Is it wrong to look at buying into DVC this way?

[NurseKim]

If I plan on not being "faithful" to a certain DVC resort, is it wrong for me to look for a contract (through DVC or resale) with the # of points I'm interested in at a resort with low dues?

I really would like to buy into AKV when it becomes available to non-members, but the dues are on the high side, so I'm looking at SSR. I figure that way, I'd be getting the biggest bang for my buck, kwim?

DH and I can get pretty much any vacation week we'd like. And we hardly ever take the same week twice. We mostly work around our co-workers since we are so flexible. I know that will change when they boys are in school if we can't pull them out for a few days.

The one thing that worries me about DVC is the sheer size of the resorts and getting around without a rental car. We're used to the great busses at Pop.

TIA for your thoughts on this! <------ I love this smilie

 

[TammyAlphabet]

I don't think that "faithfulness" is the key to the question you are asking. The question is how far out do you plan. If you are never going to take advantage of the 11 month planning window, then one home resort is just as good as another. Might as well go with the resort with the lowest fees.

If you are planning and booking reservations within the 7 month window, then points are points, and it doesn't matter where you purchase. HTH!

BUT, I saw in your signature that you love AKL. The proposed fees are only 50 cents more than SSR. For 150 points, that would only be 75 dollars per year. If you are going to use the 11 month planning window, then you should take that into consideration, especially with the concierge, if that interests you.

 

[JimMIA]

If I plan on not being "faithful" to a certain DVC resort

is it wrong for me to look for a contract (through DVC or resale) with the # of points I'm interested in at a resort with low dues?

Of course not, although the attraction could be more than low dues alone. I would qualify this, however, by saying if you plan to visit WDW often, buy one of the WDW resorts...not VB or HH. At least that way, you will have WDW accommodations available in the 11-month window if you can't get what you want at 7 months.

The one thing that worries me about DVC is the sheer size of the resorts and getting around without a rental car. We're used to the ...Pop.

Hmmm...sheer size... SSR is the largest of the DVC resorts. SSR, when fully built (which it's not yet) will be 828 units. When fully built out, Pop will be 5,760 units. I'm not sure if they're fully built yet, but I seem to remember that they had 3,000 rooms check in on a single day during free dining last year.

As far as transportation, OKW usually gets rave reviews for its buses. SSR used to get panned when the resort was young, but I think the buses are MUCH better now that most of the resort is built and the occupancy warrants better bus service. The Epcot resorts share buses with other resorts, but that's offset by their proximity to Epcot and MGM.

Truth be told, there are transportation issues at every resort -- whether DVC or not -- and there are transportation pluses at every resort.

We drive because we find it really easy to drive to any theme park -- so we love the park-at-your-door convenience of OKW and SSR. We can be at any theme park in less than 20 minutes from either of those resorts.

 

[Marshay]

We just bought at SSR (today) but had previously considered waiting to buy at AKV. What made the decision right for us was our desire to visit all of the DVCs. We are the type of people who like change and if we were at "x" resort every year for the next 47 years, we'd get bored (no matter how great it was).

We also had an upcoming vacation planned at WDW and decided we wanted to convert into DVC now since we were approaching the 7 month mark, to give us a fair opportunity to get a different resort than our home resort.

So with that in mind, we bought at the cheaper price point and cheaper maintenance fee. However, we will probably catch "addonitis" and purchase AKV or CRV or others as they come along.

 

[CherCrazy]

Yup, I'm with ya' JimMIA. Still love having my own car at WDW. The busses are just not for me.

3000 people checked in on ONE SINGLE DAY at POP???? Holy room snafu, how the heck did Disney handle that?!

 

[JimMIA]

3000 people checked in on ONE SINGLE DAY at POP???? Holy room snafu, how the heck did Disney handle that?!

I think that's right. And I think they handled it well. I didn't hear any screams, and I know they did a lot of planning leading up to that day (first day of free DDP). Sammie has a better handle on that than I, but I think it went pretty well.

