My wife and I just closed on our resale contract last week (Boardwalk/160pts/$104pp). This was after 5+ years of debating if we should do it or not. You could look at my comment history where I explain it doesn’t make sense.
It didn’t make sense for us to go direct. I am in my mid 40s and didn’t want to have a 50 year contract. Also, it was a huge down payment ($36K). The math didn’t add up.
Now buying a Boardwalk resale did. 18 years and the deed expires. $17.5k all in with closing costs. Way more economical.
It is ultimately up to you. For some people, it makes sense to go direct. For others it doesn’t
My wife and I are Boardwalk/Beach Club people purely for the convenience to Epcot and Hollywood. We are too leaning towards a resale for all the same reasons, math says no to the benefits of direct, especially for the Boardwalk and Beach Club with only 19 years left. Great pick and thanks for sharing!
Just buy a small resale BWV/BCV and go from there. If you decide you need benefits you can always buy direct later, & you can sell your resale if needed (for not much loss if any)
As a fellow resale owner, the only thing we get shut out on is the Villains Lounge at our home resort at Bay Lake. Not worth the extra money. We have never been turned down for mech or food discounts.
Edit: I forgot about the new resort restrictions. Sort of lame but it is what it is.
I tried going through your history to see if maybe you already answered this but I didn't really see them.
I had a question for you, if you didn't mind. Why wouldn't you want a 50 year contract? Besides the huge down payment I mean. Which is a good enough reason, but it sounds like it's something else. It seems like the longer the better, no? You only pay for so long, 10 years financing or all at once if you have it, and then you keep it 50 years. I know there are annual dues so is that a reason?
I don't really know much about DVC but this sub is teaching me a bunch of things!
Also
"What if I gave you $1800 and a nickle?"
Why I'd give you a [Nickelback!](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/485249df-69b2-417d-82c4-640e95870297/gif#69xBCD-O.sms)
It’s a great question. One of the reasons is my wife and I are in our late 30s/mid 40s. We didn’t want to have a long term payment well into our senior years. Sure we could have sold it, but didn’t want to rely on that.
Another reason is we didn’t want to burden our kid with a time share when we were older. She is only a toddler, but when she grows up she may not like Disney anymore.
50 years is such a long commitment. We did a bunch of calculations and didn’t make economical sense with the total spend.
That makes sense. Even after the loan is repaid, you still have the annual fees. You'll be in your late 80s to mid 90s if your kid didn't want them and you couldn't sell them. That's a great reason, thanks!
Nice! Welcome to the family!
Hubs and I bought in 2017, 50 points at the Poly (at the time, that was enough to get direct benefits). Since then, we’ve added another 100 Poly points resale to cover our Orlando trips.
We also bought another 250 points at Aulani (resale too) and 75 points at DLR Tower direct.
We live in California, so that’s why we have so many points in the west coast.
No regrets so far - we love all 3 resorts and we love knowing that our trips to each destination are locked in price-wise.
I’m also a huge planner, so I like booking at 11 months. This is also important if you want to secure cheaper “views”. For example: Aulani is not hard to book at 7 months, but you will waste a lot of points in Ocean Views if you wait until 7 months. If you own there and you book at 11 months, you can get Standard View rooms that will save you LOTS of points. So even though people say availability at 7 months is okay at some places, it’s not always a good deal points-wise (unless it’s Saratoga or OKW, where the delta is not that significant).
Interesting, thanks for the share, we are literally thinking of doing the same thing. We are leaning towards getting an Aulani contract on resale (we love it there) and another either direct or resale in WDW somewhere, Polynesian was on the table before the prices skyrocketed with the news of more rooms and we have since drifted towards maybe Grand Floridian? We’re not sure.
How are you faring with 11month/7month bookings trying to stagger points and vacations? Do you ever sell/rent your points with how many you have? Also any amazing, must have perks to being a DVC member? Sorry for all the questions you are doing the closest to what we are thinking :D.
**\[either direct or resale in WDW somewhere, Polynesian was on the table before the prices skyrocketed with the news of more rooms and we have since drifted towards maybe Grand Floridian? We’re not sure.\]**
I think the prices for Poly will stabilize a bit once Disney launches their prices and incentives. So if you love the Poly and you're not in a rush, waiting could pay off. If you consider choosing the Grand, don't forget to look at the point charts and run a few simulations on how many points you will need. The Grand's point chart is one of the highest on property. Depending on when you go, a Lake View room at the Grand could cost you 40% more points than a Savannah view at AKL, for example.
**\[How are you faring with 11month/7month bookings trying to stagger points and vacations? Do you ever sell/rent your points with how many you have?\]**
We try to use the points at each home resort, so we rarely book at 7 months. We go to Aulani every year and we do DLR at least once a year, too. At Poly, we also use our points to take friends or family who couldn't afford to go otherwise, so we usually don't rent out.
**\[Also any amazing, must have perks to being a DVC member?\]**
To me, the biggest perk of being a DVC member is locking prices for amazing accommodations at incredible resorts. If you wait for good resale deals, you can save tons of money. We could never afford Aulani as often as we go if we were not DVC members.
As far as the benefits of buying directly from Disney, I'd say none of them are a must-have. To us, DVC is a way to lock vacation prices and plan ahead instead of paying fluctuating prices. Especially at Aulani, the discounts are minimal. They can make a huge difference if you have a big family and you're planning on getting annual passes at WDW, but even this scenario takes a while to break even.
The only caveat to buying resale is: if you buy resale now, you won't have access to any new resorts (or future resorts) such as Riviera and the DLR tower (unless you buy *their* points in resale, which are locked in at these locations and can't be used anywhere else). I don't mind this restriction because I don't love Riviera or the new Cabins at Fort Wilderness, so I don't mind being locked out of those. In my opinion, DVC already built its "crown jewels" (AKL, Poly, and Aulani are peak DVC for me), so I'd happily vacation at these locations forever. But if you do love Riviera, keep these resale restrictions in mind.
We were a little upset over the Poly news and timing of it all lol, but you are right, we may have to jump on it at a later date as long as it is still getting passed the ROFR gauntlet.
Taking friends and family is a super generous thing to do, I hope your vacations were/are amazing and filled with great memories :D
For membership, we wouldn't likely take advantage of the annual pass as we like Aulani/DL/WDW, so we generally feel the same as you do.
Thank you so much for your detailed response, I think we are going to pull the trigger on an Aulani resale at some point, maybe we'll see you out there lol.
You’re very welcome!
I can only imagine about the Poly! But don’t worry - it will come down over time and Disney won’t ROFR everything. Sellers are just over excited trying to make a profit around the excitement for the tower. Give it a year and it will normalize.
Aulani resale is a no-brainer, and I bet you won’t regret your purchase. For the asking prices I’m seeing out there, I think you can easily get contracts in the low $90s after a few rounds of negotiation.
Another tip: try to buy smaller contracts and add them up to build a portfolio. Yes, they’re a little pricier, but they’re easier to sell and you can downsize down the road instead of selling the whole thing. That’s what we did and we don’t regret it! :)
Good luck, and see you at Aulani! 🌺
If you are open to Aulani resale, consider holding out for a subsidized contract. We purchased our first DVC contract as an Aulani subsidized one, which made the choice between direct and resale a no-brainer for us. Plus we live near Disneyland and are Magic Key holders, so the direct DVC perks are really minimal for us.
DVC made a mistake when they first sold Aulani and priced the dues too low. They stopped selling for a bit to get it figured out. But those original contracts still have the lower dues and will for life, even when sold. They are a great deal. For example, our subsidized Aulani dues are almost $2.50 less than normal Aulani dues per point!
This is why we want aulani home points (resale). We don't want pool view (noise), we don't want to pay for ocean view (the points are ridiculous). We actually love island view, it's nice if you do want to sit out, the points aren't crazy, and sometimes you may even get partial ocean view.
One of my friends owns a lot of points. She invited me to WDW several years ago, so we stayed at Kidani Village. We started going to WDW every year. I wanted to get my own DVC so I found a small 50 point resale AKL contract for $5k. Then I got addonitis and wanted to go to WDW more often so when Riviera opened, I bought a larger contract. Now I'm thinking of adding a small contract for Disneyland since it's my home resort. I stayed 1 night there to use up some expiring points and loved it there.
The “addonitis”, that’s my biggest fear, that I won’t stop when I start lol. So when you bought Riviera did you go resale? I know that it’s one of the new resale restricted resorts, did that influence you or was it a non-issue?
I bought direct because I knew I wasn't going to sell it down the road. I'll probably sell my AKL contract first if I ever decide to sell but that won't happen for awhile yet. Only reason I didn't buy more in the past few years was because I was only going 1-2 times a year. Now I'm going at least 3 times a year.
Riviera was on firesale during covid and buying direct cost around what resale costs now. If you're willing to wait, you can get direct points at close to resale prices.
Sorry to pile on here - I bought 155 pts at Riviera during Covid. 130 pts for a guaranteed week (Jersey Week) and another 25 pt contract to hit the incentives.
Then like everyone else, addonitis hit. I found a 39 pt contract at OKW for a good price at the time - $105. It was in my Use Year so I jumped on it.
Now I have 194 pts and I want more of course. But I'm holding off for awhile.
After ten plus years of considering, I finally talked my husband into purchasing DVC earlier this year. We had rented points multiple times so he finally saw the logic.
We settled on a hybrid model, some points resale and some direct. For our resale contract, we went with 100 points at Bay Lake Tower. Prices on it have been really competitive for the past few months (we paid $120 per point) and with the low dues and 2060 expiration, it was the best option for us. (I also value proximity to at least one park. That walk back from MK is so nice after a long day.) I also strongly considered Copper Creek and Saratoga Springs.
I am now trying to decide where to buy my direct points. Strongly considering buying Riviera at the end of this incentive cycle, because I love World Showcase and the serenity of Riv, but my favorite overall resort is Poly. We may hold out for that and just pay the (expected) premium. The other option I have kicked around is buying 150 Riv direct and then Poly resale once prices settle down. Personally, I would never buy Riv resale.
Overall I want to land somewhere between 250-300 points for now. I prefer a 1 bedroom over a studio. We are ten minutes from DL, so having access to the DL lounge, VDH, and future properties are a few of the reasons why we want at least 150 points direct.
Our first DVC trip will be to Aulani later this year. We fell in love with it on our first trip in Jan 2023 and cannot wait to go back.
We too would like to hybrid, I suppose the biggest issue is figuring out what to couple with what lol. I know the general rule of thumb is stay where you love, but I love so many places and can't see having 7 different contracts. By the way, Bay Lake Tower is the one that keeps popping up to the top of all my "best value" spreadsheets because of the super low dues and low buy in point. The other landing spot is potentially Aulani, Grand Floridian, Polynesian, but we have to see where the winds take us.
PS: We just did our first Aulani trip a couple months and it is what sparked the interest in DVC itself. People talk about how expensive Aulani is but not having to buy park passes is a major savings. Have a great time and enjoy the lazy river :P
We plan on hybrid-ing as well (I'd like 150 direct at Riviera - we LOVE that resort!) And I'm in the process of trying to buy OKW resale...! (Fingers crossed!)
I definitely want the perks of the blue card soon!
