How would you buy in?

[Jack Kerouac]

From the information you have given I would Highly suggest CCV and resale. There's hardly any reason to buy direct and it’s very expensive. BLT would be my second choice of the resorts you are thinking about. I say CCV because you could probably get a great deal on a resale at the moment and it offers all types of accommodations you will need. The poly only offers studios and Bungalows with which you will never have enough points to stay in. CCV also has an excellent Point chart and as BLT one of the cheapest AF. If you are buying 300 points I would suggest to buy 2 separate contracts of 150 each . ( make sure they are the same use Year it makes it easier) . Absolutely stay away from Riviera resale as you will be forced to use those points only at Riviera. The new Poly tower will be coming on line next year and if you insist on buying Direct I would probably wait until then to buy. The new tower will have all types of accommodations. The point chart may be expensive though. I also highly suggest you use the board sponsor for your purchase as they have a huge inventory and are very well respected in the DVC community . I have used them .

 

[MerlinandtheMouse]

I didn’t even consider that I could bank/borrow alternately between two home resorts instead of doing a split stay every year. Geez I’m shot lol

My goal is to have 150-250 pts in all our home resorts for this reason. We’re not big on split stays if it’s less than 4-5 days in each place so having the points every other year to stay longer is ideal, plus we get to stay in a bunch of resorts!

 

[Pickles516]

So, I'll be the contrarian on this post.

First, to me one of the biggest questions is how will you get to WDW? Will you drive? If so, will you have your car with you? If you do drive all the time and have your car, to me, the calculus changes.

Personal experience for us is that we always drive and have our car (we are more or less about 8 1/2 hours away). I've found that we tend to use our car as transportation around (to parks, Disney Springs, Publix, etc.) way more than Disney transportation. As to that, it's nice to be at a resort that is what I call "Car Friendly", in other words, you can get to your car fairly easily from your room. Certain resorts lend themselves to this and certain resorts do not.

For instance, take Animal Kingdom Villas. At Jambo, you have to park a good bit in the front, then into the lobby, followed by what can be a very long trek to your room whereas at Kidani, you can park under the building and take an elevator up close to your room. I also find that SSR, OKW, BLT, GFV (original building), and Poly have good parking situations. IMHO, the parking at RIV, Beach Club, CCV, BRV, and especially BWV is more challenging when using your car.

Here is where my contrarian view comes in. I would buy resale SSR. To us, points are points. We don't have to stay at any particular place (save BLT at Labor Day for MNSSHP) so IMHO, I'd rather have as many points as I can. Also, the SSR dues aren't terrible. I would ask yourself, are you the type that has to have a certain resort every time, or do you like mixing it up like we do. To us, all the resorts are great, so I am more in the "buy where you don't mind staying" camp. SSR points are good until 2054, so there is still a good bit of time left on the contracts.

Lastly, and I know this may not be everyone's opinion, but it is ours, that since the major refurbishments, I'd stack up the SSR rooms against any on property. It gets a bad rap because it's so big, but we stayed there this past October for the first time since 2019 and were very pleasantly surprised on just how much the rooms had changed. In fact, we switched our May BLT reservation to a SSR reservation (and we like BLT a lot). And then there is this to consider, if you want to go to Aulani one year and get a 2-bedroom (which I highly suggest), you'll need over 400 points...

Now, this may not be your situation, as everyone's is different, but hopefully gives you another perspective to think about.

We are flyers l. I don’t see us driving down from NY for another 6-7 years if ever. Stocking up on SSR points is something I’ve considered though.

You have a lot of options and I'm sure I'm going to repeat a lot of what has been said already but here are some thoughts -

Sometimes timing is important and I see two somewhat divergent trends in the coming months. If the fed does do what I think will happen and drop rates back down close to zero to try and boost the economy this could increase the value of resale contracts as rates go lower and the economy is flooded with more cash. Perhaps even additional rounds of stimulus and/or child credits could also be in the future and also likely to boost the resale market. On the other hand, Disney is going to have a lot of points for sale at multiple resorts in 2024 and you may get lucky and see a firesale at one or more of them. If you could get Poly 2 or even the cabins at Fort Wilderness for 160ish a point would that tempt you to make the plunge and go direct?

