Looking for info on 3-bedroom villas

[mambwe]

Looking to go to Disney World April 2022 and trying to decide if its worth staying in a 3-bedroom villa vs 4 separate rooms at another Disney resort. We have 12 people in our family and would love if we could all stay together.

Does anyone have any idea what a 3-bedroom villa costs per night? We usually stay at Pop Century in a Preferred Pool room. We're at the park all day, so the hotel isn't really a priority for us, but it would be nice to have everyone together in one villa.

 

[Best Aunt]

I'll try to answer (but I know you will get better replies from other people).

Are you planning to try to make a cash reservation through Disney, or rent points for a DVC reservation?

If you rent points, you normally pay in advance and cannot get your money back if you need to change your plans. With a big group, there is always the possibility that someone might cancel on you. If you rent points you most likely would not be able to downgrade to a smaller (cheaper) unit.

If you were planning to make a cash reservation, I'm not sure how often the 3-bedroom villas even become available.

You didn't mention which hotel you were hoping to book. The number of 3-bedroom villas varies by hotel (and some don't even have them).

 

[mambwe]

I'll try to answer (but I know you will get better replies from other people).

Are you planning to try to make a cash reservation through Disney, or rent points for a DVC reservation?

If you rent points, you normally pay in advance and cannot get your money back if you need to change your plans. With a big group, there is always the possibility that someone might cancel on you. If you rent points you most likely would not be able to downgrade to a smaller (cheaper) unit.

If you were planning to make a cash reservation, I'm not sure how often the 3-bedroom villas even become available.

You didn't mention which hotel you were hoping to book. The number of 3-bedroom villas varies by hotel (and some don't even have them).

I think our first choice would be Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo/Kidani, but the priority is to stay in one villa together. We would probably go with the least expensive option.

How does one rent points from a DVC member for a reservation like this? I believe 4 rooms at Pop Century would run ~$1,400 per night total for the 4 rooms. I know a villa would be more $$$. I'm trying to find out how much more.

 

[tseitel]

You can go to a 3rd party website, like DVC rental store or David’s Vacation Club rentals, plug in your dates, and it will give you the price. 2022 prices are not available yet, but you could look at this year and get a ballpark. This doesn’t show availability, just cost.
You can also rent from an owner, if one has enough points available. I would recommend someone from the DisBoards, there is a rental thread here.

 

[starry_solo]

Here are the points charts for DVC:

https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/vacation-planning/points-charts/
For Animal Kingdom specifically:
https://disneyvacationclub.disney.g...ts/dvc-resorts/FINAL_2022_DVC_AKV_Pt_Chts.pdf
Grand Villa goes between 496 and 924 points for a week, depending on dates.

For April, you are looking at 656-707 points for the week, assuming it's not the first week of April

So that would be looking at $13120/week at the low end

 

[BillPA]

Try this link, select the resort and be ready for a sticker shock.
https://www.mousesavers.com/2021-disney-world-room-rates-season-dates/

 

[CarolynFH]

You really might also want to look at offsite, say Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort or a house in Windsor Hills, etc. You could get spacious accommodations for all 12 of you, with kitchen, laundry, etc. at a much more reasonable price.

https://www.disboards.com/forums/orlando-hotels-and-attractions.15/https://www.disboards.com/threads/the-we-loooooove-bonnet-creek-thread-part-4.3366139/https://www.disboards.com/threads/windsor-hills-information-station.3798203/

 

[Jen0107c]

I would definitely check the rental boards on here first if you want a grand villa. If someone has enough points it will probably cost much less then Disney direct. Even though it’s rare to see the grand villas pop up directly through Disney. I didn’t have enough points this summer and paid cash at blt for a grand villa. It was around $3400 a night.

 

[Marionnette]

I believe 4 rooms at Pop Century would run ~$1,400 per night total for the 4 rooms. I know a villa would be more $$$. I'm trying to find out how much more.

https://www.mousesavers.com/2021-animal-kingdom-villas-jambo-house-room-rates-season-dates/Rack rate for Easter Week of 2021 =$3820 per night.

That's the price you would pay IF an AKV Grand Villa were available to book via Disney for cash. Grand Villas are always excluded from any room discounts that Disney offers.

You might also want to give consideration to the sleeping situation. Yes, there's a bed for all 12 people but one bedroom is a king bed. The other two bedrooms each have 2 queen beds. And then there's a queen sleeper sofa in the living room. As long as everyone is okay with sharing beds and bedrooms, you're fine. But if anyone wants more privacy or their own real bed you're going to have a problem. And then there's the question of whether everyone pays the same amount or if the couple that gets the master bedroom pays more, etc.

 

[The Jackal]

Just a heads up. OKW is the cheapest, and one of the bedrooms has 2 full sized beds not queen size beds. I’m 6’3” and full size beds are a little too small. Oh and most OKW buildings do not have elevators. And most GV’s there are on the 2nd floor and are 2 levels. Just in case someone has trouble with stairs.

