Which resort is best for us to buy?

[smmora]

As a West Coast person, unless you don't like Disneyland for some reason, I'd wait for the new tower or buy direct

 

[Hhalfacre1991]

Any chance you'd want to hold onto that money and wait for the new Disneyland tower to open since you live on the west coast. Or maybe wait to see what's going to happen with the new Poly tower.

If you really don't want to wait I'd do either GF or even BLT.

Thank you for pointing out the DL tower! We are now looking into this and it’s a very real possibility we will hold off and purchase this when it becomes available next year.

 

[Her Dotness]

Thank you for pointing out the DL tower! We are now looking into this and it’s a very real possibility we will hold off and purchase this when it becomes available next year.

In which case, I would definitely hold off buying in until you see what the price-per is for DLT.

You could always use those points at 7 months for the older WDW resorts, SSR or OKW, which are larger and generally have 7-month availability.

And there's Aulani.

 

[RyTy]

What does "Partial Availability" mean on the DVC Availability Tool? You would have to do a split stay or something?

 

[Sandisw]

https://tools.dvcvacations.com/points-calculator

Partial availability means not all dates are available from your search.

 

[redboat45]

What does "Partial Availability" mean on the DVC Availability Tool? You would have to do a split stay or something?

it means that only part of what you request is available for booking. So if you put the dates in for a week, only a couple days might be available. You could then put in a wait list for the rest or look at other resort, etc.

 

[Her Dotness]

The annoying thing is that it'll often be the middle nights of a calendar week stay that aren't available which is really frustrating.

Talk about a nasty split if you can get Sun-Mon, Tues-Wed unavailable, and then have Thu-Sat. Who wants to move to another resort mid-stay and then move back?

 

[EIU110]

My piece of advice would be, consider buying enough points to stay in 1 bedrooms. Your child won’t be little very long! Soon you’ll be bringing a moody teen, or a happy teen who brought a friend along. Having the extra space, and a door to shut is amazing.

 

[Prince John Robin Hood]

Thank you for pointing out the DL tower! We are now looking into this and it’s a very real possibility we will hold off and purchase this when it becomes available next year.

I think this is your best bet since you're on the west coast. You can likely find availability at a few WDW resorts at 7 months for years you decide to go east. I can't wait for DL tower to go on sale. I think it's going to be great.

 

[Meglen]

My piece of advice would be, consider buying enough points to stay in 1 bedrooms. Your child won’t be little very long! Soon you’ll be bringing a moody teen, or a happy teen who brought a friend along. Having the extra space, and a door to shut is amazing.

Yes! Studios are fun till they grow up. Haha

 

[NVDISFamily]

Nice to see another west coast family also looking to take the plunge. I've only been to WDW once but I would love to go again. My wife is from the east coast and she is definitely excited about us getting our first contracts in the coming months and we do plan on trying to make it to WDW every few years if possible.

I'm going to add to the people suggesting you consider waiting for DLT to go on sale to see what the points are like or you could also consider buying VGC (that's what we want). I really liked our two family trips to the Disneyland resort in the last 12 months and buying VGC and DLT contracts will be a huge win for us. I think you're a little further away from the resorts than us, but I think the cost of travel to Disneyland resort would be much easier to budget than trips to FL.

The downside is that you will have to gamble and use the 7 month window if you only own contracts in Cali and want to visit WDW. Given the size of WDW and how much DVC is there, I am hopeful that we can find a 1 or 2 BR villa at times we might want to go,

The other upside for both DLT and VGC is the proximity to the parks. VGC is 0 and less than 10 min to the parks and DLT should be just about 10min (or less of you take the monorail in to Disneyland) to both parks.

Best of luck to you in whatever you decide to do!

 

[DVCSunDevil]

IMO, I would ignore the "financial planners" on these threads who advise you to do something else with your money - they don't know you. And a mutual fund won't get you years of family experiences.

This is exactly what I was going to say. I love when someone has decided to buy into DVC and posts a question, then proceeds to get comment after comment about what they should do with that money instead of buying into DVC. The OP didn't ask IF they should buy DVC, their question was WHERE they should buy. They have done the math. They know what works for them.

Now, regarding where to buy. The answer is easy: Beach Club!

Enjoy years of WDW vacations, OP!

 

[DVCanadian]

I saw in another thread that some people interested in the DLT tower are buying small resale contracts at WDW so they will be able to buy DLT right away as an existing member, also allows them to buy a smaller contract at DLT.

Takes a bit more management to have two small contracts but can work for some.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

I saw in another thread that some people interested in the DLT tower are buying small resale contracts at WDW so they will be able to buy DLT right away as an existing member, also allows them to buy a smaller contract at DLT.

Takes a bit more management to have two small contracts but can work for some.

