New to DVC - Purchase VGC versus DLT or both

[MagicalMommaOf2]

hello!

after hanging out here on these pages for awhile and after talking with some wonderful & helpful people. My husband and I would like a few opinions from current DVC members.

We have ran the numbers many times for DVC but it never really worked for us with the tight availability of GVC reservations, that said with the talk of the new tower and with a recent uptick in GCV resale contracts, we are thinking this is finally our opportunity.

I love the DLH, That said I do think I would like the new DLT. Our children are 3 and 1 years old and the 3 year old loves the Monorail slides, DLT has a lot of advantages for our family and we know that we will buy there. That said we also would like to stay in the GVC occasionally too. We are looking at maybe 2 times a year in VGC and 1-2 times a year at DLT.

given that information, we are considering buying a small 150-160 point contract resale at VGC and buying another 115 points or so at DLT. The key for us is having priority booking at both, it sounds like without the 11 month window you can't secure more than 2 nights in a row. We are in central CA and usually book at least 3 nights 4 days in disneyland so its important that we get multiple nights.

So, our question is if you were in our shoes what would you do? Are we silly to buy VGC resale at all and lose the benefit of being able to use those points at DLT or do we risk it, buy all our points at DLT and try to get into VGC at the 7 month mark? OR stick with our plan of buying both.

You guys are such a great resource, I sincerely appreciate the time you take to not only read this but share your thoughts. thank you

Random Details you might find relative in forming your opinion:
2 adults
2 children (3 yo, 1 yo)
Exclusively disneyland -NOT interested in traveling at the moment
Studio Only
4 trips a year usually:
May-June
August-Sept
Nov-Dec (early)
Jan Late

 

[RoseGold]

I think to answer this you have to decide which hotel you want. You're right. If you buy VGC, you're locked out of DLT. If you buy anything but VGC, you are (effectively) locked out of VGC. Getting into VGC is practically impossible at 7 months. It's too small, and you're up against tens of millions of WDW points.

The cool thing about resale, at least historically, is that it isn't a huge commitment. You can always sell in a few years and go all DLT if you decide VGC isn't for you. I don't see much risk in starting with the resale VGC contract. If DLT pricing is bananas, VGC could even see more price increase, which seems crazy. I don't see the value of VGC going anywhere in the foreseeable future. If Disney isn't for you, or DLT is what you want, then sell in a few years. Or buy both.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Based on what you've stated, I think your plan of splitting your total intended points between VGC and DLT is a good idea. The points will be difficult or impossible to use at the other, so I think you will need the home resort points at both to achieve your travel goals.

Of course, you could buy at neither and just book the something on Harbor for a fraction of the price, but that doesn't sound like your ideal vacation.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Note that they may require a minimum buy at DLT - likely 150 - even for existing owners.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Note that they may require a minimum buy at DLT - likely 150 - even for existing owners.

I want to buy in to DLT, but I'm hoping I can buy 50-100 points. If I need to buy 150, I will probably sell off one of my other contracts. Well, I might do that regardless if I add on at DLT.

 

[MagicalMommaOf2]

Note that they may require a minimum buy at DLT - likely 150 - even for existing owners.

really? I mean I guess that wouldn’t be awful as long as the price was right. Over 250.00 a point a 150 point contract Wouk be a pretty big investment. I’m new to DVC what makes you think they will do that?

 

[MagicalMommaOf2]

I want to buy in to DLT, but I'm hoping I can buy 50-100 points. If I need to buy 150, I will probably sell off one of my other contracts. Well, I might do that regardless if I add on at DLT.

I’m a bit confused, I looked it up but I’m reading it as “obtaining blue card status” not that you can’t buy a set number of points. Correct me if I’m wrong.

 

[MagicalMommaOf2]

Based on what you've stated, I think your plan of splitting your total intended points between VGC and DLT is a good idea. The points will be difficult or impossible to use at the other, so I think you will need the home resort points at both to achieve your travel goals.

Of course, you could buy at neither and just book the something on Harbor for a fraction of the price, but that doesn't sound like your ideal vacation.

I used to love staying at the Candy cane! We did that for years! They have been under construction for almost 2 years. I have stayed at 2 others and for almost $250.00 it didn’t feel worth it! I do agree, they are so much better priced lol

 

[MagicalMommaOf2]

I think to answer this you have to decide which hotel you want. You're right. If you buy VGC, you're locked out of DLT. If you buy anything but VGC, you are (effectively) locked out of VGC. Getting into VGC is practically impossible at 7 months. It's too small, and you're up against tens of millions of WDW points.

The cool thing about resale, at least historically, is that it isn't a huge commitment. You can always sell in a few years and go all DLT if you decide VGC isn't for you. I don't see much risk in starting with the resale VGC contract. If DLT pricing is bananas, VGC could even see more price increase, which seems crazy. I don't see the value of VGC going anywhere in the foreseeable future. If Disney isn't for you, or DLT is what you want, then sell in a few years. Or buy both.

