Which non-Home Resort have you stayed at the most at WDW?

[CarolynFH]

We’ve stayed at least one night everywhere but VGC and AUL. My favorite is AKV, where we’ve stayed on 3 occasions. We’ve stayed at SSR twice, but that was as a result of inbound RCI exchange availability, less by personal choice.

 

[DVCsloth]

Surprised to see I was the only one who cast a vote for Boulder Ridge =) I trade my CC 11 month reservations every time 7 month Boulder Ridge is available. Something about sitting in that lobby surrounded by Walts trains reading a book while drinking a cup of coffee.

We own at CCV as well, never stayed at BRV but I like to walk over to use the gym and check out Walt's RR stuff.
CCV is probably my favorite resort, we also own VGF and Riviera. Wife's favorite is VGF.

 

[DVCsloth]

Well, I stayed at the Polynesian Studios once, and a one Bedroom at Kidani once. Other than that, every stay has been my home resort...about 60 stays at OKW.

We only stayed at OKW once for a short trip paying cash, we really like OKW and plan to visit more often.

 

[CWTC]

Beach club, Bay lake, and the Floridian are our home resorts. We’ve stayed 3 times at grand cali, once at Aulani, once at SSR for a short trip (never again), and have an upcoming poly bungalow stay. We want to stay savanna view at AKV at some point and a copper creek cabin but just haven’t gotten around to it.

We bought where we want to stay the most and pretty much stay at our home resorts. We usually go for 7 days/8 nights at a time and being able to walk to a park is important to us. We also don’t like split stays but that’s likely how we’ll do AKV and the cabins.

 

[DizDaD7]

For us it's been AKL/V hands down...5 times, Then our Home resort I believe 4 times, BWV twice, and all the rest except for BRR, & Vero 1 time.

 

[ehh]

For us it's been AKL/V hands down...5 times, Then our Home resort I believe 4 times, BWV twice, and all the rest except for BRR, & Vero 1 time.

Interesting that you have a resort that you've been to more than your Home Resort while also not being a never-Home owner.

Did you buy your Home Resort with the intention to use as SAP but have also stayed there 4 times? Or you've learned to like AKV after buying at your Home Resort? Something else?


Also generally curious about AKV taking a fairly sizable lead in the poll. Seems like people like visiting there but don't own...what's keeping people from committing to AKV? The dues? 'Always the bridesmaid' when it comes to purchasing choice?

 

[CarlyMur09]

AKV:J - 3 times ( 3 nights in 12/17, 3 nights 5l19, and 9 nights 5/22)

Runner up would be BCV - 2 times (2 nights 9/18 and 10 nights 5/21).

We've stayed at all WDW DVC resorts but RIV since buying OKW in 2017. (Not for lack of trying. RIV being so point heavy compared to OKW is a big reason we've yet to stay there.)

OKW for the most part is still our main resort to stay at.

 

[beccasmom]

It is definitely BRV for us, which I find somewhat amusing since we somehow managed not to stay there until about 8 years ago. We had visited a few times and eaten there, but somehow it never quite made it to our unwritten list of places we wanted to book. I am really happy that it finally did because we love the resort. We have stayed at all of the other resorts (some only a night or two), but none as often as BRV except our home resorts.

 

[DizDaD7]

Interesting that you have a resort that you've been to more than your Home Resort while also not being a never-Home owner.

Did you buy your Home Resort with the intention to use as SAP but have also stayed there 4 times? Or you've learned to like AKV after buying at your Home Resort? Something else?


Also generally curious about AKV taking a fairly sizable lead in the poll. Seems like people like visiting there but don't own...what's keeping people from committing to AKV? The dues? 'Always the bridesmaid' when it comes to purchasing choice?

The Price was right TBH.... Resale thru DVC itself...Back in 2011 was $100/ pt.
As you can see in my Sig. it took 5 years till we stayed in our Home resort.... We figured we'd try for the other resorts when we could get them, knowing that our home resort wasn't a fan favorite, and would always have availability.

We did have the option to purchase DVC prior to that I believe a few years earlier, & we got Stage fright... BLT & AKV were available. & BLT's dues were sooo cheap, & the price point was about the same as what we eventually bought at....I believe AKV was just a smidge higher... maybe 110 or 115? The 11 month advantage was never really a thought process with us at all. Just wanted to get our foot in the door.

But once we did our 1st stay at AKL ,we all fell in love with this place... The grounds are incredible, the restaurants are all top notch, the CM's are simply the best TBH. The only drawback I see is the longer Bus ride to MK, but to us we kind of like that time to unwind... And the fact that it's like a destination away from the parks is also very relaxing..

Now we do like some of the others as well for what they are, and SSR we really do enjoy as well, but If I'd have to rate our top 5, it would go as follows: This is for me only , not the rest of the fam.

1)BCV
2)OKW
3)AKV
4)SSR
5)RIV

 

[DizDaD7]

Now mind you outside of WDW, and tossing in the other resorts, GCV would be 1 or 2, and HHR maybe #5

 

[Days In the Sun]

Top choice non-home resort for us is BWV. We almost always stay at our home resorts, but often with a split stay.

We wouldn't buy here however as we are a family of 5 and make a lot of use of the kitchen/livingroom which we find is a little too small for us for more than a few days. But love the resort vibe and location!

 

[Simba's Mom]

I almost voted OKW, but then I remembered that we're members there-after our first stay, DH bought a contract there and we sold the contract we had at another resort that we agreed owe didn't want to go back to. For me, it's Animal Kingdom Villas-I could sit on my balcony and watch the animals all day.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

We own Boardwalk, Saratoga and Grand Floridian.

Have never stayed at Saratoga.

