Which is harder to book at 7 mo? Poly or BW?

[Jennykins]

I'm looking to buy a DVC, with Poly being my favorite. I've also researched and think BW would be a good option. I'm wondering which one is harder to book at the 7 month mark. I'd be booking a studio at Poly (not a bungalow), and either a studio or 2 br villa at BW, depending on if company wants to avoid the sofa bed. Is it virtually impossible to book one or both of these without it being the home resort?

 

[Bluemystique]

From my 2 weeks experience of stalking availability as a new DVC member, Poly in general looks to be much easier to book at 7 months. The BW studios standard view are already sparse at the 11 month mark. The higher point value studios (i.e. garden view) are more likely to be available at the 7 month mark, but the Epcot resorts will be more popular in general during Food & Wine Festival. Off festival season might be easier to book for BW. The 2BR are lock off so they'll correlate with studio availability.

 

[Jennykins]

OK, great points. My thought is that although I'd like to optimize my chances of getting into the Poly, I'd rather avoid the cost if I'm able to get in just as easily having a different home resort. (of course realizing another factor is BW has a 2042 end date whereas Poly is 2066.)

 

[Bluemystique]

OK, great points. My thought is that although I'd like to optimize my chances of getting into the Poly, I'd rather avoid the cost if I'm able to get in just as easily having a different home resort. (of course realizing another factor is BW has a 2042 end date whereas Poly is 2066.)

Right now, Poly is wide open for most of July (6-month mark) all of August (7-month mark), all of Sept-Nov (8-10 month) and all but the 2nd week of December (11-month mark). BW in that same timeframe is as patchy as a quilt (less so with Garden/Pool view.) However there may be other times in the future where Poly may be in demand at the 7-11th month window. We had the same debate ourselves when picking a home resort especially since it was during the BW point sale, but we went with the home resort we wouldn't mind staying in if we had to book something at 11 months, which was Poly. If we were going by optimizing availability at 7-month and 11-month windows, BW would have been the more logical choice, but we went with our hearts on this one, lol.

 

[erionm]

The Poly has the single largest studio booking category with 288 Standard View Studios. Plus 72 Lake View Studios.

BWV is broken out into three view booking categories. There are:
52 Standard View Studios
164 Pool/Garden View Studios
29 BoardWalk View Studios

A large portion of BWV Studios are part of a 2-bedroom lock-off. All 2-bedrooms at BWV are lock-offs, so for each 2-bedroom booked, one less studio is available.

 

[Epcot Forever Forever]

Yeah, you didn’t specify your preferred view at BW, but as alluded to above, if you are OK with Garden/Pool view, BW will only be slightly harder than Poly overall, and that will mostly be confined to the last 3 months of the year when BW is it’s most popular.

You should assume you will not be able to book Boardwalk Standard or Boardwalk view at 7 months anytime except the hottest part of summer. Yes it will pop up, but you shouldn’t count on it.

 

[Uh_Oa]

I would also take a hard look at the expiration date. When we bought resale in 2020, PVB came out as one of the best values because of the longer expiration. So from a financial perspective PVB is a better choice. We have gone on three DVC trips so far, two of which have included stays at BWV boardwalk view rooms. I was able to stalk the rooms and get exactly what we wanted for those trips. No guarantee but it's worth noting.

 

[Phatscott25]

While expiration certainly is a factor, the point chart can't be ignored in terms of total cost. Poly's point chart is much more pricey resulting in the need for more points which leads to higher maintenance fees.

 

[drusba]

BWV has three reservation views and as to getting a studio or 2BR (all 2BRs are lock-offs and thus can disappear with studio reservations): (a) standard: difficult to get almost year round even at 11-months out (rooms fill within moments after the 11-month window opens): (b) boardwalk: usually fills very quickly at 11-months out during the fall season (late Sep to marathon weekend in Jan); gone much of the time before 7-months out the rest of the year although sometimes, like July after July 6 (the second lowest DVC demand time of the year), one can get real lucky sometimes and find 4 or 5 days in a row open; (c) pool/garden: usually gone before 7 months out in the fall season; several years ago they were always open at 7-months out the rest of the year; then DVC added a Murphy bed in 2016 that allowed five instead of the previous four in the studio and the result has been that pool/garden view is now gone before 7-months about 50% of that time.

