Thinking of buying in, advice?

BillBrasky

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 5, 2011
We're thinking of buying into our first contract sometime this year and I've been doing my research, and it's a bit overwhelming all the decisions to make, so I thought I'd throw my thoughts out there for some feedback.

It's myself (37), wife (36), son (almost 2), and we'll have our 2nd and final kid probably in a couple years. We've been going pretty consistently since 2009, always staying value, but finances have changed and we plan to stay deluxe going forward so I thought DVC would be the way to go. We will likely try to visit for a week at least once a year, often twice. This would be a cash purchase.

I think we'd like to at least get the minimum amount of points direct, to have access to benefits. Will they only sell us Riv direct or will they sell older resorts too? I was thinking of 2 possible options:

1- Buy all the points direct. If it's Riviera, the price per point seems reasonable. I know about the resale restrictions, but I think we plan to hang onto this for life. I'd probably like 300-350 points, to make 3 trips every 2 years rotating between Riv studio, VGF 1BR, and a studio at some other resort. Is it reasonable to expect to be able to get a VGF 1BR or a studio somewhere other than SSR/OKW at 7 months consistently? Also, we'll be visiting in May staying at Poly, does it make sense to look to buy in person rather than over the phone at all?

2- Buy direct for the minimum amount to get benefits, then purchase resale contracts. Still looking at the same approximate number of points, hopefully at VGF.

Thanks for any help in advance.
 
Forgot to mention, my wife works in the public school system and obviously we'll have kids in school, so our times to visit are a bit limited. April vacation, February vacation, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc... all the 2nd highest or highest season in terms of points. Does only being able to visit during these times make DVC a bad deal in general?
 
The holidays are a busy time and that may be a time it would be difficult staying anywhere but home resort,

Breaks, including summer, will be easier, to try other places at 7 months. I have had very good luck in the summer...June, July and August...getting to stay a lot of places, including BCV and VGF studios.

Disney will sell you any resort, but sometimes, you may have to wait for the number of points you want,

If RIV and VGF are your main places to stay, you could split between RIV and VGF...buying RIV direct with enough points to do a preferred studio during summer, and VGF resale to do 1 bedrooms.

While your VGF points won’t be eligible for staying at RIV or future resorts, at 7 months out, you’d be able to use both sets for any of the L14 you want to try.

Another option for Xmas time you could consider is buying a guaranteed week at RiV in a studio. You buy an extra 10% in points for the guarantee. But, if you decide to cancel it one year, you get all the points to book another time,

Good luck!

ETA. Buying now could get you a room for your May trip using newly bought points. it could still be Poly or another resort. DVC will help new owners get their first reservation booked. Then that money for the cash stay could help with your DVC purchase.
 
Thanks for your reply. Your advice of getting enough points at Riv to book during the times I can go makes sense. Wouldn't make sense to buy the minimum and then not have enough to cover stays. Hopefully I can do that and then just get a good sized VGF resale contract. Not sure I have the patience to go through closing on several and worrying about managing them separately. Also thanks for that advice on the guaranteed week, I didn't know about that. We probably won't go a lot of Christmas times, but if you can always cancel it out, might make sense to have it for the times we do want to go.
 


Forgot to mention, my wife works in the public school system and obviously we'll have kids in school, so our times to visit are a bit limited. April vacation, February vacation, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc... all the 2nd highest or highest season in terms of points. Does only being able to visit during these times make DVC a bad deal in general?

My wife and I are also in school systems, and my wife is an administrator, so our visiting times are even more limited, and we just bought a contract at the Polynesian on the resale market. The way they restructured points per night, there are now 7 "seasons" to visit starting in 2021, and the summer is the 3rd most expensive. While you don't get quite as much as of it now, when you retire in 20-30 years, however many it may be, you'll be able to travel whenever you want. Personally, I think if you plan on going to WDW on average 5-7 nights per year, DVC is absolutely worth it. Consider that you are still saving off of rack rate or even renting points, because those rates are also higher in the summertime. Even the All-Star is $177 a night after taxes in July.
 
Thanks for your reply. Your advice of getting enough points at Riv to book during the times I can go makes sense. Wouldn't make sense to buy the minimum and then not have enough to cover stays. Hopefully I can do that and then just get a good sized VGF resale contract. Not sure I have the patience to go through closing on several and worrying about managing them separately. Also thanks for that advice on the guaranteed week, I didn't know about that. We probably won't go a lot of Christmas times, but if you can always cancel it out, might make sense to have it for the times we do want to go.

Getting the same UY is important to make things easy. if you buy both direct, they will ensure you get it.

