Ready to Take the Plunge...Advice Needed

[mrsp1030]

After many months of going back and forth, doing our due diligence, etc...my DH and I are about 95% sure we are ready to take the plunge into DVC membership. We are a family of 5, travel to Disney about every 12-18 months, typically rent points and want some control over our reservations. We started renting points years ago to get a feel for the systems and have rented at AKL, VGF, Poly, and WL. Here's the deal and questions. I am contemplating Use Year as our kids are getting older and are preferred travel times would be Summer, Spring Breaks, Thanksgiving and Christmas time frame. Also, I have no desire to buy direct right now due to the limited availability of properties meaning that Copper Creek only sleeps 4 unless you go to 2 bedroom units. Our preferred would be to buy a resale contract and then if any new properties have more flexibility with the party of 5 situation, consider an Add On DIRECT so we can book any new properties. Is this a reasonable way to go considering our current situation? Thank you so much for any help and advice.

 

[Bearval]

After many months of going back and forth, doing our due diligence, etc...my DH and I are about 95% sure we are ready to take the plunge into DVC membership. We are a family of 5, travel to Disney about every 12-18 months, typically rent points and want some control over our reservations. We started renting points years ago to get a feel for the systems and have rented at AKL, VGF, Poly, and WL. Here's the deal and questions. I am contemplating Use Year as our kids are getting older and are preferred travel times would be Summer, Spring Breaks, Thanksgiving and Christmas time frame. Also, I have no desire to buy direct right now due to the limited availability of properties meaning that Copper Creek only sleeps 4 unless you go to 2 bedroom units. Our preferred would be to buy a resale contract and then if any new properties have more flexibility with the party of 5 situation, consider an Add On DIRECT so we can book any new properties. Is this a reasonable way to go considering our current situation? Thank you so much for any help and advice.

Ok, you say you rent points and go every 12 to 18 months so you need to figure out what your 3 year average has been and divide it by 3 to find out how many points you need in a contract plus add 10%. This will allow you to bank and borrow the points you would need for your every 12 to 18 month trips. Do you think at some time you will visit less often? If so , you would want to think about getting a few smaller contracts instead of one large one. You will pay more but you can sell some points and still have what you need, also you can gift them to children easier as separate contracts. One thing to consider is that only points purchased directly can be used for the new resorts none of your resale points can be used even if you buy a direct contract.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

There's not going to be a single perfect UY for spring break, summer, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Feel free to just jump on whatever contract looks good in resale and don't fuss too much on UY. Know your banking deadline for whatever you do buy, you'll be fine.

UY tends to matter more if you knew you were always traveling fall or spring. You're more spread out. And even then, UY is more a fallback insurance than something magic.

 

[kboo]

There's not going to be a single perfect UY for spring break, summer, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Feel free to just jump on whatever contract looks good in resale and don't fuss too much on UY. Know your banking deadline for whatever you do buy, you'll be fine.

Agreed! We now own 2 UY, Feb and August, and both are pretty good. February covers spring break and summer, but doesn't cover Thanksgiving and Christmas. But February works because even if you make a reservation over Thanksgiving or Xmas and then can't go, you could probably rent the points pretty easily even if it were too late to cancel without penalty.

August can work well too, if your "summer" trip can take place in August because then you're covered for every season except spring break.

But I agree with Aurora, there isn't any magic to it and we just took a Thanksgiving trip on February points, and are taking an Easter trip on August points, oh well.

 

[meekey7197]

We have found that our April UY is kind of a pain our son’s spring break is always the last week of March and it looks like I may split the UY next year When we bought we were traveling more often in the fall but now that my son is older he can’t miss as many school days.

 

[MamaBear12]

We’re in a similar situation and are planning to buy Dec UY to include winter break, spring break, and summer. We don’t travel thanksgiving though, so that wasn’t an issue for us. As others have said, you’re going to have a hard time finding a perfect UY for how spread out your travel times are.

Also, we’re buying resale and will only add on direct if we are sure we want to stay at a new resort. That has yet to be determined since I’m not interested in Riviera, so resale is definitely the way to go IMO.

 

[mrsp1030]

We’re in a similar situation and are planning to buy Dec UY to include winter break, spring break, and summer. We don’t travel thanksgiving though, so that wasn’t an issue for us. As others have said, you’re going to have a hard time finding a perfect UY for how spread out your travel times are.

