Just bought Aulani!!

[tjkraz]

RE the 10% surcharge for fixed week:

Is that 10% more $$$ added to the purchase price?

Or 10% more points required (which the member then pays annual MF on for the life of the contract)?

10% surcharge. You do not receive additional points. The points are based upon the point chart requirements for the week being guaranteed.

 

[dis-happy]

10% surcharge. You do not receive additional points. The points are based upon the point chart requirements for the week being guaranteed.

It doesn't sound that bad then, at least to me. I have friends that do a Hawaii TS every year for Christmas week (it's their way of getting together with the grown up kids, plus they lived there for a few years and really enjoy Hawaii in general)....to have a Disney version of that sounds pretty good. A 10% surcharge upfront is pretty minimal IMO, especially once it's am'ed out. Wonder how long it will take the fixed Christmas/NY week to sell out. If I were buying Aulani (which I'm not) I would be looking long and hard at the fixed.

Do you think that owners of that week will be able to re-book into someone else's name, the same as other Disney reservations? I wonder if we'll see a new fixed week category added to the Rent/Trade board.....

 

[dis-happy]

Also wondering...

if fixed week owners convert to points what will their booking window be? The same 7 months as for everyone else? Will Aulani still be considered a home resort 11 month booking for those people?

 

[rsschneck]

Hubby and I are contemplating the Hawaii purchase. Our guide has not called us back so I thought I would ask those who have already purchased.

Someone posted you will not get any 2010 points and the points will start in 2011. When do you have to pay for your points if there won't be any until 2011? What is the deposit amount? When do you start paying annual dues this January or next January (bills are sent out late December every year)?

Someone posted you will be paying fees to the resort when you leave because it is a timeshare. Does anyone know how much these fees are and will they go up every year like our annual dues seem to?

A lot of resorts in Hawaii have resort fees (parking, fitness room, etc.). Does anyone know if there will be resort/parking fees?

I guess I just want to know what I am really facing every year and if the purchase will be worth it for our family.

 

[Neriberi]

Good questions; I'm wondering about the same myself. Also, is there still a deal for Disney Visa holders for DVC financing?

 

[BWV Dreamin]

If one purchases a set week for 10% more, and there are future points chart reallocations, I could see this way of buying as a hedge against those reallocations. The owners will always have thier week regardless of the total future points required. This would be one reason to buy a fixed week.

 

[LouisianaDisneyFan]

Good questions; I'm wondering about the same myself. Also, is there still a deal for Disney Visa holders for DVC financing?

The DVC financing deal is still in place for Disney Visa holders. I didn't inquire about the details since we aren't financing, but our guide did mention that a program was available.

For the PP who asked about deposits, etc.... our deposit was 10%. As this was an add-on, we will have no closing costs. The paperwork went into the queue for processing yesterday (none of the contracts could actually be processed until today) and the balance will be paid upon closing, which was estimated to be in about 2-3 weeks.

 

[rsschneck]

The DVC financing deal is still in place for Disney Visa holders. I didn't inquire about the details since we aren't financing, but our guide did mentione that a program was available.

For the PP who asked about deposits, etc.... our deposit was 10%. As this was an add-on, we will have no closing costs. The paperwork went into the queue for processing yesterday (none of the contracts could actually be processed until today) and the balance will be paid upon closing, which was estimated to be in about 2-3 weeks.

Seems to me DVC will have your money LONG before you have use of those points.

We are really trying to pencil this out and it is a tough sell for us because the points charts are so high and the points costs just keep rising. We were thinking 125 point add on to basically go every third year in a one bedroom. Which when you figure over 50 years is only 16-17 one week vacations. We kept the dues at $5.00 for the calculations (way off in the future I know). This makes each week around $3,000. This is about what you would pay out of pocket (depending on resort you stay at) and you could choose different islands instead of the same one to visit.

I was so ready to buy and now I am not sure.

 

[LouisianaDisneyFan]

Seems to me DVC will have your money LONG before you have use of those points.

Not really... just a few months earlier than necessary. Our 30th anniversary occurs during Phase I of the opening. We'll be able to make reservations for that 11 months out, so we needed to be in the system as Aulani owners before that time. The reason we visited the decision now was because we toyed around with going for the founding member status. We had noticed the names around the fountain at BLT and wished we would have purchased there as founders, but somehow it just didn't matter enough to us to spring for more points at Aulani... probably because we know we will continue to go several times a year to WDW but will only be headed to Hawaii once every three years. But, since we were already doing the analysis and had been in contact with our guide, we went ahead and completed the transaction now for the desired points.