 

[BroganMc]

If I plan on not being "faithful" to a certain DVC resort, is it wrong for me to look for a contract (through DVC or resale) with the # of points I'm interested in at a resort with low dues?

Hey NurseKim,

I'm running into you a lot of places. And no, that's not a bad way of looking at it (despite what the BCV/BWV/VWL purists allege). As long as you understand resort size, peak time demand and DVC habits, you won't get disappointed in the system.

(e.g. When I bought SSR last year I aimed at staying at VWL the first two weeks of December. Low time for everywhere else I thought, right? Cheapest point count, cool. Um, but every DVCer had the exact same idea. Booking at 7 months was hard to impossible.)

I really would like to buy into AKV when it becomes available to non-members, but the dues are on the high side, so I'm looking at SSR. I figure that way, I'd be getting the biggest bang for my buck, kwim?

Dues should be less of a concern than purchase price. AKV will cost you $3 more per point. At 150 points, that's $450 dollars. If you go a resale route and pick something like OKW (at $74 per point) that's $30 more or $4500.

The one thing that worries me about DVC is the sheer size of the resorts and getting around without a rental car. We're used to the great busses at Pop.

Drop that concern. The value resort busses will always be more congested and problematic than DVC. And from room size accounts, well POP makes SSR look puny and it routinely gets slammed with the label of "huge" by DVCers. It's no different than walking around DTD or EPCOT's FutureWorld for me. Smaller actually. And you can park your car right outside your door while busses are usually a short parking lot away.

Plus SSR gives you the one thing no other DVC can... you can take a ferry or short walk to DTD and hop a bus direct to another resort. Great for dining options. (Say you want to hop a Beach Club bus to go dine at Cape May then after just walk over to EPCOT via the International Gateway. Spend the day and when park closes, you can just hop a bus to SSR home. Or take any resort bus to DTD and home is just across the lake.)

TIA for your thoughts on this! <------ I love this smilie

On your other thread posting, I talked about the merits of buying OKW resale vs. SSR or AKV direct. Same rules apply. You just have to decide what is more important to you... $4000-$4500 savings or 12 - 15 extra years on the contract.

As for dues, AKV will be more expensive but the actual amount may not be significant enough to warrant concern. YMMV.

Also, owning AKV will probably be the only way you'll be able to get that hallowed concierge level and sunrise safari. Well, unless you pay cash for a CRO concierge ressie. If it's not something you plan to do regularly but a once in a lifetime thing, I'd advise not bothering yourself with it. Chances are we're all gonna get a chance to stay at AKV with a Savannah room. They have enough.

About the only thing to consider with AKV over another resort is your family size. If you have 3 kids (hence a family of 5), those bigger rooms sizes are very appealing. Sleep 5 in rooms that the rest of DVC accommodates only 4.

 

[Doctor P]

Dues should be less of a concern than purchase price. AKV will cost you $3 more per point. At 150 points, that's $450 dollars. If you go a resale route and pick something like OKW (at $74 per point) that's $30 more or $4500.

Actually, dues are the single most important factor in the cost of ownership. For example, a $1.00 difference in dues is $150 per year for a 150 point contract. That is $7500 for 50 years of dues, $4500 for 30 years of dues. Your minimum dues for 40 years will be over $160 per point (4.00 per point per year), so dues really matter.

In addition, if the resorts just stay at the same relative increase in dues, the monetary gap in dues will grow over time.

Start with a 50 cent gap in dues and a 4% increase in dues each year. Within 18 years, the gap is $1.00; within 36 years the gap is $2.00; within 54 years it would have grown to $4.00 per point. The problem is that you can't predict dues increases or the relative increases for the different resorts. For a long, long time HH had some of the very lowest dues. It now is among the higher dues (at least for the next several years). So, differences in the up front price can matter (as long as the dues aren't very high, like at VB unsubsidized). I stand by the advice to buy where you want to stay most; buy where the type of units you wish are located (if you want a GV, don't buy at VWL or BCV); buy where your points will go furthest at the time of year at which you travel. Beyond that, if your goal is to vacation at WDW, buy at an on-site resort as opposed to VB or HH. If you will only book at 7 months or less, buy on the basis of price/dues. If you will book at 11 months or can book at 11 months, at least buy a resort that you are WILLING to stay at every trip.

