Needing some help

[Disflyer]

Okay, so long time fan and even longer time since posting here but I need some help.

We have looked at DVC on and off through the years and gosh darn it I wish I would have pulled the trigger at $115 a point the last time we got serious about purchasing. Anyway our situation has changed as life has moved on and I finally have come to peace with the decision that we will be DVC owners soon. We have 4 kids (10, 6, and twins who will be 3 soon). We generally vacation at Disney a minimum of once a year and sometimes twice on shorter trips. We have had APs the past 4 years and I am definitely looking forward to the discount on this expense.

So enough with the background here are my questions. We obviously need a 2BR villa soon since we no longer can have the twins considered infants. We are struggling a bit with the high direct purchase cost being sold to us now at $188 for Riviera or Wilderness Lodge. In looking through other websites I see others who still are buying direct in different resorts. With this in mind we are leaning towards purchasing at either AKV or OKW, 200 points. One of my main questions is how difficult is it to secure space away from your home resort? We generally travel late spring (right after Easter) and early fall (right when school starts). Knowing how easy it is to book at a resort other than our home will really sway the decisions here.

Is 200 points realistic for a family of 6? Even if we cut it down to a single trip a year at 4 or 5 nights is this enough? It's hard to judge playing with the Disney bookings because I only see the "from X points per night".

What else do I need to really know? We are paying cash, wife must have a fitness center on site, and 2BR are a must as stated earlier.

 

[kniquy]

One of my main questions is how difficult is it to secure space away from your home resort? We generally travel late spring (right after Easter) and early fall (right when school starts). Knowing how easy it is to book at a resort other than our home will really sway the decisions here.

The usual pattern of booking is - studios will book up the quickest (lowest points cost) then it might be 2BR and 1BR tend to have a little better availability at the 7 month mark. The time frames you are looking at - April should be fairly easy to book elsewhere at the 7 month mark and September begins the fall frenzy where the points cost are the lowest all year and it is a very high demand time for DVC. With either time frame it would be best for you to book your home resort (so that you secure a room) and then at the 7 month mark you can see what is available to switch to.

Is 200 points realistic for a family of 6? Even if we cut it down to a single trip a year at 4 or 5 nights is this enough? It's hard to judge playing with the Disney bookings because I only see the "from X points per night".

One good resource you can use to play around with knowing what the points cost are is the Davids dvc rental site -- it gives you a cost calculator. Plug in the dates you want to travel and it will give you a one page at a glance view of all the points costs for all the resorts. As for your length of trip - longer is usually better it either means a bit more time to relax or just more park days and more FP to use.

One thing to note is that as your kids get older, school becomes more demanding and often sports or other activities will get in the way of your trip planning and the times you travel may change. With this in mind you may what to price out the point cost for the most expensive time you want to travel and buy that number of points. My situation is i have twins going into 8th grade -- we could go to WDW during our April vacation, but stay for 7 nights (so that we don't miss school) or go in July for a 10 day WDW/Universal trip -- my family voted for the longer summer trip.

One thing to research will be UY (use year) this will heavily weigh on your decision.

Do research the resale market. It will save you considerable amount of money but you do need your homework on the financials and drawbacks to resale. You do see some people buy direct because the discounts can add up. One situation is in buying OKW - if you buy direct you will automatically get a 2057 end date and all the perks, but on the resale market you will see OKW contracts selling cheaper but they end 2042 or you might get lucky and find a 2057 (usually called OKW extended) contract. I believe the direct OKW is selling around $155 per point. On the resale market an extended OKW is a little over $100 per point - so when you look at the extra you are paying you need to justify the extra money spent to go direct.

Ask lots of questions here - these boards are very helpful!

 

[CraigInPA]

DVC Guides always push you towards what resorts are "current" (i.e., not sold out). At this time, you have a choice of Aulani, Copper Creek (CCV) and Riviera (DRR). If you ask, you can also buy any resort. However, once a resort goes from "current" to "sold out", the price goes up considerably. CCV is expected to jump from $188 to $210 in June 2019 when it will be considered "sold out". In order to get "blue card" (direct purchaser) benefits, you need to buy a minimum of 75 points.

