West Coast purchase question

[Electron_si]

We currently own 350 points between Poly and RIV as we mostly stay at WDW. But now after a few trips to DL (cash stays) with our older boys they’ve been asking to go back.

Is anyone with WDW points successful at booking VDH during any peak travel periods (summer, spring break, long holiday weekends) or do I need to look at owning there? I’m fine with booking a 1BR if needed, however only 150 of our points are unrestricted.

I won’t even ask about VGC as I’ve tried to book there and could barely get one night to pop up.

Any insight is appreciated

 

[cruisehopeful]

If you are extremely flexible with room type, you might get lucky. I think booking either California resort at 7 months or less works best for people who are very flexible with dates and room types. One bedroom at VDH is much harder to book than studios due to overall # of rooms.

If you need a certain room type and are very particular about travel dates, you need to own there.

VGC often has last minute weekend and holidays come open because the points are very high and people cancel or the people trying to rent their reservations cancel.

 

[Electron_si]

If you are extremely flexible with room type, you might get lucky. I think booking either California resort at 7 months or less works best for people who are very flexible with dates and room types. One bedroom at VDH is much harder to book than studios due to overall # of rooms.

If you need a certain room type and are very particular about travel dates, you need to own there.

VGC often has last minute weekend and holidays come open because the points are very high and people cancel or the people trying to rent their reservations cancel.

Ok that’s pretty much what I figured. We are flexible on dates during the summer but that’s usually when we are on DCL or at WDW.

I think we will probably continue to book cash stays, we try to visit VGC every time we go and even owning at VDH won’t help with that.

 

[juliebee]

I don't own at VDH and have held 4 summer reservations in studios that were booked at 4-7 months out. Each reservation has been for 3-4 nights, including for 4th of July weekend (but that was just getting lucky). I've dropped a couple of those reservations as plans changed. If you are looking at 1 bedrooms, those seem to go really fast and home resort priority may be key.

 

[VGCgroupie]

You will need studios at VDH your 1 bed chances are slim. It’s not like the WDW properties where a 1 bed is easier.

If you are very flexible it could work. Give it a go one year and then decide if you need VDH points.

Also remember the resort is newish and booking availability will change in the coming years.

 

[AstroBlasters]

We currently own 350 points between Poly and RIV as we mostly stay at WDW. But now after a few trips to DL (cash stays) with our older boys they’ve been asking to go back.

Is anyone with WDW points successful at booking VDH during any peak travel periods (summer, spring break, long holiday weekends) or do I need to look at owning there? I’m fine with booking a 1BR if needed, however only 150 of our points are unrestricted.

I won’t even ask about VGC as I’ve tried to book there and could barely get one night to pop up.

Any insight is appreciated

I’m gonna be really candid and say that I would not go in with any expectations of being able to consistently book at Disneyland at either resort inside of seven months during peak periods. That’s going to get harder and not easier as more Disneyland hotel points are sold…. The fact that it’s restricted also means that any resale points are not gonna leaving that property.

Grand Cal owners often book right at 11 months (or earlier via walking) either for their own use or for rentals. If there is anything left over at 7m the rental sites will go in with their bots and scoop them up pretty quickly for rentals.

That’s not to say you can’t pick up a random day or two from time to time when people drop them. It’s just saying that I wouldn’t expect any consistency with the ability to do it over a multi day trip and that’s gonna be exaggerated during peak times.

 

[Electron_si]

All these responses basically support what I thought the situation was. Not sure that we travel frequently enough to justify owning there right now.

Given the choice between DCL and DL, I think our kids would choose DCL every time so I don’t want to tie up another 30k in points.

 

[AstroBlasters]

All these responses basically support what I thought the situation was. Not sure that we travel frequently enough to justify owning there right now.

Given the choice between DCL and DL, I think our kids would choose DCL every time so I don’t want to tie up another 30k in points.

To each their own. With that said, many WDW people buy just enough points to bank and borrow to use every 3-years if studios are an acceptable option.

 

[Electron_si]

I guess with 50 points we could probably make it work with bank/borrow but the price pp is much higher if purchasing below 150 points.

We have three kids and own 2 contracts so I think if we buy I would want another 150 points to evenly split them.

 

[Genie+]

All these responses basically support what I thought the situation was. Not sure that we travel frequently enough to justify owning there right now.

Given the choice between DCL and DL, I think our kids would choose DCL every time so I don’t want to tie up another 30k in points.

Things definitely could change as time goes. I think interest in trying DL from the WDW DVC crowd is gaining popularity. Hard to say how that plays out. With so many points held on the east coast compared to VGC/VDH, the potential is there to put more pressure on west coast availability. It wouldn’t take a big uptick to impact it.

There’s over 60 million points for WDW, plus ~ 3m between HHI/VB.

There’s under 5 million at Disneyland, plus ~11.5m for Aulani.

But if you’re not planning to visit regularly then just try to book it first. See how that goes. I was surprised at our good fortune to book VGC 1BR 4 nights this Sept. We had planned to go Sept 2027 and then last month DH said he’d rather go this year. I looked and saw that 7 months out was available to book the next morning. We got on right at 8am and that did the trick!

Beginner’s luck? Maybe. It’s worth a shot though.

 

[cruisehopeful]

All these responses basically support what I thought the situation was. Not sure that we travel frequently enough to justify owning there right now.

Given the choice between DCL and DL, I think our kids would choose DCL every time so I don’t want to tie up another 30k in points.

In your shoes, I would book a room through Disney for cash and then wait-list and keep checking the website for a cancellation to switch to DVC if it opens up. If you get to a point where you know you'll be visiting every 2-3 years, you can buy then. Who knows what will happen with Disneyland Forward. There might be a new DVC at that point.