RIV vs VGF2 vs AKV

[TinkB278]

Sorry for another post of this sort, I just could use some advice or assistance in making this decision. I know there are several of you out here really understand the value per point at certain resorts and some of it goes over my head.

We currently own at RIV direct. I’d been planning to buy AKV direct or resale. I think resale is a little high right now where it would just make my life easier to buy direct so I could combine use my points at 7 months to book RIV. Then of course the VGF2 price came out and it threw me for a loop. I wouldn’t be buying enough points at vgf2 to get the incentive, I would most likely just get 75. I did see RIV has a good incentive at 100points so I am considering 100 points there as we absolutely love the resort, but I am nervous about owning all my points at riv in the rare event I did need to sell in the future. I’m also nervous about what availability will look like once the number of RIV resale owners increases.

I am really stuck on wanting AKV as I would love the 11 month window to try for value and club level rooms, but the price difference between AKV direct and RIV/VGF is not very big on a smaller contract, and I would get 7-13 years less. Resale seems like a good option but I really want to be able to combine with my RIV points.

I have never stayed at Vgf and I love the grounds, but the rooms never appealed to me. I absolutely love the heavily themed resorts and the European flare of riviera, so VGF just didn’t do it for me. I do love the new rooms, but I will have two little boys (currently pregnant) and I’m not sure how excited they will be about the Mary poppins theme as they get older. However, I can’t help but feel like vgf2 is the safest and best value of the three.

Can anyone provide any guidance or words of wisdom on what they would do? I appreciate everyone on this sites knowledge and expertise so much and it’s such an expensive purchase I can’t help but overthink it.

 

[RoseGold]

I wouldn't buy a contract this small at all, because of closing costs. But if you're going to and want AKL for value or club, why are you considering these other options? If you're booking club/value, you aren't combining points anyway. It doesn't matter if it's resale. You don't even need the same UY. If you change your mind, sell.

Now is a great time to make some offers on resale, while everyone is watching VGF.

 

[Royal Consort]

I am firmly of the view that you should buy where you want to stay. This is a time-share and although reselling it is great, not at the expense of owning somewhere you don't want to be. If you want to make the best profit we should be buying stock, not prepaid vacations.

If you already have RVA points and don't think you need more, a second home resort is a great idea. The value of AKV points will go further than RVA and VGF. You don't sound like you love VGF so I would give that a miss. Too expensive to buy something you're somewhat indifferent to. Depending on when you go (I.e. not during fall frenzy), AKV is often available so you could add more RVA and switch resorts at 7 months. However, if your plan was to do this frequently I would just buy AKV on resale and save money. It really depends 1. Where you want to stay 2. When you travel and what 7 month availability is like 3. How much money you want to spend for the premium of direct points.

As for RVA, I own there too and have no concerns about availability due to more restricted resale. I bought RVA over Copper Creek because they already have a major issue with studios and mostly direct owners!!!

 

[larry47591]

I would do resale at akl 50 bucks a point is a big deal price wise. Points chart is low there anyway so it you don’t get value you can still get standard very cheap.

 

[Zach197]

I would pick AKV over RIV and VGF. Not a fan of either of those resorts and our family loves AKV. Very relaxing and its kind of two resorts for one with Jambo and Kidani

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I'm an AKV owner and AKV is my favorite resort on property. I do not recommend buying AKV.

Trying to get a Club or Value room suuuuuuucks. I tried to walk a reservation to get a Value room starting 15 months out. Every single morning, I was on that stupid site at 8am. I struck out every. day. Value and Club aren't just hard to get, they might as well be impossible for all intents and purposes.

For a reasonable price per point and a friendly points chart, I'd be buying at OKW.

 

[TinkB278]

I'm an AKV owner and AKV is my favorite resort on property. I do not recommend buying AKV.

Trying to get a Club or Value room suuuuuuucks. I tried to walk a reservation to get a Value room starting 15 months out. Every single morning, I was on that stupid site at 8am. I struck out every. day. Value and Club aren't just hard to get, they might as well be impossible for all intents and purposes.

For a reasonable price per point and a friendly points chart, I'd be buying at OKW.

