Many Questions

[Former DVC Owner]

Hello,

I have numerous questions and I figured I’d ask them all at once. I’ll put a summary at the top and then the questions and then below that I will post my rambling thoughts about everything.

Summary: My wife and I are 49. We have two kids, a girl 15 and a boy 13. We went to Disneyworld (is it one word, Disneyworld, or two words, Disney World? I guess it’s WDW for Walt Disney World so it must be two words) more than once a year between 2009 and 2021. We even squeezed a trip in February 2020 before we knew the world would shut down (not to relive that experience). We bought BLT in 2011 and VWL in 2012 both through resale. Unfortunately we had to sell them in 2018. In July I was watching youtube videos about how there was no one at Disney-world this summer. So my son and I went to All Star Sports August 9-16 and it was awesome and there really was nobody there. 7 drawfs had a 45 minute wait at 2:00 PM. Now we’re going back each year and I want to buy back in to DVC.

Statement: I don’t want to discuss the financial aspect per-se. I am looking at this as a “waste of money”. Yes I could stay at All Star Sports every trip but I’d rather stay in a DVC. Therefore I don’t necessarily care which resort is most economical.

1) What is this blue card thing I keep hearing about? Is it the DVC member card I had that gave me 10% off the resort gift shops? Do I care if I have this (other than getting 10% off)?
2) What’s up with all the new DVC resorts and should I bother with them? I see there is grand Floridian and Polynesian and Rivera. I don’t want to dismiss any out of hand but Grand Floridian and Polynesian seem more expensive, is there a reason I should consider them? I’ve never stayed at either and I’m not really interested but I don’t want to buy something else and live to regret it. Does Grand Floridian or Polynesian have a boat ride to Magic Kingdom? I guess from Polynesian I could walk over to that giant ferry at the ticket transportation center and ride the giant ferry. That counts as a boat.
3) How does 7 month booking work now? We used to always get 1 bedrooms and never had any issue staying at other resorts booking at 7 months. But now with all these new resorts is it harder to get a spot at 7 months? Also we’ll be doing Studios now because it’s just going to be me and my son until he’s tired of going then it will be me and my wife. My daughter doesn’t want to go anymore. So is the “buy where you want to stay” really important in 2025? We’ll be traveling the second week of August usually.
4) I assume resale is still the best option?
5) Wilderness Lodge was my favorite and I’ll probably want to buy there, but now there are two listings with one listing is like $40 more per point. Is the expensive listing the one for the cabins on the water?
6) 2042 vs 2060. Back when I bought in 2012 the 2042 expiration didn’t really matter since it was 30 years away. But now it’s only 16 years away so wouldn’t it be better to buy a 2060 expiration? But it doesn’t seem like Beach Club or Boardwalk are cheaper with 2042 expirations (unless that date has all changed on me).
7) Is it a bad time to buy? When I bought 10+ years ago I was able to get contracts with banked points but most of the listings I look at have no points until 2026 which kinda sucks.


General randomness:

I bought Bay Lake Tower first because our daughter was like a baby and we had no son yet and I figured being next to Magic Kingdom would be great because we could just push the stroller over and walk to it very easy. But in reality we never stayed there even once. The points were too high and I’m cheap so I’d just use the points other places. We had to sell because we did a kitchen/patio remodel/improvement and it went over budget. I’m sure you are shocked to hear a home improvement was more than originally quoted. We rented points for the 2019, 2020, and 2021 trips. And I realize if you look at the dates you’ll see that we didn’t go from 2022, 2023, or 2024 but that was just life and now I’m back to going annually. And the reason we stayed at all Star Sports in August is because I didn’t plan the trip until July and I couldn’t get a good DVC resort through David’s Vacation Club Rentals so I had to go through Disney and went cheap. Anyway over the years we stayed at:

Old Key West
Saratoga Springs Resort
Beach Club Villas
Boardwalk Villas
Villas of Wilderness Lodge
Animal Kingdom Kadina
Animal Kingdom main house

My favorite was Wilderness Lodge then Boardwalk. Old Key West was kind of like a retirement community with golf and a bunch of old people at the pool. I assume that’s why it’s called Old Key West. But Old Key West and Saratoga I didn’t like because we were so far away from the main building. And Animal Kingdom I didn’t like because it was literally 1.2 miles from our room to the bus stop. It took 23 minutes to walk to the bus. And the pool was also really far away. The Giraffes were cool, but the walk was lame. Especially at night after going to the park all day. Maybe if they gave you a giraffe to ride back to your room that would be a good reason to stay there.

