Should I buy in now? Or wait?

[hmccarter]

- been to Disney twice, started this year.
- stayed at GF and AKL
- staying at Saratoga in Dec (all that was available by the time I booked)
- love one bedroom suites
- obsessed with Disney, want to go multiple times a year
- spring break and Christmas are prime travel times for us
- love all the parks
- not a fan of long bus wait times at AKL
- need to be able to get back to resort quickly for mid day naps for little ones

I think we would love Epcot resort area. It would be nice to have quick access to Epcot and Hollywood & monorail option to MK. But we did love GF. Family of 4, littles ones ages 2 and 3.

Should I buy in now? Or keep trying different resorts to find the perfect home resort? Direct or resale? Big or small?

Thank you so much for your advice!

 

[RoseGold]

1BRs are the easiest to book in the system, but that won't help if you are only going Spring Break or Christmas. We have no idea when you are traveling.

I have a lot of SSR and have stayed in every 1BR I imagined, including club level, BC, BW. But I'm cool with split stays and spend a lot of time messing with this.

If I were buying sleep around points right now, I would buy BLT. I think it has room to go up, and the 1BR is exceptional.

 

[Sandisw]

We knew our favorite location when we bought in 2009. We were pretty much cash guests at CR so when BLT was built, we bought. I think the incentives right now for direct at both RIV and VGF are pretty good and worth giving that a consideration.

You get to use those points everywhere...unlike resale which locks you out of RIV and any future resorts...potentially including the new Poly tower being built. You are also then eligible for whatever membership extras come along. While these are not guaranteed, and no one should buy for the perks...they can disappear tomorrow, if pricing is not too far off against resale, then it maybe worth it. Resale locks you out for good.

Direct requires you to start at 150 points, but if you did buy, and wanted to try and stay elsewhere in December, they might be able to help. New owners get an option for a Welcome Home visit...not available to resale...in which they may have rooms from their own inventory for you.

Now, resale can save you money but there are differences. In 2042, places like BWV and BCV will expire and most of us believe they will come back as part of the "new" DVC and resale points won't be valid there...for many, its a far enough a way not to matter and the savings of resale is worth it.

But, given that AKV isn't your favorite, and maybe not SSR or OKW, and that you want to be near parks, the price difference for VGF, BLT, and Poly (I have a hard time recommending resale at BWV or BCV with its short expiration), may not save you as much against the RIV and VGF direct prices given current incentives.

The plus is that with resale, you can get in less than 150 to get your feet wet, see how you like it and always buy more down the line.

To be fair, we love RIV and VGF. We split stay there all the time and RIV remains top of the list. We love the ease of the Skyliner (but it can go down...we have been fortunate in over 10 trips, including summer, to never have it happen). Because of that, resale doesn't work for us, but it does for many others.

Good luck!

 

[Yankee626]

Your going to hate Saratoga Springs if you couldnt stand the bus wait times at AKL. Also when considering 1 bedrooms at the times your talking about you will need a boat load of points to stay at a monorail resort. Im not sure what your budget is but if you want these resorts at spring break and Christmas your looking at 300 plus points a week.

 

[hmccarter]

Your going to hate Saratoga Springs if you couldnt stand the bus wait times at AKL. Also when considering 1 bedrooms at the times your talking about you will need a boat load of points to stay at a monorail resort. Im not sure what your budget is but if you want these resorts at spring break and Christmas your looking at 300 plus points a week.

Yikes! Would renting a car to drive ourselves around help at SSR? Or is it just as aggravating to find parking at the parks ?

 

[Yankee626]

Yikes! Would renting a car to drive ourselves around help at SSR? Or is it just as aggravating to find parking at the parks ?

I myself would never stay at Saratoga but if I had to I would rent a car. Saratoga is known for being the resort of last resorts for a reason. Its the largest most spread out DVC resort. Its beautiful and has nice rooms but Its not a place to go to if you want quick service back and forth from any park.

 

[peabody58]

Yikes! Would renting a car to drive ourselves around help at SSR? Or is it just as aggravating to find parking at the parks ?

We've stayed at SSR several times. The busses are just fine for us. Grandstand is awesome, close to DS and the first bus stop. All transportation systems have their pros/cons. We enjoy them all. We also have a car every time, but never drive to the theme parks, only the water parks.

 

[Yankee626]

I myself would never stay at Saratoga but if I had to I would rent a car. Saratoga is known for being the resort of last resorts for a reason. Its the largest most spread out DVC resort. Its beautiful and has nice rooms but Its not a place to go to if you want quick service back and forth from any park.

Renting a car also requires time as you have to find a spot and walk a long distance to the entrance. If your going to the MK you save no time because you have to take a ferry from the parking lot. So its a no win situation. You just have to account for the extra time.

 

[Yankee626]

Just looking at the point charts ; a 1 bedroom Standard room at BLT is 368 points a week at Christmas and the GF is 468 points . Its crazy . Thats also for first week in April . so if you plan on staying in a 1 bedroom and going those weeks every year you will need 700 points . You probably are better off staying in a studio and that will still run you 450-500 points a year. I travel 4 weeks a year for about 430 points total but always go off season. I own at the GF and CCV .

