Points!

[Chuck S]

Mom and I purchase 345 points direct between 1992 and 1996, we started in studios for 2 trips a year, and then added enough points for a one bedrooms twice a year. Sometime we'd take friends and family and get two studios. Always having a few extra to bank.

Now since Mom passed 10 years ago, I have used my points differently. Sometimes I go solo or with a friend in a one bedroom, a few years ago I reserved two-two bedrooms and a one bedroom for a group trip of 16. This year, I've booked a GV and a two bedroom over Thanksgiving for a group of 11. That used all of my banked June 2020 points, my 2021 points, and I borrowed 19 points from 2022. I plan on booking a one bedroom in June 2022 for myself and a friend at OKW, and hopefully switching to a one bed Savannah View at Kidani at 7 months.

 

[Happy2BMommy0812]

It sounds like you guys are young and just starting out (you mentioned no kids yet but want them eventually). As a couple or later a couple with young kids, I think 150 is plenty for 1-2 trips per year. We almost bought in before we had kids, but backed out because financially, we were not in a place where we could pay cash, and that’s the only way we were willing to own DVC. When our boys were 7 and 4 we were more established in our careers and bought 150 at Poly when it opened. We stayed in studios only and had plenty of space, usually using our points to do a 8 night stay at Poly each October. Now my boys are 13 and 10. Also, our own parents aging, we try to bring them with us when possible now, just to make memories while we can. So, We feeing a bit tight in a studio, especially with the teenager (and if a grandparent came, the studio was not doable at all), so we added 150 at Riviera so we could do a split stay between the resorts and book 2 studios at Poly and a 1-2 bedroom at Riviera (or, play around and book something entirely different at the 7 month mark).

I’d say 150 is plenty when you are starting out. It keeps the initial buy in doable and the annual dues more than manageable. Until you have kids and they grow older, studios are really just fine in my opinion. I foresee us adding a 3rd contract down the road so that as our boys have their own families we can book 3 bedrooms or multiple rooms for larger family vacations. We’ve even considered gifting each of them 1 of our current contracts down the road, so we’d want a 3rd for us. We’ll probably wait and see what the next resort is and maybe buy there. Or, if we don’t want to gift the contracts (meaning we keep our blue card status), maybe we’d buy a large resale contract somewhere.

All that being said, consider your current financial situation. When we first considered buying, it was at SSR and we were offered 160 points for about $13K. I’m a teacher, my husband was just starting his career, we had just bought a house and we did not have $13K to just pay out of pocket comfortably. 7 years later we bought 150 at Poly for just under $25K, so twice the price and less points. But we could pay it comfortably. It still pains me sometimes to think of how much cheaper we could have bought it, but overall I have no regrets waiting. We are not big SSR people, but huge Poly people and the timing felt right the second time around. In addition, the SSR contract expires in 2054 and our Poly in 2066, so we will have more years of use out of it with our boys and their families down the line.

That being said prices will only go up. So if you have plenty of cash to burn, go for it. For us, we decided to find a balance of having only what we would use while not hurting our daily budgeting at home.

 

[carone0318]

We currently own 474pt across 3 resorts. We originally bought 150pts at BWV back in 1999, then quickly added on another 50pts at BWV. We were young and had an about to turn 3 daughter. Shortly thereafter that we bought at HH (2 contracts) 174pts. We never used those pts at HH, always went to WDW. Our son came along in 2001 and the 374pts worked for us. We always went to WDW for about 9 or 10 days, once a yr. We'd buy the AP in Aug and then return back the next yr in June/July. Wash, rinse, repeat. We'd usually get a 2bdrm, we'd bring family and friends with us. When son turned 11 I decided I wanted to go to other places. We've done "other than Disney" trips. We've done a trip to Disneyland, using pts to stay at VGC and then we drove up to San Francisco and I used pts at the Fairmont in SF. We did our first trip to HH when my son was about 12, our daughter was 16. We love going to HH (me more so than my dh). I will say that I enjoy HH more with friends, I think it would be kind of boring if just my immediate family went. When we went last yr, my son brought his gf, my daughter brought her bf and a couple of friends of theirs came as well. We had tons of fun.

In the past few years, we do lots of outside trips due to my husband's job, but we do still go to Disney. We will do more trips yearly than we used to. We just do them for shorter times, like 4 or 5 nights. We tend to get 2 bdrms because we do allow our kids to bring their boyfriends/girlfriends (makes their trips more enjoyable). Since we don't always plan these trips 11 months out, we have ended up at SSR for a few of these trips. I fell in love with SSR, so much so that I have wanted to buy pts there. I had held off because I was waiting for our son to finish college. Well.... we ended up buying 100pts at SSR in Feb. My life was fine with the 374pts that we had owned up to this point, but I have to admit that the 50% borrowing restriction put a damper on me, so we decided not to wait and bought now. It was hard to swallow the price per point, compared to what I bought back in 1999, but I have tried to block that drama out of mind. ha ha

My kids have grown up going to Disney, they have loved all of the trips. I am fortunate that they love Disney and always want to go back. I do read where so folks have kids who lose interest, thankfully I can't speak to that. My points will never go to waste and once they are more settled in their adult lives, I do plan to add their names to the contracts. I also love that our best friends own (they were the ones who took us on their points back in 1999 and we bought while on that trip) and my brother owns points too. We have started going down in Nov with him and his family, kind of fun to eat and drink our way around the world with our adult kids and our nephews. My son turns 21 in Feb and he wants to go to Disney for his birthday and go to Jellyrolls (sadly, I'm not sure if it will be open). I guess we are DVC happy enders!

 

[Evita_W]

206? I feel like there must be a story there in that number? FYI we are also VGC & Riviera - YAAASS!! Trying to decide on home #3. DL Tower or VGF. We have time to decide as we pay off our current points - haha.

Yeah, we originally needed it for a specific trip and it turned out the 6 extra points have saved us time and time again from needing to buy OTU points, so we bought the same number again since it worked well for us and DH vacation time doubled.

 

[lundve]

Hi - we bought our first contract of 150 SSR points in 2004 before we had kiddos. In 2017 we added 100 more points (same UY and resort) once the kiddos had grown and we realized that we like to start our stay for a few days in a studio and finish our trip in a one bedroom. To us, 250 is the perfect number. We’ve hardly stayed in SSR though, and with proper planning haven’t really had a problem booking elsewhere. We are excited however, to stay at SSR and see the refurbished rooms in July.

 

[MonaMN]

We are new owners and just bought 150 points as well. We generally travel with our little family of three, but it turns out that we have family friends that want to go next year - so it will be new experiences on multiple fronts!

 

[LYSE]

375 (200 PVB, 175 CCV) - we started with studios to maximize our time but man the 1 bedrooms are nice there's 3 of us (4 y/o princess)

We had a bit of an excess in points due to covid so we recently did a tree house villa / cascade cabin split stay (we invited family to join) and now I just want more points to do that more often.

 

[10CJ]

Congrats!

We often travel as a party of six. Two grandparents, two parents, two children and book 2 bedrooms. We do have our first Grand Villa booked for this year because we have banked points to use due to covid.

 

[Lisa51683]

We're empty nester. We own more points than necessary at 4 different resorts. We typically travel with extended family and book 2BRs or GVs.

So... How big is your family and how do you intend to spend your points?

is there any downside to owning at different resorts? We are trying to decide to purchase through Disney or through resale and one option we considered was buy Riviera direct for the minimum points and then resale at Poly for the remainder of the points we want. Do you see any downside to this?

 

[CarolynFH]

is there any downside to owning at different resorts? We are trying to decide to purchase through Disney or through resale and one option we considered was buy Riviera direct for the minimum points and then resale at Poly for the remainder of the points we want. Do you see any downside to this?

When you say ”for the remainder of the points we want,” what do you mean? Usually when people own more than one resort, it’s because they want to have the 11-month booking advantage at both resorts. In other words, they’d have enough points at Riviera to book the Riviera villa they want for the number of nights they want at 11 months, and they’d have enough Poly points to book Poly at 11 months. Points from the two resorts can’t be used together until 7 months out. And Riviera and Poly points are kind of expensive if you don’t want to book either one at 11 months and just want to book whatever’s available at 7 months.

 

[kanerf]

432 and just me! I do like to go multiple times per year and usually stay for 10 nights each.

 

[Lisa51683]

When you say ”for the remainder of the points we want,” what do you mean? Usually when people own more than one resort, it’s because they want to have the 11-month booking advantage at both resorts. In other words, they’d have enough points at Riviera to book the Riviera villa they want for the number of nights they want at 11 months, and they’d have enough Poly points to book Poly at 11 months. Points from the two resorts can’t be used together until 7 months out. And Riviera and Poly points are kind of expensive if you don’t want to book either one at 11 months and just want to book whatever’s available at 7 months.

I guess I was thinking of doing 125pts at each resort because I have read that buying at the Riviera is not as good because the points will decline in value because of the resale restrictions in place. I considered buying the full amount of points at the Poly direct but its a lot more expensive, which led me to the idea of splitting the two resorts. I am new to researching this and I definitely don’t know all of the ins and outs. Looking for advice

 

[CarolynFH]

I guess I was thinking of doing 125pts at each resort because I have read that buying at the Riviera is not as good because the points will decline in value because of the resale restrictions in place. I considered buying the full amount of points at the Poly direct but its a lot more expensive, which led me to the idea of splitting the two resorts. I am new to researching this and I definitely don’t know all of the ins and outs. Looking for advice

Well, you’ve come to the right place for advice! If you’ve been reading this thread then you know a lot of people own more than one resort, again because they want to be able to book at 11 months at each of them. BTW If you want to buy direct, you don’t have to buy Riviera - you could buy SSR or OKW direct for less money than Riviera - but SSR/OKW points won’t really help you if you want to stay at Riviera! Anyway, what I really want to say is to make sure that 125 points at Riviera will let you book the villa size you want during the season you want and for the length of stay that you want, and then also make sure that 125 points at Poly will let you book what you want there as well.

 

[Marionnette]

is there any downside to owning at different resorts? We are trying to decide to purchase through Disney or through resale and one option we considered was buy Riviera direct for the minimum points and then resale at Poly for the remainder of the points we want. Do you see any downside to this?