It sounds like you are willing to buy a good chunk of points but given your family size and also because I think it's a way better way to travel I'd do my homework / estimates trying to lock in the 2 BRs. We prefer a 1BR or 2BR even for just the 4 of us (but that 4 often becomes 5 or more if the Grandparents join).

If you get 250 and 250 at two resorts by going some direct at a higher cost and some resale at a lower you could always do the bank/borrow rotation and have 500 every other year at a few resorts. I'm very much a fan of trying to commit and building up big piles of points at specific resorts but I'm also a fan of SAP. I do see the wisdom of buying a ton of SAP at SSR or another less expensive resort. CCV could be a good choice or also AKV. For us, we are happy with our "cheap" direct SAP at Riviera we scored in 2022 for around 162 a point.

Highly recommend renting some points or booking a confirmed reservation and checking out the resorts. Make a friend with a direct guide and have them give you a VIP tour of what you are interested in. We did that before making the plunge in 2022 and it was well worth it If you need a guide we would be happy to help you with recommendations.

If I could get direct points at 162 a point I would definitely get at least 150 points wherever they were selling them and then supplement with resale contracts for sure.

 

[Mikey15]

Congrats! Are the Aulani dues as brutal as people say? Aulani is probably the cheapest direct points that will ever be available again but I hear the dues kinda cancel out the cost benefit.

Aulani dues had a fairly high jump for ‘24, but even still they’re actually slightly less than OKW: $9.76 vs $9.86. AKV, another resale “Sleep Around Point” contender, is at $9.08, and direct option Riviera is $8.85. So Aulani is more than those, but also not by a crazy amount.

I’m still not sure I’d buy Aulani points though without use at Aulani being the primary goal. If the motivation in buying Aulani is to get cheaper Direct benefits for Walt Disney World in FL, you’re probably going to want to use those points in FL, and at that point you’re dealing with the same 7mo booking window as if you bought $100 resale points at SSR. Aul just has a few more years on the contract.

I’m torn a bit on what I’d do personally to buy in, which I can’t financially justify for a few more years. Resort wise, we love Poly & WL. Room configuration wise, I like the extra bathroom in the Kidani & BLT 1Bs. Theme park wise, Epcot access or DHS from Riviera is more desirable to me than being on the monorail loop. But, altogether, I’m really kind of thinking Poly direct could hit a sweet spot or compromise between the things we like, once the tower goes on sale.

I could do what others are suggesting and buy resale somewhere first, and add on direct at Poly down the road. Or I could buy Poly/BLT/CCV resale and then get direct Riv points to hold onto forever for blue card benefits and those Epcot-convenient stays. Resale value wouldn’t matter if they were the direct points we’d never sell.

 

[Tatebeck]

I didn’t even consider that I could bank/borrow alternately between two home resorts instead of doing a split stay every year. Geez I’m shot lol

I think I mentioned that earlier but it probably got lost in a wall of my text, sorry!

We did 200 at Bay Lake, 200 at Boardwalk, and 260 at Animal kingdom for that reason. So we could split stay, alternate stays, or use at 7 months and always be able to stay at a mix of resorts and locations. My A.D.D makes me want to stay everywhere lol. The extra bathrooms in AKV and BLT are also a plus as mentioned above.

We did all of ours resale because we found great prices and it's just the two of us right now, then planning for kids in the near future. The savings for season passes wouldn't have been as much for us because it will be us and different friends/family a lot of the time so only up to 2 passes would get savings from buying direct. But the more people you have getting passes, the bigger the savings as well.

If there are any good direct deals in the next few summers we may add on just before our September use year to get double first year points. Could be just a few or maybe even the full 150 for blue card status if the offering is good enough

 

[NorCalFanatic]

Congrats! Are the Aulani dues as brutal as people say? Aulani is probably the cheapest direct points that will ever be available again but I hear the dues kinda cancel out the cost benefit.

