April Incentives - What Are Your Predictions?

[intamin]

Bruh. We all value different things. It's not cool for you to try to make me feel stupid for buying where I want to stay.

Not to mention the fact that when you double the amount of points you buy in, you're also doubling the dues. If buy in was the only thing that mattered, I would've loaded up on SSR points to get myself a bungalow for a week every year but I didn't because the dues make up >2/3 of the cost of a contract. You did fine.

Oh great, BLT during a long needed refurb and heat stroke season, Poly during an expansion/construction with only the 1 room type so it is plentiful and also during heat stroke season, and Aulani during hurricane season.... Like I said you can stay other places at 7 months, but those resort owners determine when you will get to stay by saving their points or going somewhere else that year. If someone who liked the location enough to buy in there for it goes somewhere else, it's probably a less popular time or has a reason it is readily available

And why didn't you book at OKW since it's such a great location?

Now I am sure you are trolling us. Busy time is summer in Aulani and October through Dec at WDW. Wonder why you didn't book those. Were they unavailable perhaps?

Yeahhhh none of those bookings are hard at 7 months. The only way I'd be impressed is if that Aulani reservation was in a hotel room.

 

[BuzzLightyr]

Sap works at times, but don't count on it at peak season. I also won't count on it for standard view. The point chart comparison I would make is home resort points at the lowest cost option vs sap points at the premium option. You need more points and more annual dues, and price gap narrows significantly.

BLT is underrated but serves a very specific niche. If you have a toddler that needs to nap in the afternoon, BLT and GF win. MK is where they want to spend their time and distance and ease of taking a stroller to nap is critical. BLT is cheaper than GF

 

[AstroBlasters]

I do understand that. We travel as a family of five so many would think it’s not good value for us to stay in a two bedroom villa, but that is now our preference. For us, that is good value compared to a GV though and means we can instead stay at VGF instead of SSR for similar or less points.

FWIW we are a family of 4 and get a 2Bd. Everyone gets their own bed…except for DW who has to share it with me….

Occasional exception is layouts where 1BDs have 2 bathrooms if trying to sneak into VDH or VGC @ 7m.

 

[walt34]

I have to wonder if they didn’t project Skyliner costs higher to begin with and now we are over 4 years in, have a general sense of yearly costs to maintain.

Even now they still operate the Skyliner with a lot of people. Where I'm from, the same type is operated with far fewer personnel, e.g. no people telling you to mind your step as you are getting off. Maybe this is the US, maybe it's Disney but there are still a lot of potential cost savings with the Skyliner, once people get more accustomed with it.

 

[Sandisw]

Even now they still operate the Skyliner with a lot of people. Where I'm from, the same type is operated with far fewer personnel, e.g. no people telling you to mind your step as you are getting of. Maybe this is the US, maybe it's Disney but there are still a lot of potential cost savings with the Skyliner, once people get more accustomed with it.

I was referring to the comment that the Skyliner costs could cause dues to skyrocket once it’s sold out.

I think it’s likely that when they were setting h th e initial budge for costs for it, they overestimated them, but now, have actual costs from the past 4 years to have the yearly expenses figured out much closer to actual expenses.

So, I don’t expect RIv to see increases out of the norm we see with all resorts over the years

 

[walt34]

I was referring to the comment that the Skyliner costs could cause dues to skyrocket once it’s sold out.

Yes, I was just pointing out that I rather see cost savings potential with the Skyliner - costs might actually go down once more people are accustomed with it or Disney gets more experience with operating it.

 

[BamaGuy44]

The point chart comparison I would make is home resort points at the lowest cost option vs sap points at the premium option. You need more points and more annual dues, and price gap narrows significantly.

This is a VERY underrated aspect of the cost comparison, IMO. RIV, BWV, BLT standard range from hard to impossible at 7 months, and that's a big difference in the calculations.

 

[intamin]

This is a VERY underrated aspect of the cost comparison, IMO. RIV, BWV, BLT standard range from hard to impossible at 7 months, and that's a big difference in the calculations.

I wouldn't say that RIV and BLT are hard/impossible at 7 months but I would say if you don't own there, don't count on getting like a week long stay in a standard studio during most times of the year. BWV standard on the other hand is truly impossible to get more than a random couple days at without owning there.

 

[disneyfan123]

I want to stay in a cabin so bad. Every time I consider it I see how close it is to the GV in cost and I just go GV. I am debating on doing a cabin for the 2026 trip as our gathering spot. Will depend on how many people come and if we pick WL as the resort for the trip. Right now WL and AKL are the top choices.

You need to try it once; there are few things as good as sitting in your private hot tub, watching the MK fireworks, and the electric light parade.

We got bumped up to a cabin in January; we just closed on a CCV contract with our points loaded into our account today! Talk about an expensive "free" upgrade!

 

[BamaGuy44]

I wouldn't say that RIV and BLT are hard/impossible at 7 months but I would say if you don't own there, don't count on getting like a week long stay in a standard studio during most times of the year. BWV standard on the other hand is truly impossible to get more than a random couple days at without owning there.

True they're not 100% booked up all the time at 7 mos but like you said, not something I would count on for future vacations like a resort I owned. Any of those I would do any SAP cost comparisons based on the premium views.