UK Resident - Purchasing DVC Questions - Help Needed

[SteeleyDisney]

Hi Everyone,

Looking for some help from current DVC Members to answer some questions if possible.

We're based in the UK and me and my family (2 Adults 2 Kids) go to Disney World on average every 2 years. We always used to stay in Villas offsite but the last few trips we've stayed in the Animal Kingdom Lodge and Port Orleans Riverside and love now staying on Disney property. We've been coming to Disney World since we were kids ourselves so we're confident our trip frequency or passion to travel to Disney will never leave us.

Since our last trip I've started to look at DVC with some serious interest and think I'm now fully up to speed in terms of understanding the do's/don't etc plus pros/cons of buying resale instead of direct (also understand the restrictions that go with that). I've spent the last 6 months going back and forth with going ahead or not.

So, here's the plan I've got in my head:

I've got two options, either 150 points resale at AKL or 200 points resale at AKL (we love the resort). The reason for the two options is that whilst the kids are young, we only need a deluxe studio for the foreseeable and 150 points allows us to do 2 weeks every two years quite comfortably with some points spare. All of this assumes we would travel either end of May (UK School Half Term) or during summer holidays end of July through to end of August. By purchasing 150 points, when the kids older and we want to maybe move to 1 bedroom villas, we could then go every third year staying in a one bedroom villa to allow for more space. Alternatively, we could purchase another 50 points to top us off to 200 if we're happy that DVC was the right decision.

If we were to purchase 200 points outright from the start, we could stay in a one bedroom villa every 2 years straight away.

My only concern really is dues. What is the average % increase across the resorts? Is 5% a sensible assumption per year?

Also, currently when we travel to Disney it costs us around £10,000 (Port Orleans Riverside) or £12,000 (Animal Kingdom Lodge) for the four of us to stay on Disney property flying with Virgin, park tickets, car rental as a package holiday. Once we pay off the initial resale contract price, which at the moment is around £13,500.00 for 150 points at AKL and £16,300.00 for 200 points, we then worked out a holiday using our points would be around:

£4,000 plane tickets (could probably get cheaper when booking separate and not part of a package)
£2,200 Disney Tickets for four of us
£900 car rental (two weeks)
So approx £7,000 (without spending money). As we travel every two years, I then add annual dues for the two years which equate to £2,200 for 150 points.
So overall it would cost around £9,200 even with DVC.

Have I missed something with the above? The savings are maybe £1,000.00 to £3,000.00 per trip.

I would definitely go down the resale route and feel a smaller contract 150 to start with would be the way to go. I also feel I could get the plane tickets cheaper too if I searched around more.

I love the thought and idea of DVC, we love Disney and plan to travel frequently, preferably more frequent than every two years. I just feel if I'm spending £10-12k on a trip anyway, DVC must be worth looking at. Also not 100% set on AKL, it's just a resort we've been to a few times and sort of feel if we're buying in, it's better to buy into what we know.

One last thing, we're going Disney World in a couple of months time, so I plan to check out the other resorts whilst we are there too.

Any thoughts on the above or any personal experience would be great to hear. Especially if you're from the UK too and can explain the financial sense to your decision.

Thanks everyone! Have a good weekend.

 

[JackosinDIS]

Hello from a fellow Disney-obsessed Brit!

As you’ve said yourself, you will be saving £3k per trip if you would otherwise have stayed at AKL on cash… not to be sniffed at!

You can definitely get the plane tickets cheaper if you book independently.

I love AKL, but don’t own points there. The dues are pretty steep, and you can easily book a room there at the 7 month window (especially during the summer hols) using other points. The costs would come down further if you considered a resort like SSR, BLT or CCV (all wonderful).

Most of these average out at around $11 per point over the life of the contract (including the buy-in cost), which is always going to be significantly cheaper than both Disney deluxe rates.

However, if you are happy in moderates and think you would be fine with POFQ then there is not as big of a saving to be had.

 

[intamin]

So I own AKL and also love the resort, but home resort priority is not a necessity here for most times of the year. We got it because we love Jambo during early December and also having a shot at value/club level which I have booked multiple times. That said, if you're not going during a popular time or are trying to book club/value, I'd consider somewhere on property with lower dues that maybe has a little more valuable home resort priority assuming you also like it. Maybe BLT or CCV? Alternatively, if you want a low buy in and you want to be able to snag 1BRs immediately, it's not a bad idea to just pick up 200 SSR points since 1BRs are almost always available at AKL at 7 months anyways and have lower dues. If SSR or the others are somewhere you absolutely detest though it's probably worth it just to own at AKL and pay the difference to make sure you're staying somewhere you actually enjoy in the long run. We don't know what availability will look like in the future but I'm 90% certain 1BRs at AKL will be able to be booked at 7 months for a long time.

