Planning to buy resale soon and trying to figure out my target number of points. Part of that equation is deciding if I expect to also buy 25 points at the same resort from Disney to be eligible for the perks they only give direct purchasers now. I'm not convinced, for our uses in the foreseeable future, they are but I wanted to gut check my assumptions with the experienced users here. I know that Disney could change the rules in the future and that my use requires could change...
At the moment, our expectation is actually just 1 trip every other year typically for one week. Based on our other vacation plans/schedule this is what works best for our family. And we're nowhere in the region of the resorts so the trip is always a big scheduled event with flights, etc.
As a result, I don't see us benefiting from the annual pass deals. It looks like the cost for the Gold pass roughly translates to buying a 9 day park hopper. Even when we come for a week we typically only get 5-6 days and do at least one at Universal. When we have done 6 day passes we have sensed some burn out by the last day. The best pattern seems to be one day at each park (with maybe minor park hopping post dinner) and one day of greatest hits parking hopping two parks. And since we're coming every other year, we wouldn't even be able to benefit from the cheaper renewal rate.
With only 25 points direct, we wouldn't meaningfully benefit from any of the non-DVC hotels, the cruises or Adventures by Disney and the conversion on those is poor anyway.
And it sounds like from what many others have posted that at least for now Disney doesn't really enforce only giving direct members the discounts on dining or merchandise inside the park as opposed to letting any DVC member get them. If this changed in the future we could always revisit buying enough direct points to get them.
Am I missing anything important? The more I think about it, the more I don't see the upside in paying ~$50/point more for the 25 direct points, paying closing costs a second time and all the hassle of the second transaction. I can see it for those who plan to have multiple visits a year or very long visits.
Thanks.
At the moment, our expectation is actually just 1 trip every other year typically for one week. Based on our other vacation plans/schedule this is what works best for our family. And we're nowhere in the region of the resorts so the trip is always a big scheduled event with flights, etc.
As a result, I don't see us benefiting from the annual pass deals. It looks like the cost for the Gold pass roughly translates to buying a 9 day park hopper. Even when we come for a week we typically only get 5-6 days and do at least one at Universal. When we have done 6 day passes we have sensed some burn out by the last day. The best pattern seems to be one day at each park (with maybe minor park hopping post dinner) and one day of greatest hits parking hopping two parks. And since we're coming every other year, we wouldn't even be able to benefit from the cheaper renewal rate.
With only 25 points direct, we wouldn't meaningfully benefit from any of the non-DVC hotels, the cruises or Adventures by Disney and the conversion on those is poor anyway.
And it sounds like from what many others have posted that at least for now Disney doesn't really enforce only giving direct members the discounts on dining or merchandise inside the park as opposed to letting any DVC member get them. If this changed in the future we could always revisit buying enough direct points to get them.
Am I missing anything important? The more I think about it, the more I don't see the upside in paying ~$50/point more for the 25 direct points, paying closing costs a second time and all the hassle of the second transaction. I can see it for those who plan to have multiple visits a year or very long visits.
Thanks.