New VS Reseale perks

KCMA

Mouseketeer
Joined
Dec 5, 2017
Hi Everyone

My wife and I have been considering becoming DVC members.. we have been to a presentation.. done the tour enjoyed the gift card/fast passes and ice cream.. since we have been back home I have been reading these forums about direct purchase VS resale.. can someone break down any perks we would be losing by purchasing resale?. Thank you for any information
 
You will loose out on all membership extras, AP, cruising and using our points for the “regular” Disney hotels, DVC lounge in Epcot etc

Membership extras is moonlight magic, basically any event for members and if Disney continue to labels anything new under then umbrella “membership extra” then only direct members can get those perks.

Direct members can use their points for cruising, not that it’s a good value of spending your points, so not much to loose out on here. Same goes for using your points at the regular hotels.

Most agree that the AP have a good value but that also depends if you are able to go twice within 12 months or not. Ie. 1time during November 2018 and second time during October 2019.

Most nowadays most buy their points resale and then add on 25 points direct to get the perks.
 


Hi Everyone

My wife and I have been considering becoming DVC members.. we have been to a presentation.. done the tour enjoyed the gift card/fast passes and ice cream.. since we have been back home I have been reading these forums about direct purchase VS resale.. can someone break down any perks we would be losing by purchasing resale?. Thank you for any information

When considering your purchase I also suggest considering
1) Which resort or resorts you prefer to stay?
2) How far in advance do you plan on making reservations? More than 7 months in advance? Less than 7 months in advance?

Good luck in your search.
 
I just took advantage of the Platinum annual pass deal. Saved us about 1200 bucks. Probably more than I would have saved had I bought Poly re-sale. It sounds like you and I did the same things, and when I considered everything, buying direct at Poly made sense for us.

In the future, I'm guessing I will buy re-sale unless something changes.
 
I just took advantage of the Platinum annual pass deal. Saved us about 1200 bucks. Probably more than I would have saved had I bought Poly re-sale. It sounds like you and I did the same things, and when I considered everything, buying direct at Poly made sense for us.

In the future, I'm guessing I will buy re-sale unless something changes.
Resale first then add on would have had same effect, albeit Poly has only really been worth a resale the last 6+ months.
 


True, and I would have not been able to get the poly contract closed in time. I must say, I liked the convenience of direct...took no time at all...very simple process.

And, with incentives, it made sense to do it this way at this point.
 
[wanted to clarify that I've read the link above that talks about what is officially allowed not allowed, but it seems like the reality is much different. I've spoken with people who say Disney is actually pretty vague about what they do and don't allow, and many people have been able to get a lot of these discounts despite all of these perks technically being off-limits]

Please point me to the conversation if it already exists, but I didn't see it anywhere else so figured i'd add the question here. Does anyone with a newer resale contract (purchased after the April 2016 changes went into effect) want to weigh in on what Membership Extras they've been able to use?

I'm trying to figure out what Disney is actually doing in practice when dealing with a DVC member on a resale contract that was purchased since the changes were made. I didn't see where anyone was discussing their experiences or compiling a list of experiences. Maybe this is because nobody wants to talk about it openly for fear that Disney will crack down on it. Or the discussion is out there and I haven't seen it.

It seems that this is the list of things you definitely can't get: (these would all be things that need to go through their computer system to verify membership, so the account would likely be flagged)
  • Annual Pass
  • Use points somewhere else (cruises, non-DVC resorts, etc)
Might not be able to benefit:
  • Special events (like moonlight magic)
Probably will be able to benefit: (either doesn't get checked on computer, they employee wouldn't really care, or I've heard anecdotally that people have been able to do it)
  • Dining discounts
  • shopping discounts
  • TOTWL access
  • Pool hopping
  • DVD rentals
  • Parking fees
I don't even have a guess on these:
  • Tour discounts
  • other miscellaneous discounts and benefits (member lockers, spa discounts, Tr-circle-d, children's center, etc)
Did I miss anything else? I'm especially interested to hear how things go for parking discounts. That's gonna be a big difference.
 