 

[DanCali]

Regarding dues increases - A 5% increase is not particularly sustainable over time as that implies a doubling approximately every 14 years (7x over 40 years), whereas 3.5% doubles every 20 years (~4x over 40 years). So what seem like minor differences so add up over time.

Here are the historical growth rates for each resort since inception. Whether the trends continue or revert to the mean is unknown. The dues level at AKV is higher than other places but for a good reason - someone needs to pay for that onsite safari....

https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/buying/annual-dues/

To add/reiterate what others said - unless you want to book club level or value rooms, which require quite a bit of effort, you should be ok switching to AKV at 7 months out especially for savanna view in the summer. But I'd still get a resort where you'd be ok staying if you couldn't get AKV (not sure you'd want to come from the UK and stay at SSR). We love BLT and its location - 7 min walk to MK with monorail access to EPCOT, although those studios are tight for a family of 4 so you may have to always book 1BRs like we do. The dues at BLT are also quite a bit lower, which will make up for the higher upfront cost vs. AKV.

 

[TigerLily8]

Hi. Another UK visitor here who has just taken the plunge on DVC

Two weeks at the end of August in a studio at AKL is 200 points (or even fewer if you manage to snag a value studio). If you buy 150 points, and bank / borrow 50 points for the year you plan to travel you will have 100 points left over every other year that you could rent out. That would help you recoup some costs and bring down your overall average cost per trip until you decide you need a 1BR.

 

[CVG]

Do you really need a hire car if you are staying onsite with 14 day passes? I spent £215.61 (call me anal) on Uber, with 20% tips, for a 2 week trip last year. To/from MCO to OKW, 2 trips to supermarket, 1 day trip to Universal and 1 late dining reservation. Never waited more than 5 minutes for a car.

Speaking of the supermarket, what do you do about food? The dining at Disney is pretty rubbish. I cook in my OKW kitchen in a villa. Our strategy is to cook a large lunch, eat nothing at the parks and snack when we get "home" at night. But Publix cost twice my UK Aldi shop! Probably twice as good quality though.

 

[CVG]

...... speaking of AKL, the bread service at Sanaa was devine, but the mains ...... usual Disney let down.

 

[ShaneDJ]

For longer stays, the 1 bedroom villas with the kitchen and washer/dryer are a must for our family. We recently did 10 days at WDW in a 1 BR and we used the washer/dryer more than we thought. And being able to make our own meals was relaxing and saved money.

Multiple people above mentioned BLT. Perfect location (walkable to MK and monorail to Epcot). And dues are really good. But if you are considering a 1 BR villa, remember that the 1 BR at BLT has a second full bathroom!

Good luck with your decision.

 

[CVG]

^ Good call about the washer and separate dryer. These are US sized, i.e. super-sized versus what we have in the UK. Essentially it means that you only have to take half the clothes you might take otherwise (unless you have a fashion fetish). We plan on travelling with cabin luggage only. No need for extra bags to bring back plastic tat from Disney.

 

[DVCanadian]

If you are flying all the way from the UK and staying for two weeks get enough points for a 1 bedroom. You won’t regret it.

 

[SteeleyDisney]

Hello from a fellow Disney-obsessed Brit!

As you’ve said yourself, you will be saving £3k per trip if you would otherwise have stayed at AKL on cash… not to be sniffed at!

You can definitely get the plane tickets cheaper if you book independently.

I love AKL, but don’t own points there. The dues are pretty steep, and you can easily book a room there at the 7 month window (especially during the summer hols) using other points. The costs would come down further if you considered a resort like SSR, BLT or CCV (all wonderful).

Most of these average out at around $11 per point over the life of the contract (including the buy-in cost), which is always going to be significantly cheaper than both Disney deluxe rates.

However, if you are happy in moderates and think you would be fine with POFQ then there is not as big of a saving to be had.

Can I ask who you fly with? We have always flew with Virgin or Tui as heard bad things about BA.

That's a good point about AKL being available at 7 months out. We loved staying there and figured best book what we know but are now open to other resorts. We're going Disney world in a couple months so will check out other resorts like BLT, CCV, BRV, BCV etc.

