What did you decide - more points at a lower price or fewer more expensive points?

[coolbluewater]

Once again, we are debating whether or not to purchase DVC. It's a yearly debate, but this year we've gotten as far as to look at resale contracts and narrow decisions down between BLT and AKL.

BLT is our favorite but we wouldn't be unhappy at AKL. It boils down to this for us: should we buy (more) AKL points and just take our chance at the 7 month mark for a lake view 1 Bedroom or Studio at BLT if we needed to be on a monorail resort? We would travel marathon weekend and first week of September most likely....

I know that no one can make that decision for us - I'm just curious if you decided on more points at a resort you like slightly less (but at which you wouldn't be unhappy) or fewer points at a resort that is 100% perfect. Thanks for your ideas and thoughts!

 

[graychef]

I love AKV so I bought one contract (200 points) and am in ROFR for another 160 points. To me, the 7 month availability played little or no role in purchasing.

To save you any potential heartache, you should buy where you love to stay. If it's a smaller contract for now, you can always add later.

There are, however, times when 7-month bookings are available across the DVC resorts. But there are no guarantees.

 

[disneynutz]

IMO you should buy where you love to stay after staying at the different resorts to have first hand experience. Reading about the different resorts and looking at pictures is way different than actually staying there for a couple of nights.

If that means buying somewhere on the cheap with thoughts of selling and buying elsewhere later then so be it.

Disney continues to change the game and booking DVC at 7 months is becoming more difficult each year.

Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars hoping to get a room that you like is nuts IMO.

Bill

 

[mejo]

I bought vgf direct because I love it there but I am now adding on at SSR because I would be fine staying there but will have cheaper points now to try our luck for the other resorts at 7 months

 

[Noelle]

I'd say buy where you love to stay.
We bought Beach Club direct from Disney in 2002. We had seen the resort and loved it, so we bought. Then when SSR opened, we added on - sight unseen, thinking how much we loved our DVC and how much we'd love SSR too. Sadly, we never ended up 'loving it'. We gave it several chances, including the tree houses; but it just wasn't for us. To make a long story short, we are in the process of selling our SSR points now. We have bought OKW, BWV, & VGF points in the past couple of years to add to our BCV points because that's where we love to stay and we need the 11 month window to get the room type / view / dates that we like to travel. I won't say that we didn't use the points at SSR because we did - mostly at OKW. But if I could go back and do it all over again, I would have bought differently. I didn't know any better and I really didn't understand / appreciate the importance of the 11 - 7 month booking window. Or possibly it wasn't as big of a deal back during our first few years of ownership. But I'm never be disappointed to stay at any of my home resorts. In fact, we have a difficult time deciding sometimes where we want to stay. I'd say buy as many points as you can at the resort you love and then a few years from now, you can always buy more if you need to.

 

[zavandor]

First week of September and marathon week end are like day and night, one of the lowest time the first, one of the most requested the second. This year there was nothing available at BLT for marathon week end. In any view. Also AKV Jambo was sold out, I don't remember Kidani, but I'm quite sure standard view was sold out as well. If you want to stay at BLT for the monorail access for the marathon, you need to buy there.

First week of September all AKV and BLT lake view should be open.

 

[Disney LOVE Travel]

I was also torn between these two (after I got over the Poly dream). I actually made an offer at AKL and the sellers backed out, then decided BLT was better for now. My decision was this: I have a smaller contract at 100 pts at BLT, which will allow us to book at BLT for those vacations we can plan 11-7 months in advance. If for some reason we want to make a last minute trip closer to 7 months out or less, we have a better chance of using our BLT points at AKL than AKL points at BLT. I know we're going to add on as our two young boys (5 and 3) grow and we grow out of studios so at that point, we'll have a better idea of our staying habits and will add on a contract for the next phase of life. Hope that helps! Whatever you choose, you'll be a happy DVC member and own a (tiny) piece of the World.

