My DVC Journey- Resale then Direct

[fluffybunny88]

Hello Everyone,
I know there are a lot of people considering getting in on DVC and I wanted to share my story just in case it helps someone. I have both a resale and direct contract, and I went opposite the way of what most people suggest. I did resale first.

I also wanted to post in case anyone had any questions on resale vs direct, and what my thoughts are.

Our Family:
I feel that this is important, some family make ups are different and therefor points amounts, home resorts, etc will be affected by your family. Our family is just my wife and I. Yes a husband that is the real DISnerd, I know I'm a rare breed. We are both mid thirties, and we don't plan on having children. We own our own business, but it is online retail so travel prior to thanksgiving(black Friday) is impossible for us, and early December is also a challenge for a long trip. Us not being able to travel over those times affects points and how many we buy.

I also wanted to say we both starting going to disney as adults during covid. We both went as kids, and a couple of 1 day trips as adults prior to covid but we were getting antsy to travel and thought disney would be a safe place to go. We went right as the first of the vaccines were rolling out if that gives you a time frame. We have been 8 times, 4 stays on DVC points(3 on our own contract) and visiting again in 2 weeks.

Resale Vs Direct:
We bought resale first. The main reason we bought resale first was cost. If budget is your main concern then resale is hard to beat, and some of those resale contracts at Saratoga are still an unbelievable deal, which by the way Saratoga is a nice place to stay(I'll come back to that later). We did not thing member perks would be a huge deal to us, but we felt like we were missing out on a few things. First we were missing out on being able to stay at Rivera, and the Disneyland tower. We also like the idea of doing the DVC member cruise in the future as our first ever cruise. For some people those things aren't important, and for those people resale is perfect.

Direct is also a much easier buying process than resale. All of the resale markets say it is an easy process, yes its not difficult, but there is a lot of back and forth, and then the wait. The wait for getting your account activated via resale and points added is brutal. Some people will say its not that bad, but you just spent all that money and you want to book your first stay and dream about future trips etc, I get it. It can be painful.

Direct you talk with your guide, they inform you of all the incentives and options. We bought direct and we made the decision to buy direct points at Riviera while we were onsite this past December. We had been thinking about it but waiting for the right incentives to come along. When I did the math the incentives were about the same as at grand Floridian over the summer which were an amazing deal. Yes we know we lose out if we decide to sell our contract but for my wife and I that is not something that we thought about during the purchasing process.

Our home resorts are Bay lake tower and Riviera

Home Resort thoughts:
The main point for your home resort is buy where you want to stay. I'd say half of our trips are within the 7th month window, usually like 3-4 months out, we are always indecisive and change our minds on what we want to do on each trip, but having the ability to get a stay on the books 11 months out, knowing you will be happy staying there is a good backup plan.

Bay Lake tower: We bought here because we stayed at bay lake tower on a points rental, and for us Magic Kingdom is probably our favorite park, it changes trip by trip which is our favorite but we love magic kingdom. The biggest thing for us is being able to come back after a party, or fireworks, walk to our room and be in our room. No bus, no nothing. That is absolutely amazing. We are also annual passholders so if we decide one night after dinner we want to go to a park for the last couple hours of park being open, the ability to walk to magic kingdom as your bonus park for the day is absolutely amazing for us.

Riviera: We bought here because we love the skyliner, we love primo piatto(we actually go here most trips just because we enjoy it so much) and topolinos terrace is amazing. We have never stayed in a room here but we have toured them and I know some people don't like the resort or the rooms but we love it. We think its beautiful and amazing. We like the location, and honestly our favorite non dvc resort is Caribbean beach so being near there is a huge plus for us as well.

The other reason we have those two resorts is transportation, but I'm going to post those thoughts in a different section.

Transportation:
We live exactly 998 miles from the bay lake tower parking lot. It is a 1.5 day drive for us to get to Disney, and we drive for most of our trips. We like the flexibility of having a car to be able to do a grocery trip offsite, we love driving to the parks and not having to wait on buses, and it just opens up a lot of options and freedom and flexibility.

