DVC HELP - Buy direct CCVC or resale ... that is the question

[10CJ]

Thanks for your help everyone!

 

[BEASLYBOO]

You can do all of the homework you want about DVC/timeshare ownership, yes it’s a timeshare, but how happy your purchase will make you comes down to this...

if you cannot book at least 7 months in advance, do not buy DVC at all.

 

[Deb & Bill]

You can do all of the homework you want about DVC/timeshare ownership, yes it’s a timeshare, but how happy your purchase will make you comes down to this...

And even then, you might be disappointed at seven months out.

 

[piratepride]

So are you saying it really doesn't matter, if we aren't the type to care about staying at a "home" resort? BTW ... how did you like staying at AK? That's one we are looking at possibly.

Right....if you don't really care buy the most affordable that is available at the time w/ the amount of points you desire.

AK Jambo was fantastic! We have a SV view and loved it!!! AK was around $82 per point when we purchased. We were able to get SSR for $65 per point. That was a huge savings for us that could be used for future trips! That is how we looked at it. You will not be disappointed w/ AK!

 

[kboo]

We are considering DVC because of our family size. We all love Disney and we have to stay in at least a 2-bedroom. Our children range from 3-10 yrs old so we feel like we have many more years to go PLUS my husband and I love Disney so I can't see us not wanting to go when we are older and the kids are grown (it may actually be more fun LOL). Would you suggest getting the most points at the best price through resale and booking whatever we can get for 2 bedroom or are their certain resorts that are better than others for a 2-bedroom that we should be concentrating on. Our priority would be 300+ points, 2-bedroom availability, and final cost. I feel like it gets more and more difficult the closer it gets to making that decision, but of course we want to go in making the best decision we can so any insight would help.

I may have missed this earlier, but is there a reason why you can't plan 7-11 months out? Presumably your kids have a school schedule so you roughly know when your available times are? As others have said, if you are regularly only settling on dates <7 mo out, DVC may not be the right fit for you. That said, if you know roughly when you would be planning to go, but might be off by a day or so at 6-7 months out, you may be fine, because you could book a placeholder reservation and adjust it, if space is available, closer to 5, 6, 7 months out from your trip. Changes that early, with the right UY, should protect your points from going into holding. If you can *roughly* plan a trip and it's only the start date or end date that may change, then home resort may matter more. But if HR doesn't really matter and you really just want to get a 2BR, the SSR and OKWE are probably your best bets.

Alternatively, since you are FL residents, if you are looking at using your points for stays here and there over a weekend if something opens up, and you could conceivably go *any* weekend something opens up ANY weekend in the next 5-8 months, then you also MAY be able to make your points work by using the waitlist. But if you're going to be doing that, then don't only buy enough points to go by banking and borrowing; instead, I would buy enough points to use each year so your account doesn't get messy if you're banking and borrowing AND regularly using the waitlist. And if you are going to use this "strategy," then def buy a lower priced SSR contract.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

Alternatively, since you are FL residents, if you are looking at using your points for stays here and there over a weekend if something opens up, and you could conceivably go *any* weekend something opens up ANY weekend in the next 5-8 months, then you also MAY be able to make your points work by using the waitlist. But if you're going to be doing that, then don't only buy enough points to go by banking and borrowing; instead, I would buy enough points to use each year so your account doesn't get messy if you're banking and borrowing AND regularly using the waitlist. And if you are going to use this "strategy," then def buy a lower priced SSR contract.

As a FL resident, that's exactly what I did/do. With a younger child, I'd get that school schedule and book long week-ends, spring break etc. Now, the kid is grown, I still book a year ahead, Food & Wine, Birthdays, look at my signature I have 6-7 in the works now. I may not know who's going/when but I can change that later with MS, as time nears. And at times I've booked 2-3 months ahead and taken what was available, because in the end I want the getaway and I'm not stuck on one particular resort. Personally I seldom wait-list. Example, I own and love OKW but unless I book it at 11 months, because the points are cheap, other DVC'ers who diss it, book there anyway. That's how I ended up at Kidani and BLT on a couple of these trips, OKW was booked up by the 7 month mark.

 

[NewYorkMom]

Right....if you don't really care buy the most affordable that is available at the time w/ the amount of points you desire.

AK Jambo was fantastic! We have a SV view and loved it!!! AK was around $82 per point when we purchased. We were able to get SSR for $65 per point. That was a huge savings for us that could be used for future trips! That is how we looked at it. You will not be disappointed w/ AK!

