Help me pick the best UY & resort for our family of 5!

[lilsonicfan]

My current/first/only(?) contract is for 250 pts. It’s hard to stay in 1BR for a lot less. I got a loaded contract and have been able to rent out points I didn’t use. I’d really look at where you want to stay and how far your points will go. We are doing 4 nights at VGC and that is using up 140+ points in a low season.

 

[mamaofsix]

We just got back, went to SSR to tour the Riv & Saratoga 1 bedroom models there. Both very nice, I agree that having a 1 bedroom at minimum is ideal, but know that we can still squeeze into the studios that sleep 5 for now if we want to save some points. Poly was nice b/c of the 2 showers.

I should have clarified this earlier, b/c a lot of people are commenting on the holiday stay. Our longer stay would be summer, we aren't looking to do a week during any holiday, just maybe pick up a long weekend to see some of the decor. We've done Disney the week before Christmas before we moved to Fl and that was kind of a one and done for us. Now that we live close enough to drop and go last minute when we know crowds are lower, it's very hard to think about going back to the wall to wall people at peak times.

Someone nailed it when they said I'm a value buyer. That describes me perfectly. I want to get the most bang for my buck in nearly every situation. I'm regretting not touring BLT while there, lots of recommendations for that. When is that refurb scheduled for? I also swear I read a comment somewhere on another thread that CCV was getting another refurb and they should be adding in those pull down twins to sleep 5/9 instead of 4/8. Or maybe I'm making that up, our guide said they just had a refurb fairly recently.

I'm still stuck on the fact that we can get more points at SSR right now. Summer at 7 months has availability at other places, and if it happens that we can't get something else I think we would be fine there. I did love CCV, but the Riviera rooms were shockingly spacious. But buying direct is the only way to stay there, well or renting points, and direct doesn't offer us enough benefits to buy from Disney.

People stay to buy a small contract and see how it goes, but i was thinking 150p. Am I crazy for that? should I stick closer to 100p? We aren't financing, nor are we blowing through our savings. We are fortunate to be in the position to do this without it being a financial burden. Aside from maybe running numbers and considering BLT as well, am I missing anything else?

Thanks for the extra details - that does make a difference! I would go with 150 points. If you're going for value: CCV is actually more economical than SSR based on years left on the contract and dues (as a PP noted). It's tempting to go with what seems cheapest upfront, but in the long run there are several that are "cheaper" than SSR over time. The dues for SSR are predicted to keep rising disproportionately to other resorts due to the spread out nature of the grounds (labor required to maintain).

If you're thinking you only want to do studios or 1 bedrooms for a while, you can always book SSR at 7 months. However, if you think you'd like to stay at CCV for the odd holiday long weekend in a 2 bedroom, you'd still have that option if it's your home resort. But in the end, "buy where you want to stay" still trumps everything, I think.

DVCresale market data for Fall 2023, ranked with most economical at the top:

 

[tom1944]

Thanks for the extra details - that does make a difference! I would go with 150 points. If you're going for value: CCV is actually more economical than SSR based on years left on the contract and dues (as a PP noted). It's tempting to go with what seems cheapest upfront, but in the long run there are several that are "cheaper" than SSR over time. The dues for SSR are predicted to keep rising disproportionately to other resorts due to the spread out nature of the grounds (labor required to maintain).

If you're thinking you only want to do studios or 1 bedrooms for a while, you can always book SSR at 7 months. However, if you think you'd like to stay at CCV for the odd holiday long weekend in a 2 bedroom, you'd still have that option if it's your home resort. But in the end, "buy where you want to stay" still trumps everything, I think.

DVCresale market data for Fall 2023, ranked with most economical at the top:

View attachment 820264

For me at soon to be 66 the years left beyond 30 that SSR has are meaningless.

If we were 30 the longer contracts might matter but not at our age.

 

[jolynne28]

For me at soon to be 66 the years left beyond 30 that SSR has are meaningless.

If we were 30 the longer contracts might matter but not at our age.

I’m struggling with this too, I’ll be 89 when the 2068 contract ends, so 74 for SSR. I know we can leave contracts to our kids, but it’s hard to say if they would want that financial burden at that point.

Merry Christmas to all, the kids are off playing with their new stuff, we’ll see how long that lasts

 

[tom1944]

I’m struggling with this too, I’ll be 89 when the 2068 contract ends, so 74 for SSR. I know we can leave contracts to our kids, but it’s hard to say if they would want that financial burden at that point.