 

[wdrl]

Here are my educated guesses to some of the questions posed:

Do you think that owners of that week will be able to re-book into someone else's name, the same as other Disney reservations? I wonder if we'll see a new fixed week category added to the Rent/Trade board.....

I expect Fixed Week Owners will be able to rent their weeks just like Points Owners can rent theirs. In fact, Fixed Week Owners should have an advantage over Points Owners because they can guarantee the renter the week is available, and they can offer this guarantee well before the 11-month mark. At best, Points Owners will have to wait for the 11-month window to open and hope the accommodation is still available.

if fixed week owners convert to points what will their booking window be? The same 7 months as for everyone else? Will Aulani still be considered a home resort 11 month booking for those people?

As tjkraz previously reported, Fixed Week Owners will still be assigned a Use Year just like Points Owners. My guess is that Fixed Week Owners, as with all other DVC members, are purchasing a real estate interest of "X.XXX%" in Unit ZZZ, which is represented by ### points. Its just that those points will, in some way, be tied to a specific week at Aulani. If a Fixed Week Owner opts out of the guaranteed week, then their underlying points are still considered to be Aulani points with a specific UY. They can then be used to book reservations within the DCV system with the same rules and regulations as other Points Owners.

Someone posted you will not get any 2010 points and the points will start in 2011. When do you have to pay for your points if there won't be any until 2011? When do you start paying annual dues this January or next January (bills are sent out late December every year)?

Someone posted you will be paying fees to the resort when you leave because it is a timeshare. Does anyone know how much these fees are and will they go up every year like our annual dues seem to?

Like Aulani, DVD started selling BLT before it opened on 8/4/2009. In BLT's case, owners were not billed for MF until September 2009, at the earliest. MFs for 2009 were prorated from the later of a.) BLT's opening, or b.) the start of your UY, or c.) the date you purchased. Since we have a February UY and we bought in May 2009, we paid prorated 2009 MFs for 8/4/2009 to 12/31/2009. We then paid the full amount BLT's 2010 MFs. I suspect the same will be true with Aulani. By the way, even though we joined DVC in May 2009, our BLT points could not be used for stays prior BLT's opening date.

The fee you might be referring to is the State of Hawaii's Transient Accommodation Tax. It is currently 9.25% of one-half of the daily maintenance. If Aulani's MFs are $4.31 (and I've heard conflicting amounts), then I estimate the TAT will be about $0.1993 per point. On a 100 point stay, the TAT would be about $19.93 for the length of the stay. The TAT is scheduled to revert to 7.25% by 2015, but Aulani's MFs should be higher by 2015.

 

[tjkraz]

If one purchases a set week for 10% more, and there are future points chart reallocations, I could see this way of buying as a hedge against those reallocations. The owners will always have thier week regardless of the total future points required. This would be one reason to buy a fixed week.

That is true. Fixed week owners are guaranteed that the points they purchase will always be sufficient for the week in question. However, it's a two way street. If the points are reallocated to lower the cost for your week, fixed week owners will not receive any sort of credit or additional points.

 

[Brancaneve]

Can you tell me a little more about financing with your Disney Visa? That is intriguing! Do you then get the reward points from such a big purchase?

 

[rmonty02]

rsschneck
We are really trying to pencil this out and it is a tough sell for us because the points charts are so high and the points costs just keep rising. We were thinking 125 point add on to basically go every third year in a one bedroom. Which when you figure over 50 years is only 16-17 one week vacations. We kept the dues at $5.00 for the calculations (way off in the future I know). This makes each week around $3,000. This is about what you would pay out of pocket (depending on resort you stay at) and you could choose different islands instead of the same one to visit.

I was so ready to buy and now I am not sure.

Oohh..thanks for the calculation. I'm not breaking out excel to do any calculations of my own because I will not be making an Aulani purchase. But your numbers give me a good perspective on how much a week would cost and begin to evaluate if it would ever be worth it for our family.

We just purchased last year and have my Disney vacations planned with our points. Still can't wait to read those Aulani TR's

And I'm lovin this read! Keep the insightful dialog coming...

