Just purchased direct Aulani, should we add for Disneyland?

[kalishea]

Hi,
We just purchased a 300 point Aulani contract on our recent Disney cruise, still finalizing our contract. We are on the west coast and primarily visit Disneyland and probably Aulani here and there. Ideally we would like to use points at Grand Californian or (crossing fingers) a future Disneyland DVC option. Question is, because of the availability of DVC rooms at Grand Californian, and not being able to actually get in there, should we watch for a resale contract there? Could we get away with a small number of points if that ever came available just for the booking window alone? Or wait and hope for a future resort to open and buy at that time the minimum contract available? Being new to this, I just thought someone might be able to steer us in the right direction on what would be a good plan to make it work in the future. Thanks!

 

[SwirlTheCitrus]

300 points for a resort that you might visit here and there seems like a lot to me. I hope that you need a 2 br, or are staying for awhile. VGC is impossible to get into at 7 months, so you would definitely need a contract there-- but using your Aulani points is unlikely for VGC.

As for resale, go for it-- you already have the membership perks and the blue card. Buy where you want to stay. Have you visited VGC? The new resort is confirmed, a tower opening 2021. Just be aware that minimums are always changing. What made you decide to purchase at Aulani?

 

[Noodlez]

As has been said, I’m not sure how often you intend to stay at Aulani, but this purchase implies you want a couple of weeks in a studio or a week in a 1 bedroom every year.
You can of course use your points elsewhere, but Grand Californian is very unlikely! There are so few DVC rooms and we’d all love to try them. If you bought a small contract there you can’t add the Aulani points to the 11 month home priority booking. You could only book however long those VGC points would allow. At 7 months you’d be back in the game with everyone else.
If you want to stay at WDW and have no preference on which resort you’re in then your points will be useful for that too. If you bought at Aulani to mainly use there then you’ve done a sensible thing. If not, you may want to put a pause on this purchase and consider exactly what you want to own.

 

[kalishea]

300 points for a resort that you might visit here and there seems like a lot to me. I hope that you need a 2 br, or are staying for awhile. VGC is impossible to get into at 7 months, so you would definitely need a contract there-- but using your Aulani points is unlikely for VGC.

As for resale, go for it-- you already have the membership perks and the blue card. Buy where you want to stay. Have you visited VGC? The new resort is confirmed, a tower opening 2021. Just be aware that minimums are always changing. What made you decide to purchase at Aulani?

Hi, thanks for your reply. My father has wanted to buy into DVC for years. He did it to use it for DCL and RCI too (then to pass on to my son), that's why he went with 300 points, to at least cruise every 2 years. I know not a good way to spend, but that's what he wants to do for the remaining years he has to travel, so I'm not going to argue with him. Aulani is somewhere we want to visit but we have other connections in Hawaii so it wouldn't be a frequent trip, or if it was, it would be a few days then we would travel to Kauai from there for another week or so. The purchase discounts were a lot higher at Aulani and with us being on the west coast, know we will go there more then anything on the east coast. Only other direct option was Riviera as we bought just a couple weeks ago. We frequent Disneyland a few times a year, never staying on property, but would love to sometimes. That's why I am looking at options to add on there. I didn't know the new resort was already confirmed! That's exciting!

 

[kalishea]

As has been said, I’m not sure how often you intend to stay at Aulani, but this purchase implies you want a couple of weeks in a studio or a week in a 1 bedroom every year.
You can of course use your points elsewhere, but Grand Californian is very unlikely! There are so few DVC rooms and we’d all love to try them. If you bought a small contract there you can’t add the Aulani points to the 11 month home priority booking. You could only book however long those VGC points would allow. At 7 months you’d be back in the game with everyone else.
If you want to stay at WDW and have no preference on which resort you’re in then your points will be useful for that too. If you bought at Aulani to mainly use there then you’ve done a sensible thing. If not, you may want to put a pause on this purchase and consider exactly what you want to own.

I understand Grand Californian is very unlikely and that everyone wants to stay there, that's why I am here posting this thread, to see what is best.

 

[crvetter]

The new resort is confirmed, a tower opening 2021.

The new resort has not been confirmed and does not open in 2021. They confirmed that they submitted a proposal to Anaheim to have them consider. But a DVC resort starts DLR requires Anaheim to change the city codes to allow it to happen. This is expected to open after Reflections (if it happens) so no earlier than 2022

 

[SwirlTheCitrus]

The new resort has not been confirmed and does not open in 2021. They confirmed that they submitted a proposal to Anaheim to have them consider. But a DVC resort starts DLR requires Anaheim to change the city codes to allow it to happen. This is expected to open after Reflections (if it happens) so no earlier than 2022

Typo.. apologies.

 

[Noodlez]

I understand Grand Californian is very unlikely and that everyone wants to stay there, that's why I am here posting this thread, to see what is best.

And that’s why I took the time to respond to your post, to try to give you some thoughts. If you’d only like certain responses you should maybe mention that and save people’s time.

 

[jkips]

If you want to go to Grand California, I would ask your sales person to buy direct for that resort. Disney will offer points to all of the resorts including Grand California although they are not readily advertised. The GC points are more expensive than the Aulani points but the spread between where Grand California direct points and secondary point trade is less than it is for the Aulani. That is, Aulani points in the secondary market trade at more of a discount to the direct points than the Grand California points do. The other option is to simply rent the Grand California points whenever you want to go there.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

To be honest, being a direct member at all on the west coast is nearly meaningless. Very few economic benefits, and Aulani is frankly overpriced.

