New Purchase and Choosing a Resort Questions

[PinkerTish]

Considering our first purchase. I’ve gone back and forth regarding direct versus resale and think for our first purchase we’re leaning direct. Simply because of the booking restrictions and uncertainty surrounding PVB and future resorts.


I realize the main advice is always “book where you want to stay” but what I’m debating over are the following things:

1. Buying a “small” 150 point direct at Riviera just to get my foot in the door and picking up another 150-200 approximately sized contract later on the resale market at a different resort

2. Our favorite resorts to stay at are Poly, BWV, and BCV. But largely we don’t care where we stay (love to stay all over) as long as it’s got room for 5. I’m hesitant to buy at a place like SSR or OKW simply because I would have to always book a one-bedroom just to fit my family.

3. Would love to buy at PVB however, right now Poly resale is high (and seems to be getting ROFRed) and Poly straight from DVC is running off a waitlist.

4. I won’t travel at peak times (spring break, Christmas, new years, marathon weekends). We live localish (we can make it there in a few hours) and spent 5-7 weekends at WDW every year. Our typical stays are Friday and Saturday nights with very occasionally a Thursday sprinkled in. Since we’re accustomed to the heat and have our work schedules and kids school schedules at least a year in advance we don’t mind planning the weekends we want to go anywhere from 7-11 months.


Knowing these things, is there any clear resort recommendation anyone here would make?


If I do buy Riviera, while I wouldn’t necessarily mind being stuck there, how difficult is it really to book or modify at 7 months for Poly, GF, BWV, or BRV (effectively anything with a studio that sleeps 5) especially for Friday/Saturday nights.


Is that 7 month booking window really tough for summer travel (mid-May, June, August, and early September)


What use year would best benefit heavy summer point usage?

 

[Instagramhusband]

Considering our first purchase. I’ve gone back and forth regarding direct versus resale and think for our first purchase we’re leaning direct. Simply because of the booking restrictions and uncertainty surrounding PVB and future resorts.


I realize the main advice is always “book where you want to stay” but what I’m debating over are the following things:

1. Buying a “small” 150 point direct at Riviera just to get my foot in the door and picking up another 150-200 approximately sized contract later on the resale market at a different resort

2. Our favorite resorts to stay at are Poly, BWV, and BCV. But largely we don’t care where we stay (love to stay all over) as long as it’s got room for 5. I’m hesitant to buy at a place like SSR or OKW simply because I would have to always book a one-bedroom just to fit my family.

3. Would love to buy at PVB however, right now Poly resale is high (and seems to be getting ROFRed) and Poly straight from DVC is running off a waitlist.

4. I won’t travel at peak times (spring break, Christmas, new years, marathon weekends). We live localish (we can make it there in a few hours) and spent 5-7 weekends at WDW every year. Our typical stays are Friday and Saturday nights with very occasionally a Thursday sprinkled in. Since we’re accustomed to the heat and have our work schedules and kids school schedules at least a year in advance we don’t mind planning the weekends we want to go anywhere from 7-11 months.


Knowing these things, is there any clear resort recommendation anyone here would make?


If I do buy Riviera, while I wouldn’t necessarily mind being stuck there, how difficult is it really to book or modify at 7 months for Poly, GF, BWV, or BRV (effectively anything with a studio that sleeps 5) especially for Friday/Saturday nights.


Is that 7 month booking window really tough for summer travel (mid-May, June, August, and early September)


What use year would best benefit heavy summer point usage?

Poly won't be tough at 7 months, but GF, BWV are going to be tough to impossible at times for a studio at 7 months.

September is easier in my opinion than August, June, May..

Given your needs and desires, I understand you wanting to do direct. I do think you may need more than 150 point contracts to accomplish mostly weekend stays that often and in some high point usage months and more point heavy resorts as your favorites. I think you need to strike a balance between a point friendly resort and one you really love to go as often as you like and actually be able to book room types that will likely go fast.

 

[supercarrie]

If your favorite is Poly, I'd wait until the Poly tower goes on sale, expected later this year.

 

[Sprinkles&Sprints]

Agree w/ supercarrie - if you love Poly, your timing is perfect - definitely hold out for that.

