How to choose a home villa

[Anthony Alsup]

You're right, it is a long-term decision and will be different for everyone. For us, we plan on spending more time at DW when the kids gone! And 2042 only puts us at 67.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

Ok...question. What do you mean by, "When you buy into a specific resort the DVC guarantees that it will cost the same amount of points to stay there for the life of your contract (ours is 45 years)."??? I have never heard anyone say this. Is this just a "direct" thing?

Because that would be a game-changer in the direct vs. resale argument!

Disney cannot change the total number of points available at each resort yearly. However, the points chart does shift a bit each year. Not appreciably, though. If a studio costs 17 points per night now when you go, it is safe to expect it to cost about that much in 20 years. If they rose the points required for a studio, they'd have to lower the points required at a different room type.

Never realized that. Since they come out with new point charts every year, I assumed that points changed. Learned something new!

What @MansionButler84 says is correct. Disney is free to change the points for a specific room or type of room from year to year, but the total number of points resort-wide can never change. We own at SSR, and they will be changing to a "Preferred" and "Standard" type room next year, with the new Preferred rooms costing more points. The Standard rooms have been lowered by the same amount. Works great for us, as we always stay in the Grandstand area, and that is now a lower point Standard area! Only The Springs and Congress Park are in the preferred area.

 

[GoofGoof]

I've been to every resort. But I haven't stayed at every resort. And what I've decided is location is huge. And I really enjoy the convenience of the Epcot area villas. I like that you only have to take the bus to AK. Obviously you use it more than that, but it's a good perk. My question about BCVs is while Epcot is my wife, my family and my favorite park... Kids don't seem to love Epcot until they're older. So is a MK area villa maybe better for a family about to have kids. Obviously BCVs aren't far away but not as convenient as a MK area villa if that's where we will be spending a lot of time with little ones.

Having young kids I can say we definitely spend more time at MK than EPCOT. The transportation issue is huge especially if a kid falls asleep in a stroller on the way out of a park. There's not an easy way to transfer a sleeping kid from a stroller to a bus and back to the stroller again. With BLT you can walk back from MK or ride the monorail from MK or EPCOT. With BCV you can walk into EPCOT or DHS (long walk) or take the boat to either. With the boat or monorail you can roll a stroller on without the kids getting out or even waking up unless it's really crowded. Big plus over the bus.

But kids don't stay young forever so it's probably only skewed towards MK for a decade or less but your contract will last longer. Kids love pools too. Sometimes even more than the parks. BCV has the best pools by a long shot. The villa pool at BCV is plenty nice and you get the whole mini-water park that's part of the Beach Club. They even have a shallow sand pool area which is great for really little kids and once they get a little older the big slide is great too. With Toy Story Land and eventually Star Wars, DHS is looking like its on the rise so being close to EPcOt and DHS may outweigh MK at some point.

I don't think you can go wrong with either option and if you do decide on BCV you can always trade in for a monorail resort while your kids are really young. The opposite works too. If you go monorail resort you can always trade in for BCV when the kids are a little older or if you decide to do a long weekend without the kids.

 

[Tiggerish]

What @MansionButler84 says is correct. Disney is free to change the points for a specific room or type of room from year to year, but the total number of points resort-wide can never change. We own at SSR, and they will be changing to a "Preferred" and "Standard" type room next year, with the new Preferred rooms costing more points. The Standard rooms have been lowered by the same amount. Works great for us, as we always stay in the Grandstand area, and that is now a lower point Standard area! Only The Springs and Congress Park are in the preferred area.

What interesting news! Especially since, like you, we prefer the Grandstand and the Carousel areas.

 

[TXDisney]

Our plan with the DVC is to go every year, maybe save up a couple years every once in awhile to go to Aulani or Europe as we get older. Like I stated we really like BCV but weren't impressed with the rooms, but I know they're getting refurbished soon. But the location and all we love. Also like I stated Epcot is our favorite park, but is most kids least favorite park. So since we're about to start parenthood here within the year we weren't sure if a bay lake area villa would be better. My opinion on it was that the BCV were still close to other parks so it isn't a big deal to go to and from parks. Storm along Bay is also a huge seller. I guess my main question I have to ask is if I buy at BCV how hard is it to trade your points in for a Bay lake area villa for a trip, to mix it up?

