Hello all,
After your helpful advice a few months ago, I took the leap and purchased a 100 point resale contract at Beach Club Villas - our favourite DVC property. We want to purchase another contract (of between 100-150 points) and I am torn between getting another resale contract or purchasing directly with Disney. We are looking at SSR resale, or OKWe or Aulani direct.
We don’t have a direct contract with Disney yet and I would very much like to secure the DVC perks and discounts that go along with one, but I am struggling to decide. The cost per point (for Aulani or Old Key West) is approximately double what we would pay buying at Saratoga Springs resale. Unfortunately as I live in Europe, I’m not able to access the discounts another way (e.g. with a Disney Visa) and it isn’t cost effective to get them with the top tier annual pass either. UK tickets are admittedly better value than their US counterparts, so we would only be saving about $400 every other year if we had access to the Sorcerer AP instead of having to buy the UK 14 day tickets. I imagine we would save $300-400 every other year with the dining/merch discounts, amounting to about $800 of savings every two years. We would love access to Moonlight Magic and the lounges but that doesn’t really sway our decision either way.
Old Key West does expire 3 years after a resale Saratoga contract would, and I am told that if I purchase before the end of the month, I would get 2023 use year points too, so that is four years’ extra use on top of a Saratoga resale contract. It is an extra $15,000 for the same amount of points though, and the resale value per point is about half the direct cost.
If we were to purchase an Aulani contract direct, we would get an extra 9 years’ use out of it on top of Saratoga resale, but again, it is an extra $15,000 and the resale value for Aulani seems to be little more than Saratoga. It’s a lot of money upfront and I don’t know that I will still be vacationing in WDW in 40 years time (though in all likelihood I probably will). I also have concerns because we wouldn’t want to use the points at Aulani and it seems a bit pointless to purchase there instead of WDW.
I find Riviera and
Disneyland Hotel the least appealing given the resale restrictions. I feel like if I’d have purchased when the Poly or VGF were being actively sold by Disney, I could have justified the direct cost more easily because their resale values are still pretty high and I could at least get most of my money back if I decided to sell down the road. If those options were still available, I’d feel much better about paying the extra money to purchase direct.
I suppose my head is telling me that resale is the way to go, but my heart is saying that I’d like to secure a direct contract for the perks. I wish I was in the position to purchase a few years ago when the direct offerings were better and the minimum purchase requirement was lower. Has anyone else been in a similar position? Would really appreciate your advice. Is it worth waiting to see if the Poly or VGF are actively sold again? (I am guessing unlikely for VGF but more likely for the Poly.)
Thanks in advance
