Second Home Resort

[Sandisw]

I can't imagine ANY scenario where the Poly2 will be mostly studios. Regardless of which association, there's just no way with all the studios already in the resort, not to mention all the studios they just added to VGF. As a Poly owner who stays in 2 bedrooms (yes we are the rare bird that loves the bungalows), the main issue with the Poly is lack of 1-2-3 bedrooms. How deaf do you have to be to build a tower on property that has a small number of the one thing the resort needs!

I agree and the drawings indicate that the resort will have the larger units…No matter the association, that location is definitely not going to include an overload of more studios.

 

[SLThomas318]

Have you been going to Disney yearly already? Did you stay at Poly yet? I’d wait and see how your current points work for you and try out a few resorts before adding more. I don’t think you’ll know what works for your family till you start using it. It’s great hearing ideas from other members, but you’ll need to see what works for your family (and with the ages of ur kids I see that changing over the next few years). Our boys were just shy of 2 and 4 when we joined so MK was always the focus. Now they are 6 and 8 and want to spend more time at HS and Epcot.

I also don’t see you having tons of trouble switching at 7 months with your travel dates, summer availability is pretty good compared to the fall and September has the cheapest points per night.

 

[RoseGold]

I can't imagine ANY scenario where the Poly2 will be mostly studios.

I can. Look at the DLT floorplan. The larger units are harder to clean, kitchens take away from restaurants, and DVC can churn more studios. And studios are what demand is, overall.

I'm not saying there will be none, but it's possible there aren't many, like DLT. To me, the trend is obvious. Even RIV is heavy on lock-offs, which would have the same result to OP, if they want 2BR.

We have no idea what the floorplan is right now, this is all speculation.

 

[Her Dotness]

This may sound harsh, but parents pay for DVC, not kids. Most kids will focus on what they want to do at Disney, which park they want most, which is their absolute favorite, and how easy it is to get there is insignificant. The resort is where they rest, shower and dress, maybe eat something--who really cares about all that in view of the real priority.

That's a longwinded way of saying pick the resort the adults prefer, because they're the ones who'll really care how convenient, comfy, attractive, etc. it is.

PARENTS get to choose which resort(s) to buy as I see it. Buy the one you like to start, maybe consulting kids upon adding on in a few years when they might actually be old enough to care what the resort is like.

 

[Straulin]

My wife and I are closing on our first contract next week and I’m already considering a second contract. Our first is 220 points at Poly. We (I) made the decision to buy into DVC after our first visit to WDW as a family this year. We stayed at OKW with my parents who treated us. I really enjoyed OKW because of how quiet it was. Sure, the buses were terrible and the time on the buses was equally bad. But growing up, we stayed off the grounds every visit, so I didn’t really consider the transportation a negative until it came time to spend my own money on a DVC resort. My wife wanted a monorail resort because our boys are 7, 5, and 2. But let’s say Poly Tower becomes its own association and we will eventually need a larger space for our boys as they get older. Is 220 points enough for 2BR at other resorts at the seven month mark, or is it worth looking into a second contract at another resort? For what it’s worth, we bought resale at Poly being comfortable if the tower is part of the same association or a separate one.

AKV have really nice 1br with a second full bath, a fold out twin chair, and a sleeper sofa. AKV is one of the more available resorts so you should be able to manage a 1br during the 7 month booking and just barely have enough points with your current contract for a week or so in a standard view. For two bedrooms, you will need more points for that time period.

The add-on-itis hit us hard when we had our first DVC stay back in October. We couldn't get our home resort (360 @ BCV) so had to do a split stay at AKV and GFV. We loved GFV and have been discussing adding on there. My wife really wants a blue card after constantly being asked if we were DVC and having to explain "yes but not a blue card holder" every time. With the current GFV promotion, even without annual pass discounts, the savings on dining and merch would almost account for the difference in direct and resale. ... the itis ... it is strong... the price is going up $10 in the next couple days... argh... !

*edit - typo*

 

[crisi]

My two cents is always the same - Disney is a great place to vacation, but take a look at all your bucket list places you want to visit. Every vacation you spend at Disney is one you don't spend somewhere else. There are so many places in the world (and many of them are far more affordable than Disney). Lots of DVC points is a long term commitment to Disney - and that is really nice when your kids are young and Disney is easy - but kids are not young long term, and as someone closer to 60 than 50 now with children who are now young adults, time slips by fast for making that "I've always wanted to go to New Zealand" trip.