 

[Minniesgal]

We did a mixture of both we bought the majority of our points at AKV and then a smaller contract at VGF to spend a few night there at the end of our trip

 

[Steve G]

We opted to buy our points at SSR (resale) given our desire to maximize points and the overall economics. We are six year DVC owners and have spent annual vacations at six different resorts, one at home: SSR and five at non-home resorts. The non-home resorts were all booked at the seven month window without problem at fairly busy times of the year (Presidents Day, Thanksgiving). Honestly we have never had an issue in booking(our #1 or #2 choice, but more importantly we have come to enjoy all the resorts for their unique attributes. Whether its BCV and BWV near Epcot, the beautiful lobbies and restaurants at VWL and AKV or the close proximity to Downtown Disney at our home resort of SSR (and driving range for this golfer....free club rentals!), we have yet to have a bad trip. And with more points, we are able to invite family and friend guests on a regular basis and stay in 2 bedroom villa facilities, very important to us. So for us, the plan worked!

 

[supersnoop]

If you're deciding between BLT and AKV, you really need to consider the maintenance fees. When you consider the extra 3 years on the contract and ~$1.20 per point fee difference, BLT points are cheaper than AKV.

 

[coolbluewater]

thank you all for your helpful and thoughtful responses.

To save you any potential heartache, you should buy where you love to stay. If it's a smaller contract for now, you can always add later.

We love to stay at both places....BLT is just easier with monorail (and a 5yo son)...

Reading about the different resorts and looking at pictures is way different than actually staying there for a couple of nights.Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars hoping to get a room that you like is nuts IMO.

I totally agree! But if I had hundreds of thousands of dollars, I could just buy everywhere....

First week of September and marathon week end are like day and night, one of the lowest time the first, one of the most requested the second. This year there was nothing available at BLT for marathon week end. In any view. Also AKV Jambo was sold out, I don't remember Kidani, but I'm quite sure standard view was sold out as well. If you want to stay at BLT for the monorail access for the marathon, you need to buy there.

First week of September all AKV and BLT lake view should be open.

This was very helpful (and I read it aloud to my husband, as I did with many of the responses here!)

I was also torn between these two (after I got over the Poly dream). .

Yes! Poly IS the dream, we stay there most often...but we cannot afford it right now for the length of time we'd like to stay. Your thinking is how we are leaning now. Now...to try and find a contract....

 

[JimMIA]

The first caution I would offer in a thread like this is that the decisions and rationales of other families probably have nothing to do with what's best for your family. In addition, DVC today is VERY different from when many of us purchased 10 or more years ago, and prospective buyers today face different choices. So I would read each response carefully to see whether their thinking matches your situation.

To me, the first question everyone should answer very honestly to themselves is whether they can reliably book more than 7 months prior to arrival. If you can't, "buy where you want to stay" doesn't matter because you will not be using the home resort booking advantage. (That said, I would never buy where I didn't want to stay.) For folks in this situation, cost will be more important than how well you like a particular resort.

For those who DO plan to use home resort advantage, you need to be aware that there are times during the year when you will have to book the moment your 11 month window opens in order to get certain reservations.

The second question I would ask is: Do I care where I stay? When I asked myself that years ago, the answer (for us, nobody else) was NO. We bought OKW and SSR because of the financial aspects. We figured if we tried to book another resort and were unsuccessful, we'd just do that resort another time. In more than 30 trips, we never failed to get the resort we wanted, when we wanted it. So -- for us -- making the low-cost decision, rather than resort choice, proved to be a wise choice.

The second caution I would offer is to be careful what you consider lower cost vs more expensive points. Your cost over the years will be your acquisition costs (including financing costs if you finance) + your annual "dues." A particular resort may have a MUCH lower acquisition cost, but much higher dues and your overall costs could be much higher there despite a lower buy-in. When you look at numbers, look at all the numbers.

 

[tasha99]

We started out last year with 75 BWV points to get our feet wet. Ended up using them at VGC (and had to rent a few more) for our first DVC trip. We love WDW, but Disneyland is closer and I have family nearby. So . . . we bought 75 VGC points.

We also bought 150 SSR points because we like a lot of space (2BR for 3 people). My thought is I'm not that picky, and having the BWV and VGC points will get us some stays near where we want to be, but the SSR points will give us extra days. Now, if a magical fairy could turn all of our points into VGC, I would be thrilled, but as it is, having a mix seemed to give us the most options at a price I could afford.