 

[PinkerTish]

If your favorite is Poly, I'd wait until the Poly tower goes on sale, expected later this year.

Agree w/ supercarrie - if you love Poly, your timing is perfect - definitely hold out for that.

Perhaps I’ve made a completely rookie assumption here.

The chatter surrounding the new PVB tower is that it will be rolled into the existing DVC resort versus an entirely new entity on its own. From that information and the fact that everyone seemed to be scrambling to pick up poly resale contracts recently I assumed that meant that no new sales were going to happen and that’s how people were going to get to try the new tower as their home booking advantage.

Am I (and I’m delightedly keeping my fingers crossed here) completely incorrect in my understanding of that process? Because yes, I would absolutely be holding out for poly direct.

The representative I spoke to this week told me that while Poly is a current contract for sale priced at $250, they were starting waitlists since they didn’t have points to sell. Which is possibly how I connected my dots that all of the ROFR was Disney trying to get points to sell them to people like me.

 

[tatkins]

You are incorrect. They will definitely be selling Poly direct. The new tower means they will have a lot of points to sell.

 

[supercarrie]

Perhaps I’ve made a completely rookie assumption here.

The chatter surrounding the new PVB tower is that it will be rolled into the existing DVC resort versus an entirely new entity on its own. From that information and the fact that everyone seemed to be scrambling to pick up poly resale contracts recently I assumed that meant that no new sales were going to happen and that’s how people were going to get to try the new tower as their home booking advantage.

Am I (and I’m delightedly keeping my fingers crossed here) completely incorrect in my understanding of that process? Because yes, I would absolutely be holding out for poly direct.

The representative I spoke to this week told me that while Poly is a current contract for sale priced at $250, they were starting waitlists since they didn’t have points to sell. Which is possibly how I connected my dots that all of the ROFR was Disney trying to get points to sell them to people like me.

They will definitely have points to sell. It will be rolled into the existing association, but they will be placing it on sale again as they will have millions upon millions of points to sell with the new tower being available.

Why the resale craze? People are scrambling to try to save a few $10s per point (pick it up at $150 versus a projected somewhere in the low/mid $200s per point) and Disney has been exercising ROFR on a limited number of Poly contracts where the pricing is on the low end.

Your guide wants you to buy something they currently have for sale, and while they are technically correct that the Poly is "wait list" status for now, the Poly tower is coming. Hang tight! I expect sales to begin within just a couple months, if you look at prior timelines for the last few DVC properties. Of course, we have no idea what direct pricing will look like, but I'd just wait it out.

 

[CastAStone]

Perhaps I’ve made a completely rookie assumption here.

The chatter surrounding the new PVB tower is that it will be rolled into the existing DVC resort versus an entirely new entity on its own. From that information and the fact that everyone seemed to be scrambling to pick up poly resale contracts recently I assumed that meant that no new sales were going to happen and that’s how people were going to get to try the new tower as their home booking advantage.

Am I (and I’m delightedly keeping my fingers crossed here) completely incorrect in my understanding of that process? Because yes, I would absolutely be holding out for poly direct.

The representative I spoke to this week told me that while Poly is a current contract for sale priced at $250, they were starting waitlists since they didn’t have points to sell. Which is possibly how I connected my dots that all of the ROFR was Disney trying to get points to sell them to people like me.

You need to study the moon phases and take divination with Professor Trelwaney to understand why Disney buys back the contracts they do.

What you need to know is that in a month or 2 Disney will have something like 3 million brand new Poly points to sell, which will both create a great direct buying opportunity and almost certainly create breathing room and price reductions on the resale market. Prices there are high as you noted in large part because it’s the only way to buy Poly right now.

I would really, really, really think about how much extra money you’ll spend to buy direct vs waiting a few extra months and likely getting Poly at $130-$150 per point, and how much you care about losing the ability to book a portion of the resorts.

But if you do, and you still want to buy direct, then I would wait until they have those new points, which will definitely be less than $250 when they put it back on sale.

 

[Kailunkat]

They will definitely have points to sell. It will be rolled into the existing association, but they will be placing it on sale again as they will have millions upon millions of points to sell with the new tower being available.

