Possible AKL Contract Purchase...

[fwong]

I'm seriously considering a contract with the new Animal Kingdom property...but am scratching my head about about how many points to purchase from DVC directly.

My goal is to be able to visit and stay at a 1BR during the Premier Season (ex: Easter week) every year. This means I need approximately 280-320 points per year. Correct?

Obviously - I want to pay the least amount possible.

If I purchased 200 from DVC directly with AK as my home property. And then added 125 from some other property like Old Key West. Will I be able to combine those two sets of points and spend 325 available points for AK and still treated like those 325 points can be used for AK as my home property? (and be able to make 11-month-in-advance reservations?)

And a side question -- any positive/negative feedback regarding a salesperson named Frank Perez?

 

[poggs]

I'm seriously considering a contract with the new Animal Kingdom property...but am scratching my head about about how many points to purchase from DVC directly.

My goal is to be able to visit and stay at a 1BR during the Premier Season (ex: Easter week) every year. This means I need approximately 280-320 points per year. Correct?

Obviously - I want to pay the least amount possible.

If I purchased 200 from DVC directly with AK as my home property. And then added 125 from some other property like Old Key West. Will I be able to combine those two sets of points and spend 325 available points for AK and still treated like those 325 points can be used for AK as my home property? (and be able to make 11-month-in-advance reservations?)



And a side question -- any positive/negative feedback regarding a salesperson named Frank Perez?

Simple on this. NO!

only home resort points can be used at the 11 month window. ie you could book 4 days at eleven months on the AKV points and then wait until 7 months to try and get the other 3 days.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Since you are set on always doing a holiday week, then you need to have all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. Another scenario might be to own half the points at AKV and the same amount at a less expensive site like SSR or OKW. Then you can use the everyother year scenario and with banking and borrowing, stay at one resort one year, and the other then next.

 

[drusba]

As noted above, with a holiday week you really need the 11 month window and you can only use AKV points at AKV 11 months out. Now for another issue: when you are looking at how many points you should buy, you should seriously consider the level of points needed for "savanna view." The reason: those lower point "value" and "standard view" will be in short supply and thus you may not always be able to get them even at 11 months out at Eastrer time. What will happen is that many will make day to day ressies (calling at 9 a.m. each day) at 11 months out to grab those up. The Savanna view point cost rooms will be between 70% to 75% of all the rooms in the resort. About 25% will be standard and value and value will be only a small proportion of that.

 

[fwong]

Thanks for all the great feedback. I get it now!

 

[Dean]

If your goal is for a 1 BR at AKV yearly for 7 days during premier season you will need in the neighborhood of 250-350, the latter if you're thinking a savannah view which most of the units will be. For the value rooms you would likely need to call day by day at 11 months out. Only you can decide what's best for your situation but to me it depends on how much experience you have with WDW over the years. If you have a hx of going yearly for 10 years then you should really know what to expect. Even if you think you need 350 points, I don't know that I'd buy that right now. You may consider buying more in the 160-200 range and seeing how it goes. You may also want to consider buying in with less and seeing if any new resorts come on board such as the Contemporary and adding on there. Regardless, break up the purchase into smaller contracts if you buy more than the minimum.

 

[hellerjw]

It depends on what time of year you will be going and whether your travel times are dictated by your schedule (ex. kid's school breaks, etc). The major holidays will require more points than a late summer or fall will.

We just bought AKV and went with 200 points. We figured this would give us the ability to book a 1BR for a week most times of the year, or do 2 studio stays for a week each if we wanted to split things up between WDW and something like HH. It also gives us enough points to borrow against if we do want to go during a peak season or try for a 2BR during a non-peak time.

We initially thought about the min. 160 points but during some of the peak times that wouldn't be enough for us without heavy borrowing and limit our ability to go at least once a year for a week in a 1BR.

Each person's needs will be different but we felt the additional buffer those 40 extra points provided us was worth the extra cost initially.

 

[Dean]

It depends on what time of year you will be going and whether your travel times are dictated by your schedule (ex. kid's school breaks, etc). The major holidays will require more points than a late summer or fall will.

The OP specified a 1 BR premier such as Easter which will take a lot more points than other times of the year might.