As long as you have the same UY small contracts are fine when used as 7m reservations. The tricky part is when you want to make 11m reservations.

I also second the merit of having a 1BD, especially if you are staying for a week or more.

 

[Sandisw]

I saw in another thread that some people interested in the DLT tower are buying small resale contracts at WDW so they will be able to buy DLT right away as an existing member, also allows them to buy a smaller contract at DLT.

Takes a bit more management to have two small contracts but can work for some.

Once an owner, you are eligible to add on to your membership with contracts as low as 25...but the trend is all new resorts are 50. But, if you want a different UY or the owners are different, it is a new membership and must meet the minimum for that...which is currently 150.

Beside the smaller contracts, it does open up the member incentives and if you have owned at least a year, you qualify for the better interest rate if you are going to finance with Disney! So, there are a few benefits to own something resale. The big drawback is those resale points won't be good at DLT...unless rules change...so you want to be sure you have a use for them outside that resort!

 

[havoc315]

Hello,

Back story we have a once in a life time ability to buy DVC come later this summer around August. We will probably never be able to purchase another contract either direct or resale. We plan to buy it with no financing. We are a family of 3 (2 adults and 1 child age 5) and live on the west coast. We will probably vacation in Florida every other year. On the odd years we will either bank or we will rent out our points. Occasionally we will do it back to back depending on flights. Knowing this we will probably stay longer and do one trip per year. Ideally 6-8 nights at a time. We will probably only ever need studios. We are stuck on which resort to invest in. Our top choices are GF, Poly, and Riviera. They have the longer contracts. I feel like the monorail resorts hold their value pretty well. The riviera definitely stole my heart during our last trip but I’m hesitant on the resale. While we will never want to sell sometimes life gets in the way. We also don’t know how many points we need to purchase in order to enjoy a studio for at least 7 nights. We *think* 200 is enough but again we are hesitant because we might not ever be able to purchase additional points via resale or direct. Any tips would be appreciated.

Buy your favorite resort, full stop. Don't worry about re-sale. The future re-sale value is entirely speculative and unknowable -- But is unlikely to vary that much from resort to resort. Every resort resale is about 70% of their direct pricing. It's not like Riviera will be worthless because of their resale restrictions. I bought 2 years ago at $170 per point -- resale is now in the $150-$160 per point range.
So don't let your decision be controlled by, "well, the resale value of resort X might be 3% better than the resale value of resort Y."

Especially nowadays, it can be impossible to book a studio outside of your home resort. So it's more important than ever, just pick your favorite resort. Whether that be GF, Poly or Riviera.
The ONLY thing I'll say about those 3 resorts in terms of pricing -- I'd wait 2 years on Poly. When they start selling new Poly points, the pricing will likely be better than direct pricing today. So if I wanted GF or Riviera, I'd buy with the current direct incentives. If I wanted Poly, I'd wait 2 years.

 

[J-Dog]

Just for some perspective, as other posters, we are from Washington state, but we personally didn't even consider DLR resorts.

Maybe it's just our own personal bias, but I would MUCH rather have a home resort at WDW than DLR. It's just not the same. And if the OP has a "once in a lifetime opportunity", then he/she may not have an option to add-on later - so you'll be stuck at SSR or OKW if you buy at DLT and want to go to WDW (which may be fine for the OP, but not for us).

Buy where you want to stay.

 

[Her Dotness]

... you'll be stuck at SSR or OKW if you buy at DLT and want to go to WDW....

Not necessarily. And as spacious as OKW villas are, the OP might find them immensely appealing. SSR's recently refurbished ones may not constitute stuck, either.

Much depends upon time of year and willingness to do split stays, too.

Some find they really enjoy a 1-2/5-night split (which would be us!) whereas others want more of a half-and-half one.

When you're booking at WDW at 7 mos., your options can be more open than J-Dog suggests if you're willing to be flexible.

Now, if you prefer to book a sure-thing week or two, then I agree that buying your WDW favorite and banking/borrowing is the better choice.

I heartily agree that buying enough points for a 1br at times you're likely to go is wise indeed. A 1br stay is DVC's crack cocaine. Believe me, we know that all too well from having booked our first DVC stay in a 1br. A studio seems like Motel 6 after a 1br...and yes, that IS justification for addonitis. Again, I speak from experience.

 

[wilkydelts]

- so you'll be stuck at SSR or OKW if you buy at DLT and want to go to WDW (which may be fine for the OP, but not for us).

Buy where you want to stay.

That is an incorrect statement because if it were true there would be no such thing as SAPs.

 

[RamblinWreck]

That is an incorrect statement because if it were true there would be no such thing as SAPs.

Absolutely!

I've only been an owner for about 3 years now, and I've already booked rooms at several resorts I don't own, and several more had availability for the trips I booked.

In June I'm staying at Bay Lake Tower using Riviera points.