Why the resale craze? People are scrambling to try to save a few $10s per point (pick it up at $150 versus a projected somewhere in the low/mid $200s per point) and Disney has been exercising ROFR on a limited number of Poly contracts where the pricing is on the low end.

Your guide wants you to buy something they currently have for sale, and while they are technically correct that the Poly is "wait list" status for now, the Poly tower is coming. Hang tight! I expect sales to begin within just a couple months, if you look at prior timelines for the last few DVC properties. Of course, we have no idea what direct pricing will look like, but I'd just wait it out.

Poly resale is definitely out of control since the announcement came out. There are a number of resale contracts out there "firm" at $200 or over. They were averaging around $165 before that.

That being said - I think that people (like myself) who travel with large groups and need 600+ points to book with each year have a real need to buy resale because it can be a 5 figure price difference. My family will be buying 150pts direct when the Poly tower opens up but the rest are resale because it's just the more economical way to go.

 

[supercarrie]

Poly resale is definitely out of control since the announcement came out. There are a number of resale contracts out there "firm" at $200 or over. They were averaging around $165 before that.

That being said - I think that people (like myself) who travel with large groups and need 600+ points to book with each year have a real need to buy resale because it can be a 5 figure price difference. My family will be buying 150pts direct when the Poly tower opens up but the rest are resale because it's just the more economical way to go.

It makes total sense! I didn’t mean to disparage the resale contracts (I am planning on being a hybrid owner myself) - the savings is huge.

 

[MerlinandtheMouse]

If you decide to wait to hear more about the Poly Tower (if I were to take a hopeful guess, I’d say starting sales by early July), then I would maybe consider buying a small contract at one of your preferred resorts first. The reason I say this is so that when it comes time to buying the direct contract of your choice, you’ll already be a member and will get the member pricing. It’s not a huge discount but it all adds up in the end, doesn’t it? If you can find a contract soonish you could probably have a member number and ID in about 2 months just as Poly goes on sale.
Edited to add there’s a small wait period after becoming a new member via resale before you can do member priced add-ons, maybe a month or two? I don’t remember exactly, hopefully someone can clarify.

There’s some decent BWV contracts out there and that’s a good one to have since it’s a difficult resort to get at 7mos. And even if you only get a small contract, maybe ~50pts, it’ll still get you a weekend or two a year in a studio with its great price chart.

Even better, buying resale first allows you the flexibility to choose the UY of your liking (or in this case the UY with the best resale contract) since DVC direct will match your existing UY. Which by the way, for summer/autumn trips I’d recommend a March or April UY. Although this being said, if you wanted to partake in Magical Beginnings (or selling back your first year of points back to DVC, essentially a rebate of sorts to cut some of your costs) and you have an early UY like March or April, you likely won’t get 2023 points to sell back to DVC. You would have to give back your current 2024 points to get that rebate and that would leave you in a position of borrowing from the start to book trips for this upcoming year. If you don’t care about MB, then it doesn’t matter. Something to consider.

And if you’re still with me after all that lol I can somewhat answer some of your other questions: summer isn’t actually a super active DVC time so I’ve found the 7mo availability to be decent. I got 2 rooms at Poly around 5-6mo mark for the week of July 4th. Some of that was waitlists and stalking but one of the rooms was fully available when I went to book. Even looking at what’s available today for the summer, many resorts have availability (a lot of 1bdrms but a few with studio availability, too). Of course some resorts are very difficult (BCV, BWV especially) but that will always be the case. September being the lowest point chart season is very popular with DVC members so most will be booked up by 7mos or very quickly there after. Early May is similar to September and is quite popular due to low point charts and good weather.

Of course, these trends can and do change, so don’t rely on what I’ve said exclusively, but it’ll give you a small look into this world.

 

[Kailunkat]

It makes total sense! I didn’t mean to disparage the resale contracts (I am planning on being a hybrid owner myself) - the savings is huge.

No offense taken! Like I said - looking at the way contracts for PVB have skyrocketed this week is nuts. I think people were hoping that buying now might enable them to get the points needed to book when the tower opens for points booking. But for $200+ per point? Eek. It will be interesting to see where the ROFR is for this month with PVB too. We are waiting for ROFR approval for two Poly contracts and I'm getting worried that they won't make it through now... It would be smart business for Disney to buy back all of those points in preparation for the new tower sales considering what the market for the points is doing.

