Pro and con of multiple home resorts

[Roughians_satchel]

This is true unless the Skyliner is down and the return from Epcot in our case was a shared bus with CBR. Not a big deal, but it does add a few extra stops. If you end up walking all the way to the front of Epcot to catch a bus and counting the extra stops, it becomes close to an hour back to Riviera instead of 10 minutes on the Skyliner.

We end up walking over to Boardwalk or BCV and catch an Uber (and we would do the same directly from HS if that line was down.) My husband is pretty averse to the busses - we bought into the RIV the month the went on sale to existing members precisely because he can't handle the bus!

 

[Her Dotness]

I recommend buying a single home resort to start because there's somewhat of an adjustment period for DVC. You can think you know how it all works but will find there are little things that strike you differently than anticipated or that you didn't foresee.

Doing splits right away is not advisable, IMO. There's more coordination to moving resorts than we thought there would be, packing for day-of needs as well as packing everything else. For one thing, it disrupted our touring plan more than we thought it would. We've spent 2-3 hours lounging and snoozing in lobbies more than once which is not that cozy.

With children, being roomless could be a nightmare unless they're all old enough you can drop bags for transfer and spend the day in the parks. A little needing to nap could be difficult indeed to accomplish when you might not get into your new villa until somewhat after 4:00, which can happen even at the less busy times of year. And, then, you might be in but no bags as yet.

All the above is why I advise buying the resort you think you want most and staying there to start. If determined to try a split right away, book only a few nights there and then more elsewhere at 7 months rather than buying two resorts immediately.

 

[Lorana]

I may get there but for now I think I will purchase enough points for a week each year. Initially I will purchase 2 home resorts but only 125 points between the 2. Using those points plus borrowed points to get to 250 for our initial stay. We would do a split stay 3/4.

Once we return I hope to purchase 2 additional resorts again 125 points. I have been reading that some rooms are in bad shape so if I get one of those my wife could decide we need to reconsider.

If things go well I can see adding points if she does not like split stays or an additional resort if she does

The 4 I believe we will purchase are

Copper Creek and Animal Kingdom for when we take our granddaughter

Riviera and Disney Springs for trips where it may only be the two of us

Grand Floridian would be 5th unless for some reason we find a deal that is significantly better than CCV but I don’t see that happening

I like this plan! But maybe I’m biased based on my own plans!

Next year, or maybe early 2024, PVB should be going on sale, if you're looking for a monorail resort and enjoy PVB as well. And the new tower will finally have some 1BR and 2BR accommodations.

Just remember when switching between resorts that you will have a minimum of 5 hours (longer if you check out before 11am) without a room or access to luggage, so just keep that in mind.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

We have always owned two resorts, for reasons people have already mentioned. #1 is that we want 11 mth advantage. I have not had luck at 7 mth because we travel on school breaks. Also, we like to switch it up and not stay at same place every time. Originally, back in 2010, we owned Bay Lake Tower and Animal Kingdom. We've bought and sold contracts, between BCV, BLT, AKV, VGF, and now in the process of selling our AKV to buy Riviera (also own Copper Creek).

Also, we take Uber/Lyft if there is a bus/Skyliner situation and have found that to be very convenient; we also rent a car at times.

 

[tom1944]

I recommend buying a single home resort to start because there's somewhat of an adjustment period for DVC. You can think you know how it all works but will find there are little things that strike you differently than anticipated or that you didn't foresee.

Doing splits right away is not advisable, IMO. There's more coordination to moving resorts than we thought there would be, packing for day-of needs as well as packing everything else. For one thing, it disrupted our touring plan more than we thought it would. We've spent 2-3 hours lounging and snoozing in lobbies more than once which is not that cozy.

With children, being roomless could be a nightmare unless they're all old enough you can drop bags for transfer and spend the day in the parks. A little needing to nap could be difficult indeed to accomplish when you might not get into your new villa until somewhat after 4:00, which can happen even at the less busy times of year. And, then, you might be in but no bags as yet.

All the above is why I advise buying the resort you think you want most and staying there to start. If determined to try a split right away, book only a few nights there and then more elsewhere at 7 months rather than buying two resorts immediately.

Those are very good points to consider

Thank you

 

[tom1944]

I like this plan! But maybe I’m biased based on my own plans!

Next year, or maybe early 2024, PVB should be going on sale, if you're looking for a monorail resort and enjoy PVB as well. And the new tower will finally have some 1BR and 2BR accommodations.

Just remember when switching between resorts that you will have a minimum of 5 hours (longer if you check out before 11am) without a room or access to luggage, so just keep that in mind.

I think I have a plan that would make that work but as they say you never know until circumstances happen how it will really go.

