When did you add points?

[Frederic Civish]

If we buy another contract, it will likely be OKW or SSR for sleep around points (though I like both enough to enjoy staying there too). Should have probably done that this time, but we wanted more CCV points for stays there and so we can book at 11 months to guarantee we have a room.

I also thought I would not be impressed with OKV or SSR, but I have now tried them and love them, too.

Of our last 3 trips, 2 of them were to stay at SSR, in the Congress Park area (we requested that) and we walked to Disney Springs frequently.

I recommend it.

 

[elenex]

We were a Swolphin couple that took our infant son to WDW for his 1st birthday in January 2020. We realized we needed a Disney hotel now that we had a child and loved the crescent lake area.

We bought 100 points direct in February 2020 (wanted blue card and was told min buyin was going up soon to 125) with intentions of adding another 50 resale sometime in the next couple of years. COVID got underway immediately following that which led to a price drop, so as a mental health boost for being a healthcare provider during this time I added the 50 at same resort and UY. Thought that was enough and honestly, it was, but then life changed.

We went to WDW twice in 2020 (again as mental health breaks from work) and were able to switch into a BW view room both times, including for Christmas Eve and Christmas. This led to a small BWV addon with the intention of doing split stays every couple of years.

Then moved to the west coast and things got out of control. Managed 2 stays at VGC on my PVB points and was hooked, so more than doubled our point total in 22 and 23 mostly at VGC.

I hope this is the end, but VDH is sitting there and I'm struggling. So a little bit of both, some addon immediately, some later on. I think it's reasonable to take a wait and see approach and borrow points, then ask yourself in 2026 if you want a break, more points, or maybe just a cash stay. Or maybe suck it up and grab a studio for a couple of years to help reset.

 

[MartyParty]

What a cool thread and question. We're done buying. Reflecting back, this was our journey. Sharing on the board in case it helps others think through adding on. I think our add on experience reflects life as well. You just live in the moment, make some plans for the future, then change those plans when the future arrives. No regrets.

Pre DVC Purchase
Always stayed off site in cheaper accommodations. Then started a family and switched to staying in Disney lower budget friendly resorts (All Star, etc.). Then moved up to moderate priced Disney resorts. Thought about buying VGC during a 2010 trip to Disneyland but decided against they huge expense. If only we had bought in then. Sigh....

2016 Poly Direct 190 points - We see the light and jump in
While on a cruise, I talked with the DVC sales rep quite a bit. Did the math and given our Disney travel habits it started to make sense to buy. I was not aware of resale. Bought 190 Poly points. At the time that was more than enough to do studio stays and met our needs. One and done was the thinking.

2020 BLT Direct 40 points - Small couples trip later in life
Well, turns out we never stay in a studio. And my wife likes having a least 1 bedroom for separation from the kids. She also likes making breakfast each morning. Sometimes cooked breakfast sometimes muffins. Basically doesn't want the hassle of getting ready to go out for breakfast or grabbing something on the go. Stayed at BLT with a theme park view during COVID times. Loved it! Wifey and I agreed that a small contract would be ideal. More points for more 1 bedroom stays. Later in life as we get older closing in on retirement, we could sell the Poly points, keep BLT, and do a few days on our own at BLT. As this was a small contract we just went direct.

2023 VDH Direct 175 points - West Coast dreaming + 2 bedroom stays
We update our thinking. Our kids are wanting to bring friends to the resorts. 1 and 2 bedrooms tend to be the best fit. Wifey and I also think about kids eventually having their own family and we will likely need bedrooms. Keep BLT for a couples only trip. We prefer Disneyland Resort over WDW. Better weather, less walking, no buses needed, etc. This add on gets us to 410 points making 1, 2, or 3 bedroom stays on some frequency possible with 2 bedrooms being frequently doable. Went direct as we were able to get down to the low $180's per point with incentives making VDH the lowest price direct option for adding on. Also, no resale options for VDH but didn't want to go that route and have VDH restricted points to only VDH.

