Should I split into two contracts?

[bananapepper]

We are a family of 5 with 3 kids aged 7,4, and 9 months.

Realistically, we’d like to take one Disney vacation a year for a week and want enough points to stay in a 2 bedroom as the kids get older. So we are thinking about 300 points. I don’t think we’d have enough to stay at any resort with 5 of us booking 11 months in advance with 150 points if split between two different resorts.

Is it still better to get two contracts for the same resort? Right now we are heavily leaning towards AK as our home resort for some peace and seclusion at the end of the day (and because I think it’s just such a unique resort!)

Thank you we are just starting our research and very excited!

 

[SG131]

The smaller the contract the easier it will be to sell later. I would do two contracts with the same use year. That way when the kids are out of the house and you know longer need two bedrooms you could sell just one contract. Are you looking at direct or resale?

 

[cedricandsophie]

Personally I would do one contract. It is just easier to book what you want when you want. If you buy resale my experience is that you get more value the larger the contract. We just bought a OKW contract for 220 points. We have over 1000 points mostly direct at other resorts but have decided OKW has become our favorite. Just my opinion but we have never bought points as an investment. We know we will use them until we die and if there is time left pass them on to our kids.

 

[bananapepper]

The smaller the contract the easier it will be to sell later. I would do two contracts with the same use year. That way when the kids are out of the house and you know longer need two bedrooms you could sell just one contract. Are you looking at direct or resale?

We plan on buying direct. My husband wants the option to stay at future resorts (especially the new Star Wars one) plus other perks.

 

[BillPA]

If you plan to gift the contract(s) to your kids, know that you can not split the points i.e. if you get 300, it must stay as 300 not 3 - 100 contracts later.
One of the down sides to 2 or 3 contracts is you have closing costs that will be 2x- 3x more.
You could start out with less points, enough for a 1 BR then after you try a few trips and maybe another resort you can add another contract at AK or where ever you you decide is right for you.

It's not clear if DVC will be able to use points for the yet to be built Star Wars hotel. If that is important, be sure to find out what DVD plans for that location.

 

[Ruttangel]

We plan on buying direct. My husband wants the option to stay at future resorts (especially the new Star Wars one) plus other perks.

I don’t think the Star Wars hotel will have any DVC rooms?

 

[SG131]

I don’t think the Star Wars hotel will have any DVC rooms?

Nope. You might be able to trade your points in to use there but it would take a ridiculous amount of points and it would be a better value to rent out your points and pay cash I would guess. Just like it doesn’t pay to use your points for a cruise or a moderate.

 

[bananapepper]

Thanks for the tip about Star Wars. Does anyone know why I am locked out from responding for 20 minutes after each reply? A bit annoying!

Anyway, my husband wants the ability to stay in new resorts in general. If something really neat pops up in 5, 10, 15, 20 years, etc.

Is it more complicated to book things if we have it split into 3 contracts and want to use all the points at once vs one contract for 300?

Also, is it worth buying an extra 100 points you don't think you'll need just to rent them out?

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

If you plan to gift the contract(s) to your kids, know that you can not split the points i.e. if you get 300, it must stay as 300 not 3 - 100 contracts later.
One of the down sides to 2 or 3 contracts is you have closing costs that will be 2x- 3x more.
You could start out with less points, enough for a 1 BR then after you try a few trips and maybe another resort you can add another contract at AK or where ever you you decide is right for you.

It's not clear if DVC will be able to use points for the yet to be built Star Wars hotel. If that is important, be sure to find out what DVD plans for that location.

It’s pretty clear that the Star Wars hotel is not DVC. They may or may not allow trades to it thru the Disney collection of course. It’ll take a LOT of points though.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Thanks for the tip about Star Wars. Does anyone know why I am locked out from responding for 20 minutes after each reply? A bit annoying!

Anyway, my husband wants the ability to stay in new resorts in general. If something really neat pops up in 5, 10, 15, 20 years, etc.

Is it more complicated to book things if we have it split into 3 contracts and want to use all the points at once vs one contract for 300?

Also, is it worth buying an extra 100 points you don't think you'll need just to rent them out?

It’s pricey to get that booking opportunity fo something that may or may not be appealing in the future. Or may or may not even be built. If it came about you could always rent your own points out and rent points to stay at the new resorts. And in the meantime you’d have the use of the money you saved buying resale and with the point total your looking at it would be thousands of dollars. Even take that cash savings, invest it and pay cash for a future stay at a resort and probably come out ahead.

100 extra direct points to rent out? Absolutely not.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

We are a family of 5 with 3 kids aged 7,4, and 9 months.

Realistically, we’d like to take one Disney vacation a year for a week and want enough points to stay in a 2 bedroom as the kids get older. So we are thinking about 300 points. I don’t think we’d have enough to stay at any resort with 5 of us booking 11 months in advance with 150 points if split between two different resorts.

Is it still better to get two contracts for the same resort? Right now we are heavily leaning towards AK as our home resort for some peace and seclusion at the end of the day (and because I think it’s just such a unique resort!)

Thank you we are just starting our research and very excited!

If 300 points is enough for your trips then there’s going to be a way to make two 150 point contracts work for split stays. You mentioned on your other thread about traveling at Thanksgiving and Christmas. You’re never going to have the exact number of points you need. Or even if you do for a year or two reallocations come along and suddenly you don’t. Banking and/or borrowing would give you 300-450 points available to use at either of the resorts if you had two 150 point contracts at two resorts. Then it’s just a matter of working out how many nights at which one. And if you trade to other resorts (which isn’t necessarily easy at those times of travel) then you have to wait until 7 months and both contracts could be used together at that time.

