worth buying @ VB or not

[BROWNSPHAN]

I have been looking into becoming DVC member and wanted some feedback to see if purchasing at VB or HH is something to consider. We would most likely always use our points to stay at DW.I know that the maintainance fees are a little higher at both these resorts, but the price per point seems a little lower than those at WDW.How hard would it be to be able to make the ressies 7 months out or would it be are best bet to try to find a resale on site?We are family of five so we would have to get a 2br or 2 studios.Anyone who does this or any info would be greatly apprieciated.I know most say buy where you want to stay, but we would probably try most of the places in WDW I would imagine within 40 + yrs. thanks, Greg

 

[ErinC]

If you plan to mostly stay on site, than buy onsite. In a few years the higher maintenance fees will more than make up any savings you got on the front end. DVC does have the option of only letting you book your home resort.(not ever likely to happen, but they do have that right) If you really only wanted to use the points onsite than you would be "stuck" with your HH or Vero points. Look at some OKW resales for probably the best bang for your buck onsite. Good Luck.

 

[lovinthemouse]

I have always heard buy where you want to stay. If you are planning on being at WDW mainly then you should buy there. The fees will eventually make up the difference. I know it is not likely to occur, but HH and VB could be sold. That was a fear of mine. Most people say that won't happen, but who really knows. Good luck

 

[mikesmom]

In addition to what previous posters said, it can be difficult to get onsite at 7 months, depending on what time of year it is. If you try to get onsite the first weeks of December, near the holidays or the Epcot resorts during Food & Wine Fest it can be a real challenge. If you are flexible with exact dates or resorts onsite, it is certainly doable, but it could get difficult.

 

[Plutofan]

We just bought at Vero in order to get a beach cottage at the 11 month window. That is the only reason we bought there. You would be better off taking advantage of the $83.30 SSR promotion. SSR 2006 dues are $3.98 versus Vero which are $5.27. The annual dues are a big factor that you need to consider.

 

[MOUSELOVER171]

I own at HHI as well as at BCV and I've never had an issue with booking a vacation. Vero beach is absolutely beautiful and I think it's an execellant buy! Good luck!

 

[BROWNSPHAN]

Thanks to everyone for their input.Might of just got a little easier on where to buy.

 

[Plutofan]

I own at HHI as well as at BCV and I've never had an issue with booking a vacation. Vero beach is absolutely beautiful and I think it's an execellant buy! Good luck!

It will be extremly unlikely or almost impossible to get a grand villa at HHI or beach cottage at Vero without the 11 month window. The dues are higher at both HHI and Vero than at most of your WDW DVC.

 

[ktmmt]

I own HH for years. To say so simple that Disney has the right to make DVC member book at only their home resort in not true. Their is a whole list of different lanuage that Disney needs to follow and go through to make this happen. There has to be a vote from members, board ect. The lawers would have a feild day to make this happen.

The 7 month is No problem when booking in no value season. I just checked for May 06 with only 5 months in advance and there is plenty of obtions

Buy the best deal with banked points.

 

[Daitcher]

I love VB Resort! To our family it is one of the best beach resorts in all of Florida. Where else do you have a great pool with waterslide, poolside dining, 2 sit down restaurants, friendly staff, great beach, mini golf, bike rentals, fishing, archery, soccer, basketball, scheduled activities,etc? Now with that said, We are going to add a large sum of points there with the idea of booking those glorious Beach Cottages at 11 months. I was lucky enough to get one at 7 months this past October. I tried again for this coming May 2006 with no luck. We settled for the 2 bedroom. I wouldn't buy VB with the sole idea of booking WDW DVC. 7 month window usually isn't a problem but the dues over the course of the contract don't make it worth it. I would jump on the 15% offer at SSR. Good luck with whatever you decide.


DAVE

 

[cruise-o-matic]

If you plan to mostly stay on site, than buy onsite. In a few years the higher maintenance fees will more than make up any savings you got on the front end. DVC does have the option of only letting you book your home resort.(not ever likely to happen, but they do have that right) If you really only wanted to use the points onsite than you would be "stuck" with your HH or Vero points. Look at some OKW resales for probably the best bang for your buck onsite. Good Luck.