 

[Jaymarkm]

Direct vs resale is always a tough one…I bought resale because it was really cheap and I love AKV Savannah, and now even what I paid for resale is a bad price. But that’s OK because I don’t plan to sell! And the discount isn’t a big deal because cast members almost always give it anyway even with my uncool dvc digital card

But yeah, the one best piece of advice is buy where you want to stay. I want to spend time in AKV (love Jambo, love Kidani) chilling and drinking coffee while watching the Savannah…and while I’ve used my points at SSR/OKW/BC/Poly/BLT/VGF/one of the wilderness ones, can’t remember which haha/probably one or two others I’m forgetting/etc I like AKV best. If you like Polynesian best and can afford it, heck I’d just buy the new offering direct and never look back! You’ll be able to stay elsewhere and you’ll never be disappointed to end up there!

 

[AstroBlasters]

Considering our first purchase. I’ve gone back and forth regarding direct versus resale and think for our first purchase we’re leaning direct. Simply because of the booking restrictions and uncertainty surrounding PVB and future resorts.


I realize the main advice is always “book where you want to stay” but what I’m debating over are the following things:

1. Buying a “small” 150 point direct at Riviera just to get my foot in the door and picking up another 150-200 approximately sized contract later on the resale market at a different resort

2. Our favorite resorts to stay at are Poly, BWV, and BCV. But largely we don’t care where we stay (love to stay all over) as long as it’s got room for 5. I’m hesitant to buy at a place like SSR or OKW simply because I would have to always book a one-bedroom just to fit my family.

3. Would love to buy at PVB however, right now Poly resale is high (and seems to be getting ROFRed) and Poly straight from DVC is running off a waitlist.

4. I won’t travel at peak times (spring break, Christmas, new years, marathon weekends). We live localish (we can make it there in a few hours) and spent 5-7 weekends at WDW every year. Our typical stays are Friday and Saturday nights with very occasionally a Thursday sprinkled in. Since we’re accustomed to the heat and have our work schedules and kids school schedules at least a year in advance we don’t mind planning the weekends we want to go anywhere from 7-11 months.


Knowing these things, is there any clear resort recommendation anyone here would make?


If I do buy Riviera, while I wouldn’t necessarily mind being stuck there, how difficult is it really to book or modify at 7 months for Poly, GF, BWV, or BRV (effectively anything with a studio that sleeps 5) especially for Friday/Saturday nights.


Is that 7 month booking window really tough for summer travel (mid-May, June, August, and early September)


What use year would best benefit heavy summer point usage?

I’ll echo what others have gone into detail about:

I’d get a resale BWV or BCV with a March to June Use Year and then add on Poly when it goes on sale direct in the next few months.

If you’ve already passed ROFR you’ll be able to buy in the Poly Tower with current member pre-sale incentives when they announce them.

Get everything in the same UY so it’s easier to combine at 7m if you want to stay somewhere different….. but you might find that split stays at BC/BW and Poly are exactly what you are looking for!

 

[PinkerTish]

If you decide to wait to hear more about the Poly Tower (if I were to take a hopeful guess, I’d say starting sales by early July), then I would maybe consider buying a small contract at one of your preferred resorts first. The reason I say this is so that when it comes time to buying the direct contract of your choice, you’ll already be a member and will get the member pricing. It’s not a huge discount but it all adds up in the end, doesn’t it? If you can find a contract soonish you could probably have a member number and ID in about 2 months just as Poly goes on sale.
Edited to add there’s a small wait period after becoming a new member via resale before you can do member priced add-ons, maybe a month or two? I don’t remember exactly, hopefully someone can clarify.

There’s some decent BWV contracts out there and that’s a good one to have since it’s a difficult resort to get at 7mos. And even if you only get a small contract, maybe ~50pts, it’ll still get you a weekend or two a year in a studio with its great price chart.