 

[bananapepper]

"...then you have to wait until 7 months and both contracts could be used together at that time."

That is my concern with splitting between two resorts. We probably won't go to Disney twice a year. We still have to pay for the flights and everything else at the resorts etc. So we'd always have to book with the 7-month disadvantage since we can't get anything for 150 for 5 people around the holidays.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

"...then you have to wait until 7 months and both contracts could be used together at that time."

That is my concern with splitting between two resorts. We probably won't go to Disney twice a year. We still have to pay for the flights and everything else at the resorts etc. So we'd always have to book with the 7-month disadvantage since we can't get anything for 150 for 5 people around the holidays.

No, your misunderstanding. First scenario is split stays at your home resort. You’d do something like 3 nights at home Resort #1 and 4 nights at home Resort #2. Both would be booked at 11 months. It wouldn’t be exactly 150 points from each so you’d bank the extras and the following year maybe reverse and do 4 nights at Resort #1 and 3 nights at Resort #2.

Next, I’m not certain of where you are at in understanding the point usage so forgive if I explain something you do know.....every point your receive an be used in either it’s current year, or can be borrowed back to the previous UY or banked once to be used in the next year. So in year #1 you’d use current points and borrow up to 150 points to book your 300 point stay at Resort #1 at 11 months. At the same time you’d bank the current points from Resort #2 into you next UY. Then in year #2 you’d use those banked points and also the current points from Resort #2 to gook your year #2 stay at 11 months at your home resort #2. For year #3 you’d now be back to 150 current points at both resorts. At 11 months you’d use current points and borrow up to 150 points from Resort #1 to book your stay. You’d bank the 150 points from home resort #2 to use with its urgent points for your stay in year #4. Each and every stay is booked at 11 months.

You said you wanted to try other resorts too that would not be your home resorts. That was the reference that those would always be 7 month bookings and you could use both contracts together fo those stays.

 

[sndral]

I spread out my purchases for a couple of reasons. First, although I’d stayed in a DVC villa pre purchase I wanted to really see if DVC worked for me before I jumped all in. Thus, I bought half the points I thought I’d want and used that contract a couple of years (using banking and borrowing) until I needed more points. At that point I knew DVC was a good fit for me and my cash had also built up, so I bought my second contract.
Here’s an example of how that scenario might work:
You buy contract A w/ 150 points & an April use year planning to visit AKV next June 2020:
You’ll get 150 2019 points (use year 4/1/19 - 3/31/20) which you’ll bank into 2020
You’ll have 150 2020 points (use year 4/1/20 - 3/31/21) which added to your 2019 points gives you 300 for your June ‘20 visit.
Next visit June 2021:
You’ll have 150 2021 points (use year 4/1/21 - 3/31/22) to use
You’ll get 150 2022 points (use year 4/1/22 - 3/31/23) which you can borrow to add to your 2021 points giving you 300 to use for your June ‘21 visit.
By the time of your June 2022 visit you’ll need more points because all you’ll have is 150 points to borrow from 2023 (use year 4/1/23 - 3/31/24) - so you can at that point buy contract B, your second set of points of 150 points.
The downside to this is that you’ll pay slightly more in closing costs and the fact that the cost of points will inevitably go up. I’m very fiscally conservative (& thus bought resale) and those additional costs were the price I paid for my peace of mind.

 

[bananapepper]

Thank you all for your help! I'm leaning towards two 150 or maybe 160 contracts with one resort. I think splitting into different resorts just sounds too complicated.

My understanding is that if we usually travel in November-January the best use year is October correct?

 

[Deb & Bill]

By the time you can gift these deeds to your children, annual fees will be incredibly high per point.

 

[CarolynFH]

Thank you all for your help! I'm leaning towards two 150 or maybe 160 contracts with one resort. I think splitting into different resorts just sounds too complicated.

My understanding is that if we usually travel in November-January the best use year is October correct?

Way back in the DVC dark ages (or golden age, I’m not sure which) we bought our 300 BWV points as two 150 point contracts with the idea that our two kids might inherit them someday and could divide them more easily. They work seamlessly together - in fact, it wasn’t until we could book online and had to designate which contract to take points from for each booking that I remembered we had two contracts.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

My understanding is that if we usually travel in November-January the best use year is October correct?

If that is when you travel, do not expect to be able to regularly "try other resorts." That time of year is a home resort booking, and waitlists more often than not for anything else. Be sure you understand this, because if you have visions of sleeping around in this season you may be very frustrated.

 

[TCRAIG]

If u want to gift to your kids later and buy direct - I’d do 3 contracts - I’d buy now so you’d get Oct 2018 points - get member services to bank into 2019 - and then rent them out to co er the extra closing costs. 3 kids, 3 contracts, 1 resort, 1 membership.

 

[bananapepper]

If that is when you travel, do not expect to be able to regularly "try other resorts." That time of year is a home resort booking, and waitlists more often than not for anything else. Be sure you understand this, because if you have visions of sleeping around in this season you may be very frustrated.

I figured but staying at our home resort is fine. Is that true even for non peak times like beginning of January, Feb, weekdays in November etc? I know Thanksgiving and Christmas would be a no go.