Poly studios are usually gone before 7-months out during the fall season. During the rest of the year they were usually open at 7-months out pre-pandemic. For such times in 2021 and 2022 it has had some issues with availability for a number of times at 7-months out thus far than it had pre-pandemic, likely due at least in part to the fact that members waited a long time before they could make reservations again because of pandemic issues and have accumulated a lot of banked points that needed to be used.

 

[Jennykins]

The Poly contract ending at 2066 is something I'm considering, as it is a better value long term, but short term BW is obviously more affordable. I was surprised dues are more for BW ($8.09/pt) compared to Poly at $7.39/pt. Since Poly is my favorite I'm leaning that way, and maybe just stalk BW rooms on occasion.

I also wondered if just getting the cheapest DVC home resort is a strategy many people take, and then stalk any of your favorites, simply to get a much better deal. Not sure how well that's panned out for people who have chosen that route, and if there are regrets.

 

[Phatscott25]

I would pick Poly over BWV too, despite the higher point chart. Longer contract is definitely a factor. But like you, Poly is my favorite so I that's why I picked it.

 

[Epcot Forever Forever]

I also wondered if just getting the cheapest DVC home resort is a strategy many people take, and then stalk any of your favorites, simply to get a much better deal. Not sure how well that's panned out for people who have chosen that route, and if there are regrets.

Yes, lots of people do that, it’s often referred to as buying Sleep Around Points. It works best with 1 bedrooms but if you don’t travel in the fall it can work with a decent level of success with any room type if you’re on top of it.

I don’t think too many who buy a WDW resort for that purpose regret it although it seems at least among the people here that many later find they have a favorite and add on there.

The 2 regrets I have seen are 1) people who buy VB or HHI and then are shut out of WDW for the dates they want, or 2) people who hate their home resort and find themselves unable to trade out of it.

So if you go that route, buy somewhere you wouldn’t mind using all your points every year if you can’t trade out, and make sure you book the dates you want at your home resort at 11 months just in case you are unsuccessful in your efforts to trade out later.

 

[Maynorfive]

I agree with several others here. The extra years on the contract and lower annual dues made the Poly an excellent choice for us. We bought in 2019 and we have never regretted starting with the Poly. Since then, we have added onto Riveria so we can have a resort on Skyliner.

 

[RichVIII]

And with Poly2 (if it is in the same association), you might have more options a few years down the road.

 

[suebeelin]

Imo Poly is a better choice than bwv; but where you won’t mind staying if you’re shut out elsewhere. 2066 is 24 years longer, and matters (a lot).

We have bwv and while it’s great, 20 years (2042 expiration) passes quickly.

I vote Poly for you….

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Imo Poly is a better choice than bwv; but where you won’t mind staying if you’re shut out elsewhere. 2066 is 24 years longer, and matters (a lot).

We have bwv and while it’s great, 20 years (2042 expiration) passes quickly.

I vote Poly for you….

Yeah the extra 24 years on Poly means that you will likely be able to resell poly if you want to, whereas you’re going to be holding Boardwalk until it’s value goes to zero.

 

[Nautiquelfe]

We love the ability to walk to Epcot and HS from Boardwalk. Poly has the monorail for MK, and Epcot. We place alot of value on non bus transport. We purchased BW points about 2 years ago and have not regretted it since. It was very nice booking boardwalk view studio for Christmas last year.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

BW is harder to book at 7 months. And that holds true for every time of year. You will have a much more difficult time staying at BW if you are not an owner there. We just stayed at Poly in February over school break (was the busiest week in the last two years) and we were able to book at 7 months.

 

[PatMcDuck]

The length of the Poly contract is a big factor, but so is the higher point requirements for the Poly studios vs. BWV.

So much depends on your future plans. Parks only while kids enjoy it? Or parks into your retirement (like us lol). I would also want to know if the new Poly building is included as part of the original Poly membership or a new one. Because with 11 month access to the new building, you could at least book larger rooms at 11 months.

I have found booking them at 7 months generally to be similar, (booking garden at BWV, not BW or standard view!) with BWV harder in the Fall during F&W (of course.)