 

[skippytx]

I would hold off on buying more points. Going every year gets really expensive, and as the kids get older there are other vacations to take. I bought into DVC when my kids were 7 and 5 as well, and thought we would be going every year, but as you know it's an expensive trip. It's not even a vacation really. We're only a family of 4, but plane tickets are usually around 1200 to 1400 for the 4 of us, and park tickets last time were 2600 bucks. 4K before I even step foot on property. That's not counting the money and dues we spent on DVC.

We've dialed it back to every other year which with our 185 BLT points gets us like 7 or 8 nights in a standard 2 bedroom unit. This is a sweet spot for us. Dues aren't too crazy on 185 BLT points, we can have a longer trip every other year, and then the off year we go do other things. My kids are almost 13 and 11 now and I've only got like 5 more summers with my oldest and a bunch of other places we want to travel to.

DVC is exciting and addonitis is real, but give it a while and see how you feel about it in a bit. It's not going anywhere.

 

[Lorana]

One benefit for PVB is that many of the studios are connecting. Unless you want the kitchen, washer/dryer, and soaking/whirlpool tub in the master*, you can also get more space with 2 connecting studios. We have certainly enjoyed having connecting studios.

*Having stayed in 1BRs/2BRs, I will say our preference IS to have these things. But we are those strange people who actually prefer to do breakfast and most often dinner in our room, and we like having the living space to hang out in separate from our sleeping space. We bought DVC to have those 1BR/2BR options without breaking the bank. 1BRs were our go-to for a long time when the boys were younger, but now that our oldest is 18 and our youngest 16, we much prefer having the 2BRs.

 

[Jack Kerouac]

Believe her, and do this.

With kids their ages, you'll spend much time at MK. Being able to hop on the monorail is a relief after trekking around MK. (It's only 2 stops from Poly, one from the GF.) Not to mention, I still get a thrill coming into the CR station IN THE TOWER, no matter how many gazillion times we've done that.

Besides, you're well-advised to heed DH's motto: Happy wife, happy life.

I love the monorail and after long bus rides after long days, I'm sure I will be grateful for the short ride home.

 

[Jack Kerouac]

One benefit for PVB is that many of the studios are connecting. Unless you want the kitchen, washer/dryer, and soaking/whirlpool tub in the master*, you can also get more space with 2 connecting studios. We have certainly enjoyed having connecting studios.

*Having stayed in 1BRs/2BRs, I will say our preference IS to have these things. But we are those strange people who actually prefer to do breakfast and most often dinner in our room, and we like having the living space to hang out in separate from our sleeping space. We bought DVC to have those 1BR/2BR options without breaking the bank. 1BRs were our go-to for a long time when the boys were younger, but now that our oldest is 18 and our youngest 16, we much prefer having the 2BRs.

That is actually something I brought up to my wife. With the boys being smaller now, we can always invite family to join us, and as the boys get older, they can get their own studio and my wife and I can have our peace and quiet.

 

[Jack Kerouac]

Have you been going to Disney yearly already? Did you stay at Poly yet? I’d wait and see how your current points work for you and try out a few resorts before adding more. I don’t think you’ll know what works for your family till you start using it. It’s great hearing ideas from other members, but you’ll need to see what works for your family (and with the ages of ur kids I see that changing over the next few years). Our boys were just shy of 2 and 4 when we joined so MK was always the focus. Now they are 6 and 8 and want to spend more time at HS and Epcot.

I also don’t see you having tons of trouble switching at 7 months with your travel dates, summer availability is pretty good compared to the fall and September has the cheapest points per night.

No, we just went for the first time as a family this past April. It was my wife's and our boys' first time visiting. I love Disney, so after we came back and some time went by, I brought up the idea of making Disney a yearly or once every two year vacation. We stayed at OKW, which I liked, but my wife hated the long bus rides back and forth to the parks. We decided on Poly after watching videos of the resort and decided that's where we could see ourselves staying every trip.

My oldest is seven and he did every rollercoaster he could ride during our visit. I think he will like HS and Epcot. My five and two year old are all about MK. We are planning on doing all four parks when we go back next year.

 

[Jack Kerouac]

Buy more now

- if you want to buy direct since prices are going up on Dec 4th and there are some incentives now​

- If you are absolutely sure you (or your wife) will want bigger accommodations​

- If you know you will most likely go every year and wont want to borrow/bank​

- you are financially comfortable buying more now​

​

Buy more later

- If you are not sure of the above and can book a 1BR (borrow if necessary) for your next stay, tour a studio and 2BR during your stay to help decide what you want and where you want​

- If you are interested in poly2 direct/resale when it goes to sale (resale may be restricted points)​

- Think there will be some sort of sale due to the economic downturn conditions (could bring resale prices down too) (I personally have no idea and not speculating anything)​

​

I am with your wife on wanting to stay on a monorail resort or a skyliner resort with little kids. (just my opinion) Poly is a great choice for that since it is on monorail and a walk away from TTC.