Thank you for this input. This is really helpful. I knew I’d have to do some walking, but don’t want to wake up every morning aggravated when I can’t get a room day after day, and having bought there for that purpose. Hmm, at least I can cross that one off the list!

 

[automaticsoap]

I recently went through a similar thought process. I'm an original VGF owner with a small contract and mainly stay in studios. VGF2 seemed fairly enticing, except I already have the 11 month advantage -- and with such a large number of studios at VGF2, I don't really think the 11 month advantage will really help unless trying to get rooms in the original VGF building. I debated Riviera due to the longer length of the contract and that the 11 month advantage is key to getting studios there. But I haven't stayed there yet and the resale restrictions really turned me off.

AKV is one of my favorite resorts, and I liked the 11 month advantage to get standard studios at Jambo. It's not necessary year round, but definitely is during more popular times. I just submitted a resale contract for ROFR today and am crossing my fingers it goes through! And if it gets taken, I will probably have to decide again between finding another AKV contract I like or buying less points direct at VGF2.

 

[TinkB278]

I'm an AKV owner and AKV is my favorite resort on property. I do not recommend buying AKV.

Trying to get a Club or Value room suuuuuuucks. I tried to walk a reservation to get a Value room starting 15 months out. Every single morning, I was on that stupid site at 8am. I struck out every. day. Value and Club aren't just hard to get, they might as well be impossible for all intents and purposes.

For a reasonable price per point and a friendly points chart, I'd be buying at OKW.

What do you suppose the secret is for these people who do get those rooms?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

What do you suppose the secret is for these people who do get those rooms?

Obsession?

 

[kboo]

We currently own at RIV direct. I’d been planning to buy AKV direct or resale. I think resale is a little high right now where it would just make my life easier to buy direct so I could combine use my points at 7 months to book RIV. Then of course the VGF2 price came out and it threw me for a loop. I wouldn’t be buying enough points at vgf2 to get the incentive, I would most likely just get 75. I did see RIV has a good incentive at 100points so I am considering 100 points there as we absolutely love the resort, but I am nervous about owning all my points at riv in the rare event I did need to sell in the future. I’m also nervous about what availability will look like once the number of RIV resale owners increases.

Trying to get a Club or Value room suuuuuuucks. I tried to walk a reservation to get a Value room starting 15 months out. Every single morning, I was on that stupid site at 8am. I struck out every. day. Value and Club aren't just hard to get, they might as well be impossible for all intents and purposes.

After reading all of this ... if I were in your shoes, I'd buy more Riviera. I don't know how much your other individual contract(s) are, but if you bought another 100 points, you could always sell some and keep some, and any contract you kept would have 7mo availability for any other WDW resort.

100 points at VGF won't get you very far, even in studios. We bought what we thought would be enough points and then added on another 100 points to get us to what is now workable for 1brs... just in time for us to need 2br a little more often. My point being - I wouldn't get more points at VGF for the sake of more points, especially SAP. And while having "access" to Club/value rooms is certainly a benefit of AKV points, as @CaptainAmerica points out, it is exceedingly hard to get those rooms even if you are trying to walk them (and as other pre-2020 threads have pointed out, if DVC takes a room out of service it breaks your walk even if you could get one started.)

There is a benefit to having all your points at 1 resort - you have more points to work with at the 11 and 7 mo windows. Less of an issue at 7 mo, but when I book VGF for Christmas I usually do it with current year + banked points. It has been like the Hunger Games even trying to walk, and rooms cost A LOT at that time. So sometimes I book a higher category room (preferred view, or larger than I want) or sometimes even a mishmosh of what I can get), and then check back book the room I want, night by night, until I get what I need. You can only do this, though, if you have extra points. eg: say I want a a standard 1br for a week over Xmas but it's not available when I start to look:

• book preferred 1br (maybe for shorter than 1 week to save points)
• look later in the day, the next day, pick up any random night in the standard 1br I can get. If its on the front or back end of the preferred 1br reservation, drop that night in the preferred (thus freeing up more points to work with)
• Repeat, walking/extending the preferred 1br to make sure I have a place to stay each night.

