Which DVC resort to choose?

[sxeensweet]

Hi Everyone,

Me and the hubby are seriously considering buying into DVC this month but are at a loss of which home resort to choose. We have stayed at Kidani in a 1 bedroom Savannah view and also at SSR. We are buying direct and do not want to do resale for various reasons. SSR is cheaper but has no incentives available. AKV has several incetives and with the incentives we would only have to pay $5/pt more than SSR. Also would get the 4 Five Day Park Hopper passes, and a free year of points for 2012 and they pay the dues from last year. So by the end if this year we would have double the points for only paying dues for one year. We also like Bay Lake Tower but that one is just too pricey to buy in directly. We know we can stay at any of the resorts of course so your home one does not really matter unless you want to book 11 months out instead of 7. Kidani has always been easy to book even as a paying guest at 5-6 months out so I'm sure the 7 month mark will not be a problem. Any opinions would be greatly appretiated as we are torn a little on what to do. Also I know AKV prices are going up June 19th so we have to make a decision before then. Thanks!!

 

[luv]

Without discussing costs and all that, I like Beach Club, AKL and OKW best.

 

[harryk]

Can't always count on 7 month window availability at non-home resorts - a lot depends on the 'season'.
When we bought in we wanted the Boardwalk - but there were absolutely no points available - so we bought into VWL and have never regretted it. Beach Club became available a year later - but we had made our purchase. When selecting - take a look at how much time you actually spend in your room (other than sleeping), and then what do you plan on doing during your stays. Sometimes the views are not all that they seem when it comes to value. You may not be able to get the rooms you want when you book your stay.

 

[dreamfinder]

Buy the resort you want to stay at. Or will at least be happy staying at. Thats the best advice. AKV is something like 94% declared, so it should become a little more difficult to book going forward, so what may have been easy in the past might get more difficult. And as mentioned, season makes a ton of difference. Remember, its a place you will be potentially staying at for another 30-40 years, so make sure you pick on that you will like.

 

[WWWD]

P.S. I'm watching the OCC website and am surprised at the number of DVCs Disney continues to foreclose on. These appear to be guests who bought directly from Disney using loans and now their DVCs are underwater. It's simply cheaper to default on their loans than try to sell on the secondary market.

What is the OCC website?

 

[ParentsOf4]

What is the OCC website?

The Orange County Comptroller:

http://or.occompt.com/recorder/web/login.jsp

DVC transactions are recorded here. At one time it was possible to determine the per-point price. Now, they simply show the buyers and sellers. From this, you can count the number of DVC units Disney is selling, Disney is buying, Disney is foreclosing, and Disney is waiving ROFR.

 

[G8R]

we bought in at AKL in 2010 and we love it there!

 

[WWWD]

What is the OCC website?

The Orange County Comptroller:

http://or.occompt.com/recorder/web/login.jsp

DVC transactions are recorded here. At one time it was possible to determine the per-point price. Now, they simply show the buyers and sellers. From this, you can count the number of DVC units Disney is selling, Disney is buying, Disney is foreclosing, and Disney is waiving ROFR.

Thanks!

I also agree with buy where you want to stay. We bought BCV (re-sale and direct contracts) because we plan on attending EPCOT's big events when the children no longer want to go and it's just an adult trip. There is no way we could get rooms at the 7 month window for Food and Wine.

Remember these are 30 plus years contracts - your kids may "age out" and get busy with their adult lives even before grand kids come along. It's these years that we wanted to make sure we would still enjoy trips to WDW - EPCOT was that for us.

 

[sxeensweet]

Thanks!

I also agree with buy where you want to stay. We bought BCV (re-sale and direct contracts) because we plan on attending EPCOT's big events when the children no longer want to go and it's just an adult trip. There is no way we could get rooms at the 7 month window for Food and Wine.

Remember these are 30 plus years contracts - your kids may "age out" and get busy with their adult lives even before grand kids come along. It's these years that we wanted to make sure we would still enjoy trips to WDW - EPCOT was that for us.

Good advice! We personally do not plan in having children so at least that will not be a factor for us. We also like to travel in lower seasons when everywhere is less crowded etc and can do that due to no children to worry about when they are out of school etc. Thanks for your input!

