Poly or Grand as a home.

[twins4me]

We just got back from Disney and took the DVC tour. We are a family of 4, kids are 7 and we have stayed at Poly twice, BC, WL and Disney Cruise over the past 5 years. I think we are ready to invest in the DVC but have some questions. We would be traveling during Magic or Premiere season and staying at a studio.

1. Buy direct from disney or from a reseller?
2. Poly or GF as home base?
3. Can we get BC during Magic or Premiere season, if only able to book 7 months out?

 

[disneynutz]

Buy where you love to stay or be prepared to play the booking game.
Buy after staying at the different resorts to determine your favorite or buy SSR knowing that you might be selling in a few years after you find your favorite.
Buy resale if possible to save thousands.
Read the DVC threads here on the DIS to see what you are getting into with a DVC ownership.

Bill

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Bill gives great advice. We just added another contract for VGF for a total of 125 pts so I can get that studio. We love VGF so it is worth the price to us. Again, buy where you want to stay.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Assuming that DVC does make sense and you are able to book well in advance of your visit then unless you know for certain that most if not all of your stays will be at Poly or VGF buy resale. If you enjoy staying at different resorts buy resale. And if your favorite resort is someplace other than Poly or VGF buy resale. My belief is to buy at the cheapest resale resort that you won't mind staying at if you weren't able to switch at 7 months. As far as being able to switch much will depend on the room type and also the time of year in regards to whether it will be easy or more difficult. Magic and premiere might be easier or very difficult (Christmas/New Years=hard).

Using DVC points for cruising takes a lot of points and in most cases you are better off renting out points that you own and using the cash to pay for the cruise if that's a concern about resale.

 

[Dean]

We just got back from Disney and took the DVC tour. We are a family of 4, kids are 7 and we have stayed at Poly twice, BC, WL and Disney Cruise over the past 5 years. I think we are ready to invest in the DVC but have some questions. We would be traveling during Magic or Premiere season and staying at a studio.

1. Buy direct from disney or from a reseller?
2. Poly or GF as home base?
3. Can we get BC during Magic or Premiere season, if only able to book 7 months out?

spend some time getting a feel for your options and limitations. It normally takes about 6 months of active investigation to do so and get over the emotions enough to make a good decision. BCV will likely be difficult during the times you are suggesting. Buying SSR and staying at the studios that are available will be about 49% of the buy in cost and almost as much less year by year. It really comes down to whether you'll be happy with the options available owning SSR or similar vs the higher cost of VGF and the Poly. I'd buy the retail options only if you plan to stay there almost all the time, otherwise buying lower is likely the better choice. If you want BCV most of the time then that is a consideration as well.

 

[Pluto1976]

OP, we are going through a similar decision between GFV and Poly Villas. We would always stay at either one of these resorts so now I am nitpicking the pros/cons of both. My preference right now would be GFV, but I came across some reports of owners not being able to get a studio on the days they want even at the 11-month mark. This would be very frustrating for me because I assumed if I were on the phone at the 11-month mark exactly I would be able to get a studio at my home resort.

Now traverse the 7 Seas Lagoon to the Poly Villas. I did some research and math. There are 47 studios at GFV and 360 studios at the Poly Villas. Since we would almost all the time want a studio it seems like my chances are higher for getting a studio at the Poly Villas as opposed to the GFV studios. If there is a flaw in the aforementioned reasoning, I would love to hear it (i.e. to sway me back to the GFV). Thanks!

 

[Dean]

OP, we are going through a similar decision between GFV and Poly Villas. We would always stay at either one of these resorts so now I am nitpicking the pros/cons of both. My preference right now would be GFV, but I came across some reports of owners not being able to get a studio on the days they want even at the 11-month mark. This would be very frustrating for me because I assumed if I were on the phone at the 11-month mark exactly I would be able to get a studio at my home resort.

Now traverse the 7 Seas Lagoon to the Poly Villas. I did some research and math. There are 47 studios at GFV and 360 studios at the Poly Villas. Since we would almost all the time want a studio it seems like my chances are higher for getting a studio at the Poly Villas as opposed to the GFV studios. If there is a flaw in the aforementioned reasoning, I would love to hear it (i.e. to sway me back to the GFV). Thanks!

