Where to buy?

[supercarrie]

What were your travel habits prior to having a child? More specifically, how often were you traveling to WDW?

Personally, I don't expect to hold our contracts until expiration due to changes in travel that will come as our child ages. We will still go to Disney parks but WDW will likely become less frequent which will make our DVC points less useful. I expect the resale restrictions to negatively impact the resale prices of Riv/VDH long term so I would be looking at Poly.

I actually went more more-kid. At least once a year, sometimes more often, so that isn't a concern overall, but it does affect how many points we may buy - we will be a 1 bedroom family with him or when I travel with my mom, but for my solo trips or trips with my husband, a studio works just fine.

We are planning on only buying enough points for a once a year trip to WDW, on average. We will plan on a second, weekish-long trip elsewhere each year (often to the UK as my husband is British) but we also have a long list of other places in the world to see. I definitely don't want to overbuy and rely on renting them out.

 

[Tatebeck]

That said, historically RIV preferred views have had really good availability at 7 months, and we like this view, so I am having a hard time passing up the initial buy in savings at OKW.

I wouldn't bank on 7 month availability long term for multiple reasons. If you like RIV you should buy RIV, not OKW hoping to stay at RIV.

• 7 month availability has been getting tighter and tighter at most resorts, and doesn't seem like it will get any better
• While they are actively selling RIV, they have declared points that haven't been sold yet. That means there may be more rooms available per sold point now than there will be once it sells out (I'm not sure exactly how many rooms out of those that are already declared but not sold they put up for point booking vs cash booking etc though)
• Once RIV sells out, there will be more people looking to buy/sell on the resale market for RIV. And any of those who buy the resale contracts will have to use their points ONLY at RIV because of the resale restrictions. The longer this goes on, the more points will be locked into booking only at RIV and availability will get even worse.
• A fire sale on less desirable points (like the OKW you are talking about) will have many people trying to use those cheap direct points at other resorts like RIV, again lowering availability. You won't be the only one trying to turn OKW points into RIV stays.
• And then the unknown with what Disney has planned for the future and the possible trust, etc.

 

[lowlight]

I wouldn't bank on 7 month availability long term for multiple reasons. If you like RIV you should buy RIV, not OKW hoping to stay at RIV.

• 7 month availability has been getting tighter and tighter at most resorts, and doesn't seem like it will get any better
• While they are actively selling RIV, they have declared points that haven't been sold yet. That means there may be more rooms available per sold point now than there will be once it sells out (I'm not sure exactly how many rooms out of those that are already declared but not sold they put up for point booking vs cash booking etc though)
• Once RIV sells out, there will be more people looking to buy/sell on the resale market for RIV. And any of those who buy the resale contracts will have to use their points ONLY at RIV because of the resale restrictions. The longer this goes on, the more points will be locked into booking only at RIV and availability will get even worse.
• A fire sale on less desirable points (like the OKW you are talking about) will have many people trying to use those cheap direct points at other resorts like RIV, again lowering availability. You won't be the only one trying to turn OKW points into RIV stays.
• And then the unknown with what Disney has planned for the future and the possible trust, etc.

Yes, buy where you want to stay is the best piece of advice you will find on these boards. What’s easy to get at 7 months today, may not be next year or ever again.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Plus, there is the potential 2042 meltdown at OKW.

 

[CarolynFH]

I would only buy direct if the points were unrestricted

I’m confused. All direct points are unrestricted.

 

[Jimmy Geppetto]

I’m confused. All direct points are unrestricted.

I believe they are referring to direct points that don't become restricted when sold.

 

[supercarrie]

OKW

Why? Curious the argument (besides current cheap cost per point). I haven’t stayed there and only visited briefly.

 

[supercarrie]

Plus, there is the potential 2042 meltdown at OKW.

Are you referring to what happens with those who decided not to extend and didn’t sign the quit claims? (If I have the terminology correct.)

 

[MerlinandtheMouse]

I believe they are referring to direct points that don't become restricted when sold.