Well….after our back and forths during my nightly DVC resale scrolling, I found a contract that fit my family pretty perfectly. 160 points at VGC and at a fair price! Fingers crossed it was a good move for us. Can’t thank you enough.
A little nervous now though after the other poster said I need to buy a minimum of 150. I wouldn’t have purchased the extra 60 points at VGC if I had known. My bad.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I think the other poster is speculating on the minimum number of points for DLT. There's a lot of speculation on the points chart, the price per point, and if there will be a minimum for purchasing. Recently, the minimum number of points has been 50 for existing members at new resorts, although it's 25 for others.

I think some of this speculation is due to the anticipated extreme demand; creating a higher than normal minimum for all would filter out many add-on buyers. (boo hiss) I also think they know that much of the demand is coming from existing members who just want small add-on contracts.

The minimum number of points to obtain a blue card was 25 at one point, then 75, then 100. In the last year it went up to 125 and now it's currently 150. You used to be able to buy this in increments, but now you have to buy the entire 150 in a single contract if you are not already a member.

 

[eMoneyBug]

hello!

after hanging out here on these pages for awhile and after talking with some wonderful & helpful people. My husband and I would like a few opinions from current DVC members.

We have ran the numbers many times for DVC but it never really worked for us with the tight availability of GVC reservations, that said with the talk of the new tower and with a recent uptick in GCV resale contracts, we are thinking this is finally our opportunity.

I love the DLH, That said I do think I would like the new DLT. Our children are 3 and 1 years old and the 3 year old loves the Monorail slides, DLT has a lot of advantages for our family and we know that we will buy there. That said we also would like to stay in the GVC occasionally too. We are looking at maybe 2 times a year in VGC and 1-2 times a year at DLT.

given that information, we are considering buying a small 150-160 point contract resale at VGC and buying another 115 points or so at DLT. The key for us is having priority booking at both, it sounds like without the 11 month window you can't secure more than 2 nights in a row. We are in central CA and usually book at least 3 nights 4 days in disneyland so its important that we get multiple nights.

So, our question is if you were in our shoes what would you do? Are we silly to buy VGC resale at all and lose the benefit of being able to use those points at DLT or do we risk it, buy all our points at DLT and try to get into VGC at the 7 month mark? OR stick with our plan of buying both.

You guys are such a great resource, I sincerely appreciate the time you take to not only read this but share your thoughts. thank you

Random Details you might find relative in forming your opinion:
2 adults
2 children (3 yo, 1 yo)
Exclusively disneyland -NOT interested in traveling at the moment
Studio Only
4 trips a year usually:
May-June
August-Sept
Nov-Dec (early)
Jan Late

my recommendation: buy 2 DL contracts so you can ultimately pass down 1 to each kiddo. To solve for staying at VGC, rent from a VGC owner if you can’t stalk your own dates. I live in SoCal and used my SSR points to stay so many weekends and celebrations at vgc from 2012-2018. DL will give you 50 full years and will also be super easy to rent out as demand will be high for years. Keep in mind recent resale buyers can’t use their points at DL so imagine a recent vgc buyer wanting to try out DL.

 

[Sandisw]

Note that they may require a minimum buy at DLT - likely 150 - even for existing owners.

That would surprise me. I think it will be the 50 we saw at RIV and CCXv…though that has changed back to 25…but I can not see that they do the same as new buyer.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

That would surprise me. I think it will be the 50 we saw at RIV and CCXv…though that has changed back to 25…but I can not see that they do the same as new buyer.

I can see DVC playing games especially with a property like DLT.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Well….after our back and forths during my nightly DVC resale scrolling, I found a contract that fit my family pretty perfectly. 160 points at VGC and at a fair price! Fingers crossed it was a good move for us. Can’t thank you enough.
A little nervous now though after the other poster said I need to buy a minimum of 150. I wouldn’t have purchased the extra 60 points at VGC if I had known. My bad.

I don't think they've ever had a huge minimum purchase for existing members. Right now, it's only 25 points or 50 points depending on which resort you are adding on. We also don't know what the point charts are going to be for DLT. I wouldn't fret over buying "too much" at VGC. It's such a demand place and the points chart can be ridiculous (17 - 37 points for one night in a studio). If you want a weekend stay in a one bedroom at the highest season, you'll really only be able to book a couple nights without banking/borrowing and while your kids are small now, things will be different someday.

We can only speculate about the new tower's points chart. They will have mostly small studios. So, hopefully those won't cost a lot per night. But, I don't think they've ever had lower point charts when they've added a new DVC resort.

 

[MagicalMommaOf2]

I think the other poster is speculating on the minimum number of points for DLT. There's a lot of speculation on the points chart, the price per point, and if there will be a minimum for purchasing. Recently, the minimum number of points has been 50 for existing members at new resorts, although it's 25 for others.