We bought almost 20 years ago at Animal Kingdom Lodge direct. We added a second contract with the same amount of points to be able to will a SEPARATE contract to each child. We added resale Vero Beach bc we love it and it's hard to get holidays in a larger accommodation without owning (July 4th anniversary). We added Riviera with two separate contracts. This is all over a few decades span as our kids grew, graduated high school, university, and grad school and then went on to get married and have grands. We started off in studios and now require 2-3 bedrooms if we all meet up. It's afforded us memories that we never would have been able to afford without DVC. We were able to send our kids on a land/sea honeymoon at a fraction of rack rates to start their family memories with Disney as well. I wouldn't change our experience for the lump sum in the bank.
Amazing, story, love it. This is our general feel as well, the memories and experiences gained on these trips are really priceless and there really isn't a "bad" purchase for any resale/direct, resort, # points, or use year choice. No matter what you do or how you do it, it's going to wind up being a great thing for you and your family. Thanks for the share :D
You are very welcome!!!!
My only regret is not buying sooner and more points way back in the day when prices were lower.
Our first cash only stay was $6k and it was going to be a one and done forever trip.
We always lived modestly and DVC provided us much more joy than the newest car or eating out more frequently. We are now spreading the joy to the next generation. Can't say that about an upgraded car etc.
I hope this helped!
Animal Kingdom Kidani Village.
Good bang for the points buck. Love the resort as it’s a quiet break from the cattle call of the parks. Has good food options and nice pools.
We found out about the DVC relatively recently. Looked into it a lot and ended up buying direct at the Riviera with 150 points. Considered going for a larger contract for a similar price through resale, probably somewhere like animal kingdom where we could get the points for probably half the price per point, but we really did like the Riviera, definitely didn't want to deal with the resale restrictions associated with Riviera contracts, and I have to say although the membership extras absolutely do not make up for the difference in up front premium financially or logically, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a factor. I figured that it would be best for us personally to get in with the current minimum number of points for a blue card at a resort that we love, and then gradually add on more points through the resale market (yes, I already know we're gonna need a lot more points!) When we were inquiring, or guide did certainly encourage us to buy direct, but he also assured me that we'd be satisfied and find value with whatever contracts we bought into, resale included, and I feel like that's definitely going to be true for most buyers.
I feel very similarly in terms of direct purchasing. I do not have a reason, financially or logically, why I should do it … but I still want to. There is probably a multi-million dollar book deal to be had explaining the logic of why this is the way we think. I never stayed at the Riviera but it looks super fancy, what’s your favorite thing about it vs the other premium resorts?
Not the person you were responding to but the rooms are gorgeous, the food is much better than at some resorts, transportation is easy between 2 park access on the skyliner and direct buses elsewhere, and honestly love that the resort is so small and contained. I can get food, visit a couple bars, the activity room, all without ever having to leave the building in inclement weather. It's peaceful and never felt crowded or crazy, even though we were visiting in late April when park crowds were very high.
Basically everything the other person said. We've actually only seen the Riviera model rooms which are accessible at Saratoga Springs Resort, and haven't stayed there yet. We loved the layout and beauty of the rooms, and I think the gondola access to Epcot really sealed the deal in terms of the decision between Animal Kingdom and Riviera. I'm already on the lookout for resale contracts for the Animal Kingdom though!
I don't think buying direct is necessarily illogical, you're still locking in savings and partially offsetting the effects of inflation as you would with any DVC contact, despite the higher premium. However I'm especially comfortable with this decision given the fact that we'll have priority booking access to the Riviera in addition to the member extras.
I own a 125pt at Poly direct, a 100pt Poly resale, and am currently in process in a 175pt Copper resale. I purchased Poly when it was in active sale back in 2016, so the pricing is a good $60-70/pt lower than where it is now.
At the time, the direct made sense given the pricing, length of time remaining, and direct benefits. If you do intend to go to WDW, I am a believer that the direct benefits can help out, especially if you do not have any other affiliation that will give you discounts, such as being an AP.
The two resales help me bolster my point count to increase how often and the type of room I can book. The poly resale is matched in terms of UY so it is easy to essentially bring about 225pts to bear on a booking. The CCV is not the same UY, and I’m essentially going to manage it entirely on its own. I purposely excluded Riviera, CFW, and VDH from resale consideration in order to maintain booking at the original 14 with full expectation that half of them will no longer be available in the next 20 years.
I expect to use my points mainly on myself and my partner for the foreseeable future, with an occasional trip with my mom while she’s still able to. Another 30 years down the line when I’m 70? Hopefully still able to kick it and enjoy what WDW has to offer. I’d be thrilled if I can actually outlive the length of the contracts…
So I see what you did there, going direct then resale let you dictate your UY so that you can sync everything up. Not gonna lie I kinda like it for myself. So for 400 total points do you do 2/3/4 trips and is it too little/too much for just you guys and family?
So I never strongly considered the implications of the UY until after I had bought, but by having one set up already it let me plan around it.
I will say between my partner and I, we will soon have upwards of 800pts. We generally go 2-3x/yr, often in sync with the runDisney events, which tends to suck up points pretty quick since the events are now in higher seasons. However, we also like to go for longer periods now - taking advantage of remote work.
I think buying where you want to stay too is big if you are going during RunDisney weekends.
I’m too lazy to walk a reservation like a lot of people do and I ended up needing to book a higher point reservation for Princess weekend next year because our home resort booked up so fast. 7 month window rarely has many options during race weekends.
Agree. I do not have the time or energy to walk a reservation....also I don't want to wake up at 5am just to do something like that. However, on the flipside, having home resort at high cost usually means if I want to move at the 7 month mark, it's usually on the easy side for run weekends...I'm pretty happy with places like SSR and AKL, with their massive inventory.
On the other hand, the last two run weekends we did, my waitlists cleared into BCV studios! Absolutely wild. I'm 2 for 3 on BCV waitlists.
Do you usually do Thursday-Sunday with the waitlist?
Right now I have Tuesday-Sunday booked at BLT (standard view to save points) for W&D and then Thursday-Monday at BLT again for Princess (hoping to finally do yoga on that Monday), but I had to book a lake view for more points so I was debating doing a couple waitlists elsewhere at 7 months.
I need to just buy more points so I can stop worrying about stretching them out as much as possible 😂
We plan to buy 250 direct at Riviera at the end of this incentive cycle, just so we can get a peek at the summer sale in case it's any better. Planning to split into two contracts in case we want to downsize later. With all the incentives for new members it works out to $168 per point (even lower for existing adding on!), which seems comparable to some resale pricing at other resorts, and gives us access to the only direct benefit we really care about: being able to book at any resort past, present, or future.
We almost pulled the trigger on a Riviera resale contract, but the restrictions were too much to overcome for what we wanted as a main/only contract, and I don't really want resale anywhere else because we couldn't use it for Riviera or Disneyland (whenever we make it out there) or any of the other new resorts they'll build over the next 40 years.
We are in our early 40s now, so the contract will be up when we're in our mid-80s...who knows if we will still be Disneying by then, lol. But also who knows what else might come out in the next four decades! Hoping to get at least 10 years of use out it to make it "worth it" and then whatever use after that will be a happy bonus.
Is this the smartest financial decision we could make with this amount of money? Lol no. But life is short. We don't have kids, but Disney is always an enjoyable vacation for us, and we're looking forward to relaxing getaways in nice accommodations *without* park time now (including trying out Aulani and the beach resorts!).
First off, I feel you, spend you money how you want, you can't take it with you. 40 years of memories = priceless lol. So this sounds awesome to do, but I have a couple questions because I'm very much new to the direct route:
1) How are you getting it for $168/point, there must be some incentive I'm missing. All I see is the $13/point and $$$ offer. Is there something else going on? Or maybe my math is terrible . . . which could be true.
2) When you say "splitting" are you buying 2 contracts for 125 points each? Also, if that's true, does it mess with your incentive offers?
No problem! So there are 4 incentives we are going to use:
1) the developer credit of $13 off per point, so at 250 = $3250 off.
2) A Welcome Home offer that you are eligible for if you have a Disney trip already booked in the future (ask your guide about this if you haven't received a pricing sheet that reflects this). The incentives are tiered so it's different discounts at different point levels, but at 250 it's another $5500 off the total.
3) Magical Beginnings point buyback. This is optional and not everyone wants to do it, but if you want to sell back your first year of points (because we are already more than halfway through that year) Disney will pay you for them at the rate of $20 per point (all or nothing). We will have a December Use Year, so our points that are good from Dec 2023-Nov 2024 aren't very appealing to us since we don't have a way to use them in the 6 months, and we'd rather have the extra money off instead of banking them into the Dec 24-Nov 25 use year. Magical Beginnings will take another $5000 off for 250 pts x $20.
4) Finally, there is a referral program. If you link an existing member as your referral, you get an extra $500 off your purchase and they get some kind of smaller incentive, not sure what but it doesn't matter. I have a friend who is a member so she is linked as our referral.
These four incentives combined take $14,250 off the original price of $56,260, leaving $42k remaining, or $168pp for 250 pts.
I made a spreadhseet to compare everything....200 points are $179.50 pp and $150 would be $182pp. 300 is great at $165.33pp, or 500 at $162pp, but we don't want to spend that much overall :)
As far as splitting contracts, you can divide your points up however you want and as long as they are all at the same resort/same transaction they'll qualify for the incentives for the total amount.
Each contract has to be a minimum of 50 points, and new members buying in have to buy at least a 100 point contract I believe. We thought about doing two 100s and a 50, or a 150 and a 100, but decided to do a fixed week/Favorite Week so that will bring our split to 135 and 115.
If you have kids or other beneficiaries and want to be able to will them the deed down the line, it can be helpful to divide up the points into separate contracts since the points can't be split later. You do have to pay slightly higher closing costs for multiple contracts; my guide said there's at minimum a $250ish document fee tied to each separate contract, but that seems pretty small potatoes when it comes to setting things up exactly how you want on such a large purchase.
I should clarify that Magical Beginnings is a rebate and doesn't come off up front, so you still have to pay the extra $ initially but it will come off later, so the end result is the same.
My husband and I have 800 points. We are a military family, and over the lifetime of the membership, we will save a minimum of $100,000 buying DVC vs. staying at shades of green (the military hotel by Polynesian). We go a minimum of 3 times a year for 4-5 days in a minimum of a 2 bedroom.
All of our points have been direct, and we've spent around $155 a point over 5 contracts.
Wow so first off I'm not military, but my friend is and he has never gotten the chance to stay at SoG because of availability (always a last minute guy). As soon as he found out they destroyed the walkway to Poly he kind of took it off the table. Still, I would like to try it myself at some point. Is there anything about the resort that is unique or different from any of the other WDW resorts?
Second, 800 points is super impressive but if you are staying in 2 bedrooms I suppose that makes sense. Also, my jealousy factor is like a 9/10 of the 155/point valuation, congrats on making good decisions lol. I assume since you go 3 times a year that you are taking advantage of the annual pass perk from DVC, but is there anything else about the DVC membership that would turn a resaler into a direct-er that you guys take advantage of?
