Resort Hopping

[starbox]

Often, in other threads, one of two assumption seems to come up:

1. That an appropriate and fair use of DVC involves the member purchasing at one resort (where they want to stay) and using that home resort for all of their reservations.

2. That the majority of DVC owners purchase at one resort and loyally stay at only that resort - with the exception of owners at a few resorts, who purchase only for points and then do not book vacations at "home".


I've always thought (especially going by people's signatures) that the majority of DVC owners metaphorically "sleep around" when it comes to DVC properties.

What have you done (or do you plan to do) with your membership? I'll admit that I purchased intending to use about 1/3 of my points at either VB or HH each year.

 

[y2khardtop]

When I purchased, OKW was the ONLY choice. Since, we've found that the convenience of BCV and BW make it much more attractive to us. We travel in the off season (Nov, Jan, Feb) and have never had a problem getting reservations. If we ever do, or need to converve point, OKW is great, just prefer the other resorts when our point budget allows (it usually does, unless we make multiple trips or rent multiple units)

 

[POOH&PIGLET]

I voted for the last option.
When we bought from Disney, only WLV was available. We stayed there twice (& loved it). The past 4 or so trips have been to BWV, our favorite DVC resort.

 

[castleri]

I own at 3 different resorts (OKW220pt. BCV150pt. SSR150pt) so picking an answer was not that easy. I really only plan to stay at those three but have actually stayed at all the ones at WDW and may stay at others again so chose the last answer. This year all my trips are at OKW because it is my favorite and
first choice if there are more than 2 people going. If it is just DH and myself I prefer the other type of studios so will try other resorts. Two years ago did VWL since DSIL and DD thought it would be the best - they then decided OKW is the one they like better (it may have something to do with the space for a 4yo and 16mo) to move around in. All in all I expect to use the points at my 3 home resorts but occasionally may "sleep around" depending on the wishes of those who are traveling with me.

 

[DisDaydreamer]

Couldn't really make a choice. We own at BWV, but our favorite is VB. We generally rotate between BWV, VB, and HHI, but we intend to visit most or all resorts at least once. To date we haven't ever had a problem making ressies at VB so we will keep BWV as home because the value of the points have gone up so much it seems to be a good investment too.

 

[Figment2]

I own at BWV but often stay at OKW. I travel with friends and we like the two beds in the studios plus the overall larger space in the 1 & 2 BRs.

If I'm going solo, it's definitely BWV.

Cyn

 

[DVC Grammy]

Until now, we've tended to maximize our points to get in as many WDW days for each trip per year. We find that studios work for us, and we travel during off-season (usually January and F & W time). If we can't get a standard view at BWV (rarely happens), we might opt for OKW or SSR.
Now that we've added on , we'll probably use the extra points to "sleep around" more!

 

[dznymom1]

Oh, I definitely sleep around I enjoy all of the resorts, but when I really fall in love I make the commitment and buy more points. The majority of my trips are to my home resorts, but I like to mix it up a little bit now & then. Guess I am a fickle girl!

 

[bzzelady]

Since joining DVC, I have not yet stayed at my home resort but I have confirmed reservations for next June when we take my in-laws. It is not because I don't like my home resort...it just hasn't fit my two vacation needs since my purchase this spring.

This past June, we have reservations for the Wilderness Lodge because that's where my DH wanted to stay...then we bought DVC from home. He didn't want to give in about being at the lodge so I was able to get last minute availability under the 30 day window at VWL for most of the stay so we started out in the lodge and moved to the villas for most of our vacation. This December I had actually made a reservation for SSR but my mother is accustomed to staying at the Beach Club and had scheduled a couple of early morning tours in Epcot that she didn't want to have to worry about early morning transportation to so I did a regular Beach Club hotel reservation and went on the BCV waitlist...so far 4 of our 7 nights have come through so it looks as though we will be doing a split stay.

For me it truly is the needs of the particular vacation-I bought at SSR because I like the area, I like the resort, and I like to convenience of being close to the edge of Disney grounds so that we have easy access to friends and family who live in the area and vice versa. My decision was between OKW and SSR but I ended up purchasing at SSR because of the additional 12 years on the contract and the financial incentives. When I purchased, I had my guide split my 300 point purchase into two-150 point contracts so if I find that my needs change over the years, that I can sell one or both more easily and then purchase whatever fits our family's needs better at that time. We also have a fair amount of flexibility as to when we can vacation but for those that don't have flexibility and have a particular wish as to where you want to stay, I would advise you to purchase where you want to stay when nothing else will do. But keep in mind that when you stay in only one place, that you may potentially miss out on the charm that does exist in the other resorts. All of the resorts have their good and bad points and sometimes when people post on this board, they put quite a lot of emotion into where they stay for a various number of reasons.

