Smart idea to get DVC for multiple studios/long stays?

[msjprincess]

I wouldn't spend so much extra money just to get the points immediately. With the hopes of finding availability at BLT next month. That's really short notice.

 

[KirbyAu]

I wouldn't spend so much extra money just to get the points immediately. With the hopes of finding availability at BLT next month. That's really short notice.

Our agent through DVC has already got confirmation with the booking department and his leadership that they have a BLT lake view studio available for us if we go with the contract.

This really isn't the issue we're discussing though. As I mentioned, to not deviate too far from the topic, I wanted to see what people's opinions were of booking studios 7 months out and it seems like the consensus is you can only stay in OKW, SSR, and AKL which isn't ideal for us. The reason BLT is brought up is because I would want to stay there "worst case" since it was mentioned several times that this isn't a buffet where you get to try all the resorts, you basically own at your main resort and might (small chance) be able to stay at other studios for 7-8 nights consecutive if booked at 7 months.

 

[msjprincess]

Oh. I didn't realize you were working with someone on a contract. I thought you were still in the "looking into DVC" phase.


Personally I would stick with the Dolphin and save thousands more on a BLT resale. But it's not my money. LOL. Good luck with the sale.

There's not a waitlist for BLT? I didn't realize that.

 

[bwvBound]

Oh! You are already speaking to a DVC sales rep ("guide"). That sets some urgency in the discussion, doesn't it?

To arm you for the conversation with the DVC rep, be prepared to CHOOSE your "Use Year" (UY) rather than being assigned one at DVC's convenience. Your response below factors into the UY dialog. Ideally, you want a UY that is at or just before the beginning of your typical travel window. If we assume your travel window is Sept through May, that suggests a Sept UY with banking window ending April 30. That might put your May trips slightly at risk, should you need to cancel ... but if you cancel 31+ days from travel you can still bank those points (while also keeping the points from going into "holding" status).

b) What time of year to you intend to visit?
- Between January and End of May.
- Also beginning of September.

 

[KirbyAu]

Oh! You are already speaking to a DVC sales rep ("guide"). That sets some urgency in the discussion, doesn't it?

To arm you for the conversation with the DVC rep, be prepared to rather than being assigned one at DVC's convenience. Your response below factors into the UY dialog. Ideally, you want a UY that is at or just before the beginning of your typical travel window. If we assume your travel window is Sept through May, that suggests a Sept UY with banking window ending April 30. That might put your May trips slightly at risk, should you need to cancel ... but if you cancel 31+ days from travel you can still bank those points (while also keeping the points from going into "holding" status).

Amazing advice! I tried asking several times if I could change the use year and he said he wasn't able to. Any ideas as to what else I could say about it? It seems locked into October for AKL and CCV

 

[KirbyAu]

Based on all of the great feedback in this thread, it seems like AKL isn't for us since we wouldn't want to stay there all of the time. I appreciate everyone's help and will probably ask more questions about resale at a later time. Right now I think we'll hold off on the entire thing.

 

[Philsfan77]

You should definitely be able to request a different use year for CCV...we just bought a month ago and they wanted us to take an October use year...instead we moved ours to December, because it made more sense for when we plan to use our points. Our guide said he would just need a managers approval to sign off on it, and he called me back 30 minutes later and said it was good to go...the only thing I can think of (and I am new to this) is that they allocate a certain number of points to each use year and that's why he won't change it now? With the new policies though, I thought they could give people any use year they requested.

 

[mustinjourney]

I could be mistaken, but if you are traveling between January and September, getting a studio will not be impossible at 7 months.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I could be mistaken, but if you are traveling between January and September, getting a studio will not be impossible at 7 months.

It's the two that is more worrisome.

 

[mustinjourney]

It's the two that is more worrisome.

That certainly does complicate things. Still not sure it would be that difficult though.

 

[KirbyAu]

That certainly does complicate things. Still not sure it would be that difficult though.

Unfortunately, I'm not a DVC owner so I can't really take a risk at getting AKL as my home base and then never being able to get a studio (or two even) for a 7-8 night stay. That is the catch in all this. Not only do I need a studio between January and September, but I also need it for 7-8 consecutive nights (I'm not wanting to do split stays). You guys have confirmed my biggest fear of buying into DVC which is that you are pretty much restricted to your home resort. Thanks for the feedback, but I can't really afford to take the risk on this. I'll possibly look at resale later, but it seems better to just pay for trips as they come rather than through DVC direct or resale.

 

[mustinjourney]

Unfortunately, I'm not a DVC owner so I can't really take a risk at getting AKL as my home base and then never being able to get a studio (or two even) for a 7-8 night stay. That is the catch in all this. Not only do I need a studio between January and September, but I also need it for 7-8 consecutive nights (I'm not wanting to do split stays). You guys have confirmed my biggest fear of buying into DVC which is that you are pretty much restricted to your home resort. Thanks for the feedback, but I can't really afford to take the risk on this. I'll possibly look at resale later, but it seems better to just pay for trips as they come rather than through DVC direct or resale.

If you want BLT Then buy BLT resale. You’ll get what you want easily. There are no problems booking studios at BLT inside home booking window for the times you’re looking at.

 

[zavandor]

The difficulty of booking a studio at 7 months is way overstated on this forum. It may be true during fall frenzy, but it's far from true between mid January and early September, when you would travel.
It's true that it's getting more complicated, but I've been very successful at booking other resorts with my SSR points. It is still important to buy a resort which you wouldn't mind staying at (I like SSR and its location near DS is very good, as I always go there twice per trip) but if you avoid the fall you should be good.

