than one trip a year, and especially if one of the trips can be booked at 7-months or less.

You bank/borrow for the prime resort you want at 11-months. You use 'leftover' points for the reservations you make at 7-months.

Bank/Borrow works best for those that have more flexibility, and less for those with little flexibility. If you only get one vacation a year, and it's always the same week, then bank/borrow won't work well and you'll wind up losing points. But if you take multiple trips, and some are booked at 7-months or less, then as said bank/borrow is a very good method to use for those reservations that absolutely require the 11-month window.

 

[DebIreland]

loveit, I wondered about that too. Hope you don't mind if I butt in here to ask a related question.......

In the case of having 2 contracts at 2 separate resorts.

Let's say I buy 100 points at OKW and 100 at BWV alternating my stay every second trip between the two.

So in 2009 I want to stay at BWV requiring 200 points. So I use all my BWV 2009 points and I borrow all my BWV 2010 points. But do DVC allow me to borrow those 2010 BWV points when I already have valid 2009 OKW points? Does that question make sense? Are the 2 contracts totally separate? I'm allowed to borrow from the next year even though I have current points available (at my other home resort)?

 

[Dean]

loveit, I wondered about that too. Hope you don't mind if I butt in here to ask a related question.......

In the case of having 2 contracts at 2 separate resorts.

Let's say I buy 100 points at OKW and 100 at BWV alternating my stay every second trip between the two.

So in 2009 I want to stay at BWV requiring 200 points. So I use all my BWV 2009 points and I borrow all my BWV 2010 points. But do DVC allow me to borrow those 2010 BWV points when I already have valid 2009 OKW points? Does that question make sense? Are the 2 contracts totally separate? I'm allowed to borrow from the next year even though I have current points available (at my other home resort)?

Either way they will allow you to borrow the points. Your two options would be to have the contracts linked on one master or have them totally unrelated and possibly a different use year. I think many of us use some variation of this strategy.

 

[DebIreland]

Either way they will allow you to borrow the points. Your two options would be to have the contracts linked on one master or have them totally unrelated and possibly a different use year. I think many of us use some variation of this strategy.

Thank you very much Dean. I'm learning something new about DVC every day. As I tried to envision future trips, I realised we would like some holidays at OKW and others at BWV. If going to WDW every year, two contracts would seem like a great idea to give me the 11 month advantage at both. Of course, most likely, we would visit WDW every 2 years for long stays. That could make the 2 home resorts + Banking + borrowing scenario unfeasible as it would be BWV every 4 years and OKW every four years. I'm getting a headache - my mother was right, I pick and pick and pick at something until I turn what should be a smooth scenario into a frustrating confusing heap of mush. Thanks again.

 

[Dean]

Thank you very much Dean. I'm learning something new about DVC every day. As I tried to envision future trips, I realised we would like some holidays at OKW and others at BWV. If going to WDW every year, two contracts would seem like a great idea to give me the 11 month advantage at both. Of course, most likely, we would visit WDW every 2 years for long stays. That could make the 2 home resorts + Banking + borrowing scenario unfeasible as it would be BWV every 4 years and OKW every four years. I'm getting a headache - my mother was right, I pick and pick and pick at something until I turn what should be a smooth scenario into a frustrating confusing heap of mush. Thanks again.

There are other ways of accomplishing the same thing. BWV is hard to reserve, esp for BW view or Standard view. OKW is pretty easy at 7 months other than maybe the 3 BR GV. Unless you want a GV most trips to OKW just owning BWV should serve your needs though the up front costs may be higher. Thus you should consider all your options carefully. BWV does have the advantage of the cheaper SV units which can provide some additional savings over cost alone. I'd also suggest anyone looking to buy at least consider how AKV might work for them. It should be a good rental property if one can't use the points sometime, it has options you'll never be able to get if you're not an owner there AND plan ahead, it has a later ending date 15 years later than the 2042 resorts and the upfront price is little more even compared to resale for the other high demand resorts.