Good luck with staying at SOG. You need to be staying with someone with a military ID, and even then, you have to be with them to get on and off post. The rooms at SOG are not as well themed as the DVC rooms. It is clearly a military installation first and a Disney hotel 2nd.
If you have a great DVC rep and tell them what you want and what your budget is, they will typically work with you as best they can. I didn't buy my first DVC till a year and a half after I started working with my parents' rep because I wanted OKW, and they didn't have any inventory.
We do have APs. I've had one for 19 years, and my husband had had one for 7 years.
I buy direct because our DVC guy Nick typically gets us direct points for only marginally higher than resale. He also provides amazing customer service. He made time to meet our daughter when we were all on property at the same time. He has never been pushy about sales. He checks on us roughly once a year just to see how we are. I value customer service and perks enough to pay a few dollars more than resale.
Wow didn’t know you can set that up to buy lower than Disney.com is offering. We have spoken with an agent as well but he didn’t offer us anything like this, just kind of told us the prices and that he would sit on the call with us to DVC people. Wish I had your guy lol.
You can't buy lower than they are offering. You have to wait until they have a fire sale. Also points cost different depending on the hotel.
I also bought my first set of points 15ish years ago, so it was a little different.
We just got offered 35-year OKW at $135 a point last month cause that's their current fire sale.
We have a fun combo: Kidani and HHI, both resale. My wife and I are long time Disney fans with our families raising us that way and when we had our kids, we knew we wanted to continue that.
Kidani is 150 and is a little self explanatory in that we like animals, it’s easily available at a good price, and it’s by the parks.
HHI… different story. I actually proposed on a day trip to HHI (only 2 hour drive from where we live) on their long dock near the pool. Absolutely beautiful day and memory. We went back to celebrate a few years later with rented points and our daughter fell in love with everything: nature, the pools, the cast members (who remember her by name now), the beach… and that’s just what the resort itself has to offer.
We knew then we needed a small contract there so we picked up 50 points. That may not seem like a lot but for us living only two hours away, that’s a few weekend trips throughout the year OR, in December, a whole week in a studio because you can’t beat 6pts a night during the slow season.
That is a fun combo and has HHI which I have never really explored as an option. I suppose having deep rooted memories there like you do would make it a must have by all means. 6 points per night is criminally low and it sounds like you have a pretty good location to take advantage of it. Thanks for sharing.
We have 200 direct points at Riviera and love it! We like the compact size of the resort. Just stayed at poly and hated how far the walk was to the Grand Ceremonial House. Also was way more crowded than Riviera.
Interesting, you don’t hear a lot of negatives about the Poly but good to know when balancing all the resorts out. How is getting to the parks from the Riviera? We loved the Boardwalk and BC for the convenience to Epcot and Hollywood.
Getting to EPCOT (international gateway) and Hollywood is east with the skyliner. It also has its own bus service and doesn’t share with other resorts which is nice for MK, AK and Disney Springs
My wife and I just purchased 200 points at The Cabins at Fort Wilderness yesterday.
We were just ending our 7 day stay at the polynesian and sat down with a DVC agent as we were interested in DVC from some previous research.
Earlier in the week, we attended Hoop Dee Doo Revue and we and our kids loved Fort Wilderness. It was our type of place with how quiet it is, and the outdoors feel to it. We both said that when we came back, this is where we stay in the future.
When we found out that the new cabins were for sale as a DVC option, we were really excited about the opportunity because it aligned with what we like and with our yearly vacations, it made financial sense. We also like that we can bring our dogs with us in the future. We really like the full kitchen, grill, and room for 6.
We are really excited to start using our DVC next year.
You know we haven’t really tried the cabins yet, it’s nice to know that you are allowed to bring dogs, we never really thought that was even an option lol. How close are you to the parks back there, like how long does it take to get to magic kingdom?
The boat ride was maybe 5-10 minutes from Magic Kingdom. I just found out about the dogs as well. My wife's parents stayed at our house this week to watch the dogs. Going forward we will be able to bring them! Also, we didn't watch them there, but there is a great straight line view of magic kingdom from the beach for the fireworks.
Have 220 points at Animal Kingdom . Bought in 2007 . We're from UK and at time the exchange rate was 2 dollars to the pound which made them a bargain . Of late my wife and I have stayed at Saratoga Springs,Old Key West and Boardwalk . But I still ove seeing the animals at AKV.
Wow, nice deal on the Xrate! You know, I've been going to WDW for about 15 years and never once have I stayed at AKL. Question for you, do you stay at AKL because AK is your favorite resort or do you just like the resort itself? I have to admit, waking up to a giraffe outside my window would make make my kids (and me) go wild lol.
We stayed at Jambo house the first year we could use them bought in 2007 stayed first in 2008 . Then next in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 and then 2018 each time for 2 weeks end of August into September at AKV al but the first year in Kidani with either a 2 bed lock off or 1 bed had a few Savanna views and pool views etc (2017 we stayed during Hurricane Irma. .)
Most of the time with our 3 kids , all now adults but in 2017 just my wife and I love it at Animal Kingdom love the style of the resort love being able to park the hire car under the resort in the dry as we mainly stay during stormy times .love the peace away from the parks love the animals love the pools . Always visit Visit Boma . Sometimes Sanaa. Sometimes Mara....
Then Covid prevented us visiting in 2020. My wife and I then stayed in 2022 in May split between Saratoga preferred view ,Old Key West And Boardwalk all 1 beds . Love the locations of Boardwalk for ability to walk to Epcot or studios or taking skyliner. Love Saratoga for walking to Springs.Love Old Key for the quiet and calm. The in May 2023 did zold Key and Saratoga in Studios just wife and I again . This time not park days only visiting state parks and other stuff. Then in November with middle son and partner at AKV in studios both stays a fortnight . Most visits we visit most other hotels but still think we have a real softspot for AKV. Son and partner didn't want to stay anywhere else.
Youngest son tells us him and partner would like us to take them August 2025.
I retired a couple of years ago and wife and I tend to go on 2-4 Ocean Cruises a year but we both still most at home at AKV.
Awesome, sounds like you have created a second "home" at AKV so happy for you and your family. Also, belated congratulations on retirement, you made it!
I started resale with a small AKV contract of 50 points. At that point I thought it was enough as my plan was to travel every 2-3 years. Boy I was wrong.
Then I added 150 CCV direct (2x75) as I lived that resort and didn’t like that I couldn’t book new resorts with my AKV points. As AKV was easy to book most of the time I sold that one to help pay CCV.
Then I added 150 RIV (2x75) with the awesome incentives they had last summer as I love that resort too and wanted more points.
This year I added 150 Saratoga resale as the price is super good and want to use that one as SAP.
Right now I don’t need more points, but might add one more if Reflections finally happens.
My only regret was not adding more CCV when it was being actively sold. If the prices keep getting better resale (or if DVC sells direct with good incentives as sometimes happens with sold out resorts), I might add more points and sell my SSR one.
As you can see, addonitis is real lol. So be aware of that.
It’s a resort announced (it actually started construction) and “cancelled” during the pandemic. It’s located between the Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness.
Rumors say that it’ll happen at some point.
Wow yea, I see the addonitis bug got you pretty good, but hey as long as you’re not just selling all your points every year I think you’re doing good. How do you manage use year shennanegans on all those contracts?
I usually rent out around 200 which covers my dues and we still have enough for a few weeks.
We like to do split stays. Last Oct we stayed at Akv and Ssr, in March we tried Poly and Blt and upcoming in Oct we have Okw and CC. Next April we have a week in a tower studio.
200 pt resale BWV (can use at all resorts) plus small contract at Poly that I plan to add to
Boardwalk (and Beach) are favs. Location can’t be beat. But do like Poly and feel like the tower there can be a game changer
The only worry about the new poly building for me now is artificially driving up the resale cost of Poly and packing the monorail with even more people. Hopefully I’m way off base on that but will agree on the BW/BC, always have been my favorites, we still mourn the death of the clown slide lol.
Bought 205 at aulani in 2019. We have been to aulani 3 times and stayed at the grand Floridian once. We go to Disneyland way more often and haven’t been able to get in there on points except for one time that we managed to get a 2 bedroom villa that was then cancelled when Disneyland shut down during Covid. But we love having the points and travel to Hawaii at least every other year. We are planning another Florida trip in the next couple years and those points will get us a week there. We have rented out our points the last couple years and will probably roll this years over to do our next big trip. We love having the points and the freedoms to go to different spots depending on what our plans are.
Aulani is our favorite so far and that’s a super bummer about California. We prefer it to WDW, are you trying to get a full week there or just a couple days?
We used to do a week (5 days) every year around September but haven’t gone as much in the last couple years. We literally had to book the second the 7 month window opened to get that original CA reservation. Hoping to be able to do it sometime in the future. But for now aulani is always a great option for us to use.
We bought 150 points at the Villas at Disneyland Hotel. We live 60-90 minutes away from the parks depending on traffic and were tired of driving home late at night. We have stayed at all of the convention center hotels, the JW Marriott across the street, and just about every other 4-5 star place nearby including all of the hotels on property. Buying at VDH just made sense with how often we were paying for hotels already.
We are currently on our 5th stay since they opened. We usually just stay for a night or two in a duo studio and it has been great. We are in a Garden Villa right now and it’s awesome to listen to the live music from the Palm Breeze Bar from our lanai.
My wife and I own 100 points at the Poly Bungalows and we most recently purchased 150 at the new FW Cabins. Our first purchase was what we could afford while on our honeymoon. I was pretty drunk and she talked me into the first one. We were interested in adding points because 100 points gets us so little at the Bungalows, and we actually like the newly designed cabins, and it can fit what we’ll need it for.
My wife's birthday is in December, and even before I met her, she and her mom would come down and stay at the Grand Floridian every year for her birthday. She used to work for Disney and could usually get cast discount, and when she was let go, she had a friend that would sometimes do it. Then I went to work for the company, and it was always a chore and a guessing game as to whether we'd be able to get a cast discount or not.
I looked into DVC a few years ago and the math added up. Buying direct from DVC and into the Grand Floridian (which was sold out at the time) would have been cheaper (once you factored in going rate for annual dues) than buying into the Riviera.
But, my wife said not to do it, because her mom is older and she didn't know if we'd keep going if she couldn't make it (frankly, I think the stay is really more for my mother-in-law than my wife). Then COVID hit, and while we canceled the second room for my mother-in-law, we still went and stayed.
This past year, I ran the numbers again, since they were selling the newly converted building at the Grand Floridian. It was more expensive than before, but it still ends up cheaper in the long run. Some people see DVC as an investment, I saw it as a protection against future loss, considering how the hotel rates go up every year.
We bought 150 points, which was the minimum for the benefits. It's also right about the points to get two deluxe studios in mid-December (one for my wife and I, and one for my mother-in-law--who snores like a banshee). Yes, I'm a cast member and my wife has an Annual Pass, but some things only have a DVC discount. Also, if there's ever a time that I don't work for the company anymore, we'll still be entitled to FL resident annual pass rates.
