Resale or direct add-on: the struggle continues.

[mousehouse23]

Hi, all. My husband and I bought 120 resale points at SSR two years ago for $98 pp. Our kids are 18 and 17 now. Our oldest loves WDW as much as we do, and I can anticipate her wanting to come with her own family someday. Our youngest is a little more indifferent, but game for family trips.

At first, I was satisfied with the idea of a week's worth of SAP in a studio for my husband and me, after the kids have moved out of the house. But now, of course, I've developed a serious case of add-onitis and am kicking myself for not grabbing up more points while the prices were low.

Ideally, I'd like 150 more points. That would give us a total of 270, and would make booking 2-bedrooms at least conceivable. I'm really hemming and hawing over whether to buy 2-3 small resale contracts in the next 2-3 years, or whether to do the same direct. I think we'll stick with SSR either way, though 1) the BLT incentives are tempting, and 2) I hate that the SSR direct price just went up.

What I like about direct:

1) Disney can match our March UY.
2) Fully loaded contract.
3) 6-month interest-free payments on our Disney Visa. (Double points!)
4) Eventually, we'll accrue enough points to get blue card benefits.

What I don't like:

1) The price. (Although I know small resale contracts generally bring less of a savings.)
2) Blue card benefits are of questionable value without AP's. I hate having to predict what Disney will do in the future. The AP benefit is pretty much the only one we care about.

I'm not worried about having to wait longer for a resale contract to go through.

I know a lot of you here have been weighing the same choice, and that there's no one "right" answer. But I just thought I'd throw this out there, in case anyone more experienced had any words of wisdom to impart. I've really appreciated reading all the threads here, and have learned a ton!

Much appreciated!

 

[smmora]

For me, my next purchase will be direct so that I will be able to use future locations

 

[AGP]

To me, a big reason why I am interested in buying some direct points is being able to stay at the new resorts… like RIV and whatever else comes down the road…I love trying out different resorts, so if they have any new ones in the years to come, I’ll want to be able to use my points there. Who knows if it stays like that, but I don’t want to be locked out of new resorts

 

[lions1995]

If you are going for the blue card, I’d suggest getting to the minimum points sooner rather than later. They will just keep raising the requirements to get it. That said, doing so in small contract increments ( 50 to 100 ) is great if you ever decide to ge5 rude of some points.

 

[npatellye]

We bought our initial 200 points direct and added on direct last summer. It just didn’t make sense to us to have some restricted points and some unrestricted points since we like to stay in 1 bedrooms (for now).

 

[Brian Noble]

IMO, the Membership Extras are not worth worrying about unless you know you will typically take two or more trips most years---and even then they are arguable.

The other factor is using for Riviera and future resorts. But, it may be worth asking if you even care about that until the 2042 resorts time out---and that's still a long way from now.

That would give us a total of 270, and would make booking 2-bedrooms at least conceivable. I'm really hemming and hawing over whether to buy 2-3 small resale contracts in the next 2-3 years, or whether to do the same direct.

If I were in your shoes based on what you've written, I'd set aside the money I'd use to buy the first small resale contract, and start accumulating what I'd need for the second one. Then I'd start looking for something in my UY with the right price. If I find one, I'd make an offer and see if I passed ROFR. If so, great! If not, and it takes long enough that I've built up enough for 150 direct, I'd just pull the trigger and buy the direct points.

 

[dvc lover 1970]

I would probably wait. Inflation is going up so prices have to come down. However bit incentives are really good and their fees are not bad. If direct I would add the 150 blt direct and not break it up to get the incentives.

 

[DVCsloth]

It looks like DVC has been giving add on discounts to different resorts lately. They may add SSR soon, so it may be worth waiting a little while and see if they add it. You could add 150 direct and at least have 150 direct.

 

[mousehouse23]

Thank you for the help, everyone!

If I were in your shoes based on what you've written, I'd set aside the money I'd use to buy the first small resale contract, and start accumulating what I'd need for the second one. Then I'd start looking for something in my UY with the right price. If I find one, I'd make an offer and see if I passed ROFR. If so, great! If not, and it takes long enough that I've built up enough for 150 direct, I'd just pull the trigger and buy the direct points.

This seems like the smart call, especially given our uncertainty right now. Appreciate your chiming in!

 

[RoseGold]

I wouldn’t be adding points to use for 2BRs on college age kids, one of whom is indifferent to Disney. My first few jobs I got a pathetic amount of vacation, and Disney is the last place I would want to spend it. I don’t see college/early 20s as when you’ll need these point.

 

[Lorana]

From our perspective, the kids getting older was more reason to have enough points for two bedrooms. Our oldest is indifferent to Disney (who knows if that’ll change), but having two bedrooms means he complains less about the trip, as he gets his own space (even if shared with his brother). And when we aren’t going to Disney - because Disney is rarely our “main” vacation - we can rent out those points and use it for our other world travels.

As we’ve all gotten older, we value the space in our villas more and more. Yes, we can all cram into studios and have done that many times. When we did Yellowstone last year, we all packed into small hotel rooms most of the stay - but man did we appreciate it when we got to Old Faithful Inn and had a Junior Suite to share. One reason we bought into DVC was for 1BRs and 2BRs when traveling as a family.

