VGC question

JoannaK

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jul 14, 2012
I am researching DVC perhaps for purchase in about a year. As west coasters, VGC make the most sense but of course are one of the hardest to find. I would like to buy resale but there aren't many of them and they don't seem that much lower than direct. Is there a wait list for resorts that are sold out? Or do you just wait to see if you can find something. We would like to use points at Disneyland, Aulani and Disney World so I feel like VGC is likely the best choice.
Thanks,
Joanna
 
DVC stopped waitlisting several, or maybe all resorts. VGC was one that they stopped waitlisting for a long time ago and it's difficult to buy direct. Resale is by far the easiest way to purchase unless you happened to catch them at a time where they had gotten some points back thru foreclosure or ROFR.

For VGC - are you going to book 11 months out? Or at least further than 7 months out? I know some locals just want to head to DL more on spur of the moment and if that were the case it makes no sense to pay the premium cost for VGC. If you would book during the home priority period how would your usage be spread out between VGC, Aulani and WDW? It might make sense to purchase some VGC points and the rest at a less expensive WDW resort to use there and Aulani.
 
Get on the email lists for all the resale brokers so that you will be notified as soon as they have contracts for sale. Many contracts are sold before they are displayed to the public. Also, you can call the brokers and tell them what you're interested in. Folks have reported getting contracts even before the email listings go out.
 
I am researching DVC perhaps for purchase in about a year. As west coasters, VGC make the most sense but of course are one of the hardest to find. I would like to buy resale but there aren't many of them and they don't seem that much lower than direct. Is there a wait list for resorts that are sold out? Or do you just wait to see if you can find something. We would like to use points at Disneyland, Aulani and Disney World so I feel like VGC is likely the best choice.
Thanks,
Joanna

For VGC - are you going to book 11 months out? Or at least further than 7 months out? I know some locals just want to head to DL more on spur of the moment and if that were the case it makes no sense to pay the premium cost for VGC. If you would book during the home priority period how would your usage be spread out between VGC, Aulani and WDW? It might make sense to purchase some VGC points and the rest at a less expensive WDW resort to use there and Aulani.
As a DL local -- I'm agreeing with KAT4DISNEY's comment, bolded, above. It made little sense for us to add on at VGC, as lovely as it is, as we would never book it outside a few months notice. As such, if we aren't taking advantage of the Home Resort booking window ... why own there? For us, 'generic' DVC points at the most cost effective location was our best choice.

We use our SSR points, purchased in 2004, as "network" points booking Grand Cal, Aulani, Vero and WDW locations inside the 7 month window.
 


Thank you everyone. I agree on the California resident and Disneyland trips. Except for run weekends we don't plan that far in advance. One challenge of purchasing a DW resort is that I have never been there. The "buy where you want to stay" is a little hard that way. I could just plan for most economic and go with SSR which probably makes the most sense.
Is the reason Aulani doesn't make sense the maintenance fees?
Is there any problems booking Aulani at 7 months? Our most likely travel month at this stage in life is June.
Also, when you are booking do the points have to be already available or if they are coming before your vacation date you are good?
Our next Disney vacation will be in June 2019 so I want to think through when we would want to purchase.
 
I would not buy VGC unless you can plan more than 7 months out much of the time. You might look for a subsidized Aulani contract or if you decide on WDW, I'd either buy SSR in this situation or rent 1-2 trips and do some exploring with the intent of gather enough info. For HI there are better options than DVC IMO. While Aulani is a fine resort, there are a lot of fine resorts there and it's on Oahu where many tend to go a time or 2 then want to venture out. Since you're investigating you might look at other timeshares that will give you more HI options if that's a major portion of your planning. Marriott, Hilton and Westin come to mind.
 
June is probably the most popular month for Aulani. Home resort priority is important for booking there at that time.
 


June is probably the most popular month for Aulani. Home resort priority is important for booking there at that time.
June is not the most popular for HI in general, early June is fairly low compared to the middle of the summer, Feb/March and Xmas/NY.
 
I'd not buy VGC unless you plan on taking advantage of the home resort booking window. The points are at the more expensive end, the DVC part of the resort is tiny and it can be very difficult to find rooms at 7 months or less. For example, between now and the end of the year there's a total of five days available in a 1 BR, 3 in a studio and 10 in 2 BR (lock off and dedicated combined).
 
In addition to the points mentioned here, you will soon find that you feel bad using your very expensive VGC points to book WDW resorts at the 7 month window. We own at BLT and every time I use those points for a trip within the 7 month window I cringe a little bit. I mean, why pay a premium for the 11 month window at BLT if you're not going to use it? So I bought a resale contract at SSR, problem solved. :)
 
As a west coaster, we didn't buy into VGF on the tour in Oct 2014 because we thought VGC is what we really needed. At that time there was a waiting list you could get on for $165 pp I believe. The next year we ended up buying Aulani resale after some research and have been able to use those points to book VGC 1 and 2 beds at 7 mos exactly,Poly studios, and 1 & 2 at 7mos exact for pretty much everywhere else. We just added a sizeable VGF contract because Aulani uses points like water (as well as 2 beds or anywhere plus we go in October to food fest which is the new peak) BUT BUT BUT- the last two trips I have noticed that Poly is now not so much an option at 7 mos. I'm currently looking for Feb 2018 and can see that a studio is pretty much out for full avail at the 1st choice resorts across the board including VGC. I prefer a 1 bedroom but was hoping to conserve points for a family reunion we are planning later.

