Magical Beginnings vs. banking surpluses

[TexasJedi]

To MB or not to MB, aye, that's my question.

I've been doing lots of research and debating about purchasing my family's first DVC contract and am debating whether I'd want to take advantage of Magical Beginnings to get back a chunk of change right at the start or whether I'd like to use the first year points as "bonus" points over the course of several years since I'd be unlikely to use the first year points during their use year.

I'm wondering if there are people here who've taken advantage of Magical Beginnings and later wished they hadn't, or others who've tried what I'm thinking about and whether they regretted it later.

For a baseline, let's say I bought 300 points this summer...I could get a $6,000 refund on the purchase at current MB rates, or I could bank them all.

If I chose to bank them, when the 2025 usage year starts, let's say I win up booking 330 points worth of stays using my 300 banked plus 30 from the new use year, and then bank 270 for the next year. So essentially, over the course of several years, I'd be able to upgrade my stays, room types, etc.

What I'm trying to debate is the "value" between having the extra points available over several years vs. the up front savings...which I know is a different proposition depending on a lot of factors including individuals' financial situations, but curious to hear some feedback around whether people prefer MB or extra bankable points if you're not planning a trip in your first use year?

 

[TinkAgainU]

Great question. I'm interested to see what people suggest. I know I would want the points - simply because having a cool vacay is the whole point and I know everyone always says they wanted a bigger room or better view Side note, it's "usually" easier to book or waitlist the next level room up (those low end, viewless deals are often snapped up by professional point renters), so the points come in handy that way too.

P.S. I had family use MB and then needed to buy one time use points for a trip right away. They were sad.

 

[Amyunder]

I personally do not think MB is a good deal unless you really don't plan to use the points. 300 points is a week could be an additional trip a year or upgrade to a larger accommodation. It seems like a discount but it's basically just renting them back to Disney. I personally use my points but that's just me.

 

[Sandisw]

While I have not taken advantage of it, it would depend on my situation to which one to take.

If I were just starting out and was comfortable with the price without MB, I’d take the extra points and enjoy a few upgraded trips!!!

Plus, it might even stave off needing to add more points for a few years!!

 

[Tatebeck]

If I was a first time buyer, it would be hard for me to want to do MB unless I really needed the lower buy in price. You basically have to wait a year to use your shiny new purchase unless they give you a use year that is coming up so you can get close to "double points"

As a resale buyer looking to add on direct, I probably will use MB because I already have points I'm using and trips planned. I won't have to wait to go to Disney. Also since I already have my use year, I can buy in early to late summer closer to my use year and pay less dues the first year, get "double points", sell back the first set for MB and then get points again a couple months later when my September use year starts again.

 

[TexasJedi]

Great question. I'm interested to see what people suggest. I know I would want the points - simply because having a cool vacay is the whole point and I know everyone always says they wanted a bigger room or better view Side note, it's "usually" easier to book or waitlist the next level room up (those low end, viewless deals are often snapped up by professional point renters), so the points come in handy that way too.

P.S. I had family use MB and then needed to buy one time use points for a trip right away. They were sad.

Availability is a good consideration for me! I've read about difficulties with standard view studios, but my family would primarily be a 1BR/2BR family. Would I need to be concerned about 11-month availability at RIV for standard views getting professionally sniped?

(PVB is another consideration for "home" resort, but obviously that one is much more TBD right now.)

 

[Electron_si]

We just purchased 150 points direct at RIV last month and used MB. We have a DEC UY but we also own a 200 pt Polynesian resale contract.

For me using MB brought the total PP cost down somewhat comparable to direct. With all the promotions stacked, military and MB our total cost was $174.66 per point. Comparing that to the $155 pp we paid for PVB resale (not including the seller paid closing). I felt like that was much easier to justify than points in the 190’s. I knew if I didn’t take the MB I would also use those points how you suggest upgrading room types and would probably spend them more freely since they were “extra” so I took the cash instead.

 

[TinkAgainU]

Availability is a good consideration for me! I've read about difficulties with standard view studios, but my family would primarily be a 1BR/2BR family. Would I need to be concerned about 11-month availability at RIV for standard views getting professionally sniped?

(PVB is another consideration for "home" resort, but obviously that one is much more TBD right now.)

I feel like a "pusher" of this publication sometimes lol... I have no financial attachment, I promise lol. But get the www.DVCfieldguide.com for about $13 and look up the availability (and a whole lot more info) about each resort. I always say everything in that guide is online "somewhere" but this puts it all in one place. It's a huge book you download, but you can search it just like online - easy to use! And updated every 6 months so the info is actually Correct, unlike some stuff on the internet

 

[Electron_si]

We are a family who typically book inside of the 7 month window as my job doesn’t allow for long term vacation planning. We often end up in 1 BR split stays because of their availability. I’ll say right now if you go in JUL there is still a BWV 1 BR open for the dates we are traveling.