 

[WWWD]

Our plan with the DVC is to go every year, maybe save up a couple years every once in awhile to go to Aulani or Europe as we get older. Like I stated we really like BCV but weren't impressed with the rooms, but I know they're getting refurbished soon. But the location and all we love. Also like I stated Epcot is our favorite park, but is most kids least favorite park. So since we're about to start parenthood here within the year we weren't sure if a bay lake area villa would be better. My opinion on it was that the BCV were still close to other parks so it isn't a big deal to go to and from parks. Storm along Bay is also a huge seller. I guess my main question I have to ask is if I buy at BCV how hard is it to trade your points in for a Bay lake area villa for a trip, to mix it up?

Always will depend on what time of year you want to go. We are BCV owners and are doing a split stay this March and had no problem getting a studio at Poly and last July we stayed at Grand California, but that one we reserved right at the 7 months mark. I will say though that since we are a family of 5, we bought enough points that we can reserve up to a two bed room during the season we usually go. This gives us more options when looking for rooms at different resorts.

 

[GoofGoof]

Our plan with the DVC is to go every year, maybe save up a couple years every once in awhile to go to Aulani or Europe as we get older. Like I stated we really like BCV but weren't impressed with the rooms, but I know they're getting refurbished soon. But the location and all we love. Also like I stated Epcot is our favorite park, but is most kids least favorite park. So since we're about to start parenthood here within the year we weren't sure if a bay lake area villa would be better. My opinion on it was that the BCV were still close to other parks so it isn't a big deal to go to and from parks. Storm along Bay is also a huge seller. I guess my main question I have to ask is if I buy at BCV how hard is it to trade your points in for a Bay lake area villa for a trip, to mix it up?

It's hard to say on trade in. If you get on right at the 7 month mark there's a much better chance. Generally speaking the 1BR villas are the least popular. I think it's mostly because they sleep the same number of people as the studios but are a lot more points. Studios are most popular followed by 2BR.

This is my non-scientific observation, but BLT was a lot harder to trade into when it was the only monorail resort with DVC (and brand new). Now that GF and Poly have DVC too and are newer it seems to have more availability. It's not SSR availability, but better than it was 3 to 5 years ago. Don't forget that if you get shutout from the monorail resorts VWL is right there too with a short boat ride to either CR to hop on the monorail or a boat directly to MK. They are also adding additional DVC inventory at WL. If you are a little flexible you should probably make out OK with the trade in. You also have the option of booking your home resort at 11 months and then switching to a MK resort at 7 months. If for some reason you get shut out on the trade in you still have a room booked at BCV.

 

[dreamfinder]

Disney cannot change the total number of points available at each resort yearly. However, the points chart does shift a bit each year. Not appreciably, though. If a studio costs 17 points per night now when you go, it is safe to expect it to cost about that much in 20 years. If they rose the points required for a studio, they'd have to lower the points required at a different room type.

And not only can the total number of points change, I believe there is a limit on how much change can take place within a single year. A few years back they balanced out most of the points, and it took them 2-3 years to do so. They went through most rooms and changed the weekends to cost more, and the midweeks to cost less. I think they were ending up with a lot of weekend stays and vacancies midweek.

Never realized that. Since they come out with new point charts every year, I assumed that points changed. Learned something new!

It's more the dates change. The seasons are heavily dictated by demand, so as say Thanksgiving moves by a few days each year, the calendar would be adjusted to accommodate that date change. Same number of high demand days each year, but the season may start or end a few days earlier or later depending on what holidays/fiscal calendars/etc fall when.

 

[TXDisney]

Good to hear you can book the home resort 11 months in advance and still trade it in at 7 months. Definately looking at a 2BR offseason point wise at BCV. I'm figuring on the resale market that'll cost us around 35k. That's a good amount of points so it gives us flexibility.