 

[LouisianaDisneyFan]

Seems to me DVC will have your money LONG before you have use of those points.

We are really trying to pencil this out and it is a tough sell for us because the points charts are so high and the points costs just keep rising. We were thinking 125 point add on to basically go every third year in a one bedroom. Which when you figure over 50 years is only 16-17 one week vacations. We kept the dues at $5.00 for the calculations (way off in the future I know). This makes each week around $3,000. This is about what you would pay out of pocket (depending on resort you stay at) and you could choose different islands instead of the same one to visit.

I was so ready to buy and now I am not sure.

What travel dates were you considering in your calculations? I think these calculations would change dramatically based on when you want to travel and what type of views you wanted.

 

[disneynutz]

I would have a hard time buying points anywhere but WDW. In my mind, WDW helps make up for the issues and problems with the rooms.

If we had the same problems and lack of service in Hawaii or D.C. I would really be upset.

Now if the service was outstanding, and the rooms immaculate, that would be a different story.

Bill

 

[LouisianaDisneyFan]

I would have a hard time buying points anywhere but WDW. In my mind, WDW helps make up for the issues and problems with the rooms.

If we had the same problems and lack of service in Hawaii or D.C. I would really be upset.

Now if the service was outstanding, and the rooms immaculate, that would be a different story.

Bill

Honestly, what made the difference for us were the safety and reputation factors. We know that anything that has the Disney stamp will at least be safe and will make an effort to live up the Disney standard. Even if that standard has eroded a bit in recent years, it's still far and above more reliable than most other choices in the hospitality industry. Our goal was to get to Hawaii and have a reliable place that we could call "home" while there. This fits the bill.

We had a timeshare with a resort that had the highest rating with the exchange groups... it was sold and the new owners (Westgate) didn't give a flip about anything. That same timeshare is now barely hanging on to the lowest acceptable rating to still be included in RCI exchange, and basically nets us a flea motel in Podunk USA for exchanges. With it 100% paid for and many years left on the contract, we literally gave it away simply to get out of the maintenance fees. We knew we would never be going back and after 3 years of not being able to exchange for anything desirable, it was a huge money pit. You just never know what major disappointments will greet you upon checkin with the other resorts. We are confident we will never have that issue with a Disney property (at least as long as Disney is around and maintains ownership of all of their properties).

 

[ShuisFan584]

Does anyone have any idea how long it will take them to reach their founding member capacity? (Can't think of a better way to word the question)

How long has it taken for other resorts in the past?

 

[KarlMal]

Congrats!! Hang loose and see you there!!!

 

[rsschneck]

What travel dates were you considering in your calculations? I think these calculations would change dramatically based on when you want to travel and what type of views you wanted.

We are looking at choice season, 1 bedroom with and ocean view.

We love Hawaii (Maui in particular) and when we go we like the Ocean View category. For one week we are looking @ 350 points which would put us at a 125 point contract.

I know we could get by with a studio but without a kitchen and laundry I think we would really miss that especially with this resort.

After talking with my guide last night we are back to thinking about it. She said the Disneyland event is showing construction phases and the pool area looks fabulous. This is going to be a resort that you can just stay at and enjoy without having to leave if you don't want to. She also said the studios were going to start @ $580 per night and everything else goes up from there. The other thing we are considering is our only daughter. She and her future family will get to enjoy Hawaii for years to come.

My guide did confirm the Hawaii timeshare tax but did not know the rate. She was not sure if there will be parking/resort fees. She has not heard about any of those fees but could not confirm if there would or would not be those fees.

My guide did say the MF would start when the first phase was complete (basically Sept. - Dec. 2011).

 

[DenLo]

Originally Posted by Neriberi . . . . Also, is there still a deal for Disney Visa holders for DVC financing?

The DVC financing deal is still in place for Disney Visa holders. I didn't inquire about the details since we aren't financing, but our guide did mention that a program was available.

Our guide told us last week that the Visa deal was still in affect (we bought an add on at AKV. It's 6 months free of financing charges if you charge your points purchase on your Disney Chase Visa card. And any charges you do to your Disney Visa card gives you Disney Rewards. We didn't find out any detail either because we wouldn't be carrying over the charge. If interested it definitely something to ask your guide about.