Having the flexibility to book 1 BR’s does help a lot, but most of the time you have to be willing to split stay as 3-4 nights are about the most you can hope for short notice.

Closer to 7 months the availability is much better for 1 BR’s. Hopefully I was vague enough this won’t be considered offering live availability.

 

[intamin]

We took advantage of MB recently after a purchase of nearly 200 RIV points. We don't regret it. We didn't have a need for the points during the use year when we bought it as our trips for that year had been accounted for already with our prior points and we were also banking nearly the full allotment of our 2024 points to maximize the number of points we have available for 2025.

If we had a need for an upcoming trip or something it would've made sense to keep it but we really didn't. I think MB is a much better deal than renting out to DVC rental store just because you're not hit with broker fees and taxes like I've said on here before.

 

[Cfabar1]

we did it... at the time it made sense... in hindsight I'm not entirely sure it was worth it, but don't really have too many complaints.

 

[Disdreaming479]

I bought loaded contracts and have really enjoyed upgraded trips using banked points.

 

[OlieRow]

I did it for VGF when I bought during the summer sale. I bought in July and had August UY. I sold back the expiring 2022 points and two weeks later had the 2023 ones to use. I think it depends on timing and if you were planning to use them. Considering poly tower and I’m not sure I’d do MB if I had to wait 6+ months to get more points.

 

[AstroBlasters]

I would mentally use MB to justify purchasing more points than I probably should …. but then actually keep the extra year of points…

 

[AwfulWaffle]

since I'd be unlikely to use the first year points during their use year.

Famous last words. Take them now while points seem less important because a few contracts later they won’t be, especially after Disney upgrades you to a 1BR for the first time

 

[Coronator]

I was faced with this exact question when I bought in this year. I actually bought 300 RIV points the beginning of April (my first ever DVC contracts), and then 300 points at OKW the beginning of May.

I did not take MB on the RIV points. My feeling was just like most everyone else - the point of the points is to take vacations, not rent them out.

However on the second 300 OKW points, I did in fact take the MB. At that point we had just come back from a cash stay at Disney (in March), and had two other trips planned already. I didn’t really “need” the 300 OKW points this year, but I was “slightly” overspending on DVC points this year with these great incentives .

With that said, you will probably always regret a little taking MB, because at some point you will likely wish you had the points. You just have to do what’s right for your situation at the time.

 

[Bo1203]

MB wasn't offered when we bought. Banked our first year of points and had an excessively nice first two years of trips. Now we need more points

 

[JoshF]

To MB or not to MB, aye, that's my question.

I've been doing lots of research and debating about purchasing my family's first DVC contract and am debating whether I'd want to take advantage of Magical Beginnings to get back a chunk of change right at the start or whether I'd like to use the first year points as "bonus" points over the course of several years since I'd be unlikely to use the first year points during their use year.

I'm wondering if there are people here who've taken advantage of Magical Beginnings and later wished they hadn't, or others who've tried what I'm thinking about and whether they regretted it later.

For a baseline, let's say I bought 300 points this summer...I could get a $6,000 refund on the purchase at current MB rates, or I could bank them all.

If I chose to bank them, when the 2025 usage year starts, let's say I win up booking 330 points worth of stays using my 300 banked plus 30 from the new use year, and then bank 270 for the next year. So essentially, over the course of several years, I'd be able to upgrade my stays, room types, etc.

What I'm trying to debate is the "value" between having the extra points available over several years vs. the up front savings...which I know is a different proposition depending on a lot of factors including individuals' financial situations, but curious to hear some feedback around whether people prefer MB or extra bankable points if you're not planning a trip in your first use year?

For me it depends when you buy. I have a June UY and bought in May. In this case I got MB for the UY that finished in 2 weeks and received more points 2 weeks later. MB made sense to me.

 

[Dobermanns]

We used MB when adding on at VDH in May of last year. We already had close to 800 points prior to purchase and had stays at VGC, WDW and AUL booked through spring of this year (I always book 11 months out), Aug UY so really didn’t need those points. The $22 price drop per point was also appealing

 

[pinkxray]

We used MB last year when buying at VGF. We already had our next 2 years of vacation planned so we didn’t really need the points and MB made the price much more appealing. Of course, we ended up using our new contracts at during April break and would have loved the extra points we gave away to book a better view. We also extended our trip by one night and ended up staying cash at a value on arrival night bc we were out of points.

If I were to buy direct again I would probably skip MB. Unless the cost using MB was a factor that made the cost a yes vs a no to go direct. If MB makes the cost more appealing and you might not buy otherwise, I’d save them.