Merry Christmas to all, the kids are off playing with their new stuff, we’ll see how long that lasts

My daughter will be in her sixties when SSR ends. My granddaughter in her 30's that gives them plenty if Disney experience. At that point they could always consider buying CCV if they want an additional number of years

 

[sndral]

Thanks for the extra details - that does make a difference! I would go with 150 points. If you're going for value: CCV is actually more economical than SSR based on years left on the contract and dues (as a PP noted). It's tempting to go with what seems cheapest upfront, but in the long run there are several that are "cheaper" than SSR over time. The dues for SSR are predicted to keep rising disproportionately to other resorts due to the spread out nature of the grounds (labor required to maintain).

If you're thinking you only want to do studios or 1 bedrooms for a while, you can always book SSR at 7 months. However, if you think you'd like to stay at CCV for the odd holiday long weekend in a 2 bedroom, you'd still have that option if it's your home resort. But in the end, "buy where you want to stay" still trumps everything, I think.

DVCresale market data for Fall 2023, ranked with most economical at the top:

View attachment 820264

There are about a dozen DVC resale brokers, https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/selling/what-is-my-dvc-contract-worth/, the board sponsor, skews on the high end of prices, which is great if you’re a seller, less so if you’re a buyer. Also DVC resale prices have been trending downward, so fall prices are probably higher than current market value.
The ROFR thread here on DIS is a great resource for what educated buyers are paying ATM IMO https://www.disboards.com/threads/r...ost-for-instructions-formatting-tool.3931332/ It looks like SSR can be bought in the $80s/90s & CCV in the $120s/130s.
Price will be impacted by things like whether there are banked + current use year points (a loaded contract) or whether the seller has used all the points & none are available for a year (a ‘stripped’ contract.) Who pays what, like Maintenance Fees, is negotiable. Most buyers pay the closing fees & thus have the right to choose which escrow/title company they use. If I bought from DVC resale market I would not use their affiliated title company, which they push their buyers to use, especially if I was buying one of the contracts they were flipping, since I prefer to have an independent 3rd party handling money/title in real estate transactions.

 

[Genie+]

Looking at #1-6 in the rankings there is little difference in actual point usage cost (future dues increases can change that a little). We had 2 choices: smaller buy-in cost up front, or longer contract with higher potential resale value down the road (we ruled out RIV for highest unpredictability there).

We had some extra cash this year and decided to go with a longer contract MK resort. Balances nice with our other DVC too - BWV. In 20 years we’ll likely stop WDW visits. At that point our kids can decide if they want to keep our monorail resort contract. If not, the hope is it still holds good resale value with 20+ years left on contract.

With the top rankings usage cost per point/year very close, the big difference comes with room/resort booked. Beyond DVC costs, food and tickets make these trips an expensive commitment so we leaned toward the best shot of somewhere we’d always enjoy. (Ended up going with VGF)

 

[disneyfan123]

If you really love CCV that much, I would just buy CCV. It is one of the best values in DVC given no resale restrictions and long time before expiration. It’s also particularly important to own there if trying to stay there during the holidays because of the decorations.

This.

 

[jolynne28]

Right now I'm leaning towards CCV resale, 150 pts or right under. Then we'll wait and see what happens when the new Poly goes on sale. If Riv direct gets really cheap, and we are loving DVC, I might buy in there too as my husband really liked it when we went yesterday. The resale side of that sucks, so it would have to be a fantastic direct deal for us to jump in.

I've been following the ROFR threads, so I have a good idea of what things are selling for. I've been set on trying to snag as many points as I can, so SSR in the $80s is such a tempting thing, but I've read a lot of concern about the annual dues increasing more rapidly b/c of the scope of the property. I don't think we can do BLT, it's just not something I would ever look forward to staying at, refurb coming or not.

 

[davidhr]

CCV is one of my home resorts, and by far my favorite. Staying here at this specific moment and addonitis is kicking in lol.

In my opinion CCV is the best resale value at this moment. Even if you don’t expect to use it for that long, it should have a decent value in the future and you should be able to sell those contracts when you’re done with DVC/WDW.

You mention about the refurb and adding a 5th bed. I’ve heard some comments about the limitations to add it, so don’t count on that until it happens.

 

[jolynne28]

CCV is one of my home resorts, and by far my favorite. Staying here at this specific moment and addonitis is kicking in lol.

In my opinion CCV is the best resale value at this moment. Even if you don’t expect to use it for that long, it should have a decent value in the future and you should be able to sell those contracts when you’re done with DVC/WDW.

You mention about the refurb and adding a 5th bed. I’ve heard some comments about the limitations to add it, so don’t count on that until it happens.

I just commented on another thread where someone mentioned the refresh, and I think I probably misunderstood. It sounds like they may replace the sofa beds with murphys, not add the 5th sleeper.