But that leaves Beach Club and you all love Beach Club. And since I like Boardwalk and it’s right across the water from Beach Club why don’t I like Beach Club? Well I’ll tell you. See I love lazy rivers and I was told Beach Club Pool has a lazy river. So I was all excited. My wife took the kids (little at that time) to the area with the sand and the buckets and I grabbed a floaty donut and headed to the lazy river. I walk down the steps and assumed it was like 5 feet deep. I mean, have you EVER been in a hotel pool deeper than 5 feet? But as you know the lazy river pool at Beach Club is literally 15 feet deep! So I walked down the steps and stepped off into nothingness and I plunged all the way down. I had to flounder my way back to the surface and luckily someone was holding my tube for me. I made it back to the stairs and climbed up and flopped onto the tube. Them I’m sitting there with water up my nose. So I do that thing where you plug one nostril and blow really hard out the other one to try to clear up my nose. And I’m getting these strange looks from other floaters. Anyway the experience was not the relaxing experience I was looking for.

I liked Boardwalk because the water slide was really good and I liked the cheap points for the garden view room and I liked the boat ride to Hollywood Studios (I didn't ride the boat to Epcot because I don't like Epcot...although I do like Living with the Land and the 3 Callaberos and that Frozen ride, but I'd rather be at a different park). I like wilderness lodge because it’s awesome. See, I really like riding on the boat to Magic Kingdom and the general feel of the hotel and backyard. I rode the boat from Old Key West to Downtown Disney just to have an excuse to ride the boat. That was kinda cool. It’s a really long ride but there’s all sorts of stuff to look at. So Wilderness Lodge has the cool boat ride. But I also love the lobby and the backyard (pool, waterfall, geyser, etc) area. But Wilderness Lodge slide is kinda lame I remember. The pool slide is just kind of a bonus when I go to Disney-World it’s not a make or break. But I thought the Boardwalk slide was good and wilderness lodge was lame. The Animal Kingdom Kadina slide was awesome, but it took 28 minutes to walk there so buy the time I got to the pool I was all tired from walking and it kinda sucked.

But like I was saying if the 7 month booking for studios doesn’t work then I’ll have to buy where I want to stay and not just buy the cheapest points. I know we’ll be going the second week of August every year so that’s not a problem to book at 11 months. So if I choose Wilderness Lodge for the boat and general awesomeness I have to decide which one to buy. Like I mentioned there were two Wilderness Lodge’s on the resale sites I’ve looked at. I don’t want to buy the one that’s just for the cabins because I’ll never stay in the cabin.

My wife thinks the 2042 vs 2060 expiration doesn’t matter. She says “just buy another one at 2042 if you still like going when you’re 65 years old”. Like I’m going to be tired of Disney*World when I’m 65. But I think it matters. Why would I buy a resort with a shorter time period? But I’m considering Boardwalk and Wilderness Lodge and they are both 2042 so I guess I’m contradicting myself. Maybe I should buy Bay Lake Tower again and actually stay there this time. Is that pool good or is it kinda lame?

I know you guys are like “you stayed at All Star Sports why not stay there again and save money”? Well I don’t WANT to stay there again. Please don’t make me stay at All Star Sports again. There was NO BOAT TO ANYWHERE. Only the bus was available! Not even that cable car that’s suspended 20 feet in the air was at All Star Sports. Just a bus. But I wouldn't take the cable car anyway because I’m afraid of heights. I'd be petrified it was going to break and I'd fall to the ground and die or something.. But it would be nice if there was an option other than a bus. Although my son thinks the bus is fun.

 

[atthebeachclub]

EDITED as I went back and saw you will only be traveling with 2 people max per trip: Consider Copper Creek at Wilderness Lodge. Point chart is great but it doesn't fit as many people in the studio or 1 bedroom. It expires in 2068 I believe. Prices have been pretty cheap lately. You could also buy even cheaper points at Saratoga Springs and use them all over, since it sounds like you aren't really wedded to 1 resort! But there may be times you end up stuck at Saratoga, with only bus access.

If considering direct for the blue card benefits (which is mainly access to lounges and a cheaper annual pass that only Floridians can otherwise get), look into Polynesian (lots of studio options). You also could look at Fort Wilderness Cabins since you like boats; the point chart is cheap there, but if you sell it you will likely lose money and the dues are also rather high.

 

[airjay75]

I'll just note one major thing that has changed since you previously owned - resale restrictions. Yes, resale is still cheaper, but beginning with Riviera, Disney has introduced significant resale restrictions. Riviera, the Cabins at Ft. Wilderness, and the Villas at Disneyland Hotel all have resale restrictions, and it is expected that all new resorts going forward will have them. That means, any resale points at resorts other than RIV/CFW/VDH cannot be used at those resorts or any new resorts and any resale points at RIV/CFW/VDH can only be used at those resorts.