Last edited:
TOTWL is specifically given to resale.
There are no DVC specific parking discounts.
DVC have dues paid on them, which pay for parking maintenance and security. They cannot legally charge you or anyone using those points.
DVC get free park parking like anyone staying on property. Expect that to change only if they change for cash guests.
 
[wanted to clarify that I've read the link above that talks about what is officially allowed not allowed, but it seems like the reality is much different. I've spoken with people who say Disney is actually pretty vague about what they do and don't allow, and many people have been able to get a lot of these discounts despite all of these perks technically being off-limits]

Please point me to the conversation if it already exists, but I didn't see it anywhere else so figured i'd add the question here. Does anyone with a newer resale contract (purchased after the April 2016 changes went into effect) want to weigh in on what Membership Extras they've been able to use?

I'm trying to figure out what Disney is actually doing in practice when dealing with a DVC member on a resale contract that was purchased since the changes were made. I didn't see where anyone was discussing their experiences or compiling a list of experiences. Maybe this is because nobody wants to talk about it openly for fear that Disney will crack down on it. Or the discussion is out there and I haven't seen it.

It seems that this is the list of things you definitely can't get: (these would all be things that need to go through their computer system to verify membership, so the account would likely be flagged)
  • Annual Pass
  • Use points somewhere else (cruises, non-DVC resorts, etc)
Might not be able to benefit:
  • Special events (like moonlight magic)
Probably will be able to benefit: (either doesn't get checked on computer, they employee wouldn't really care, or I've heard anecdotally that people have been able to do it)
  • Dining discounts
  • shopping discounts
  • TOTWL access
  • Pool hopping
  • DVD rentals
  • Parking fees
I don't even have a guess on these:
  • Tour discounts
  • other miscellaneous discounts and benefits (member lockers, spa discounts, Tr-circle-d, children's center, etc)
Did I miss anything else? I'm especially interested to hear how things go for parking discounts. That's gonna be a big difference.

The thing is - many of what you listed are announced as not allowed to owners who only have resale points purchased after 2011 (using points for Disney collection - ie cruises, non-DVC resorts etc) or after April 2016 - (discounted AP's, special events, dining discounts, shopping discounts and all other discounts). Even if some slip thru it's nothing that any new resale buyer can count on or that they won't tighten verification.

And a few of the things are specifically still provided to all owners - TOTWL access, Pool hopping and DVD rentals. The new resort parking fees are not a benefit as parking lots are part of the declared common areas and DVC owners have always paid maintenance in their annual dues for their portion. That is why Disney has been saying that DVC members won't be charged for parking - because they already pay for it in a different way. Theme park parking is based on staying onsite. That is something that if WDW decided to change they could as DVC members do not have any interest in the theme park lots nor pays for maintenance thru annual dues.
 
[wanted to clarify that I've read the link above that talks about what is officially allowed not allowed, but it seems like the reality is much different. I've spoken with people who say Disney is actually pretty vague about what they do and don't allow, and many people have been able to get a lot of these discounts despite all of these perks technically being off-limits]

Please point me to the conversation if it already exists, but I didn't see it anywhere else so figured i'd add the question here. Does anyone with a newer resale contract (purchased after the April 2016 changes went into effect) want to weigh in on what Membership Extras they've been able to use?

I'm trying to figure out what Disney is actually doing in practice when dealing with a DVC member on a resale contract that was purchased since the changes were made. I didn't see where anyone was discussing their experiences or compiling a list of experiences. Maybe this is because nobody wants to talk about it openly for fear that Disney will crack down on it. Or the discussion is out there and I haven't seen it.

