Buying resale after the new restrictions.

[evr25160]

Hello I was wanting to get some insight from those who bought resale after Disney put in the new restrictions of only being able to use them at the original 14 but also not having the blue card.

I am currently doing my research and I am leaning heavily towards buying resale first and direct later on as currently we are a family of 3 with a young daughter. We see buying resale as being the easiest and most affordable route for those that has gone this route post restrictions do you feel like you're missing out on anything or any saving that the blue card would offer or not being able to stay at RIV or Reflections on points unless you add additional via direct?

 

[TexasChick123]

Hello I was wanting to get some insight from those who bought resale after Disney put in the new restrictions of only being able to use them at the original 14 but also not having the blue card.

I am currently doing my research and I am leaning heavily towards buying resale first and direct later on as currently we are a family of 3 with a young daughter. We see buying resale as being the easiest and most affordable route for those that has gone this route post restrictions do you feel like you're missing out on anything or any saving that the blue card would offer or not being able to stay at RIV or Reflections on points unless you add additional via direct?

We bought VGC after the restrictions, BUT we already had blue card benefits. Unfortunately, this is a lot (most?) members.

However, I can tell you when we have used those blue card benefits, so you can see if it is worth it to you. We’ve owned about 4 1/2 years now and purchased AP’s with the discount once. We have been to 2 moonlight magic events, and I wouldn’t recommend buying in for those events as we thought they were good but not great. We have used the DVC discount on some stuff for maybe a total of a couple hundred off in our several years of ownership. The Tables in Wonderland and AP discounts are the same or better at most places. I honestly can’t think of anything else. We will probably get AP’s this next year, so that will be twice in 5 years for us.

 

[evr25160]

We bought VGC after the restrictions, BUT we already had blue card benefits. Unfortunately, this is a lot (most?) members.

However, I can tell you what when we have used those blue card benefits, so you can see if it is worth it to you. We’ve owned about 4 1/2 years now and purchased AP’s with the discount once. We have been to 2 moonlight magic events, and I wouldn’t recommend buying in for those events as we thought they were good but not great. We have used the DVC discount on some stuff for maybe a total of a couple hundred off in our several years of ownership. The Tables in Wonderland and AP discounts are the same or better at most places. I honestly can’t think of anything else. We will probably get AP’s this next year, so that will be twice in 5 years for us.

Yeah we live out of state so we wouldn’t try to wrap a trip around a moonlight magic and we’re also ok with paying for the annual pass at full price if we no longer have to worry about room cost because those would be covered. Buying direct at this stage in our lives just doesn’t seem necessary.

 

[SG131]

The only thing I feel like I’m missing out on is the AP discount. But I bought what I could afford without financing so that was a big part of the decision. I don’t particularly like Riv. I own at BWV so I’m in a much better location and it costs way more points a night to stay there.

I have 150 points now and I know in the future I would like to add on another 100-150 and have thought about doing that direct. But every time I look at the price difference I cringe. And then I remember that AP discounts aren’t guaranteed. The discount does start to add up with multiple kids if you plan to go more than once a year. So there’s still a chance I add on direct at some point, but I change my mind daily on that and will probably continue to do so until the day I buy more points!

 

[TexasChick123]

Yeah we live out of state so we wouldn’t try to wrap a trip around a moonlight magic and we’re also ok with paying for the annual pass at full price if we no longer have to worry about room cost because those would be covered. Buying direct at this stage in our lives just doesn’t seem necessary.

We also live out of state and lucked out to be going during the MM events. We even added a day on the front end of one trip to be there during the event. Again, it was fun, but in no way would it be worth the cost difference to us of direct versus resale. The only direct points we ever purchased were RIV because we went with the conventional wisdom that the initial pre-sale price ends up being better than resale in a few years, and we could break up our purchase into small contracts. I don't know how that will pan out, but that was our reasoning.

The AP discount is by far the biggest monetary benefit. I have no idea if that will go away or not. I do think there is a large psychological effect of being "full members" with the blue card. Many have pointed out that a lot of owners like to just have the option to use the blue card benefits even if they choose not to use them. We have a family of 4, so the toal AP discount is large when we use it. Then again, we have used it 1 time, but others get AP's every year. I hope this helps.

