Percentage of stays at home resort

[MamaRoo]

I’m considering buying my first contract and am struggling with the home resort decision.

For the DVC vets, what percentage of your stays would you say are at your home resort?

 

[CarolMN]

90% for us. Home is BWV. Since purchase in 1999, we've stayed at BLT & VB twice, and CCV, VGF, PVB, & AKV once each. Rest of our stays have been at BWV. Also, all those non-BWV stays except AKV were 2 or 3 nights and were part of a split stay with BWV. AKV stay was with another family and included young children.

Best to buy where you won't mind staying if you can't change at 7 months.

 

[Marionnette]

I’m considering buying my first contract and am struggling with the home resort decision.

For the DVC vets, what percentage of your stays would you say are at your home resort?

I would put it around 95%-98% of the time. I own at BWV, VGF and AKV. I have used the BWV points for a couple of nights at BCV and OKW in all of my years of ownership. I used the banked points from a resale VGF contract to reserve a studio at SSR for a renter but the AKV points have only been used at AKV.

 

[NewbieMom]

We bought our 1st contract a few months ago at BLT. We plan to stay there often, as our kids are young and we like the convenience to MK. We do hope to stay at other resorts, to try them out. But if we're shut out at 7 months, we certainly don't mind staying at BLT.

 

[finchy3]

100% @ GCV

 

[Mumof4mice]

Our home resorts are PVB, BLT and VGF. We're hoping to be able to switch to an Epcot area resort 50% of the time. If Riviera turns out to be convenient with good amenities it would be awesome. Being a huge resort it would be easier to get into than BWV/BCV (like Kidani).

 

[Debbie Jean]

Past experiences are not necessarily a good predictor for the future since many threads address the increasing difficulty of switching resorts at 7 months.

I've owned for more than 12 years and for the first 10 probably split 50/50. The past 2 years have been closer to 90+% at my home resorts.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Our percent is lower than 90% because of Aulani, we have had three rather large point stays there. We have been happy to get in at 7 months.

At WDW, I mostly book at 11 months at home resorts. However since the CC Cabins have come on board, I have switch to one twice. If at 7 months they become impossible to book, I will probably sell some points and buy there.

I bought where we want to stay, we have been members since 2003, and added on in AKV, BLT and, VGF, but Aulani and CC Cabins have changed our point use the most.

 

[Henwen88]

Depends on the home resort!
BCV - 100%
CCV- 95% (both small 100/118 point contracts)
VGF - 60-70%
SSR - 10% (larger contracts... rent some points from these and make <7 mo bookings too)

We started with the SSR, then added on to the places where we consistently couldn't get exactly when/where we wanted to stay at 7 months. So BCV, VGF, and the Lodge gets 11 month bookings, and I have been able to stay everywhere else (except Aulani and HH, but haven't tried yet).

 

[_auroraborealis_]

You will always find people who claim tonever have stayed at home, always gotten what they want at 7, don't see the fuss about AKV Club because they got it for marathon for a week at 5 months, etc.

Their experiences or claims are not the norm.

Ability to flex is often dependent on willingness to book 1BR units. There are times of year even that only helps a bit.

 

[Tenacious K]

So far, 1 trip completed and 3 future trips booked, 0% have been at my home resort Poly. In the future, I plan for it to be a 50/50 split. My upcoming trip this weekend, I booked the room 4 days in advance so I just took whatever was available, which was Beach Club studio (as someone above posted, is an exception and not the norm).

 

[Disneykate605]

We bought 3 years ago. Our home resorts are poly and HHI. We have stayed at HHI once this past easter and we have our 1st poly stay coming up this Thanksgiving (so excited). We have taken probably 10-12 trips in the 3 years, so our percentage is very low. We do plan on buying BWV resale contract in the next few months and that contract would be used exclusively there. We are not picky and feel that all DVC resorts have their own positives so it has worked out for us. I do see us using our Poly points at poly more in the future for couple trips when our sons are in college and not coming as much with us.

 

[disneynutz]

All of our stays are at our home resorts. VGF, CCV, and BWV are currently on our favorites list. AKV, BCV, and BLT we seldom stay there.

Bill

 

[rg35]

AKV is our home resort.
We've stayed there 3x and at OKW 2x.

For our trip next year I have a 2BR booked at AKV for August but at 7 months I'm going to try to swap it for a 2BR somewhere else, possibly BCV.

 

[CraigInPA]

100% at the home resort (BLT).

Prior to purchasing DVC, we rented points or did a cash reservation at all the potential home resorts we were considering, which helped us make our decision. As a result of these "fact finding missions", we no longer have any interest in trying those resorts. When Riviera opens, we may try that, though, as a potential future second home resort.

 

[Stitch808]

We're newer members and just back from a trip to WDW and did a spilt stay to check out all the other accommodations, but we will probably stick with our home resorts. If we have a specific need to stay at an Epcot area resort, we'll try at 7 months.

 

[CaliAdventurer]

Prob 50/50 with our hone resorts AUL and VGF. We’ve slept around WDW and I think now that we’ve done most, we will stay at VGF most of the time with an occasional Epcot resort or the cabins at CCV at WDW and VGC whenever we get lucky to book it which I don’t plan on much if at all after SWL opens. We use our Aulani points at Aulani because 1) it’s bomb and 2) we have been able to gift some to others since who doesn’t love Hawaii?!

 

[gharter]

Our home resorts are BWV and AKL. That's where we stay.
Prior to buying, we had stayed at Poly, Wilderness, Beach Club, and some moderates. So we knew where we wanted to stay and thats where we purchased.

 

[peabody58]

Great question! I had to go back to my master vacation list to figure this out. Home is BLT 160 pts 2010. 70 nts using DVC. 35 nts at BLT, so 50%.

Now we are still trying to stay at every DVC resort and I am a point miser, so at 7 months I am always strategizing. Plus the DW ewally likes BCV, so any chance we can get BLT (or GFV), she's all for it. I can see our % for Home Resort rising as 7 months get harder and harder.

 

[lovin'fl]

We have 4 home resorts.

Bought OKW first because it was the cheapest resale buy in in 2006 (at WDW). We have used it to book OKW 5 times (for us, 3 times and for MIL, 2 times) since 2006. SO I'd say about 20% of the time. Not big fans of OKW.

We added HHI, in 2012, after a stay there (using the OKW) and having trouble booking that stay (in July) and we loved it there so we added on for easier booking. We use the HHI at HHI about 95% of the time, if not more. We love HHI and can get there with a 5 hour drive. So we have no problem using our HHI points there so we added on at HHI a second time in 2013.

Then we added on at BWV, in 2014, after a F&W trip where we loved it so much we wanted to go every year and ideally walk to/from Epcot. We use the BWV about 98% at BWW. If we book our beloved BWV, we're are pleased with it and don't try to change at 7 months. We book BWV at 11 months to get the standard view rooms. We like it there so much we added on a couple more times (4 BWV contracts total).

We just, this July, added on CCV for Dec trips. We used the 2017 points for random resies (reallocated points in existing resies that were not at CCV). But will use the 2018 and forward mostly at CCV, likely 98% of the time. Same thing as BWV, when we book CCV (going to book for Dec 2019) we will be pleased and not need to switch at 7 months out.

So, basically, we will stick to using BWV, HHI and CCV at their home resorts but will use OKW for the best option we can get at 7-3 months out (we have BLT booked this Dec). We never really book less than 3 months out, except to change resorts when something better becomes available.