Newbie needing advice on number of points

[Phillyfan]

I’m looking to stay every year in a one or two bedroom. Sometimes, it may be every other year, but we live on the east coast and can fly down to Orlando fairly easily. We are a family of five and may bring grandparents with us sometimes. Wondering how many points is a good first amount for us to purchase. I am aware of adding on later and that’s a good possibility too. Thanks.

 

[tom1944]

Which resort and what time period

 

[AC168]

200 to 300 depending on when, where, and how long

 

[Sandisw]

All depends on how important where you want to stay is to your visits, and whether you will be looking to book using home resort priority period.

The 2042 resorts, CCV, SSR, OKW, and AKV have much friendly point charts than the other resorts.

 

[RoseGold]

The resorts and travel times can swing wildly. You at least need a guess to have any idea at the answer.

 

[lilsonicfan]

If you’re going to go every year, it seems to me that 200 points won’t be enough. In the lowest season, you need closer to 250 points for a 2 bedroom at most of the resorts, unless you get standard view and even then, only AKL value gets you there with under 200 points.

I found the charts in this thread to be invaluable at plotting out various vacation scenarios for us: https://www.disboards.com/threads/2022-2023-point-chart-spreadsheets.3863993/

 

[Her Dotness]

Here's the DISboards site that gives '23-'24 point charts for each resort. https://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-vacation-club/dvc-point-charts.htm Once you own points, these charts are something you'll consult often.

It's pretty simple once you look it over and see how the months break down points-wise for the resorts you may want to stay in or buy into as your first home resort for the 11-month advantage. You'll soon see what are peak times of year.
Also, Fri-Sat will require more points nightly than Sun-Thurs. Look carefully, because part of a weeklong stay may require lots more points, some of your desired days being in a pricier section of the chart. That's particularly so near major holidays.

At some resorts, monorail ones for instance, you'll need a good 300 or more for a week in a 1br much of the year. For a 2br, you'd be going every other year or two and getting into the bank-borrow cycle with that many points.

It can get frustrating when you thought you bought enough for several years at the level you want to stay. We bought the direct minimum, stayed in a couple 1brs and then had barely enough points for a studio yearly. The point costs can vary from year to year. That, we did not know going in--to our dismay after only 2 years.

So, do your research and ask lots of questions. People hereabouts are eager to help.

 

[Phillyfan]

Thank you for your advice! It’s hard to know when we’re planning to go. We’re on a school schedule for the next 10 years, but we don’t mind taking the kids out of school here and there. It sounds like 250-300 might be a good amount for us, but it’s hard to tell.

 

[tom1944]

Thank you for your advice! It’s hard to know when we’re planning to go. We’re on a school schedule for the next 10 years, but we don’t mind taking the kids out of school here and there. It sounds like 250-300 might be a good amount for us, but it’s hard to tell.

I started with 180 plus 90 banked from 2022. We have an August use year. I just booked a week at BLT for the end of August. We used 268 points. I will bank the 2 points for 2024.

I figure this gives me some time to decide what we should purchase over the next year or two. If I do not buy new points by next August I can still book a 2024 trip by borrowing points from 2025.


By 2025 we will have to decide if we want a yearly trip of a week or every other year. If we want a yearly trip (what I want) additional points are a must. I am thinking 150 points (most likely direct) since it appears there will be multiple restricted resorts at WDW. I will not purchase until after Poly2 is for sale.

 

[Her Dotness]

Thank you for your advice! It’s hard to know when we’re planning to go. We’re on a school schedule for the next 10 years, but we don’t mind taking the kids out of school here and there. It sounds like 250-300 might be a good amount for us, but it’s hard to tell.

In that case, gauging how many points to buy might trend more for your family toward which resort you'd want to stay at most. You might not need 300 points if you choose one of the 2042 expiration resorts Sandisw suggested. For instance, from 150-200 points would get you a 1br week about half of the year at OKW.

You can always add on points. Addonitis is a very common DVC Member disorder as anyone will assure you.

Shopping the brokers for resale contracts for a resort or resorts to narrow your choice may be where to begin for you.

YouTube video tours can be a huge help in deciding. We'd never stayed at BWI, only gone through to get down to Trattoria al Forno. Video tours helped make our decision to add on a small BWV resale despite never having been in it to look around.

 

[AstroBlasters]

I’m looking to stay every year in a one or two bedroom. Sometimes, it may be every other year, but we live on the east coast and can fly down to Orlando fairly easily. We are a family of five and may bring grandparents with us sometimes. Wondering how many points is a good first amount for us to purchase. I am aware of adding on later and that’s a good possibility too. Thanks.

Which resort?