We usually stay at Beach Club. We fell in love with Boardwalk and bought there, then stayed at Beach Club and loved it even more. Oops.

Grand Floridian was meant to be SAP, much like Saratoga, but my daughter wanted to stay there and loved it. So now we try to visit VGF once a year for her birthday.

 

[Orsino]

Also generally curious about AKV taking a fairly sizable lead in the poll. Seems like people like visiting there but don't own...what's keeping people from committing to AKV? The dues? 'Always the bridesmaid' when it comes to purchasing choice?

My guess is AKV has the balance of large number of rooms and good amenities.
Beach Club is great, but small so the ability to stay there often on non-BCV points is less.
AKV is a great resort that you can get with later planning and more rooms means more people stay there.

 

[RoseGold]

Easily BW. The 1BR isn't that hard to book.

 

[Pooh12863]

Was busy counting up all our stays at the various WDW resorts (will finally complete the 'WDW Collection' with Boulder Ridge later this year) and realized our non-Home Resort stays were pretty evenly distributed.

Now I'm wondering how others spend their time away from 'Home' and if there's a trend. I suspect Saratoga might have a good showing here.

As for our most-stayed non-Home Resorts at WDW, I went by stays with nights stayed as the tie-breaker. Ours:

• Saratoga - 2 stays for 13 nights (202 points)
  • This is my vote
• Beach Club - 2 stays for 10 nights (199 points)
• BoardWalk - 2 stays for 9 nights (170 points)
• Grand Floridian - 2 stays for 7 nights (597 points)
• Animal Kingdom, Jambo - 2 stays* for 3 nights (100 points)
  • * one of the stays we were bumped from an AKV 1BR Villa to AKL 2BR Suite due to 'engineering issues'

If you have a lot of stays at a non-Home Resort, how does it compare to your Home Resort(s)? Any reason why you haven't bought at your top non-Home Resort?

n.b., polls are limited to 10 entries, so I combined the two AKV together and the two VWL resorts together, which isn't exactly fair to BRV/CCV but it was either that or exclude Riviera completely as the newest. The 10 entry limit is also why I limited this to WDW, sorry AUL/VRB/HHI/VGC visitors!

Never stayed at a non home resort and have no desire to stay at any of the other resorts.

 

[808blessing]

We got a value 1 bdrm at animal kingdom but we only went there two times. We usually stay home.

 

[bwvBound]

Interesting that you have a resort that you've been to more than your Home Resort while also not being a never-Home owner.

Did you buy your Home Resort with the intention to use as SAP but have also stayed there 4 times? Or you've learned to like AKV after buying at your Home Resort? Something else?


Also generally curious about AKV taking a fairly sizable lead in the poll. Seems like people like visiting there but don't own...what's keeping people from committing to AKV? The dues? 'Always the bridesmaid' when it comes to purchasing choice?

Our story fits into your questions, quoted above. We own SSR but most WDW stays have been BWV. That said, the DVC property we visit most-frequently-over-all is the Grand Cal. Data points:

• We purchased SSR pre-opening in May 2004 but already had already completed several BWV stays via exchange (II at the time).
• BWV is our #1 WDW location due to its proximity to the Conference centres at the Dolphin, Swan, Yacht Club and Boardwalk. (We purchased DVC to support our Conference habit; BWV was the most "walkable" timeshare offered/available.)
• Our first visit to SSR was in Dec 2009, some 5 years after purchase, prompted by the new Treehouse Villas. Yeah!
• Once our specific conference series ended in 2015 ... we started using DVC for, um, "fun, relaxation & laundry."
• Between 2016-2019 we visited our home resort a few times and enjoyed how the landscaping had filled in. Nice.
• Since Covid ... our DVC stays are only at the Grand Cal, which is an easy drive from home. We've been enjoying short stays almost monthly since re-opening. Thus, the Grand Cal is our "most frequently visited" DVC property.

To your comment on AKV ... it is likely our favourite of the WDW resorts. Animals in sight in all directions! Richly themed ... and I love the theme. (I've held Africa in my heart since I was a small child watching slide shows from missionaries. I was sooooo thrilled to celebrate my 50th with two weeks in South Africa. Great timeshare trades booked through II!). As for the question of owning there -- why? I already have DVC points. They work at my home resort, they worked at BWV when I needed to attend a conference, they work at AKV, same for Grand Cal, etc. These DVC points work well w/in the DVC system ... really well. Color me happy with "DVC Network Points."

 

[KPeterso]

Hmmm - would need to think about this a bit. But off the top of my head....

• Boardwalk - 4 times
• Beach Club - 3 times
• BLT - 2 times
• BWV/CC - 2 or maybe 3 times. And am working on a stay at CC in September this year
• OKW - 1 time
• Poly - 1 time

AKV is also highly in the mix. I stay there a lot (typically at least once a year but some years twice). I own some points there but also have stayed there a number of times using my SSR points. Using the BWV points, I probably have more AKV stays using those points than my AKV ones (I originally only had 2 smallish AKV contract, but now have 225 there, so I use home resort more often on there now).

Like a PP, I own SSR and have never actually stayed there!

 

[Anal Annie]

We have stayed at AKV Jambo 5 times and Kidani 1x. Our home resort is SSR and we've stayed there 8 times so far. We have been lucky enough to experience ALL of the DVC resorts at least once. BWV is the runner up to AKV with 3 stays....

Other resorts where we have at least 2 visits under our belts are OKW, BCV, CC & RIV. Once each so far are BLT, VGF, VGC, Poly, HHI, VB & AUL. Trips currently booked include AUL, BRV and SSR (tho hoping to switch to Poly from SSR @ 7 mo.). Resort most likely to not repeat is VGF. We love switching around between resorts to make each trip different from the last.