DVC Purchase Help

[CLEtoWDW]

With all the recent rule changes to DVC resales I kindly request some advice.
I’m considering buying the majority of our points (200) direct through Disney but would also like to have 25-50 more points to ensure we can enjoy you vacation year after year.
Question 1: do I still get the perks of DVC (mainly the Gold AP pricing and free parking) if I’m using both direct purchase points and secondary market points?

Question 2: This is slightly more complicated... so let’s suppose I have 200 points at Bay Lake and purchase an addition 50 points for use at Vero Beach. Say at the 11 month mark I make a reservation for 225 points for a week long stay and at that time I say I will borrow points from 2021. Now, say I call back at the 7 month mark and elect to modify my reservation and use 25 of my Vero points in lieu of borrow. Is that possible? Will I get my borrowed points back?

Thank you for your guidance!

 

[Polite]

With all the recent rule changes to DVC resales I kindly request some advice.
I’m considering buying the majority of our points (200) direct through Disney but would also like to have 25-50 more points to ensure we can enjoy you vacation year after year.
Question 1: do I still get the perks of DVC (mainly the Gold AP pricing and free parking) if I’m using both direct purchase points and secondary market points?

Question 2: This is slightly more complicated... so let’s suppose I have 200 points at Bay Lake and purchase an addition 50 points for use at Vero Beach. Say at the 11 month mark I make a reservation for 225 points for a week long stay and at that time I say I will borrow points from 2021. Now, say I call back at the 7 month mark and elect to modify my reservation and use 25 of my Vero points in lieu of borrow. Is that possible? Will I get my borrowed points back?

Thank you for your guidance!

Question 1: As long as you buy at least 75 points directly through Disney, you'll get the extra benefits. Just remember that the extra benefits are not a guarantee to always be around. The free parking is good whether you are using points purchased direct or resale.

Question 2: Honestly not sure about this one, hopefully someone else can give you a definitive answer on this!

 

[lostpro9het]

Question 2: This is slightly more complicated... so let’s suppose I have 200 points at Bay Lake and purchase an addition 50 points for use at Vero Beach. Say at the 11 month mark I make a reservation for 225 points for a week long stay and at that time I say I will borrow points from 2021. Now, say I call back at the 7 month mark and elect to modify my reservation and use 25 of my Vero points in lieu of borrow. Is that possible? Will I get my borrowed points back?

Slightly more complicated is correct. It is possible to do on your own but for best results, IMO, calling member services is the way to go. You essentially have to release the room and rebook it with the Vero points. Small risk here when doing it on your own is someone could swoop in and take the room IF they are looking for it at that exact time or their is a waitlist for the date(s). Additionally, the DVC site is flaky at best and you have to deal with that during the move on your own. When I did it last i just called MS and 5 minutes later my Poly stay was moved my AKL points.

 

[Lensman]

With all the recent rule changes to DVC resales I kindly request some advice.
I’m considering buying the majority of our points (200) direct through Disney but would also like to have 25-50 more points to ensure we can enjoy you vacation year after year.

I'm not sure what you mean by "would also like to have 25-50 more points to ensure we can enjoy you vacation year after year"? What's an example of this? Most people would either buy all 250 points resale, all 250 point direct, or 175 resale + 75 direct.

Question 2: This is slightly more complicated... so let’s suppose I have 200 points at Bay Lake and purchase an addition 50 points for use at Vero Beach. Say at the 11 month mark I make a reservation for 225 points for a week long stay and at that time I say I will borrow points from 2021. Now, say I call back at the 7 month mark and elect to modify my reservation and use 25 of my Vero points in lieu of borrow. Is that possible? Will I get my borrowed points back?

Thank you for your guidance!

Googling for this questions leads to a few threads on other boards saying that, in practice, this will tend to not work because the resorts you want to do this at will be availability constrained and you're risk a lot due to the fact that you have to cancel your original reservation and hope that the inventory doesn't go to someone who has waitlisted. You could see if anyone has direct experience with this and you can call DVC and see what they have to say about the practice, but I wouldn't depend on being able to do this.

Good luck with your happy decision! There are a lot of satisfied DVCers here as well as some who are spoiled by the early days when the program was even better.

 

[CLEtoWDW]

Slightly more complicated is correct. It is possible to do on your own but for best results, IMO, calling member services is the way to go. You essentially have to release the room and rebook it with the Vero points. Small risk here when doing it on your own is someone could swoop in and take the room IF they are looking for it at that exact time or their is a waitlist for the date(s). Additionally, the DVC site is flaky at best and you have to deal with that during the move on your own. When I did it last i just called MS and 5 minutes later my Poly stay was moved my AKL points.