That said it is also nice to not have to drive, which leans into our home resort choices. Another huge reason we bought Riviera was to have access to the skyliner from our hotel. The way we thought about it is when we are staying at bay lake our stays will be more focused on epcot, and magic kingdom, and Riviera trips we will be more focused on epcot and hollywood studios.

We have stayed at animal kingdom lodge and saratoga and we even did the christmas party from saratoga, which we took the bus. It was not that bad, but absolutely not our prefered way to get around. We took the bus to the party so we didn't have to deal with the monorail or ferry to get to TTC then back to our car.

Saratoga/Animal Kingdom Lodge:
I wanted to mention about these resorts specifically because a lot of people are considering Saratoga as there home resort mainly because of the cost, and how points work out. Animal Kingdom lodge points work out very similar for most time of year, especially if your comparing preferred Saratoga to Savanah view AKL. Personally I look at these as great options on when you want to add a trip, have an extra trip, extend your trip, to save on points with. For example we have an upcoming stay in a 2 bedroom at bay lake tower for some extended family to come, but we are doing a split stay, only a few days there, then a few days at animal kingdom lodge Savanah view. Most of our family will love it because of the animals out the window, which I agree is absolutely amazing, but it is also huge points savings.

Would I be happy staying at these resorts on a more regular basis? Honestly no. The fact that there is no non bus option to a theme park is a deal breaker long term for me. Having a different transportation option is amazing, important for us. We don't spend all day in the parks, we go for a half a day, head back to the resort for chill time, or somewhere to eat for a few hours, then might go back to another park in the evening. Having non bus transportation, or not forcing me to drive is very important to us. I get for some people being walking distance to Disney springs is a huge deal, we aren't big disney springs people, we just never have been. So for those of you that enjoy disney springs, saratoga might be perfect for you.

We enjoy the rooms at saratoga and animal kingdom, and we were very impressed actually with how nice the rooms were at saratoga. It works for us as a backup option, or somewhere to save points.

Is DVC right for you:
This has been a long post but I wanted to summarize our thoughts and maybe get you thinking about things a slightly different way if your considering buying DVC.

Is DVC right for you? Well. For the vast majority of people if you vacation at disney once a year, or even once every 2 years, and stay at moderates or above. Yes, it is, find a way to make it work, it will save you money over rack rates. It will perhaps give you the opportunity to come more, or stay in nicer rooms, or better locations, than if you weren't DVC. If you primarily stay value, and look for deals, and that is your budget, I'm not sure DVC will be cheaper in the long run than that. We have a friend and he would love to buy into DVC but it just isn't in his budget even at some of the cheaper saratoga contract prices. That is OK.

I want to finish this out by saying DVC has given us so many memories in the short term that we have had it. It has enabled us to do some things at the parks that we never thought we would do. We never thought we would go at Halloween and Christmas in the same year, and this past year we did. We never thought we would be able to bring my siblings and mom to disney and all stay in the same room, but we are this spring.

One of our favorite memories that DVC enabled us to do was one day we had a rough day at the parks, I don't even remember which park we were at that day but it was just busy, long lines, lots of people, not the best disney day. We bailed mid afternoon and went back to the resort to get some food and chill for a bit. We decided hey lets go to magic kingdom for the last 2 hours of the park being open(it was open until 11 that night) and that was the most magical 2 hours at disney ever. That was purely because we were staying at bay lake tower, which we would never stay at if we were paying cash.

Please let me know if you have any questions. There is lots of information on this forum, but it can be hard to find it all in one place, and its also hard to know where people are in there journeys.

 

[stevelle]

We also bought resale (AKL) at the beginning of last year, then during our August visit we took a tour of Riviera and that convinced my husband that we should ensure we don’t miss out on anything and two days later we were direct members as well. Definitely buying direct is easier with no waiting but we love AKL and will never regret it as our home resort, though BLT was our back up plan.

