The wait may kill me!

[Kwaschitz]

On our 1st anniversary trip (in 2001 - one year after we were there for our honeymoon), we looked into DVC. At the time we had my student loans, car payments and rent that pretty much ate our income - not to mention that I had a short period of time to go before I had to get my masters!

So we waited. When our son was born, we looked again. We kept saying "if we had DVC, we'd take larger groups of extended family" and always ended up deciding we'd need SO MANY POINTS and it just wasn't feasible.

And then it hit us - we would mostly travel with 3-5 people, so actually base need on THAT. Add in DH's profit share from his company and our tax refund and we realized that we can FINALLY do it now.

Only to find out that there's just no availability where we want to be (DH says if he's spending that much money, he wants minimal buses - so monorail or ability to walk to Epcot is required. Also DH will only buy direct - I know about resale and all, but if this is what his requirement is to buy in? I'm not going to complain!)

So we called...and based on talking to my husband, the guide felt like he wouldn't be happy with AKV and neither of us want Aulani as a home resort. So we have a few options.

He could put us on the waitlist at BWV or BCV, but the expirations on those are sooner and our son is very young - he felt like we should veer away from those for that reason since there are other resorts that meet DH's criteria with longer periods.

Our next option is waitlist at BLT, but his concern was that if we wanted to add on later, it could be a long time to get our UY there (he said he's got a client that's been on the list for >6 months).

So unless we change our mind, he's got us on his shortlist to call when GFV goes on sale.

I'd really hoped we could be going "home" for our fall trip to celebrate DS's birthday (He's a halloween baby and loves that he can trick-or-treat and have cake at MK before the actual day and then do it again at home LOL).

I know that *technically* we haven't been waiting any length of time at all, but it's been more than 12 years that I've been working to make this happen!

What do any of you think the chances of GFV going on sale before we have to book a late Sept/early Oct trip are? I'm thinking about calling as soon as the window opens and booking ADRs and then doing rooms much later just in case.

 

[wordwitt]

Have you considered resale? Half the price and technically no waiting list. I say 'technically' because it can take a while to close.

 

[CarolMN]

.....(snip)........What do any of you think the chances of GFV going on sale before we have to book a late Sept/early Oct trip are? I'm thinking about calling as soon as the window opens and booking ADRs and then doing rooms much later just in case.

The real issue is when the construction will be complete and the resort ready for occupancy. I think the VGF will be available to purchase prior to your trip, but I'm not so sure that it will be open to stay until later this year. We'll just have to wait and see.

 

[cbnsoul]

Have you considered resale? Half the price and technically no waiting list. I say 'technically' because it can take a while to close.

The OP stated she knew about resale but her husband wanted to buy direct.

It is questionable if VGF will be open by the fall. Based on where they are in construction, it's pretty doubtful. You could always go on a wait list for a couple different use years at BLT. That would lock in the price and you could just cancel one of the wait lists when your points came through on the other. There was a recent price increase on the older resorts which resulted in wait lists which have yet to be filled but it didn't affect BLT so hopefully for most UY, you would get them fairly soon.

 

[wordwitt]

Missed the resale v direct part. Not a resale evangelist, just wanted to make sure you knew the option (and apparently I have terrible reading comprehension)!

 

[eandesmom]

I believe you would be able to buy into GFV within the next month, possibly 2. You would be able to use those points for a fall stay at another resort assuming availability. I believe it's doubtful that GFV will be open by fall, more likely holiday season. However fall availability will be hit or miss based on Food and Wine and MNSSHP. Likely you could FE in at SSR, OWK, AKV. Anything else will be a crap shoot.

I'd book a resort stay to hold a spot and cancel if it works out to use your new points wherever they are instead.

 

[Sandisw]

Now that you are aware that buying direct may take longer than you anticipated and getting a resort you might want could be difficult, maybe your DH would begin to consider the resale route.

We just finished adding on more points via resale for BLT. Got 100 points at $95/pt. That was $7000 less than getting them direct (even if I could have gotten them right away). And, they came with 2012 UY points we did not need so I was able to transfer them to another member to bring my net cost down to $84/pt.

Even given the 2 month time frame for resale, you might be able to buy, close and still be able to get something for your Fall trip which would allow you to put that money toward the purchase.

Just something to think about!

