Tell me your favorite 2 bedroom resort and why!

[jolynne28]

I agree on the dues comment, but that is why there is more availability on the larger accommodations and the rooms with better views!

Totally with you. If we could afford it I’d book the 3 bed GV at CCV in a heartbeat for my entire family. But there’s a lot of amazing non Disney experiences to be had for that kind of money.

 

[Genie+]

Welcome to Team Villa…. we are happy to have you.

It’s so funny. I read all the warnings that DVC eventually leads to 2BRs. Did not expect it to happen so quickly for us. We haven’t even taken our 2 studio trip yet and already planning 2BR for any trips that are moe than 2 people.

 

[AstroBlasters]

It’s so funny. I read all the warnings that DVC eventually leads to 2BRs. Did not expect it to happen so quickly for us. We haven’t even taken our 2 studio trip yet and already planning 2BR for any trips that are moe than 2 people.

IMO, the “value” of the 2 bedrooms is the sweet spot of DVC.

 

[jolynne28]

It’s so funny. I read all the warnings that DVC eventually leads to 2BRs. Did not expect it to happen so quickly for us. We haven’t even taken our 2 studio trip yet and already planning 2BR for any trips that are moe than 2 people.

Same, and I thought for sure we had a few years before I would even consider it! Yeah no, we just did 5 nights in studios and I desperately wanted more privacy from my kids, even if it was just to sleep!

 

[mamaofsix]

Sounds like you already know what you want with either CCV or BC. Our favorites are VGF or RIV. We got an incredible deal on GFV direct and their dues are historically much lower than most other resorts - making them one of the most economical as SAP. More economical than SSR. Plus no resale restrictions.

The split bathroom set-up in VGF and RIV make them just as convenient as a 3rd bathroom (if not more so). You essentially get 4 different bathroom areas in the 2 bedrooms for each of these. Location, resort amenities, onsite dining, etc. were all really important to us. MK is the one park at which we spend at least 2 days every trip, making the location of VGF really appealing. We also just love the grounds, vibe and relaxing nature of both of these resorts.

Have fun choosing!

 

[jolynne28]

Have you seen this post? Invaluable! https://www.disboards.com/threads/2022-2023-point-chart-spreadsheets-2024-added.3863993/

I thought I had commented on this earlier, thanks so much for sharing! It makes it much easier to see the big picture.

 

[jolynne28]

Sounds like you already know what you want with either CCV or BC. Our favorites are VGF or RIV. We got an incredible deal on GFV direct and their dues are historically much lower than most other resorts - making them one of the most economical as SAP. More economical than SSR. Plus no resale restrictions.

The split bathroom set-up in VGF and RIV make them just as convenient as a 3rd bathroom (if not more so). You essentially get 4 different bathroom areas in the 2 bedrooms for each of these. Location, resort amenities, onsite dining, etc. were all really important to us. MK is the one park at which we spend at least 2 days every trip, making the location of VGF really appealing. We also just love the grounds, vibe and relaxing nature of both of these resorts.

Have fun choosing!

VGF more economical than SSR? The math's not mathing for me there. Didn't you have to pay around $150/pt for VGF during the summer? I paid $85 for my SSR contract resale. Let's assume a 300 pt purchase, the VGF contract is approx. 20K more that SSR. The dues difference for those two resorts is only $0.57, so there's no way to make up that 20K in dues. Even if the dues were $2/pt less, it would take over 33 years to make up the cost. What am I missing, aside from the contract length for VGF being 10 years longer?

 

[VGCgroupie]

VGF more economical than SSR? The math's not mathing for me there. Didn't you have to pay around $150/pt for VGF during the summer? I paid $85 for my SSR contract resale. Let's assume a 300 pt purchase, the VGF contract is approx. 20K more that SSR. The dues difference for those two resorts is only $0.57, so there's no way to make up that 20K in dues. Even if the dues were $2/pt less, it would take over 33 years to make up the cost. What am I missing, aside from the contract length for VGF being 7 years longer?

since I had my spreadsheet right here.
SSR 300 @85 Total 98,760 $3292 per year
VGF 300 @150 Total 135,840 $ 3396 per year

 

[lilsonicfan]

VGF more economical than SSR? The math's not mathing for me there. Didn't you have to pay around $150/pt for VGF during the summer? I paid $85 for my SSR contract resale. Let's assume a 300 pt purchase, the VGF contract is approx. 20K more that SSR. The dues difference for those two resorts is only $0.57, so there's no way to make up that 20K in dues. Even if the dues were $2/pt less, it would take over 33 years to make up the cost. What am I missing, aside from the contract length for VGF being 7 years longer?