Thank you! When buying AK vs SSR ... did you keep the same UY or different? If different, do you find it difficult to manage the two and transfer points from one to another if needed?

 

[NewYorkMom]

I may have missed this earlier, but is there a reason why you can't plan 7-11 months out? Presumably your kids have a school schedule so you roughly know when your available times are? As others have said, if you are regularly only settling on dates <7 mo out, DVC may not be the right fit for you. That said, if you know roughly when you would be planning to go, but might be off by a day or so at 6-7 months out, you may be fine, because you could book a placeholder reservation and adjust it, if space is available, closer to 5, 6, 7 months out from your trip. Changes that early, with the right UY, should protect your points from going into holding. If you can *roughly* plan a trip and it's only the start date or end date that may change, then home resort may matter more. But if HR doesn't really matter and you really just want to get a 2BR, the SSR and OKWE are probably your best bets.

Alternatively, since you are FL residents, if you are looking at using your points for stays here and there over a weekend if something opens up, and you could conceivably go *any* weekend something opens up ANY weekend in the next 5-8 months, then you also MAY be able to make your points work by using the waitlist. But if you're going to be doing that, then don't only buy enough points to go by banking and borrowing; instead, I would buy enough points to use each year so your account doesn't get messy if you're banking and borrowing AND regularly using the waitlist. And if you are going to use this "strategy," then def buy a lower priced SSR contract.

We are a homeschool family in FL so we are very flexible. I just can't predict the future thus me saying unable to plan ahead. Yes, we can definitely plan "roughly" as far as months we want to go and I'm sure once we become DVC things will change and we would "plan" more. As far as points, we are looking at 350+ points BUT I am wondering if it's smarter to do smaller contracts at different resorts. Example: AKV and BLT. So say I do 150 points at AKV and 200 points at BLT, I'm assuming I should look at staying with the same UY right?

 

[Deb & Bill]

Thank you! When buying AK vs SSR ... did you keep the same UY or different? If different, do you find it difficult to manage the two and transfer points from one to another if needed?

The thing you need to worry about with transferring between your own contacts is making sure you don't borrow the transferred points because you can't. You can only use current year points or bank those points into the next UY. We have two UYs, Sept and Dec. Our Dec contract is a smaller 50 point OKW contract. Our Sept is a 175 OKW and 100 BRV (VWL original points). If I need more points to book with Sept, I have to check that I don't need those points in Sept thru Nov. Only Dec or later. Plus you cannot transfer banked or borrowed points.

 

[NewYorkMom]

The thing you need to worry about with transferring between your own contacts is making sure you don't borrow the transferred points because you can't. You can only use current year points or bank those points into the next UY. We have two UYs, Sept and Dec. Our Dec contract is a smaller 50 point OKW contract. Our Sept is a 175 OKW and 100 BRV (VWL original points). If I need more points to book with Sept, I have to check that I don't need those points in Sept thru Nov. Only Dec or later. Plus you cannot transfer banked or borrowed points.

Let's see if I understand using your examples above:

DEC - 50 OKW
SEP - 175 OKW and 100 BRV

Trip wanting is JAN 2019 at BRV and you need 200 points. Say you are booking in July 2018 (That's only 6 months out) and all of your DEC and SEP points will be in the account prior to your JAN 2019 trip. Do you need to transfer all of the DEC OKW points and 50 of the SEP OKW points in order to make that one booking at BRV? If so, how difficult is that between 2 memberships and is it difficult to manage?

 

[Deb & Bill]

Let's see if I understand using your examples above:

DEC - 50 OKW
SEP - 175 OKW and 100 BRV

Trip wanting is JAN 2019 at BRV and you need 200 points. Say you are booking in July 2018 (That's only 6 months out) and all of your DEC and SEP points will be in the account prior to your JAN 2019 trip. Do you need to transfer all of the DEC OKW points and 50 of the SEP OKW points in order to make that one booking at BRV? If so, how difficult is that between 2 memberships and is it difficult to manage?

If we needed the 50 points, we just call Member Services and they make the transfer. Since a Jan trip doesn't require borrowing, we can transfer the Dec points to the Sept contract. Now if we were talking about a Nov trip. We would transfer the Sept points to the Dec contract and then borrow the Dec points (the Sept points would already be good and technically not required to borrow them). We would just transfer as many points as we needed to book the trip. Any left over points could be banked into the next year. And if we need more the next year, we just have to make sure we aren't trying to transfer any banked points.