 

[mambwe]

Thank you all for the information. You're all amazing!

 

[Dolfan2681]

Renting points would be the way to. If you rent them through a private owner you will pay around $15 a point. The first 3 weeks in December are the cheapest time of the year point wise for DVC, and SSR would be the best price. I'm looking at booking December 9-13 (4 nights) the price is 292 points. To give you a idea

 

[Yinn]

Here are the points charts for DVC:

https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/vacation-planning/points-charts/
For Animal Kingdom specifically:
https://disneyvacationclub.disney.g...ts/dvc-resorts/FINAL_2022_DVC_AKV_Pt_Chts.pdf
Grand Villa goes between 496 and 924 points for a week, depending on dates.

For April, you are looking at 656-707 points for the week, assuming it's not the first week of April

So that would be looking at $13120/week at the low end

Wow....

Ok so I know it's not the most popular, but at that point you have to seriously consider buying.

https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/listings/vero-beach/vb91015/
Assuming paying asking price, we're looking at $23,296 to buy the contract. It's got 480 now, 120 that can be borrowed for 600 points total. A little short, but we'll use it for the example since we're not negotiating.

If you then subtract what it would cost to rent...($23,296-$13,120) Then the cost of the remaining contract after use would be $10,176 or $42.40/point. Add to this that ROFR for Vero Beach is approximately $53-70 for Jan 2021 that means you should be able to sell it for $12,720 (53*240) to $16,800 (70*240) meaning you'd make between $2,544 and $6,624 of profit for a total trip cost of $3,552 to $7,632 for a 3BR Grand Villa...

It's a little nuts, but just saying...

 

[nursemelis374]

We are a family of 11 and rented points for a week in a Grand Villa at AKL Jambo. It was about 14 thousand dollars. This was the first week of June in 2019.

It was a lot of money but totally worth it. We had so much fun in the mornings and evenings being together.

 

[starry_solo]

Wow....

Ok so I know it's not the most popular, but at that point you have to seriously consider buying.

https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/listings/vero-beach/vb91015/
Assuming paying asking price, we're looking at $23,296 to buy the contract. It's got 480 now, 120 that can be borrowed for 600 points total. A little short, but we'll use it for the example since we're not negotiating.

If you then subtract what it would cost to rent...($23,296-$13,120) Then the cost of the remaining contract after use would be $10,176 or $42.40/point. Add to this that ROFR for Vero Beach is approximately $53-70 for Jan 2021 that means you should be able to sell it for $12,720 (53*240) to $16,800 (70*240) meaning you'd make between $2,544 and $6,624 of profit for a total trip cost of $3,552 to $7,632 for a 3BR Grand Villa...

It's a little nuts, but just saying...

I don't think anyone's going to be able to use VB points to get a Grand Villa at WDW

 

[Yinn]

I don't think anyone's going to be able to use VB points to get a Grand Villa at WDW

It was just a lazy example. My CCV contract from 4 months ago was the same situation for $5,000 more and not all grand villas require 11-mo out, especially right now so any cheap eligible WDW contract with double points would do.

 

[justadreamaway77]

I'm sure the value resort/4 individual rooms would be a cheaper route BUT you would not have a full size kitchen and laundry either... nor would you have a common place to hangout. I would suggest going onto Youtube and looking at the tours of the 3 bedrooms to see which one works for you. The 3 beds at Animal Kingdom are amazing. The other thing I like about Kidani's 3 bed is that they have a loft area with an additional pull out couch and tv....perfect for a sleeping/hangout area for kids. They are also 2 story so you put kids to bed in the upstairs bedrooms and hangout on the 1st floor without whispering.

As someone earlier mentioned, I would think about the families that are going. 3 beds do sleep 12 but there are only 3 bedrooms. So if you have 3 or less nuclear families, then the place works. If there are 4 or more nuclear families then families either need to share rooms or are left out in open spaces with no privacy. Definitely think about this when planning!

 

[cruisehopeful]

It may be less expensive to have 2, two bedroom units or a two bedroom + a studio or one bedroom. That could increase the overall # of bedrooms and bathrooms.

 

[justadreamaway77]

Something else you can look into is getting 2 treehouses. They are almost half the points of a 3 bedroom but do have 3 bedrooms (bedrooms are smaller and only have a single queen in two of the bedrooms and a set of bunks in the other bedroom). They have a nice kitchen/living room area with more sleeping...along with a wonderful deck where you can grill. You wouldn't all be "technically" together but you would have a lot more private sleeping space and beyond enough kitchen space between the two areas. Plus you can grill right outside of your treehouse and hangout of the decks.

 

[justadreamaway77]

If your party of 12 are in different parts of their lives (some with young kids, some with older kids, some with no kids) the treehouses might be perfect because you can group families together that are in similar situations.....people with kids that go down early or rise early in one treehouse, the opposite in the other treehouse.