Need lots of help....OKW or BWV?

[amee]

WE live in Seattle.....and unfortunately Disney is not licensed to sell in our state....they can't even answer questions on the phone! So, i am at a loss for finding answers/seeing rules and regs, etc.....since our only choice is resale.....so, i appreciate any responses greatly!

I have a couple of questions regarding whether to buy at BW or OKW! We live in Seattle, so are unlikely to make it every year....though we have been 3 times in the past 5...so, not a bad record for west-coasters!

My questions are:

1)Is BW more popular than OKW if we would need to "rent" our points some year, if we cannot go?

2)Does buying at either allow us only to use the purchased resorts pool?

3)What if we are able to purchase points for both resorts? Is there any advantage to splitting up the points.....can one make a reservation with say the BW points and then "pay" with both sets?

4)wondering if the points are redeemable for rooms at Disney Land as well, and if so, if there is somewhere i can find out the going rate....

5)If we must trade closer to home some year, has anyone used Interval......how successful has it been....we've heard with Disney its a snap, but just wondering for sure!

thank you so much.......

 

[drusba]

Originally posted by amee
1)Is BW more popular than OKW if we would need to "rent" our points some year, if we cannot go?

BW is the more difficult to reserve with the 7 month window (you can reserve 11 months out at home resort and 7 at others). OKW has the higher number of rooms and is easier to reserve at 7 months. Whether that means BW is the more popular resort is unclear. In any event, I doubt there is any real difference in being able to rent but you should buy where you plan to stay most as the 11 month window is important for many times of year.


2)Does buying at either allow us only to use the purchased resorts pool?

You can stay at any DVC resort (subject to the reservation windows mentioned above). While staying at any DVC resort at WDW, you can also go to any pool on site except: (a) AKL or YC/BC (unless staying at BCV), or (b) any other pools during restricted times (Easter weeks, July 4 week, Thanksgiving week and Christmas week); also you should call first before going to another resort's pool because if it is already overcrowded they can prevent you from entering.

3)What if we are able to purchase points for both resorts? Is there any advantage to splitting up the points.....can one make a reservation with say the BW points and then "pay" with both sets?


No ressie advantage. 11 month ressie window applies only to points for the particular resort; thus with OKW points you can reserve at OKW 11 months out and elsewhere 7, and with your BWV points you can reserve at BWV 11 months out and elsewhere 7, but they don't combine to give you 11 month advantage at both for all points. Personally do not coinsider having multiple resorts to be any adavantage but others like having the ability to go to both resorts and have some points for both.


4)wondering if the points are redeemable for rooms at Disney Land as well, and if so, if there is somewhere i can find out the going rate....


Yes, at Disney hotels at WDW, Disneyland and Paris. However, points required are high (for example a one night stay in a hotel room often equals or exceeds points needed for a one night stay in a 1BR at a DVC resort) and points required for those hotels can (and do) go up every year (unlike the DVC resorts which stay the same). Points can also be used at numerous other hotels throughout the country and world, there is the ability to exchange with other timeshares nationwide through an exchange company (Interval International), and you can use points for the Disney Cruise (but again points needed for all those can change yearly). Don't believe those point charts are published anywhere on-line except for the DVC members official site available to members only.

5)If we must trade closer to home some year, has anyone used Interval......how successful has it been....we've heard with Disney its a snap, but just wondering for sure!

Have not done the exchange but others have reported easy success except more difficulty for places that are just as popular as WDW (like Hawaii).

 

[amee]

Thank you, so much......as i said it is a bit hard to come by info out here in the sticks.......

Looking forward to owning our bit of the magic!

 

[Caskbill]

Drusba did a nice job of answering your questions, but I might add a little for question #3.

As mentioned, you can combine your points for two resorts, but only at the 7-month window since at least one of them would be a non-home resort.

However, by selective banking and borrowing you can get the 11 month window at each resort.

Example: Suppose you had 100 OKW points and 100 BWV points and wanted to take a 200 point vacation each year.

To use all 200 points at either OKW, BWV or any other DVC resort you would have to wait till the 7-month ressie window.