Awesome. Thank you so much for the recommendation to contact MS directly. Obviously I’m manipulating the system but if it works then I figure why not? Just out of curiosity what’s your home resort? Do you own points direct at Poly and AKL?

 

[CLEtoWDW]

I'm not sure what you mean by "would also like to have 25-50 more points to ensure we can enjoy you vacation year after year"? What's an example of this? Most people would either buy all 250 points resale, all 250 point direct, or 175 resale + 75 direct.

My thought is this: I need to buy enough direct at my home resort so I can book at 11 months and borrow enough points to make the reservation happen. I figure that number is approximately 125 points. Then, I would buy an addition 75 points or so at another resort on the secondary market.

 

[lostpro9het]

Awesome. Thank you so much for the recommendation to contact MS directly. Obviously I’m manipulating the system but if it works then I figure why not? Just out of curiosity what’s your home resort? Do you own points direct at Poly and AKL?

Direct at Poly, resale at AKL.

 

[CLEtoWDW]

Direct at Poly, resale at AKL.

How long do you typically stay at Poly?

 

[lostpro9het]

How long do you typically stay at Poly?

If there is a typical, its a night or two before and after a cruise.

 

[EOD K9]

I bought 150 years ago at SSR. I also purchased resale at the same location with the same use year. We didn’t want to deal with trying to move reservations back and forth or have two different resorts with 7 and 11 month booking.

 

[nickys]

1. This has been answered. Only 75 points need to be purchased direct to get full benefits. This number could increase.

Generally you need to buy at least 100 direct as a new owner. But you can add on anything from 25 direct if you already own (either direct or resale); this varies depending on the resort.

Like @Lensman, I don’t understand your idea of buying 200 direct and just 50 or so resale. Why not buy 150 resale first, then add on 100 or so direct. Doing it this way means you can get DVC to match your home resort and use year.

I see you maybe want Vero too, I assume to stay there? Maintenance fees there are astronomical, to cover hurricane damage mainly. If you really want to own there, fine. But don’t buy there thinking it’s cheaper. Over the course of ownership, your MFs will be far the bigger part of the costs.

2. The short answer is no. You would have to rebook at the 7 month mark, so there would have to be availability not including the reservation you already have, to be able to do this. Otherwise it is circumventing home resort rules. There have been examples of this being allowed in the past, but in the last year or so DVC have got very strict about this.

If someone owned 50 points at GFV (expensive) and 150 points at OKW (cheaper). They book at GFV by borrowing at the 11 month mark. At 7 months they phone to re-allocate their current OKW points to that booking and get back all their GFV points.

Now they can book another GFV reservation for 11 months time. And re-allocate. See where this is going? They could end up booking 3 reservations at GFV in one use year with points that only covered one of them. Not allowed and quite rightly too!

 

[correcaminos]

Awesome. Thank you so much for the recommendation to contact MS directly. Obviously I’m manipulating the system but if it works then I figure why not? Just out of curiosity what’s your home resort? Do you own points direct at Poly and AKL?

They won't let you 'manipulate' the system. Remember once you borrow points, you cannot unborrow them.

You can only use your Vero points (you might want to rethink that anyway) IF and only IF there is availability at the resort of your choice.

As stated above, they won't switch unless it is available. So if you want BLT and it's all booked up, no go on switching points around. So don't think you can work the system as DVC is good at not allowing it.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Question 2: This is slightly more complicated... so let’s suppose I have 200 points at Bay Lake and purchase an addition 50 points for use at Vero Beach. Say at the 11 month mark I make a reservation for 225 points for a week long stay and at that time I say I will borrow points from 2021. Now, say I call back at the 7 month mark and elect to modify my reservation and use 25 of my Vero points in lieu of borrow. Is that possible? Will I get my borrowed points back?

Thank you for your guidance!

This is from the dvc website

If you cancel a reservation containing borrowed Vacation Points and don’t use them before the end of that Use Year they have been borrowed into, they expire. They cannot be returned to their original Use Year.

So if you borrow points and then cancel them, technically yes you will get the points back but you have to use them in 2020. they will not go back into 2021. if you do not use them in 2020 you will lose them

as @helenabear said DVC really isn't the system that ends well when manipulated.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

Question 2: This is slightly more complicated... so let’s suppose I have 200 points at Bay Lake and purchase an addition 50 points for use at Vero Beach. Say at the 11 month mark I make a reservation for 225 points for a week long stay and at that time I say I will borrow points from 2021. Now, say I call back at the 7 month mark and elect to modify my reservation and use 25 of my Vero points in lieu of borrow. Is that possible? Will I get my borrowed points back?