My husband thinks it's hilarious that I'm obsessed with WL, b/c I am not outdoorsy at all, we don't go to the mountains, I've never skied. But I could sit in that lobby all day, grab one of those delicious peach drinks from the bar, and be totally content.

 

[MICKIMINI]

Buy as much as you can and definitely look for a contract with banked 2022 points. Write into the contract *seller pays 2022 and 2023 MF's* and hold your ground if there is push back. Lots of contracts for sale right now. Doing so will give you 2022 and 2023 (which you can bank). If you buy 150, you will start with 300 *free* points and start paying 2024 points in January.

I would look at those 300 *free* points as worth at the very least $15 each or $4500. You can either look at it as a $30 discount per point you buy OR buy $4500 extra worth of points with your savings. Your $30 discount is a once and done or using the $4500+/- extra should give you at least 25+ more points over the life of the contract.

CCV is an awesome resort! Good luck!

 

[tidefan]

I would also suggest that you may want to just get as many points as you can. Until you have gone to Aulani, you won’t realize how much you will want to go back there, and you will at least want a one or two bedroom there.

 

[jolynne28]

I would also suggest that you may want to just get as many points as you can. Until you have gone to Aulani, you won’t realize how much you will want to go back there, and you will at least want a one or two bedroom there.

We will most likely never do Aulani, Hawaii has zero appeal to us since the travel time is so far being east coast. We’re content to do Caribbean vacays instead.

 

[tidefan]

We will most likely never do Aulani, Hawaii has zero appeal to us since the travel time is so far being east coast. We’re content to do Caribbean vacays instead.

That is too bad. In our opinion, Aulani is by far the best DVC resort…

 

[intamin]

We will most likely never do Aulani, Hawaii has zero appeal to us since the travel time is so far being east coast. We’re content to do Caribbean vacays instead.

I still stand what I said about CCV. If anything, buy what you can now and maybe get enough for a 1BR while they’re young and then add on more CCV down the line to upgrade to 2BRs. Nothing says you have to buy all of it in one go. But especially as the kids get older, you’re going to want them to have their own bathroom and bedroom and they’ll want their own space as well. 5 adults even in a 1BR meant to hold 5 is pretty cramped.

 

[LittleBitGoofy]

We will most likely never do Aulani, Hawaii has zero appeal to us since the travel time is so far being east coast. We’re content to do Caribbean vacays instead.

Never say never. We are east coast too. Went Caribbean for many years then tried Hawaii. It's amazing. Went 3 times (visiting 4 of the islands, never been to Aulani) before the kids came along and now have a return trip on the horizon, hopefully in next 5 years. Looking forward to putting our DVC points to use for a 1bdr oceanfront when we go.

Flight from east coast gets split into halves, so yeah it's a long day but you get a break to stretch your legs. Totally worth it.

 

[jolynne28]

I should probably mention that I hate flying, did it a ton for work in my 20’s and had so many bad/scary experiences that I avoid it when I can, if I’m gonna be trapped on a plane that long I think I’d rather do a transatlantic trip,

 

[LittleBitGoofy]

I should probably mention that I hate flying, did it a ton for work in my 20’s and had so many bad/scary experiences that I avoid it when I can, if I’m gonna be trapped on a plane that long I think I’d rather do a transatlantic trip,

Ahh, well then yeah, east coast it is! Plenty to do out here that's closer.

Another aside, in case it helps at all, we do shorter trips for WDW (4-5 days at a time) so I've found from point planning that at the times of year we go (Oct - May) we can do approx 150 pts to get us 4 nights in a 1bdr (BCV & CCV), 190 pts for 4 nights 1bdr (VGF). If we stretch it to 5 days it's about 200 pts at BCV & CCV in a 1bdr. Or we can expand our travel group (invite the grandparents), reduce by 1 night, and get a 2bd for 4 nights at BCV or CCV. Works out pretty great to have that flexibility to use 200 pts for 5x nights in a 1BDR or 4x nights in a 2BDR.

200 pts at CCV is a healthy investment, but not much more than the 200 pts we got at BCV ($120/pt) and it'll last decades longer. I don't expect to be still using DVC in our 80s for CCV when it expires, but the bonus there on CCV is hopefully it still has some value left if we decide to sell it off (or gift it) in the 10-20 years before its expiration.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

We did Aulani about 8 years ago. The resort was fine but we remember the location as being less than ideal. Traffic was awful, the water was very cold (we were there in spring), and for some reason we never did manage to snorkel with the kids. We never really felt the need to go back when the Caribbean/Mexico are so much closer (for us).