 

[LYSE]

Renting a car also requires time as you have to find a spot and walk a long distance to the entrance. If your going to the MK you save no time because you have to take a ferry from the parking lot. So its a no win situation. You just have to account for the extra time.

We always drive everywhere and MK is the only one that's a real pain, everywhere else driving your self is faster.

That said we stay everywhere but generally like having easy access to MK so we can walk/boat/monorail there and drive everywhere else.

 

[RichVIII]

Of course the pending recession could bring lower prices for resale but direct doesn’t fluctuate much. I think most owners say, I wish I had purchased sooner. It is great timing to have GFV on sale again at direct prices, they only go up after being sold out. I wish we had purchased CCV when we looked at them, we would have save nearly $50 per point and would have had those points years ago. We love 1BRs but they do eat up a lot of points quickly and they are often much more avaIlable. If money wasn’t concern, I would buy at least 150 points at GF. A larger Bay Lake Tower resale contract wouldn’t be bad either. And in regards to waiting, it seems like every time we stay at a new resort, I want points there as well. Ha ha ha.

 

[DVCanadian]

If you know you want to buy don’t wait.
Two common refrains are:
I wish I bought earlier
I wish I bought more points

 

[Brian Noble]

I‘ve stayed at SSR, OKW, BWV, BCV, BRV, and BLT.

No location is close to everything. BLT/BRV are convenient to MK, but not much else. BCV/BWV are convenient to EP (the international gateway) and *sort of* DS, though now that the Skyliner is up that’s probably a little better.

SSR/OKW are not close to anything (except Disney Springs in SSR’s case) but not far from much either especially if you have a car, because they are close to main arteries.

I don’t finds driving to the parks to be particularly difficult. I usually do not drive to MK, but typically drive everywhere else (except in the EP area for EP).

 

[Micca]

If you can swing the expense now, I'd do it. This is essentially a chance for your kids to grow-up at WDW. We are doing this now with our grandchildren, and it's really special.

I'll put in a plug for BLT. For the foreseeable future, you're going to be spending a lot of time at MK. The ability to walk to/from resort to park is a big perk, and of course you can also enjoy the monorail to MK and a transfer to get to Epcot.

But I don't think there's any wrong answers when it comes to DVC. If you're committed to multiple trips over many years, I think it's a great choice for families.

 

[Her Dotness]

I think we would love Epcot resort area. It would be nice to have quick access to Epcot and Hollywood & monorail option to MK. But we did love GF. Family of 4, littles ones ages 2 and 3.

For as long as this ridiculous park reservation thing remains (like forever!), I wouldn't make my first resort one of the Epcot ones with kids those ages.

For a few more years or so, you could be the parents in Epcot driven mad by their young son who would not stop crying. Asked what the matter was, he kept shouting, "I WANT TO GO TO DISNEY WORLD!" No end of explaining he was at Disney World calmed him.

Yup, you guessed it. For him, MK and only MK was Disney World.

From the Epcot resorts, it's a pain to get to MK because you either deal with the bus or wait late enough you can trek the mile or so from the IG to the monorail station--to ride the Epcot monorail to the TTC. You're talking more than an hour and you're still not at MK. Then, it's either the MK Express monorail if running, the resort loop monorail (third stop is MK) or the ferry.

For comparison, if you buy at VGF, you trot over to the monorail station, hop on, and you're at MK in roughly 10 minutes, maybe 20-30 minutes if you just missed the train.

Once the kids are up for a bit of a hike, you can walk to the Poly and from there a short 5-10 minute walk to the TTC. Or for fun--going through the CR Tower!--riding the monorail around to the TTC to get the Epcot monorail.

There's also the small boat to get to MK or the gorgeous new walkway, roughly 15 minutes to trek it there.

Once they all reopen, you've 7 restaurants and 4 shops at VGF. The much-touted Riviera has 1 TS, 1 QS and 1 measly gift shop.

No contest--give serious thought to buying at VGF. Take an equally serious look at point charts (DVC on the toolbar above). For a single week in a VGF or RIV 1br most of the year, you'll need around 350-400 points. Multiple stays yearly? You'll need to consider 500-1000 points and do some 3-4 night stays in a studio.

Good luck deciding!

 

[stwaldman]

We've been traveling w. a little one since 2020 and have stayed generally in the MK resort area. It worked out really well for us because we were able to save naps and therefore stress by being able to go from the middle of MK to our room in 30 mins or less. It also gave us flexibility to still save in-park dining experiences around melt downs and the like. I also found the bus stop situation at the MK area resorts more palatable than SSR (we stayed on cash there before we bought) because there was a single loading/unloading area that was a reasonable distance from the villas (i havent done epcot resorts and can't speak to them).