 

[wilkydelts]

I recommend to experience the bus only transportation before making a decision. To the vast majority bus only is over blown and most realize it is just fine. Bus only is always spoken with such doom and gloom that when I did several days at Saratoga I went in very concerned and it was never once and issue and it was peak Christmas.

Bus only from Deluxe is not comparable to bus only from Value.

 

[Nikkimouse44]

I recommend to experience the bus only transportation before making a decision. To the vast majority bus only is over blown and most realize it is just fine. Bus only is always spoken with such doom and gloom that when I did several days at Saratoga I went in very concerned and it was never once and issue and it was peak Christmas.

Bus only from Deluxe is not comparable to bus only from Value.

I agree with this. We found the bus from AKL to be frequent and much less crowded than any of the value/moderate resorts. And we have a large double stroller and didn’t have any issues with finding seats or a place for the stroller. We actually find we like buses better than the monorail with our stroller, and found it easier/less of a wait to get on the bus to AKL than the lines for the monorail at the end of the night.

 

[fluffybunny88]

I recommend to experience the bus only transportation before making a decision. To the vast majority bus only is over blown and most realize it is just fine. Bus only is always spoken with such doom and gloom that when I did several days at Saratoga I went in very concerned and it was never once and issue and it was peak Christmas.

Bus only from Deluxe is not comparable to bus only from Value.

I agree with this. We found the bus from AKL to be frequent and much less crowded than any of the value/moderate resorts. And we have a large double stroller and didn’t have any issues with finding seats or a place for the stroller. We actually find we like buses better than the monorail with our stroller, and found it easier/less of a wait to get on the bus to AKL than the lines for the monorail at the end of the night.

I personally don't have a problem with the bus at all. My wife doesn't like the buses. She found what worked best for her was bringing headphones and just listening to her own music and tuning out. I think what bothers her the most is when the buses are full so when people are standing right in front of you if your sitting, and when there are crying kids. I'm not a fan of the crying kids either, but it doesn't bother me like it bothers her, makes her very anxious.

 

[tom1944]

Where you buy is also highly impacted by when you travel and what room type you want.

If you travel at a slow time and request an easy to book room type SAP generally cover that. If you also want to try all the resorts and not go to the same resort more than half the time SAP may make sense.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I recommend to experience the bus only transportation before making a decision. To the vast majority bus only is over blown and most realize it is just fine. Bus only is always spoken with such doom and gloom that when I did several days at Saratoga I went in very concerned and it was never once and issue and it was peak Christmas.

Bus only from Deluxe is not comparable to bus only from Value.

This point is an excellent one. Experience for yourself. I also recommend to folks who are considering the Skyliner to be their primary transportation to experience that, too. For some, including a close member of my family, Skyliner is a definite no-no - not interested in the hanging over the highway, nor the anxiety it causes them when we stop. Just our situation, not everyone's. But experiencing it is better than reading about it. I would also contend that while the monorail is amazing, and an icon of WDW, it's not really that efficient during busier times! So buses, boats, monorail, skyliner - all pros and cons. It's why we've become more fond of just driving ourselves most of the time, but we don't hesitate to use the buses at times (especially on MK days!). Getting around in our own rental is easy, parking is free, and we control who gets a seat during the trip!!

 

[tidefan]

This point is an excellent one. Experience for yourself. I also recommend to folks who are considering the Skyliner to be their primary transportation to experience that, too. For some, including a close member of my family, Skyliner is a definite no-no - not interested in the hanging over the highway, nor the anxiety it causes them when we stop. Just our situation, not everyone's. But experiencing it is better than reading about it. I would also contend that while the monorail is amazing, and an icon of WDW, it's not really that efficient during busier times! So buses, boats, monorail, skyliner - all pros and cons. It's why we've become more fond of just driving ourselves most of the time, but we don't hesitate to use the buses at times (especially on MK days!). Getting around in our own rental is easy, parking is free, and we control who gets a seat during the trip!!

