Where Should We Add On?

[MsChristy12]

So true on this - and I've thought a lot about BLT for events, like halloween or christmas parties when we don't usually use the pool during those stays. The walk from BLT is paradise for an MK lover like me (and my husband LOVES it - anytime we are taking a boat or bus he looks at me and says "we could be walking back to BLT right now").

Are we DVC twins? I feel like if you read my story here, you will start leaning towards BLT. So let's see if you will!

True story - 2023 one night after extended evening hours at MK, us and our 2 friends were the very last 4 people on the ferry boat going back to TTC, at 145am. While on the boat, my husband stared at BLT and said to me "wish we were staying at bay lake instead this week, we would have been back into our room by now". We stayed at SSR (rented points) that trip, and also met a guide and toured a few resorts. I'll be very honest, BLT was towards the bottom of our list at first, nowhere near wanting to buy there but then after looking into it we realized, staying there makes sense to us. We are also MK people (well maybe just me, my hubs is an Epcot guy, but that works too w/ the monorail!), I need 2 days at MK every trip, and that's non-negotiable. But still, we didn't think about buying there because we have decided, we wanted BRV and that we could just alternate the 2 resorts or do split stay, and that should be sufficient.

Well, after we got the BRV contract, I saw some small BLT were listed and the price per point weren't bad at all. What my husband said on the ferry boat was still lingering, then I thought about it for a bit and the lightbulb in my head went off! !! BRV expires in 2042 and we won't even be at our retirement age yet (but dreaming that we can retire early! REALLY dreaming! If we do decide to continue to go to WDW and our physical abilities allow us to do so, we probably would want to continue to own DVC. Then I thought, what if I buy small BLT contracts now and slowly build up the portfolio as we get closer to BRV expiring, that way for one, we won't have any gaps, two we won't have to splurge a large amount of money at once buying a bigger contract, the smaller chucks each time hurts less! Or if one day, we think DVC is no longer a good fit for us, selling smaller contracts will be a lot easier than a big one. This all led to buying a 50pt BLT before my BRV even closed! Then in less than 6 months, I bought another one, a 25pt so now we have 75pts at BLT, 170 at BRV. My husband was a bit concerned if that will be too many points for us (our originally plan was going to FL every other year), I said, well if we can't use them all ourselves, we can bank them or rent them out. I have listed my points only once so far, and I took them back and used them ourselves! If we don't want to go down to FL, we will use them at Aulani. Oahu isn't my favorite island, but I still wouldn't say no to spending a few days there if we got extra points!

Another big benefit for us staying at BLT - We like resort hopping, trying out different bars/restaurants/QS and staying at BLT allow us to hop on any resort busses at MK, don't need to worry about if CMs will let us park at the resort without an ADR!

So what cha thinking now?

 

[WillRad]

We have young kids (8 and 6) and stay in 1BR when it’s just us. Most of our points are direct VGF with a smaller resale BLT. We usually split stay and start out at BLT or VGF and finish at RIV. Gives us easy access to 3 parks over course of stay.

We go back and forth between preferring VGF or BLT.

Rooms and resort at VGF are definitely nicer but it is so spread out and a little pricier. Pretty sure if you get a skybridge side room at BLT, it’s actually a shorter walk to the Contemporary than VGF QS. Monorail walk probably pretty close between the two.

BLT pool is definitely a weak point but find if we do split stays we usually don’t hit the pool till the second leg (RIV) as we spend a lot of time in parks first few days especially MK.

September will be our first stay at refurbed BLT which may give it a slight edge for us especially given Cali grill is my wife and I’s favorite dining option.

You can always use your VGF points to secure your 11 month window then backfill the reservation with resale BLT points at 7 months preserving your VGF points. This might be harder if all your VGF is on 1 contract. Not sure of the exact mechanics but can usually get it to work for us.

Direct RIV or resale VGF would be tough sale for us right now with resale BLT points going for under 110. We did recently purchase a small resale RIV contract to help us fund the RIV leg of our trips