That's not entirely true. We bought HH resale last year and since they have overestimated taxes for '04 & '05, we have received a credit for the following year. This makes our dues are about $.08 lower and put's it close to OKW dues. HH dues are still lower than BCV/BWV/VWL and way lower than VB.

We have used our points to book studios at HHI for last September and Spring Break (a perk to owning HH, since there are only 21 studios). But we have also stayed in a studio at BCV early last month and we are going back to BCV 2BR in July. (We also booked BWV studio for this weekend but canceled those ressies.) We plan to return to WDW in October this year too. Now we may not get BCV again, but we paid about $3K less for our 200 HH points over BCV and will have 2 BCV stays under our belt.

YMMV.

 

[ffindis]

We have HH points and use them both at HH and onsite. We have never had a problem getting an onsite reservation. We can't always stay at our first choice but have always had a few options in our room size. If you have your heart set on one specific resort and would be disappointed not staying there, then buy there. However, if you want to stay at a villa onsite and are flexible on the locations then you should absolutely buy where you can get the best financial deal.

 

[lisaviolet]

The "buy where you want to stay" was/is irrelevant to me because I will never be organized enough to book/plan a vacation any earlier than seven months out. If they change the 11/7 rule....well then....I am happy at my home resort.

Just adding this information because some of us will rarely use 8/9/10/11 months out.

Plus, I just wanted to add that I took two last minute trips this fall. One was in early December. Both were booked just two weeks ahead. I know...I know...I was very lucky and only SSR was available. It does happen sometimes at this point.

So think about what kind of planner you are when making your decision. Best of luck. Enjoy. I can't wait to go to Vero Beach one day.

 

[Daitcher]

The "buy where you want to stay" was/is irrelevant to me because I will never be organized enough to book/plan a vacation any earlier than seven months out. If they change the 11/7 rule....well then....I am happy at my home resort.

Just adding this information because some of us will rarely use 8/9/10/11 months out.

Plus, I just wanted to add that I took two last minute trips this fall. One was in early December. Both were booked just two weeks ahead. I know...I know...I was very lucky and only SSR was available. It does happen sometimes at this point.

So think about what kind of planner you are when making your decision. Best of luck. Enjoy. I can't wait to go to Vero Beach one day.

Great post and I totally agree. The buy where you want to stay group seems to have ulterior motives. They don't want to recommend people buy one resort and stay elsewhere. They worry that these people will book up there resort at 7 months. Home resort is not an issue for me. I book where I want at 7 months without problems. As another poster pointed out it would be a legal battle if Disney tried to revoke booking other DVc resorts. What reason would they have to do this? It would seriosly hurt future sales and I for one would sell immediately. We do not travel peak periods and we do not want to plan ahead 11 months out. I guess I am "one of those people" who owns SSR and books up the other resorts at 7 months. I have booked a trip to BCV which is upposed to be so hard to get at 2 1/2 months out in May 2005. I also booked a Beach Cottage at VB at 7 months in October 2005. People said that couldn't be done. It can be done. This idea of the resorts booking uo is overblown. The resorts are hardly ever full especially SSR and OKW. When I book elsewhere it frees up my SSR space. Same goes for other people booking non home resorts. The program works folks and will continue to do so. Thanks for the post.


DAVE


DAVE

 

[Bribrittmom]

I own at Hilton Head because we love HH and it is hard to get in there in the summer if you don't book 11 months out. I have never had any trouble getting some resort at WDW even at holiday periods-especially OKW which we like anyways.

 

[Lenc324]

Thank you for your post Dave. I totally agree with you.