His best move would be to rescind the whole thing, buy VGC resale since Aulani is far easier to book at 7 months, and use rent/exchange programs to cruise. Even with the resale price of VGC, the dues savings alone would be significant over time.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

If you want to go to Grand California, I would ask your sales person to buy direct for that resort. Disney will offer points to all of the resorts including Grand California although they are not readily advertised. The GC points are more expensive than the Aulani points but the spread between where Grand California direct points and secondary point trade is less than it is for the Aulani. That is, Aulani points in the secondary market trade at more of a discount to the direct points than the Grand California points do. The other option is to simply rent the Grand California points whenever you want to go there.

Disney really won't sell VGC except in rare cases. They file fewer than 20 deeds a month and most are retitles.

 

[kalishea]

And that’s why I took the time to respond to your post, to try to give you some thoughts. If you’d only like certain responses you should maybe mention that and save people’s time.

Oh my goodness, I wasn't being rude, just clarifying that I understand that it is difficult to stay at Grand Californian, which is the reason for asking what to do. I appreciate the time to respond, just replying that that is the reason I am here asking.

 

[kalishea]

To be honest, being a direct member at all on the west coast is nearly meaningless. Very few economic benefits, and Aulani is frankly overpriced.

His best move would be to rescind the whole thing, buy VGC resale since Aulani is far easier to book at 7 months, and use rent/exchange programs to cruise. Even with the resale price of VGC, the dues savings alone would be significant over time.

I guess it's just very disheartening to hear that after dropping nearly $50,000 on a contract, it's meaningless and we're unable to do anything that we want, even after our salesperson (I know, she's a salesperson) convinced us that we could use it how we wanted and knew our desires with it. I'm not sure we can still back out but will look into it if my father is open to that idea.

Thank you for all the replies.

 

[Noodlez]

I’m not sure how long it is since you signed, but there’s always a back out period. If you use that it doesn’t mean you won’t buy, just that you may need a little longer.
If you have passed that stage, I really wasn’t trying to say that it’s meaningless. In fact, you own direct points in a great timeshare system! However, certain resorts are really tricky unless you’re booking with points bought with that home priority (such as VGC).
Many WDW owners have the opportunity to book their home resort at 11 months then try to switch to try somewhere different at 7 months. It’s more difficult for Aulani owners. I can completely understand why anyone would want to own there. It’s the last place we stayed, and it’s paradise!
If the time to change has gone, then be proud to own there! Who wouldn’t want to be part of that. You just may need to look into how to get the best advantage at other resorts.

 

[kalishea]

I’m not sure how long it is since you signed, but there’s always a back out period. If you use that it doesn’t mean you won’t buy, just that you may need a little longer.
If you have passed that stage, I really wasn’t trying to say that it’s meaningless. In fact, you own direct points in a great timeshare system! However, certain resorts are really tricky unless you’re booking with points bought with that home priority (such as VGC).
Many WDW owners have the opportunity to book their home resort at 11 months then try to switch to try somewhere different at 7 months. It’s more difficult for Aulani owners. I can completely understand why anyone would want to own there. It’s the last place we stayed, and it’s paradise!
If the time to change has gone, then be proud to own there! Who wouldn’t want to be part of that. You just may need to look into how to get the best advantage at other resorts.

Thank you! We have been super excited about it up until now, since I've been reading the boards and trying to figure it all out and got nervous that it's not going to do what we hoped. Would love to go to Aulani sometime soon and hopefully can get some bookings to do some other things at other resorts. We'll check into the back out period. He's only paid the deposit, onboard the cruise, and they haven't needed the money quite yet.

So just to clarify, you said a small resale contract at a VGC (or maybe future DLR property) wouldn't do us any good for our 300 point contract? Unless we got enough points for our whole stay, not including Aulani points, right?

 

[Noodlez]

That’s right. Points from different resorts can’t be combined until 7 months. If you bought a small (eg) 50 point contract at VGC you could bank and borrow to have 150 points every 3 years, but if this wasn’t enough for your stay you’d just have to add on at 7 months, and owning there wouldn’t give you any advantage over anyone else booking at that point.
Some people do very well with multiple contracts, such as 100 each at VGC, Aulani, and WDW. This allows banking and borrowing to give reasonable stays at each every year. It’s tricky to manage though, and doesn’t often give enough for long stays at any of them.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

So just to clarify, you said a small resale contract at a VGC (or maybe future DLR property) wouldn't do us any good for our 300 point contract? Unless we got enough points for our whole stay, not including Aulani points, right?

You could not use any of the AUL points until 7 months, and only if the VGC room we're otherwise available at that time. Could not combine points from any two resorts during home resort.

If you are within rescission, DVC is not going anywhere and you can rescind and research. If you mostly want to cruise, saving the money and just paying to cruise is generally the best approach, since the prepaid vacation is not as applicable with DVC to DCL conversion. DVc is best used to book a DVC unit, and ideally during home resort where you go most often.

A lot of people buy on impulse on cruises. They are selling a timeshare and the agents know how to play on vacay emotions. You would not be the first or last to back out on dry land to research and make a more informed decision.

 

[Noodlez]

Just to add, no one is trying to take away your excitement! Being part of DVC is amazing, but there’s no rush and it’s not going anywhere. Whether it’s now or 6 months down the line you’ll still be as pleased and you’ll still be welcomed home. We all fall for the magic when we’re away. but you’re here asking questions so maybe you want chance to think. If that’s what you choose to do I’m sure you’ll be even happier next time you go for it!

 

[GoingSince1990]

Definitely cancel if you can and buy VGC resale instead.

 

[poofyo101]

Definitely cancel if you can and buy VGC resale instead.

This.