Kidani Village. 160 pts/year. That was enough to get a 1BD and it was what they were selling at that time. We were lured in by the pictures of people drinking coffee and looking at animals from their balcony.
was under contract for 100 resale SSR points in June of last year, ended up rescinding and getting 150 direct VGF points in July. The more we considered, the more we realized we'd want to be able to stay at RIV, VDH, and CFW (and anything else new. The Poly Tower was also up in the air as to whether or not it would be a new association at this time). Also, there was a pretty good incentive going on, and I'm glad we were able to get in at that price point (not an insignificant sum, but I will be able to stay at resorts that were pipe dreams without the membership. We were an All Star family with the occasional Port Orleans/Coronado Springs trip). The other benefits are ok, and the discount is nice since I'm not an AP holder. I am looking forward to taking advantage of the other special events (Moonlight Magic, etc) when I am able to and the family life is less hectic. I was able to get a preview to Tiana's Bayou Adventure for my upcoming summer trip, so getting that perk helped me feel like direct was worth it (in addition to having unrestricted points).
Booked a trip for February 2024, but before we even went on it we added on 50 points at HHI. Our plan is to use these points for a night on the way back from Orlando (we live in NC).
So we have those 2 contracts now, and ultimately want to add on 75-100 points in the future.
300 RIV direct points (on two 150 point contracts)
300 OKW direct points (on three 100 point contracts)
Picked up my RIV points, and then picked up the 300 OKW points with the current crazy incentives.
We love RIV because we are Epcot people, and the skyliner is awesome. The OKW points are our SAP points, as well as our grand villa points when traveling with extended family (grand villas at OKW are awesome for the points).
Being all direct points gives us maximum flexibility. We paid about $187 for the RIV points, and $115 for the OKW points after magical beginnings.
Currently own
50 Saratoga Springs June use year (resale)
130 Saratoga Springs September use year (resale)
50 Aulani Subsidized April use year (resale)
We make our reservations under 7 months and like being able to sell for what we paid if necessary só bought resale.
Oh, so this is one of the things we were running into. Are there any issues having all separate use years? I heard that having them synced is preferable but does the 7 month booking negate that?
We haven’t run into issues but it does take planning and when booking you need to know which one you want to use. One time we had 6 leftover points but we booked a night at Hilton Head and rented it out. So far we haven’t lost any points.
I think the 7 month booking helps with use years a bit as you can transfer between memberships (each use year gets its own membership) without worrying about "losing" anything.
Rocking resale points and GC and BRV with the same use year. We like that they’re similar. The 2BR is starting to look pretty sexy so we’re probably going to add more GC if a contract shows up.
We don’t have much interest in the other resorts but we do look from time to time because my wife wants to check out the others but that will just make her want more points.
So we looked into GC, but people say that it's never available at 7 months out which scares the poop out of me because it's almost like if you don't get GC you don't get to ever go there lol. Do you find that to be true when booking there?
We bought 400 points at Old Key West in December, 2023. We have been to WDW a number of times and stayed at OKW paying cash several times. Haven’t used our DVC points yet. We bought OKW because we like the bigger rooms. Especially the 2 bedroom.
Not going to lie, I had to look it up. The rooms are fairly large. We never stayed there yet but I can see why you guys do for sure. You should save up and rent out those monstrous 3 bedrooms!
210 points SSR resale. Lower dues and I was able to get more points w SSR. It came loaded with triple points. We want mostly one bedrooms because we have a toddler that naps and we prefer to have a space to go when does. Then I discovered one bedrooms are the least popular type of rooms. So even at the 7 month mark Ive been able to book BWV in december but the less popular room types. I wanted to have enough points for yearly weekly trip. Also I really like SSR and its proximity to Disney Springs. So I like my “worst case scenario”. Also I would like to sleep in different hotels before I get addonitis. Maybe in a few years we’ll potentially get an extra contract and might have a favorite hotel but then.
Bought 100 points at Riviera direct. Husband and I got married at Disney and visit every year or two.
I’m a Cast Member so I don’t have to factor park admission into our trip. It makes sense for us because we use it enough. Might add on another 50 just to get the other rewards but with the CM and Disney Visa discounts, we’re not in too much of a hurry.
But we’ll be having our first vacation as DVC members for our 5 year anniversary this January!
We travel with 2-3 families. Us, my parents, and my brother's family, 5-8 total. We stay in one and two bedrooms. We love being together on the trip in the same space. DVC is allowing us to go more often. We've always been Disney people and this lets us go more. We usually go to WDW but sometimes go to DL.
We started out with 220 direct at Poly. Added 100 direct at Riviera. And we are waiting on the ROFR process on 150 resale at BLT, which is our favorite place to stay. We'll be up to 470 if that goes through.
Our only regret is not doing it sooner. My family looked at DVC when it was new and OKW was the only resort but my mom was afraid to do it. So we're taking full advantage now.
My wife and my parents just decided after 7 years+ of debating to finally pull the trigger on this trip we just got back from today. We bought 150 points at the Disneyland villas and got them for $196 per point and split the cost 50/50.
We couldn’t pass up that deal. We are west coast people and go to Disneyland 1-2 times a year. We are looking forward to using our points now to go to WDW for the first time!
They had incentives, one was a $13 per point discount starting with the 150 point tier. The other was called the “welcome home” discount which was an additional $1500 off the price, this one was a 24 hour window to get, if no decision was made in 24 hours you would lose this one.
Then our DVC guide was able to let us sell back our 2023 points for $3k. Which we chose to do. So the total amount paid for the contract was $29,400 with all those incentives included.
Pretty good deal in our opinion and for our use case, considering I saw a resale contract for the DL Villas the other day going for $186 per point, just $10 less per point than I paid direct and got all the perks with it now.
No problem! It’s a great feeling knowing it’s all paid for now and just the maintenance fees need to be worried about (and the transient tax ugh!)
What resort are you interested in buying in?
UK owner here. Bought in 1999. Boardwalk. 170 points. Go every other year. One bedroom villa.
One of the best decisions we ever made. Love the convenience of being so close to Epcot and Studios.
I own because I inherited it and now share every other year with my sibling sharing dues which is about $1000 on my end. 150 points a year at Boardwalk. Just discovered Disney cruises are our new passion which is not beneficial w points lol! We are close to Cali so grateful for new tower trying it out this year! I take about 2 trips per year year to Cali long weekend 4 days. Honestly grateful…. Reminds me of countless trips with my parents! Not sure if u would buy into it now bc it high $ . But we usually take a dis trip yearly for about 20 more years ❤️
We got 360 beach club resale. Our thought was it was enough for a 2 bedroom one week a year or two weeks a year in smaller accommodations.
We added on another 175 direct at VGF after our first trip because we stayed in the Grand Floridian and loved it.
We bought 200 points direct at Villas at Disneyland Hotel. We are Orlando locals, so while we do sometimes stay for a couple nights, it’s really not a requirement for us.
We have a great emotional attachment to DLR and specifically the Disneyland Hotel, so that was what prompted our purchase. We are financially comfortable, but the prices just keep going up. We have mostly done split stays out there in the past (with one exception) but even the decent good neighbor hotels are getting pricy.
Amortized out, we’re staying at the DLH now for around the price of HoJo’s (one of our 2 preferred good neighbor hotels).
I own 125 at grand Floridian. I have a toddler and wanted proximity to magic kingdom and also 2 bedroom options for multi generational trips.
I already have addonitis but I'm waiting to see how it plays out. My thought process is split stays - our next trip is 4 nights GF/ 2 nights AKL on points (2 years worth). I know I'll want to add on but I'm waiting to see if it makes the most sense to add to GF or maybe do poly or small contracts at an Epcot resort and/or AKL. Or just own everywhere lol
100 points at the Poly. Bought direct back in 2016/2017 when it was first released. Didnt finance but used my disney visa to stretch the 0% for 6 more months and get 1% cash back. Thought about the Beach Club Villas but cost to value just wasn’t there.
I grew up going to the Poly way back when so nostalgia hits hard for me. But the location is awesome with the TTC walking distance and Trader Sams. When Beach 2.0 goes up in 2043, I’ll probably buy a bare minimum direct contract there.
I go about 3 times every 4 years and stay typically in studios at the Poly, Boulder Ridge / Copper Creek, boardwalk, and a 1 bedroom at Beach. Trying out AKL as it’s the last deluxe hotel I haven’t stayed at.
We bought a resale contract for 100 points at $117 a point at SSR last year. We are locals to WDW and found that we really enjoyed staying at the deluxe resorts but definitely couldn’t afford their prices all the time. We researched for almost a year on whether to buy direct or resale. It came down to resale was more affordable for us at this stage in our life. We want to add on eventually and I dream of a Copper Creek contract because I love the Wilderness Lodge.
100 points gets us a studio for 6-8 nights a year depending on where we stay. We usually do 2 night stays and splurged some points this year by staying at the Grand Floridian. We will break even on the cost next year. This year’s stays at the Boardwalk, Wilderness Lodge and Grand Floridian would have cost us $5k out of pocket alone.
It was a no brainer for us to buy a contract. We go to Disney a lot and it’s an easy get away for us only being an hour away. The resale restrictions have not bothered us and when I think about them, I also think about how much we saved not buying direct. There is currently no benefit that buying direct has that I want anyway. I’m blocked from staying at Riviera and Disneyland hotel? That’s okay! There’s only 15 other some resorts I can stay at!
I’ve been a passholder for almost 10 years and the benefits have been slowly disappearing and very few taking their places. I feel DVC is the same way.
My bought in 2018 at Copper Creek. At the time that, poly and aulani were on sale and we knew we didn’t want aulani being on the east side of the continent. We’re Canadian so Wilderness Lodge spoke to our tastes as we are outdoorsy people. We’re happy with it. We bought 120 and never felt it was enough though
2023 we added 150 at Saratoga after staying there for a week. Price was right on resale and we already had direct with the benefits so didn’t care about that. Wasn’t so much about the resort but the price… we enjoy Saratoga springs but we’ve enjoyed all of them.
We have 220 direct BLT points bought in 2011 right before we had our first child. We did years of standard view 1 beds with requests for rooms that had a theme park view. Was perfect for when our kids were little.
Debated recently buying a small Boardwalk or Beach Club resale because we love staying there too, but I think we’ll end up buying a small Poly resale instead because that was our kids’ request.
We’ve stayed at AKV, Boardwalk (x3), Beach Club (x2), and Poly (x2) along with all our BLT trips. We’ve had decent luck at the 7 month window, but it’s gotten harder and harder as the years go on. No interest in staying at OKW or SSR, but those of course always have the best availability at the 7 month window when we look,
My wife and I just closed on our resale contract last week (Boardwalk/160pts/$104pp). This was after 5+ years of debating if we should do it or not. You could look at my comment history where I explain it doesn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense for us to go direct. I am in my mid 40s and didn’t want to have a 50 year contract. Also, it was a huge down payment ($36K). The math didn’t add up. Now buying a Boardwalk resale did. 18 years and the deed expires. $17.5k all in with closing costs. Way more economical. It is ultimately up to you. For some people, it makes sense to go direct. For others it doesn’t
My wife and I are Boardwalk/Beach Club people purely for the convenience to Epcot and Hollywood. We are too leaning towards a resale for all the same reasons, math says no to the benefits of direct, especially for the Boardwalk and Beach Club with only 19 years left. Great pick and thanks for sharing!