I'm not going to lie, the dues are up there and we own ALOT of points there. They aren't Vero Beach, Hilton Head or Old Key West but they are up there. We knew that going in though. We also have a fair number of points at VDH which is also a bit high, but we also knew that going in. Being West Coast based, the only two DVC resorts that we were interested in were Aulani and VDH. Florida has little interest for us. We'll likely use Aulani points at some point and skip a year there and go to Florida, but that will likely be it.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

My friends are paying $456 for a 3 day park hopper this January. Two of those trips a year and you are close to break even with Sorcerer.

So if one gets in shorter but more frequent trips, 3 is all it takes!!

I agree,

I had to buy a two-day midweek park pass for my wife back in February before annual passes returned, it was well over 400 dollars

If you do one 9 day trip a year the annual pass is a break-even
Three 3-day weekends is a huge savings, then times 6

 

[twodogs]

One one hand(time), this could work because I’m a school teacher, but on the other hand(money) this could not work because I’m a school teacher lol

Also consider that as your kids get older, they will be unwilling to miss school (though you may not be able to either, as a teacher), so you will be going at possibly more popular (and therefore more expensive, point-wise, times). As well, consider that as they get older, they may be less willing to share beds/bedroom space with each other (and don‘t get me started about bathroom space with teens…)!

 

[NVDISFamily]

Also consider that as your kids get older, they will be unwilling to miss school (though you may not be able to either, as a teacher), so you will be going at possibly more popular (and therefore more expensive, point-wise, times). As well, consider that as they get older, they may be less willing to share beds/bedroom space with each other (and don‘t get me started about bathroom space with teens…)!

Perhaps one of the reasons why we own the resorts we do. Three of them have extra bathrooms in the larger units.

 

[NorCalFanatic]

Perhaps one of the reasons why we own the resorts we do. Three of them have extra bathrooms in the larger units.

The 1 BR having two bathrooms at VDH was a must have for us. We might not have bought points there if it didn’t.

 

[NVDISFamily]

The 1 BR having two bathrooms at VDH was a must have for us. We might not have bought points there if it didn’t.

I almost feel bad picking BWV for our trip in the summer of 2024 as our family friend who we are brining along has 3 daughters in the teenage or young adult ages and I fear 2 bathrooms won't be enough in their 2BR. They said 2 baths would be enough.

 

[Cfabar1]

If I had $50k to devote to a DVC purchase, here's what I would suggest:

- I would take a significant portion of it to apply to a resale contract. Your ages/kids ages ar huge. Would a 2042 resort work for you?

- Which part of the Vacation Kingdom do you want to stay? For us, we want to be walking distance to at least one park - so that means there are really 4 DVC properties that make sense for us BW, BC, VGF, and BLT for buying. Maybe that doesn't matter to you.

- Do sizes of rooms matter to you? If so, do your homework to know how big the units are.

- Do you care about direct benefits? If so, take all the money and throw it in resale? Otherwise, buy resale to start, and then buy 150 points through DVC to get the direct perks.

 

[Chili327]

We are flyers l. I don’t see us driving down from NY for another 6-7 years if ever. Stocking up on SSR points is something I’ve considered though.

If I could get direct points at 162 a point I would definitely get at least 150 points wherever they were selling them and then supplement with resale contracts for sure.

150 points at SSR resale could be a great place to start. (technically if resale you could go 100, or 100 x2)
Adding on direct (or other resale) later on when you get a better feel for where you want to be.

 

[MillauFr]

I just don't understand why people pay so much to buy into DVC. Just got back from a trip. We stayed at the Marriott Cypress Harbor in a 2 bedroom timeshare for $200 a night. We aren't even an owner. You can just book them directly on the Marriott website. The drive to the Magic Kingdom parking lot takes less time than the tram and monorail to the front gate. Plus the 2 bedroom Marriott timeshares there are much nicer than most DVC 2 bedrooms.

