Buy Riviera now, but can't use any points until Dec 16....

You say that you would want to stay in two studios with your family of six rather than a two bedroom. If the ages of your children are such that you need to have those studios connecting, that is with a door between the two units, you need to know that the Poly is the only DVC resort that has any studios that connect to each other. In all the other resorts, studios are either dedicated units that have no doors except the door to the hallway, or are the second bedroom of a two bedroom villa, connecting to the living room of a one bedroom villa. In those resorts you can request that the two studios be close to each other, but at best they will be one or two doors down the hall or across from each other.
 
You keep missing the posts that say it doesn't sound like you are a good fit for DVC. Trying to constantly book at three months out is going to totally frustrate you every time. You won't get studios at three months out. Even two bedrooms will be hard at three months out. If you buy direct, you might get your first reservation at three months out, but maybe not your choice of resorts because your "guide" will help you get that one. But no others.

I don't think you get it.
 
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One more thing. With two studios, at least one guest in each studio must be 18 or older.
 
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To add to Deb & Bill’s point. I just checked for availability 3 months from today for ONE studio for 7 nights. 11/15-22/19

Here’s what I found:

BCV - nothing
BWV - nothing
PVB - nothing
BLT - 3 nights Mon-Wed
GFV - nothing
CCV - nothing
BRV - nothing
AKV Kidani - nothing
AKV Jambo - 1 night Mon
SSR - nothing
OKW - nothing

Lack of short notice resort availability is no joke and one mustn’t gloss over that. It would be super frustrating to spend $1000’s of dollars on a contract and not be able to book vacations. Either change how you plan your vacations or don’t buy DVC. You will be very disappointed.
 


Here’s how things look for a two bedroom:

BCV - nothing
BWV - nothing
PVB - 1 night in a points gobbling bungalow
BLT - 1 night
GFV - 1 night
CCV - 1 night in a points gobbling cabin
BRV - nothing
AKV Kidani - 1 night
AKV Jambo - 1 night
SSR - 3 nights
OKW - 2 nights

It would not be fun trying to piecemeal some kind of vacation with this very limited availability.

Hope this gives you some concrete understanding of what we’re talking about.

I love DVC but it is super tough finding what you want (or anything for that matter) at the last minute. I’ve spent the last month and a half stalking and waitlisting MULTIPLE TIMES EVERYDAY to get two nights at the end of my Swolphin stay at my SECOND choice resort. It was last minute because I just bought BCV and didn’t have points available to book sooner. It was a couple days at the end of our week and just my DH and I... I had a plan B. But you better believe our family vacation for next June was booked at 11 months out!
 
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When a member looks for availability online, there is a tool on the member website that will tell them if ONE of any kind is available. You can't look for two being available until after you book the first one. Then, if you are less than 31 days out, if you can't get the second one and need to cancel the first one, the points you used to book the first one go into Holding status. That means you can't use those points to book anything more than 60 days out, plus they will expire at the end of your UY. So when you are asking owners if they are using the Availability Tool, that's the only way they can check availability unless they call Member Services every time they want to check for someone renting points. The Availability Tool is only available for members to use. If you found something on line, it's not official and accurate and just something someone put on their site.

If a DVC sales person has told you they can get you that villa if you buy today, they may be using points that only DVC Sales can get their hands on to make a sale. But you won't get that deal the next time you try to book. They are done with you and you have signed by the palm trees at that point.

If you are looking at the Disney Reservation Center online, those villas are not available for points. Ever. Those are only good for cash stays, not points. Those represent points traded by owners to book a non-DVC stay, like a Disney Cruise or Adv by Disney or a Disney hotel, or points owned by DVC, either as the 2% they maintain or inventory they have foreclosed on or bought back through Right of First Refusal.
 
All the advice you are getting on here is very real and very true. DVC is awesome if you know how it works and your style of vacation planning suits it. I'm a recent DVC resale owner and I have seen it first hand that for busy times, you need to book 11 months out at your home resort... so buy where you like to stay is important. For less busy times, you still need to book at 7 months out to ensure you aren't frantically trying to piece together a vacation stay, hoping for all your dates to come through. As for booking 2 studios, we are doing that this vacation with our family of 6, but we booked it at 11 months out at our home resort. I checked at 7 months to see the availability as I thought my kids and their partners might want to stay at OKW with the two queen beds and to be away from us boring parents, and there wasn't a full week in a studio available even there... which usually has availability at 7 months.
So, if you always want to book at 3 months out, I would keep staying at Disney the traditional way. Buying into DVC will just lead to regret and frustration. If you are willing to plan at least 7 months out, then I say go for it. I also think what one poster said, buying direct at SSR and resale at Poly is your very best option of getting the best deal with all the benefits of direct ownership.
 


buying direct at SSR and resale at Poly is your very best option of getting the best deal with all the benefits of direct ownership.
All very good comments @igrsod ! What i will add is that make sure your thoroughly understand what each resort has to offer for rooms, Poly will likely not be ideal because it is really only studios (and the over priced bungalows) so 2 Studios at Poly is likely going to be more expensive than a 2BR at SSR.