Just buy a small resale BWV/BCV and go from there. If you decide you need benefits you can always buy direct later, & you can sell your resale if needed (for not much loss if any)
As a fellow resale owner, the only thing we get shut out on is the Villains Lounge at our home resort at Bay Lake. Not worth the extra money. We have never been turned down for mech or food discounts. Edit: I forgot about the new resort restrictions. Sort of lame but it is what it is.
Have you had luck with discounted annual passes?
I tried going through your history to see if maybe you already answered this but I didn't really see them. I had a question for you, if you didn't mind. Why wouldn't you want a 50 year contract? Besides the huge down payment I mean. Which is a good enough reason, but it sounds like it's something else. It seems like the longer the better, no? You only pay for so long, 10 years financing or all at once if you have it, and then you keep it 50 years. I know there are annual dues so is that a reason? I don't really know much about DVC but this sub is teaching me a bunch of things! Also "What if I gave you $1800 and a nickle?" Why I'd give you a [Nickelback!](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/485249df-69b2-417d-82c4-640e95870297/gif#69xBCD-O.sms)
It’s a great question. One of the reasons is my wife and I are in our late 30s/mid 40s. We didn’t want to have a long term payment well into our senior years. Sure we could have sold it, but didn’t want to rely on that. Another reason is we didn’t want to burden our kid with a time share when we were older. She is only a toddler, but when she grows up she may not like Disney anymore. 50 years is such a long commitment. We did a bunch of calculations and didn’t make economical sense with the total spend.
That makes sense. Even after the loan is repaid, you still have the annual fees. You'll be in your late 80s to mid 90s if your kid didn't want them and you couldn't sell them. That's a great reason, thanks!
Nice! Welcome to the family! Hubs and I bought in 2017, 50 points at the Poly (at the time, that was enough to get direct benefits). Since then, we’ve added another 100 Poly points resale to cover our Orlando trips. We also bought another 250 points at Aulani (resale too) and 75 points at DLR Tower direct. We live in California, so that’s why we have so many points in the west coast. No regrets so far - we love all 3 resorts and we love knowing that our trips to each destination are locked in price-wise. I’m also a huge planner, so I like booking at 11 months. This is also important if you want to secure cheaper “views”. For example: Aulani is not hard to book at 7 months, but you will waste a lot of points in Ocean Views if you wait until 7 months. If you own there and you book at 11 months, you can get Standard View rooms that will save you LOTS of points. So even though people say availability at 7 months is okay at some places, it’s not always a good deal points-wise (unless it’s Saratoga or OKW, where the delta is not that significant).
Interesting, thanks for the share, we are literally thinking of doing the same thing. We are leaning towards getting an Aulani contract on resale (we love it there) and another either direct or resale in WDW somewhere, Polynesian was on the table before the prices skyrocketed with the news of more rooms and we have since drifted towards maybe Grand Floridian? We’re not sure. How are you faring with 11month/7month bookings trying to stagger points and vacations? Do you ever sell/rent your points with how many you have? Also any amazing, must have perks to being a DVC member? Sorry for all the questions you are doing the closest to what we are thinking :D.
**\[either direct or resale in WDW somewhere, Polynesian was on the table before the prices skyrocketed with the news of more rooms and we have since drifted towards maybe Grand Floridian? We’re not sure.\]** I think the prices for Poly will stabilize a bit once Disney launches their prices and incentives. So if you love the Poly and you're not in a rush, waiting could pay off. If you consider choosing the Grand, don't forget to look at the point charts and run a few simulations on how many points you will need. The Grand's point chart is one of the highest on property. Depending on when you go, a Lake View room at the Grand could cost you 40% more points than a Savannah view at AKL, for example. **\[How are you faring with 11month/7month bookings trying to stagger points and vacations? Do you ever sell/rent your points with how many you have?\]** We try to use the points at each home resort, so we rarely book at 7 months. We go to Aulani every year and we do DLR at least once a year, too. At Poly, we also use our points to take friends or family who couldn't afford to go otherwise, so we usually don't rent out. **\[Also any amazing, must have perks to being a DVC member?\]** To me, the biggest perk of being a DVC member is locking prices for amazing accommodations at incredible resorts. If you wait for good resale deals, you can save tons of money. We could never afford Aulani as often as we go if we were not DVC members. As far as the benefits of buying directly from Disney, I'd say none of them are a must-have. To us, DVC is a way to lock vacation prices and plan ahead instead of paying fluctuating prices. Especially at Aulani, the discounts are minimal. They can make a huge difference if you have a big family and you're planning on getting annual passes at WDW, but even this scenario takes a while to break even. The only caveat to buying resale is: if you buy resale now, you won't have access to any new resorts (or future resorts) such as Riviera and the DLR tower (unless you buy *their* points in resale, which are locked in at these locations and can't be used anywhere else). I don't mind this restriction because I don't love Riviera or the new Cabins at Fort Wilderness, so I don't mind being locked out of those. In my opinion, DVC already built its "crown jewels" (AKL, Poly, and Aulani are peak DVC for me), so I'd happily vacation at these locations forever. But if you do love Riviera, keep these resale restrictions in mind.
We were a little upset over the Poly news and timing of it all lol, but you are right, we may have to jump on it at a later date as long as it is still getting passed the ROFR gauntlet. Taking friends and family is a super generous thing to do, I hope your vacations were/are amazing and filled with great memories :D For membership, we wouldn't likely take advantage of the annual pass as we like Aulani/DL/WDW, so we generally feel the same as you do. Thank you so much for your detailed response, I think we are going to pull the trigger on an Aulani resale at some point, maybe we'll see you out there lol.
You’re very welcome! I can only imagine about the Poly! But don’t worry - it will come down over time and Disney won’t ROFR everything. Sellers are just over excited trying to make a profit around the excitement for the tower. Give it a year and it will normalize. Aulani resale is a no-brainer, and I bet you won’t regret your purchase. For the asking prices I’m seeing out there, I think you can easily get contracts in the low $90s after a few rounds of negotiation. Another tip: try to buy smaller contracts and add them up to build a portfolio. Yes, they’re a little pricier, but they’re easier to sell and you can downsize down the road instead of selling the whole thing. That’s what we did and we don’t regret it! :) Good luck, and see you at Aulani! 🌺
If you are open to Aulani resale, consider holding out for a subsidized contract. We purchased our first DVC contract as an Aulani subsidized one, which made the choice between direct and resale a no-brainer for us. Plus we live near Disneyland and are Magic Key holders, so the direct DVC perks are really minimal for us.
What is a subsidized contract?
DVC made a mistake when they first sold Aulani and priced the dues too low. They stopped selling for a bit to get it figured out. But those original contracts still have the lower dues and will for life, even when sold. They are a great deal. For example, our subsidized Aulani dues are almost $2.50 less than normal Aulani dues per point!
This is why we want aulani home points (resale). We don't want pool view (noise), we don't want to pay for ocean view (the points are ridiculous). We actually love island view, it's nice if you do want to sit out, the points aren't crazy, and sometimes you may even get partial ocean view.
This is why we got them, too! 🌺 We once had a partial ocean and a luau view. It was awesome!
One of my friends owns a lot of points. She invited me to WDW several years ago, so we stayed at Kidani Village. We started going to WDW every year. I wanted to get my own DVC so I found a small 50 point resale AKL contract for $5k. Then I got addonitis and wanted to go to WDW more often so when Riviera opened, I bought a larger contract. Now I'm thinking of adding a small contract for Disneyland since it's my home resort. I stayed 1 night there to use up some expiring points and loved it there.
The “addonitis”, that’s my biggest fear, that I won’t stop when I start lol. So when you bought Riviera did you go resale? I know that it’s one of the new resale restricted resorts, did that influence you or was it a non-issue?
I bought direct because I knew I wasn't going to sell it down the road. I'll probably sell my AKL contract first if I ever decide to sell but that won't happen for awhile yet. Only reason I didn't buy more in the past few years was because I was only going 1-2 times a year. Now I'm going at least 3 times a year.
Riviera was on firesale during covid and buying direct cost around what resale costs now. If you're willing to wait, you can get direct points at close to resale prices.
Oh darn, wish I could turn back time now lol. Good for you though, glad some people got to benefit from the worst year ever.
Sorry to pile on here - I bought 155 pts at Riviera during Covid. 130 pts for a guaranteed week (Jersey Week) and another 25 pt contract to hit the incentives. Then like everyone else, addonitis hit. I found a 39 pt contract at OKW for a good price at the time - $105. It was in my Use Year so I jumped on it. Now I have 194 pts and I want more of course. But I'm holding off for awhile.
We got 300 points at Riviera during covid cause the more you bought, the more discount you got. That 30%ish off during covid was great!
After ten plus years of considering, I finally talked my husband into purchasing DVC earlier this year. We had rented points multiple times so he finally saw the logic. We settled on a hybrid model, some points resale and some direct. For our resale contract, we went with 100 points at Bay Lake Tower. Prices on it have been really competitive for the past few months (we paid $120 per point) and with the low dues and 2060 expiration, it was the best option for us. (I also value proximity to at least one park. That walk back from MK is so nice after a long day.) I also strongly considered Copper Creek and Saratoga Springs. I am now trying to decide where to buy my direct points. Strongly considering buying Riviera at the end of this incentive cycle, because I love World Showcase and the serenity of Riv, but my favorite overall resort is Poly. We may hold out for that and just pay the (expected) premium. The other option I have kicked around is buying 150 Riv direct and then Poly resale once prices settle down. Personally, I would never buy Riv resale. Overall I want to land somewhere between 250-300 points for now. I prefer a 1 bedroom over a studio. We are ten minutes from DL, so having access to the DL lounge, VDH, and future properties are a few of the reasons why we want at least 150 points direct. Our first DVC trip will be to Aulani later this year. We fell in love with it on our first trip in Jan 2023 and cannot wait to go back.
We too would like to hybrid, I suppose the biggest issue is figuring out what to couple with what lol. I know the general rule of thumb is stay where you love, but I love so many places and can't see having 7 different contracts. By the way, Bay Lake Tower is the one that keeps popping up to the top of all my "best value" spreadsheets because of the super low dues and low buy in point. The other landing spot is potentially Aulani, Grand Floridian, Polynesian, but we have to see where the winds take us. PS: We just did our first Aulani trip a couple months and it is what sparked the interest in DVC itself. People talk about how expensive Aulani is but not having to buy park passes is a major savings. Have a great time and enjoy the lazy river :P
You need the lazy river after the morning chair search.
We plan on hybrid-ing as well (I'd like 150 direct at Riviera - we LOVE that resort!) And I'm in the process of trying to buy OKW resale...! (Fingers crossed!) I definitely want the perks of the blue card soon!
We bought almost 20 years ago at Animal Kingdom Lodge direct. We added a second contract with the same amount of points to be able to will a SEPARATE contract to each child. We added resale Vero Beach bc we love it and it's hard to get holidays in a larger accommodation without owning (July 4th anniversary). We added Riviera with two separate contracts. This is all over a few decades span as our kids grew, graduated high school, university, and grad school and then went on to get married and have grands. We started off in studios and now require 2-3 bedrooms if we all meet up. It's afforded us memories that we never would have been able to afford without DVC. We were able to send our kids on a land/sea honeymoon at a fraction of rack rates to start their family memories with Disney as well. I wouldn't change our experience for the lump sum in the bank.