 

[evr25160]

The only thing I feel like I’m missing out on is the AP discount. But I bought what I could afford without financing so that was a big part of the decision. I don’t particularly like Riv. I own at BWV so I’m in a much better location and it costs way more points a night to stay there.

I have 150 points now and I know in the future I would like to add on another 100-150 and have thought about doing that direct. But every time I look at the price difference I cringe. And then I remember that AP discounts aren’t guaranteed. The discount does start to add up with multiple kids if you plan to go more than once a year. So there’s still a chance I add on direct at some point, but I change my mind daily on that and will probably continue to do so until the day I buy more points!

The only thing I would feel like I'm missing out on would be the AP discount and while it would be nice to get , the added on cost per point would not make it feel like we were getting the better end of the deal. Right now I foresee us not buying direct until child #2 who doesn't exist would be turning 3 which would be further down the road and we would feel better about the burden of cost on buying direct. As it stands we are looking at buying somewhere between 150 - 170 AKV points and doing that resale seems like a much better deal.

 

[Sandisw]

I think that there are two different things. Blue card benefits and new resorts. At this point, since RIV is not even open, I am not sure we now how people will feel in missing that. The piece of that, IMO, is that once this, and other new resorts come on line, if someone really decides they want to stay there, they have a way to do that. Buy direct points.

In terms of the blue benefits, that is a different story, The AP is the biggest benefit, but one must way the saving against the saving for buying resale,

Sounds like you have a good plan. Start with resale and consider the direct option down the road when things like the AP discount might be more beneficial.

 

[jlb727]

We bought resale after the restrictions. We only plan to visit every other year, so the AP discounts don’t really matter to us. We have two young children. The biggest thing for me was “locking in” a hotel rate because I do see them continuing to go up in the future (possibly parking fees too and we always have a car). I’m not interested in Riviera right now, but I figure if we are later, we can rent our points and pay cash to stay there. I don’t care about any of the extra events and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything right now with not having a blue card. We might buy Reflections direct in like 5 years if it has a nice pool/lazy river area and the rooms look as nice as the concept art.

 

[evr25160]

We bought resale after the restrictions. We only plan to visit every other year, so the AP discounts don’t really matter to us. We have two young children. The biggest thing for me was “locking in” a hotel rate because I do see them continuing to go up in the future (possibly parking fees too and we always have a car). I’m not interested in Riviera right now, but I figure if we are later, we can rent our points and pay cash to stay there. I don’t care about any of the extra events and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything right now with not having a blue card. We might buy Reflections direct in like 5 years if it has a nice pool/lazy river area and the rooms look as nice as the concept art.

We are also more excited for reflections and that’s what we are waiting on to buy direct and hopefully the room styles are a bit better. We plan to go maybe twice a year and then once reflections opens maybe 3 to 4 times a year.

 

[evr25160]

I think that there are two different things. Blue card benefits and new resorts. At this point, since RIV is not even open, I am not sure we now how people will feel in missing that. The piece of that, IMO, is that once this, and other new resorts come on line, if someone really decides they want to stay there, they have a way to do that. Buy direct points.

In terms of the blue benefits, that is a different story, The AP is the biggest benefit, but one must way the saving against the saving for buying resale,

Sounds like you have a good plan. Start with resale and consider the direct option down the road when things like the AP discount might be more beneficial.

Yes and I keep reading how the AP discount isn’t even a guaranteed benefit that it is something that at any time could be removed. So somewhere down the road we plan to buy direct but I’m in no hurry as long as we have access to the 14 for now I’m good.

 

[Marionnette]

I’m grandfathered into a blue card membership. All resale contracts. I’m not sure how I would feel about losing those benefits. I purchased my contracts with the expectation of being able to use them to book at my home resorts with the flexibility of “sleeping around” if I wanted to.

My most recent purchase was post 1/19 and carries the Scarlett Letter ‘R’ (for resale). It is the same UY as my grandfathered contracts and if push comes to shove, it will be the first to be sold. It’s a BWV contract and the restriction of not being able to use the points at RIV, Reflections or any future resort was not a consideration because 1) I have plenty of points that can be used at those resorts and 2) by the time that contract expires in 2042, the dwindling number of L14 resorts will not matter.