It seems that this is the list of things you definitely can't get: (these would all be things that need to go through their computer system to verify membership, so the account would likely be flagged)
  • Annual Pass
  • Use points somewhere else (cruises, non-DVC resorts, etc)
Might not be able to benefit:
  • Special events (like moonlight magic)
Probably will be able to benefit: (either doesn't get checked on computer, they employee wouldn't really care, or I've heard anecdotally that people have been able to do it)
  • Dining discounts
  • shopping discounts
  • TOTWL access
  • Pool hopping
  • DVD rentals
  • Parking fees
I don't even have a guess on these:
  • Tour discounts
  • other miscellaneous discounts and benefits (member lockers, spa discounts, Tr-circle-d, children's center, etc)
Did I miss anything else? I'm especially interested to hear how things go for parking discounts. That's gonna be a big difference.
A lot of what has been listed that people have gotten, but shouldn't have, are hit and miss at best and likely a big MISS going forward. IMO if it makes sense to go resale, it doesn't make sense to worry about the perks. To get the perks one will have to buy retail at least 75 points retail. For something like VGF where the price difference is much smaller, it might not be a big difference but for a home like like AKV, BLT or SSR it's easily $5K or more an in some cases a fair amount more depending on the number of points one is looking at. It could easily approach $10K in some situation. It'd be the unusual situation where one could make up the dollars in perks based on buying resale. IMO at 25 pts it made more sense, a lot more if one could plan it up front.
 
Pool hopping is barely a perk - many resorts have been restricted from pool hopping over the last few years. It's not even really worth mentioning.
 
Thanks for the clarification on parking fees and TOTWL - that's what prompted me to ask this question. We already did the math on it and there's no way it makes sense for us to buy direct (as others said, it might have made sense when you could add 25 points, but not anymore). We're currently in the process of buying a resale BLT contract. Doing some guestimation, if we were to have bought a 75 points direct, plus a resale contract to make up the difference, we would've spent somewhere in the range of an extra $5000. Given that we still won't be going often enough to get the AP, and we tend to be pretty frugal with food, there's pretty much no way we'd recoup that money over the life of the contract.

I've definitely heard that they're pretty lax with the food discounts (some people saying that the cast member just asked but didn't even verify). It's my understanding that you get the discount by showing your membership card, and while I won't be able to get a printed card, I'll still be able to get a digital card. And if you only have to show the card, I would think it would be pretty difficult for the cast member to know whether or not they are supposed to give you the discount. But, like I said, any discount is basically a bonus because that's really not the reason we're doing this anyway! (and we could just get the Visa if we were that anxious to feel like we're getting discounts)
 
We bought resale prior to the limitations, so we're grandfathered in with the perks. Regardless, if I had to do it again today, I'd still go resale. You get more points for your money, and that is what is really worthwhile in DVC. Points. My family doesn't get that much out of the perks and they aren't guaranteed. Disney could stop them at any time (although they seem to be trending in the opposite direction today). If you do end up planning a large trip, you can still buy one AP to get a lot of their discounts.

I think that you'll find this as the general opinion on these boards (not everyone, but most people). It's still hard to justify the price for buying direct. It is simpler, and you can finance, but you really get more bang for your buck with resale. I think it's more important to buy at a home resort that you're comfortable with.

Good luck with whatever you decide!
 
I've definitely heard that they're pretty lax with the food discounts (some people saying that the cast member just asked but didn't even verify). It's my understanding that you get the discount by showing your membership card, and while I won't be able to get a printed card, I'll still be able to get a digital card. And if you only have to show the card, I would think it would be pretty difficult for the cast member to know whether or not they are supposed to give you the discount.

New resale membership cards are white. Direct and grandfathered resale membership cards are blue. The CM's can tell the difference. However, it's been my experience that most ask if you're a "DVC, Annual Pass, or Disney Visa holder" before they take your order (restaurant) or ring up the sale (retail). To get the Visa discount, you absolutely have to use the card. For the other two, you're supposed to show the card. However, your magic band will tell *most* locations whether you are a DVC Member (based upon the "Is a DVC Member" checkbox when the reservation was made). Most CM's don't care whether you have a white card or a blue card, and will just give you the discount. The few locations that don't "see" that flag will ask you to show them a card to get the discount.
 
Resale every time unless you want a small contract or latest resort. I have direct and resale.
 
Just to clarify, as of right now, if I purchase at BLT resale I can go to the top of the world lounge? Thanks!
 

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