 

[Dean]

Dues were quoted at $4.62 pp, not really that high overall at least for DVC. Plus long term expect AKV to stay mid level on dues. Unless you want to stay routinely at HH or VB, I'd buy on property. If you plan on doing most trips Jan, May, Sept and the like, any resort will likely get you what you want excluding SV and BW view at BWV, 2 queen dedicated units at BCV, value rooms or concierge at AKL or any GV but even then you might be able to get some of these some of the time for truly off season. If you don't really care where you stay and/or always plan less than 7 months your home resort won't matter other than buy in cost and yearly dues. But it's likely your habits will change as your children age and can no longer be pulled out of school so you may want to consider that circumstance as your driving force.

 

[JodyTG]

We mostly work around our co-workers since we are so flexible. I know that will change when they boys are in school if we can't pull them out for a few days.

Honestly, I'd change this right now. Co-workers (and everyone else really) are notorious for disliking change. When, all of a sudden one year, you lose your flexibility to work around them, they will revolt on you. It will be ugly.

So, at that point you're already dealing with the stress associated with your babies being put in school with strangers that won't love them as much or take care of them as well as you do, the temper tantrum of your co-workers will be adding to your stress level.

Take advantage of your tenure and schedule your vacations when it's your turn. Start going on vacations NOW at the time of the year you will once your boys are in school. This will allow yor co-workers to get used to the idea before you lose your boys to school, Chuck E. Cheese birthday parties, football practice, homecoming dances, high school graduation, college...

 

[mattsdragon]

The biggest problem you'll find is that 4 month window when you can book at your home resort, but not at the others. I tried to get BWV for our trip in October when I made reservations in April, but there was no availibility, but we got into our preferred building at SSR for the same time. The OKW and SSR, since they are larger, have more availibility at all times than any of the others. And I"m guessing that AKV will be nuts to get a room at after those 4 months are up.

But, truth be told, I'd follow your plan anyway. Either way, you'll be a member of DVC, and that's what it's all about. Can I get a "WHAT-WHAT"?

 

[Anal Annie]

We just bought our SSR pts. in Dec. and at the time I honestly thought that's where we would use them. But then when we started planning our vac. for this summer we ended up booking our first trip to OKW to save more pts. to bank for next yr. I'm actually really fwd. to staying at OKW 'cuz in my mind I think of it as being a classic Disney resort. I think we'll prob. stay at SSR next yr. - but I've always wanted to go back to AK to stay & have always wanted to try VWL. So after the fact, we've sorta decided that we'll prob. resort hop for a few yrs. until we decide on our favorite - and I think that's one of the wonderful parts of owning in the DVC. It will let each vacation be new and different and not just another trip to WDW... I am already over feeling guilty about not being loyal to just staying at SSR - esp. since we had never stayed at SSR before - we only bought there b'cuz of the F & F price. I don't want to sound cold about not staying at SSR to those who love it - but we like to try new places & now we have 8 years of "new" places to try if we bounce around ea. year!

 

[NurseKim]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I really appreciate all the points of view you have

JodyTG, I have to laugh at your post...you are totally right. I tend to put others before me and I hate that. But I did bit the bullet and put in for a vacation that someone with lower seniority than me did...but only because I really want that week, not just to be mean

I will have to re-read this thread again with an abbreviation chart in front of me

 

[jdvm]

I think your logic is sound, but I'd rethink the car if old key West or Saratoga Springs are in your future.
John

 

[jimmytammy]

I dont consider this being unfaithful. What I would consider is certain times of the year, like Dec. when places are decorated, some DVC resorts become harder to book unless you have the 11 mos window on your side. EX. We own at VWL, big advantage if we want to travel anytime in Dec., because we can book at 11 mos. Its the smallest DVC resort, therefore a bit tougher to get ressies at the 7 mos window.

Take all things in consideration before making that final choice. Where do you want to spend most of your time?