Now, if I were new to looking at DVC, I probably would not purchase at all. I won’t lie, the benefits were a consideration when I purchased my very first contract (25 points, resale). And the knowledge that DVC holds it value was a selling point. However, the benefits (with a minimum of 100 direct points) and the resale restrictions at RIV and all future resorts would have completely turned me off to DVC ownership.

 

[stuartsong]

We've been owners since 2001. I can count on one hand the times we have used the benefits. The cost benefits of the member benefits does not cover the difference between the saving you will have between the resale versus direct. Buy resale.

 

[Silly23]

Buying 1st contract, just got an accepted offer 500 pnts BWV front loaded with 1000 pnts March 2020. (Hope it gets through Disney, MM ears crossed)

Tough decision direct/resale..

Think next contract will be direct on MK side of WD.

 

[Jenniebee]

I am buying resale now in the post-restriction stage. For the number of points I bought, to buy them direct would have cost me $11,700 more if I bought Riv, $8710 more if I bought SSR direct. There are ZERO direct benefits for me worth $11k.

1) I live in the Northeast, so every trip to ANY of the properties is a plane flight. Average cost on SW for me and my family is between $800-$1600 depending on the time of year, so we will most likely never go more than once per year, and I will probably never buy more than a 6 day ticket.
2) This makes an AP not a value
3) This makes attending MM events unlikely
4) I have a Disney Visa which does give some discounts, albeit not the same.
5) The L14 are all great properties and varied enough to me that I will not miss staying at Riviera or Reflections or whatever else. If I set a goal of staying in every one of the L14 that would take me probably 20 years to check off so I am not sweating these restrictions at all. I bought at SSR and would be perfectly happy to only stay there, but most likely I will try other resorts too. I wanted a timeshare on Disney property in Orlando and I have that. Will I "miss out" on staying at Riviera? Maybe, but no more than I will miss staying at POFQ or Contemporary tower or Yacht Club. And if I ever feel so compelled to stay at these places I can rent my points and book them.
6) Epcot lounge - not worth $11k entrance fee IMO
7) Status of having a Blue Card or calling myself a "true" member - not worth $11k IMO

 

[Vacations66]

I am buying resale now in the post-restriction stage. For the number of points I bought, to buy them direct would have cost me $11,700 more if I bought Riv, $8710 more if I bought SSR direct. There are ZERO direct benefits for me worth $11k.

1) I live in the Northeast, so every trip to ANY of the properties is a plane flight. Average cost on SW for me and my family is between $800-$1600 depending on the time of year, so we will most likely never go more than once per year, and I will probably never buy more than a 6 day ticket.
2) This makes an AP not a value
3) This makes attending MM events unlikely
4) I have a Disney Visa which does give some discounts, albeit not the same.
5) The L14 are all great properties and varied enough to me that I will not miss staying at Riviera or Reflections or whatever else. If I set a goal of staying in every one of the L14 that would take me probably 20 years to check off so I am not sweating these restrictions at all. I bought at SSR and would be perfectly happy to only stay there, but most likely I will try other resorts. I wanted a timeshare on Disney property in Orlando and I have that. Will I "miss out" on staying at Riviera? Maybe, but no more than I will miss staying at POFQ or Contemporary tower or Yacht Club. And if I ever feel so compelled to stay at these places I can rent my points and book them.
6) Epcot lounge - not worth $11k entrance fee IMO
7) Status of having a Blue Card or calling myself a "true" member - not work $11k IMO
[/QUOTE $11,000 more for the same resort same amount of points for buying from Disney. Now what didn't u get since u bought resale?

 

[tnicks]

I am buying resale now in the post-restriction stage. For the number of points I bought, to buy them direct would have cost me $11,700 more if I bought Riv, $8710 more if I bought SSR direct. There are ZERO direct benefits for me worth $11k.