However, year one, take your 100 OKW points, borrow your next year's OKW points, giving you 200 OKW points for the year. Bank your 100 BWV points into the next year. Thus this year you have 200 OKW points and can make a ressie at 11-months. Next year you have no OKW points, but will have 200 BWV points so can make a BWV ressie at 11-months.

With creative banking and borrowing you can actually have triple points every 3rd year. If you crunched the numbers correctly, and bought 100 OKW points and 100 BWV points you could get a 300 point vacation at OKW once every 3 years, AND a 300 point vacation at BWV once every 3 years. In other words, you get two vacations during each 3-year period, using your grand total of 600 points (100 OKW points plus 100 BWV points, each year for 3 years)

Hope this makes sense.

 

[amee]

....thank you! That's sort of what i had in mind, but just wasn't quite sure if it was actually do-able!

Thanks for tanking the time!

 

[Richyams]

I like the way I use DVC. We have 430 points at OKW and get the GV for 10-12 nights every year. It really makes vacationing easy. We only have one kid, so she gets to see family from around the country when we invote them to spend some time with us in the GV.

We will often have one family the first week, a crowded weekend and a second family the second week. It really works out real well. Now that more of my family owns DVC, it makes for even larger get togethers.

Wehad two years of points for our first stay in '93, we had so many points, we had to get the GV. By the second night, we realized that we were going to need the GV every year, so we added 200 points during that first stay.

 

[all4fun]

I know what it's like to try and get information about DVC when living in Washington. We bought into DVC while we were at WDW, so it was no problem at all.

As we are very entusiastic members, this has caused co-workers to look into DVC for themselves. They were not able to get any information at all due to the restrictions WA has on timeshare sales.

When we were at WDW in April, we stopped by the sales office to talk with our guide. He indicated that there are some states that make it difficult, but WA is by far the worst.

I asked if we could pick up some informational materials for our friends in Washington. Our guide told us that they were not supposed to do this, but he could give us the package to review what we currently have. What happens with the materials after that is out of their hands.

It is doable directly through disney if you're at the resort. If you want to buy before you go to WDW, it's easier to make the initial purchase through a resale broker like the timeshare store.

After you get in the door, disney can help you with add-ons as you will be a member at that point.

Hope this helps!

 

[amee]

Again, thank you for all of your advice!

I doubt we will get to WDW before we buy.....however that would be ideal!

If anyone has any "extra" packets of info that they would be interested in faxing or sending , do let me know! My e-mail is:

Ameeee@attbi.com

I am also wondering if the person from Vancouver, WA has children...and also is able to secure fairly reasonable air fares to Orlando from here.......we have been lucky the last few times with roughly $200 RT for each(4 of us).....but i don't know if that has just been chance or not!

again, i so appreciate your replies!

 

[PamOKW]

Most of the important questions have been answered quite well.

The question about which would be easier to "rent" to someone else is interesting and I don't think we have the answer. Something to consider would be that the number of points at BWV is higher than at OKW. For the bargain hunter, they might grab the lower cost OKW over the BWV. Just a thought.

Amee, have you looked at the official www.disneyvacationclub.com site? There is also a lot of information at www.wdwig.com regarding DVC, including a well-written primer. This can supplement the info Pete Werner has here. Keep asking questions.....

 

[CarolMN]

Originally posted by amee
WE live in Seattle.....(snip).....

4)wondering if the points are redeemable for rooms at Disney Land as well, and if so, if there is somewhere i can find out the going rate....
(snip).......

Hi, amee -

I have point requirement charts for the Disneyland Hotels and the WDW non-DVC resort Hotels that I can email to you if you would find it helpful. It's in .pdf format. Send me a PM with your email address if you want it. Good luck with your decision.

Carol

 

[all4fun]

We don't have kids, but we periodically borrow them for our outings to WDW.

We fly out of PDX, but the rates are pretty comperable to someone flying out of SEA-TAC. We tend to book our flights three to four months in advance and have been able to get tickets between $190 and $270 round trip.