• So we thought we would be studio people (Poly was perfect) but ended up we were not.
• Started using WDW DVC points to go to Disneyland Grand Cali. Missed out on VGC direct and now resale.
• Additional VDH points gets us 1 bedroom each year at Disneyland and if we get to use our WDW points 2 bedrooms.
• Additional VDH points puts us easily in the bank or borrow category to land a 3 bedroom every once in a while.

Happy add-on-itus everyone! Maybe we should have a national Disney DVC add-on-itus day? Perhaps use the date that DVC first started.

 

[Shellyred8]

Also, and I speak from ignorant experience, DO NOT use those prior year/current year points you may have upon buying in to book a 1br for your first DVC stay. You will be immediately spoiled and will then realize how dumb you were not to have waited until you could buy enough points for the 1br+ levels and the pricey views.

This was me. I booked a 1br much to soon in our ownership! LOL!!! We did manage to hang on with just our one contract for 4 years, but when prices started jumping, we decided to buy a resale contract (first one was direct).

My only regret is not buying more points sooner. The prices have only gone up since we bought our initial contract.

One never knows what's going to happen with the economy. If you have the funds to buy more points now, the VGF direct deal that is out there right now looks pretty good. Thought Poly2 is not too far down the road, and you never know what's going to happen once that hits the market.

 

[Frederic Civish]

My only regret is not buying more points sooner. The prices have only gone up since we bought our initial contract.

Yeah, we have 8 contracts and 4 memberships, but I travel with my adult children and their families, so we use them multiple times per year.

Yet, with all of that, I still regret not buying more. Oh how I wish I had bought VGF years ago, without being scared off by the high price.

Unfortunately, I will probably be saying that same thing, in another few years, talking about today.

 

[ARobyn]

We purchased resale in March of this year. Small 75 point contract for Copper Creek with the intent of going 3-5 nights per year in a studio, OR, banking/borrowing every other year for longer stays. It's just my husband and I, no children. Once the new summer incentives came out, we decided to buy 150 direct at VGF. We now own 225 points which honestly is probably more than we need right now, but our travel preferences could change as time goes on. We also ended up paying close to the same for both contracts what we would have paid 2 years ago when first looking into buying DVC for just 150 points direct at Riviera. A little buyers remorse simply because it's more than we need right now, but I know in the long run it will pay off. Common DVC-ism is 1. buy more points than you need and 2. I wish I bought sooner -- so this checked the boxes. Good luck!

 

[Straulin]

We purchased resale in March of this year. Small 75 point contract for Copper Creek with the intent of going 3-5 nights per year in a studio, OR, banking/borrowing every other year for longer stays. It's just my husband and I, no children. Once the new summer incentives came out, we decided to buy 150 direct at VGF. We now own 225 points which honestly is probably more than we need right now, but our travel preferences could change as time goes on. We also ended up paying close to the same for both contracts what we would have paid 2 years ago when first looking into buying DVC for just 150 points direct at Riviera. A little buyers remorse simply because it's more than we need right now, but I know in the long run it will pay off. Common DVC-ism is 1. buy more points than you need and 2. I wish I bought sooner -- so this checked the boxes. Good luck!

Points go quickly, and the addonitis is strong. We bought 360 BCV resale last year thinking that would be plenty. Less than a year later we added on 175 at VGF. Just wait and you will probably not feel that you bought too many.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We bought direct with what was Magical Beginnings in 2003, at BWV. Immediately we added on 50 points at VWL, because that was our favorite resort. My Mom turned 85 in 2004 and we had 13 people over 4 nights in 3 studios and a 2 bedroom all SV at BWV, and that was in December. It was much easier to book SV at BWV then, now it’s harder, I haven’t gotten a two bedroom SV in BWV in years. Luckily we added points at BCV where it is easier to book 2 bedrooms, and we have over 1500 points.

