Many decisions to make: VGF vs Riviera, direct or resale and use year.

[bakerworld]

Do smaller as in square feet? That's odd, I would have thought it would be the same. Do you know why this is? Did they just cram a few more studios here or there along the lower floors?

The shape of BL causes some of the villas - any villa on the curve, front and back, to be smaller. Some standards are normal sized but they don't feel the view is optimal - lake or theme park.

 

[DeeBee3]

Not to throw everything off, but are those times always going to be your vacation periods? Obviously, we don't know the future, but in general is my question. When your little one grows up and goes to school, those would be times you have to take him/her out of school, unless it's spring break or something. I would just consider that as well.

 

[sashinska]

Buy resale first. But advice is difficult without knowing size of family kids-grandparents- how long you plan to keep your contract ect. If you really want the blue card I would buy gfv since it will hold its resale value longer.

We a small family of three (possibly 4 in the future), so interested primarily in studios, maybe 1 bedroom when our child is much older in 10+ years from now

 

[sashinska]

Not to throw everything off, but are those times always going to be your vacation periods? Obviously, we don't know the future, but in general is my question. When your little one grows up and goes to school, those would be times you have to take him/her out of school, unless it's spring break or something. I would just consider that as well.

That's a good point. We are planning on pulling her out of school at least through elementary. But then will probably have to stick to school breaks.

 

[dvc lover 1970]

We a small family of three (possibly 4 in the future), so interested primarily in studios, maybe 1 bedroom when our child is much older in 10+ years from now

I would buy VGF. More studio options and better resale if you decide to sell. Both are great resorts but resale will hold better with GF. Also there are alot more studios now there

 

[Robbie Cottam]

1) VGF or RIV?
VGF has the monorail three really great restaurant, and I guess you can walk to MK now.
RIV has the skyline, not sure if you’re into the food and wine but this could be a bonus.
I bough at RR because I own at BLT. This one is a personal choice

2) Use year. As we go twice a year would it make sense to buy two different UYs? If the answer is no, which UY would be the best for our spring/fall trips?
Two use year is a complete PITA You can not move point between contracts, different banking dates. You really want one use year. It makes life so much easier. I did second for estate planning reason, not complaining but I would not want to deal with it as a new owner, or with minimal points. As far as what month to base your use year in i have never understood this. I‘m not going to say I have never had a home resort issue, because when they do work on the resorts, things get tight, i have had to upgrade to the next view to get what I want. But I pretty much always have gotten what I want.

3) Do you see any pitfalls in this strategy?
i would consider looking into a 1 bedroom. Or think about adding resale points in the same use year At a later date…..IMO the studios are for a couple on a date vacation.
however, my wifey think the poly studios are good for 5….

Your first direct purchase must be 150 at one resort. I didn’t realize this was the case, but is was confirmed by a DVC guide Tuesday. As soon as you have 150 points direct at one resort, they will sell as little as 25 points direct at a second resort. They do need to be in the same use year. Or they will be different memberships.


Any other comments and suggestions are welcome

where ever you buy, buy where you want to stay.
can you resort hop…. Yes, pre covid it was fairly easy. Since covid… if has become harder…. 1 bedrooms seem to be easier than studios.
call a guide, they aren’t going to give you a hard sell, yes they are salesmen or saleswomen, but the are licensed by the state and are very concerned with following the laws.

They also know the current incentives, can explain the best month for your use year, and can help get the extra years points.

hope this helps

 

[eticketplease]

Your first direct purchase must be 150 at one resort. I didn’t realize this was the case, but is was confirmed by a DVC guide Tuesday. As soon as you have 150 points direct at one resort, they will sell as little as 25 points direct at a second resort. They do need to be in the same use year. Or they will be different memberships.

You can buy the minimum offered for the resort directly (25 or 50) if you are a member already which you can do if a resale purchase is made. The stipulation would be that you would have to purchase those points on the same use year and the deed is titled the same.

If you are not a member, titling the deed differently or purchasing a different use year then your direct contact would have to be the new member minimum which at this time is 150 points.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

You can buy the minimum offered for the resort directly (25 or 50) if you are a member already which you can do if a resale purchase is made. The stipulation would be that you would have to purchase those points on the same use year and the deed is titled the same.

If you are not a member, titling the deed differently or purchasing a different use year then your direct contact would have to be the new member minimum which at this time is 150 points.

i Must have miss understood the OP I though she said she was not a current member.
for some reason I also though OP was going to buy both direct, but the post said 150 at either….

 

[Sandisw]

Your first direct purchase must be 150 at one resort. I didn’t realize this was the case, but is was confirmed by a DVC guide Tuesday. As soon as you have 150 points direct at one resort, they will sell as little as 25 points direct at a second resort. They do need to be in the same use year. Or they will be different memberships.