Thank you for your guidance!

First, as @helenabear and @eliza61nyc stated, once you borrow the points, that is a final transaction that cannot be undone or changed. You must use those points in the use year that you borrowed them into. The same rule goes for banking points. If you bank your points into the following use year, they must be used in that year, or they expire.

So the short answer is no, you cannot use your 25 Vero points in lieu of the points that you have already borrowed. If you are changing reservations at 7 months, I highly recommend that you call MS to do it. Yes, you can do it on-line, but unless you have enough points for both reservations, you have to cancel your current reservation to free up the points for the reservation you want, and during that few minutes, you could actually be locked out of both, as anyone with a waitlist for your original resort will immediately get that reservation, and even if you see availability at the resort you wish to book, in that few minutes, by the time you enter everything for that resort, they may be all gone as well. MS can actually hold your current reservation in their system while checking for availability at the resort you wish to book, and then transfer the points, so you are guaranteed to get that new resort. You cannot do that on-line. Does all this make sense?

 

[CLEtoWDW]

Thank you all for the helpful responses. I’m narrowing down my decision and have one final question: when the 11 month booking window opens for your home resort has anyone ever experienced issues with availability? I don’t want to buy into this thing and then be disappointed that I can book a room. We always plan our WDW getaways at least a year in advance.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

Thank you all for the helpful responses. I’m narrowing down my decision and have one final question: when the 11 month booking window opens for your home resort has anyone ever experienced issues with availability? I don’t want to buy into this thing and then be disappointed that I can book a room. We always plan our WDW getaways at least a year in advance.

The only time you might have an issue with the 11 month window is for something like the AKL Value or Concierge rooms, as there are very few of them, and they tend to fill up within a day or two of the 11 month window. The first 2 weeks of December do tend to go a bit quicker, since the points are so low, and all the decorations are up, but you really shouldn't have a problem at 11 months. Other than that, I cannot concieve of a time when you wouldn't be able to book any room at 11 months at any resort. Obviously, the earlier you can book, the better.

We always book our home resort (SSR) at the 11 month mark, and then decide if we want to switch at the 7 month mark. Sometimes we do, sometimes we prefer SSR, as we love the resort.

 

[CLEtoWDW]

[QUOTE="LuvtheGoof, post: 8747579, member:

We always book our home resort (SSR) at the 11 month mark, and then decide if we want to switch at the 7 month mark. Sometimes we do, sometimes we prefer SSR, as we love the resort.
[/QUOTE]

Thank you for the answers. Quick question as a follow up to this part: when you have made the switch at the 7 month mark what resort(s) did you switch to?

 

[correcaminos]

Thank you all for the helpful responses. I’m narrowing down my decision and have one final question: when the 11 month booking window opens for your home resort has anyone ever experienced issues with availability? I don’t want to buy into this thing and then be disappointed that I can book a room. We always plan our WDW getaways at least a year in advance.

Other than the previously mentioned AKL value and concierge, some reports of studios at smaller resorts around the end of the year holidays or races happen. I know CCV was mentioned this year from a friend of mine. Got it but it wasn't as easy as usual.

I've done a 7 month switch many times. I usually do 2 bedrooms though. I've stayed at all resorts so far now at 7 months. No studios at non- home resorts in about a decade (studios outside of PVB are not our thing).

 

[LuvtheGoof]

Thank you for the answers. Quick question as a follow up to this part: when you have made the switch at the 7 month mark what resort(s) did you switch to?

We have switched out to VGF, VGC, Poly, OKW, BWV, and BCV. We love the EPCOT resort area, so we tend to book there during Food & Wine. Even though it's just my wife and I, we prefer the 1 bedroom units for the extra room (along with washer & dryer, etc.), so we've been able to make BWV and BCV at the 7 month mark during Food & Wine. Studios are always booked by home resort owners, but 1 bedrooms are frequently available, as they are usually the last to be reserved.

 

[CLEtoWDW]

We have switched out to VGF, VGC, Poly, OKW, BWV, and BCV. We love the EPCOT resort area, so we tend to book there during Food & Wine. Even though it's just my wife and I, we prefer the 1 bedroom units for the extra room (along with washer & dryer, etc.), so we've been able to make BWV and BCV at the 7 month mark during Food & Wine. Studios are always booked by home resort owners, but 1 bedrooms are frequently available, as they are usually the last to be reserved.

Wow that’s fascinating to me. I figured the 1 BR would be in high demand due to the in-room amenities you had mentioned. We will typically either go in the summer months or during the early part of December so hopefully those time periods will regularly be available. A 1 bedroom would be ideal for us and our needs so hopefully the supply and demand remains the same!