I think I had to do this for Christmas 2021, and one of my snapshots of my dashboard had me changing rooms every night - I had nights in: standard studio, standard 1br, preferred 1br, 2br dedicated, 1br standard, etc... But each day a little after 8am I was able to pick up the room I wanted (+ used the waitlist) and it all worked out.

 

[Sandisw]

Sorry for another post of this sort, I just could use some advice or assistance in making this decision. I know there are several of you out here really understand the value per point at certain resorts and some of it goes over my head.

We currently own at RIV direct. I’d been planning to buy AKV direct or resale. I think resale is a little high right now where it would just make my life easier to buy direct so I could combine use my points at 7 months to book RIV. Then of course the VGF2 price came out and it threw me for a loop. I wouldn’t be buying enough points at vgf2 to get the incentive, I would most likely just get 75. I did see RIV has a good incentive at 100points so I am considering 100 points there as we absolutely love the resort, but I am nervous about owning all my points at riv in the rare event I did need to sell in the future. I’m also nervous about what availability will look like once the number of RIV resale owners increases.

I am really stuck on wanting AKV as I would love the 11 month window to try for value and club level rooms, but the price difference between AKV direct and RIV/VGF is not very big on a smaller contract, and I would get 7-13 years less. Resale seems like a good option but I really want to be able to combine with my RIV points.

I have never stayed at Vgf and I love the grounds, but the rooms never appealed to me. I absolutely love the heavily themed resorts and the European flare of riviera, so VGF just didn’t do it for me. I do love the new rooms, but I will have two little boys (currently pregnant) and I’m not sure how excited they will be about the Mary poppins theme as they get older. However, I can’t help but feel like vgf2 is the safest and best value of the three.

Can anyone provide any guidance or words of wisdom on what they would do? I appreciate everyone on this sites knowledge and expertise so much and it’s such an expensive purchase I can’t help but overthink it.

Honestly, I don’t see the impact of resale buyers at RIV doing much if you are booking at 11 months. It is the 7 month window that will be difficult as resale RIV won’t be able to leave.

But, for owners, SV would be popular even without the restriction.

In terms of resale value, I personally didn’t consider it when buying because if I had to seek quickly and took a loss ,it would be what it would be because it would mean something much more important impacted my life.

Having said that, the resale price is doing pretty well for such a different product. I don’t many of us thought it would do this well. I sure did not.

Now, we have no idea long term what it will do but the resort itself is popular and people may be willing add on as part of what they own to stay there.

Even 75 points at VGF could give you a few nights during home resort and then you could supplement if there are still rooms at 7 months with the other points. Or use every other year.

But, I believe that buying where you want to be most often is important because in the end, it’s all about that! And if you enjoy RIV, then get those and do t worry about the rest.

 

[kboo]

I think I had to do this for Christmas 2021, and one of my snapshots of my dashboard had me changing rooms every night - I had nights in: standard studio, standard 1br, preferred 1br, 2br dedicated, 1br standard, etc... But each day a little after 8am I was able to pick up the room I wanted (+ used the waitlist) and it all worked out.

You could also always do this with your RIV points if you wanted to do a split stay (maybe book in slightly different names to prevent your reservation from getting linked) and then use half of your stay at 7mo to see what's available. We had a BLT-VGF split coming up that I booked at 10 months out so we'd have a place to stay the whole time, but fully intended to see what came available at 7 mo. Luckily we modified BLT for BCV for almost exactly the same # of points, so it all worked out. But being "stuck" at a 2-MK-resort split stay would have been fine too.

Also, if it makes you feel any better - we love AKV's as a resort but did not really like the room decor when we stayed at AKL a long time ago. On one of our pandemic trips we lucked out into a 1br value for part of the trip, so we decided to try it. other 1br that were available (BWV, BLT) would have been about 7-10 more points a night, but a) we'd stayed at those resorts before (and recently), and b) it was only 3 nights so a 30 point savings is nothing to sneeze at, but also not worth the headache/obsession that @CaptainAmerica writes about. I am fully ok with paying a little more for 3 days to stay at AKV in a savanna or standard room, for a resort-only or resort-mostly trip. I guess now that I write it out, it may be a little about expectations, too. I never expected to have the chance to try a value room, went into it knowing it would be a one-time thing, and so I am glad I did it, but also glad I won't be torn with the "should I try to get a value room on our next stay" because that is just never going to be realistic (since I don't own AKV points, lol)

BTW - during that time Riviera standard rooms and studios were GONE.