Everything you described sounds like you'd be a good candidate for either VGF2 or if you do need to wait a bit for financial reasons, maybe Poly 2. I can't tell you now vs. later because I don't know your situation, but the price for direct is not ever going to go down if you have the money aside to do it. Direct vs. resale is obviously a whole different and well discussed debate around here, but what is clear is that the future of resale is that you are truly and honestly going to get access to villas and nothing else. If that matters to you at all, no matter how limited the "perks" are, its worth keeping in mind. I personally think that with the spike in resale prices the last 2 years, if you are interested in the current "on sale" resorts then direct is a fine option because there isn't a big spread between resale and direct for those resorts. The calculus changes if you want to buy at the currently sold out resorts but the scales definitely tip further towards resale (even though I weep at the thought of buying an SSR or AKV contract at 140+pp knowing they were in the low 100s pre-pandemic).

The 1BR point values kinda suck at the MK area resorts, but maybe you can 7 month split stays and do 2-3 nights VGF, 2-3 nights elsewhere. That seems like a good target type of trip again, based on the facts you descibe above, valuing walkable park access etc. Others already noted 1BRs are more accessible than other room types at 7 mos, and if you only need 2-3 nights, there's a half decent chance you'll get into another resort 7 months and in.

 

[JoeyPeligroso]

Lot's of thoughtful replies here, but if you like VGF, now is a reasonably good time to consider a purchase there.

I completely agree with those that have suggested taking a hard look at the point-charts for VGF and RIV - for some times of the year (and in general) these are point-hungry resorts.

My internal metric on points was my first purchase - direct at CCV. I absolutely love that resort. My second purchase was VGF, and though I was able to achieve comparable price-per-point purchases on both CCV and VGF (purchases separated by two years) - the sticker shock associated with VGF stays is real. This is a direct reflection of the higher point-charts there.

CCV benefits from a more economical point chart - so my "all in" costs for VGF were and are higher in comparison to a similar stay at CCV. For VGF and for the stays I want there, I purchased 1.6X the overall number of points in comparison my CCV total point ownership. For me, therefore, my direct and maintenance costs are higher for VGF despite the fact that my stays at VGF (room types, length of stay, dates of travel) are similar to those at CCV.

 

[skshain1020]

We always drive everywhere and MK is the only one that's a real pain, everywhere else driving your self is faster.

That said we stay everywhere but generally like having easy access to MK so we can walk/boat/monorail there and drive everywhere else.

This is what we learned last trip it was the first time we had driven since buying into dvc for a long trip when we were at boardwalk we walked to epcot and hs and rode a bus once in the evening for mk extended hours. When we switched to grand floridian it was a game changer we walked to mk and then drove to the other 3 parks. It was so easy having our car and getting to rope drop at the other three parks plus when we were ready to leave didn't have to wait on a bus. We've said in the future for long trips we'll always drive for this reason and will prefer the mk resorts because the ttc is not our favorite. However, in the early morning for rope drop buses even from saratoga have been pretty empty in our experience if you're willing to get out early.

 

[🍀TwinsMom]

Okay. You’re speaking my DVC love language — one bedrooms! Everyone loses their minds that it’s a waste of points, but we totally disagree. I don’t need to expound on how great they are if you already know you like them!

Yes, one-bedrooms tend to be available at 7 months more than other categories — but not standard views (or, conversely, savanna views at AK!) during the prime weeks you want to go. You’re smart to plan on those weeks, too, because once the kids are in school/sports/band/dance/standardized testing, you’ll be stuck going those times more often than you’d like. May as well rip the Band-Aid off now and get enough points while the kids are young enough to enjoy it!

If you can swing it, the VGF direct incentives are good, and you get a primo home base that is glorious at Christmas that will definitely appreciate if you ever got sick of DVC/WDW and needed to sell.

We bought, and love, Riviera. The current promotion for RIV is great, and depending on your use year, you may get the first year of “double” points, plus almost guaranteed a Welcome Home trip there at Christmas. Resale restrictions are overblown, IMO, and seem to be the wave of the DVC future. If your kids are young enough you want them to grow up at WDW/DVC, it’s a pretty safe bet Poly 2.0, revamped Reflections, Disneyland tower, and anything else will have them. By 2042 BC, BW, OKW, BR, HH, and VB will be out of circulation (as far as we know anyway,) and you may be happy to have paid-off access to RIV, GF, Poly, Poly 2.0, GC, AU, AK, SS, CC, BLT, and whatever else is shiny and new.

We have had zero issues with buses to MK/AK to/from Riviera, and we LOVE the ease of the Skyliner.

Conversely, we have a harder time with buses from MK, and the monorail is not all it’s cracked up to be, IMO, but YMMV.

 

[🍀TwinsMom]

And as an aside, we’re kind of “meh” on MK. We all prefer Epcot, HS, AK, but again — when kids are -8ish, MK is “Disney,” and many prefer the OG rides and stuff. Our son loves AK, our daughter loves Epcot scavenger hunts and trying the Mac and cheese at every booth, DH never wants to leave Riviera, and I like sleeping around split stays with Riviera and Topolinos brunch as our bon voyage meal.