VGC Owners and Lovers -- do I need to own there?

[happyrebster]

Here's my story. I've been a member for about 10 years. I've only owned SSR points; but I've been able to stay at the VGC about 4 times through the years. Sometimes had to waitlist a bit, but always eventually got it. Though never at peak season.

Now it's time to add on. Was all set to sign this fairly sweet resale contract for 120 points at VGC -- good price per point. Not my same use year, but I figured I'd deal with that. When I realized that I had forgotten to make a reservations for an upcoming visit with my inlaws. So I just called Member Services to get a two-bedroom in March -- got it no problem! No waitlist. Five months out.

So what's the deal? I know VGC is tiny; but I'm nearly always getting a room when I need it. So am I crazy to pay a premium for points at this resort? The currently premium seems to be about $30 per point -- so initial total premium of about $3,600. What am I getting for that? Just the ability to book at the holidays and other peak times of year?

What has been your experience? If you are a frequent VGC visitor, do you have trouble booking at 7 months? I could really use some input. Thanks!

 

[DebbieB]

Here's my story. I've been a member for about 10 years. I've only owned SSR points; but I've been able to stay at the VGC about 4 times through the years. Sometimes had to waitlist a bit, but always eventually got it. Though never at peak season.

Now it's time to add on. Was all set to sign this fairly sweet resale contract for 120 points at VGC -- good price per point. Not my same use year, but I figured I'd deal with that. When I realized that I had forgotten to make a reservations for an upcoming visit with my inlaws. So I just called Member Services to get a two-bedroom in March -- got it no problem! No waitlist. Five months out.

So what's the deal? I know VGC is tiny; but I'm nearly always getting a room when I need it. So am I crazy to pay a premium for points at this resort? The currently premium seems to be about $30 per point -- so initial total premium of about $3,600. What am I getting for that? Just the ability to book at the holidays and other peak times of year?

What has been your experience? If you are a frequent VGC visitor, do you have trouble booking at 7 months? I could really use some input. Thanks!

I got a studio for the first week of May this year at 7 months. I think it may get more difficult when Carsland opens. I hoping for the first week of October next year.

 

[CarolMN]

I can't answer your question, but I'm sure the 7 month success odds depend on both the time of year you expect to visit as well as the room size you prefer.

Those two pieces of info will help the experienced answer your question more accurately.

 

[happyrebster]

I can't answer your question, but I'm sure the 7 month success odds depend on both the time of year you expect to visit as well as the room size you prefer.

Those two pieces of info will help the experienced answer your question more accurately.

Oh! Yes! Of course.

I strongly prefer 1 bedroom over studios. That's why a 120 contract rather than just a 50. As to times when we visit: all the time! Birthdays, anniversaries, when the in-laws visit, etc. As a rule, we try to stay away from summer, spring break, Christmas and Halloween, but that could change over time. And having just visited the Halloween party this year (which my young daughter loved), I can see how it would be VERY nice to have a place to crash when it is over (rather than just driving home as we did this year).

I also noted that the VGC has one of the lowest dues levels. So that evens out the cost a bit. About $54 less per year for a 120 point contract. So that's about $1,350 over the next 25 years right there. Am I right to figure that in? And am I doing it right?

 

[happyrebster]

I got a studio for the first week of May this year at 7 months. I think it may get more difficult when Carsland opens. I hoping for the first week of October next year.

Hey Debbie -- interesting point! I hadn't thought about that. We were just discussing how much better California Adventure is now than when it opened. The addition of Soarin, Tower of Terror, etc. has made it a much bigger draw than it once was. No idea how popular Carsland will be; but I do know that the franchise has been huge for them. And, of course, there is no Carsland in Florida. So that could, indeed, be a draw someday.

 

[DebbieB]

Oh! Yes! Of course.

I strongly prefer 1 bedroom over studios. That's why a 120 contract rather than just a 50. As to times when we visit: all the time! Birthdays, anniversaries, when the in-laws visit, etc. As a rule, we try to stay away from summer, spring break, Christmas and Halloween, but that could change over time. And having just visited the Halloween party this year (which my young daughter loved), I can see how it would be VERY nice to have a place to crash when it is over (rather than just driving home as we did this year).

I also noted that the VGC has one of the lowest dues levels. So that evens out the cost a bit. About $54 less per year for a 120 point contract. So that's about $1,350 over the next 25 years right there. Am I right to figure that in? And am I doing it right?

1 bedrooms are usually easier to get than studios.

When comparing dues, you also have to look at the per night point requirements. The newer resorts tend to have higher per night point requirements, which drives the per point dues down.

 

[happyrebster]

1 bedrooms are usually easier to get than studios.

When comparing dues, you also have to look at the per night point requirements. The newer resorts tend to have higher per night point requirements, which drives the per point dues down.