But the fact that I am paying out of pocket for this particular trip when I have decided to jump into DVC doesn't make it feel as "magical".
but you can't beat the price of Riviera now at 188pp, with the extra incentive offer, vs 235pp if we were to go with points at Polynesian. And we can get 270 points (paying for 250) vs only 200 at Poly. Of course we considered buying Aulani for the same price, as well as the incentive offer that is still out there I think. But as I peruse the boards here, I see that many people combine or buy more resale points later. Maybe that's an option, too? And now, I see that maybe we should just buy SS for dollar value too. AND i can use my points now!
If you are bothered by paying out of pocket for this trip then you do have the option to cancel the trip and just put that money aside for your DVC purchase. As for Poly - do not buy direct. I just bought a Poly resale and saved $9000 compared to direct -- so absolutely insane to go direct for that resort. Also do not buy Aulani if WDW is where you want to stay -- it will end up in disappointment when you have to wait for the 7 month mark to book on WDW property and then you are not happy with your options. If WDW is where you want to stay - the best option for purchasing the most points on property, getting the direct perks and having the lowest MF is to buy SSR. First buy your resale purchase after deciding on the UY then you can go direct DVC to buy a 75 point for the perks with a matching UY. But again if you can not plan at least 8-10 months out -- do not purchase DVC. That might be the first aspect to hash out before you move on to where and what you want to purchase.
 
Making a trip in two weeks. Have airfare and tickets. Have previously looked into DVC twice before. Backed out once, did nothing the other time. Now, looking into buying Riviera, but disappointed the points can't be used now for this trip in another DVC resort!! Doesn't seem right. I can buy Aulani at same price as Riviera, or something even cheaper $/pp, and be able to use the points right away. But I don't think I want my home resort to be in Hawaii. Does home resort really matter? I always plan my vacations about 3 months out. Any thoughts?
DVC is not for you, its that simple.

If you understand the system the fact that you can not use your Riviera points right now makes total sense.
You are exchanging your stay at Riviera with someone else to stay at the resort at which they own. Great. You take my stay for a week in mid September, and Ill take your stay at the Riviera for the same week. You go to my home resort, check in and have a blast. I go to your home resort and sleep on the road because its not open yet.

If your vacation patterns are such that you always book three months out you will be disappointed with DVC.

I would venture to say that a good percentage of people selling their contracts on the resale market did not 'INTEND to sell'

If you really love the poly that is where you should be buying. You can add on 75 points direct either there or possibly at another resort

Thank you for the feedback. Yes, we are doing Annual Gold passes, as our 8 night trip in less than two weeks has us already paying over half the price in tickets alone. You make excellent points. I don't have to buy at Riviera, in fact our favorite resort is the Polynesian (it's where my husband proposed 20 yrs ago, so more of an emotional attachment than anything), but you can't beat the price of Riviera now at 188pp, with the extra incentive offer, vs 235pp if we were to go with points at Polynesian. And we can get 270 points (paying for 250) vs only 200 at Poly. Of course we considered buying Aulani for the same price, as well as the incentive offer that is still out there I think. But as I peruse the boards here, I see that many people combine or buy more resale points later. Maybe that's an option, too? And now, I see that maybe we should just buy SS for dollar value too. AND i can use my points now!

What do you mean by use your points now? Are you referring to the Riviera again? or Direct Vs. Resale? If you are talking about resale, yes, its a month or two before you can use them, vs direct. If you are talking Riviera, you can use those points now, you just can not book a stay until after Dec 16th. If you think you can buy direct points and use them now and get something before 12/16, you might be in for a shock. We are getting into DVC high demand time, and I would say availability until the end of the year is very spotty at best in most cases.

Also, you do not seem to be considering annual dues into your cost equation - they are high at Riviera like 2$ more than poly (along those lines)

If you would be happy at SSR and OKW - then DVC might work for you. Otherwise, you need to adjust to booking AT LEAST 7 months out to make it work. Disclaimer, I basically always book 11 months out to the day.
 
If you really love the poly that is where you should be buying. You can add on 75 points direct either there or possibly at another resort

And, again: Buy the Poly if you can book at 11 months, or at least in home resort for most of the year. After 7 months, availability at Poly goes quick most of the year. Your points do not "hold" a unit for whatever point you decide to finally book.
 
Thank you for the feedback. Yes, we are doing Annual Gold passes, as our 8 night trip in less than two weeks has us already paying over half the price in tickets alone. You make excellent points. I don't have to buy at Riviera, in fact our favorite resort is the Polynesian (it's where my husband proposed 20 yrs ago, so more of an emotional attachment than anything), but you can't beat the price of Riviera now at 188pp, with the extra incentive offer, vs 235pp if we were to go with points at Polynesian. And we can get 270 points (paying for 250) vs only 200 at Poly. Of course we considered buying Aulani for the same price, as well as the incentive offer that is still out there I think. But as I peruse the boards here, I see that many people combine or buy more resale points later. Maybe that's an option, too? And now, I see that maybe we should just buy SS for dollar value too. AND i can use my points now!