I know we all say this, and I don’t mean to split hairs but all (post-2019) resale contracts are restricted in some fashion. Of course, the 14 original resorts are very much dominant and preferred but in the next 10 years I imagine more resorts will be added to the ‘direct-points only’ club tipping that balance.

If DVD held steadfast and put the same resale restrictions on the Poly tower as RIV, VDH and CFW, I think we would have had to start reevaluating the definition of restricted resorts. We’ll have to wait a bit longer now to see what comes next from DVD in this regard, but I do think once we get to a place where there’s 5 or 6 “restricted” resorts people will weigh resale v. direct a bit different. Which I guess was DVC’s goal with adding the resale restrictions to begin with.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Are you referring to what happens with those who decided not to extend and didn’t sign the quit claims? (If I have the terminology correct.)

Yes. Because the land lease has some specific rules that Disney ignored in the extension.

 

[supercarrie]

I have to admit, based on all the excitement about Poly and the negativity around resale restrictions, I'm surprised Riviera is doing so well in the poll.

One other plus is that we'd likely want Riviera standard view (I like the idea of seeing fireworks) and I'm scared to think about the Poly point chart for 1 bedrooms. The studios are already the highest on property. Perhaps I'll be content to just visit Poly for dinner/drinks as a monorail crawl from my serenity of BLT.

I'm leaning towards going Riviera for this set of points. Is there any reason to purchase it now versus waiting until closer to the summer incentives, when I can compare both sets of incentives? We would need a Feb use year to match our BLT contract and would sell back 2024 points for MB, anyway.

 

[Tatebeck]

No, it would actually benefit you to wait. You'll pay 2024 dues based on how much of the year is left. If you buy now you'd have to pay around 75% of the yearly dues this year, If you wait 3 months you'd pay around 50% of the yearly dues this year

 

[intamin]

I have to admit, based on all the excitement about Poly and the negativity around resale restrictions, I'm surprised Riviera is doing so well in the poll.

One other plus is that we'd likely want Riviera standard view (I like the idea of seeing fireworks) and I'm scared to think about the Poly point chart for 1 bedrooms. The studios are already the highest on property. Perhaps I'll be content to just visit Poly for dinner/drinks as a monorail crawl from my serenity of BLT.

I'm leaning towards going Riviera for this set of points. Is there any reason to purchase it now versus waiting until closer to the summer incentives, when I can compare both sets of incentives? We would need a Feb use year to match our BLT contract and would sell back 2024 points for MB, anyway.

Like @Tatebeck said, you might as well wait until the end of the incentives and lock it in within the last 10 days. The RIV incentives this round are pretty good so I'd be surprised if they're better next round but you might as well see what the next round of incentives shows as well. It'll also allow you to save on 3 months of dues since you're planning to sell the points back anyways.

I like RIV for you just because you already own a MK resort. There's no guarantee another Epcot area resort will on sale again soon.

 

[PetePanMan]

Yes, buy where you want to stay is the best piece of advice you will find on these boards. What’s easy to get at 7 months today, may not be next year or ever again.

I certainly understand and appreciate this advice and for some, depending on their travel needs (size of room, degree of flexibility with dates etc.) and preferences (location, view etc.), this may be super important.

However, although we understand that we have no guarantees in future, we have now stayed at every single DVC resort (except new Disneyland DvC) and many multiple times over the last 10 years (and often in very sought after rooms like VWL at Christmas time). We normally book at 7 months and travel in November, December, and April with anywhere from 2 to 6 people. We actually don’t like staying at the same resort each trip and we love split stays. We have had great success over the years but would say that it takes more work sometimes (stalking availability) depending on resort, room size, time of year etc. We have only stayed at our home resort (SSR) twice and we actually really love the updated rooms, proximity to DS. If Our “worst” case scenario is SSR, we are totally ok with this.

 

[BuzzLightyr]

I'd go bigger than 150. Go 300 OKW to get the incentives. You'll get your blue card for TOTW. 300 OKW would cost you roughly 200 direct points elsewhere.