I know what you mean about waiting and sometimes, the e tra you might pay up front could be worth it. VGF is going to cost you maybe $80 to $100 more a point. That’s $8k to $10k on 100 points. It is a lot, but then again, if you plan to go for the next 20 to 30 years, it about $500 extra per year over time, to own the points tomorrow, and be able to use all at RIV and any new resorts.
 
Thanks for your reply. Your advice of getting enough points at Riv to book during the times I can go makes sense. Wouldn't make sense to buy the minimum and then not have enough to cover stays. Hopefully I can do that and then just get a good sized VGF resale contract. Not sure I have the patience to go through closing on several and worrying about managing them separately. Also thanks for that advice on the guaranteed week, I didn't know about that. We probably won't go a lot of Christmas times, but if you can always cancel it out, might make sense to have it for the times we do want to go.

Also keep in mind you can bank and borrow. I bought 100 points at Poly, and when I go in 2024 after not going in 2023, I will be spending 10 nights at Poly for 236 points. That leaves me with 64 points from '25 and 100 that I can borrow from '26. That's enough to do like 6 nights at Poly and 4 at OKW for example. I do plan to add on at some point, but by no means do you have to go crazy and buy a million points.
 


OP I'm doing the same as you. "

Will they only sell us Riv direct or will they sell older resorts too? "

They will sell the older DVC. If you don't have it here is the direct information: www dot dvcexplorer dot com/qp/ Login: Welcome PW: Home

If you want to see the price per point of the older choices navigate to the page of the resort and double click the name of the resort. Then you will see a chart similar to the Riv.

Also something to keep in mind is the end date of the contract. Rivera expires in 2070 while others expire in 2042. If you email DVC they won't email you the expiration dates but they will call yo back and let you know.

I was also told that if I bought direct they would let me choose my use year (month) and that the first time I used my points they would dip into other inventory to allow me to get the time frame that I wanted but that only happens on the first booking.

I'm seriously considering going resale at one of the mono rail resorts (we love magic kingdom, they are adding in walking paths)...and buying a 100 points at a monorail resort and choosing the same use year. Anyone see any pitfalls with that? Thanks for helping a us DVC noobs.

One a side note I kick myself in the buttcrack for not buying in when a decade plus ago when I first considered it. The amount of trips we have made......3 last year....oh boy.
 
OP I'm doing the same as you. "

Will they only sell us Riv direct or will they sell older resorts too? "

They will sell the older DVC. If you don't have it here is the direct information: www dot dvcexplorer dot com/qp/ Login: Welcome PW: Home

If you want to see the price per point of the older choices navigate to the page of the resort and double click the name of the resort. Then you will see a chart similar to the Riv.

Also something to keep in mind is the end date of the contract. Rivera expires in 2070 while others expire in 2042. If you email DVC they won't email you the expiration dates but they will call yo back and let you know.

I was also told that if I bought direct they would let me choose my use year (month) and that the first time I used my points they would dip into other inventory to allow me to get the time frame that I wanted but that only happens on the first booking.

I'm seriously considering going resale at one of the mono rail resorts (we love magic kingdom, they are adding in walking paths)...and buying a 100 points at a monorail resort and choosing the same use year. Anyone see any pitfalls with that? Thanks for helping a us DVC noobs.

One a side note I kick myself in the buttcrack for not buying in when a decade plus ago when I first considered it. The amount of trips we have made......3 last year....oh boy.

Then benefits of owning two different resorts is a good thing and can allow you to use banking and borrowing to alternate yearly trips. For example, if you own RIV and VGF, Year 1 you bank VGF but borrow RIV to use two years of points at RIV. The next year, you use the banked and current UY
points for VGF.

UY being the same is even more important when you have both qualified and unqualified points.. If you buy direct, those points can be used at 7 months at all resorts, including new ones.

Resale points can only be used at L14. So, at 7 months, you would be able to combine both points for stays at any L14.

Two UYs are different memberships and points can’t be combined for single nights and one Must be creative when booking.
 
Thanks for your reply. Your advice of getting enough points at Riv to book during the times I can go makes sense. Wouldn't make sense to buy the minimum and then not have enough to cover stays. Hopefully I can do that and then just get a good sized VGF resale contract. Not sure I have the patience to go through closing on several and worrying about managing them separately. Also thanks for that advice on the guaranteed week, I didn't know about that. We probably won't go a lot of Christmas times, but if you can always cancel it out, might make sense to have it for the times we do want to go.
You could buy 100 RIV points direct to get ur benefits and buy the rest at another resort resale. You could do split stays at RIV and another resort resale. Another option is to buy 100 or 150 at RIV and Bank them so you could use 200 or 300 every other year. And buy 150 in resale and bank them also but in the opposite year of RIV. So one year youd have 200 or 300 RIV points then next 200-300 Resale points at another resort.
 