We have never sold any points, but we are now considering it, due to our ages.

Our one disappointment with DVC was the adding on of the resort studios. We were some of the last people to add some VGF points at around $220. Then they stopped selling and added rooms we don’t want. That’s our one mistake, buying any VGF points. We would have more BLT!

 

[tom1944]

I am running so many different potential additional point purchases through my mind I can only hope there are no wrong answers.

My additional points will go along with my 180 SSR SAP points.

Buy 150 direct points at either Poly2 or Riviera or buy 75 at each.

Buy resale instead of direct exactly as above understanding I can only use those 1 or 2 resorts depending on where we buy the points

Buy resale BLT.

I do not believe we will go above 330 points in the immediate future.

 

[Unclelude]

Oct. 2020 - 100 SSR direct (last day of 100 pt. min blue card)
Sep. 2022 - Loaded 100 SSR resale.

Original buy was for Hawaii anniversary trip in 2021. ( a number of other trips since that stay also...) We liked Aulani so much added more points to take kids. We haven't been able to time Aulani up yet, but have made some great family memories including VB at xmas, HHI and doing Treehouse stay this xmas.

 

[crazywig]

We bought direct with what was Magical Beginnings in 2003, at BWV.

Same. We bought what we could with cash on hand. Added 50 more two years later.
Bought BLT in 2009 when they opened. Have not added on although I really have wanted to because we didn't buy enough for 2br every time, 50-75 more would be perfect but the price is more than we want to pay now.

We go every year, alternating resorts and make do with the BLT, often split staying Disney/Universal.

 

[brazzledazzler]

Yes! We bought in about a month prior to a hotel stay so I stalked to try and swap out the hotel stay for points… ended up in a 1 bedroom and didn’t want to go back to the studio after that!

We've got a 1-bedroom at AKL for our next trip, and this is my fear. The 1-bedroom isn't a great value ...but the space!

 

[AwfulWaffle]

We bought 110 at AKV and before we left ROFR we already bought another 100 in CCV and then added our final 80 CCV points and had 3 contracts all in ROFR at the same time.
Not sure it counts as addonitis because we knew from the start what home resorts we wanted. My wife wanted the savanna and I wanted wilderness lodge at Christmas and unfortunately we joined late so both of these were selling at a premium direct so resale it was for us.
Hopefully one day direct but for now we have no need for annual passes so resale makes the most sense for our annual trip. I do feel Poly Tower will likely sway us to the darkside but we’ll see where it lands. Restrictions? New association? Incentives? If it were available today then it too would be added as well as these direct incentives are too nice to pass on and who knows when the next minimum point raise will come but it feels like it will be soon.

 

[karen4546]

We bought the minimum for perks in 2019 which was only 100 pts at the time. We got 2018 and 2019 pts and booked our welcome home @ BCV for 2 studios during F&W.

We wanted to book a value 2 bedroom for and needed 25 pts. I called our guide and had the points in our account the next day.

Prior to purchasing, we loved staying at AKL club level. I wanted the chance to use our pts for CL but we have not done it yet. We have booked value studios on multiple occasions though.

Fast forward to 2023 and we stayed in a 2br BRV@WL and it was beautiful! I stalked the resale sites and put in a couple of offers and we recently passed ROFR for 100 pts @ BRV.

That still only takes us up to 225 pts and boy can I burn through those points

We fill in with cash stays using the AP, D+, or Visa discounts.

 

[kboo]

Also, and I speak from ignorant experience, DO NOT use those prior year/current year points you may have upon buying in to book a 1br for your first DVC stay. You will be immediately spoiled and will then realize how dumb you were not to have waited until you could buy enough points for the 1br+ levels and the pricey views.

Too late for us ... Our first contract had some banked points and we got a 1br at BLT for our first stay (the contract amount would have been enough to alternate studios with 1br on an annual trip.). My then-5yo walked in after we'd spent 3 nights at the Swan, looked at the room and said, "THIS IS THE NICEST HOTEL ROOM I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!"

