Thinking About SSR, but Will Stay at BW mainly

[CarolAnnC]

After two years in a row of being unable to obtain BWV ressies for the beginning of December (I was an OKW owner only at the time) I opted to purchase a resale contract for 200 BWV points. Now I am happy as a clam.

 

[Dean]

I am not sure I like the idea the purchasing resell points given the shorter contract length, closing cost, title fees, etc. Boardwalk points are costing 80 to 85 over at Time Shares By Resale plus fees.

With SSR going for 83 per point, it seem like I should go for the longer contract with no closing fees. And, I can purchase the SSR on my Disney Credit Card and payoff when the statement arrives for even more savings.

SSR is close the Downtown Disney and my wife and I end most of our evenings in the Downtown Disney area.

As long as your comfortable staying at SSR that is certainly reasonable.

 

[crisi]

Yep, perfectly reasonable. Now the question to ask is "will you kick yourself if you aren't staying near Epcot for the F&W?" For me, not kicking myself is worth a few thousand dollars, and I'll be pretty old when the BW contracts expire so the extra contract life isn't even a factor for me. But that is me and you are you.

 

[RAD]

I am starting to think that I could buy into SSR at 150 points and purchasing about 50 points at BWV so that I could have 5 days of Food and Wine Festival.

I could book the BWV at 11 months and use the 150 at 7 months to add to the days if available. (I believe that they would be a seperate booking.)


- Brian

What are you planning to get for 50 points at BWV For 5 days? You need at least 45 points for a standard view studio for Sunday -> Thursday and standard views tend to go quickly no matter what time of year due to their lower cost. So you might want to plan on 60 points at least for a preferred view which you might have a shot at for 7 months.

 

[mowog]

Unless you are going to book more than 7 months out, it doesn't matter which resort you buy. At 7 months, a point is a point is a point.

For the last 3 months of the year, BCV and BWV are going to very tough to get unless you are able to book at least 7 months prior to arrival.

Best wishes -

As SSR sells out I'm not sure if 7 months will get you what you want at BCV or BWV. You may have to book at SSR and waitlist for the EPCOT resorts. We added a few days to our upcomong December BCV stay and asked about a lock off 2 BR instead of a dedicated, and were told none were available- and this was March! We did get the 2br dedicated additional days though.

 

[WDW LOVR]

After two years in a row of being unable to obtain BWV ressies for the beginning of December (I was an OKW owner only at the time) I opted to purchase a resale contract for 200 BWV points. Now I am happy as a clam.

I agree Carol. We bought our first contract for 170 SSR points. After we figured out we wanted to make the F+W a fairly annual event we purchased a small contract at BWV (through DVC) so we can reserve what we want 11 months out (which we are doing right now for next Oct).

We enjoy our SSR points as well for other vacations during the year and have stayed at OKW, SSR and BWV (during the DVC off season) so far. Looking forward to trying VWL and BCV in the future.

 

[Mississippian]

My wife and I are thinking about purchasing into Saratoga Springs, but we go every year to the food and wine festival.

So, we will want to stay primarily in the Beach Club or the Boardwalk.

Brianallen,
You don't exist. The reason I know you don't exist is because I've pointed out on these boards that many people are buying at SSR primarily to stay at Boardwalk and Beach Club. Everytime I make this point I'm told that such people just don't exist, that everyone loves SSR.

My opinion is that it is going to get much harder to do what you want to do, and you should buy where you want to stay.

Supposedly DVC can eliminate resort-hopping privliges altogether. That's goinng a little far, but I do wish they would make it much harder to stay anywhere but one's home resort.

 

[brianallen]

Brianallen,
You don't exist. The reason I know you don't exist is because I've pointed out on these boards that many people are buying at SSR primarily to stay at Boardwalk and Beach Club. Everytime I make this point I'm told that such people just don't exist, that everyone loves SSR.

My opinion is that it is going to get much harder to do what you want to do, and you should buy where you want to stay.

Supposedly DVC can eliminate resort-hopping privliges altogether. That's goinng a little far, but I do wish they would make it much harder to stay anywhere but one's home resort.

Interesting post. :-/

 

[CarolMN]

As SSR sells out I'm not sure if 7 months will get you what you want at BCV or BWV. You may have to book at SSR and waitlist for the EPCOT resorts. We added a few days to our upcomong December BCV stay and asked about a lock off 2 BR instead of a dedicated, and were told none were available- and this was March! We did get the 2br dedicated additional days though.

There will always be some availability at the smaller resorts at the 7 month mark. As far as I can recall, BCV, VWL & BWV have never been completely booked up prior to the 7 month mark for any dates. (The only exception may have been when DVC had the special process for Christmas/NYE).

You may be unable to find availability for one or more of the "booking sub-categories" (such as standard views, dedicated with 2 queens, etc), but there will always be some availability. At BWV, it might be a PV - Pool/Garden, at BCV it might be a dedicated 2 bedroom with only one queen in the second bedroom, but there will always be something.

The competiton to book at the 7 month window has increased and will continue to increase as DVC adds more members. More entries in the "dialing Derby" will be chasing after the same thing.

For the OP who wants to stay at an EPCOT resort during Food & Wine: The questions to ask yourself really are -
*Am I willing and able to call day by day as soon as MS opens to get a non-home resort?
*Am I OK with waitlisting (or moving between resorts) if I lose the "Dialing Derby for any of my desired dates/room type?
*Am I OK with BCV or BWV even if I don't get a standard view(BWV), Boardwalk view(BWV), or a2 bedroom with 2 queens (BCV)?

If the answer is to any of those is no, it is likely you will be staying at SSR for some of your fall trips.

If you must have a standard view or a guaranteed Boardwalk view, you really do need to own at the BWV.

But if you wouldn't mind staying at SSR on some of your fall trips, then SSR may be right for you - for all the reasons you cite.

Best wishes -

 

[awatt]

We bought a BWV resale ths year and closed in May. At that point there was no availability for BWV for our Nov trip last week during food and wine. And teh waitlist never came through. So for us 6 months out was too late.

If you really want to be at the BWV during food and Wine, you should buy there.

 

[brianallen]

As I understand, I can purchase just a limited numbers of pointd on the resell market in Boardwalk without a 150 point stake in any resort and I will receive full benefits.

- Brian

 

[ClarabelleCow]

Brian - have you looked at the timeshare store website, if you really want points for food and wine, there are several resales at Boardwalk in the 150-200 point range, it it were me, I would buy that, then add on at SSR for those extra 12 years. But I really wouldn't worry about the extra years if why I am buying is for something that can't be guaranteed with what I am purchasing!!

I would take the plunge, you have a year to try to get by ROFR, sounds like you would regret buying SSR if you coudn't get into to BWV or BCV.

 

[brianallen]

I think we are going with SSR at around 170 points.

Thanks for all your input.

My wife and I believe that our nights ending in the Downtown Disney area is more important than staying in the Boardwalk during the International Food and Wine Festival.