 

[com_op_2000]

Neither, we found the a contract that worked for us. Put in our bid, they countered, we countered, and they accepted. I have bought points in '93, '97, & '11 paid within $1.00 for all my points.

 

[loveglobe]

I personally prefer BLT for the monorail aspect with young children, and agree that AKL seems to have more availability in general, so you may be better off getting BLT knowing you could definitely stay there and have a fairly good shot at getting AKL at 7 months. Good luck!

 

[coolbluewater]

The first caution I would offer in a thread like this is that the decisions and rationales of other families probably have nothing to do with what's best for your family. In addition, DVC today is VERY different from when many of us purchased 10 or more years ago, and prospective buyers today face different choices. So I would read each response carefully to see whether their thinking matches your situation.

The second caution I would offer is to be careful what you consider lower cost vs more expensive points. Your cost over the years will be your acquisition costs (including financing costs if you finance) + your annual "dues." A particular resort may have a MUCH lower acquisition cost, but much higher dues and your overall costs could be much higher there despite a lower buy-in. When you look at numbers, look at all the numbers.

This was very helpful and reasonable, thanks.

I'm almost afraid to type this because it labels me as somewhat crazy (to be fair - that's true), but my husband, after discussing (and landing on) buying a small, 100 point contract direct from Disney for the Poly ("buy where you love to stay") - revealed that HIS dream location is the Grand Floridian. I understand this - he's the one who introduced me to Disney, has gone every year since he was small...and I can't say that I'd complain about stays at the VGF either.

So we are sale pending on a resale contract at the VGF. I know studios go quickly having done the research here, but we don't travel early December, and won't be doing the marathon next year most likely AND would be fine with a shorter stay in a 1B or a split stay elsewhere. I think we may almost certainly have to use points this year for a different resort because by the time we close, we will be well within 7 months for September BUT it's Disney, and we're more inclined to be happy there than regretful.

Thanks for all your considerate and kind responses. *back to lurking* I'll update in the correct thread if we pass ROFR.

 

[cmrdgrs]

Good luck with your purchase and passing ROFR! Since they are still selling VGF, I think your chance are very, very good for passing. Always a tough decision about what resort to have as a your home resort.

 

[sweatandsteel]

We bought at VGF because we "bought where we wanted to stay". I would rather pay more to get what I want than take the chance of not liking where we stay.

 

[crisi]

This was very helpful and reasonable, thanks.

I'm almost afraid to type this because it labels me as somewhat crazy (to be fair - that's true), but my husband, after discussing (and landing on) buying a small, 100 point contract direct from Disney for the Poly ("buy where you love to stay") - revealed that HIS dream location is the Grand Floridian. I understand this - he's the one who introduced me to Disney, has gone every year since he was small...and I can't say that I'd complain about stays at the VGF either.

So we are sale pending on a resale contract at the VGF. I know studios go quickly having done the research here, but we don't travel early December, and won't be doing the marathon next year most likely AND would be fine with a shorter stay in a 1B or a split stay elsewhere. I think we may almost certainly have to use points this year for a different resort because by the time we close, we will be well within 7 months for September BUT it's Disney, and we're more inclined to be happy there than regretful.

Thanks for all your considerate and kind responses. *back to lurking* I'll update in the correct thread if we pass ROFR.

Welcome home - if that is where you want to stay, and the budget will fit it, then that is where you want to stay. At some point we are all going to Disney rather than camping at a local state park and deciding that Disney is more important than banking money - at that point it becomes a matter of "what sort of vacation do you want" (that you can still afford).

One other caveat to Jim's just because this thread may continue - five year old kids don't stay five. The appeal of the Magic Kingdom - if its about your kids - wanes. The convenience of the monorail remains nice, but is less once the strollers are a distant memory. If the MK is the grown up's favorite park (or the Grand Floridian their favorite resort), its a different story. You'll own DVC for a long time to make it worth while - that means your life will change - especially if you have younger children now (or are just starting a family). My teenagers are completely different people than the toddlers we brought down for their first trip.

 

[coolbluewater]

crisi - Thanks for your post. I don't want to think of my "baby" growing up! It was a big factor into our Grand Floridian offer - my husband thought we would like that resort best for the day we go to WDW by ourselves....someday...