You could buy 80 direct at Riviera (I think that gets you around 5 nights in the cheaper seasons) and then buy 250 points at SSR for supplemental use. That will give you direct benefits and access to a lot of points!

Just thought of something -- if you think you might go at the same time every year -- you could do a fixed week contract at DRR. Then you wouldn't have to worry about trying to book it at the 11 month mark.
 
There was a thread recently
https://www.disboards.com/threads/would-this-be-too-complicated-direct-resale.3762403/Where the discussion led to several members noting that overall availability was far worst this late Jan/Feb than previous years. Several speculated SWGE could be impacting this. I wonder if the overall availability of RR points hitting during the Oct-early Jan period, left all the new owners anxious to get in the "Welcome Home" visit ASAP? I hope this helped contribute to the shift and it won't be as bad in future years.
 
You could buy 80 direct at Riviera (I think that gets you around 5 nights in the cheaper seasons) and then buy 250 points at SSR for supplemental use. That will give you direct benefits and access to a lot of points!

Just thought of something -- if you think you might go at the same time every year -- you could do a fixed week contract at DRR. Then you wouldn't have to worry about trying to book it at the 11 month mark.
But you cannot use those resale SSR points to book a longer stay at RR.
 
But you cannot use those resale SSR points to book a longer stay at RR.

It gets underplayed here, but I think it's also important to note that your resale points cannot not only be used to book at Riviera, they cannot be used to book at any future resorts (assuming rules stay status quo). 35 - 50 years is a long time for new resorts to pop up. You will always be limited to the original 14 (original 9 after 23 years and so on). Not suggesting that you need to go direct, but just keep that in mind when contemplating the decision
 
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It gets underplayed here, but I think it's also important to note that your resale points cannot not only be used to book at Riviera, they cannot be used to book at any future resorts (assuming rules stay status quo). 35 - 50 years is a long time for new resorts to pop up. You will always be limited to the original 14 (original 9 after 23 years and so on). Not suggesting that you need to go direct, but just keep that in mind when contemplating the decision

Agree, if you plan to keep DVC forever. But, I am betting on my needs and wants changing in 20 years, that I will end up reselling some where along the line. So, it just depends on how you view things, and certainly you have a unique perspective. And BTW, congrats on being about to dip your toes into DVC, I read your other thread, and I can certainly say at least you have pretty much considered all aspects of DVC ownerships, pros/cons/financials, etc...

Great3
 
Just to add, DVC is not for someone who plans at the last minute and last minute for DVC is around 5 to 6 months out. From everything that you have stated, it appears that you typically don't plan that far out and will become extremely frustrated with DVC when you can't book a vacation. If you do decide that DVC could work and would be adjusting to booking trips closer to the 7 month mark, then I would consider buying points with the idea of getting a 2 bedroom vs. trying to get 2 studios, because when yo go to book online, it will be easier to get this one room, then having to book one, and go back and book the other. Or, you will always need to call MS to book two rooms. If you want to own at Poly, and secure 2 studios there all the time, then you really need to consider that you will need to plan vacations at the 11 month mark.

In terms of buying today and being able to use points right away, it might be very, very tough, for DVC to try and find you a room using your points at any of the resorts as availability a few weeks out is pretty slim. While they do try to help new owners who buy direct from them secure their first reservation, they can't offer you rooms if they are all booked up. Of course, DVC is a long term commitment so I would be sure I understood it all before I jumped in. You are off to a good start with asking the questions you have!!!
 
I saw another post on another site that never got answered where they were sold on Riviera and were planning a small trip before December so the thought was to purchase enough points for that at their #2 choice so they could use them for that trip and then the rest for Riviera where their next scheduled trip would be after December. Assuming there is availability would that work plus give you a second option for home resort in the future?
 
I saw another post on another site that never got answered where they were sold on Riviera and were planning a small trip before December so the thought was to purchase enough points for that at their #2 choice so they could use them for that trip and then the rest for Riviera where their next scheduled trip would be after December. Assuming there is availability would that work plus give you a second option for home resort in the future?

Buying for 1 trip is probably being rather short sighted. And they'd definitely want to make certain that the reservation they wanted was able to be booked. Welcome Home bookings aren't guaranteed on availability - they'll do what they can for them though. But you can rent a reservation or pay cash or wait until after Dec 16th to go. It can be easy to get caught up in DVC and that you must own to visit but there are other ways to visit WDW too. Now if you already had a plan to purchase the other resort perhaps but maybe that should be the only resort one buys at.

You could pay cash for the trip and rent out the first points you purchase to "pay" for that cash reservation. So no, if only based on the desire to take a trip before Riviera opens I'd say it's a pretty bad idea to purchase a few points somewhere else.
 

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