Purchase cheap resale for cruise/ABD?

[dr&momto2boys]

With the new rules, time is running out for buying resale points and being able to use them for cruises and ABD trips. Has anyone priced out how cheap the points would have to be to make it worth it to purchase a cheap resale contract to use it primarily for this purpose?

It's hard to pass up Vero Beach points for $42! I'm sure our family will cruise and/or go on an ABD trip AT LEAST once every 3 years. (Right now our kids are young so we cruise and do WDW a lot. We have enough points for our WDW stays already. Later, we plan to do ABD trips. So we plan family trips for the next 18 years or so.)

 

[Deb & Bill]

Until DVC moves the date back to every resale.

 

[Brian Noble]

Let's suppose you did that.

My wife and kids are thinking about taking the 7-day Western on 2/18/12. DCL will sell them an inside cabin, cash, for $2,824. But, the cruise on points would cost 368 points, or $7.67 per point. Vero's dues are $6.78, so a difference of about $1. But, Vero's contract expires in 31 years. Even if you *ignored* the opportunity cost of the purchase price, and just divided the $42 by 31 years, you'd *still* be spending more on the DVC contract than you would just paying cash for your cruise.

I suspect the ABD trips are even worse deals.

 

[robertdangelo]

Keep in mind... Vero and HH have the highest Maintenance Fees and they will continue to increase. Keep in mind... Disney has the right to limit point use to Home Resort only at any time. Just be sure that you would be happy there if that happens.

 

[Dean]

With the new rules, time is running out for buying resale points and being able to use them for cruises and ABD trips. Has anyone priced out how cheap the points would have to be to make it worth it to purchase a cheap resale contract to use it primarily for this purpose?

It's hard to pass up Vero Beach points for $42! I'm sure our family will cruise and/or go on an ABD trip AT LEAST once every 3 years. (Right now our kids are young so we cruise and do WDW a lot. We have enough points for our WDW stays already. Later, we plan to do ABD trips. So we plan family trips for the next 18 years or so.)

Maybe BLT at $40 pp. The problem with HH and VB is that the fees are high enough that you'd never make up the difference. For VB, you might actually be losing money every time after MF even if the points were given to you for free. Personally I'd figure the difference between around $6 a point and the fees to get a starting point which would make it where you had to get the points for almost nothing to make it worthwhile for this reason alone. Even then it's very risky because the parameters could, and likely would, change in a negative way over time. In addition to a great price, you'd need DVD to roll the points back for DCL by at least 20-30% to even make it worth considering (assuming the MF will stay stable and not decrease).

 

[Dean]

Keep in mind... Vero and HH have the highest Maintenance Fees and they will continue to increase. Keep in mind... Disney has the right to limit point use to Home Resort only at any time. Just be sure that you would be happy there if that happens.

I'm as cynical and technical as they come when it comes to DVC and timeshares but I don't agree with the statement that they could remove access to other resorts in the club. Certainly there is a chain of events that could make it be true (club ceases to exist or home resort is no longer a member of the club) but as long as the club exists and one's home resort is a member of the club, one will have potential access to other club resorts same as other club members. Even cynical I don't think those are reasonable risks to consider. Technically all of the parks could close as well which means the resorts are close to worthless but I think that too is so unlikely as to not be worth factoring in from a dollar or risk standpoint.

 

[Anthony1971]

I would not consider buying a contract period with cruises in mind.... It is a nice option but one that in most cases be cheaper to book using cash.
Simple answer to see if an exchange is a loss gain or break even: Purchase price divided by number of years left on contrcat when you purchase it plus maint. fees is the price you pay for each point.... yes this ignores time value of money and many other things but for a simple numbers it works.
Also keep in mind that trading for a cruise is a perk for ALL members that can be taken away at anytime... in the end this should not be considered for a reason to buy or not buy a contract you need to want to use the contract for what it is for first and not be disapointed if trading out for ? is taken away...

 

[chalee94]

keep in mind that the cruise point charts are not fixed and change every year...often up.

i would never recommend buying DVC to trade for cruises.