So true. I am always shocked by how many points it takes to stay at VGC; but there isn't any real reason for me to compare with the florida resort on that point cause we will always be staying in VGC more often than an FL resort because we live in southern California. We only go to Florida once every couple of years to spend time with / share points with our extended family. And we love doing that; but recently it has only been about once every 18 months / 2 years. Would like to do that more often - which is why we'll be keeping the 125 SSR points that we already have.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

If you are flexible in dates and room sizes or don't have to go every anniversary etc. then you may be fine not owning there. And owning there is only matters if you will book prior to the 7 month window. If you won't be doing that then just buy something cheaper.

This Oct we were able to get 3 nights in a 1BR to use our holding points but I had to check for awhile to find anything more than a night or 2 here and there. We were lucky that someone cancelled and we were flexible in when we went otherwise it would have been tough. Of course this was trying to get a room 60 days or less out but others had been reporting problems for awhile for Oct.

We do own points there because there are certain times of the year I definitely would rather go to CA than FL and my birthday in June happens to be one of them.

 

[happyrebster]

If you are flexible in dates and room sizes or don't have to go every anniversary etc. then you may be fine not owning there. And owning there is only matters if you will book prior to the 7 month window. If you won't be doing that then just buy something cheaper.

This Oct we were able to get 3 nights in a 1BR to use our holding points but I had to check for awhile to find anything more than a night or 2 here and there. We were lucky that someone cancelled and we were flexible in when we went otherwise it would have been tough. Of course this was trying to get a room 60 days or less out but others had been reporting problems for awhile for Oct.

We do own points there because there are certain times of the year I definitely would rather go to CA than FL and my birthday in June happens to be one of them.

Good points all. In the past, we frequently booked only at less than 7 months; but I can see times in the future where I may really want to book at closer to 11 months (see above note about the Halloween party). Visiting close to the holidays might be nice as well. Just for a change. And, of course, as my daughter gets older, we will likely do more trips during the traditional "vacation" times. We shall see.

I also note that you are VWL owners. I think all VWL people would love VGC! Such a similar style.

 

[G'sMaman]

I also noted that the VGC has one of the lowest dues levels. So that evens out the cost a bit. About $54 less per year for a 120 point contract. So that's about $1,350 over the next 25 years right there. Am I right to figure that in? And am I doing it right?

We have been on the list to buy VGC direct from Disney since July (any use year even!) and are still waiting. In that time, we have made an offer on a resale which closed last week and decided to buy a small BCV contract directly so we have the option of booking a hotel at DLR if we need to. Just waiting for the points to hit our account before we take ourselves off the list. We ended up with a larger contract than we needed, but I guess that is one of the downsides of buying resale although most people don't complain about having too many points There are free calculators on the web that will give you a true idea of how much the cost of a dvc ownership is since you have to take into account the effect of compounding - ie the increased mf times the yearly percentage rise in mf. Deleting my previous link to another site just in case that's not allowed even if the site is for free.

 

[happyrebster]

We have been on the list to buy VGC direct from Disney since July (any use year even!) and are still waiting. In that time, we have made an offer on a resale which closed last week and decided to buy a small BCV contract directly so we have the option of booking a hotel at DLR if we need to. Just waiting for the points to hit our account before we take ourselves off the list. We ended up with a larger contract than we needed, but I guess that is one of the downsides of buying resale although most people don't complain about having too many points Here's a site that helps give you a rough calculation of the total cost of ownership: http://www.dvcproplan.com/buy.php

Ack. Bummer that Disney could never hook you up with the VGC contract that you wanted. I was previously thinking that I would also want to buy direct so that we would have the option of staying at one of the other Disneyland hotels; but then realized that I do not like any of them as much as I like VGC. So, for me, that aspect of buying direct was false economy. Not sure why I'm so weird about that -- the remodeled Disneyland Hotel is BEAUTIFUL! I've just got an irrational emotional attachment to VGC. Unfortunately, so does my daughter. She has been visiting that place at least once a year since she was a baby. It's love.

Thank you for the website -- that was very helpful. If you look at the full cost of ownership -- whoa! Scary. Makes me want to sell DVC right away!

I know what you mean about the difficulty of finding a smaller resale contract. 120 points is just about exactly the size I was searching for in a resale VGC contract. And the price per point was right. The UY isn't perfect -- but I decided to grab it anyway. I think I could spend years looking for the perfect resale contract. And miss many happy vacations in the interim!

Good luck in your process! And I hope you have many very happy vacations.

 

[G'sMaman]

Thanks for the nice note happyrebster! I know what you mean about the cost of ownership calculator. Now I totally get why people say DVC ownership is a luxury not an investment.

 

[kyle051777]

We bought disneyland AP in April of this year and in August I think we closed on our SSR contract. We had a couple vacations booked at VGC but we had to be very flexible. If you are not that flexible I could see owning at VGC a huge plus. We have been on waitlists there that have not come through. One of them was in Nov. Just booked at Paradise Pier because I could not wait any longer. Good luck with your decision.

 

[Snurk71]

I don't understand why there are reports of so many getting rooms at 7 months or under. I would have thought that most of the VGC points would have been purchased for use at VGC - there were cheaper points from other resorts available. Why would people have paid the premium for VGC?

By the way, we bought 150 at VGC so we'd have 11 month access. Better safe than sorry for us.