As resale points get more restricted the value of direct points go up in the rental market.

More points allow you to stay in larger rooms (2bd with grandparents) and buying in at a lower price per point reduces the cost for more space.

Riv outside of peak holiday periods should continue to be bookable 7 months out until it sells out. If you like Riv, keep an eye out for resale, there are cheap points that only work at Riv.

I'd focus on cost per point to acquire and rent out the points you don't need.

 

[supercarrie]

I'd go bigger than 150. Go 300 OKW to get the incentives. You'll get your blue card for TOTW. 300 OKW would cost you roughly 200 direct points elsewhere.

As resale points get more restricted the value of direct points go up in the rental market.

More points allow you to stay in larger rooms (2bd with grandparents) and buying in at a lower price per point reduces the cost for more space.

Riv outside of peak holiday periods should continue to be bookable 7 months out until it sells out. If you like Riv, keep an eye out for resale, there are cheap points that only work at Riv.

I'd focus on cost per point to acquire and rent out the points you don't need.

This is an interesting idea. Not sure I can convince my husband due to the higher maintenance fees, but obviously renting them for now is an easy way to cover for that.

However, when you say Riv is easy “until it sells out” - that is a concern for me. Not sure I would want to buy RIV resale and be stuck only staying there, but equally would like the option to book there without it being hugely challenging. (Hard to say for certain where this will shake out, but if it ends up being like a BWV or CCV, I’d be ok, but if it turns out like a BCV, it would be disappointing to be shut out.)

The prospect of being “stuck” at OKW isn’t appealing. Fortunately we have very flexible schedules (even with a child) so I suppose that is minimal risk. I haven’t spent much time at OKW so perhaps I would love it, anyway.

All good points to consider.

 

[AwfulWaffle]

Go 300 OKW to get the incentives

We honestly thought real hard about this and splitting it into 3 contracts, 150 - 75 -75, and the just selling off the smaller 75 ext contracts via resale. Take a small hit but get direct sap cheaper and annual passes. Hoping Poly 2 goes on presale before this ends so we can see what those incentives are because that’s where we really want to own. But this deal is really good imo even with slightly higher dues.

 

[Sandisw]

I certainly understand and appreciate this advice and for some, depending on their travel needs (size of room, degree of flexibility with dates etc.) and preferences (location, view etc.), this may be super important.

However, although we understand that we have no guarantees in future, we have now stayed at every single DVC resort (except new Disneyland DvC) and many multiple times over the last 10 years (and often in very sought after rooms like VWL at Christmas time). We normally book at 7 months and travel in November, December, and April with anywhere from 2 to 6 people. We actually don’t like staying at the same resort each trip and we love split stays. We have had great success over the years but would say that it takes more work sometimes (stalking availability) depending on resort, room size, time of year etc. We have only stayed at our home resort (SSR) twice and we actually really love the updated rooms, proximity to DS. If Our “worst” case scenario is SSR, we are totally ok with this.

I think this is why the decision is very individual and whether one is okay with the risks associated with it, as well as putting in work to potentially secure anything other than home resort.

I certainly have had luck over the years changing and plenty of times I could not. But, we owned resorts we wanted so it didn’t matter.

Of course, now we are settled in to RIv and VGF being the top choices for each trip and then SSR if we are short on points.

Buying a resort, like you did, to at you would be happy at if you can’t trade is really the premise behind it all.

 

[bakerworld]

If I'd've been smart $-wise we would've bought BC in '08 rather than go with the more costly incentivized purchase at Kidani. We do enjoy AK and stayed there many times but our preferred location is the back entrance of Epcot. For about 4 years we were able to transfer into BC with our Kidani points but then the economy recovered and we had to buy. Basically what we spent on 85 points at BC 5 years later equaled our '08 160 points at Kidani. If we just purchased at BC to begin with in '08 at $85/point we'd saved money. LOL

So I voted for Poly. You like it so buy there.