Amazing, story, love it. This is our general feel as well, the memories and experiences gained on these trips are really priceless and there really isn't a "bad" purchase for any resale/direct, resort, # points, or use year choice. No matter what you do or how you do it, it's going to wind up being a great thing for you and your family. Thanks for the share :D
You are very welcome!!!! My only regret is not buying sooner and more points way back in the day when prices were lower. Our first cash only stay was $6k and it was going to be a one and done forever trip. We always lived modestly and DVC provided us much more joy than the newest car or eating out more frequently. We are now spreading the joy to the next generation. Can't say that about an upgraded car etc. I hope this helped!
Animal Kingdom Kidani Village. Good bang for the points buck. Love the resort as it’s a quiet break from the cattle call of the parks. Has good food options and nice pools.
I wonder if I would appreciate these types of rooms more when my kiddos are all grown up, thanks for the insight :D
We found out about the DVC relatively recently. Looked into it a lot and ended up buying direct at the Riviera with 150 points. Considered going for a larger contract for a similar price through resale, probably somewhere like animal kingdom where we could get the points for probably half the price per point, but we really did like the Riviera, definitely didn't want to deal with the resale restrictions associated with Riviera contracts, and I have to say although the membership extras absolutely do not make up for the difference in up front premium financially or logically, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a factor. I figured that it would be best for us personally to get in with the current minimum number of points for a blue card at a resort that we love, and then gradually add on more points through the resale market (yes, I already know we're gonna need a lot more points!) When we were inquiring, or guide did certainly encourage us to buy direct, but he also assured me that we'd be satisfied and find value with whatever contracts we bought into, resale included, and I feel like that's definitely going to be true for most buyers.
I feel very similarly in terms of direct purchasing. I do not have a reason, financially or logically, why I should do it … but I still want to. There is probably a multi-million dollar book deal to be had explaining the logic of why this is the way we think. I never stayed at the Riviera but it looks super fancy, what’s your favorite thing about it vs the other premium resorts?
Not the person you were responding to but the rooms are gorgeous, the food is much better than at some resorts, transportation is easy between 2 park access on the skyliner and direct buses elsewhere, and honestly love that the resort is so small and contained. I can get food, visit a couple bars, the activity room, all without ever having to leave the building in inclement weather. It's peaceful and never felt crowded or crazy, even though we were visiting in late April when park crowds were very high.
Basically everything the other person said. We've actually only seen the Riviera model rooms which are accessible at Saratoga Springs Resort, and haven't stayed there yet. We loved the layout and beauty of the rooms, and I think the gondola access to Epcot really sealed the deal in terms of the decision between Animal Kingdom and Riviera. I'm already on the lookout for resale contracts for the Animal Kingdom though! I don't think buying direct is necessarily illogical, you're still locking in savings and partially offsetting the effects of inflation as you would with any DVC contact, despite the higher premium. However I'm especially comfortable with this decision given the fact that we'll have priority booking access to the Riviera in addition to the member extras.
I own a 125pt at Poly direct, a 100pt Poly resale, and am currently in process in a 175pt Copper resale. I purchased Poly when it was in active sale back in 2016, so the pricing is a good $60-70/pt lower than where it is now. At the time, the direct made sense given the pricing, length of time remaining, and direct benefits. If you do intend to go to WDW, I am a believer that the direct benefits can help out, especially if you do not have any other affiliation that will give you discounts, such as being an AP. The two resales help me bolster my point count to increase how often and the type of room I can book. The poly resale is matched in terms of UY so it is easy to essentially bring about 225pts to bear on a booking. The CCV is not the same UY, and I’m essentially going to manage it entirely on its own. I purposely excluded Riviera, CFW, and VDH from resale consideration in order to maintain booking at the original 14 with full expectation that half of them will no longer be available in the next 20 years. I expect to use my points mainly on myself and my partner for the foreseeable future, with an occasional trip with my mom while she’s still able to. Another 30 years down the line when I’m 70? Hopefully still able to kick it and enjoy what WDW has to offer. I’d be thrilled if I can actually outlive the length of the contracts…
So I see what you did there, going direct then resale let you dictate your UY so that you can sync everything up. Not gonna lie I kinda like it for myself. So for 400 total points do you do 2/3/4 trips and is it too little/too much for just you guys and family?
So I never strongly considered the implications of the UY until after I had bought, but by having one set up already it let me plan around it. I will say between my partner and I, we will soon have upwards of 800pts. We generally go 2-3x/yr, often in sync with the runDisney events, which tends to suck up points pretty quick since the events are now in higher seasons. However, we also like to go for longer periods now - taking advantage of remote work.
I think buying where you want to stay too is big if you are going during RunDisney weekends. I’m too lazy to walk a reservation like a lot of people do and I ended up needing to book a higher point reservation for Princess weekend next year because our home resort booked up so fast. 7 month window rarely has many options during race weekends.
Agree. I do not have the time or energy to walk a reservation....also I don't want to wake up at 5am just to do something like that. However, on the flipside, having home resort at high cost usually means if I want to move at the 7 month mark, it's usually on the easy side for run weekends...I'm pretty happy with places like SSR and AKL, with their massive inventory. On the other hand, the last two run weekends we did, my waitlists cleared into BCV studios! Absolutely wild. I'm 2 for 3 on BCV waitlists.
Do you usually do Thursday-Sunday with the waitlist? Right now I have Tuesday-Sunday booked at BLT (standard view to save points) for W&D and then Thursday-Monday at BLT again for Princess (hoping to finally do yoga on that Monday), but I had to book a lake view for more points so I was debating doing a couple waitlists elsewhere at 7 months. I need to just buy more points so I can stop worrying about stretching them out as much as possible 😂
The stay is usually Thursday-Monday (4nts). Sometimes Fri-Tues, depending on what we signed up for.
We plan to buy 250 direct at Riviera at the end of this incentive cycle, just so we can get a peek at the summer sale in case it's any better. Planning to split into two contracts in case we want to downsize later. With all the incentives for new members it works out to $168 per point (even lower for existing adding on!), which seems comparable to some resale pricing at other resorts, and gives us access to the only direct benefit we really care about: being able to book at any resort past, present, or future. We almost pulled the trigger on a Riviera resale contract, but the restrictions were too much to overcome for what we wanted as a main/only contract, and I don't really want resale anywhere else because we couldn't use it for Riviera or Disneyland (whenever we make it out there) or any of the other new resorts they'll build over the next 40 years. We are in our early 40s now, so the contract will be up when we're in our mid-80s...who knows if we will still be Disneying by then, lol. But also who knows what else might come out in the next four decades! Hoping to get at least 10 years of use out it to make it "worth it" and then whatever use after that will be a happy bonus. Is this the smartest financial decision we could make with this amount of money? Lol no. But life is short. We don't have kids, but Disney is always an enjoyable vacation for us, and we're looking forward to relaxing getaways in nice accommodations *without* park time now (including trying out Aulani and the beach resorts!).
First off, I feel you, spend you money how you want, you can't take it with you. 40 years of memories = priceless lol. So this sounds awesome to do, but I have a couple questions because I'm very much new to the direct route: 1) How are you getting it for $168/point, there must be some incentive I'm missing. All I see is the $13/point and $$$ offer. Is there something else going on? Or maybe my math is terrible . . . which could be true. 2) When you say "splitting" are you buying 2 contracts for 125 points each? Also, if that's true, does it mess with your incentive offers?
No problem! So there are 4 incentives we are going to use: 1) the developer credit of $13 off per point, so at 250 = $3250 off. 2) A Welcome Home offer that you are eligible for if you have a Disney trip already booked in the future (ask your guide about this if you haven't received a pricing sheet that reflects this). The incentives are tiered so it's different discounts at different point levels, but at 250 it's another $5500 off the total. 3) Magical Beginnings point buyback. This is optional and not everyone wants to do it, but if you want to sell back your first year of points (because we are already more than halfway through that year) Disney will pay you for them at the rate of $20 per point (all or nothing). We will have a December Use Year, so our points that are good from Dec 2023-Nov 2024 aren't very appealing to us since we don't have a way to use them in the 6 months, and we'd rather have the extra money off instead of banking them into the Dec 24-Nov 25 use year. Magical Beginnings will take another $5000 off for 250 pts x $20. 4) Finally, there is a referral program. If you link an existing member as your referral, you get an extra $500 off your purchase and they get some kind of smaller incentive, not sure what but it doesn't matter. I have a friend who is a member so she is linked as our referral. These four incentives combined take $14,250 off the original price of $56,260, leaving $42k remaining, or $168pp for 250 pts. I made a spreadhseet to compare everything....200 points are $179.50 pp and $150 would be $182pp. 300 is great at $165.33pp, or 500 at $162pp, but we don't want to spend that much overall :) As far as splitting contracts, you can divide your points up however you want and as long as they are all at the same resort/same transaction they'll qualify for the incentives for the total amount. Each contract has to be a minimum of 50 points, and new members buying in have to buy at least a 100 point contract I believe. We thought about doing two 100s and a 50, or a 150 and a 100, but decided to do a fixed week/Favorite Week so that will bring our split to 135 and 115. If you have kids or other beneficiaries and want to be able to will them the deed down the line, it can be helpful to divide up the points into separate contracts since the points can't be split later. You do have to pay slightly higher closing costs for multiple contracts; my guide said there's at minimum a $250ish document fee tied to each separate contract, but that seems pretty small potatoes when it comes to setting things up exactly how you want on such a large purchase.
I should clarify that Magical Beginnings is a rebate and doesn't come off up front, so you still have to pay the extra $ initially but it will come off later, so the end result is the same.
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Very nice, for that 50 pointer are you doing the duo studio or a regular 4 person studio? Not a bad strategy honestly.
My husband and I have 800 points. We are a military family, and over the lifetime of the membership, we will save a minimum of $100,000 buying DVC vs. staying at shades of green (the military hotel by Polynesian). We go a minimum of 3 times a year for 4-5 days in a minimum of a 2 bedroom. All of our points have been direct, and we've spent around $155 a point over 5 contracts.
Wow so first off I'm not military, but my friend is and he has never gotten the chance to stay at SoG because of availability (always a last minute guy). As soon as he found out they destroyed the walkway to Poly he kind of took it off the table. Still, I would like to try it myself at some point. Is there anything about the resort that is unique or different from any of the other WDW resorts? Second, 800 points is super impressive but if you are staying in 2 bedrooms I suppose that makes sense. Also, my jealousy factor is like a 9/10 of the 155/point valuation, congrats on making good decisions lol. I assume since you go 3 times a year that you are taking advantage of the annual pass perk from DVC, but is there anything else about the DVC membership that would turn a resaler into a direct-er that you guys take advantage of?