I'll second driving. We drive every trip to WDW, so we may be a bit different situation than many, but having the car just makes it easier to drive yourselves everywhere. It also makes SSR, AKV-Kidani, OKW, BLT, PVB, and VGF1 super convenient as your car is not far from your unit. Having a car is not as convenient at BRV/CCV, RIV, VGF2, AKV-Jambo, BCV, and especially BWV.

 

[kilik64]

I recommend to experience the bus only transportation before making a decision. To the vast majority bus only is over blown and most realize it is just fine. Bus only is always spoken with such doom and gloom that when I did several days at Saratoga I went in very concerned and it was never once and issue and it was peak Christmas.

Bus only from Deluxe is not comparable to bus only from Value.

So much this!

Bus from SSR is not anything like I experienced at AoA. Either coming or going there was never a huge crowd or line like you get at values. Could just be luck, but it was actually really good for us.

 

[davidhr]

I agree with this. We found the bus from AKL to be frequent and much less crowded than any of the value/moderate resorts. And we have a large double stroller and didn’t have any issues with finding seats or a place for the stroller. We actually find we like buses better than the monorail with our stroller, and found it easier/less of a wait to get on the bus to AKL than the lines for the monorail at the end of the night.

And AKL is the first resort mentioned when talking about how "bad" the buses are, I believe because that's the only transportation method, but I've to say they're very efficient with that resort.

I almost never see the other resorts being mentioned when they have worse bus transportation than AKL. I love CCV, but oh boy those buses are a pain when shared with the contemporary/BLT.

 

[PetePanMan]

Good insights and rationale. It is important to buy based on Understanding when you want to go, frequency, accommodation size, transportation plans, etc along with how flexible you are in terms of dates. Also, how much work you are willing to put in to stalk availability.

Although we always have a car, it is very nice to have easy access to parks without driving (like BLT as you say, Poly, BC, Riveria etc.). We often do split stays between MK resort and Epcot resort.

I have often read advice about buying where you want to stay. I do agree with this but with some caveats depending upon your situation. We own Saratoga contracts (and saved significant $) and have stayed in every DVC resort (incl. all non WDW resorts with exception of new Disneyland resort), most more than once. We love the variety and experiencing different themes. Some have been in busy times (e.g. Copper Creek in Dec.). We actually just stayed at SSR for the first time this past Nov after 12 years (and loved it). We tend to be relatively flexible in terms of when we go, type of accommodation etc. and we normally wait list, stalk etc. to adjust. The best thing is we are completely ok with the so called “worse case scenerio” of staying at SSR (the one bedroom was gorgeous and we loved the easy access to Disney Springs)

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

The people who suggested trying different kids of transportation before making a judgment have great advice. I didn’t think I would love skyliner (and I don’t but I’m less anxious on it than I feared) but my kids REALLY love it so we always end up taking it a couple times a trip even though we usually stay at BCV (and I personally prefer the boats).

We always visit Animal Kingdom (and usually a separate trip to Jiko or Sanaa), so even though we own at VGF and BCV, we often end up on a bus and it’s rare that we have to wait that long or have a bad experience. I have never stayed at a value resort and never could understand why people hate buses so much.

Also, I think ALL of the methods of transportation (other than your own car and walking!) can be unpleasant if you pick crowded times. The friendship boats will pack you in like sardines when the parks close and you may be standing for 40+ minutes as you go dock to dock. The skyliner will put you in with strangers if you travel it at peak times, the buses can get crowded and have cranky kids toward the end of the day, etc., but honestly the monorail gets uncomfortably crowded for me more frequently than any other method (and at seemingly random times).

Mostly, I’ve learned I can be happy on all of the options if I don’t try to leave immediately after the park closes, after fireworks, etc.—so I consider myself transportation neutral, with a slight preference for boats because I enjoy them.