Or as Mike Tyson says everyone has as plan until they get punched in the face.

 

[tom1944]

We have always owned two resorts, for reasons people have already mentioned. #1 is that we want 11 mth advantage. I have not had luck at 7 mth because we travel on school breaks. Also, we like to switch it up and not stay at same place every time. Originally, back in 2010, we owned Bay Lake Tower and Animal Kingdom. We've bought and sold contracts, between BCV, BLT, AKV, VGF, and now in the process of selling our AKV to buy Riviera (also own Copper Creek).

Also, we take Uber/Lyft if there is a bus/Skyliner situation and have found that to be very convenient; we also rent a car at times.

If you take a bus how is the trip from CCV to Epcot?

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

If you take a bus how is the trip from CCV to Epcot?

Maybe 15 min? The last couple time we were in Disney, we rented a car so I can't say for sure. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but Epcot is basically dead center of the Walt Disney World Resort complex. Animal Kingdom is about 20-25 min from MK resorts.

 

[crisi]

For us, we have one home resort and that's worked well. More wouldn't work for us. We only use points every other year (that's PLENTY of Disney for us) so we are banking and borrowing already to get that trip. We don't want to do split stays regularly (we've done a few when we've wanted to - but I don't want to be driven to a split stay). For people who go every year or multiple times a year, I think it can make sense - but I'd also encourage anyone considering DVC to consider if they want to spend that much precious vacation time AT DISNEY. If you do, you do, but understand that when you are spending your vacation at Disney, you aren't spending it in Paris or in New York or in New Orleans or skiing or seeing the Grand Canyon or on a beach in Mexico. Disney is great, there are a lot of great destinations.

Buy the points you need. Be prepared for addonitis (this is great, we should buy more points and spend all our vacations here), and also keep a track running in the back of your head of all your bucket list destinations.

 

[Her Dotness]

If you take a bus how is the trip from CCV to Epcot?

It's been several years since we stayed at WL, so the proverbial grain of salt may apply.

We were very impressed by the bus efficiency from WL to EP and DHS. Which is saying something since DH uses a powerchair and must be loaded and strapped in before others board. Perhaps merely the caliber of guests there then, but we rarely got "stinkeye" looks upon boarding first. In fact, when a group were waiting as DH rolled to the bus stop, people customarily moved aside with smiles so that he had a straight shot to the chair square where an ECV waits for the bus.

Generally, we've felt people staying at CCV/BRV and WL seemed more relaxed. It certainly is a peaceful environment. Maybe that mellows people?

 

[Her Dotness]

...I advise buying the resort you think you want most and staying there to start. If determined to try a split right away, book only a few nights there and then more elsewhere at 7 months rather than buying two resorts immediately.

Another reason not to buy more than one resort to start out in DVC--how you feel staying in a resort can be markedly different than your impression of it having stayed in the hotel side--or even in a DVC-only resort without the owner mindset.

Owning somewhere gives a dramatically different perception of other resorts--one you just don't have when considering buying in. We found we assessed villa layout very differently after experiencing the DVC vs. regular room layouts. In some ways, we live more home-normally in a studio or 1br than a hotel room. That skews our examining another resort for ownership much more than we initially thought it would.

When we decided to add a second resort, we stayed at BRV, having stayed CL at WL previously, considering adding at either CCV or BRV. Actually staying DVC there chilled us on buying either CCV or BRV for various reasons we hadn't thought of. Some were practical. The location of BRV was appealing, but the ramp from the WL lobby to BRV was very noisy and bumpy for DH's powerchair--something we couldn't know without the BRV stay. Looming larger was that we didn't like the overall atmosphere as much as we thought we would.

With the perspective of 5 years of membership, we knew far more what we would likely find convenient and pleasing in another resort so only just added a small BWV contract this year. Our preferences changed substantially once we had owner experience.

In short, we found we weren't as informed about which second resort would better meet our wants and needs as we thought we were starting out in DVC. Experience from the owner's perspective and trying other resorts for a night or two changed our minds dramatically.

 

[GGGT]

We have 5 Home Resorts. We use 4 of them for the 11 month window for seasonal/annual trips. (PVB, BRV, BLT, VGF)

These are in GVs and/or Studios for 12 of us.

Christmas Season: VGF
Thanksgiving: BRV
July 4th: PVB
BLT for Spring Break.

Our other home resort is SSR, we use these as SAPs.

My wife and I also use all of our Home Resorts for trips as well, usually in 1 BRs.

 

[kanerf]

Well, I own a bunch. I own at AKL, BLT, BRV, BWV, RIV and OKW. I love it. I do split stays every trip.