 

[NewYorkMom]

If we needed the 50 points, we just call Member Services and they make the transfer. Since a Jan trip doesn't require borrowing, we can transfer the Dec points to the Sept contract. Now if we were talking about a Nov trip. We would transfer the Sept points to the Dec contract and then borrow the Dec points (the Sept points would already be good and technically not required to borrow them). We would just transfer as many points as we needed to book the trip. Any left over points could be banked into the next year. And if we need more the next year, we just have to make sure we aren't trying to transfer any banked points.

Thank you! So basically it's not that difficult as long as you keep track of what you did ... borrow, bank, transfer, etc.? Is there a limit on how many times per UY you do this?

What would you do to make this work for a trip in OCT this year and need say 330 points at SSR?:

150 contract AUG AKL 3 points 2018 | 150 2019
250 contract FEB BLT 285 points (35 banked from 2017) | 250 2019

Trying to understand all before purchasing 2 separate contracts with 2 different UY. Thank you so much!!!!

 

[disneynutz]

Having 2 UY's is twice the work, more to keep track of and a greater opportunity for mistakes by you and MS.

Bill

 

[Deb & Bill]

Thank you! So basically it's not that difficult as long as you keep track of what you did ... borrow, bank, transfer, etc.? Is there a limit on how many times per UY you do this?

What would you do to make this work for a trip in OCT this year and need say 330 points at SSR?:

150 contract AUG AKL 3 points 2018 | 150 2019
250 contract FEB BLT 285 points (35 banked from 2017) | 250 2019

Trying to understand all before purchasing 2 separate contracts with 2 different UY. Thank you so much!!!!

You'd just need to use the Feb BLT points. Use the banked 35, plus current 250, plus borrow 45 from UY 2019.

An Oct 2018 trip would fall in an Aug 2018 UY (so you'd only have 3 current year points, no banked points and you'd have to borrow all the 2019 points plus some from the Feb 2018 BLT contract (couldn't use the banked 35).
An Oct 2018 trip would fall in a Feb 2018 UY (so you'd have the 35 banked points, 250 current points and points to borrow). You'd only have 3 points to transfer and use from the AKL 2018 UY.

You can only transfer in or out once per UY. They sometime give you a little slack if you are transferring from one contract that you own to another that you own. But every time I have transferred from Dec to Sept or Sept to Dec, they have told me that was my once a year transfer in and out. (out from one and into the other).

 

[NewYorkMom]

You'd just need to use the Feb BLT points. Use the banked 35, plus current 250, plus borrow 45 from UY 2019.

An Oct 2018 trip would fall in an Aug 2018 UY (so you'd only have 3 current year points, no banked points and you'd have to borrow all the 2019 points plus some from the Feb 2018 BLT contract (couldn't use the banked 35).
An Oct 2018 trip would fall in a Feb 2018 UY (so you'd have the 35 banked points, 250 current points and points to borrow). You'd only have 3 points to transfer and use from the AKL 2018 UY.

You can only transfer in or out once per UY. They sometime give you a little slack if you are transferring from one contract that you own to another that you own. But every time I have transferred from Dec to Sept or Sept to Dec, they have told me that was my once a year transfer in and out. (out from one and into the other).

Okay so then you'd just BANK the 3 AKL AUG points before the deadline to 2019 UY? Since the trip for OCT 2018 was used and borrowed from the BLT contract?

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

We are a homeschool family in FL so we are very flexible. I just can't predict the future thus me saying unable to plan ahead. Yes, we can definitely plan "roughly" as far as months we want to go and I'm sure once we become DVC things will change and we would "plan" more. As far as points, we are looking at 350+ points BUT I am wondering if it's smarter to do smaller contracts at different resorts. Example: AKV and BLT. So say I do 150 points at AKV and 200 points at BLT, I'm assuming I should look at staying with the same UY right?

Unless you can say for certain that you will start booking 11 months out then the resort doesn't matter. You'd be throwing $$$'s away buying multiple contract and paying multiple closing costs plus a higher purchase price on some of those resorts without taking advantage of the reason to own at them - the home priority booking window. What you might want to do is to buy a smaller contract - 150 points or so and see how your use goes. I'd still recommend SSR for the best value if you're not going to book at 11 months. Then, if you find you can book further out, it's working for you and you need more points add on another 150-200 points at a different resort that you've developed a preference for.

