Is buying direct VDH to mostly use in Florida a terrible plan?

[radiodome21]

It’s funny but my son recently
asked if I would ever buy there or VGC. We were watching the Disneyland special on ABC on Sunday night. I said absolutely not. He then asked when we would visit next. I said not too sure. We were in Disneyland 2 years ago. My wife said maybe we should go again. The. I remembered why I don’t want to go. It’s too expensive. I can’t remember a single food item I ate in Downtown Disney hut I remember paying $16 for a bottle of beer. WDW is expensive but I found Disneyland even more expensive. We stayed at the Disneyland hotel while they were finishing the VDH too. The TOT was logic lost on my teenage son but that’s a dealbreaker for me. I then had him pull up the refurb videos of VGC on YouTube and he didn’t think anything had been been updated. Plus We just activated our sorcerers pass in July so I’m not buying any other park tickets for a while. If I were to buy there I would want to visit annually to help justify the MFs.

 

[disneylandtour]

To add to @Brian Noble's point, it seems like part of your rationale is that you'd like direct points, presumably for the blue card benefits. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there are many blue card benefits at DLR, and they just did away with EE (which sounds like it was quite a phenomenal perk at DLR). Of course, we all know that blue card benefits can and will change, but if the majority of blue card benefits are WDW-based, and you're hesitant about owning in FL long-term, the benefits of direct may not be there for you right now.

There's less than at WDW. But it's similar, just scaled down. There's a lounge in DL, a welcome home center, moonlight magic (usually at DCA), various free activities (including morning yoga, if I recall, at certain times of the year), discounted early walks through the parks (before opening), the usual food and merch discounts. There's no large hotel lounge, like top of the world. Also no large discounts for annual passes, but they've had some small (almost not worth mentioning) discounts which were, I think, $20. The biggest value is the room itself, especially at the Grand Californian. In early december, weekday night studios at Grand Calif are 20 points, at Poly are 19 points (resort view) and at Grand Flordian are 18 (also resort view). Yet the cash cost of the rooms at GC are significantly higher than those at Poly or GF. The difference in points between GC and Poly and GF is about 5-10%, but the difference in cash (typically two to three hundred dollars) from the dates I just checked is about 25-30%. That's the value. With that, I'm ok without all of the extras.

 

[disneylandtour]

It’s funny but my son recently
asked if I would ever buy there or VGC. We were watching the Disneyland special on ABC on Sunday night. I said absolutely not. He then asked when we would visit next. I said not too sure. We were in Disneyland 2 years ago. My wife said maybe we should go again. The. I remembered why I don’t want to go. It’s too expensive. I can’t remember a single food item I ate in Downtown Disney hut I remember paying $16 for a bottle of beer. WDW is expensive but I found Disneyland even more expensive. We stayed at the Disneyland hotel while they were finishing the VDH too. The TOT was logic lost on my teenage son but that’s a dealbreaker for me. I then had him pull up the refurb videos of VGC on YouTube and he didn’t think anything had been been updated. Plus We just activated our sorcerers pass in July so I’m not buying any other park tickets for a while. If I were to buy there I would want to visit annually to help justify the MFs.

VGC is far, far nicer in so many ways compared to VDH. I do think that VGC is worth the upcharge rates for anything in California--less so for VDH.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Honestly, not a great plan. MF on VDH are on the high side. Plus you'd lose any 11-month advantage for where you mostly want to stay. If MFs at VDH were $7.xx or $8, I still think that wouldn't be the best plan--but maybe workable. But you're going to be whacked with some high MFs and not get the primary benefits those MFs give you. You can see in my signature logos, I own AKV, another high MF resort. But man, I use those value studios multiple times a year. I think I've spent about 15 days in the AKV value rooms this year--which, points-wise, are a tremendous bargain. So I pay the high MFs but I regularly get something meaningful from it.

Dumb question - what does MF stand for?

Based on context, I assume you're talking about the dues but I can't for the life of me figure out what the MF actually stands for.

To add to @Brian Noble's point, it seems like part of your rationale is that you'd like direct points, presumably for the blue card benefits. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there are many blue card benefits at DLR, and they just did away with EE (which sounds like it was quite a phenomenal perk at DLR). Of course, we all know that blue card benefits can and will change, but if the majority of blue card benefits are WDW-based, and you're hesitant about owning in FL long-term, the benefits of direct may not be there for you right now.

I've heard the lounge at Disneyland is better than the one at WDW.