Need Advice - AUL or SSR DVC

[jamesr0721]

Hi there. I'm ready to join the DVC family but I need some advice on whether I should buy AUL or SSR. I live in California so Hawaii and Florida is the same flight wise. In the distant future (15 or so years from now), we'd probably go to Hawaii more than we would Florida for vacation. The issue is... I'm scared about AUL high MFs. I'm worried that it'll get too high that I'm going to regret buying it. SSR is the best value, but i'll be stuck the 7-month reservation if we want to vacation in AUL and might require more planning if AUL gets harder to book in the future. So do I buy AUL (Subsidized If I can find one) and risk the increasing cost of MFs or SSR with low MFs but having 7-month reservation restriction?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Why not smaller contracts of both using banking and borrowing?

 

[Riburn3]

I bought AUL more for location as well, and likewise, thought long-term I would use it more. If you truly use it, the resort fees will likely be a drop in the bucket compared to what it would cost to just rent a regular room there since their room prices tend to be on average higher than the regular deluxe or DVC WDW rooms.

A couple of years ago my wife and I stayed for 2 nights, and it cost us over $1000 dollars for those two nights in a standard hotel room. We loved it, but it's really hard to justify paying that kind of money long term.

When we went on a Disney Cruise and they offered some decent discounts on Aulani, we pulled the trigger and then bought more points resale.

This coming May, we are staying in a 1 bedroom Villa for 7 nights using our 2019 use year of points without borrowing. The cash rate for my days of travel for a 1 bedroom villa is $934 a night (a regular standard view hotel room is running $604). With taxes, the room for 1 week would cost me $7516.25 if I paid cash. If I were to just get a standard room it would be $4860.59. My 2019 annual fees are going to cost me about $2000. In any scenario I'm going saving a lot. Next year it's about $5500. I paid about $35k for my points in cash, so if the difference in my dues and room cost continues to be about $5000 a year (since room prices and dues both tend to go up), It'll only be 6-7 years before I break even on the investment, and I'm still left with decades of ridiculously cheap rooms compared to retail rate. Not to mention, the money I used to pay for it up front has been long forgotten, so for the most part it just feels like I'm saving a fortune on my vacations and I see all the other folks checking in at the retail rate as suckers.

In terms of the 7 month restriction, room type and travel months matter. If you rent a 1 bedroom more often, you have more choices. Studios are harder to get on shorter notice, but even then if you have travel flexibility, it's not too bad yet. I booked a couple of impromptu studio nights at Grand Californian recently within the 7 month window, and that's a place that's really hard to get. Just have to stay aggressive and monitor regularly.

 

[jamesr0721]

Why not smaller contracts of both using banking and borrowing?

I'm a newbie. I've seen some threads about multiple contracts but I haven't really looked into it as there are so much info just to try to buy 1 contract! But, I'll look into it to see if it'll work for me. Thanks!

 

[Loveallthingsmouse]

We are in the process of purchasing AUL. For us, we plan to visit AUL (we have BLT too) and would like to have the 11 month booking window for high demand travel times with standard view. At this time, we were able to get AUL resale cheaper than SSR contracts...Disney has been exercising ROFR on SSR contracts thus driving up the price. In the long run, MF will obviously be higher for AUL...but we have always bought where we would want to stay.

 

[jamesr0721]

I bought AUL more for location as well, and likewise, thought long-term I would use it more. If you truly use it, the resort fees will likely be a drop in the bucket compared to what it would cost to just rent a regular room there since their room prices tend to be on average higher than the regular deluxe or DVC WDW rooms.

A couple of years ago my wife and I stayed for 2 nights, and it cost us over $1000 dollars for those two nights in a standard hotel room. We loved it, but it's really hard to justify paying that kind of money long term.

When we went on a Disney Cruise and they offered some decent discounts on Aulani, we pulled the trigger and then bought more points resale.

