Wakey
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2015
I like getting the best value for my money. Buying resale was an easy call for me. Although it was more time consuming and a little more complicated than buying directly from Disney, it was approximately 40 percent less expensive. For me, it was well worth the waiting and somewhat inconvenient process.
After purchasing our first resale contract, we added 25 points directly from Disney. I'm glad we did. Those points were easy to buy - I simply put them on a credit card over the phone. They were available instantly, and provided us access to a number of perks that, for me, were worth the cost. We were able to purchase Gold Annual Passes - which we upgraded to Platinum Plus passes for free. The annual passes gave us free parking on days we were off property, Photopass, and lots of dining and merchandise discounts. We also had access to the Top of the World Lounge, which was a great place to see the new fireworks. We attended two Moonlight Magic events at Typhoon Lagoon, which were great. We also enjoyed a couple of short breaks at the Epcot member lounge and a somewhat overpriced Dessert/Fireworks package at the Contemporary on July 3rd. Near the end of our stay, DVC offered a 30 percent d6iscounts at certain resort restaurants - including Olivia's at OKW - which was very nice. I may have had access to some of those perks without buying any points directly, but it was nice not to have to think about it.
In all, I'm glad we purchased the direct points. People may throw shade on the perks, and I know they are not guaranteed forever, but I'm glad I have them and would recommend buying a small number of direct points to my friends and family.
You seem to live fairly local so this makes sense. For me, I only travel every 2 years (3000 miles away, but that's not really the reason, for our main vacation which costs us $15k - 20k we like to do one year on, one year off Florida, we are from UK) so APs are no good, and I don't really buy merchandise. I'd never be there at a Moonlight Magic event. Restaurants giving DVC discount are fairly limited. In fact we normally go end of August and the Orlando Magical Dining event this year which includes numerous Disney restaurants (no coincidence the ones being offered to DVC at 30% off, business is clearly slow at these) seems a better deal than any of these discounts. BTW your resale contract would have got you in TOTWL.