1) I live in the Northeast, so every trip to ANY of the properties is a plane flight. Average cost on SW for me and my family is between $800-$1600 depending on the time of year, so we will most likely never go more than once per year, and I will probably never buy more than a 6 day ticket.
2) This makes an AP not a value
3) This makes attending MM events unlikely
4) I have a Disney Visa which does give some discounts, albeit not the same.
5) The L14 are all great properties and varied enough to me that I will not miss staying at Riviera or Reflections or whatever else. If I set a goal of staying in every one of the L14 that would take me probably 20 years to check off so I am not sweating these restrictions at all. I bought at SSR and would be perfectly happy to only stay there, but most likely I will try other resorts too. I wanted a timeshare on Disney property in Orlando and I have that. Will I "miss out" on staying at Riviera? Maybe, but no more than I will miss staying at POFQ or Contemporary tower or Yacht Club. And if I ever feel so compelled to stay at these places I can rent my points and book them.
6) Epcot lounge - not worth $11k entrance fee IMO
7) Status of having a Blue Card or calling myself a "true" member - not worth $11k IMO

Fellow northeaster. I would mainly question the assumption you will probably never want to stay more than 6 days. Once I pay for the flight and deal with traveling sticking an additional few days is relatively cheap makes it all worth it. Sadly two years ago a resale contract fell through right before closing, so we are not grandfathered in. I had planned on getting an annual pass and going a year later minus a week to save on ticket costs. Buying 100 points direct though killed that idea.

 

[Jenniebee]

I would mainly question the assumption you will probably never want to stay more than 6 days

I may stay more than 6 days, but if I did it would be resort/Disney Springs/Orlando time without park tix. I just know how I vacation, how I take time off from work, etc. I know I will most likely not get an AP.

 

[EYL]

Hello I was wanting to get some insight from those who bought resale after Disney put in the new restrictions of only being able to use them at the original 14 but also not having the blue card.

I am currently doing my research and I am leaning heavily towards buying resale first and direct later on as currently we are a family of 3 with a young daughter. We see buying resale as being the easiest and most affordable route for those that has gone this route post restrictions do you feel like you're missing out on anything or any saving that the blue card would offer or not being able to stay at RIV or Reflections on points unless you add additional via direct?

I'd like to refer you to a great post that fellow DIS'er @Bing Showei wrote in a different thread. It made me think a lot about direct vs resale: https://www.disboards.com/threads/1...ptember-17-2019.3768783/page-14#post-61079265.

We are relatively new resale DVC owners at PVB. We had always talked about adding on points in 2021. However, Disney raising the minimum to 100 direct points on September 17, 2019 sped up our purchase. We debated between direct or resale, and we decided on 75 direct points at PVB. I'm sure some will opine that it was foolish to buy direct instead of resale. But the option of being able to use those 75 points at future DVC resorts, and the savings that the Blue Card could give was worth it for us.

Value and savings is always a personal debate. Heck, I have friends who don't see the value of a Disney vacation and they spend the same amount going to Vegas. In the meantime, I debate with my wife because she thinks she saved $25 using the Blue Card to buy a ring at Disney, but I think she could've saved $100 if she didn't buy it at all.

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

We bought resale. We would not be purchasing annual passes, so wouldn't get enough benefit from the discounts to warrant the higher direct price. Other "perks" are no big deal to us and we would likely never take advantage of them anyway.

We are very happy with our home resort and there are plenty of other great options in the 14 resorts we can trade into. We really have no strong desire to stay at Riviera. If future resorts appeal to us, we might consider adding a direct purchase at one of those new resorts. But for now, we're perfectly content with savings thousands of dollars on resale.

 

[skier_pete]

I have only purchased resale - but I also purchased in 2014 so we have the member benefit.

The only reason I would consider a direct purchase today is the AP discount. We have been going 3-4 times in a 12 month period and then take 12 months off to maximize the AP usage, and with the current AP price structure getting the Gold passes is a pretty good benefit saving us $1200 every two years, but beyond that, many discounts can be had with a Disney VISA and I just don't think that we would notice that extra 10% off of things. Certainly the lack of Riviera being in the fleet would not stop me - you could always swap points with another eligible owner if you really wanted to stay there in the future.