 

[sxeensweet]

Thanks to everyone for your advice!! . We are not scared I resale by any means but we want to not be restricted to how we can use our points. More and more restrictions keep getting put on points bought in the resale market so we don't want to get to where we don't have any flexibility to use our points how we want for the next 40 years!

 

[WWWD]

Good advice! We personally do not plan in having children so at least that will not be a factor for us. We also like to travel in lower seasons when everywhere is less crowded etc and can do that due to no children to worry about when they are out of school etc. Thanks for your input!

Remember though that lower season for the parks does not always mean lower season for DVC. DVC'ers are experienced park goers and know when to avoid the parks, so DVC units may be quite full during "slower" months. We actually pull our kids from school to avoid peak times of the year.

 

[sxeensweet]

Remember though that lower season for the parks does not always mean lower season for DVC. DVC'ers are experienced park goers and know when to avoid the parks, so DVC units may be quite full during "slower" months. We actually pull our kids from school to avoid peak times of the year.

Very true..but just curious why as a paying customer in the DVC resorts in 1 bed villas are they pretty easy to book even 6 months out? I thought they do not offer rooms to the public until DVC MEMBERS get their dibs up until 7 months out. If its selling out for DVC members how come there is rooms available to the general public? We have booked 5-6 months out for DVC 1 bed villa rooms everytime we go which is every other year or so.

 

[GoofGoof]

Good advice! We personally do not plan in having children so at least that will not be a factor for us. We also like to travel in lower seasons when everywhere is less crowded etc and can do that due to no children to worry about when they are out of school etc. Thanks for your input!

Not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but with DVC the off times for WDW tend to be the most popular times for DVC. Reason being is the points are lower at those times. I booked a room at my home resort (BLT) at the 11 month window for this November (not Thanksgiving week) which is supposed to be a down time at WDW. I'm glad I did because the rooms were sold out within a month of the 11 month window. Seems to me that the studios and 2 BRs are most popular with the 1 BR being the easiest to get.

Thanks to everyone for your advice!! . We are not scared I resale by any means but we want to not be restricted to how we can use our points. More and more restrictions keep getting put on points bought in the resale market so we don't want to get to where we don't have any flexibility to use our points how we want for the next 40 years!

If you plan on using the points to stay at non-DVC Disney hotels or for cruises then the restrictions could be an issue. Keep in mind that while it is not guaranteed any restrictions introduced for contracts bought resale in the past allowed the current resale owners to be grandfathered in. In other words there is a good chance that future restrictions, if any, would not apply to you. Not guaranteed obviously, but likely to go down that way in my opinion. Resale vs direct is a huge money savings. If you wanted to buy in at AKV for instance you could get a resale contract for in the $60s while direct is $145. Saving $85 per point on a 160 point contract would save you $13,600. That's a lot of cruises.

 

[GoofGoof]

Very true..but just curious why as a paying customer in the DVC resorts in 1 bed villas are they pretty easy to book even 6 months out? I thought they do not offer rooms to the public until DVC MEMBERS get their dibs up until 7 months out. If its selling out for DVC members how come there is rooms available to the general public? We have booked 5-6 months out for DVC 1 bed villa rooms everytime we go which is every other year or so.

There is a quantity of DVC rooms that are held back for cash guests. I think it's a small amount (maybe 5%). Also probably depends on when and where you book. Like I said in my other post, 1BRs are the easiest to get since they have the same occupancy as a studio for twice the points.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Very true..but just curious why as a paying customer in the DVC resorts in 1 bed villas are they pretty easy to book even 6 months out? I thought they do not offer rooms to the public until DVC MEMBERS get their dibs up until 7 months out. If its selling out for DVC members how come there is rooms available to the general public? We have booked 5-6 months out for DVC 1 bed villa rooms everytime we go which is every other year or so.

Disney is required to retain 2% ownership of all DVC points. When you pay cash for a DVC room, you're effectively renting Disney's points. At AKV in particular Disney still owns about 7% of the rooms since these are not yet declared for DVC inventory.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Remember though that lower season for the parks does not always mean lower season for DVC. DVC'ers are experienced park goers and know when to avoid the parks, so DVC units may be quite full during "slower" months.

Not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but with DVC the off times for WDW tend to be the most popular times for DVC. Reason being is the points are lower at those times.

I'm also in agreement here. DVC rooms often are hardest to book during the slowest times of year when points needed are the fewest.