Also, we’re buying resale and will only add on direct if we are sure we want to stay at a new resort. That has yet to be determined since I’m not interested in Riviera, so resale is definitely the way to go IMO.

Thanks! I agree as we prefer the older resorts and as a family of 5, we can't even do 1 one bedroom at copper Creek! I am hoping the Next Reflections Resort may have some options.

 

[rg35]

Thanks! I agree as we prefer the older resorts and as a family of 5, we can't even do 1 one bedroom at copper Creek! I am hoping the Next Reflections Resort may have some options.

I'm skeptical. It seems that DVC is building room occupancy to force larger families to buy enough points to be able to book larger rooms. I also think it's incredibly silly that you have 5 person studios but only 4 person 1 bedrooms - the whole thing is out of wack to me...but I digress.

We bought AKV resale in 2012 (250 points) We are also a family of 5. Our three kids are 10, so 1 BRs have been fine for us thus far. The girls share the pull out couch and our son sleeps on the pull out chair. We visit yearly so I made sure to buy enough points to allow us to stay for 1 week during the summer plus a few days, depending on points charts. Because we wanted to be able to sleep 5 in a 1BR, AKV and OKW were our only real serious considerations. We wound up going with AKV because of the longer contract duration. However, we have stayed at OKW twice and are staying there again this year. My grandparents bought OKW back in the 90's when it first went on sale, so the resort has tons of sentimental value for me. Basically half our stays have been at AKV and half at OKW. I like that the OKW rooms are huge and the points requirements are relatively light, but I like that AKV has two bathrooms in a 1BR. As the kids get older and require more privacy, having only one bathroom is a bit of a pain.

As they get older 1BRs may begin to feel tight, but by then I'll just tell them they can stay home if they don't want to "rough it" haha....I'm definitely not going to fall prey to "addonitis"

 

[zavandor]

I have just checked, I could book for tomorrow an appointment to notarize a document at the London embassy. (however the notay is available only three days a week (Tue to Thu)). So if the seller lives in a city where there is an embassy, it shouldn't take much time at all to have it done.

 

[sndral]

I have just checked, I could book for tomorrow an appointment to notarize a document at the London embassy. (however the notay is available only three days a week (Tue to Thu)). So if the seller lives in a city where there is an embassy, it shouldn't take much time at all to have it done.

Zavandor, did you mean to post this reply in this thread https://www.disboards.com/threads/negatives-buying-resale-when-owner-is-outside-us.3733048/ ?

 

[Disneykate605]

I'm skeptical. It seems that DVC is building room occupancy to force larger families to buy enough points to be able to book larger rooms. I also think it's incredibly silly that you have 5 person studios but only 4 person 1 bedrooms - the whole thing is out of wack to me...but I digress.

We bought AKV resale in 2012 (250 points) We are also a family of 5. Our three kids are 10, so 1 BRs have been fine for us thus far. The girls share the pull out couch and our son sleeps on the pull out chair. We visit yearly so I made sure to buy enough points to allow us to stay for 1 week during the summer plus a few days, depending on points charts. Because we wanted to be able to sleep 5 in a 1BR, AKV and OKW were our only real serious considerations.

Just so you know AKV and OKW are not your only options for a one bedroom that sleeps five...VGF and BLT also sleep 5 ...and BLT also has 2 bathrooms in a 1 bedroom.

 

[rg35]

Just so you know AKV and OKW are not your only options for a one bedroom that sleeps five...VGF and BLT also sleep 5 ...and BLT also has 2 bathrooms in a 1 bedroom.

VGF didn't open until 2013. I don't know if it was on sale in 2012 (I assume it was) but we had firmly settled on not buying direct so it was a non factor/option for us. I wouldn't rule out staying there but given the higher points requirements it's unlikely that we would.

It's true that BLT would have been an option for resale purchase, but we weren't interested in a generic tower hotel setting so we only discussed that one briefly and it's unlikely we would stay there now as owners for that reason.

I agree that I could have been more clear on why we considered the two resorts that I mentioned in my first post.

 

[Disneykate605]

VGF didn't open until 2013. I don't know if it was on sale in 2012 (I assume it was) but we had firmly settled on not buying direct so it was a non factor/option for us. I wouldn't rule out staying there but given the higher points requirements it's unlikely that we would.