This coming May, we are staying in a 1 bedroom Villa for 7 nights using our 2019 use year of points without borrowing. The cash rate for my days of travel for a 1 bedroom villa is $934 a night (a regular standard view hotel room is running $604). With taxes, the room for 1 week would cost me $7516.25 if I paid cash. If I were to just get a standard room it would be $4860.59. My 2019 annual fees are going to cost me about $2000. In any scenario I'm going saving a lot. Next year it's about $5500. I paid about $35k for my points in cash, so if the difference in my dues and room cost continues to be about $5000 a year (since room prices and dues both tend to go up), It'll only be 6-7 years before I break even on the investment, and I'm still left with decades of ridiculously cheap rooms compared to retail rate. Not to mention, the money I used to pay for it up front has been long forgotten, so for the most part it just feels like I'm saving a fortune on my vacations and I see all the other folks checking in at the retail rate as suckers.

In terms of the 7 month restriction, room type and travel months matter. If you rent a 1 bedroom more often, you have more choices. Studios are harder to get on shorter notice, but even then if you have travel flexibility, it's not too bad yet. I booked a couple of impromptu studio nights at Grand Californian recently within the 7 month window, and that's a place that's really hard to get. Just have to stay aggressive and monitor regularly.

We actually just got back from Aulani this past weekend. Stayed there for 5 nights in standard room. First time in Aulani and first time in Hawaii. We loved it and I couldn't get my 2 year old daughter to go back to the room. We did a very last minute trip (less than a week) and that's because all the stars aligned the right way...dirt cheap flight tickets, discounted room rate (so we weren't one of the suckers, almost!), and 2 free luau's by doing the DVC tour. We plan on staying at 1-bedrooms once we have DVC... so yes, that'll give us more options. Also, our plan is to vacation during off season if we can help it so flight's are cheaper. But yeah, you made a good point about the difference between annual dues and room rate. No matter when it is... annual dues will always be cheaper than their room rate.

 

[jamesr0721]

We are in the process of purchasing AUL. For us, we plan to visit AUL (we have BLT too) and would like to have the 11 month booking window for high demand travel times with standard view. At this time, we were able to get AUL resale cheaper than SSR contracts...Disney has been exercising ROFR on SSR contracts thus driving up the price. In the long run, MF will obviously be higher for AUL...but we have always bought where we would want to stay.

You mind telling me what your offer was per point? Thanks!

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Keep in mind that Aulani's highest demand periods, much like WDW's, may not be what you think.

Lower points are higher demand. DVC members love bargains.

 

[chalee94]

I'm a newbie. I've seen some threads about multiple contracts but I haven't really looked into it as there are so much info just to try to buy 1 contract! But, I'll look into it to see if it'll work for me. Thanks!

just to clarify:

you could use banking and/or borrowing in year 1 with the SSR contract to book SSR with SSR pts at 11 months out. you would bank your AUL pts in year 1, as the pts from contracts with separate home resorts cannot be combined at 11 months out (only combined at 7 months out).

then in year 2, you could book AUL with AUL pts at 11 months out (including the AUL pts banked in year 1 + borrowed AUL pts if needed). the SSR contract sits on the sidelines in year 2 while you bank those pts for use at WDW in year 3.

and so on...

 

[zavandor]

You can try to find an AUL contract with subsidized MF. There aren't many on sale and the commanf a premium, but in the long run they're worth the investment.

 

[Dean]

Hi there. I'm ready to join the DVC family but I need some advice on whether I should buy AUL or SSR. I live in California so Hawaii and Florida is the same flight wise. In the distant future (15 or so years from now), we'd probably go to Hawaii more than we would Florida for vacation. The issue is... I'm scared about AUL high MFs. I'm worried that it'll get too high that I'm going to regret buying it. SSR is the best value, but i'll be stuck the 7-month reservation if we want to vacation in AUL and might require more planning if AUL gets harder to book in the future. So do I buy AUL (Subsidized If I can find one) and risk the increasing cost of MFs or SSR with low MFs but having 7-month reservation restriction?

See if you can find a subsidized Aulani that may be best. More up front but will limit the risk going forward. But for WDW they will work the same and SSR will still be cheaper.

