DVC worth it if mostly going during peak season?

[TexasChick123]

VGC is a resort in its own category because there is no other DVC out there at DL. Someone else briefly touched on it, but the rumored DVC portion of a new DL deluxe hotel isn’t going to happen because the whole hotel got scrapped.

If you aren’t a family that would stay in studios, then comparing neighbor hotel rates doesn’t make sense unless you look at the cost of 2 or more hotel rooms. I’ve been looking to buy some VGC points for a while because I love the location. It honestly cannot be beat and neither can the grandeur of the hotel itself compared to the nearby neighbor hotels. You buy VGC for one reason only at these price, to stay at VGC. I will repeat what others have said, and that’s the fact that the direct perks aren’t really even a concern out at DL.

Aulani is easier to get at 7 months if you’re flexible in the size of the room and the view category because it is huge.

Also, if you’re not in a rush to buy, take your time and look around. Throw out some lower offers. You’d be surprised what people will counter if you find the right sellers. Remember that VGC was sold direct at $115pp or something like that. Those original owners from 10 years ago will still be making a profit at numbers much lower than $200pp or more. Some will wait for the higher offers which can take time to come in. Others just want to get out and move on. I love to throw out low offers and at least try to get them. You never know until you try.

 

[Tanya Tink]

What do you consider peak season?

Thanksgiving, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, spring break, around Halloween, summertime

 

[limace]

I saw a GCV contract pass ROFR recently-last week?- at $180. Not cheap but a significant saving on resale.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

It is extraordinarily hard to make the 10% merch discount pay out at the rate required to make up for the cost and opportunity cost differences of buying something direct vs. buying VGC resale when you want to stay at VGC.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Another concern I have about buying Grand Californian resale is the fact that all the contracts I found are much more expensive per point than buying Aulani or Copper Creek direct.

A DVC owner I spoke with told me he always uses his points to stay at Disneyland hotel and Paradise Pier Hotel since his daughter likes those hotels better than the Grand Californian. But it sounds like buying DVC to mostly stay at those hotels is probably not the smart way to go?

Absolutely not. The value in DVC is in using it to stay at DVC resorts. Just save that money and pay cash to stay at DLH or PP.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Someone who buys Not-VGC to mostly stay at Not-VGC may be trading points on an infrequent basis for PP or DLH if they can't get VGC. While the value of that is debatable, it's not a primary itnent of the points and may just be easiest for those owners.

But buying points in hopes of trading to PP or DLH is not a good purchase strategy. Neither is guaranteed to remain a trade partner with DVC, and neither has a "fixed" points chart. The required points to trade and book can go up annually. And with discounts, you can generally get either cheaper than by using points.

 

[Tanya Tink]

What are the cons/risks of buying resale and are there specific sites you recommend using to buy resale (for any DVC Resort)?

 

[TexasChick123]

What are the cons/risks of buying resale and are there specific sites you recommend using to buy resale (for any DVC Resort)?

Ths biggest con is time. It'll take 60-90 days to close.

Here is the list of brokers DIS recommends:

The Timeshare Store (a DIS sponsor) - http://www.dvc-resales.com
Fidelity Resales - http://fidelityresales.com/
DVC by Resale - http://www.dvcbyresale.com/
Selling Timeshares - http://www.sellingtimeshares.net
DVC Magic Resales - http://www.DVCmagicresales.com
DVC Resale Market - http://www.dvcresalemarket.com/
I would add https://dvcsales.com/ to this list as I have had very good experiences with them as well.

There are a few others out there as well, but this should give you a good start.

 

[ray3127]

I saw a GCV contract pass ROFR recently-last week?- at $180. Not cheap but a significant saving on resale.

That was me! You're exactly right--not cheap, but $80 cheaper than direct. And that $180 was their asking price; I couldn't call the broker fast enough.

Also, I was on the direct wait list since July 27, 2018, which my guide got 'special permission' to put me on. I told my guide I'd take ANY UY Grand Cal points, looking for 125-150. Never came through, and got tired of waiting and angry about the price hikes & resale restrictions (though I won't use the points elsewhere, DVD upset me)... so we happened upon this contract.

OP, don't think you can buy VGC direct. I've been on the waitlist over 6 months, and not a whiff of anything. I'm not sure what kind of deals are out there, but $180/point is pretty much in the realm of Disney's direct offerings right now.

Why was I willing to buy direct points? Because we visit WDW frequently and purchased resale contracts at BCV and BLT last year, and we wanted the direct perks. Knowing we wanted those 2 resorts + VGC, I looked at the price differential between direct & resale among them. This gap was the smallest at VGC (last fall, before the price increase). VGC also had a nice long contract (same as BLT, but again relatively cheaper to buy BLT resale & VGC direct than the other way around)... we wanted to buy direct on the longest contract possible that we definitely planned on keeping to maintain our perks. I could see us selling BCV/BLT before VGC. So we had our strategy, but direct VGC points just never materialized.

I explain all of that to say this: you don't need the direct VGC points. The only way I thought it made sense was to get the perks that we would basically use at WDW, where we held most of our points. If you just want to stay at VGC every year, then resale VGC 100000%.

 

[mustinjourney]

Another concern I have about buying Grand Californian resale is the fact that all the contracts I found are much more expensive per point than buying Aulani or Copper Creek direct.