Discounts on annual passes are currently about $200 per pass over non-Florida prices. Florida and DVC members pay the same price for passes. These discounts are not guaranteed to last forever. For a family of 6, a savings of $1200 per year is nothing to scoff at.

But, let's examine the math... Today, if you wanted to buy AKV direct, you'd pay $176 per point. If you purchase resale, you might pay around $110 per point. The difference of $66 per point multiplied by 200 points is $13,200. So, on the basis of annual pass savings alone, you'd need to be able to buy 11 years of annual passes to break even. There are other blue card benefits, such as the ability to get rooms at DRR (subject to availability at 7 months), Moonlight Magic (subject to you actually being on site when this is happening), dining and merchandise discounts (many of which overlap with Annual Pass and Disney Chase Visa discounts), the ability to buy Tables in the World, and access to the Epcot lounge. All DVC members, whether they are blue or white card, have access to Top of the World Lounge at Bay Lake Tower.

You'll want to examine the points charts to determine how many points you need. For late April, you're looking at 155 points (Value), 195 (Standard), 250 (Savanna), or 330 (Club) rooms for a 5 night stay in a 2 bedroom. Points in early September are significantly less. A week in a 2 bedroom is about the same as 5 nights in April.

You may find it hard to switch resorts at 7 months for September, if Disney continues to move the start of Food and Wine back.

 

[skippytx]

Don't count on trying to switch resorts at the 7 month mark. It's getting harder and harder to do, and stringing together 5 or 7 consecutive nights is really really hard to do. If you can odds are it'll be higher point cost rooms anyway. If you're open to a split stay though, that might work out. Some folks don't mind, others do.

200 points at Saratoga or Old Key West will get you Sun-Thur (5 nights) in a 2 bedroom during Magic season. Staying for a full week would cost appx 300 points at those resorts.

SSR is going to be our least expensive way to get what you want from an initial buy in (resale) and dues perspective. You could even pick up most of the points resale and then add 75 direct if you wanted.

My tip is to plan like you're going to have to travel during magic season, and if you travel at another time, consider it a bonus. I've got to work around the kids school schedule now and it's a bummer.

 

[katandmouse]

Here’s a link to point charts to give you an idea: https://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-vacation-club/AK-Points.htm This is for AKV but you can click on the different resorts to compare. September is Adventure Season and most of April is Magic Season, but if you go the week before or after Easter it’s Premier Season.

Keep in mind the point requirements can/will change, so you may want a little buffer.

 

[Jack_Sparrow_NJ]

Okay, so long time fan and even longer time since posting here but I need some help.

We have looked at DVC on and off through the years and gosh darn it I wish I would have pulled the trigger at $115 a point the last time we got serious about purchasing. Anyway our situation has changed as life has moved on and I finally have come to peace with the decision that we will be DVC owners soon. We have 4 kids (10, 6, and twins who will be 3 soon). We generally vacation at Disney a minimum of once a year and sometimes twice on shorter trips. We have had APs the past 4 years and I am definitely looking forward to the discount on this expense.

So enough with the background here are my questions. We obviously need a 2BR villa soon since we no longer can have the twins considered infants. We are struggling a bit with the high direct purchase cost being sold to us now at $188 for Riviera or Wilderness Lodge. In looking through other websites I see others who still are buying direct in different resorts. With this in mind we are leaning towards purchasing at either AKV or OKW, 200 points. One of my main questions is how difficult is it to secure space away from your home resort? We generally travel late spring (right after Easter) and early fall (right when school starts). Knowing how easy it is to book at a resort other than our home will really sway the decisions here.

Is 200 points realistic for a family of 6? Even if we cut it down to a single trip a year at 4 or 5 nights is this enough? It's hard to judge playing with the Disney bookings because I only see the "from X points per night".

What else do I need to really know? We are paying cash, wife must have a fitness center on site, and 2BR are a must as stated earlier.

I think you are a bit light on points. Your travel times are going to change unless you are home schooling. The twins have a few years to go but you really shouldn’t be pulling the older kids out of school. That coupled with sports or other outside activities will push you to the summer months.