I understand all sides here on this poll. Please everyone, let the comments on this poll be constructive and not a "resort bashing fest" as have been seen previously on this board related to this topic. People come to this board for fact finding and advice and develop an impression on DVC folks through the things that we post here and I, for one, want my friends and neighbors (no matter what resort they own at) to have a good impression

 

[dianeschlicht]

When we finally purchased, we had a choice of OKW or BWV. Neither of us cared for the BWV unit sizes or the hotel feel, so we bought both contracts at OKW. Since that time in 1997, we have stayed at only 2 other DVC resorts besides OKW, and then for just a night or two. While I liked SSR, it just was still too hotel like for me. Just LOVE our home resort, so that is where we mostly stay.

 

[Lora]

We bought at BWV because it was the resort available at the time we bought (2000). We had been to OKW on the tour several years before that (1994), but had never even seen BW until our first trip as members. We've stayed briefly at BCV and OKW, but I would like to try VWL sometime. BWV is our favorite -maybe just because it's "home", or maybe because of the location - I'm not sure.

 

[thelobstershanty]

Our home resort is definitely our favorite, we stay there the most and have always kept all our points at our home resort. This is due to laziness, we think it is much easier to manage pts if they are all at one resort.
Our home resort is our favorite but we have stayed in all the WDW DVC resorts. We like them all, naturally we like some more than others. We enjoy staying at all WDW resorts and like the variety and change.
So I guess we are people that shamelessly like to "sleep around" also. LOL!

 

[dianeschlicht]

LOL, Granny! I can see that "sleep around" comment being a bit like "Hannema" and I defintely know you will see it again! I sure wish the tag fairy came to the DVC/plannig board, becuase that one sure deserves to get you a new tag!!!

 

[Lesley]

My home resort was my favorite of my choices at the time we joined....we could have purchased BWV or OKW and chose BWV. My choice was based primarily on where I wanted my "default" resort location.

But we love all of the resorts for different reasons (well, okay, we haven't stayed at SSR yet....haven't had the chance) and part of what we like about DVC is flexibility. We stayed at the BWV in January. In two weeks we'll be at the BCV and in Jan 2007 we'll be at OKW. Our tentative plans for next year beyond that include Hilton Head and VWL (technically our second home resort).

Its nice also to know that I can always make a BWV reservation at 11 months and keep that if we don't want to go elsewhere.

 

[Fitswimmer]

I voted for #1 because when I go to WDW I will probably always stay at SSR. When I first joined, I wanted to surprise my parents with a couple of nights at Disney and we stayed at OKW because of availability. I've also stayed at VB, will be staying at HHI in 2 weeks,and I'm sure when they open another off-site DVC I'll want to try that too. I don't consider that resort hopping because they are the only DVC resorts in those areas and I don't have another option.

 

[mom2alix]

The only sleeping around we've done so far is to HHI (which was a beautiful resort). DH would never stay anywhere other than VWL if he had his choice and right now, with pre-school age children - the closeness to MK makes it the best choice for us. I think we'll eventually hit all the other DVCs to give them a try.

I'd love to try Vero sometime. If we ever travel with a large group, we'll obviously have to go somewhere other than VWL to get a GV. I'd also love to do an Epcot area during F&W some time, but without 11 month window that may never happen! Maybe the year we get to do that, I'll find a member who wants VWL during Dec and we can swap!

Basically, I think all the resorts are nice, we just love VWL the most.

 

[momofprincess]

I didn't see my option in the poll: I bought where was available (SSR) but want to try at all the resorts.

 

[nhdisnut]

We own at SSR and completely love it! That said, we just returned from a stay at BWV and enjoyed that as well. One of the selling points of DVC, in my opinion, is the flexibility of use of different resorts. We are hoping to stay at all of the DVC resorts at some point (I just posted a question related to this for our upcoming April trip), but will always consider SSR our true "home."

 

[debloco]

Our home resort, VWL, is our favorite. But my goal is to try each of the other DVC resorts at least once. The main reason is to see which one we like the most for the add-on I would love to do someday.

The first one I tried was the BWV, because I was convinced that's where I really wanted to do an add-on. Surprisingly, it was not my cup of tea. There wasn't anything wrong with it, just didn't feel like home.

Went to the BCV next and enjoyed that very much. Not as much as my home resort but it's a contender!

Just tried OKW this past March and it was nice. Love the space in the 1 bedroom and the lower point requirements. Possible, but weaker, contender.

So SSR is the last on-site DVC to try! And we plan on getting to HHI and VB at some point as well.

But for Christmas...we always go home to VWL!

 

[robinb]

I bought at OKW because it was cheap and we could stay at other DVC resorts. I then bought at BWV because we knew that we wanted to stay there for New Year's Eve and I needed the 11 month window.