 

[CarolMN]

I believe you would be able to buy into GFV within the next month, possibly 2. You would be able to use those points for a fall stay at another resort assuming availability. I believe it's doubtful that GFV will be open by fall, more likely holiday season. However fall availability will be hit or miss based on Food and Wine and MNSSHP. Likely you could FE in at SSR, OWK, AKV. Anything else will be a crap shoot.

I'd book a resort stay to hold a spot and cancel if it works out to use your new points wherever they are instead.

If the OP buys VGF, she will NOT be able to use those VGF points anywhere until VGF is actually open and available for point stays.

 

[eandesmom]

If the OP buys VGF, she will NOT be able to use those VGF points anywhere until VGF is actually open and available for point stays.

True but don't hey generally offer developer points until it opens? Seems to me they did with both BLT and Aulani at least.

 

[annduong]

Have you considered resale? Half the price and technically no waiting list. I say 'technically' because it can take a while to close.

How do you find resale? How does it work?

 

[Kwaschitz]

How do you find resale? How does it work?

One way is to click on the banner ad at the top of this page. Or google "Disney Vacation Club resale" and you'll find several others that sell them (I don't really want to link anything because I'm not sure what the exact rules for that are on the board)

 

[Kwaschitz]

Ack - I didn't realize that we might not be able to use points until they were reserving at GF! I'd assumed that once we bought the points, we could use them elsewhere if GF wasn't completed.

So our new revised plan: within the next couple of days, make ADRs, shift our travel dates based on those (I am DETERMINED to get BOG for dinner!), then reserve a room (hopefully) at the Poly subject to change should we get the ability to use points

 

[AddieAidey]

If your husband is anything like mine, he was all for buying direct because he just thought of it is as black and white with not being able to have all the booking options. After I researched obsessively and showed him the pro's and con's of buying resale, it was clear to him that buying resale was the better economical decision, especially when you can get a loaded contract.

He was emotionally willing to buy a 320 Aulani contract on site for $40K+ to ensure we took family vacations BUT I knew there was a resale market and when we were able to buy a contract for half the price it was even more sweeter. I totally get it if that is the route he wants to go....hard to change a guys mind once set but you will look like a super star and maybe...just maybe be able to afford a larger contract that will get you more vacation time and save you more money upfront.

 

[CarolMN]

True but don't hey generally offer developer points until it opens? Seems to me they did with both BLT and Aulani at least.

Maybe, but it's not a given. We will not know until sales begin. Many different incentives have been offered over the years - free cruises, free tickets, extra points, etc. Developer points were only one such promotional incentive. They may not offer any incentives at all for VGF.

I will be surprised if they offer developer points since the only unsold points they have (in any quantity) for WDW resorts are at AKV, and AFAIK, they are not having much trouble getting those AKV villas rented to the public via CRO/DRC.

 

[Kwaschitz]

HOLY CROW! Resort rates have gone up A LOT since we took a trip this same time period in 2011!!

On the plus side, DH is now FIRMLY on board for buying DVC, so... I guess this is a win?

DS has asked that we try to get a pirate room at CBR again and since it's his birthday trip, I guess we have to at least try to do that for him (I'm not a huge fan of the location of those rooms or really CBR in general).

If we can get our points before then and have the ability to use them, then all the better! (Though if we have a PotC room, I'm sure he'll at least want us to do a split stay so that he can have his fill of the pirates. )

 

[Kwaschitz]

And still, we wait!

We're in a busy period in our year - I homeschool our 7yo son who has decided he'd like to finish the school year early (so he wants double and triple lessons each day to get through the curricula faster - and as long as he continues doing well with them I'm all for it!) plus end of year theatre productions, family events galore, and now an impromptu trip to LA (with 2 days at DLR) next week. Since deciding that BOG reservations for dinner aren't the MOST important thing, I haven't had time to book anything for fall but it's no longer super urgent to do it at the 180 mark...so in the next couple of months, either we'll have our DVC and hope our guide can pull off some major pixie dust, or we'll book a cash trip when things settle down enough to think that far ahead. For this trip, I'm just going to chill out and either it's meant to be and will fall into place or not. I can *totally* be that chill rotfl2 Meanwhile, I stalk the Dis every day on the chance that someone will have a post that GF is on the market.