Recent First Time DVC Purchaser - Back from "Welcome Home" Stay

vicarrieous

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 12, 2015
I am not sure if this is the right place to plop this entry, but I appreciated the info and comradery from those on this section of the forum over the past 6 months, that I had to come back and express a few of my thoughts now that I am through the process and have used my points.

A little backstory...

Hubs and I rented DVC points for 5 trips prior to deciding we were ready to purchase. We made an offer in late January of 2020 and had points early April (74 days). We were lucky to find a contract that was approximately the right use year with the right amount of points and better yet was loaded with 2019/2020/2021 and beyond points. This meant we had some points to use quickly as soon as our contract loaded. We knew we wouldn't be able to book our home resort (Beach Club) so late notice, but we did get into a Standard Studio at the Poly for 7 nights in early July. I dubbed this our "Welcome Home" stay merely because it was our FIRST trip staying on our points. We did not utilize MS to book this trip.

Our only real worry while we were purchasing was our internal debate on home resort. For our past trips, we had pretty much exclusively stayed at the Beach Club. We knew we LOVED it, but wondered if there was another location that we would love more as we hadn't stayed or really visited many of the other DVC resorts. We did stay one night at AKL, POLY & BWV as add on's but felt that we never really toured/experienced the resort. We knew we would be paying a tad more for BCV with less years on a contract, but we knew if we ever wanted to stay there, we needed to buy there.

After our 8 day/7 night stay at the Poly, we can whole heartily say we chose the RIGHT home resort. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed our stay at the Poly, but we missed the Beach Club. We also made a point to stop and eat and look around at some other DVC resorts. We went to BLT, AKL, GFV, and Wilderness Lodge. While these were all great properties, none swayed us from the Beach Club.

We also ran into many other members. It was neat to see the "home resort" pride many had and how many were eager to hear about your contract and buying journey.

Overall, we had a great first trip as owners despite the heat and crowds, but we are VERY excited to have our first home resort "welcome home" stay at the Beach Club in Jan 2022. (Can I say that the add-on-itis is REAL?!?! - I want like 75 more points ;) )

I guess the point of this post is to state "Thank You!" to everyone who commiserated and shared insights while we were purchasing. While it often was a painful wait, the outcome of using your points is a great reward.
 
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Congrats on your first stay!

Choosing where you want to stay is one of the most important decisions in picking a Home Resort.

I tried to convince my Wife that we should get Saratoga points due to logical choices of price and length of Contract.
She was Adamant that it was either
Boardwalk or Beach Club due to we spend the most time at HS and EPCOT.

I pretty much thank her every time we go to Boardwalk as we ended choosing with our Hearts and it was 100% the right decision.

Good luck with the addonitis
I believe they have an ointment for that.
 
Congrats on your first stay!

Choosing where you want to stay is one of the most important decisions in picking a Home Resort.

I tried to convince my Wife that we should get Saratoga points due to logical choices of price and length of Contract.
She was Adamant that it was either
Boardwalk or Beach Club due to we spend the most time at HS and EPCOT.

I pretty much thank her every time we go to Boardwalk as we ended choosing with our Hearts and it was 100% the right decision.

Good luck with the addonitis
I believe they have an ointment for that.

We agree! The location of BWV & BCV cannot be beat! I think our biggest concern is that we hadn't stayed at or experienced many of the other resorts and wondered if we hadn't found our home yet, but NOPE, BCV all the way for us!
 
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Same here wanted Saratoga for the same reason but the family wanted AKL well needless to say we bought AK and im glad we did cost more but that's life

We struggled if we should do SSR and save a few dollars OR did we need to go back down and stake out all the resorts to get a feel if there was one better than BCV for us. I am glad we just pulled the trigger and went with our gut (and heart!) lol
 
Congrats 🎈🎉🍾
It’s not easy choosing because there’s never a right answer that fits everybody. We’re still in the DVC rental phase, upcoming trip is 4th so…
I guess we’re getting close to buy? 🤣

Even with the short contracts I prefer BC & BW. The point charts are a great deal and help offset the higher cost. We can make do with a smaller contract and less points also means less dues each year. We like Poly and AKV too but they look much easier to get at 7 months. And really we don’t need 40 yrs of DVC, 20 is plenty! Lol
 


Congrats 🎈🎉🍾
It’s not easy choosing because there’s never a right answer that fits everybody. We’re still in the DVC rental phase, upcoming trip is 4th so…
I guess we’re getting close to buy? 🤣

Even with the short contracts I prefer BC & BW. The point charts are a great deal and help offset the higher cost. We can make do with a smaller contract and less points also means less dues each year. We like Poly and AKV too but they look much easier to get at 7 months. And really we don’t need 40 yrs of DVC, 20 is plenty! Lol
These were all things we considered too. I felt like 20ish years was enough for us and having lower points charts allowed us to stretch points a bit more. We also knew a studio was sufficient but if we wanted to be in a studio at BCV we needed that 11 month window. It took us about 4-5 trips before we were like "we just need to buy". We got lucky and found a contract early in our search that gave us what we needed for it to make sense. It was a big purchase, but we felt stronger in our decision of BCV after our most recent trip.

Good luck with your adventures! Renting isn't a bad way to go either, we just wanted a bit more control and to lock in a bit lower in cost.
 
Woo Hoo! Standing at baggage claim ready for our second stay as DVC owners and loved reading your story and thinking about your journey. So happy for you! Thanks for bringing us in on your experience! Start counting down those days until your home resort welcome home. Woot!
ENJOY! Are you at RIV or Grand Cal?! Enjoy your trip and spill all the details on your return :)
 
I just added BCV to our membership lol. Waiting on ROFR lol but hopefully will pass! Poly is our first contract, but wanted something for Epcot and HS since we love it there too, and Wine fest. 20 years is a long time, and I’m super excited to read that others don’t mind the shorter contract too!
 

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