since I had my spreadsheet right here.
SSR 300 @85 Total 98,760 $3292 per year
VGF 300 @150 Total 135,840 $ 3396 per year

VGF has 10 more years than SSR which does make it significant. But also, I think that people were getting VGF at $161pp only after magical beginnings - arguably the "normalized" price was $161pp. My SSR contract was $80pp but I could have rented out that year's points to bring it to a "normalized" price of say $65pp after accounting for taxes (plus, it was loaded so even more) bringing my SSR per year cost down to $2,633 or something like that.

 

[VGCgroupie]

VGF has 10 more years than SSR which does make it significant. But also, I think that people were getting VGF at $161pp only after magical beginnings - arguably the "normalized" price was $161pp. My SSR contract was $80pp but I could have rented out that year's points to bring it to a "normalized" price of say $65pp after accounting for taxes (plus, it was loaded so even more) bringing my SSR per year cost down to $2,633 or something like that.

yeah Im not saying one is better over the other, I just had my spreadsheet so I input the numbers. 37K is alot of money to save even if the price per year is similar. It's really a personal choice if having 10 extra years for 37k is worth it or not. This is also assuming dues staying the same at both places.

 

[VGCgroupie]

VGF has 10 more years than SSR which does make it significant. But also, I think that people were getting VGF at $161pp only after magical beginnings - arguably the "normalized" price was $161pp. My SSR contract was $80pp but I could have rented out that year's points to bring it to a "normalized" price of say $65pp after accounting for taxes (plus, it was loaded so even more) bringing my SSR per year cost down to $2,633 or something like that.

Changing it to 161 is Total 139,140 3478 per year

 

[mamaofsix]

since I had my spreadsheet right here.
SSR 300 @85 Total 98,760 $3292 per year
VGF 300 @150 Total 135,840 $ 3396 per year

VGF more economical than SSR? The math's not mathing for me there. Didn't you have to pay around $150/pt for VGF during the summer? I paid $85 for my SSR contract resale. Let's assume a 300 pt purchase, the VGF contract is approx. 20K more that SSR. The dues difference for those two resorts is only $0.57, so there's no way to make up that 20K in dues. Even if the dues were $2/pt less, it would take over 33 years to make up the cost. What am I missing, aside from the contract length for VGF being 10 years longer?

At our time of purchase, SSR was going for about $100 pp on the resale market, so this is how we calculated it (using 100 points to make the math simpler, but we bought more points than that):

VGF: 100 points x $161 = $16100 + dues ($7.57 x 100 = 757 x 41 years = 31037). 47137 / 41 years = $1149 / year
SSR: 100 points x $100 = $10000 + dues ($8.13 x 100 = 813 x 31 years = 25203). 35703 / 31 years = $1151 / year

Not a huge difference, but it was worth it for us. We are also international guests, so the discount on food and merch from a direct purchase vs. resale made it even more economical. Of course, the dues in the calculation above will only increase with inflation. But, historically VGF has kept with lower dues than most other resorts over time, so we felt it was a safe choice.

However, I think you should buy where you want to stay. Sounds like BC or CCV are perfect for you

 

[lilsonicfan]

Not a huge difference, but it was worth it for us. We are also international guests, so the discount on food and merch from a direct purchase vs. resale made it even more economical.

Wow, I didn't know Magical Beginnings was available for international guests! It isn't for Canadians.

 

[Genie+]

Sure cheap SAP is great, but the MF's on all that, no thanks!

The flipside of this is how buying in at a higher price per point per year can still end up in the economical range. The impact of dues and point charts on expenses can overtake buy-in cost in the big picture. I think they’ve helped hold BW and BC pricing up. Dues in the average range and lower points needed per night offsets the higher $pp/py. It ends up only being a little more expensive in exchange for staying at a near park resort in the middle of the action.

VGF more economical than SSR? The math's not mathing for me there. Didn't you have to pay around $150/pt for VGF during the summer? I paid $85 for my SSR contract resale. Let's assume a 300 pt purchase, the VGF contract is approx. 20K more that SSR. The dues difference for those two resorts is only $0.57, so there's no way to make up that 20K in dues. Even if the dues were $2/pt less, it would take over 33 years to make up the cost. What am I missing, aside from the contract length for VGF being 10 years longer?