 

[sndral]

The different Wilderness Lodge DVCs are BRV - Boulder ridge Villas, which are the original villas that you likely remember which expires in 2042 & the villas in the main lodge + the cabins which are called CCV for Copper Creek Villas. When DVC converted Wilderness Lodge hotel rooms into DVC villas & sold them as CCV they set the point chart to match BRV, so it’s a very reasonable point chart compared to the newer resorts. The reason CCV is more expensive is 1) it doesn’t expire until 2068 & 2) some folks prefer being in the main lodge building which is where all of the CCV villas are located except for the cabins. As you know, there’s a lovely boat ride to/from the MK from the Wilderness Lodge DVCs.
Since it sounds like you want good value for your money & would prefer to stay in resorts that have more reasonable point charts, it doesn’t sound like any of the newer resorts are a good fit because they all charge a lot of points compared to the 2042 resorts. However, there is a boat route that runs MK - GF - Poly - MK, + the resort monorail & you can now walk from the GF to the MK too. Both resorts are unrestricted (as is nearby BLT) which means if you buy resale points at any of the original DVC resorts & want to splurge you can reserve a stay at VGF, Poly, or BLT @ 7 months.
Regarding the big DVC change - resale restrictions, starting in 2019 w/ Riviera’s opening folks who buy Riviera resale points can only stay at Riviera, so its’ resale points are a bargain, but as you note, it takes a lot of points to stay there & you can only stay there.
When DVC created the resale restrictions they also made resale purchases from 2019 forward ineligible to stay at restricted resorts. So far the restricted resorts are Riviera, the cabins at Ft. Wilderness, & the DL hotel in CA.
I would say that booking is harder than it was when you last owned partly because the private party DVC rental business has grown & has really concentrated demand, one impacted category is studios - especially low point studios like BWV standard view (now called resort view,) AKV value villas, etc.. OTH, August isn’t a high demand time to go - so unless Disney creates some kind of ‘special’ event designed to drive attendance to August, that’ll make it easier to switch from your home resort to another resort at 7 months.
I’d hop on YouTube & watch some of the many room/resort tours there for the resorts you are interested in to get a feel for which resort you prefer. Then, there are about a dozen DVC resale brokers to chose from, here’s a site that aggregates a lot of the listings https://www.dvcforless.com/.

 

[juliebee]

Welcome back to DVC!
1. The "blue card" is a designation when an owner has enough points that qualify for special member benefits, also called direct benefits. If a person is purchasing this year, they would need to purchase a DVC contract direct from Disney with at least 150 points. The benefits include the ability to book at any of the DVC resorts, purchase annual passes at a discount, store discounts, go into member lounges, attend occasional events, etc. People that purchase resale contracts this year do not have those benefits. However resale contracts are less expensive, so direct purchase vs resale purchase can be a hard choice for some buyers.
2. There are many resorts and probably something for everyone. They are currently building another resort also- opening in 2027 called Lakeshore Lodge. Direct contacts have the ability to book stays (depending on availability of course) at any of the DVC resorts. Resale contracts can stay at a limited number of locations- some resale contracts can only stay at their designated resort (Riviera, Disneyland Villas, and Cabins at Fort Wilderness) and other contracts can at over a dozen Disney resorts.
3. Buying where you want to stay is typically important for studios, but depends on your travel dates and demand.
4. Resale is a great option if you are looking for the cost savings. Direct is a great option if annual passes and other discounts/benefits are important to you.
5. Wilderness Lodge has two sections- Boulder Ridge (used to be called Villas at Wilderness Lodge) and Copper Creek. Copper Creek is inside the main lodge building and Wilderness Lodge is a separate building to the side. Both share amenities like the same pools, dining, transportation, etc. Boulder Ridge is less expensive than Copper Creek on the resale market mostly due to the contract expiration date. Boulder Ridge expires in 2042, Copper Creek expires in 2068. The rooms are similar but the studios at Boulder Ridge could fit 5 people while Copper Creek is limited to 4 people. Copper Creek does have the Cascade Cabins on the water, but also has studios, 1 bedrooms, etc-- so Copper Creek owners aren't limited to the cabins. Additionally, I'll mention some people get confused by another DVC property with a similar name-- the Cabins at Fort Wilderness (CFW). CFW are a separate property and just cabins (1 bedroom trailer-type) and not part of Wilderness Lodge.
6. Beach Club and Boardwalk have retained their value to the demand of the Epcot location. Weighing the cost of cheaper contracts with 2042 expiration dates vs longer contracts is a struggle for many, you aren't alone in that. It's not just the contract cost- also look at the points charts. Some resorts have much higher point charts so you might stay at the Poly for 4 nights for roughly the same number of points you could stay at Wilderness Lodge for 6 nights.
7. If you are looking to buy, start studying the market. Look here for the contracts- https://www.dvcforless.com/ This is an aggregator that lists contracts from all over the DVC resale websites. They will link you directly to the contract.