Why not smaller contracts of both using banking and borrowing?

IMO this is never a good plan as a starting point for those newer to the system. One could buy one and give it a try if they think it's what's best but IMO one should never do it this way up front without sufficient real knowledge of the system including actually experience.

 

[Loveallthingsmouse]

You mind telling me what your offer was per point? Thanks!

We paid $85/point. Look at the ROFR thread, it shows lots of good info about contracts, pricing, points, etc. It helped us make what we felt was a good price to account for the higher MF. For us we really focused on making sure we didn’t purchase more points than needed to help offset the MF.

 

[Bing Showei]

In the distant future (15 or so years from now), we'd probably go to Hawaii more than we would Florida for vacation. The issue is... I'm scared about AUL high MFs. I'm worried that it'll get too high that I'm going to regret buying it. SSR is the best value, but i'll be stuck the 7-month reservation if we want to vacation in AUL and might require more planning if AUL gets harder to book in the future.

15 years is a lifetime from now in DVC terms. If you are more likely to travel to WDW today, and were to buy an SSR contract instead, you would be paying less (for now) ADs for 15 years. On a 200 point contract, you pay about $336 more annually at AUL vs SSR. That gap may or may not increase over time. Over 15 years, you would need buy-in at AUL to be about $25/point less than SSR to make up for the AD spread (based on 2018 ADs).

When you start to travel to HI more in 15 years, you could potentially sell your SSR and buy AUL if you're finding you're unable to book AUL when you want it regularly. In the interim, if you need to be there during a busy time, and waitlists/stalking don't work or are not worth the effort, you can rent your SSR points for $14/pt ($13/pt with a broker) and pay cash to rent AUL points from an owner. Of course, you may find you can use your SSR points at AUL and may not need to go this route at all.

 

[jamesr0721]

Thank you everyone for all the inputs. I think with all the excitement and tons of info with DVC... I've lost focus. I would of probably bought a contract with more points than I needed. With that, I'll keep an eye on ROFR to get a good idea of pricing and evaluate some more. Thanks for steering back to the right direction!

 

[jamesr0721]

15 years is a lifetime from now in DVC terms. If you are more likely to travel to WDW today, and were to buy an SSR contract instead, you would be paying less (for now) ADs for 15 years. On a 200 point contract, you pay about $336 more annually at AUL vs SSR. That gap may or may not increase over time. Over 15 years, you would need buy-in at AUL to be about $25/point less than SSR to make up for the AD spread (based on 2018 ADs).

When you start to travel to HI more in 15 years, you could potentially sell your SSR and buy AUL if you're finding you're unable to book AUL when you want it regularly. In the interim, if you need to be there during a busy time, and waitlists/stalking don't work or are not worth the effort, you can rent your SSR points for $14/pt ($13/pt with a broker) and pay cash to rent AUL points from an owner. Of course, you may find you can use your SSR points at AUL and may not need to go this route at all.

This is one of the options I was actually of thinking of doing. I would probably start with renting my SSR through a broker since I'm new. I guess I'm just worried about not being able to rent it out. Would there be a problem renting out 100 points of SSR?

 

[Bing Showei]

This is one of the options I was actually of thinking of doing. I would probably start with renting my SSR through a broker since I'm new. I guess I'm just worried about not being able to rent it out. Would there be a problem renting out 100 points of SSR?

Easy peasy. SSR comes up all the time. https://www.disboards.com/forums/dvc-rent-trade.29/

Just do your due diligence and cover your bases so you don't get scammed. Attention Potential Renters - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ...

 

[justme0729]

I just bought an Aulani subsidized contract for $115/ point. Even though it was more than non-subsidized, my subsidized dues are currently the cheapest of any DVC. We live in Wisconsin and haven’t even been to Hawaii before, but we love Disney cruises and aren’t able to do it much because of work so we thought Aulani would be good so we can get a tropica vacation or we can go to WDW wherever we can get. I just felt that buying Aulani sounded more special than buying SSR and for us, cheaper with subsidized dues.