Booking DVC is nothing like booking a cash room. When becoming a DVC member, it's probably the hardest adjustment to make.

 

[sxeensweet]

Not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but with DVC the off times for WDW tend to be the most popular times for DVC. Reason being is the points are lower at those times. I booked a room at my home resort (BLT) at the 11 month window for this November (not Thanksgiving week) which is supposed to be a down time at WDW. I'm glad I did because the rooms were sold out within a month of the 11 month window. Seems to me that the studios and 2 BRs are most popular with the 1 BR being the easiest to get.

If you plan on using the points to stay at non-DVC Disney hotels or for cruises then the restrictions could be an issue. Keep in mind that while it is not guaranteed any restrictions introduced for contracts bought resale in the past allowed the current resale owners to be grandfathered in. In other words there is a good chance that future restrictions, if any, would not apply to you. Not guaranteed obviously, but likely to go down that way in my opinion. Resale vs direct is a huge money savings. If you wanted to buy in at AKV for instance you could get a resale contract for in the $60s while direct is $145. Saving $85 per point on a 160 point contract would save you $13,600. That's a lot of cruises.

I looked on most of the resale sites and the lowest price point was close to $80/pt and very few listings for the amount of points we wanted which is 200 or more. And even other amounts most were sale pending. We are looking to get in with ownership ASAP so we can have our Use Year in Dec which is where it would be if we buy in right now. Also even though we are saving money with resale we do not want to put out almost 15-20 grand all at once for 200 or over points. We rather put down a good amount and finance the rest and with Disney we are already approved as Preferred level. Interest isn't great even putting 20% down but the banks are not much less than that for the type of loan needed and much harder and longer to get an approval even with our good credit. With what our paid vacations costs it will not take very many years to break even. By the end of the loan we will have broken even even including the interest and then will get to enjoy the many more years after with only the lovely dues. Lol I rather pay 1200 (granted yes it rises each year) than spending 6-7 grand on the room alone we like to stay in each time. So there are good things and bad with direct and resale purchases. But again any advice given has been considered and is much appretiated!

 

[GoofGoof]

I looked on most of the resale sites and the lowest price point was close to $80/pt and very few listings for the amount of points we wanted which is 200 or more. And even other amounts most were sale pending. We are looking to get in with ownership ASAP so we can have our Use Year in Dec which is where it would be if we buy in right now. Also even though we are saving money with resale we do not want to put out almost 15-20 grand all at once for 200 or over points. We rather put down a good amount and finance the rest and with Disney we are already approved as Preferred level. Interest isn't great even putting 20% down but the banks are not much less than that for the type of loan needed and much harder and longer to get an approval even with our good credit. With what our paid vacations costs it will not take very many years to break even. By the end of the loan we will have broken even even including the interest and then will get to enjoy the many more years after with only the lovely dues. Lol I rather pay 1200 (granted yes it rises each year) than spending 6-7 grand on the room alone we like to stay in each time. So there are good things and bad with direct and resale purchases. But again any advice given has been considered and is much appretiated!

I didn't finance my purchase, but I bought from the Timeshare Store and I'm pretty sure they have financing. No clue if its good or not, but they advertise having it. Either way the interest rates are going to be steep, but in most cases the interest on your loan is tax deductible at least.

 

[sxeensweet]

I didn't finance my purchase, but I bought from the Timeshare Store and I'm pretty sure they have financing. No clue if its good or not, but they advertise having it. Either way the interest rates are going to be steep, but in most cases the interest on your loan is tax deductible at least.

Yes that's one good thing we were looking at for financing. We need all the deductions we can get due to my husbands income. Also we had a rental property and we are currently in the process of selling it because now with my husbands income we can't claim a loss anymore when we have one. We won't have the interest in that mortgage to claim now so we figured this loan will help with replacing that deduction for the interest. Thanks again for your help!

 

[dreamfinder]

I didn't finance my purchase, but I bought from the Timeshare Store and I'm pretty sure they have financing. No clue if its good or not, but they advertise having it. Either way the interest rates are going to be steep, but in most cases the interest on your loan is tax deductible at least.

Financing timeshares I think end up in like 10-20% rates. Most financing providers know that most timeshares have no real value on the secondary market when compared to their original costs, so they don't want to be left holding the bag.

At times DVD has offered dirt cheap financing, not sure if they are now.