Talk to me about split contracts

[DisGin]

A little info about my family's vacation habits. DH and I have 4 kids 6, 4, 2, and a baby. We're done having kids. We usually go to disney every other year and stay in a deluxe villa, either 1 or 2 bedroom. On our off years, I might take 1 kid as a treat for just a few days or if I'm lucky we can do a long adults only weekend. For the whole family, our favorites are BLT and we've also enjoyed wilderness lodge and AKL. For the shorter trips our favorites are beach club and Polynesian. Ideally, would we do a split contract? We've been thinking about dvc for years, but when it comes down to it, we don't pull the trigger because we just can't decide on home resort and use year. Help!

 

[JimC]

Some questions to consider:
How important is home resort booking advantage? If not important, then resort choice is likely made by total cost to own (purchase and dues).

Do you want the extra benefits that go with buying direct? Buying resale is less expensive.

We own at multiple resorts because want home resort booking advantage at those resorts. Otherwise we use our OKW points for stays at the other DVC resorts.

We have two use years (Feb and Dec), because of the first two contracts we bought (Feb with BCV from Disney and Dec with OKW resale). The use year has not been an issue for us. More important is how the purchase and ongoing dues fit into your vacation budget.

Best wishes.

 

[DisGin]

Can I only use the number of points I have at each resort to book at that resort 11 months out? Does that make sense? Home resort booking is fairly important to us. We know our vacation dates far enough out, but they are pretty much never flexible.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Can I only use the number of points I have at each resort to book at that resort 11 months out?

Yes.

Only home resort points can be used in home resort booking periods. You can't borrow from other resorts at 11 months.

I'll note as you look at contracts, you won't be able to be a 1BR family much longer. Once the baby is 3, you need to sleep 6. That will require a 2BR.

 

[disneynutz]

Can I only use the number of points I have at each resort to book at that resort 11 months out? Does that make sense? Home resort booking is fairly important to us. We know our vacation dates far enough out, but they are pretty much never flexible.

Correct, you need to buy a contract at each of the resorts that you want to call home and you can use those points to book the home resort at 11 months or other resorts at 7 months.

Bill

 

[DizBub]

If you already know you prefer BLT or AKV I would suggest you buy one of these resorts but buy enough to get a 1 or 2 bedroom in the season your schedule allows. Your family will fit nicely in a 1 bedroom right now and the extra bathroom is a huge plus. If you get enough for a 2 bedroom you can use the extra points for that short trip and then you will be all set when you need to move up to the bigger villa.

You can always use these points to stay at all the other resorts in the future.....or buy 2 contracts and do split stays.

 

[DisGin]

Gosh, I didn't even think about not fitting into a 1 br anymore even though I did know that in the back of my mind. That's something to think about.

The recent withdrawal of some of the dvc benefits is the main reason I'm considering buy a small amount directly from disney. However, poly is the only resort they will readily sell right now.

 

[Dean]

A little info about my family's vacation habits. DH and I have 4 kids 6, 4, 2, and a baby. We're done having kids. We usually go to disney every other year and stay in a deluxe villa, either 1 or 2 bedroom. On our off years, I might take 1 kid as a treat for just a few days or if I'm lucky we can do a long adults only weekend. For the whole family, our favorites are BLT and we've also enjoyed wilderness lodge and AKL. For the shorter trips our favorites are beach club and Polynesian. Ideally, would we do a split contract? We've been thinking about dvc for years, but when it comes down to it, we don't pull the trigger because we just can't decide on home resort and use year. Help!

If DVC makes sense for you financially and otherwise, I'd just make a decision and move on. If it doesn't, and it might not if you're set on some of the issues you've listed, DVC might not be a good choice for you. But if you buy and it doesn't work out, you could always sell with a loss of only about $3K roughly depending. If you decide to proceed. you're looking at a current need of around 150-160 points for the EOY trip in a 1 BR for a week and maybe 200 to do everything stated currently. It'll be quite a while before you'll be relegated to a 2 BR. I wouldn't recommend buying too many extra points for that possibility, you can always do so later if needed. For this size contract I would not do multiple contracts, the cost is significantly more and with the planned EOY usage, it won't be easy to work with nor satisfy the majority of your stated needs any better than a single contract likely will. It sounds like BLT will be your best bet, you should be able to get something at AKV most of the time. Unless you buy mega points, you're not going to be able to have workable contracts at all of the places you list. But even if you bought at SSR, you should be able to hit all of those options over time with reasonable planning, just not necessarily each time or for a specific trip. The Poly won't be workable unless you get 2 studios.

 

[DizBub]

Gosh, I didn't even think about not fitting into a 1 br anymore even though I did know that in the back of my mind. That's something to think about.

The recent withdrawal of some of the dvc benefits is the main reason I'm considering buy a small amount directly from disney. However, poly is the only resort they will readily sell right now.

If you buy a resale contract they will sell you a small direct add-on at most resorts. I think the only ones they won't are BCV, VGF and VGC. You should be ok with BLT and certainly AKV.

 

[intertile]

You don't mention what time of the year you want to travel in, but what I would do is figure out how many points I needed for a 1 bedroom at akl or blt for the length of time you travel and the season you want to go in. Then I would purchase a contract for approximately half. Using banking or borrowing I would book my first family trip.
Then assuming everything works out, the following year I would do the same at the other resort. This way you should always have enough points to travel every other year, and occasionally have extra points for shorter trips.

Whenever you see you need to move up to a 2 bedroom, you can always add on again.

Good luck.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

The one challenge of adding on for the 2BR is that you would need a smaller contract for the point differential, AND you would want the same UY, I believe.

 

[DisGin]

My thoughts right now are getting a contract for BLT large enough for every other year in a 2br and just banking the next couple of years while we don't need it yet for a short trip or two. It seems like akl is easier to get 7 months out and I know we'll be happy at either place.

 

[Dean]

My thoughts right now are getting a contract for BLT large enough for every other year in a 2br and just banking the next couple of years while we don't need it yet for a short trip or two. It seems like akl is easier to get 7 months out and I know we'll be happy at either place.

That seems reasonable if DVC makes sense otherwise. BLT is the second cheapest option long term by all indications even with the higher up front option. And it does offer the added benefit of the standard view option to save a few points.