Recent experience in selling BWV contract

[mustinjourney]

We bought APs when they were briefly for sale in 2021. Without an AP, I probably would be selling right now, honestly. Without an AP, I couldn't do WDW the way I want to. I have a whole lot of points and do multiple trips for a few days. There is no way I would have bought day tickets for how we travel, frequently half days at parks or hopping for a couple hours here and there. If APs can't be renewed at all, then I'll do a Halloween party for a night and go Universal, probably. That's a question for a year from now.

I had planned to sell a contract, I bought more in peak Covid and planned to sell my old points. But now pricing seems too low. I actually made a couple spec reservations to rent out later in the year on Facebook if I can't use all my points. It's not how I saw myself using my DVC, but here we are.

There are plenty of posts here from plenty of DVC members frustrated with no APs and members selling because of all the changes. I don't think it's much of a logical stretch to see how something this major could cause people to sell.

my parents bought in 2018 or 2019, and they're fed up with the whole Genie+ and getting nickeled and dimed now. They're seriously considering selling.

 

[mustinjourney]

No doubt. The key word is "some."

I also see many posts and comments from owners saying that AP's mean nothing to them.

To each their own, right?

I agree with you -- I'm fairly certain it's not the cause of the flood of sellers -- but it is likely causing some increased supply and reduced demand as well.

 

[mustinjourney]

Could be. I also think many informed prospective buyers are waiting to see how further the floor will be on various resorts.

in summary -- there are many factors that are all contributing to increased supply and decreased demand...and it's impossible to quantify how much each factor is contributing.

 

[Matty B13]

MattyB! I remember us both buying VGF at the same time back in 2016. So funny.

Are you now completely out of DVC, or just downsizing holdings?

No, we made a rookie mistake when we bought our first VGF contract with the wrong UY for us (June), and now have enough February VGF points to go once every other year. But it would have been nice to use that June UY in the Fall and get a long 3-4 day weekend at WDW, unfortunately with the huge price increases and no AP, no Magic Express, and no free FastPasses we decided that once a year is enough for us.

So in summary, we more or less have about the same points we have had since 2020, just a better UY for us with the school vacations.

 

[AstroBlasters]

It seems like most of the gripes (which all sound valid) are on the WDW side.

I’ll be doing a cash stay at the Westin for spring break/food and wine festival next Month. This will be our last off property stay because we will be at VGC or VDH from now on!

We are going to be sitting in my Ocean Front Aulani Grand Villa in August with a Mai Thai in hand and without a care in the world about APs.

We will then go to the Grand Cal in October for 4 nights ready to watch a USC football game, trick or treat with the kids at Oogie Boogie in DCA, and enjoy the park in all of its Holliday themed glory. We have friends/family who love to come up and visit us for a day in the park or join us for a meal at Napa Rose.

Then the following March we will try and score a 2BD at Grand Flo or Boardwalk (likely only garden view, but you never know) and enjoy WDW.

Sounds like heaven to our family!

 

[RoseGold]

It seems like most of the gripes (which all sound valid) are on the WDW side.

I’ll be doing a cash stay at the Westin for spring break/food and wine festival next Month. This will be our last off property stay because we will be at VGC or VDH from now on!

We are going to be sitting in my Ocean Front Aulani Grand Villa in August with a Mai Thai in hand and without a care in the world about APs.

LOL, for the Aulani gripes you have to go to the last few pages of the cold lazy river thread:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/beware-of-very-cold-lazy-river.3904144/post-64578509

​

​

 

[sndral]

Four pages later, and no one has mentioned the APs. Major, major issue IMO. I don't understand who would buy this who doesn't have/can't get an AP. I wouldn't have even considered it.

This is a major structural change that makes owners unable to use DVC as much as they want, and it casts a serious shadow over Disney's current decisions. There are a non-zero number of owners selling right now because they have given up on APs.

As long as there are no APs, the product of DVC doesn't make sense to me to purchase, unless you want to rent out points. Or, I guess you're the every other year type or something. Even then, I'm not sure why you would buy into this. By the listings, I'm not the only one thinking this.