I think some of this speculation is due to the anticipated extreme demand; creating a higher than normal minimum for all would filter out many add-on buyers. (boo hiss) I also think they know that much of the demand is coming from existing members who just want small add-on contracts.

The minimum number of points to obtain a blue card was 25 at one point, then 75, then 100. In the last year it went up to 125 and now it's currently 150. You used to be able to buy this in increments, but now you have to buy the entire 150 in a single contract if you are not already a member.

That would stink. I don’t care much for blue card status, it doesn’t seem to offer me much, I know some posters have said it lends “worse service” but I’m not sure if that’s true. I use my Disney visa and have a Magic Key so the discounts are comparable to that. I’ve heard since they changed things with resale at resorts like Riveira sales have halted a lot (not sure if that’s accurate, just people talking) but hopefully they listen to their long time members.

 

[MagicalMommaOf2]

That would surprise me. I think it will be the 50 we saw at RIV and CCXv…though that has changed back to 25…but I can not see that they do the same as new buyer.

I am having a hard time seeing that as well. Rumors are that the resort points will be at the very least $250.00 asking people to buy 150 points will be a huge chunk for many. I mean I know california is not cheap but vacation club is not well understood throughout disneyland park either because until the talk of the new tower it wasn't really an option for exclusively disneyland people to join. will be very interesting. I hope for my sake its not 150 I was hoping for 110-120.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Well….after our back and forths during my nightly DVC resale scrolling, I found a contract that fit my family pretty perfectly. 160 points at VGC and at a fair price! Fingers crossed it was a good move for us. Can’t thank you enough.
A little nervous now though after the other poster said I need to buy a minimum of 150. I wouldn’t have purchased the extra 60 points at VGC if I had known. My bad.

This is so exciting!

I agree with another posted who mentioned that the points don't go super far at VGC, so 160 is better than 100. If you find you don't use them all, it should be easy to rent some out. That resort has an incredible amount of demand.

 

[MagicalMommaOf2]

THANK YOU! its very exciting and very nerve wracking. I am sure you all have been in this position before. I was really nervous about the price of the points because They are higher at VGC than they were earlier this year, that said an experienced DVC sales member said the rumor is that Disney is looking to price the DL towers higher and thus they are ensuring their GVC resale contracts stay around 300+ a point. Who really knows right? that said, I do feel confident that we got a really good deal, we took a chance at making an offer and they accepted. 160 Points on our current trip schedule is about 8 nights a year which is a lot for two tired parents.

thanks so much for your feedback I really value it.

 

[RoseGold]

I was really nervous about the price of the points because They are higher at VGC than they were earlier this year, that said an experienced DVC sales member said the rumor is that Disney is looking to price the DL towers higher and thus they are ensuring their GVC resale contracts stay around 300+ a point. Who really knows right?

Resale VGC is an awesome choice. And if it isn't, then sell. I can see it continuing to go up with inflation, like the price of cash GC.

Buying direct DLT seems like a much bigger commitment to me. People here are pricing DLT near RIV, which I think is impossible. I think the chart and pricing of DLT will exceed VGC. The demand is there, and modern Disney doesn't leave money on the table. That would be a decision I would be much more nervous about.

Don't forget DLT resale is also an option five years from now. Who knows what those numbers will be?

 

[MagicalMommaOf2]

Resale VGC is an awesome choice. And if it isn't, then sell. I can see it continuing to go up with inflation, like the price of cash GC.

I mean considering that I couldn't buy VGC direct even if i wanted to, it just seemed like the most practical option. Not to mention, the whole "blue card" thing is just not as relevant to us here. No discounts for Magic Key and the Mk & Disney Visa discounts sound comparable to what blue card status would have offered anyway. I am no expert so maybe I am missing the big picture there but I mainly wanted the free parking. Parking is huge in disneyland at coming in at $25.00 a day that was a huge benefit for us!

I don't like what disney is doing with their new resale rules. We eventually wanted to join DVC in WDW when our kids were older and could better enjoy the trip but now I think ill stick to renting points there because I have a hard time justifying buying a contract to be stuck at that resort.

I so agree with you, part of me is wondering if I made a Giant mistake and should have just bought like a 240 point contract at VGC instead of trying to secure some points at the tower but oh well....either way its safe for us because the demand will likely be there even if the RIV rules apply to the new DLT.

I know people have told you that you're nuts for thinking its going to be high but our DVC resale Rep told us yesterday that her information is telling her that there is no way they list for less than $250.00 & like i told Piglet, Disney is actively trying to buy back points from current owners to ensure the price stays high at VGC. so, while thats got me wondering if it was dumb I didn't dump my entire budget into GVC I guess ill take my chances that I can get a 120 point contract or so at DLT.