 

[CraigInPA]

I'm not sure how many 350 point contracts show up for any resort. I suspect you'll probably have to pick a resort, and then buy 2 contracts. 150, 160, 175, and 200 point contracts are fairly common sizes at all resorts. I've also seen a smattering of 300's, but most of those over the last few years have been SSR or AKL.

 

[NewYorkMom]

I'm not sure how many 350 point contracts show up for any resort. I suspect you'll probably have to pick a resort, and then buy 2 contracts. 150, 160, 175, and 200 point contracts are fairly common sizes at all resorts. I've also seen a smattering of 300's, but most of those over the last few years have been SSR or AKL.

Yes, I'll be doing more than one contract

 

[kboo]

We are a homeschool family in FL so we are very flexible. I just can't predict the future thus me saying unable to plan ahead. Yes, we can definitely plan "roughly" as far as months we want to go and I'm sure once we become DVC things will change and we would "plan" more. As far as points, we are looking at 350+ points BUT I am wondering if it's smarter to do smaller contracts at different resorts. Example: AKV and BLT. So say I do 150 points at AKV and 200 points at BLT, I'm assuming I should look at staying with the same UY right?

I would suggest you stay with 1 UY and if you are really set on 2 different home resorts, remember that you cannot combine or transfer to use them all at 11 months (or anywhere in the 7-11 mo window) at 1 resort. AKV points are always AKV points and can only be used in the 7-11 mo window at AKV, etc.

Before buying in to DVC, we usually planned 3-4 months out, but since we bought DVC, we are now planning at 11 mo. out and talking about when we take vacations and which points we are using, going into 2019 and even 2020.

Unless you can say for certain that you will start booking 11 months out then the resort doesn't matter. You'd be throwing $$$'s away buying multiple contract and paying multiple closing costs plus a higher purchase price on some of those resorts without taking advantage of the reason to own at them - the home priority booking window. What you might want to do is to buy a smaller contract - 150 points or so and see how your use goes. I'd still recommend SSR for the best value if you're not going to book at 11 months. Then, if you find you can book further out, it's working for you and you need more points add on another 150-200 points at a different resort that you've developed a preference for.

KAT was responding to your response that I quoted, and I'm adding it here to basically say, "What KAT4DISNEY said." Given what you said earlier about how you plan, and the # of points you think you need, your $$ are much better spent starting with a 150 point contract at SSR, seeing what you can get when you are ready to book, and then adding more points after you get used to the system. For BLT standard rooms of virtually any size, you do need to be able to book close to, or at 11 months out. So don't bother buying BLT rooms expecting to book standard (or TPV) rooms at 7, 8 or even 9 months out. The system favors those who are able to plan well in advance. At 8am exactly 7 mo before your planned travel date, a VGC/VGF point that someone paid $200 for gets you the same thing as an SSR point that you paid <$100 for.

 

[NewYorkMom]

I would suggest you stay with 1 UY and if you are really set on 2 different home resorts, remember that you cannot combine or transfer to use them all at 11 months (or anywhere in the 7-11 mo window) at 1 resort. AKV points are always AKV points and can only be used in the 7-11 mo window at AKV, etc.

Before buying in to DVC, we usually planned 3-4 months out, but since we bought DVC, we are now planning at 11 mo. out and talking about when we take vacations and which points we are using, going into 2019 and even 2020.

YES - I feel like our family would be the same way!

KAT was responding to your response that I quoted, and I'm adding it here to basically say, "What KAT4DISNEY said." Given what you said earlier about how you plan, and the # of points you think you need, your $$ are much better spent starting with a 150 point contract at SSR, seeing what you can get when you are ready to book, and then adding more points after you get used to the system. For BLT standard rooms of virtually any size, you do need to be able to book close to, or at 11 months out. So don't bother buying BLT rooms expecting to book standard (or TPV) rooms at 7, 8 or even 9 months out. The system favors those who are able to plan well in advance. At 8am exactly 7 mo before your planned travel date, a VGC/VGF point that someone paid $200 for gets you the same thing as an SSR point that you paid <$100 for.

We cannot start that low due to our family size. We need to book 2-bedroom otherwise it's truly not worth it for us at such a low point amount. That is why we are looking at 300+. As far as home resorts, we would like the option to book 11 months out for both AKV and BLT that is why we are not looking at SSR plus the fact that AKV and BLT have longer terms. If we decide to be last minute, then we will be happy anywhere.

Thank you so much for everyone's input!! Hopefully, we will make the right decision and be apart of the DVC family!! Fingers crossed for passings of ROFR.