 

[KirbyAu]

The difficulty of booking a studio at 7 months is way overstated on this forum. It may be true during fall frenzy, but it's far from true between mid January and early September, when you would travel.
It's true that it's getting more complicated, but I've been very successful at booking other resorts with my SSR points. It is still important to buy a resort which you wouldn't mind staying at (I like SSR and its location near DS is very good, as I always go there twice per trip) but if you avoid the fall you should be good.

But what about 7 months in advanced booking 7 to 8 consecutive nights?

 

[Meglen]

I think op is missing a point many have said about 150 points just not being enough for what he wants especially for yearly or multiple visits each year with 2 rooms. we rented points from David's at 11 months for about 130 points it got us a studio for 6 nights BLT theme view. Maybe try renting ? But you need to plan 11 months out to have a chance

 

[zavandor]

But what about 7 months in advanced booking 7 to 8 consecutive nights?

I could have gotten BCV, BLT lake, BWV garden, Poly, AKV, BRV for one week in early September this year. If you do not aim for the cheapest categories you can have quite some success at 7 months. I like split stays which makes possible (with luck, waitlists and flexibility) to get even the most difficult categories (I got the value trifecta: BLT and BWV standard and AKV value, 4 nights each). But large categories like BLT lake and BWV garden are not impossible at all.
Also, are you sure you don't like AKV? Some complain how remote it is and certainly it's not in walking distance of any park. But if you stay in the same resort all week, you will walk to one or two parks, but take the buses to the others. BLT is wonderful for the MK, but good luck going to the other parks, even changing the monorail to Epcot is a hassle. AKV is buses everywhere but on average is not worst than BLT. Of course if you only go to the MK it's another matter.
That's why I split my stays three ways: so I have the shortest commute to the park(s) I plan to go.

 

[msjprincess]

The difficulty of booking a studio at 7 months is way overstated on this forum. It may be true during fall frenzy, but it's far from true between mid January and early September, when you would travel.
It's true that it's getting more complicated, but I've been very successful at booking other resorts with my SSR points. It is still important to buy a resort which you wouldn't mind staying at (I like SSR and its location near DS is very good, as I always go there twice per trip) but if you avoid the fall you should be good.

I agree. My philosophy when buying was "buy where you don't mnid staying". Yes you have to be prepared that you may not be able to book at 7 months but it's far from impossible.

I own at OKW and SSR. In the last 3 years I've been able to book studios at BWV, AKV, and the Polynesian. I was also able to get a one bedroom at BCV the first week of F&WF last year.

 

[JenniferYoung44]

Might want to consider doing 2 100 pt contracts and alternating years. That would give you the 11 month home resort advantage at 2 places for a little more variety if you can’t switch at 7 months.

 

[kboo]

Personally I would stick with the Dolphin and save thousands more on a BLT resale. But it's not my money. LOL. Good luck with the sale.

There's not a waitlist for BLT? I didn't realize that.

I think with all the points they ROFR'd recently, they now have points to sell...

Glad to hear OP was not thinking of saving the $4000 from the Swan trip to buy direct.

Another thought, OP, about BLT: we initially bought 185 points (mostly resale) to stay for a week each year, alternating studios and 1BR. (i.e. ~160 was enough to bet 1.5 studios per year) in dream season. At that point we had only rented points and stayed in a 2BR and knew we loved it. Well, we've now had 3 stays at BLT and never in a studio - we "decided" that they were just too small with our 2 little kids (they are among the smallest studios on property). First world problems, I know. We are going to be trying out the studios for an adults-only weekend this summer. If you think you are going to be in studios for a while, you might want to at least take a tour and see what a studio feels like, or rent points to stay in a studio, before committing to it. (We have stayed in larger studios - VGF and BCV - and think they are a fine size.)

 

[bumbershoot]

I’m going to start off saying that I had never once booked at or stayed in my home resort (bay lake) until 7 years of ownership had gone by. In that time I had many long trips and we’ve stayed in anything from studio to 2 bedrooms more than once a year sometimes. Since 2016 when I first stayed at bay lake I’ve stayed there twice, and I’ve had yearly trips since that time.

So I’m definitely not going to tell you that you can’t ever switch at 7 months. But then I’m not booking two studios.

And I don’t mind OKW, SSR, etc.

If the whole point of this is to basically stay at your home resort indefinitely especially with the increasingly hard time it is booking at other resorts, I think we'll probably end up passing.

The “point” of Dvc is to own a timeshare.

The desire for DVC for us was because you could try out different resorts

Seems it would be easier to try out different resorts by renting points or booking though Disney directly.


Most people here recommend trying out the resorts before buying, to decide what they wouldn’t mind the most.

But since you were already under pressure by the salesperson, it makes sense why you’re seeing it the opposite way and with a sense of urgency.

Does anyone know if these are comfortable? I've seen threads on it but it's scattered opinions)

Opinions will be just as scattered here as in other threads. Some find them comfy (my extended family), some don’t. And maybe my family doesn’t actually find the sodabeds comfy, but until such time as they buy Dvc and host me for free as I’ve done for them for 9 years, I’ll never know what the sofabeds are like for me personally.

I wanted to see what people's opinions were of booking studios 7 months out and it seems like the consensus is you can only stay in OKW, SSR, and AKL which isn't ideal for us.

While I don’t want to diminish the fact tthat you’re never guaranteed anything, especially when you’re not flexible in what you’ll accept, I also feel that you’ve over-read responses. And I’m not sure you’ve taken into account what people are saying about timing of trips. There are harder and easier times to book.

But it’s always best to look at Dvc without the urgency. Maybe take a tour during your upcoming trip, see what the model units they show you feel like.