 

[Merilyn]

We own at OKW and VB. We usually go to WDW but wanted the 11 month option for the beach cottages at VB. Thus the addon to VB. It is impossible to get the cottages at 7 months unless you want Fri or Sat night. We like the ability to go for the relaxed vacation and busy one. It is nice to go for a few days to WDW and then head over to VB. I have never had any trouble booking where and when I wanted but we usually don't go in the summer or at Christmas. This time frame can be a problem. You need to visit both and decide for yourself which works for you. Maybe a contract for both! Either way good luck and maybe one day we can WELCOME YOU HOME!
Merilyn

 

[keishashadow]

Great post and I totally agree. The buy where you want to stay group seems to have ulterior motives. They don't want to recommend people buy one resort and stay elsewhere. They worry that these people will book up there resort at 7 months. Home resort is not an issue for me. I book where I want at 7 months without problems. As another poster pointed out it would be a legal battle if Disney tried to revoke booking other DVc resorts. What reason would they have to do this? It would seriosly hurt future sales and I for one would sell immediately. We do not travel peak periods and we do not want to plan ahead 11 months out. I guess I am "one of those people" who owns SSR and books up the other resorts at 7 months. I have booked a trip to BCV which is upposed to be so hard to get at 2 1/2 months out in May 2005. I also booked a Beach Cottage at VB at 7 months in October 2005. People said that couldn't be done. It can be done. This idea of the resorts booking uo is overblown. The resorts are hardly ever full especially SSR and OKW. When I book elsewhere it frees up my SSR space. Same goes for other people booking non home resorts. The program works folks and will continue to do so. Thanks for the post.











DAVE


DAVE

Interesting points...IMO one important point to consider is the "type" of accom. you need.

We've found that the studios (especially the stand BWV) go very quickly.

We were unable to book any studio (including SSR & BWV) the 1st week of Dec. this year, just slightly past the 7 month mark but, were able to secure 2nd week & WL for our 1st choice.

 

[robinb]

Welcome to the DIS!

I suggest to buy where you want to stay IF you plan on staying at one of the busy times (Christmas, New Years, Spring Break, Early December, Food & Wine Festival). I have had few problems booking in the 7 month window at BCV or VWL in the summer, but I always book in the 11 month window for our NYE trip. If you don't care which WDW resort you purchase, you may want to consider OKW for its low resale prices and lower dues.

 

[vascubaguy]

If you look at the number "cost" overall, VB is the most expensive DVC to own. The upfront cost is quite a bit less, but when you throw in the annual dues it will cost thousands more over the life of the contract.

Now SSR, OKW, and HHI are the "cheapest" of the DVC's to own at this point. In my opinion, SSR is the "best deal" with the current incentive, but only because you can get the 12 extra years. After that, then it would be HHI and then OKW based on overall cost.

Here's a "simple" calculation comparison of the resort costs. These figures are based on 150 point contracts at cost per point based on contracts that have recently passed ROFR (or using the SSR promo price). I used a closing cost of $400. I am also using the current MN fee figures to calculate the cost over time (of course this isn't accurate because the MN fees will go up each year but you can get an idea of how the MN fees can impact the price).

These will show the approximate cost of each point based on the total number of points you'd receive over the life of the contract. (Again it could differ for contracts that have banked pts, or stripped points).
BCV $90ppt = 3.65
BWV $82ppt = 3.63
HHI $72ppt = 3.01
OKW $75ppt = 2.99
SSR $83.30ppt = 2.38
VB $60ppt = 3.60
VWL $80ppt = 3.50

As you can see, HHI and OKW are almost equal, but SSR much cheaper because of the extra years. Also, VB you can see is about $22 cheaper per point than BWV, yet in the end they cost about the same per point.

In addition to all of that info, I'd also add that you probably wouldn't have much trouble booking at the 7 month window. However, you may need to be flexible in what you expect to get for accommodations. If you are looking for a studio, you might have to get a pref. view (more points) to get the resort you want, or you might have to stay at a different resort than you want.

For me, it was more about the $$$ than where I wanted to stay. I figured I'd rather stay where the number of points for the rooms were lower (and where I could get the best deal on the contracts). That is what led me to purchase a resale at OKW, and then do an addon at SSR with one of the promotions they were offering. Now I have the bulk of my points at SSR, where I have the 12 additional years, and some points at OKW where I can book a week in a studio for 40 points!