Opinions on adding on

[OneOftheB's]

Ok, long story short, I should inherit a bit of money in the next few months. DH and I have a plan (payoff house, put some in the kid's college savings accounts, etc) but have also discussed adding points. We currently own 160 at VGF and love it. Because our kids are young, a studio works for now but we can see the writing on the wall that we'll need to go larger in the future, especially if we start bringing friends/kid's friends along. We tend to take two trips a year, between 4 and 7 days per trip, depending on banking/borrowing year to year.

So I have two ideas which seem the most logical to me:

Option 1: buy a contract somewhere in the 150-200 point range at BCV for F&W access, plus the pool area is great. This would cover one decent stay in a 2 BR. Add points (again 150-200) at VGF for booking longer stays or 2+ bedroom trips.

Option 2: again buy at BCV, 150-200 points for the above mentioned reasons. Buy points at BLT, again probably 150-200 range and alternate years between BLT and VGF to max length of stay or number of bedrooms.

What would you do/ what have you done? We really love the VGF and have enjoyed staying at BLT. We want to add on a monorail resort, it's just what we prefer.

 

[disneynutz]

Buy where you love to stay guarantees that you will be happy and get what you want. That being said I would buy BCV and wait on additional buys until you experience your new holdings. Adding BCV, banking points may get you what you want. We stay at BWV each year and alternate a split stay at VGF and VWL.

Bill

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

The points difference between VGF and BLT is fairly significant. The buy in will be less and the dues are less. For a new monorail resort to stay in 2BR's I'd lean towards BLT. If 1BR's then you VGF is kind of nice because you get the murphy bed and the sleeper sofa in the living area but there isn't 2 full bathrooms so it might depend on what is more important - bathrooms or shared beds. And if you just went to a larger sized room at VGF you would not have to look at adding on as many points.

My caution is to really break down what you need vs just going with what the inheritance will allow you to buy. Be certain that you want to commit that much time and additional money to vacations at Disney vs saving some of that money for something else. The timeshare comes with additional dues for it's lifetime and of course some fairly hefty expenses with travel, food and tickets.

 

[BillPA]

With young kids, keep the expiration date of the resort in mind. In 20-25 years you may want to take grandkids to the world.

 

[kniquy]

My caution is to really break down what you need vs just going with what the inheritance will allow you to buy. Be certain that you want to commit that much time and additional money to vacations at Disney vs saving some of that money for something else. The timeshare comes with additional dues for it's lifetime and of course some fairly hefty expenses with travel, food and tickets.

I really agree with this thought process. It sounds like your kids are young so traveling to Disney seems ideal at this point, but when they get a little older you are probably going to want to explore what more of the US has to offer(DC, national parks - you get the idea). I would re-think this and possibly look at a small VGF add on to get you to the room size you need and would put the extra money aside for different trips down the road. You should also account for the increasing MF which if you add on the points amount you are talking about would be doubling + your yearly MF. Kids as they get older get more expensive.

I really wanted to add on at hilton head, but then someone on this board mentioned that some rental units are much larger and less expensive -- so why would i want to tie up the money and the yearly MF and be somewhat locked into only DVC properties.

 

[OneOftheB's]

Thanks everyone for their thoughts. Y'all pointed out a few things I had not considered. We do travel to "non Disney" locations, but we love the 11 month booking window to schedule vacations (my husband's work books 9 months in advance, so last minute trips are extremely difficult). One of our thoughts would be a similar contract for each of the kids to inherit-- this was something we were looking into even before the inheritance became a consideration. We are very frugal otherwise, saving a lot for retirement, paying off the house early, driving good reliable cars for many years, etc. Disney is one of those "rewards" we have chosen for our family and DVC fits that nicely.

 

[CarolMN]

In your situation, I'd buy enough BCV for a 1 (or 2) bedroom stay every other year. Then I'd use my VGF points every other year. to also stay in a 1 (or 2) bedroom villa That way, you still do 1 trip per year, but alternate staying at VGF & BCV and have 11 month booking for all of your trips

You might have to buy a small add on at VGF to get the number of points you need to make that strategy work. I didn't look at any fo the point charts.