It's true that BLT would have been an option for resale purchase, but we weren't interested in a generic tower hotel setting so we only discussed that one briefly and it's unlikely we would stay there now as owners for that reason.

I agree that I could have been more clear on why we considered the two resorts that I mentioned in my first post.

I understand what you mean about VGF using up a lot of points and also about BLT being of no interest to you...I feel the same way, I just wanted to make sure you knew there was other options in case you didn't know. no worries

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

One piece of advice I have is once you figure out the resort you want and the length of your normal trips, try and find the original 2020 point chart for your resort. Not the revised one, but the first one they put out. They reallocated the points needed for studios and 1BRS up a good amount this year. They backed down after a ton of negative feedback, but I'd be shocked if they don't try again with more notice for 2021. Most people have always said a 10% buffer. If I was buying I'd use the higher value of the 2020 original vs 2020 revised and add a 10% buffer to that.

Worst case is you have a few extra points every year...which is a pretty rare complaint.

 

[mrsp1030]

One piece of advice I have is once you figure out the resort you want and the length of your normal trips, try and find the original 2020 point chart for your resort. Not the revised one, but the first one they put out. They reallocated the points need for studios and 1BRS up a good amount this year. They backed down after a ton of negative feedback, but I'd be shocked if they don't try again with more notice for 2021. Most people have always said a 10% buffer. If I was buying I'd use the higher value of the 2020 original vs 2020 revised and add a 10% buffer to that.

Worst case is you have a few extra points every year...which is a pretty rare complaint.

Thanks for that advice. I remember seeing them and now am going to look for them.

 

[mrsp1030]

I'm skeptical. It seems that DVC is building room occupancy to force larger families to buy enough points to be able to book larger rooms. I also think it's incredibly silly that you have 5 person studios but only 4 person 1 bedrooms - the whole thing is out of wack to me...but I digress.

We bought AKV resale in 2012 (250 points) We are also a family of 5. Our three kids are 10, so 1 BRs have been fine for us thus far. The girls share the pull out couch and our son sleeps on the pull out chair. We visit yearly so I made sure to buy enough points to allow us to stay for 1 week during the summer plus a few days, depending on points charts. Because we wanted to be able to sleep 5 in a 1BR, AKV and OKW were our only real serious considerations. We wound up going with AKV because of the longer contract duration. However, we have stayed at OKW twice and are staying there again this year. My grandparents bought OKW back in the 90's when it first went on sale, so the resort has tons of sentimental value for me. Basically half our stays have been at AKV and half at OKW. I like that the OKW rooms are huge and the points requirements are relatively light, but I like that AKV has two bathrooms in a 1BR. As the kids get older and require more privacy, having only one bathroom is a bit of a pain.

As they get older 1BRs may begin to feel tight, but by then I'll just tell them they can stay home if they don't want to "rough it" haha....I'm definitely not going to fall prey to "addonitis"

Thanks for this input. We have 3 boys: 12, 10, 6 so I feel like if they end up not loving the whole sharing a couch idea, they can "rough" it on the floor as they get older!!! We have rented points and stayed at VGF, Poly, Boulder Ridge Villas, BC and AKL. My kids love Poly but I would prefer that for a weekend not a week long stay! I always remind our family we go to Disney enough we don't need to see every single thing ever time anymore so we don't need to be RIGHT on TOP of everything!

 

[rg35]

I always remind our family we go to Disney enough we don't need to see every single thing ever time anymore so we don't need to be RIGHT on TOP of everything!

Yes same. I'm glad our trips aren't filled with FOMO because we know we'll be back next year (or at the longest, two years) so we can take relaxing trips. Our WDW vacations have become more about just enjoying the experience than trying to fit in as many things as we can. It's also nice to see how the kids' reactions to attractions change as they get older (doing something at 5 is much different than doing it at 8 or 9). Eventually that will wear off, but I hope that they never get too cynical to enjoy trips to Disney, although we keep things fresh by doing non-Disney vacations as well. But they're in fifth grade and already getting hit with stuff like "Mickey Mouse is for little kids" and that kind of nonsense so I just tell him that most of the kids say that because they don't get to go every year (or ever) like you do, and you should enjoy what you want to enjoy and not worry what other kids think about it. I've really gone off on a tangent now but ultimately I'm really glad we purchased DVC when we did because our trips have been filled with great memories for all of us and I hope the kids take something away from that.