Own Direct Points, Considering Resale BW or BC and Have Questions

[Little E]

Hi Disfriends!

DH and I own two 200 point contracts at GF direct for a total of 400 points. (We did two separate contracts for ease of estate planning with our two children down the road.) While we love GF, we find ourselves drawn to the Boardwalk area and booking both one and two bedroom villas at both Beach Club and Boardwalk whenever we can snag them at the 7 month mark, which is tough to do.

So, we've started considering a resale contract at either BC or BW. We love both resorts, so we'd be open to buy at either. We love the close proximity and walkability to both Epcot and HS and we love the Boardwalk vibe. We have a February UY, and we travel mostly in March and October/November, although we've been sneaking in a late summer trips the last two years. We have never had points leftover to bank; we use all the points and then wind up booking cash for short trips when we've run out of points, hence the thought of buying resale at BC or BW.

We are both struggling with the short contracts at BC and BW...16 years just doesn't seem like a long enough time to make this investment. But, we keep booking SAP points at these resorts, so, we feel sort of silly not owning at either place. It's staggeringly expensive to buy at either resort direct for the 16 years left on the contract, so a resale seems the way to go. UGH.

Here are my questions:

1. I know most DVC folks recommend keeping their UY when purchasing another contract. Knowing that we visit WDW in March, late summer, and October/November, how does having a different UY beyond February play out as either a benefit or detriment? We use all our points, so we've never once borrowed or banked our points.

2. Because we're direct folks, how does buying a resale contract function once the sale is complete? Do we still log in and access our resale contract via the Disney DVC login the same way we do with our direct points? Or is there another way/system that we have to use to book with resale points?

3. Is there a "better" UY for any of the times we travel (list above) that I'm not thinking of? We bought GF direct in 2022 when Disney had all the incentives, and we LOVE GF and are glad we bought what we did. We were given a February UY, and we don't really know anything different? But, we've never encountered a problem booking at any of those times of year; the only problem is that we keep running out of points.

Any advice about buying resale at BC or BW would be great. TIA!

 

[Tatebeck]

Hi Disfriends!

DH and I own two 200 point contracts at GF direct for a total of 400 points. (We did two separate contracts for ease of estate planning with our two children down the road.) While we love GF, we find ourselves drawn to the Boardwalk area and booking both one and two bedroom villas at both Beach Club and Boardwalk whenever we can snag them at the 7 month mark, which is tough to do.

So, we've started considering a resale contract at either BC or BW. We love both resorts, so we'd be open to buy at either. We love the close proximity and walkability to both Epcot and HS and we love the Boardwalk vibe. We have a February UY, and we travel mostly in March and October/November, although we've been sneaking in a late summer trips the last two years. We have never had points leftover to bank; we use all the points and then wind up booking cash for short trips when we've run out of points, hence the thought of buying resale at BC or BW.

We are both struggling with the short contracts at BC and BW...16 years just doesn't seem like a long enough time to make this investment. But, we keep booking SAP points at these resorts, so, we feel sort of silly not owning at either place. It's staggeringly expensive to buy at either resort for such shortUGH.

Here are my questions:

1. I know most DVC folks recommend keeping their UY when purchasing another contract. Knowing that we visit WDW in March, late summer, and October/November, how does having a different UY beyond February play out as either a benefit or detriment? We use all our points, so we've never once borrowed or banked our points.

2. Because we're direct folks, how does buying a resale contract function once the sale is complete? Do we still log in and access our resale contract via the Disney DVC login the same way we do with our direct points? Or is there another way/system that we have to use to book with resale points?

3. Is there a "better" UY for any of the times we travel (list above) that I'm not thinking of? We bought GF direct in 2022 when Disney had all the incentives, and we LOVE GF and are glad we bought what we did. We were given a February UY, and we don't really know anything different? But, we've never encountered a problem booking at any of those times of year; the only problem is that we keep running out of points.

Any advice about buying resale at BC or BW would be great. TIA!

1. February is fine for anything through October September (Or November October if you always cancel at least 31 day ahead to avoid holding) to still be in your banking window. I wouldn't specifically look for a new use year unless you want one for more waitlists or something. I would maybe get a new use year on the new contract if there was a great deal though if you never (or at least rarely) plan to really use the points with your other points.

2. Yes, if the contract is titled the same as your other contracts you still log in the exact same way, there will just be a new contract you can select when booking. And it won't let you use this new resale contract at any of the restricted resorts. I have direct RIV and resale everything else myself.

3. Feb seems fine, unless you want more flexibility to cancel Fall/Winter trips, then maybe a late summer use year could be a decent addition.

We bought BWV for the same reason you are talking about, we love the crescent lake area. And we found that BWV has better deals show up than BCV does, so we went with that. If you time it right or get lucky, you may be able to get a BWV contract for around $100 per point, while BCV always seems to never get below 120-130. So we went with the savings since it expires so soon. Good luck!

 

[Brian Noble]

February is fine for anything through October (or November if you always cancel at least 31 day ahead to avoid holding)

I think this should be September (or October). The Feb UY banking deadline is the end of September.

 

[Tatebeck]

I think this should be September (or October). The Feb UY banking deadline is the end of September.

Whoops, yep I was off by a month, good catch. I'll update

That's why I always bank my points early lol

 

[Sandisw]

You will see everything on the same log in, whether you keep the same UY or not.

Different UY is a different membership. You would not be able to use your resale points with your direct VGF points for a single reservation without a transfer.

You are limited to one transfer in or out per UY. Your resale points, regardless of UY will not be good for booking RIV, VDH, CFW, and presumably all future new resorts, even though you own direct points that can.

If the goal is to never combine, two UYs will work okay, depending on size of your resale contract.

If you want to be able to use together at 7 months at either, then stay with one UY.

 

[Genie+]

I think BW/BC prices stay high even with just 16yrs left because people value the higher dependability booking. Even though some rooms/dates can be a challenge, owning is going to get you into those resorts more consistently and with less compromises over the long haul.

Our resale BW points are more expensive to use than our direct VGF points lol. But that is just the cost per point. BW still ends up being cheaper on a per night basis. And we get more control than waiting to trade at 7 months.

My BWV points are for BW only. Our next trip is BWV Spring Break at 15pts/nt. Same points as OKW and SSR, 4 points less than BLT standard(!), and even less than AKV standard. We stayed BW View the weekend before Christmas… 17pts/nt when RIV was 26pts/nt pref.

Trading in is great if you don’t mind leaving to chance which year your luck rolls for what resort. If you want more consistency, home priority is the way to go.

 

[VGCgroupie]

You can get BW cheaper than BC keep that in mind if you decide to buy one of the 2. Recently bought BW and struggled with the 2042 but decided it was worth it to me.

 

[Little E]

Thank you all for making me not feel totally ridiculous for buying at BC or BW.

@Brian Noble and @Tatebeck I apologize for being dumb...can you explain what I need to understand about September/October like I'm 5? I know our current banking window is the end of September; this has never been something I've had to remember because we use our points up every single year. Since we typically always do a fall trip (we love Food & Wine and the RunDisney events in the fall), is there a more advantageous UY for this? Or, is it just better keep everything on the same UY?

 

[toesmom]

We bought resale bwv contract 2 years ago and kept same use year. So much easier. We also have SSR direct contract and 60 point BWV direct contract. A lot of points but we are banking for future use and longer vacations. Ease of booking BWV makes it worthwhile.

 

[Tatebeck]

Thank you all for making me not feel totally ridiculous for buying at BC or BW.

@Brian Noble and @Tatebeck I apologize for being dumb...can you explain what I need to understand about September/October like I'm 5? I know our current banking window is the end of September; this has never been something I've had to remember because we use our points up every single year. Since we typically always do a fall trip (we love Food & Wine and the RunDisney events in the fall), is there a more advantageous UY for this? Or, is it just better keep everything on the same UY?

If you have to cancel a trip, and you are still in your banking window then you can just bank your points forward to next year without any risk of them expiring. So if you cancel a trip at least 31 days ahead to avoid putting points into holding, then any trip that was scheduled for February through October would be able to be cancelled 31 days before the trip and still banked. It is just a little safer for trips in that time frame.

If you had a trip booked in December or January, but then had to cancel then you would only have a month or two to use the points, and they wouldn't be bankable anymore so you would have to rent the reservation quickly and possibly cheaply to avoid having your points expire.

Any trip that falls in the first 8 months after your use year are just a little safer (just in case you have to cancel for some reason) than trips in the last part of the use year for that reason.

If you like going after October, then technically a slightly later use year would be better. We love going October through February mostly, so we have September as our use year. But it may not be worth getting a second use year to you.