.we have DVC lifestyle creep .

Same here.... (see above). We have stayed in a BLT studio just the 2 of us for a weekend, and could see us staying in a studio in retirement, but now we are at the point where I don't always love having the kids sleeping in the living room of a 1br, but they feel like being all the way away from us in the 2br is "too far."

Before we had our own points we had stayed at BWV (upgraded to a 1br on cash), BLT (2br extended family trip), VGF (studio), BCV (studio) under the guise of "doing research" for a future DVC purchase. We actually bought after the BLT stay, but had never actually seen a studio at BLT until 2 years after we bought. If we'd known, I would have bought more points at BLT to begin with, because a BLT studio is too small for very long with more than 2 adults and maybe 1 crib.

We still do pretty well in the DVC studios that have murphy beds, although there is some traffic flow issues around the bathrooms in the mornings.

Adding on took a hiatus after 2019 - when we bought Riviera direct, pre-opening. Because of COVID we took a number of mental health maintenance trips in Dec 2020-2022 that finally used up our banked points, and we recently added on VGF direct.

Another form of DVC lifestyle creep - taking trips in higher point seasons (like Easter, Christmas and New Year's)...

OP, see how you feel about planning another trip once you take your upcoming trip! If you are excited and want to try other resorts, then maybe try a different resort on your next trip and see how you like it. The incentives aren't going anywhere because the economy isn't going anywhere, so maybe take a tour of VGF and Riviera when you're on site in August. We will be at BLT in late August too, so I'll wave

 

[WxKristin]

We bought a 204 pt resale contract (CCV) Dec 2021/closed Jan 2022. It came fully loaded with 408 pts from 2021 that we rented out/banked immediately and then also booked a long 2bd stay at CCV for Sept 2022 with the extra points. Wasn't planning on adding more, but quickly realized how easy it was to rent points and how nice it would be to stay at VGF resort studios for RunDisney races -- so we added 150 points direct at VGF in Mar 22.

After the CCV 2 bedroom stay and a couple of runDisney events (SSR and VGF - monorail access on marathon Sunday was amazing!) in year one, we decided to purchase APs for this next year. No longer having those *bonus* points from resale, we found we quickly burned through our points in just a couple of planned trips (especially now that we are accustomed to the kitchen & washer/drying of 1-2 bdrms). We were planning to just get into the borrowing game, but the current direct incentives reeled us back in after a month of debate. So we are now adding again at VGF (150 pts) so we can comfortably book 2 bds without borrowing and maybe still rent out some points to cover dues and/or other vacations.

I'm a really poor example to follow (purchases Jan 2022, Mar 2022, and July 2023) and my bank account reflects that (or it will in 6 mo thanks to the Disney Visa bonus time). This is possibly my midlife crisis version of a sports car.

After signing the paperwork with our guide next week we will be at 504 points; I'm done adding on, I swear.

 

[intamin]

I'm done adding on, I swear.

I say this as I’m currently sitting at 475 and getting ready to add 200 more RIV

The thing that sucked you guys in was probably that 2BR to start off with. My uncle spoiled us with 8 days in a 1BR on our very first WDW trip and essentially ruined studios for us LOL.

 

[Sunnyore]

We are a first-time buyer with a trip coming in August. We purchased 180 points at SSR. Our resale contract came with 90 banked points so we had 270 for this trip. We will bank 2 points so we will have 182 points for August 2024. We have a week at BLT this trip.

We can take the exact same trip August 2024 if available at 7 months by borrowing 86 points from August 2025. If I do my calculation correctly, we will even have enough points for a trip August 2025 by borrowing from August 2026 points. Other acceptable resorts would be less points-most likely SSR, Kidani or BRV.

I would need to add points or skip a trip prior to August 2026.

While August trips are not my preference until my daughter leaves teaching that is what we will book. Our preference is January/February and that period is better for points than August.

While I want additional points, I also believe it makes sense to see how our trips pan out and waiting makes more sense than purchasing points at this moment.

I see there are some good deals on direct points now and while I think our next purchase will be direct. I am concerned about buying more right now.

I am interested in the experience of other DVC owners and the process you took in making an additional purchase. Was it immediate or did you wait until you had taken several trips?

Thanks

I have terrible FOMO and bought direct points like a week after my resale points were deposited and I had my welcome home phone call. I had initially bought 120 pts which I thought would be sufficient but that was before I wanted to go to all the festivals. My brother was the one that introduced me to DVC and while he also bought resale, he was grandfathered in to blue card perks and so I was envious. I bought the full 125 pts that was required for perks at that time pretty quickly. Then I started spiraling out of control because I wanted an Epcot resort as well. I bought a small Boardwalk contract even before staying there. Stayed at Beach Club and loved Stormalong Bay and so I had to have Beach club as well. At this point I added up the points I would need to go 3x a year and just needed a few more to not have to borrow and so I bought more at my fave BLT. When I thought I was good on points, Disney decided to stop ROFR and there was a fire sale and so I bought even more BLT. I’m not worried though because I’m pretty confident I can use up all my points. It’s not too hard to rent out points too if I have to one year. And I have no regrets buying in direct because I love all the little perks so far. I think having both direct and resale is the best combo because I do save some money and yet still have full perks.

 

[MartyParty]

We bought a 204 pt resale contract (CCV) Dec 2021/closed Jan 2022. It came fully loaded with 408 pts from 2021 that we rented out/banked immediately and then also booked a long 2bd stay at CCV for Sept 2022 with the extra points. Wasn't planning on adding more, but quickly realized how easy it was to rent points and how nice it would be to stay at VGF resort studios for RunDisney races -- so we added 150 points direct at VGF in Mar 22.

After the CCV 2 bedroom stay and a couple of runDisney events (SSR and VGF - monorail access on marathon Sunday was amazing!) in year one, we decided to purchase APs for this next year. No longer having those *bonus* points from resale, we found we quickly burned through our points in just a couple of planned trips (especially now that we are accustomed to the kitchen & washer/drying of 1-2 bdrms). We were planning to just get into the borrowing game, but the current direct incentives reeled us back in after a month of debate. So we are now adding again at VGF (150 pts) so we can comfortably book 2 bds without borrowing and maybe still rent out some points to cover dues and/or other vacations.

I'm a really poor example to follow (purchases Jan 2022, Mar 2022, and July 2023) and my bank account reflects that (or it will in 6 mo thanks to the Disney Visa bonus time). This is possibly my midlife crisis version of a sports car.

After signing the paperwork with our guide next week we will be at 504 points; I'm done adding on, I swear.

Thanks for sharing WxKristin! Our story is similar to yours but spread out from 2016 to 2023. Being points smart savvy consumers the first round our plan was to always stay in a studio. Seven years later and have never stayed in a studio once. We've added on twice and are at the 410 total now which puts us in the 1 or 2 bedroom grouping with an occasional bank/borrow for a 3 bedroom (which we've done once).

Also skipping out on the nice car in lieu of DVC plus paying for kids universities. Two Mazda's one a 2014 and the other a 2017. Kids will eventually be out of university and we can always get a newer / nicer car later. But DVC historically has been buy now at today's price or wait till later at tomorrow's higher price. I don't think that trend is going to change any time soon given the ongoing demand for visiting Disney parks. Kinda a fear of missing out (FOMO) but not exactly. With resale market DVC is always available and you never really miss out. What you do miss out on is the price point. At least that's how I sell it to myself.

Happy Add On!

 

[Sunnyore]

I'm done adding on, I swear.

I believe I said this 7 times But this time I’m serious! (Last contract closed last month)