We paid $266 for our trip coming up in December because we wanted to try the red-eye flight and be at the Boardwalk for breakfast.

One thing we have done to defray airfare costs is by getting the Delta Skymiles card. We run every possible dollar through this card. There is an annual fee, but in the last two years, we have earned four free airline tickets.

If you have a different airline preference, most carriers have a credit card program that have a similar advantage.

 

[ncligs]

Originally posted by all4fun


One thing we have done to defray airfare costs is by getting the Delta Skymiles card. We run every possible dollar through this card. There is an annual fee, but in the last two years, we have earned four free airline tickets.

If you have a different airline preference, most carriers have a credit card program that have a similar advantage.

We do the same as the above poster. We charge everything(Utilities bills,cable,taxes,DVC dues,gas,groceries,etc) and pay the bill in full when it comes. We use the Continental Chase Master card. In 1 year we have gotten 5 free tx. We are using 3 tx(FF miles) to fly to San Antonio next June and 2 tx(FF miles) to fly to Florida. So 5 free round trip tx in 1 year for FREE!!!

 

[amee]

You have all been so helpful......i think now we just wait and see what comes up for sale!

If anyone else has any other thoughts/advice to offer we would love to hear it!

thanks again!

Amee

 

[dianeschlicht]

We took friends to OKW for the millennium celbration Dec/Jan. 1999/2000. They enjoyed it so much, they purchased a resale after getting home. They knew they would only want to go every2-3 years, so they purchased a small resale of 151 points. They are going on their first trip with two years of points in January. I think a package like this would be perfect for you as well. As to where to buy....The 11 month booking window is important. If you have never stayed at any of the DVC resorts, you might want to take a trip and check them out first. Rent points from someone here and spend a night or two in each of the DVC locations. Be sure to stay in the same size unit at each one, and try to make it AT LEAST a 1 bedroom. I say this because a studio stay will not give you a true idea of what DVC stays are. BWV and BCV are close to Epcot and MGM and you can reach each of those parks on foot if you chose. VWL is a nice quiet resort a boat ride away from MK, but takes buses for everywhere else. OKW seems remote to the parks, but has such wonderful townhouse style units, it might be worth it. We LOVE OKW because of the style of units, parking outside our door, and it seems more like a vacation home. The others seem like hotels to us. Only you can decided what is important to you, though, so if it was me, I would rent a night or two in each place in a 1 bedroom unit and see what you like best. Check out the rent trade board here and see if you can find owners from each of the home resorts.

 

[MichellT]

Amee,
We live in Woodinville and just completed a "purchase" at BWV using my parents in Michigan as information brokers/middlemen. Even though we could have had my parents buy us in a BCV through Disney, we chose the resale market because we want to stay at the Boardwalk most years.

We have gone to WDW 8 times in the past 4 years and DL 5 times in that period too, volleying back and forth to get the most mileage out of two annual passes. We have never paid more than $250 for airfare and have always flown on Delta because we love that red-eye for its advantage of not wasting a vacation day sitting on an airplane. We chose different airlines for our wedding trip in 2000, where we paid for our entire wedding party to fly to WDW (30 plane tickets -- I was sure on the lookout for deals, and they all came through).

Buying from Washington was a little tough and even now, member services mails stuff to my mom and she mails it to me, so communications are slow.

I think it's so funny how astounded the cast members get when you say you're from Seattle (when you say you're from Washington, of course they assume D.C.). We had one cast member who was doing ZIP code polling at the MK gates say "I have never heard that ZIP code before -- where are you from?" -- and we were PAP holders!

Good luck with everything and feel free to PM me if you have specific questions (about purchasing). This board was the best resource I had in the buying process. I lurked a LOT!

 

[amee]

Wow! I think DVC might be worth it just for the kindness of so many! Thank you all for all of your words of wisdom!

 

[amee]

....i appreciate all of the responses so much! MichellT, i am sure i will send you a couple of questions directly.....I am glad to know there are a few other Northwesterners heading East now and then....many of our friends just can't figure out why we would ever head to DW more than once, let alone every year or so!

Amee