Vero Beach questions

[andrea9873]

Hello all! We were ready to buy into DVC this August and have the BCV as our home resort. Then our member guide called us to let us know of a good incentive they are offering to buy back one year's points at $15 per point (150pts) and put that toward the cost of our membership. Which brings our price down to only 9k. Sounds good so far...but we would have to make our home resort Vero Beach instead of BCV. It looks very relaxing and nice.

I'd like to find out if it's really hard to book at any of the onsite Disney resorts with only 7 months out. Rather than 11 months that we'd have at say, BCV. My member guide said she knows VB Home Members that have never even been to VB only Disney site resorts.
As long as we are not trying for the 3 high season weeks(President's, Easter and Christmas weeks) will we be have a fair chance of reserving. I have heard that with the DVC even with your 11 month window you still need to be fairly flexible with your dates...Is this true??

Appreciate your advice with this.

Thank you

 

[poohstx]

Over the course of your 40 year ownership you will be much happier if you buy where you're going to stay!

 

[PamOKW]

You'll find similar discussions on this same topic on some recent threads. The best advice is to buy where you want to stay. If you are really counting on staying at BCV on most of your trips, then it would probably be best to purchase there since it is a small resort that is proving to be very desireable. If you truly don't care which of the DVC resorts, BCV, BWV, VWL or OKW would be available and aren't looking to use Grand Villas or standard view rooms at BWV, you will probably make out okay with the VB purchase.

The dues at VB are higher than other DVC resorts. Here's what they were for 2002

2002
OKW = $3.22
BWV = $3.92
HH = $3.49
Vero= $4.17
VWL = $3.80
BCV = $3.77

Vero is a beautiful resort and some people are finding it's a good idea to own home resort points there if they want to book easily. I would give it serious consideration before purchasing it as my home resort if you don't intend to stay there regularly. In effect, you won't have an 11-month advantage at any resort if you don't plan to use your home resort.

 

[mikesmom]

We LOVE Vero and have discussed getting an add on there, so we have 11 month advantage there. BUT, I wouldn't buy there if I wanted to stay at WDW. The 3 holiday weeks mentioned are NOT the only heavy occupancy times for DVC. DVC'ers have learned to travel when the points are low, which is often traditionally slow times for the rest of WDW.

For instance, pretty much all of December can be a challenge. During the Food & Wine Fest (this year Oct 19 thru Nov 19) it is almost impossible to get BWV or BCV without the 11 month advantage. - Believe me, I know. I reserved within my 11 months (we own at BWV), but DH needed to change the days of the ressies and didn't know until we were in the 6 month window. When I tried to make new ressies, DVC at BWV and BCV is pretty much sold out. We'll still get our vacation at the Fest, but we needed to make the new reservation over at OKW.

Yes, you can usually get to WDW somewhere, but you might have to be very flexible with type of room, which resort, which dates, and even moving from resort to resort.

Buy where you want to stay!

 

[Richyams]

Also understand something else about VB. It has been a serious dissapointment to Disney. Their experience there caused them to shy away from ever building off site again. The resort is only a shadow of its original design because of poor sales.

It has the highest MB for a reason.

It is an absolutely beautiful resort, truly one of the finest in the world, but buying there to save money upfront would be silly. The higher dues will eat up your savings in a few years.

A much better way to get in for substantially less money is a resale. You can buy an OKW resale for well under $70 per point and pay almost $1 less per point in dues.

This would also give you OKW as a home resort, the crown jewel of DVC, many consider it to be the only 'true' DVC resort.