Thank you for those considerations. I think for now, it makes more sense to hold off. Maybe see what happens with Poly2 and go from there.

 

[Shellyred8]

One more thing to keep in mind as you are planning for your next purchase: when looking at the points charts, don't base your points on the standard/value rooms. Most of those are harder to get, as lots of people want the cheap points rooms. SSR is probably the biggest exception to that rule, as there are lots of standard view rooms.

 

[Lorana]

That is actually something I brought up to my wife. With the boys being smaller now, we can always invite family to join us, and as the boys get older, they can get their own studio and my wife and I can have our peace and quiet.

We did this with family last year (two connecting studios), which was a nice way to travel with a large group for less than the cost of 2 BRs. And when it's just us, it's nice to give the teenage boys their own room while we have our own space, too. For short stays (4 or less nights), we rather enjoy doing this, especially when our plans do include dining outside our room for dinner (we can still easily do breakfast in room with just the studio setup). For longer stays, we do rather prefer the 2BRs, but that's partly because with longer stays, we spend more time at the resort chilling out and thus want space to spread out.

 

[Sandisw]

I can. Look at the DLT floorplan. The larger units are harder to clean, kitchens take away from restaurants, and DVC can churn more studios. And studios are what demand is, overall.

I'm not saying there will be none, but it's possible there aren't many, like DLT. To me, the trend is obvious. Even RIV is heavy on lock-offs, which would have the same result to OP, if they want 2BR.

We have no idea what the floorplan is right now, this is all speculation.

Except VDH doesn’t have 300 plus studios at that location already, as well as another 250 not too far away.

Plus DL isn’t a place people visit for the length of time they do at WDW.

While we don’t know for sure, we do have the drawings and it’s clear there will be a decent amount of 1 and 2 bedrooms.

Now, if could be a lot of lock offs which means it will be like BwV..studios go, so do the 2 bedrooms.

RIV is balanced well and so far, no issues getting a 2 bedroom at 11 months….especially that the PV ones last well into the booking window.

 

[RoseGold]

RIV is balanced well and so far, no issues getting a 2 bedroom at 11 months….especially that the PV ones last well into the booking window.

RIV isn't even half sold, and it already has tight availability on studios. I could argue that isn't balanced at all, and it needs more studios.

But yes, RIV is overweight in 2BRs right now and they aren't a problem to book, generally speaking.

 

[Sandisw]

RIV isn't even half sold, and it already has tight availability on studios. I could argue that isn't balanced at all, and it needs more studios.

But yes, RIV is overweight in 2BRs right now and they aren't a problem to book, generally speaking.

Tower studios and SV studios go quickly, but getting a studio during the home resort booking period has not been difficult since PV rooms almost always last until the 7 months…if not longer, with the exception of the high travel times of the holiday.

So, not sure it’s accurate that owners can’t get a studio during 7 to 11 months.

Since the points declared match the rooms available, the 50% not sold isn’t really playing a role in what can and can not be booked.

By balanced, I am referring to the the resort mix of rooms, not based on popular booking patterns,

 

[tom1944]

Since this thread is about a second home resort I was wondering if there is a general consensus on which resorts seem to match as companion resorts?

Or do you think most second home resorts are selected because they are at a different park location

 

[Jack Kerouac]

Since this thread is about a second home resort I was wondering if there is a general consensus on which resorts seem to match as companion resorts?

Or do you think most second home resorts are selected because they are at a different park location

My thought when I started this thread was as a park complement (we own at Poly, so my next resort would be near HS or AK.) But I’m sure there are a lot of other variables that I haven’t thought of and would like to know so I can consider them.

Almost all of my life experience at WDW has been off-site and visiting MK. AK wasn’t around when I was young, my parents saw our sole EPCOT visit as a dud (albeit I now believe this is a reflection on them not EPCOT,) and HS was MGM when I first visited so I could see the Dick Tracy show.

I’m now trying to envision the next few decades and I know what works best now is likely to change over the years.

I’m curious what variables people consider beyond proximity and transportation options to each park.

 

[Sandisw]

Since this thread is about a second home resort I was wondering if there is a general consensus on which resorts seem to match as companion resorts?

Or do you think most second home resorts are selected because they are at a different park location

We have RIV, VGF and SSR. The first two so we can split stay each trip and the SSR is more so we can use them to upgrade to the larger rooms at 7 months.