Looking at Saratoga Resale

Club Cooloholic

Well-Known Member
I don't think we will have the time unfortunately the way our trip is planned. My inlaws have never been to Disney World so we have a lot planned for them :)
Well I will also say, we prefer taking the car to any park except for MK. Just remember where you parked it! Spent about 20 mins in 90 degree heat and no shade looking for our car at DHS last trip lol.
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
Understanding that Holiday time for DVC is the busiest time of the year...
Just to clarify, because you might be missing a detail.

If you actually want to visit DURING the holidays, like Christmas week itself, it's one of the easiest times to book DVC. DVC members are notoriously cheap with their points, and any time that's expensive (in points terms) is relatively easy to book. The pre-holiday holiday time (fall and early December) is DVC-peak in terms of limited availability.
 

Doberge

True Bayou Magic
Premium Member
You mentioned switching into AK as a potential top 3. I'd strongly suggest considering AK resale. You can use your home priority to book a place you'd love to stay and if you can't switch then you're still at a gorgeous holiday resort. It'll cost a little more with maintenance fees over life but you may be able to mentally justify it as an insurance to stay at a favorite resort.
 

Schweino

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
You mentioned switching into AK as a potential top 3. I'd strongly suggest considering AK resale. You can use your home priority to book a place you'd love to stay and if you can't switch then you're still at a gorgeous holiday resort. It'll cost a little more with maintenance fees over life but you may be able to mentally justify it as an insurance to stay at a favorite resort.
I wish I could swing a night at AKL this trip. With my in-laws coming, and us wanting to at least stay together to help them navigate the magical world since they've never been, it's just not going to happen :(

I think from this thread it's been advised that SSR is too easy to book at the 7 month window and buying resale there wouldn't make sense unless you really loved SSR. This would push me to probably AKL.

Though considering our 'main' travel times and having a preference for the Holiday season, there's a part of me that wants to look more into BR, but I believe those contracts are done in '42 and I'm super curious what this refurb that is suppose to happen would look like. CC was nice when I saw some videos, but I wasn't in love.
 

Club Cooloholic

Well-Known Member
I wish I could swing a night at AKL this trip. With my in-laws coming, and us wanting to at least stay together to help them navigate the magical world since they've never been, it's just not going to happen :(

I think from this thread it's been advised that SSR is too easy to book at the 7 month window and buying resale there wouldn't make sense unless you really loved SSR. This would push me to probably AKL.

Though considering our 'main' travel times and having a preference for the Holiday season, there's a part of me that wants to look more into BR, but I believe those contracts are done in '42 and I'm super curious what this refurb that is suppose to happen would look like. CC was nice when I saw some videos, but I wasn't in love.
I think if SSR has a good resale contract it's not a bad idea. Again, you can book other places at 7 month mark. If you ended up being stuck there some trips...it's not a bad thing, the rooms there are some of the most functional on the property
 

correcaminos

Well-Known Member
Just to clarify, because you might be missing a detail.

If you actually want to visit DURING the holidays, like Christmas week itself, it's one of the easiest times to book DVC. DVC members are notoriously cheap with their points, and any time that's expensive (in points terms) is relatively easy to book. The pre-holiday holiday time (fall and early December) is DVC-peak in terms of limited availability.
I'll disagree on it being easy. I know many are stuck with times they can travel. I've had friends walk at 11 months to get between xmas and NYE. Right after if often a race too so even into Jan a little can be hard.

Now spring break is much easier to do than end of year. In part because it's so spread out but even before 7 months things are booking at quite a few resorts for our week (not easter or Passover)
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
I wish I could swing a night at AKL this trip. With my in-laws coming, and us wanting to at least stay together to help them navigate the magical world since they've never been, it's just not going to happen :(

I think from this thread it's been advised that SSR is too easy to book at the 7 month window and buying resale there wouldn't make sense unless you really loved SSR. This would push me to probably AKL.

Though considering our 'main' travel times and having a preference for the Holiday season, there's a part of me that wants to look more into BR, but I believe those contracts are done in '42 and I'm super curious what this refurb that is suppose to happen would look like. CC was nice when I saw some videos, but I wasn't in love.
So my .02 cents worth. AKL is usually not that hard to book at 7 months, unless you are looking for a value studio or concierge level. Those book day 1 at 11 months. Yes, you may have issues with the first 2 weeks of December, but that's going to be true for all DVC resorts, even SSR.

We always book our stays at 11 months at SSR (our home resort), and then look the day before our 7 month window to see if anything is available. If other resorts are available, we book first thing in the morning (8am eastern) right on the 7 month day. We've been fortunate that it works over 90% of the time to get what we want. We only have BR and CC left, but those 2 are pretty much the hardest to book at 7 months. Good luck!
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
I'll disagree on it being easy. I know many are stuck with times they can travel. I've had friends walk at 11 months to get between xmas and NYE. Right after if often a race too so even into Jan a little can be hard.

Now spring break is much easier to do than end of year. In part because it's so spread out but even before 7 months things are booking at quite a few resorts for our week (not easter or Passover)
I booked 5 Poly studios for Christmas-NYE at 7 months this year. There was a TON of availability. Nothing got difficult until Marathon Weekend, and then it opened up wide open again.
 