I'm not sure what makes the Riviera point price reasonable. I'd go resale all the way
If you want the Member Benefits Its not that unreasonable compared to other direct DVC resorts and expiration date. I liked Riviera when we visited 2 weeks ago.

Direct Prices are
AKV $186 EXP 2057
SSR $165 EXP 2054
OKW $165 EXP 2057(direct)
RIV $188 EXP 2070
CCV $220 EXP 2068
BLT $235 EXP 2060
 
I would split the points it will be easy to sell 150 points than 300 later if you decide to let some points go which you may never do. Also, I wouldn't wait to buy RIV resale I would buy direct now with incentives and another contract at another resort resale. Keep in mind resale at other resorts won't get you into RIV so if you wanted to combine in the future it wouldn't work.

I would not buy direct at an older resort either it's too much money if 100% direct is the way you decide I would buy 2 contracts at RIV.

Let your conscience be your guide use the comments here only as a tool make your purchasing decision yours and yours only.
 
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I think there is a lot of good advice on this board.

1. I strongly suggest you buy where you want to stay. It is VERY likely that in the near future, there simply will not be enough availability at the 7 month window to let you stay anywhere except your home resort.

2. Even if you use your all the possible 'Perks' from buying direct, it is very difficult to make Direct price vs Resale price a good choice. Direct tends to run around $80 to $90 dollars or more PER POINT. This means that if you bought 125 points, you would need to save about $100 per year for 100 years, or $200 per year for 50 years or $400 per year for 25 years, to break even. Are you going to spend that much, that consistently, for Annual passes, and Merchandise and food discounts? So if you buy Direct, make sure it makes sense for you.

3. If you consistently tend to travel at a certain time per year, then try to get a use Year that starts a month or two before that. For instance, we almost always travel in October. And if not then, then we occasionally travel in September, November, january, February or March. A September Use Year makes tremendous sense to us, since, if we aren't going to use the points during that period of time, we can still bank them until the end of april.

4. In the long run, the Membership Dues will go up. Possibly faster than inflation, but slower than most hotel costs will go up during the same period.

5. In the long run, your purchase price should be mostly offset by your potential Resale price, at least until you reach the last 15 years of so of a contract, when the resale prices MIGHT start to drop. We still don't know, since we haven't reached that.
 
If you plan to stay Poly/GF, I don't understand why you would buy direct at all. Especially for a contract that size, you can get these for a serious discount.

If the blue card matters to you, you could buy 100 points at Riviera, or I personally would hold out for the future California resort. It's California that's always booked solid. For our family, the blue card just didn't matter in a discussion with this many zeros.

Regardless, I would buy 300 points in a few smaller contracts. Not many people can buy a big 300 point contract on resale.
 
Buying resale, is it tough to manage to get multiple contracts with the same UY? I've gotten the sense that having multiple UYs on separate contracts is too much of a pain?
 
Buying resale, is it tough to manage to get multiple contracts with the same UY? I've gotten the sense that having multiple UYs on separate contracts is too much of a pain?
It depends on how you travel. If you are squeaking by on points, sometimes you needed them combined. Or sometimes you needed those one-time points on both contracts. Some people never combine them at all and bank/borrow to alternate using contracts per trip.

Multiple UY is like have two different people with contracts. I don't really see it as a problem, but it is hard for some people to conceptualize or execute.

If you buy your resale first, you can get your direct to match (or not) because Disney can set it to whatever you want.
 
Buying resale, is it tough to manage to get multiple contracts with the same UY? I've gotten the sense that having multiple UYs on separate contracts is too much of a pain?

I have 3 UY, but each membership has a good amount of points so I can use them on their own. That means I sometimes are borrowing points from one UY to book, even though I have current UY points on the other.

If you want to book a single night using points from both UYs, you hsve to transfer between them and then if you do, you hsve to call MS to book as transferred points can’t be used online,

It is easier to have one UY, but if you have a reason to have more than one, it can be a good thing
 
Buying resale, is it tough to manage to get multiple contracts with the same UY? I've gotten the sense that having multiple UYs on separate contracts is too much of a pain?

It's not too hard to buy multiple resale contracts with the same UY. You just may have to be a little patient to get exactly what you're looking for. We bought direct first and subsequently bought four more contracts resale, all with the same UY. The SSR ones were a bit easier since there were quite a lot of listings, but BWV and VGF took a bit longer since I was looking for larger contracts at lower prices. Also, I was looking forever (probably casually looking for about a year) for a larger VGF contract with our UY at a good price, and it seemed like there were so few available until after I bought ours. Then it felt like they were popping up everywhere for a while.

Some either like or don't mind multiple UYs, but I knew for me I would rather have them all the same so it would be one less thing to think about when it came to planning. I think unless there's a specific reason you want multiple UYs such as covering travel at different times of the year, you might as well go for the same UY since it's not too hard to do.
 

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