This is important at smaller and higher demand resorts like VGF, you may not get what you want at 11 months out at minute one. That is why I feel a fixed week adds considerable value when it makes sense to buy retail anyway. While owning at VGF will give you a leg up, every time you use points somewhere else, including Poly, you are eroding the value of what you bought because you could just as easily have been using SSR, etc. Thus for some it's often a good choice to combine the 2 options of a cheaper points cow and a high end resort. In your exact situation when it's either or and nothing else, it may he best choice at the end of the day but it's a very expensive way to use the 7 month window. Another option is buying both, possibly with fixed weeks at both.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Pros and cons to a fixed week. And the necessity at VGF was not known until as of late. I don't forsee a fixed week as necessary at Poly. Also no way to down size a fixed week in the future where if one buys multiple contracts can easily downsize if necessary.

 

[Dean]

Pros and cons to a fixed week. And the necessity at VGF was not known until as of late. I don't forsee a fixed week as necessary at Poly. Also no way to down size a fixed week in the future where if one buys multiple contracts can easily downsize if necessary.

The only downsides are the loss of the ability to get smaller contracts than the size of a fixed week studio and whether the points totals are close to the requirements for the fixed weeks. To me most people should buy a fixed week or not at all. I can't speak for others but even for Aulani I suggested the option to many.

 

[ziravan]

Now traverse the 7 Seas Lagoon to the Poly Villas. I did some research and math. There are 47 studios at GFV and 360 studios at the Poly Villas. Since we would almost all the time want a studio it seems like my chances are higher for getting a studio at the Poly Villas as opposed to the GFV studios. If there is a flaw in the aforementioned reasoning, I would love to hear it (i.e. to sway me back to the GFV). Thanks!

Pros and cons to a fixed week. And the necessity at VGF was not known until as of late. I don't forsee a fixed week as necessary at Poly. Also no way to down size a fixed week in the future where if one buys multiple contracts can easily downsize if necessary.

About 1 million points, or about 20% of PVB will be Bungalow points. I very much doubt that 20% of points will be used there. So, there will almost certainly be somewhere between 0 and 20% more Poly points chasing studios than available studios once the resort is sold.

The result is going to be a much higher demand for studios at PVB than I think is being expected here. The bungalow points are going to be chasing studio rooms.

Plus, the Poly is getting a top to bottom overhaul.

I wouldn't be convinced that 360 studios is going to equal wide open availability. My guess is 7 months will be a crapshoot and even 11 months will be in demand during the last three months of the year.

As 'dreamin said, this problem wasn't known at VGF until as of late, as it's nearing sell-out. I would hate to buy at Poly and find out in 3 years that, "I should have bought fixed week"...

 

[Fantasia79]

Bill gives great advice. We just added another contract for VGF for a total of 125 pts so I can get that studio. We love VGF so it is worth the price to us. Again, buy where you want to stay.

Ha! I just added more points to be at 125 at the Grand!

Do your research and see what's right for you and your family.

My wife and I love the Poly, but it just didn't make sense for avaibility and room choice. If we get to stay there every few trips, awesome.

If you're planning on staying at one resort consistently, buy there. If you're fine trying to stay at that special resort every once in a while, but save serious cash, buy at a different resort and buy resale.

 

[Tunseeker1]

We just got back from Disney and took the DVC tour. We are a family of 4, kids are 7 and we have stayed at Poly twice, BC, WL and Disney Cruise over the past 5 years. I think we are ready to invest in the DVC but have some questions. We would be traveling during Magic or Premiere season and staying at a studio.

1. Buy direct from disney or from a reseller?
2. Poly or GF as home base?
3. Can we get BC during Magic or Premiere season, if only able to book 7 months out?

We are in the process of adding on right now. (I am on the couch at VGF!)
I have resale and direct contracts currently.

The price difference for us for resale and direct is about 20-50 a point for a small VGF and most are stripped.
There are no PV resales.

If I wait till the resales hit PV they might be the same price as today direct.

We are leaning towards PV direct because I want around 85 points based on how we vacation and there are no 85 point contracts resale.
The biggest is the number of studios at both. My wife said she would be mad to get VGF and not get the weeks we want.

 

[ncurley]

You might consider buying both but only half the points you would need per contract, and bank/borrow to switch resorts each year. There are minimum points purchase requirements direct but if you buy VGF first resale, you could buy a small 50 point + contract and later add on Poly (direct is the only option at this point). You would need to sign up for emails with the resale companies and be ready to pay asking or close to it.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

The fixed week option is so new to DVC that it just is not being considered by many. Will the fixed week option be available for all future new DVC resorts? Will it really be necessary at every new resort? These are hard questions to try and answer with no previous fixed week history. So far, starting with VGF, the answers are yes. PVB will provide more data once it's close to sell out. But what to do in the meantime?