RIV, CCV, and VGF require a minimum of 50 now for add ons to memberships...whether you pay cash or finance. The older resorts are still 25.

 

[sashinska]

i Must have miss understood the OP I though she said she was not a current member.
for some reason I also though OP was going to buy both direct, but the post said 150 at either….

You understood correctly, I’m not the member yet The plan is to buy 150 points directly from Disney to get full membership and then add more resale points. Thanks for all the info!

 

[Robbie Cottam]

You understood correctly, I’m not the member yet The plan is to buy 150 points directly from Disney to get full membership and then add more resale points. Thanks for all the info!

That is a great plan. It sounds like you have done your due diligences…
it is completely free and easy to run this by a guide not sure I’m allowed to give you a name and number of a guide but if I can and you want it I would be happy to do so….
if not the 800 number works too

If nothing else you will what ever deal the currently have….

Either way good luck… it has been a lot of enjoyment for my family

 

[eticketplease]

i Must have miss understood the OP I though she said she was not a current member.
for some reason I also though OP was going to buy both direct, but the post said 150 at either….

My apologies as I was on my phone, not the computer, and did not navigate to the original posting nor remember when @sashinska posted "Our thinking is to buy 150 direct points from RIV or VGF and then buy an additional resale 100 pts contract for Animal Kingdom."

Since they are not members yet you are 100% correct that since the OP wants to purchase directly first that it would indeed require a minimum purchase of 150 points as that is current minimum.

 

[🍀TwinsMom]

We own at Riviera and love it. I do think you need to own there to get SV rooms, and especially for the tower rooms. The current VGF deal is excellent, and it's a beautiful resort. I think direct to get access to discounted APs (when they come back) for a young family is a valuable perk, and being able to use VGF points at Riviera/Poly 2/DL Tower, etc., is worthwhile. You can't go wrong with either, IMO, but I definitely suggest buying where you want to stay. It's very hard to get a full week anywhere at 7 months out, so home booking advantage is a real asset.

I also think the Riviera resale restriction hysteria is massively overblown. It's selling for $145-$155, and most of those were probably bought in at the $165-$188 range. I don't think that's bad at all, but just my two cents.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

We own at Riviera and love it. I do think you need to own there to get SV rooms, and especially for the tower rooms. The current VGF deal is excellent, and it's a beautiful resort. I think direct to get access to discounted APs (when they come back) for a young family is a valuable perk, and being able to use VGF points at Riviera/Poly 2/DL Tower, etc., is worthwhile. You can't go wrong with either, IMO, but I definitely suggest buying where you want to stay. It's very hard to get a full week anywhere at 7 months out, so home booking advantage is a real asset.

I also think the Riviera resale restriction hysteria is massively overblown. It's selling for $145-$155, and most of those were probably bought in at the $165-$188 range. I don't think that's bad at all, but just my two cents.

This is a great point about buying direct.
I think I post else where but my family saved 750 dollars a year on AP with our discount. and another 500 at least on have to have it purchases...

It used to be a little easier to save money with the blue card, but you can still find a lot of deals and value that makes each vacation that much more special...

 

[sashinska]

With everyone’s help we came to the conclusion that we should indeed buy where we like the most as both resorts have some pros and cons. Just scheduled a tour of both Riviera and VGF during our next Disney visit!

 

[Robbie Cottam]

Congrats, Either location you will be happy
When is the next visit?

 

[sashinska]

Congrats, Either location you will be happy
When is the next visit?

Going to be there next week

 

[DVCsloth]

Our last 2 trips Sept 2020 and Sept 2021 we used out VGF points to stay at Riviera. First trip was SV Studio second was SV 1br. We really loved the resort and the Skyliner access. But realized that we preferred VGF. After the new addition to VGF I started to think that I would prefer Riviera instead, mostly because of the fact that DVC decided to add studios only and we like to have the option of 1br's sometimes. Not sure how this will affect availability of the larger rooms but, we just added a small direct contract at RIV to use probably every other year. We are going back to VGF 1br in September. I think either one of these are really good choices. We now own 3 resorts VGF, CCV and Riviera.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Very small and only sleep 4. No split bath like in RIV or deluxe studios at VGF. New resort studios don’t have the split bath either but are large and do sleep 5.

The sleeps-5 Studios have storage problems though, right? Not enough drawers and whatnot?

 

[DVCsloth]

The sleeps-5 Studios have storage problems though, right? Not enough drawers and whatnot?

I know that Riviera and VGF Studios have good storage. Even CCV sleeps 4 has pretty decent storage.