Even better, buying resale first allows you the flexibility to choose the UY of your liking (or in this case the UY with the best resale contract) since DVC direct will match your existing UY. Which by the way, for summer/autumn trips I’d recommend a March or April UY. Although this being said, if you wanted to partake in Magical Beginnings (or selling back your first year of points back to DVC, essentially a rebate of sorts to cut some of your costs) and you have an early UY like March or April, you likely won’t get 2023 points to sell back to DVC. You would have to give back your current 2024 points to get that rebate and that would leave you in a position of borrowing from the start to book trips for this upcoming year. If you don’t care about MB, then it doesn’t matter. Something to consider.

And if you’re still with me after all that lol I can somewhat answer some of your other questions: summer isn’t actually a super active DVC time so I’ve found the 7mo availability to be decent. I got 2 rooms at Poly around 5-6mo mark for the week of July 4th. Some of that was waitlists and stalking but one of the rooms was fully available when I went to book. Even looking at what’s available today for the summer, many resorts have availability (a lot of 1bdrms but a few with studio availability, too). Of course some resorts are very difficult (BCV, BWV especially) but that will always be the case. September being the lowest point chart season is very popular with DVC members so most will be booked up by 7mos or very quickly there after. Early May is similar to September and is quite popular due to low point charts and good weather.

Of course, these trends can and do change, so don’t rely on what I’ve said exclusively, but it’ll give you a small look into this world.

I didn't realize there were pricing differences for members vs. non-members. Is it always a set pp discount or does it vary?

 

[MerlinandtheMouse]

I didn't realize there were pricing differences for members vs. non-members. Is it always a set pp discount or does it vary?

I’m actually not sure if it’s a set difference each time or different for each cycle/resort. I just looked it up for this most recent spring incentive season and the price pp off for new members is $13, starting with 150pts. For add-ons for existing members it is $17pp off starting at 100pts.

 

[Genie+]

I didn't realize there were pricing differences for members vs. non-members. Is it always a set pp discount or does it vary?

It does vary. We did the resale first strategy and it helped in 2 ways - it saved an extra $1,000 off direct price, and we had no issue getting the Use Year we wanted. Sometimes direct gets pushy about UY but if you already own a certain UY, they automatically match it.

Also made buying resale easier because I was able to look at Aug, Sept and Oct UY (for our needs), which opened up the pool of resale to choose from. If I had bought resale second I would have had just one month to choose from. (You can do different UYs but it makes ownership complicated).

If you enjoy Poly and thinking about direct - I’d definitely wait for Poly Tower going into active sales. I’m expecting 4 to 8 weeks from now. At least wait to see what pricing they offer. One advantage of Poly over Riv is it likely won’t have the one resort resale restriction like RIV. If you never sell it won’t matter but it is something I preferred when buying VGF over RIV. That 7 month tradability after resale could help bolster resale value down the line.

We started with a smaller BWV resale and then VGF direct. I like being able to rely on those BW stays. We make it happen rather than leave it to happenstance. It’s nice having 2 home resorts. Wish we had more lol!

 

[CastAStone]

Is it always a set pp discount or does it vary?

It can be either or both. Right now there’s 2 different savings per point offers, one of which is just $13/pt for any purchase over 150, the other of which an offer to buy back a year of points for $20/pt. Then there’s also a cash “welcome home” offer, one of which scales with how many points you buy ($1000 on 150 points, $2000 on 200 pts, etc).

Some people have also reported getting a small extra savings for buying on a cruise, like $500.

Last cycle though it was reversed, and the per point offer got larger the more points you bought, but the welcome home cash offer was always $1000.

I think Disney does incentives by having a cat walk across the keyboard, and then just hitting enter!

 

[Genie+]

Then there’s also a cash “welcome home” offer, one of which scales with how many points you buy ($1000 on 150 points, $2000 on 200 pts, etc).

Wow! That’s a nice bump from 150pts to 200pts.

Another incentive they had last year was bonus points. For 150pts you only had to buy 145pts and got 5 free and the other 150pt incentives still applied. 190pts had 10 bonus points.

Ours had 4 different incentives applied. If I was military, a Cast Member and on Disney Cruise Line maybe could have had 7?

 

[CarolynFH]

You need to study the moon phases and take divination with Professor Trelwaney to understand why Disney buys back the contracts they do.

I love this! And it's accurate, too!