The downside would be that during the home resort booking period, you cannot use points from Resort A to complete a reservation at Resort B and visa versa.

You should also be aware that if you were to purchase Poly resale (or any O14 resort) those resale points cannot be used for a reservation at RIV or any future DVC resort.

Before you buy RIV "for the minimum points", make sure that you know what those points will get you. Check the points charts for RIV and consider the seasons that you are most likely to travel. Your purchase should be enough points to get the type of room you want during your most expensive travel season.

 

[Sandisw]

I guess I was thinking of doing 125pts at each resort because I have read that buying at the Riviera is not as good because the points will decline in value because of the resale restrictions in place. I considered buying the full amount of points at the Poly direct but its a lot more expensive, which led me to the idea of splitting the two resorts. I am new to researching this and I definitely don’t know all of the ins and outs. Looking for advice

Personally, I think the concern for resale value for RIV is a little overstated based on what has been happening so far.

It is a different product and who knows what will happen in 10 to 15 years, but that can be said for all resorts because if DVD starts doing things differently, all resales could drop.

Now, I would not recommend RIV for anyone who doesn't see it being a place they want to be. I don’t recommend anyone buy any DVC resort they would be frustrated with if they couldn’t trade out.

So, if you want two home resorts because you want to split stay or alternate each year or trips, then it’s great.

But, DVC costs too much to get into something that might disappoint you.

 

[10CJ]

I guess I was thinking of doing 125pts at each resort because I have read that buying at the Riviera is not as good because the points will decline in value because of the resale restrictions in place. I considered buying the full amount of points at the Poly direct but its a lot more expensive, which led me to the idea of splitting the two resorts. I am new to researching this and I definitely don’t know all of the ins and outs. Looking for advice

What size room do you plan to book? When do you plan to travel? I don't think 125 points at Riviera will go very far. I agree that you should look at the Riviera point chart before making any decisions. Are you open to split stays?

 

[Sandisw]

What size room do you plan to book? When do you plan to travel? I don't think 125 points at Riviera will go very far. I agree that you should look at the Riviera point chart before making any decisions. Are you open to split stays?

That 125 will get you at least 5 nights most of the year in a studio in either view...a full week if you can get the SV and travel during the first three travel periods

So, it’s not as bad as people think...of course, they don’t go as far as other resorts...but again, if you want to stay there, you can get a nice trip every year.

 

[bwvBound]

I just purchased 150 points DVC!

I am generally curious, how many points do you own? How big is your family? What type of rooms do you stay in at what time of year?

Congratulations!

• 335 @ SSR and other timeshare with locations mostly in Western US. First DVC purchase was in 2004 for 150 points.
• Just the two of us.
• Our "go-to" unit is a 1BR as we love having the kitchen, laundry and a door between bedroom and living room. I'm an early bird while hubby is a night owl.
  We have also enjoyed sharingf 2BR units with family, 1 Grand Villa (3BR) stay with family, 1 Cabin (just the two of us), and a scatting of studio stays. (Not a big fan of studio ... but sometimes you book "what is available" vs "what you might have 1st wanted).
  We've also used our points for DCL (twice) and the Concierge Collection (twice: Manhattan Club 11/2103; Hotel Del Coronado 2/2021).
• For WDW, our travel window typically avoids summer months ... our most frequently visited month is January for a work-related tech conference. (The conference was the reason for purchasing DVC.)
  For DLR, we go anytime, year round. If we go together, we generally stay 2 nights in nearby, off-site timeshare.
  For Aulani or other Hawaii, Sept seems to be our favorite month ... but we'll go anytime.

TIP: Learn how to use the system!

• Learn how your Use Year (UY) works.
• Learn the banking/borrowing rules and deadlines.
• Learn the cancellation deadlines.
• Don't get hung up on 1 particular unit type. Assume you will, at times, need to book "what is available" over your first choice.
• Learn how to use the Waitlist!! Learn how it can replace an existing reservation. (This helps you work around the "book available vs desired" issue. Book the one available and waitlist your preferred choice with action to have the waitlist cancel the backup reservation.)
• Speaking of backup reservations ... always assume you'll need backup plans. If you can't get your 1st choice of resort location for a given date ... cast a wide net and book a different location!
• Keep engaged with the DVC community. We've got plenty of experience to share

 

[LSchrow]

started with 270 BWV in 1999 (family of 4, 1 week in late summer, 1 bdrm).
Once the "kids" were grown, we started going as 2 (husband or daughter & myself, for a week, every Spring & Fall).......and added more points.
Over the years, we decided 2 weeks at a time, twice a year (4 weeks total), and 1 bdrms suited us better......and added more points.
When Riviera started selling, we finally fell in love again , so now we have enough (1060pts) for my month in 1 bdrms, plus our son & his fiancée for 2 weeks in Studios. We sometimes bring along extra people (cousin, nephew, friends, etc).....just because )

 

[Disneypapa]

20+ years of ownership at OKW, 200 points
Usually stay in 2BR condo in late May to early June. DIL is school teacher.