I see buying AKV points as buying standard/savanna rooms plus a lottery ticket for club/value.

 

[TinkB278]

So my plan with the 75 vgf2 points was to book 3-4 nights at a studio then finish off the week at riv in a studio or 1 bedroom to save us on time using buses. I currently have 163 points at riv (bought a fixed week which is why 163) and don’t really want more than 75-125 more points as I don’t want to spend more than that on dues each year so that I’m still able to save for vacations outside of Disney.

After reading the last couple comments I think I am leaning towards buying the 100 points at riv. I love the resort and am thinking the new VGF studios won’t be terribly difficult to book at 7 months, especially with how many people are talking about using them as SAP . If I can’t get in to VGF we can stay at poly, as I love that resort almost as much ask AKV and RIV. With 100 extra RIV points we could bump up to a one bedroom for our split stays or go more often (as long as the APs come back!)

Im also excited about getting the 2021 points at RIV.

 

[CarolMN]

So my plan with the 75 vgf2 points was to book 3-4 nights at a studio then finish off the week at riv in a studio or 1 bedroom to save us on time using buses.

Our plan for 75 VGF2 points, too - except we will finish the stay in a 1 bedroom at the BWV. We prefer to go in early December and because I'm not so sure VGF2 will be easy to get at 7 months for that time of the year, we're going to buy VGF2. I do like Riviera, though.

 

[sjdrr1313]

Our plan for 75 VGF2 points, too - except we will finish the stay in a 1 bedroom at the BWV. We prefer to go in early December and because I'm not so sure VGF2 will be easy to get at 7 months for that time of the year, we're going to buy VGF2. I do like Riviera, though.

I'm looking at 75 points at VGF also. We like to go for a long weekend in the fall so I only really need 2-3 nights. We have 200 pts at SSR that we use for our longer stays. The only drawback is we currently have a March use year but I know worst case scenario if I had a stay booked a VGF in November or December I'm sure I'd have no problem renting that out vs going into holding. My guide is still honoring the old SSR price if I want to add on there, but with these VGF it's not that much more money to buy there and get an extra 10 years on my contract vs buying more SSR.

 

[CarolMN]

I'm looking at 75 points at VGF also. We like to go for a long weekend in the fall so I only really need 2-3 nights. We have 200 pts at SSR that we use for our longer stays. The only drawback is we currently have a March use year but I know worst case scenario if I had a stay booked a VGF in November or December I'm sure I'd have no problem renting that out vs going into holding. My guide is still honoring the old SSR price if I want to add on there, but with these VGF it's not that much more money to buy there and get an extra 10 years on my contract vs buying more SSR.

November shouldn't be a huge problem. If you don't cancel at least 31 days in advance the points go into holding, so that means you'd have to cancel in October and thus have time to bank. Of course, if you are using banked or borrowed points, renting is certainly a pretty good option. Good luck with your decision.

 

[got4boys]

For value in the future, VGF prices higher than RIV and AKV. Before the new prices were released for VGF, resale was the almost the same prices as what they are selling now. You would make money in the future if you decide to sell it.

 

[Bearval]

What do you suppose the secret is for these people who do get those rooms?

Walking 16 months out

 

[sjdrr1313]

Well I was going to buy a 50 point SSR resale contract and add on to my current contract....Then I thought "well direct isn't that much more, I can put the full amount on my credit card and earn miles, and I can avoid dealing with ROFR" So then I compared 50 points at SSR to VGF direct- no resale restrictions, rooms that sleep 5, on the monorail, extra 10 years on the contract for not really that much more money....after hemming and hawing I ended up with 85 points at VGF direct, lol. They let me do a 90 day payment plan, I'll earn a total of 145,000 points through chase (signed up for a new ink card) and I'm already booked for 4 nights in a studio in November lol. No blue card for me yet but that's okay, I'm sure I'll add on after this is paid off...