I find the conversation in this thread interesting. Some of the ways we speak about DVC never changes. One shock to me after becoming a member and getting access to booking was how much of what I hear about the resorts having poor availability issues/hard to book/etc. was most of the time always an issue about studios and even more studios in the value room categories. As someone who was reading threads a lot and also listening to stories on FB groups about DVC booking problems I quickly learned I had to fill in the blanks of what was left out (in a way it's kind of fun like a DVC chat Mad Libs).
As someone who prefers the larger rooms and who bought in to DVC in the hope I'd find value compared to cash stays in "suite" like rooms, I've found that at 7 months I have quite a few options to book into at the times we want to get to WDW. I've even had good luck grabbing rooms at Grand Cal and
Disneyland Hotel using my Florida points. The only resort that seems to require some strategy to book at 7 months is Beach Club but I did have luck moving one of my 2BRs there at 7 months but not the other. If I would have not been greedy and done the other family first who actually needs the 2BR we would have had it no problem (but my family would have had a 1BR which is fine).
Some things I'm processing in my brain as I consider if and how much I could/should buy during this current round of sales incentives....
Comparison of OKW to RVA GV Pricing in Points per SQ Feet (also threw in a 2BR to RVA STD for fun)
| SQ FT | Points (Week July) | SQ FT Per Point | OKW vs RVA Delta |
| OKW GV | 2375 | 418 | 5.68 | 198% |
| RVA GV | 2530 | 882 | 2.87 | - |
| OKW 2BR | 1395 | 262 | 5.32 | 157% |
| RVA 2BR (STD) | 1246 | 368 | 3.39 | - |
If you consider that you get 13 more years of points at RVA you would get 3,250 points more in the extra years (assuming a 250 point buy in). The OKW GV costs 464 points less than the RVA GV for the same week. I know that OKW GVs aren't that hard to get in July, but this would allow you to go for the much harder to book near HH ones that I'm sure would be better to book if you wanted to use OKW as a every few year option for a quick trip to WDW. You would only have to use this approach about 7 times to make up the delta between the lower life of the OKW contract due to the huge delta in the
point chart. That means you would have to do this about once every 4 to 5 years in the 34 years OKW is left. My only concern with OKW is all the stairs.... but it would make a solid value add to the portfolio. It's also very easy to achieve the GV every other year with 250 points at OKW. At RVA.... LOL... You aren't getting a GV every other year for 250 points.