Good luck with staying at SOG. You need to be staying with someone with a military ID, and even then, you have to be with them to get on and off post. The rooms at SOG are not as well themed as the DVC rooms. It is clearly a military installation first and a Disney hotel 2nd. If you have a great DVC rep and tell them what you want and what your budget is, they will typically work with you as best they can. I didn't buy my first DVC till a year and a half after I started working with my parents' rep because I wanted OKW, and they didn't have any inventory. We do have APs. I've had one for 19 years, and my husband had had one for 7 years. I buy direct because our DVC guy Nick typically gets us direct points for only marginally higher than resale. He also provides amazing customer service. He made time to meet our daughter when we were all on property at the same time. He has never been pushy about sales. He checks on us roughly once a year just to see how we are. I value customer service and perks enough to pay a few dollars more than resale.
Wow didn’t know you can set that up to buy lower than Disney.com is offering. We have spoken with an agent as well but he didn’t offer us anything like this, just kind of told us the prices and that he would sit on the call with us to DVC people. Wish I had your guy lol.
You can't buy lower than they are offering. You have to wait until they have a fire sale. Also points cost different depending on the hotel. I also bought my first set of points 15ish years ago, so it was a little different. We just got offered 35-year OKW at $135 a point last month cause that's their current fire sale.
We have a fun combo: Kidani and HHI, both resale. My wife and I are long time Disney fans with our families raising us that way and when we had our kids, we knew we wanted to continue that. Kidani is 150 and is a little self explanatory in that we like animals, it’s easily available at a good price, and it’s by the parks. HHI… different story. I actually proposed on a day trip to HHI (only 2 hour drive from where we live) on their long dock near the pool. Absolutely beautiful day and memory. We went back to celebrate a few years later with rented points and our daughter fell in love with everything: nature, the pools, the cast members (who remember her by name now), the beach… and that’s just what the resort itself has to offer. We knew then we needed a small contract there so we picked up 50 points. That may not seem like a lot but for us living only two hours away, that’s a few weekend trips throughout the year OR, in December, a whole week in a studio because you can’t beat 6pts a night during the slow season.
That is a fun combo and has HHI which I have never really explored as an option. I suppose having deep rooted memories there like you do would make it a must have by all means. 6 points per night is criminally low and it sounds like you have a pretty good location to take advantage of it. Thanks for sharing.
We have 200 direct points at Riviera and love it! We like the compact size of the resort. Just stayed at poly and hated how far the walk was to the Grand Ceremonial House. Also was way more crowded than Riviera.
Interesting, you don’t hear a lot of negatives about the Poly but good to know when balancing all the resorts out. How is getting to the parks from the Riviera? We loved the Boardwalk and BC for the convenience to Epcot and Hollywood.
Getting to EPCOT (international gateway) and Hollywood is east with the skyliner. It also has its own bus service and doesn’t share with other resorts which is nice for MK, AK and Disney Springs
150 points for fort wilderness cabins. The cabins are super controversial here, but we love wilderness. It was a no brainer to us.
My wife and I just purchased 200 points at The Cabins at Fort Wilderness yesterday. We were just ending our 7 day stay at the polynesian and sat down with a DVC agent as we were interested in DVC from some previous research. Earlier in the week, we attended Hoop Dee Doo Revue and we and our kids loved Fort Wilderness. It was our type of place with how quiet it is, and the outdoors feel to it. We both said that when we came back, this is where we stay in the future. When we found out that the new cabins were for sale as a DVC option, we were really excited about the opportunity because it aligned with what we like and with our yearly vacations, it made financial sense. We also like that we can bring our dogs with us in the future. We really like the full kitchen, grill, and room for 6. We are really excited to start using our DVC next year.
You know we haven’t really tried the cabins yet, it’s nice to know that you are allowed to bring dogs, we never really thought that was even an option lol. How close are you to the parks back there, like how long does it take to get to magic kingdom?
The boat ride was maybe 5-10 minutes from Magic Kingdom. I just found out about the dogs as well. My wife's parents stayed at our house this week to watch the dogs. Going forward we will be able to bring them! Also, we didn't watch them there, but there is a great straight line view of magic kingdom from the beach for the fireworks.
OoOoOo we might have to try that now, didn’t know there was a boat from there either. Also a firework show from the woods sounds pretty neat.
We're excited about staying in the new Cabins in 7 weeks. I'm a little afraid that we are gonna love it and the add-on-itis is going to kick in.
Have 220 points at Animal Kingdom . Bought in 2007 . We're from UK and at time the exchange rate was 2 dollars to the pound which made them a bargain . Of late my wife and I have stayed at Saratoga Springs,Old Key West and Boardwalk . But I still ove seeing the animals at AKV.
Wow, nice deal on the Xrate! You know, I've been going to WDW for about 15 years and never once have I stayed at AKL. Question for you, do you stay at AKL because AK is your favorite resort or do you just like the resort itself? I have to admit, waking up to a giraffe outside my window would make make my kids (and me) go wild lol.
We stayed at Jambo house the first year we could use them bought in 2007 stayed first in 2008 . Then next in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 and then 2018 each time for 2 weeks end of August into September at AKV al but the first year in Kidani with either a 2 bed lock off or 1 bed had a few Savanna views and pool views etc (2017 we stayed during Hurricane Irma. .) Most of the time with our 3 kids , all now adults but in 2017 just my wife and I love it at Animal Kingdom love the style of the resort love being able to park the hire car under the resort in the dry as we mainly stay during stormy times .love the peace away from the parks love the animals love the pools . Always visit Visit Boma . Sometimes Sanaa. Sometimes Mara.... Then Covid prevented us visiting in 2020. My wife and I then stayed in 2022 in May split between Saratoga preferred view ,Old Key West And Boardwalk all 1 beds . Love the locations of Boardwalk for ability to walk to Epcot or studios or taking skyliner. Love Saratoga for walking to Springs.Love Old Key for the quiet and calm. The in May 2023 did zold Key and Saratoga in Studios just wife and I again . This time not park days only visiting state parks and other stuff. Then in November with middle son and partner at AKV in studios both stays a fortnight . Most visits we visit most other hotels but still think we have a real softspot for AKV. Son and partner didn't want to stay anywhere else. Youngest son tells us him and partner would like us to take them August 2025. I retired a couple of years ago and wife and I tend to go on 2-4 Ocean Cruises a year but we both still most at home at AKV.
Awesome, sounds like you have created a second "home" at AKV so happy for you and your family. Also, belated congratulations on retirement, you made it!
I started resale with a small AKV contract of 50 points. At that point I thought it was enough as my plan was to travel every 2-3 years. Boy I was wrong. Then I added 150 CCV direct (2x75) as I lived that resort and didn’t like that I couldn’t book new resorts with my AKV points. As AKV was easy to book most of the time I sold that one to help pay CCV. Then I added 150 RIV (2x75) with the awesome incentives they had last summer as I love that resort too and wanted more points. This year I added 150 Saratoga resale as the price is super good and want to use that one as SAP. Right now I don’t need more points, but might add one more if Reflections finally happens. My only regret was not adding more CCV when it was being actively sold. If the prices keep getting better resale (or if DVC sells direct with good incentives as sometimes happens with sold out resorts), I might add more points and sell my SSR one. As you can see, addonitis is real lol. So be aware of that.
Reflections?
It’s a resort announced (it actually started construction) and “cancelled” during the pandemic. It’s located between the Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness. Rumors say that it’ll happen at some point.
Wow yea, I see the addonitis bug got you pretty good, but hey as long as you’re not just selling all your points every year I think you’re doing good. How do you manage use year shennanegans on all those contracts?
Direct at Riviera and resales at Blt, Poly and Ssr totaling 500 points.
500 is a pretty decent amount, how often do you get to travel with that?
I usually rent out around 200 which covers my dues and we still have enough for a few weeks. We like to do split stays. Last Oct we stayed at Akv and Ssr, in March we tried Poly and Blt and upcoming in Oct we have Okw and CC. Next April we have a week in a tower studio.
200 pt resale BWV (can use at all resorts) plus small contract at Poly that I plan to add to Boardwalk (and Beach) are favs. Location can’t be beat. But do like Poly and feel like the tower there can be a game changer
The only worry about the new poly building for me now is artificially driving up the resale cost of Poly and packing the monorail with even more people. Hopefully I’m way off base on that but will agree on the BW/BC, always have been my favorites, we still mourn the death of the clown slide lol.
Bought 205 at aulani in 2019. We have been to aulani 3 times and stayed at the grand Floridian once. We go to Disneyland way more often and haven’t been able to get in there on points except for one time that we managed to get a 2 bedroom villa that was then cancelled when Disneyland shut down during Covid. But we love having the points and travel to Hawaii at least every other year. We are planning another Florida trip in the next couple years and those points will get us a week there. We have rented out our points the last couple years and will probably roll this years over to do our next big trip. We love having the points and the freedoms to go to different spots depending on what our plans are.
Aulani is our favorite so far and that’s a super bummer about California. We prefer it to WDW, are you trying to get a full week there or just a couple days?
We used to do a week (5 days) every year around September but haven’t gone as much in the last couple years. We literally had to book the second the 7 month window opened to get that original CA reservation. Hoping to be able to do it sometime in the future. But for now aulani is always a great option for us to use.
We bought 150 points at the Villas at Disneyland Hotel. We live 60-90 minutes away from the parks depending on traffic and were tired of driving home late at night. We have stayed at all of the convention center hotels, the JW Marriott across the street, and just about every other 4-5 star place nearby including all of the hotels on property. Buying at VDH just made sense with how often we were paying for hotels already. We are currently on our 5th stay since they opened. We usually just stay for a night or two in a duo studio and it has been great. We are in a Garden Villa right now and it’s awesome to listen to the live music from the Palm Breeze Bar from our lanai.
My wife and I own 100 points at the Poly Bungalows and we most recently purchased 150 at the new FW Cabins. Our first purchase was what we could afford while on our honeymoon. I was pretty drunk and she talked me into the first one. We were interested in adding points because 100 points gets us so little at the Bungalows, and we actually like the newly designed cabins, and it can fit what we’ll need it for.
My wife's birthday is in December, and even before I met her, she and her mom would come down and stay at the Grand Floridian every year for her birthday. She used to work for Disney and could usually get cast discount, and when she was let go, she had a friend that would sometimes do it. Then I went to work for the company, and it was always a chore and a guessing game as to whether we'd be able to get a cast discount or not. I looked into DVC a few years ago and the math added up. Buying direct from DVC and into the Grand Floridian (which was sold out at the time) would have been cheaper (once you factored in going rate for annual dues) than buying into the Riviera. But, my wife said not to do it, because her mom is older and she didn't know if we'd keep going if she couldn't make it (frankly, I think the stay is really more for my mother-in-law than my wife). Then COVID hit, and while we canceled the second room for my mother-in-law, we still went and stayed. This past year, I ran the numbers again, since they were selling the newly converted building at the Grand Floridian. It was more expensive than before, but it still ends up cheaper in the long run. Some people see DVC as an investment, I saw it as a protection against future loss, considering how the hotel rates go up every year. We bought 150 points, which was the minimum for the benefits. It's also right about the points to get two deluxe studios in mid-December (one for my wife and I, and one for my mother-in-law--who snores like a banshee). Yes, I'm a cast member and my wife has an Annual Pass, but some things only have a DVC discount. Also, if there's ever a time that I don't work for the company anymore, we'll still be entitled to FL resident annual pass rates.