Couple of things- more and more people are renting and Poly is no longer brand new. The buy where you want to stay, especially in fall through the New Year, is critical. You will never stay at VGC or Aulani over XMas/NYE without 11 mo to the dsay/week advantage. I found a VGC owner to trade me 2018 for that time frame thankfully but we've been doing Aulani at Xmas and its awesome. We will have the VGF home resort to be able to book Xmas and F&W at WDW when we want. Aulani is also getting harder and harder to book period except Oceanview and larger rooms which are point intensive.

So, if you want studios at VGC, buy there. Youre not really saving much money resale on that one so get it as you can. If you want to go at the holidays, buy there. If you are ok with spending the points on a 1 or 2 bed, you shoud be ok for other time periods on the DAY 7 mos out. You may need to walk a little. For the price difference of an Aulani resale, it could be worth it. We adore Aulani and do not regret our choice at all!

Buying the cheapest points could back fire and hard if the trends continue. If you buy SSR be prepared to stay there. I have and we loved it but wouldn't choose to use our more expensive points there if we didnt have to. However, it must be up for a refresh soon and then I can see staying there on purpose. Its proximity to DS and golf is great! I wish I could bring myself to buy BCV but I just cant do it because losing 20 years on the contract I cant get past (we're still in our 30s and our kids are young so I'd like a little more time for them to use it with their families one day). Personally, if i was going for value and options, I'd get a larger contract that goes for the cheapest price and use those points to leverage at 7 mos. 400- 500 SSR points can actually get your a week at VGC at 7 mos where 200 wont. You see what I mean? I would love to own VGC but I dont want to pay $150 pp for resale.

Everyone here has their own strategies and rationale that works for them. 100 people will come behind me and say- dont buy a large contract! But we have two, have no intention to sell them, bought them from a cracking deal and so if we did have to sell them for a low price, we're still not losing. Haven't regretted at all, yet! We get our choice of 1 beds for sure and many 2 beds no problem at 7 mos becuase we dont worry about the points (except BCV F & W/ VGF or VGC Xmas).

GL!! Either way, you'll love it!
 
Thank you everyone for the insight. We are a long time from purchasing so I gives me a lot to think about. I have just been hit this year how quickly my kids are growing up and am feeling a desire to make great memories before they move on to the next stage of life. Our Aulani vacation was probably our favorite vacation ever and I am looking forward to finding ways to make future trips just as good.
 
Thank you everyone for the insight. We are a long time from purchasing so I gives me a lot to think about. I have just been hit this year how quickly my kids are growing up and am feeling a desire to make great memories before they move on to the next stage of life. Our Aulani vacation was probably our favorite vacation ever and I am looking forward to finding ways to make future trips just as good.
That is exactly the emotion that DVC tries to capitalize on when trying to sell their product. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just a fact. Emotion is ok, we're all human after all. But it's been my experience that it's best to try to blend emotion with math, logic, and economics in order to make a decision that will not only work out well, but that I won't regret. Good luck with the process. :)
 
Exactly my thoughts which is why we are giving it a year before making any decisions. We don't want to make a large financial commitment while still in a happy fog from vacation. We do know we love Disney. Disneyland is my happy place and I generally have an annual pass.
 
We live in California in the Bay Area, and we own VGC and BLT. We are able to plan pretty far in advance, so in our case I think VGC is a must. The thing to consider about WDW is that there are so many resorts there, if you book at 7 months you usually don't get completely shut out there (though you may not get your favorite resort). At DLR, VGC is the only DVC resort, so there is no alternative there other than paying for a hotel.

If you can't plan in the home resort window, then SSR is really your only choice. There is literally no reason to buy anywhere else if you cannot use the 7-11 month window. In fact, if you can't plan 7 months ahead, you might want to avoid buying DVC altogether to be honest. If you are consistently booking out 3 months in advance, it may get difficult to get what you want.

I think that VGC has one of the most valuable Home Resort advantages of any DVC. The reason is that VGC is a small, very high demand resort. However, it's usually relatively easy to book there until even 7 months + 1 day except for special events. It's only after the 7 month window hits where it becomes difficult. On the other hand, at places like VGF, the studios sometimes fill up right at 11 months (usually December), so if you're not on top of it, even Home Resort advantage may not help.

Regarding waitlisting, I don't know about VGC specifically, however I have a friend who waitlisted for 25 points from Disney at BLT in March, and they got their points in a week or two. However, they had to call their guide to ask if the points were available, so if you do waitlist, I would make sure to check in with the guide every so often.
 

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