If boat trip access is important, then Boulder Ridge, Copper Creek, and the future Lakeshore Lodge will have that to the Magic Kingdom. Like you mentioned, the Poly has the ferry boat too. Boardwalk and Beach Club have boat access to Epcot.

If the skyliner is not appealing, then don't buy Riviera- it's on the skyliner path and is a main transportation source for that resort.
Best of luck on your decisions!

 

[AstroBlasters]

Hello,

I have numerous questions and I figured I’d ask them all at once. I’ll put a summary at the top and then the questions and then below that I will post my rambling thoughts about everything.

Summary: My wife and I are 49. We have two kids, a girl 15 and a boy 13. We went to Disneyworld (is it one word, Disneyworld, or two words, Disney World? I guess it’s WDW for Walt Disney World so it must be two words) more than once a year between 2009 and 2021. We even squeezed a trip in February 2020 before we knew the world would shut down (not to relive that experience). We bought BLT in 2011 and VWL in 2012 both through resale. Unfortunately we had to sell them in 2018. In July I was watching youtube videos about how there was no one at Disney-world this summer. So my son and I went to All Star Sports August 9-16 and it was awesome and there really was nobody there. 7 drawfs had a 45 minute wait at 2:00 PM. Now we’re going back each year and I want to buy back in to DVC.

Statement: I don’t want to discuss the financial aspect per-se. I am looking at this as a “waste of money”. Yes I could stay at All Star Sports every trip but I’d rather stay in a DVC. Therefore I don’t necessarily care which resort is most economical.

1) What is this blue card thing I keep hearing about? Is it the DVC member card I had that gave me 10% off the resort gift shops? Do I care if I have this (other than getting 10% off)?
2) What’s up with all the new DVC resorts and should I bother with them? I see there is grand Floridian and Polynesian and Rivera. I don’t want to dismiss any out of hand but Grand Floridian and Polynesian seem more expensive, is there a reason I should consider them? I’ve never stayed at either and I’m not really interested but I don’t want to buy something else and live to regret it. Does Grand Floridian or Polynesian have a boat ride to Magic Kingdom? I guess from Polynesian I could walk over to that giant ferry at the ticket transportation center and ride the giant ferry. That counts as a boat.
3) How does 7 month booking work now? We used to always get 1 bedrooms and never had any issue staying at other resorts booking at 7 months. But now with all these new resorts is it harder to get a spot at 7 months? Also we’ll be doing Studios now because it’s just going to be me and my son until he’s tired of going then it will be me and my wife. My daughter doesn’t want to go anymore. So is the “buy where you want to stay” really important in 2025? We’ll be traveling the second week of August usually.
4) I assume resale is still the best option?
5) Wilderness Lodge was my favorite and I’ll probably want to buy there, but now there are two listings with one listing is like $40 more per point. Is the expensive listing the one for the cabins on the water?
6) 2042 vs 2060. Back when I bought in 2012 the 2042 expiration didn’t really matter since it was 30 years away. But now it’s only 16 years away so wouldn’t it be better to buy a 2060 expiration? But it doesn’t seem like Beach Club or Boardwalk are cheaper with 2042 expirations (unless that date has all changed on me).
7) Is it a bad time to buy? When I bought 10+ years ago I was able to get contracts with banked points but most of the listings I look at have no points until 2026 which kinda sucks.