Personally, I’d probably add 2-3 small direct SSR contracts over the next couple of years, though if I found the perfect resale contract I’d jump on that.

 

[mousehouse23]

From our perspective, the kids getting older was more reason to have enough points for two bedrooms. Our oldest is indifferent to Disney (who knows if that’ll change), but having two bedrooms means he complains less about the trip, as he gets his own space (even if shared with his brother). And when we aren’t going to Disney - because Disney is rarely our “main” vacation - we can rent out those points and use it for our other world travels.

As we’ve all gotten older, we value the space in our villas more and more. Yes, we can all cram into studios and have done that many times. When we did Yellowstone last year, we all packed into small hotel rooms most of the stay - but man did we appreciate it when we got to Old Faithful Inn and had a Junior Suite to share. One reason we bought into DVC was for 1BRs and 2BRs when traveling as a family.

Personally, I’d probably add 2-3 small direct SSR contracts over the next couple of years, though if I found the perfect resale contract I’d jump on that.

Thank you for your perspective. This is kind of where I am at, too. Normally, I'm a stickler for maximizing our points/savings, but as the kids become adults, I know my priorities may shift, and that one way of ensuring they'll continue to come on trips is if they have their own space/privacy to enjoy. And 120 points is not going to do that!

 

[Lorana]

Thank you for your perspective. This is kind of where I am at, too. Normally, I'm a stickler for maximizing our points/savings, but as the kids become adults, I know my priorities may shift, and that one way of ensuring they'll continue to come on trips is if they have their own space/privacy to enjoy. And 120 points is not going to do that!

As everyone has gotten older, we also spend more times at the resorts / in the rooms. Part of this is because we've done the parks so many times, we don't feel a need to be there from rope drop to closing any more. We've also become less tolerant of long lines -- which is one reason the loss of free fastpasses saddens us. We used to plan our day around our fastpasses, grab any other rides that might have short waits, and call it a day. We play games in the room, and often make breakfast and dinner in the resort. So space matters to us, and makes it feel more like being at home together.

Admittedly, when we first started doing 2BRs, our oldest said, "That seems excessive" as they were used to having the living room in 1BRs. But now that we've done 2BRs a couple of times, they don't want to go back, lol.

I hear you about wanting to maximize points/savings, and it was HARD breaking the habit of wanting to book studios because of how much cheaper they are! But one way I looked at booking 2BRs was looking at the difference in cost between a 1BR vs 2BR. Yes, 2BRs are still more points, but that jump between 1BR and 2BR is often fairly small at certain resorts and times of the year (BRV/CCV for example), and so I really do feel like I'm getting my points/money's worth with a 2BR vs a 1BR (which is often times the cost of 2 studios!).

 

[mousehouse23]

As everyone has gotten older, we also spend more times at the resorts / in the rooms. Part of this is because we've done the parks so many times, we don't feel a need to be there from rope drop to closing any more. We've also become less tolerant of long lines -- which is one reason the loss of free fastpasses saddens us. We used to plan our day around our fastpasses, grab any other rides that might have short waits, and call it a day. We play games in the room, and often make breakfast and dinner in the resort. So space matters to us, and makes it feel more like being at home together.

Admittedly, when we first started doing 2BRs, our oldest said, "That seems excessive" as they were used to having the living room in 1BRs. But now that we've done 2BRs a couple of times, they don't want to go back, lol.

I hear you about wanting to maximize points/savings, and it was HARD breaking the habit of wanting to book studios because of how much cheaper they are! But one way I looked at booking 2BRs was looking at the difference in cost between a 1BR vs 2BR. Yes, 2BRs are still more points, but that jump between 1BR and 2BR is often fairly small at certain resorts and times of the year (BRV/CCV for example), and so I really do feel like I'm getting my points/money's worth with a 2BR vs a 1BR (which is often times the cost of 2 studios!).

That extra time at the resorts is something I'm really looking forward to!

I've been watching some virtual tours of OKW 2-bedrooms, which are on the cheaper side, and am in love with all that extra space! May try to do some splits between a studio/1-bedroom at BLT or BWV, then move over to a SSR or OKW 2-bedroom, after we have our fill of the parks, and just want to spread out and relax a bit more.

Thanks again!

 

[Lorana]

That extra time at the resorts is something I'm really looking forward to!

I've been watching some virtual tours of OKW 2-bedrooms, which are on the cheaper side, and am in love with all that extra space! May try to do some splits between a studio/1-bedroom at BLT or BWV, then move over to a SSR or OKW 2-bedroom, after we have our fill of the parks, and just want to spread out and relax a bit more.

Thanks again!

You're welcome! Split stays are often how we do it, too! We usually start with 1-3 nights in a Studio. Partly because we tend to fly in late at night (flying out after work/school), and I just hate spending the points on a room when we're just going to sleep in it. This also allows us to plan our stay accordingly, in terms of what parks we will be near. Or, if we really want to "hit the parks" on the trip, we front load doing the parks when we're in the smaller accommodations, and then plan to just relax and maybe do a couple hours in the park for the latter half, at which point the larger accommodations are more important.

But as my oldest is graduating and heading off to college, I actually see more long weekend trips in our future, saving the "vacation time" for other places, given that our oldest is likely to "opt out" of Disney in favor of going to places he's never been.