 

[Chili327]

I just don't understand why people pay so much to buy into DVC. Just got back from a trip. We stayed at the Marriott Cypress Harbor in a 2 bedroom timeshare for $200 a night. We aren't even an owner. You can just book them directly on the Marriott website. The drive to the Magic Kingdom parking lot takes less time than the tram and monorail to the front gate. Plus the 2 bedroom Marriott timeshares there are much nicer than most DVC 2 bedrooms.

Got a link?

 

[NVDISFamily]

I just don't understand why people pay so much to buy into DVC. Just got back from a trip. We stayed at the Marriott Cypress Harbor in a 2 bedroom timeshare for $200 a night. We aren't even an owner. You can just book them directly on the Marriott website. The drive to the Magic Kingdom parking lot takes less time than the tram and monorail to the front gate. Plus the 2 bedroom Marriott timeshares there are much nicer than most DVC 2 bedrooms.

Just did some homework on this and I see multiple listings for the 4th of July holiday range with a week going for about 250+ a night for a 2BR. Don't agree that they match a DVC room and the resort + the sum of everything else seems a tier lower. With that said, looks like a good value and a solid option if we ever have to go that route. Don't own any other timeshares now but I won't lie I'd be tempted to consider other brands as they are way cheaper.

With that said, you are correct that DVC isn't a great value unless you value the staying on property part of it and are willing to compare that premium. If you are someone who values that and are willing to spend (and it fits within your family needs/timeframe) DVC can be a value.

It's like why did I buy the somewhat nicer "dad car" when buying another used Camry/Accord would have been the better economical way to go? Well I can't take it with me and those don't give me the same smile when I put the right foot to the floor...

 

[PolyRob]

I just don't understand why people pay so much to buy into DVC. Just got back from a trip. We stayed at the Marriott Cypress Harbor in a 2 bedroom timeshare for $200 a night. We aren't even an owner. You can just book them directly on the Marriott website. The drive to the Magic Kingdom parking lot takes less time than the tram and monorail to the front gate. Plus the 2 bedroom Marriott timeshares there are much nicer than most DVC 2 bedrooms.

The money I used on DVC would have went towards Disney deluxe stays. I personally like:

• The "WDW bubble"
• Walkability or convenient access to theme parks and even Disney Springs (monorail, boat, and/or skyliner)
• Onsite perks (early ADRs, early entry, early access to Individual Lightning Lanes, extended evening hours)
• MagicBands (sure it's gimmicky, but it's the only thing I need and I can pay my charges off with Disney GCs in one swipe at the front desk)

The list of perks was longer in the past, but things come and go. Resort location will never change.

 

[Pickles516]

I just don't understand why people pay so much to buy into DVC. Just got back from a trip. We stayed at the Marriott Cypress Harbor in a 2 bedroom timeshare for $200 a night. We aren't even an owner. You can just book them directly on the Marriott website. The drive to the Magic Kingdom parking lot takes less time than the tram and monorail to the front gate. Plus the 2 bedroom Marriott timeshares there are much nicer than most DVC 2 bedrooms.

Not having to drive is a big perk for me. I drive these little lunatics around all the time. Being able to sit on the skyliner and laugh and talk with the family or meet new people on the monorail is cool to me. I just really like the vibes on property.

 

[NorCalFanatic]

I almost feel bad picking BWV for our trip in the summer of 2024 as our family friend who we are brining along has 3 daughters in the teenage or young adult ages and I fear 2 bathrooms won't be enough in their 2BR. They said 2 baths would be enough.

The 2.5 Bathrooms in the Aulani 2BR are nice. Helps quite a bit having that extra half bath.

 

[Chili327]

Not having to drive is a big perk for me. I drive these little lunatics around all the time. Being able to sit on the skyliner and laugh and talk with the family or meet new people on the monorail is cool to me. I just really like the vibes on property.

Vibe value is strong!!