Where to buy in?

[disneynutz]

Hundreds??? Oh how I wish this were true...

50 year contracts, possibility 2 or 3 visits per year, might be hundreds.

Bill

 

[disneynutz]

I bought BWV because it is my family's preferred location and I want to make sure we get in even during a slow time of year.

I bought SSR/OKW for the price and I don't mind staying at either of them (but I'd rather be at BWV )

And past performance at the 7 month mark is not guarentee on future performance at the 7 month mark since the mix of resorts and owners is slowly changing over time.

BWV, BW View is our number 1 favorite resort/view.

Bill

 

[CailinFig]

Owning a home resort gives you 11 month booking advantage, other resorts you can book at 7 months. At 7 months you can combine points.

If we had it to do over again we would take more time to decide which resorts to call home, that would take us down to 3 home resorts.

Availability can be a challenge for some resorts during certain times of the year. We got tired of not getting what we wanted or having to work to get to stay where we wanted.

Since we are paying thousands and thousands for Disney vacations, being disappointed about your room kind of puts a damper on the magic.

Bill

Ok, thank you...I was thinking of buying at Saratoga Springs for the purposes of using it at other resorts (VGC, Aulani)....but I guess that is silly after reading several posts.

 

[chalee94]

Ok, thank you...I was thinking of buying at Saratoga Springs for the purposes of using it at other resorts (VGC, Aulani)....but I guess that is silly after reading several posts.

depending on when you travel, it's not completely impossible.

but there are a LOT of SSR owners as you can see from the relative resort sizes in post #3 here:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2823609

some SSR owners might be able to find something at 7 months out at other, smaller resorts, but if a lot of SSR owners expect to stay elsewhere, you can see how the math just doesn't work.

 

[bighoo93]

depending on when you travel, it's not completely impossible.

This is definitely true, but also an extreme understatement. There have historically been far more room types available across all the WDW resorts over the entire year than unavailable. I think maybe a better way of putting it would be that unless you will be traveling at a particularly popular time of year AND want to stay at a particularly popular resort AND/OR need a specific room type, you are quite likely to be able to get what you want at 7 months.

Since I am almost always misunderstood, let me make it clear that I am not recommending what any individual should do. Everyone can make up their own mind about this. But they should do so with the best information.

some SSR owners might be able to find something at 7 months out at other, smaller resorts, but if a lot of SSR owners expect to stay elsewhere, you can see how the math just doesn't work.

When theory and practice collide, you have to re-examine the theory. I haven't tried to run numbers myself, but I fully trust you that they show it should be very difficult for someone to get the resort they want at 7 months. And yet...in practice you usually can. I don't need to figure out why, but that is just how it has worked out ever since online booking has been available so this can be tracked. Maybe more SSR owners actually like their resort than most think. I know that's where we have our next trip planned, and I could choose any resort.

There are plenty of other reasons why someone might want to buy at a particular resort, and fortunately in these threads there is never any shortage of people pointing them out. But I do feel obligated to correct the one piece of misinformation that is almost always promoted, and that is the idea that it is difficult to get a room at 7 months out. In general, that is simply not true. In specific situations (time of year, resort, room type) it is true, so you really have to dig a little deeper to find out if that makes a difference in anyone's particular situation. One thing I find here is that people tend to assume everyone else is like they are: strongly prefer a particular resort, plan to go to WDW multiple times per year, have money to burn, extreme risk aversion, whatever. These things vary greatly among different people and can make a big difference in the home resort purchase decision.

 

[crisi]

I agree - if you buy SSR and are flexible in what you want and when you travel - you may never stay at SSR. And SSR is a great value in comparison to buying BCV with its more limited contract life and higher cost.

The issue is more that when you have decided that you WILL stay at BLT for the next trip and the next trip has to happen during a specific week - that may not happen.

Buy where you won't be disappointed to end up. Buy assuming that at seven months "something" will be open (or will open up) at WDW (very rarely, this has not been true and everything is booked at seven months - but then usually there is some movement) - but it might not be your ideal resort. Don't buy with the assumption that the same is true at Aulani or California (VB or HHI in the summer months) - because those locations have a single resort, you need a non-DVC backup plan for a trip to Hawaii or Disneyland.

 

[bighoo93]

Buy where you won't be disappointed to end up.

This seems like one of the few pieces of truly universal good advice. It is very possible depending on your travel habits that you will always get whatever resort you want at 7 months. Yet it seems like a poor decision to buy at a place that you would truly be disappointed to end up, because even one preventable ruined vacation probably isn't worth the up-front savings, I suspect.

For me, there is no resort I know of that it would ruin my vacation if I had to stay there. This is not true for some people, and for them, it really doesn't make sense to make that place their home resort.

 

[disneynutz]

Buying at your favorite resort guarantees you a reservation there at 11 months. Buying at SSR because it's less expensive does not guarantee you a reservation at another resort that may be your favorite.

Each buyer needs to decide what's important to them. Some don't mind taking the 7 month chance and they may have good luck.

We had bad luck and decided to buy where we love to stay. I got tired of having to set my alarm to book right at the opening bell, I don't like the hassle of walking a reservation and we haven't had much luck with waitlists and I got tired of checking availability each day hoping that I could catch missing days for our reservation. Having split stays due to availability can be a pain.

Worst of all we were spending thousands of dollars buying our ownerships and spending thousands of dollars going on Disney vacations and sometimes not getting to stay where we wanted, that didn't make sense to us.

Different strokes for different folks.

Bill

 

[bwvBound]

Ok, thank you...I was thinking of buying at Saratoga Springs for the purposes of using it at other resorts (VGC, Aulani)....but I guess that is silly after reading several posts.

FWIW, we've owned SSR as our only DVC property since May 2004. We've been very content using our points across the set DVC locations including Aulani, Grand Cal (3x this calendar year), Vero Beach, Animal Kingdom Club-level, Old Key West, Boardwalk Villas (both Boardwalk and Std views), Wilderness Lodge and Grand Floridian (next January). Oh, yeah -- we also stayed once at Saratoga's Treehouse Villas. Fun.