searlproudbottom said:
I saw this listed at the timeshare store is this a good deal? Saratoga Springs-$81/pt August 300 $24,300.00 Notes: 300 points coming on 8/1/05.
We actually want to purchase 380 points. Can we purchase the additional 80 points directly from Disney?
We are planning a trip in October. Could we use these points for our trip?
And last would we have to wait until August to make our ressies?
Not a guru, and not even an official member yet (awaiting closing on resale), but I'll take a stab at this:
Buying direct through Disney (if recent incentives still apply): $87/point, no closing fees, can start making reservation within days. No maintenance fees till Jan 2006.
The contract you listed: 300 points, $81/point + closing, no banked points, no borrowed points, full complement coming for Aug use year 2005. Closing costs ~$600 = $2/point. If you pay closing costs (the default, unless you negotiate with seller), then your effective cost is $83/point, still $4/point lower than buying direct = $1,200 savings. However, you may be asked to pay maintenance fees for 2005: at SSR, $3.82/point. If you pay them, then that puts you at almost $87/point. And even then, you would have to wait ~3 weeks to find out whether you passed ROFR, then ~3 weeks to get into the system, and then you'd be able to make reservations.
However, you could feel free to put in an offer of $81/point, seller pays closing, you only reimburse 2005 maintenance fees through May or Jun, and then your cost would be ~$83/point, a bit lower than buying direct. Worst that happens, seller tells you no deal.
Once you are are a member, you can buy add-on points from Disney, I believe to a minimum of 25 points, 50 if you want financing. There was an incentive recently that if you added on 120 points at SSR, you would get a one time bonus of ~100 points (they called it a "free vacation"). You can not do this add on until you are "ready to close."
With the resale you listed, you would not have to wait till August to make reservations. Use year has nothing to do with when you can make reservations; rather it specifies which month your points become available for use. You make reservations based on 11 month / 7 month windows, and based on what points will be available at the time of the dates you are trying to reserve. However, you would have to wait for all the resale stuff to come through (pass ROFR, get into system).
As for October, you'll have to ask someone who actually is a member of
DVC. But, I believe that now that it's only 5 months out, availability may be a bit more limited, and by the time you could make reservations (in, say 2 months), you would only then be 3 months out. Sounds potentially tough.
OK, those are my attempts at answering, even though I'm not a DVC member (yet!). Can't wait for closing to finish, so I can try to apply some of the things I've learned following these great boards.
Any real DVC'ers, please correct me.