We go once a year usually for 10 or 11 days, we went for 14 this holiday season. We’ve had APs & they’ve saved us varying amounts, but they aren’t a deal breaker - especially at the most recent renewal price. The price of tickets/ APs is really just a drop in the expense bucket for us when you have to add Genie+ & ILLs every day, MFs, airfare fluctuation, dinning expenses, etc.. I suspect that people who do multiple visits per year are more upset at the AP situation than the one big visit a year types like me & I don’t know the % of DVC owners who fall into each camp. Then there are those who rent out their points & likely don’t care about APs.
What troubles me most is the dramatic increase in crowds in the parks & that LL seem to make for even longer standby lines than FPs did. My feeling is that I’m paying more for far less certainty when it comes to whether I’ll be able to ride what I want. We talked about selling during our 2021 trip, the crowds & lines were that awful, but decided to ride it out (and even bought a few more points) 2022 was better, not as good as say 2019, but better, so we’ll keep our points. I wonder how many have gone during the new era & had the thoughts that we had in 2021 & decided to sell.

 

[AstroBlasters]

LOL, for the Aulani gripes you have to go to the last few pages of the cold lazy river thread:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/beware-of-very-cold-lazy-river.3904144/post-64578509

​

​

I’m not concerned about a few people that are complaining about some pool heaters being a degree or two off their preference and am quite confident it won’t be an issue in August.

We went on a cash stay in October 22 and everything was perfect.

I have to imagine that a Grand Villa Ocean Front will be even better than the Parlor Suite.

 

[sndral]

It seems like most of the gripes (which all sound valid) are on the WDW side.
…
We will then go to the Grand Cal in October for 4 nights ready to watch a USC football game, trick or treat with the kids at Oogie Boogie in DCA, and enjoy the park in all of its Holliday themed glory. We have friends/family who love to come up and visit us for a day in the park or join us for a meal at Napa Rose.
…

We were at the Grand Cal this October - the lines to get into the park for early morning were insane, security at DL/DCA is still metal detectors & hand searches & the morning lines to get out of the hotel lobby through security into DTD/DL & DCA were nuts - they don’t segregate regular entry from resort guests, thus you’ll wait half an hour to get through security from the lobby in the a.m. & then more time at the DL entry turnstiles. The lobby is jam packed on Oogie Boogie nights w/ the line snaking through it for DCA. The parks were crazy crowded.

 

[tidefan]

I’m not concerned about a few people that are complaining about some pool heaters being a degree or two off their preference and am quite confident it won’t be an issue in August.

We went on a cash stay in October 22 and everything was perfect.

I have to imagine that a Grand Villa Ocean Front will be even better than the Parlor Suite.

We will be going for our 3rd time in 3 years this summer! Aulani really is amazing, especially on DVC points. Now, we are staying in a 2-Bdrm, which is nice enough, but I've had the pleasure of being able to tour a GV. They are amazing and the views are the best in all of DVC (IMHO). Enjoy!

Enjoy your Mai Tai (FYI, you can get pretty good pre-made ones at the Costco...)

 

[AstroBlasters]

We were at the Grand Cal this October - the lines to get into the park for early morning were insane, security at DL/DCA is still metal detectors & hand searches & the morning lines to get out of the hotel lobby through security into DTD/DL & DCA were nuts - they don’t segregate regular entry from resort guests, thus you’ll wait half an hour to get through security from the lobby in the a.m. & then more time at the DL entry turnstiles. The lobby is jam packed on Oogie Boogie nights w/ the line snaking through it for DCA. The parks were crazy crowded.

We have been in October and have the expectation of a very crowded park, which makes staying at VGC even more valuable in my eyes.

I assume most of the attractions will be during the first 2 hours of the day and the last 2 hours of the day with nothing but fast pass (Genie) or downtime at the hotel in between.

Going for 3-5 days also takes the pressure off having to hit a certain ride on a certain day. Parking hopping at 11am also is a big win.

For food, my wife is a master of the 6am 60 day reservation.

My overall point is that there are a lot of reasons to buy into DVC today and I just wanted to give a personal example.

 

[beldred]

Four pages later, and no one has mentioned the APs. Major, major issue IMO. I don't understand who would buy this who doesn't have/can't get an AP. I wouldn't have even considered it.

This is a major structural change that makes owners unable to use DVC as much as they want, and it casts a serious shadow over Disney's current decisions. There are a non-zero number of owners selling right now because they have given up on APs.

As long as there are no APs, the product of DVC doesn't make sense to me to purchase, unless you want to rent out points. Or, I guess you're the every other year type or something. Even then, I'm not sure why you would buy into this. By the listings, I'm not the only one thinking this.

APs aren't important to every DVC owner/buyer. Maybe not even half of them. I get the frustration of people with thousands of points who go to WDW all throughout the year and need APs to do so. I feel for ya. But it has zero effect on me personally. I imagine there's a lot of DVC owners out there like my family who go once a year or every other year.

