What should we know, watch out for?

[Mojomanny]

Well, I think we've done it. During our cruise last week, we signed on for 185 points at Wilderness Village.

I plan this should allow us 7 days at WDW and a 7 day cruise every four years. This is ample for my wife, son and myself. Son is 4 1/2 and the cruise was his 3rd Disney adventure.

Question 1:
Anyway, we are waiting for final docs. Is there anything else we should know or watch out for? Were there any "surprises" you wish you had known before signing? Any advice you can give?

Question 2:
We are buying at $72 per point but selling 92 points back for this year at $10 each. I calculate this to come out to about $68 per point, which seems on par with resale points? Are there better resale deals out there?

Thanks!

 

[Jan E]

Welcome home.

No, there were no nasty surprises - just very pleasant and exciting experiences. We have 171 points and plan to add on a further 25 now and hopefully a further 25 in a couple of years.

Can you wait four years for a Disney fix?

I'm sorry I can't help with an answer to your other question.

Welcome home again.

 

[pluto109]

you can not save 4 years of points..you can only use 3 years of points together...

 

[BobBrazeal]

There are "some" better deals on resales but I don't believe that right now there are any resales on VWL. You have to be sure and do the arithmatic on resales because there is the added cost of closing, there is no Magical Beginnings program, you need to see whether there are any banked or borrowed points, etc. in determining your real costs.

The resales that you will typically see currently are OKW, BWV, VB and HH and all of these seem to be in relatively short supply right now.

 

[shelbyjosh]

We purchased a resale almost a year ago. When we were contemplating how many points we wanted, it was easy. We usually go every March-which would be 218 for an OKW 1 br. Now we are wondering why we did not buy more than the 231 we did!!! We went down in September and just got back 2 days ago. As your kids get older, you may visit more. Or you may go to some of the other places available. For now, WDW is the place for us. As our kids get older, we may go to more places. but for now we are having lots of fun just at WDW. Our DD is 6 and has been there 5 times and DS is 3 and been 4 times. Like a previous post siad, you can only use 3 years of points at one time. You can bank 1 year, use the current year, and borrow off the next year. Heck, we will never get to that point! We will always be borrowing (unless we add-on!!). Good luck with whatever you choose. I can tell you that you won't be disappointed!!

Michelle
DVC 2000
WDW...Been There, Done That, Going Back!

 

[Dumbo]

Don't forget to bank your remaining 93 points after you close. If you don't bank them or use them this year you will lose them.

Dumbo

 

[normr]

The most you can do is the following. lets use 2001, 2002 and 2003, and we will use 200 points for an example.

You can bank your 2001 points (200) into 2002, then you get your 2002 allotment (200), then you can borrow your 2003 points (200) to use in 2002 so you would have 600 points to use in 2002, and then you would get any more points until 2004, then you could bank your 2004 points into 2005 and borrow your 2006 points and you would have another 600 point vacation in 2005, (see every 3 years you can have a big vacation if you wanted to use DVC like this)

Your 4 year plan can't be done. Sorry

 

[Mojomanny]

Thanks for the reminder not to forget to bank them.

We plan on doing a Disney trip every other year.

2002 - 1 week using 1/2 of this yr and all of 02

2004 - 7 day cruise using banked 03, all of 04 and small loan from 05

2006 - 1 week using balance of 05 and 06

etc

does this schedule work?

 

[Mojomanny]

^
Bump

 

[Caskbill]

I'm in the process of buying a resale right now. They're generally running in the $62 per point plus closing costs.

Closing costs vary by how many points you buy. For 100 pts, it's $375, for 150 pts it's $400, and so on, although it's not a linear scale as it gets a little cheaper the more you buy.

So a 150 point resale adds $400 (or $2.67 / point) to the cost.

You also have to be careful on what's been banked or borrowed. In our case, all of the year 2000 points were banked, so that's more value for us. On another contract I looked at, all but 16 points had been used, so that would not have been as good of a deal. I compared the banked/borrowed points against Disney's MB's.

Also, I will be paying all of this year (2001) fees (as a rebate to the seller),which I consider is reasonable as I will have all the 2001 points. The seller had already paid the year 2000 fees but I am getting to use those points so this is more value to me. This was all considered when I was looking at resale.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Yes, your revised schedule for every other year works.

Disneydiane

 

[normr]

If you are just closing, then are they giving you points from a from Sept-Dec 2000 use year? That used to be the usual practice, but now with VWL, that may have changed, Because those remaining points would have to be used in the 12 months or banked into the 2001 use year.g