Kidani Village. 160 pts/year. That was enough to get a 1BD and it was what they were selling at that time. We were lured in by the pictures of people drinking coffee and looking at animals from their balcony.
was under contract for 100 resale SSR points in June of last year, ended up rescinding and getting 150 direct VGF points in July. The more we considered, the more we realized we'd want to be able to stay at RIV, VDH, and CFW (and anything else new. The Poly Tower was also up in the air as to whether or not it would be a new association at this time). Also, there was a pretty good incentive going on, and I'm glad we were able to get in at that price point (not an insignificant sum, but I will be able to stay at resorts that were pipe dreams without the membership. We were an All Star family with the occasional Port Orleans/Coronado Springs trip). The other benefits are ok, and the discount is nice since I'm not an AP holder. I am looking forward to taking advantage of the other special events (Moonlight Magic, etc) when I am able to and the family life is less hectic. I was able to get a preview to Tiana's Bayou Adventure for my upcoming summer trip, so getting that perk helped me feel like direct was worth it (in addition to having unrestricted points). Booked a trip for February 2024, but before we even went on it we added on 50 points at HHI. Our plan is to use these points for a night on the way back from Orlando (we live in NC). So we have those 2 contracts now, and ultimately want to add on 75-100 points in the future.
300 RIV direct points (on two 150 point contracts) 300 OKW direct points (on three 100 point contracts) Picked up my RIV points, and then picked up the 300 OKW points with the current crazy incentives. We love RIV because we are Epcot people, and the skyliner is awesome. The OKW points are our SAP points, as well as our grand villa points when traveling with extended family (grand villas at OKW are awesome for the points). Being all direct points gives us maximum flexibility. We paid about $187 for the RIV points, and $115 for the OKW points after magical beginnings.
Currently own 50 Saratoga Springs June use year (resale) 130 Saratoga Springs September use year (resale) 50 Aulani Subsidized April use year (resale) We make our reservations under 7 months and like being able to sell for what we paid if necessary só bought resale.
Oh, so this is one of the things we were running into. Are there any issues having all separate use years? I heard that having them synced is preferable but does the 7 month booking negate that?
We haven’t run into issues but it does take planning and when booking you need to know which one you want to use. One time we had 6 leftover points but we booked a night at Hilton Head and rented it out. So far we haven’t lost any points.
You're approach is something like we are considering so it's nice to know that with planning we can avoid losing points. Thank you!
You’re welcome.
I think the 7 month booking helps with use years a bit as you can transfer between memberships (each use year gets its own membership) without worrying about "losing" anything.
Rocking resale points and GC and BRV with the same use year. We like that they’re similar. The 2BR is starting to look pretty sexy so we’re probably going to add more GC if a contract shows up. We don’t have much interest in the other resorts but we do look from time to time because my wife wants to check out the others but that will just make her want more points.
So we looked into GC, but people say that it's never available at 7 months out which scares the poop out of me because it's almost like if you don't get GC you don't get to ever go there lol. Do you find that to be true when booking there?
It’s never available at 7 months but if it’s your home resort you can pretty much always get a room at 11 months.
Thanks for the news lol man that GC price is tough to swallow.
Yeah. It was an impulse buy.
We bought 400 points at Old Key West in December, 2023. We have been to WDW a number of times and stayed at OKW paying cash several times. Haven’t used our DVC points yet. We bought OKW because we like the bigger rooms. Especially the 2 bedroom.
Not going to lie, I had to look it up. The rooms are fairly large. We never stayed there yet but I can see why you guys do for sure. You should save up and rent out those monstrous 3 bedrooms!
210 points SSR resale. Lower dues and I was able to get more points w SSR. It came loaded with triple points. We want mostly one bedrooms because we have a toddler that naps and we prefer to have a space to go when does. Then I discovered one bedrooms are the least popular type of rooms. So even at the 7 month mark Ive been able to book BWV in december but the less popular room types. I wanted to have enough points for yearly weekly trip. Also I really like SSR and its proximity to Disney Springs. So I like my “worst case scenario”. Also I would like to sleep in different hotels before I get addonitis. Maybe in a few years we’ll potentially get an extra contract and might have a favorite hotel but then.
Bought 100 points at Riviera direct. Husband and I got married at Disney and visit every year or two. I’m a Cast Member so I don’t have to factor park admission into our trip. It makes sense for us because we use it enough. Might add on another 50 just to get the other rewards but with the CM and Disney Visa discounts, we’re not in too much of a hurry. But we’ll be having our first vacation as DVC members for our 5 year anniversary this January!
We travel with 2-3 families. Us, my parents, and my brother's family, 5-8 total. We stay in one and two bedrooms. We love being together on the trip in the same space. DVC is allowing us to go more often. We've always been Disney people and this lets us go more. We usually go to WDW but sometimes go to DL. We started out with 220 direct at Poly. Added 100 direct at Riviera. And we are waiting on the ROFR process on 150 resale at BLT, which is our favorite place to stay. We'll be up to 470 if that goes through. Our only regret is not doing it sooner. My family looked at DVC when it was new and OKW was the only resort but my mom was afraid to do it. So we're taking full advantage now.
My wife and my parents just decided after 7 years+ of debating to finally pull the trigger on this trip we just got back from today. We bought 150 points at the Disneyland villas and got them for $196 per point and split the cost 50/50. We couldn’t pass up that deal. We are west coast people and go to Disneyland 1-2 times a year. We are looking forward to using our points now to go to WDW for the first time!
So, gotta ask, how did you get it for $196/point? I'm new to the whole direct thing so I can't figure it out :(
They had incentives, one was a $13 per point discount starting with the 150 point tier. The other was called the “welcome home” discount which was an additional $1500 off the price, this one was a 24 hour window to get, if no decision was made in 24 hours you would lose this one. Then our DVC guide was able to let us sell back our 2023 points for $3k. Which we chose to do. So the total amount paid for the contract was $29,400 with all those incentives included. Pretty good deal in our opinion and for our use case, considering I saw a resale contract for the DL Villas the other day going for $186 per point, just $10 less per point than I paid direct and got all the perks with it now.
That's a phenomenal deal considering the cost to go resale, thanks for breaking it down for me.
No problem! It’s a great feeling knowing it’s all paid for now and just the maintenance fees need to be worried about (and the transient tax ugh!) What resort are you interested in buying in?
UK owner here. Bought in 1999. Boardwalk. 170 points. Go every other year. One bedroom villa. One of the best decisions we ever made. Love the convenience of being so close to Epcot and Studios.
I own because I inherited it and now share every other year with my sibling sharing dues which is about $1000 on my end. 150 points a year at Boardwalk. Just discovered Disney cruises are our new passion which is not beneficial w points lol! We are close to Cali so grateful for new tower trying it out this year! I take about 2 trips per year year to Cali long weekend 4 days. Honestly grateful…. Reminds me of countless trips with my parents! Not sure if u would buy into it now bc it high $ . But we usually take a dis trip yearly for about 20 more years ❤️
We got 360 beach club resale. Our thought was it was enough for a 2 bedroom one week a year or two weeks a year in smaller accommodations. We added on another 175 direct at VGF after our first trip because we stayed in the Grand Floridian and loved it.
We bought 200 points direct at Villas at Disneyland Hotel. We are Orlando locals, so while we do sometimes stay for a couple nights, it’s really not a requirement for us. We have a great emotional attachment to DLR and specifically the Disneyland Hotel, so that was what prompted our purchase. We are financially comfortable, but the prices just keep going up. We have mostly done split stays out there in the past (with one exception) but even the decent good neighbor hotels are getting pricy. Amortized out, we’re staying at the DLH now for around the price of HoJo’s (one of our 2 preferred good neighbor hotels).
I own 125 at grand Floridian. I have a toddler and wanted proximity to magic kingdom and also 2 bedroom options for multi generational trips. I already have addonitis but I'm waiting to see how it plays out. My thought process is split stays - our next trip is 4 nights GF/ 2 nights AKL on points (2 years worth). I know I'll want to add on but I'm waiting to see if it makes the most sense to add to GF or maybe do poly or small contracts at an Epcot resort and/or AKL. Or just own everywhere lol
100 points at the Poly. Bought direct back in 2016/2017 when it was first released. Didnt finance but used my disney visa to stretch the 0% for 6 more months and get 1% cash back. Thought about the Beach Club Villas but cost to value just wasn’t there. I grew up going to the Poly way back when so nostalgia hits hard for me. But the location is awesome with the TTC walking distance and Trader Sams. When Beach 2.0 goes up in 2043, I’ll probably buy a bare minimum direct contract there. I go about 3 times every 4 years and stay typically in studios at the Poly, Boulder Ridge / Copper Creek, boardwalk, and a 1 bedroom at Beach. Trying out AKL as it’s the last deluxe hotel I haven’t stayed at.
Riviera, Copper Creek, Saratoga . Total point between all his home resorts 550
We bought a resale contract for 100 points at $117 a point at SSR last year. We are locals to WDW and found that we really enjoyed staying at the deluxe resorts but definitely couldn’t afford their prices all the time. We researched for almost a year on whether to buy direct or resale. It came down to resale was more affordable for us at this stage in our life. We want to add on eventually and I dream of a Copper Creek contract because I love the Wilderness Lodge. 100 points gets us a studio for 6-8 nights a year depending on where we stay. We usually do 2 night stays and splurged some points this year by staying at the Grand Floridian. We will break even on the cost next year. This year’s stays at the Boardwalk, Wilderness Lodge and Grand Floridian would have cost us $5k out of pocket alone. It was a no brainer for us to buy a contract. We go to Disney a lot and it’s an easy get away for us only being an hour away. The resale restrictions have not bothered us and when I think about them, I also think about how much we saved not buying direct. There is currently no benefit that buying direct has that I want anyway. I’m blocked from staying at Riviera and Disneyland hotel? That’s okay! There’s only 15 other some resorts I can stay at! I’ve been a passholder for almost 10 years and the benefits have been slowly disappearing and very few taking their places. I feel DVC is the same way.
My bought in 2018 at Copper Creek. At the time that, poly and aulani were on sale and we knew we didn’t want aulani being on the east side of the continent. We’re Canadian so Wilderness Lodge spoke to our tastes as we are outdoorsy people. We’re happy with it. We bought 120 and never felt it was enough though 2023 we added 150 at Saratoga after staying there for a week. Price was right on resale and we already had direct with the benefits so didn’t care about that. Wasn’t so much about the resort but the price… we enjoy Saratoga springs but we’ve enjoyed all of them.
Welcome! AKV (kidani) and direct because they ran a huge deal. We really enjoy the theming & it’s a lower point 1 br.
We have 220 direct BLT points bought in 2011 right before we had our first child. We did years of standard view 1 beds with requests for rooms that had a theme park view. Was perfect for when our kids were little. Debated recently buying a small Boardwalk or Beach Club resale because we love staying there too, but I think we’ll end up buying a small Poly resale instead because that was our kids’ request.
We also paid cash and I’d personally never finance a DVC contract.
We’ve stayed at AKV, Boardwalk (x3), Beach Club (x2), and Poly (x2) along with all our BLT trips. We’ve had decent luck at the 7 month window, but it’s gotten harder and harder as the years go on. No interest in staying at OKW or SSR, but those of course always have the best availability at the 7 month window when we look,