General randomness:

I bought Bay Lake Tower first because our daughter was like a baby and we had no son yet and I figured being next to Magic Kingdom would be great because we could just push the stroller over and walk to it very easy. But in reality we never stayed there even once. The points were too high and I’m cheap so I’d just use the points other places. We had to sell because we did a kitchen/patio remodel/improvement and it went over budget. I’m sure you are shocked to hear a home improvement was more than originally quoted. We rented points for the 2019, 2020, and 2021 trips. And I realize if you look at the dates you’ll see that we didn’t go from 2022, 2023, or 2024 but that was just life and now I’m back to going annually. And the reason we stayed at all Star Sports in August is because I didn’t plan the trip until July and I couldn’t get a good DVC resort through David’s Vacation Club Rentals so I had to go through Disney and went cheap. Anyway over the years we stayed at:

Old Key West
Saratoga Springs Resort
Beach Club Villas
Boardwalk Villas
Villas of Wilderness Lodge
Animal Kingdom Kadina
Animal Kingdom main house

My favorite was Wilderness Lodge then Boardwalk. Old Key West was kind of like a retirement community with golf and a bunch of old people at the pool. I assume that’s why it’s called Old Key West. But Old Key West and Saratoga I didn’t like because we were so far away from the main building. And Animal Kingdom I didn’t like because it was literally 1.2 miles from our room to the bus stop. It took 23 minutes to walk to the bus. And the pool was also really far away. The Giraffes were cool, but the walk was lame. Especially at night after going to the park all day. Maybe if they gave you a giraffe to ride back to your room that would be a good reason to stay there.

But that leaves Beach Club and you all love Beach Club. And since I like Boardwalk and it’s right across the water from Beach Club why don’t I like Beach Club? Well I’ll tell you. See I love lazy rivers and I was told Beach Club Pool has a lazy river. So I was all excited. My wife took the kids (little at that time) to the area with the sand and the buckets and I grabbed a floaty donut and headed to the lazy river. I walk down the steps and assumed it was like 5 feet deep. I mean, have you EVER been in a hotel pool deeper than 5 feet? But as you know the lazy river pool at Beach Club is literally 15 feet deep! So I walked down the steps and stepped off into nothingness and I plunged all the way down. I had to flounder my way back to the surface and luckily someone was holding my tube for me. I made it back to the stairs and climbed up and flopped onto the tube. Them I’m sitting there with water up my nose. So I do that thing where you plug one nostril and blow really hard out the other one to try to clear up my nose. And I’m getting these strange looks from other floaters. Anyway the experience was not the relaxing experience I was looking for.

I liked Boardwalk because the water slide was really good and I liked the cheap points for the garden view room and I liked the boat ride to Hollywood Studios (I didn't ride the boat to Epcot because I don't like Epcot...although I do like Living with the Land and the 3 Callaberos and that Frozen ride, but I'd rather be at a different park). I like wilderness lodge because it’s awesome. See, I really like riding on the boat to Magic Kingdom and the general feel of the hotel and backyard. I rode the boat from Old Key West to Downtown Disney just to have an excuse to ride the boat. That was kinda cool. It’s a really long ride but there’s all sorts of stuff to look at. So Wilderness Lodge has the cool boat ride. But I also love the lobby and the backyard (pool, waterfall, geyser, etc) area. But Wilderness Lodge slide is kinda lame I remember. The pool slide is just kind of a bonus when I go to Disney-World it’s not a make or break. But I thought the Boardwalk slide was good and wilderness lodge was lame. The Animal Kingdom Kadina slide was awesome, but it took 28 minutes to walk there so buy the time I got to the pool I was all tired from walking and it kinda sucked.

But like I was saying if the 7 month booking for studios doesn’t work then I’ll have to buy where I want to stay and not just buy the cheapest points. I know we’ll be going the second week of August every year so that’s not a problem to book at 11 months. So if I choose Wilderness Lodge for the boat and general awesomeness I have to decide which one to buy. Like I mentioned there were two Wilderness Lodge’s on the resale sites I’ve looked at. I don’t want to buy the one that’s just for the cabins because I’ll never stay in the cabin.

My wife thinks the 2042 vs 2060 expiration doesn’t matter. She says “just buy another one at 2042 if you still like going when you’re 65 years old”. Like I’m going to be tired of Disney*World when I’m 65. But I think it matters. Why would I buy a resort with a shorter time period? But I’m considering Boardwalk and Wilderness Lodge and they are both 2042 so I guess I’m contradicting myself. Maybe I should buy Bay Lake Tower again and actually stay there this time. Is that pool good or is it kinda lame?

I know you guys are like “you stayed at All Star Sports why not stay there again and save money”? Well I don’t WANT to stay there again. Please don’t make me stay at All Star Sports again. There was NO BOAT TO ANYWHERE. Only the bus was available! Not even that cable car that’s suspended 20 feet in the air was at All Star Sports. Just a bus. But I wouldn't take the cable car anyway because I’m afraid of heights. I'd be petrified it was going to break and I'd fall to the ground and die or something.. But it would be nice if there was an option other than a bus. Although my son thinks the bus is fun.

If you are going to buy then buy Copper Creek.