 

[StevieB81]

There are 6 in my family and we initially bought 240 pts at BLT to be able to go every other year. We added on at AKV to be able to go more often. AKV is very point and availability friendly. It's 331 pts for a week in a Savanna view room in the summer (2bdrm villa). Both resorts we own at have a third bathroom in the 2 bdrm, which makes a huge difference. BLT is much more expensive, both point-wise and the cost of those points, than AKV. I believe it is the least expensive of the monorail resorts. If you're going to want to try to stay at different resorts, it might be better to get "cheaper" points and enough of them to stay at the more pricier places.

Are you buying direct or resale? Trip length of a week? Longer? We stay longer, so we needed more points to be able to do that. A week just doesn't seem long enough.

I am also a Philly fan. I hope the Birds didn't royally mess up by letting everyone go to be able to pay Hurts. Guess we'll find out...

 

[GoingSince1990]

Look at the points charts for the villa size you want and the times you expect to go away. Bear in mind that you can bank points from one year to the next and borrow points from the next use year. And don’t be afraid of buying too many, you can always rent out surplus points and put the money towards your annual dues.

 

[intamin]

Thank you for your advice! It’s hard to know when we’re planning to go. We’re on a school schedule for the next 10 years, but we don’t mind taking the kids out of school here and there. It sounds like 250-300 might be a good amount for us, but it’s hard to tell.

You really just need to pick the resort and then look at how much the most expensive 2BR is. I know I personally won't visit WDW during Spring Break/Christmas week which are the most expensive times to travel so I didn't accommodate for that. I know I like RIV personally and the highest the point chart goes for a week that's not in those 2 time periods is 410 points so ultimately my goal is to get my RIV point total to 410. This guarantees I can afford a 2BR for a week at any other time point during that year. Points charts are subject to change however so it's also worthwhile to add a little bit of a buffer to accommodate so maybe for me 430-450 RIV points might be what I need. Anyways, I advise you to do your own research using either the point charts or a point calculator. Another thing you could do if you know you're not going to visit every year is to take an average of all of the travel periods it costs you and then base your decision on that if you don't want to have extra points.

 

[tom1944]

You really just need to pick the resort and then look at how much the most expensive 2BR is. I know I personally won't visit WDW during Spring Break/Christmas week which are the most expensive times to travel so I didn't accommodate for that. I know I like RIV personally and the highest the point chart goes for a week that's not in those 2 time periods is 410 points so ultimately my goal is to get my RIV point total to 410. This guarantees I can afford a 2BR for a week at any other time point during that year. Points charts are subject to change however so it's also worthwhile to add a little bit of a buffer to accommodate so maybe for me 430-450 RIV points might be what I need. Anyways, I advise you to do your own research using either the point charts or a point calculator. Another thing you could do if you know you're not going to visit every year is to take an average of all of the travel periods it costs you and then base your decision on that if you don't want to have extra points.

I figure that when I get enough points to cover the most point required resort I can add a day when I stay at other resorts

 

[PrincessKL]

Are you buying direct or resale?
Maybe this is an unpopular idea. If considering buying direct, you can always start with 150 or 200 points to get the blue card (either at VGF or Riviera depending on your preference) and supplement days with cash stays for your vacations in the first year, then figure out where you like and how many points you want. And then look for a resale contract to match what you need.

 

[DDuckSouthBend]

We got ahold of the point chart for the resort we were targeting as our home resort (BLT). Then we looked at what time of the year we would most likely be going. We looked at the time period with the highest point values and used that in the calculation. Then we looked at what type of room we wanted to stay. Then it was decide how many trips per year, one per year, two per year, every other year. Once we had that all figured we calculated up the points we needed and made that our 1st contract.

Of course we decided a studio would be perfect for the two of us, but after the first trip we called our guide and got a second contract which doubled the amount of points. We determined we need / want to stay in a one bedroom.

Of course YMMV.

 

[wnielsen1]

The answer to "how many points should I buy" is as many as you can afford right now. The more you buy now, the less you will have to buy later (at likely higher prices).

 

[bbeagle]

How often are you going to take Disney vacations vs other vacations? We plan to go once every 2-3 years. We will have other vacations outside the Walt Disney World in the other years. We don't plan on going every year, so we need less points.

A 2-week stay in a Poly lake-view studio is around 300. A little more / little less depending on time of the year. We can do that every other year with banking/borrowing points.

Remember that if you get a contract for 150 points, you can use 3x that - 450 points every 3 years.

 

[Phillyfan]

Thank you all for your great advice! We are going to buy 150 direct at VGF to get the blue card and go from there! Maybe do every other year and then add on if we want to go more! We are very excited!