We go roughly every 18 months (alternating late Oct-Nov and Jan/Feb) for 7-9 days. We've been going to WDW for 20 years like this and never had an AP. It wouldn't benefit us. We bought DVC to use in our regular fashion. We can now stay in deluxe-ish accommodations for the same or less than we've been paying for Pop. Sure we'll miss the promo's that lined up with our dates about 50% of the time but in theory our rooms are better and we don't have to circle like a vulture when a promo comes out.
Anyway, my point is, not everyone is using DVC the same way you are.
My bigger issues with WDW is the over-crowding, the wretched Genie+ and ILL's, and the constant price hikes in tickets & food. What used to be once a year increases are now about every quarter it seems. I don't love park reservations but if they helped with the crowds I could support them. But they don't even do that. Those are the things that make me want to consider using my DVC at Aulani or renting out for a cruise at some point.

 

[AstroBlasters]

APs aren't important to every DVC owner/buyer. Maybe not even half of them. I get the frustration of people with thousands of points who go to WDW all throughout the year and need APs to do so. I feel for ya. But it has zero effect on me personally. I imagine there's a lot of DVC owners out there like my family who go once a year or every other year.

We go roughly every 18 months (alternating late Oct-Nov and Jan/Feb) for 7-9 days. We've been going to WDW for 20 years like this and never had an AP. It wouldn't benefit us. We bought DVC to use in our regular fashion. We can now stay in deluxe-ish accommodations for the same or less than we've been paying for Pop. Sure we'll miss the promo's that lined up with our dates about 50% of the time but in theory our rooms are better and we don't have to circle like a vulture when a promo comes out.
Anyway, my point is, not everyone is using DVC the same way you are.
My bigger issues with WDW is the over-crowding, the wretched Genie+ and ILL's, and the constant price hikes in tickets & food. What used to be once a year increases are now about every quarter it seems. I don't love park reservations but if they helped with the crowds I could support them. But they don't even do that. Those are the things that make me want to consider using my DVC at Aulani or renting out for a cruise at some point.

Aloha!

 

[Sammie]

7 pages later, a few thoughts.

* When are all those griping going to stop going. I am so waiting on that day.

* I think studios never reflected the true value of DVC versus booking Disney resorts with a discount. My dues are thousands less than a stay in a 2 bedroom even with a discount which is hardly ever offered on a 2 bedroom deluxe villa. Two bedrooms would be out of our price range without DVC and it's why we bought.

* What is revenge travel?

* I could care less about the annual pass situation. I do wish they would offer a flat discount on all ticket media. To me that is greater perk.

 

[DonMacGregor]

7 pages later, a few thoughts.

* When are all those griping going to stop going. I am so waiting on that day.

* I think studios never reflected the true value of DVC versus booking Disney resorts with a discount. My dues are thousands less than a stay in a 2 bedroom even with a discount which is hardly ever offered on a 2 bedroom deluxe villa. Two bedrooms would be out of our price range without DVC and it's why we bought.

* What is revenge travel?

* I could care less about the annual pass situation. I do wish they would offer a flat discount on all ticket media. To me that is greater perk.

When I was a kid, my dad's barbershop (I think everyone's dad went there) had three topics of discussion: guns, golf, and Cadillacs.

Here, it's AP's, thin toilet paper, and ugly refurbs...

 

[MarkNC2Disney]

When I was a kid, my dad's barbershop (I think everyone's dad went there) had three topics of discussion: guns, golf, and Cadillacs.

Here, it's AP's, thin toilet paper, and ugly refurbs...

Ya, pool heaters came it went, we hope…

 

[DonMacGregor]

Ya, pool heaters came it went, we hope…

Never understood the need for pool heaters in Hawaii, especially on the leeward side of Oahu.

 

[DisneyDad0315]

LOL, for the Aulani gripes you have to go to the last few pages of the cold lazy river thread:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/beware-of-very-cold-lazy-river.3904144/post-64578509

​

​

I own at Aulani and read that thread. I was cracking up when a DVC owner took a temperature reader to verify if the lazy river was actually cold LOL

 

[RoseGold]

The cold pool thread is really heating up LOL.

 

[mustinjourney]

7 pages later, a few thoughts.

* When are all those griping going to stop going. I am so waiting on that day.

* I think studios never reflected the true value of DVC versus booking Disney resorts with a discount. My dues are thousands less than a stay in a 2 bedroom even with a discount which is hardly ever offered on a 2 bedroom deluxe villa. Two bedrooms would be out of our price range without DVC and it's why we bought.

* What is revenge travel?

* I could care less about the annual pass situation. I do wish they would offer a flat discount on all ticket media. To me that is greater perk.

Revenge travel refers to people going on vacations (often more expensive than normal) following Covid restrictions ending.