A DVC owner I spoke with told me he always uses his points to stay at Disneyland hotel and Paradise Pier Hotel since his daughter likes those hotels better than the Grand Californian. But it sounds like buying DVC to mostly stay at those hotels is probably not the smart way to go?

Click on the link below and look at the chart for VGC. You will quickly see that staying there if you do not own there is extraordinarily difficult. It's not impossible -- I did it last year -- but I had to go in 2 BR unit and I had to piece together a waitlist. If you are looking for a studio -- it will be very difficult as the demand for those rooms is very high. Moreover, the DVC side of the resort is very small -- so you have a lot of people fighting over a very small amount of units. Bottom line -- if you want to consistently stay at VGC, you pretty much have to have home resort privilege.

Also -- as others have said -- member benefits do very little for trips to disneyland. So paying thousands of dollars up front for direct benefits to save $20 here and there makes very little financial sense.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/p...rooms-june-2018-update.3689931/#post-59393366

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I think because of the complexity of the California thing Disney don't do much ROFR for VGC.

 

[Tanya Tink]

Ths biggest con is time. It'll take 60-90 days to close.

Here is the list of brokers DIS recommends:

Do you foresee Disney putting any other restrictions on people who buy resale? For example, not only do you not get the discounts or other perks I’ve also heard that people who buy resale can no longer use their points at a new DVC resort.

 

[Tanya Tink]

That was me! You're exactly right--not cheap, but $80 cheaper than direct. And that $180 was their asking price; I couldn't call the broker fast enough.

Also, I was on the direct wait list since July 27, 2018, which my guide got 'special permission' to put me on. I told my guide I'd take ANY UY Grand Cal points, looking for 125-150. Never came through, and got tired of waiting and angry about the price hikes & resale restrictions (though I won't use the points elsewhere, DVD upset me)... so we happened upon this contract.

OP, don't think you can buy VGC direct. I've been on the waitlist over 6 months, and not a whiff of anything. I'm not sure what kind of deals are out there, but $180/point is pretty much in the realm of Disney's direct offerings right now.

Why was I willing to buy direct points? Because we visit WDW frequently and purchased resale contracts at BCV and BLT last year, and we wanted the direct perks. Knowing we wanted those 2 resorts + VGC, I looked at the price differential between direct & resale among them. This gap was the smallest at VGC (last fall, before the price increase). VGC also had a nice long contract (same as BLT, but again relatively cheaper to buy BLT resale & VGC direct than the other way around)... we wanted to buy direct on the longest contract possible that we definitely planned on keeping to maintain our perks. I could see us selling BCV/BLT before VGC. So we had our strategy, but direct VGC points just never materialized.

I explain all of that to say this: you don't need the direct VGC points. The only way I thought it made sense was to get the perks that we would basically use at WDW, where we held most of our points. If you just want to stay at VGC every year, then resale VGC 100000%.

Thank you for the info! How did you get on the waitlist for VGC? I was told by a DVC guide during a meeting I had with them at Aulani that there is no waitlist for VGC.

$180/point for VGC is a good deal! The cheapest I’ve seen.

If I were to buy VGC resale, do you recommend I buy some points direct as well (through Aulani, for example) for direct perks? I would like to go to Disneyland at least annually with some trips to Aulani (we frequently go to Hawaii already with my parents timeshare just done from Aulani and would like to tag like 1-3 nights at Aulani on to those trips). I wouldn’t mind occasional trips to WDW though as well.

 

[Tanya Tink]

I saw a GCV contract pass ROFR recently-last week?- at $180. Not cheap but a significant saving on resale.

What is ROFR?

 

[TexasChick123]

I think they are always looking for ways to restrict resale members. However, they haven’t been retroactively restricting anyone. There are conflicting ideas on whether or not they can. Again, if you’re buying VGC to use at VGC, then none of the restrictions should matter to you because that’s what you’ll be using them for.

 

[TiggerFanNTX]

What is ROFR?

Right of First Refusal. A resale offer goes to disney first. Disney can choose to pay the owner that amount and take the contract. If they don't the sale is allowed and the contract goes to the new owners.

 

[ray3127]

Thank you for the info! How did you get on the waitlist for VCG? I was told by a DVC guide during a meeting I had with them at Aulani that there is no waitlist for VGC.

$180/point for VGC is a good deal! The cheapest I’ve seen.

My guide says he had to get approval a couple rungs up the ladder. But he says I'm on the list (the only one of his clients on his VGC list). Nobody really knows how these waitlists work. Like I said, I've supposedly been on it for 6 months, and nothing.

I absolutely would not bother with VGC direct points. You need to determine if VGC is part of your regular long term plans, and if so, consider a resale contract. And if you aren't familiar with the term ROFR, I'd suggest reading up on these boards a bit more before jumping into any sort of decision.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

There are no meaningful restrictions they can put on either Aulani or VGC resale at this point. And Aulani direct is an epic rip off.

 

[Tanya Tink]

Just out of curiosity, do points have a cash value that can be used on Disney merchandise or at restaurants or only for hotel/villa rooms or Disney cruises?

 

[limace]

No. Again, best use of your points financially, by far, is for DVC stays. If I were you, I’d spend a bunch of time reading the stickies at the top of the Buying DVC boards to understand all the ins and outs-it took me a lot of time to really understand and I’m so glad I didn’t make a decision until I felt confident I knew the system and the pros and cons inside and out.