Doberge

True Bayou Magic
Premium Member
Another AKL consideration for @Schweino is that the preferred room size is one bedroom and owning at AK would give the best opportunity to book a Kidani one bedroom with the second full bathroom. That's pretty clutch for families.
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
Another AKL consideration for @Schweino is that the preferred room size is one bedroom and owning at AK would give the best opportunity to book a Kidani one bedroom with the second full bathroom. That's pretty clutch for families.
I still think two studios are a better use of points unless you really intend to use the kitchen, but yes, two bathrooms are nice.
 

correcaminos

Well-Known Member
I booked 5 Poly studios for Christmas-NYE at 7 months this year. There was a TON of availability. Nothing got difficult until Marathon Weekend, and then it opened up wide open again.
Good job! Seriously Polynesian with all the studios is not hard to book ever. Marathon weekend is very hard as a whole no matter where. As a whole there are a LOT of resorts you cannot book at the holidays. Polynesian isn't one of the bigger due to lack of decorations. WL (both) and honestly RR is hard as a whole, VGF (though cannot speak for resort studios) and all those well decorated are really hard to get.

But you are totally minimalizing how hard Christmas can be in some of the resorts the OP mentioned.

Another AKL consideration for @Schweino is that the preferred room size is one bedroom and owning at AK would give the best opportunity to book a Kidani one bedroom with the second full bathroom. That's pretty clutch for families.
AKL Kidani 1 bedrooms usually are pretty easy to get inside of 7 months as a whole. Not always but *usually* SSR is by far the easiest
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
Good job! Seriously Polynesian with all the studios is not hard to book ever. Marathon weekend is very hard as a whole no matter where. As a whole there are a LOT of resorts you cannot book at the holidays. Polynesian isn't one of the bigger due to lack of decorations. WL (both) and honestly RR is hard as a whole, VGF (though cannot speak for resort studios) and all those well decorated are really hard to get.

But you are totally minimalizing how hard Christmas can be in some of the resorts the OP mentioned.


AKL Kidani 1 bedrooms usually are pretty easy to get inside of 7 months as a whole. Not always but *usually* SSR is by far the easiest
I booked 9 nights and every resort was available except Boulder Ridge. Studios at all of them.
 

Minthorne

Well-Known Member
October will be a better use year for you.
I agree with this. I have 160 SSR in OCT and usually book Oct-Jan. This Oct I have a Poly studio 3 nights on SSR points that I split with a Boardwalk standard studio 4 nights on Boardwalk points.
 

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
I'm starting to get towards the point that the SSR contract is a little too short to actively recommend. The ideal ownership structure (purely financial) I firmly believe is owning a contract for 15-30 years and then selling. With ideally 20+ years left on the contract.

Dis is going to get absolutely flooded with new points in 20 years with the 2042 expiry and I'm not sure how well SSR will retain resale value when it's down to its final 10 years.

That 11k difference between Riv and SSR might be the inverse in 20 years. This is admittedly trying to predict the future.
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
I'm starting to get towards the point that the SSR contract is a little too short to actively recommend. The ideal ownership structure (purely financial) I firmly believe is owning a contract for 15-30 years and then selling. With ideally 20+ years left on the contract.

Dis is going to get absolutely flooded with new points in 20 years with the 2042 expiry and I'm not sure how well SSR will retain resale value when it's down to its final 10 years.

That 11k difference between Riv and SSR might be the inverse in 20 years. This is admittedly trying to predict the future.
DVC should never be considered in a "purely financial" mindset. It is NOT an investment that anyone can expect to "make" money on. People keep talking about how you could do so much better investing your money in something, and using the profits for Disney trips. Sorry, but unless you have several hundred thousand dollars at a rate of return greater than almost anything today, you're never going to have enough to stay deluxe for 2-3 trips a year like we do. Just not going to happen. DVC isn't for everyone, I am the first to admit that, as the one and only thing that should be considered when purchasing DVC is the money saved on the deluxe accomadations. Period. Never buy thinking that there will be discounts. Never buy if you think you might make money on a resale. The resale market could crash tomorrow.

We have owned at SSR for over 15 years already, and plan on leaving it to our kids in 20 years or so. Still plenty of time for them to enjoy it themselves, though we already add them onto trips every other year now.
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
Agreed (and my mindset). I actually attempted to plot this out via spreadsheet.
I do have a spreadsheet, but it was never a comparison for direct versus resale. All of our points are direct. My spreadsheet has columns for dues, cost of cash room, and money saved. It started with the money initially paid for the points for all 3 contracts. I will add more when we add-on, which we are already looking into. HH or BWV are the 2 we want. So anyway, I take any possible discounts into account, but add in the tax that is charged. As an example, for the 2 trips this year, it would have cost us over $15,700 to pay cash, compared to only $2,800 in dues. We think an almost $13,000 savings just for this year is pretty awesome. To us, that is all we bought for, and all we expect going forward. Anything else they offer is gravy.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom