So, some background here. We have a family of 4 (kids are 5 and 10), and we've been going to Disney World yearly since 2013. We've rented points before, and bought a Polynesian 200 point contract resale last year (that we would have used in May/June, rescheduled for October).
We had been considering buying direct before the shutdown. I'd like to make heavy use of the Gold annual passholder tickets to save some cash. My plan is that we'll start a 2 year cycle 2021-2022, starting our vacation June 9th 2021, and having another vacation after Memorial Day to June 8th/9th 2022. We're also expecting to take another trip in the fall between those two. Then we'll let our annual passes expire and wait until June 2023 to start the cycle all over again. That works out to $240/person/ticket for each trip if we do 3 trips in a 366 day timeframe. To get access to that annual pass we'd need to buy Direct from Disney at least 100 points, but since we've already bought into Polynesian, we've already made a long commitment, so reducing our spend on parks admission over the long haul is worth consideration.
We were considering buying into Riviera at $188/point for existing owners, but that deal has expired. Riviera has a decent price per point, even though maintenance fees are high, and we really value good transportation options. I haven't ridden Skyliner yet, but my wife has and she really liked it, and I expect I will too. The new welcome back deal seems decent enough, and I've calculated it a few ways. If we buy 100 points, we're paying $190/point (and that price is very close to the price we were already considering). There are the additional price reductions at 125, 150 and 200 points. I calculated the costs of those points (assuming that the first 100 points are $190/point), and if you buy an extra 25 points it's effectively $140/point. If you buy 50 points it's effectively $130/point. At that point the add-on efficiency breaks down (even with the additional discount, an extra 100 points are still $130/point, and at 300 points the extra 200 actually goes up to $137/point). As a result, we're planning to buy 150 points at Riviera, which seems to be a decent balance for us, and those extra 50 points are cheaper than what we paid per point at Polynesian resale. (Another consideration is that it would probably be better to buy somewhere newer than Polynesian, so we don't lose our direct benefits while we still own at Polynesian).
Tonight I applied for a Citi Double Cash Card (2% back on all purchases including DVC). I opted not to get a Disney card because we usually get Disney Gift Cards through Target (5% off), and direct most of our Disney purchases through Disney gift cards.
Has anyone else gone this route, or considered it? I had initially kind of written off the direct purchase option, but it seems that there are ways to make it work out pretty well. I'm also not worried about the resale restrictions, because we're explicitly buying Riviera for the direct benefits, so would hold onto that one and sell Polynesian first if we had to. We haven't committed $$$ yet, so now is the perfect time for us to change our plans if there were better options.
Thanks,
-Derian
We had been considering buying direct before the shutdown. I'd like to make heavy use of the Gold annual passholder tickets to save some cash. My plan is that we'll start a 2 year cycle 2021-2022, starting our vacation June 9th 2021, and having another vacation after Memorial Day to June 8th/9th 2022. We're also expecting to take another trip in the fall between those two. Then we'll let our annual passes expire and wait until June 2023 to start the cycle all over again. That works out to $240/person/ticket for each trip if we do 3 trips in a 366 day timeframe. To get access to that annual pass we'd need to buy Direct from Disney at least 100 points, but since we've already bought into Polynesian, we've already made a long commitment, so reducing our spend on parks admission over the long haul is worth consideration.
We were considering buying into Riviera at $188/point for existing owners, but that deal has expired. Riviera has a decent price per point, even though maintenance fees are high, and we really value good transportation options. I haven't ridden Skyliner yet, but my wife has and she really liked it, and I expect I will too. The new welcome back deal seems decent enough, and I've calculated it a few ways. If we buy 100 points, we're paying $190/point (and that price is very close to the price we were already considering). There are the additional price reductions at 125, 150 and 200 points. I calculated the costs of those points (assuming that the first 100 points are $190/point), and if you buy an extra 25 points it's effectively $140/point. If you buy 50 points it's effectively $130/point. At that point the add-on efficiency breaks down (even with the additional discount, an extra 100 points are still $130/point, and at 300 points the extra 200 actually goes up to $137/point). As a result, we're planning to buy 150 points at Riviera, which seems to be a decent balance for us, and those extra 50 points are cheaper than what we paid per point at Polynesian resale. (Another consideration is that it would probably be better to buy somewhere newer than Polynesian, so we don't lose our direct benefits while we still own at Polynesian).
Tonight I applied for a Citi Double Cash Card (2% back on all purchases including DVC). I opted not to get a Disney card because we usually get Disney Gift Cards through Target (5% off), and direct most of our Disney purchases through Disney gift cards.
Has anyone else gone this route, or considered it? I had initially kind of written off the direct purchase option, but it seems that there are ways to make it work out pretty well. I'm also not worried about the resale restrictions, because we're explicitly buying Riviera for the direct benefits, so would hold onto that one and sell Polynesian first if we had to. We haven't committed $$$ yet, so now is the perfect time for us to change our plans if there were better options.
Thanks,
-Derian
- Our points are all direct. If I had resale, I would have bought the minimum direct for the perks. We like the 