There’s many ways to do the math especially in deciding how much TVM or opportunity cost means to us.

When we bought VGF last year at $161pp last year, it basically worked out to an estimated $.50pp premium to use each point over the life of contract, while also getting us full perks over that time.

SSR resale was around $3pp/py vs VGF direct $4pp/py, and VGF saved $.50pp in dues. We paid just under $25k for 150pts. SSR would’ve saved $10k on the buy-in. That’s a big chunk of money! But we felt laying out that money had enough benefits to justify. Since we love VGF it was reassurance we wouldn’t find ourselves having to compromise on reservations often, and ability to book new resorts down the line helped there too. Kind of a safeguard against the future if 7m trading gets more difficult. It actually makes decent SAP points with the lower dues. We’ll probably never sell but I liked the high possibility of getting a better return compared to what we paid and used if we sold in 10, 20 or 30 years.

 

[smrice95]

Gonna give you a crystal ball on that one. Our 2 oldest are in college. Both love where they are going to school and are staying there over the summer. Our oldest is even taking classes over the summer (changing majors). LSS - both have a very tiny window of opportunity for a family vacation. LSS - you may not want so many points as THEY get older. I certainly would not assume they will ever want to take over paying dues. YMMV, but we've found our 160 points is plenty.

My family is the opposite. We bought in because as they were ending high school my kids still love Disney. They both have graduated college and we were sure we went during the summer when they could join us. Most of the years it was full time, but there were some that one of them missed a day or two. This year we are trying a grand villa at OKW for the first time. We were only doing 5 days. DD says - why only 5 days? So I added on a 1 bedroom and now DS is coming. Since my parents are joining us too, we now went from a one bedroom to a 2 bedroom. Since we are not going into the parks I am booked at SS. Hoping for the Paddock for the nice walk over to Disney Springs.

Kids may love the idea or hate it. Ours love it and say they will be more than happy to take over the contracts when we are ready. When we bought our last one, we had them both put right on it. Be ready that they don't want them or want to go anymore, but also ready for bringing friends! Suggestion - do what you think is best for now! DVC can be sold if things change. We did rent out BC 2 bedroom and we do not own there. We were doing a split stay and we did 5 nights there. I booked exactly at the 7 month window. We went in August.

 

[holden]

We most often stay in a 2 or 3BR.

BLT is our home resort, and we try to stay there because we love the location (walk to MK, monorail to other resorts and EP) and the third bathroom seals the deal.

We aren't fans of the decor, but benefits outweigh our desire for a nice aesthetic.

Our back up is Kidani because it too has the third bathroom. The location isn't our favorite, but the resort is nice.

So my votes are for BLT and Kidani.

 

[jolynne28]

I've watched a lot of videos, but can't keep it all straight in my head. Has anyone made a chart that shows which one and two bedrooms have the pull down murphys vs the pull out sofa? Or is it only a few that still have the sleeper sofa? I swear I saw one video of a sleeper sofa 1 bedroom at BWV and another with murphy, so I assume it's part of the refurb, but both videos were dated very recently. That's one thing we don't want to deal with, the sofas are so uncomfortable.

 

[Tatebeck]

We did BLT, BWV, and AKV as our first 3 resorts. We don't need 2BR ourselves but we may need them when we bring friends/family or in the future after kids, etc.

We partially chose them for locations (MK walk, Epcot/HS walk, savannahs) but also for the extra bathrooms in Kidani and Bay Lake as well as the low point chart/low availability at BWV

 

[pinkxray]

Right now BLT, AKV and Copper Creek still have pull outs vs. murphy beds. They will all hopefully get them once they are refurbed. Old Key West doesn't have them and I don't think they ever will due to the floor layout?

 

[intamin]

In terms of buying strategy I think if you were going for 1BRs, you'd have a much easier time grabbing BCV at 7 months especially since you're going during the summer but since you're doing 2BRs availability is more sketch. I know you can look at the availability charts but it's not the same as trying to actually book it 7 months out.

What you could do is buy your little bit of CCV points that you had intended for the winter since that seems to be more of a long term thing and then in November try booking BCV 2BRs 7 months out. The down side to this of course you'd essentially be losing out on a year of BCV ownership but you'd get to see if you really need home resort priority for that time period. If you're wanting to stay at BCV for like a consecutive week though I'd probably just buy it to avoid gaps in my trips. Also if not staying at BCV for those summer trips is non-negotiable then just buy BCV. Life's short.