Can I ask where you own and what's your experience with any of the above resorts?

 

[SteeleyDisney]

So I own AKL and also love the resort, but home resort priority is not a necessity here for most times of the year. We got it because we love Jambo during early December and also having a shot at value/club level which I have booked multiple times. That said, if you're not going during a popular time or are trying to book club/value, I'd consider somewhere on property with lower dues that maybe has a little more valuable home resort priority assuming you also like it. Maybe BLT or CCV? Alternatively, if you want a low buy in and you want to be able to snag 1BRs immediately, it's not a bad idea to just pick up 200 SSR points since 1BRs are almost always available at AKL at 7 months anyways and have lower dues. If SSR or the others are somewhere you absolutely detest though it's probably worth it just to own at AKL and pay the difference to make sure you're staying somewhere you actually enjoy in the long run. We don't know what availability will look like in the future but I'm 90% certain 1BRs at AKL will be able to be booked at 7 months for a long time.

Yeah, another reason we looked at AKL was the club level.

A couple of people have mentioned that look elsewhere as AKL dues are high, but the way I have looked at it (tell me if I'm wrong), is that a low buy in contract e.g. AKL, has higher dues and a higher buy in contract e.g. GF has lower dues. So therefore generally balances out? Is that a fair assumption?

Ideally though, would prefer lower dues. We also want to explore Beach club, Bay Lake Tower and Copper Creek/Boulder Ridge on our upcoming trip to see if we would prefer to buy in there.

 

[SteeleyDisney]

Hi. Another UK visitor here who has just taken the plunge on DVC

Two weeks at the end of August in a studio at AKL is 200 points (or even fewer if you manage to snag a value studio). If you buy 150 points, and bank / borrow 50 points for the year you plan to travel you will have 100 points left over every other year that you could rent out. That would help you recoup some costs and bring down your overall average cost per trip until you decide you need a 1BR.

That's a really good point!

 

[SteeleyDisney]

Do you really need a hire car if you are staying onsite with 14 day passes? I spent £215.61 (call me anal) on Uber, with 20% tips, for a 2 week trip last year. To/from MCO to OKW, 2 trips to supermarket, 1 day trip to Universal and 1 late dining reservation. Never waited more than 5 minutes for a car.

Speaking of the supermarket, what do you do about food? The dining at Disney is pretty rubbish. I cook in my OKW kitchen in a villa. Our strategy is to cook a large lunch, eat nothing at the parks and snack when we get "home" at night. But Publix cost twice my UK Aldi shop! Probably twice as good quality though.

That's great info thanks. We've historically always rented cars and never used Ubers in the states.

I think if we were to buy in at AKL, we would rent a car, but we've also recently looked at Bay Lake Tower, Beach Club and Wilderness Lodge, all of which have better access to parks so would probably not hire a car if we bought into them resorts.

My plan for food (assuming we went every 2 years in a 1 BR) would be to cook a lot more.

 

[SteeleyDisney]

For longer stays, the 1 bedroom villas with the kitchen and washer/dryer are a must for our family. We recently did 10 days at WDW in a 1 BR and we used the washer/dryer more than we thought. And being able to make our own meals was relaxing and saved money.

Multiple people above mentioned BLT. Perfect location (walkable to MK and monorail to Epcot). And dues are really good. But if you are considering a 1 BR villa, remember that the 1 BR at BLT has a second full bathroom!

Good luck with your decision.

We're now starting to look at BLT and I think it's great because of location. The only issue is my wife is significantly underwhelmed by the place and says the lack of theming puts her off. We've never stayed there before but plan to explore the resort on our upcoming trip.

Can you sell BLT to me to help convince her

Any other recommendations to explore other DVC resorts?

 

[SteeleyDisney]

If you are flying all the way from the UK and staying for two weeks get enough points for a 1 bedroom. You won’t regret it.

My thoughts also. It's the additional cost jumping from 150 to 200 at contract price plus the additional dues, plus flights, tickets etc.

Although I agree it's the way to do it. I don't think I'd take the plunge if it was just for deluxe studio rooms. Very similar (if not) not as good as cash rooms imo.

 

[intamin]

Yeah, another reason we looked at AKL was the club level.

A couple of people have mentioned that look elsewhere as AKL dues are high, but the way I have looked at it (tell me if I'm wrong), is that a low buy in contract e.g. AKL, has higher dues and a higher buy in contract e.g. GF has lower dues. So therefore generally balances out? Is that a fair assumption?

Ideally though, would prefer lower dues. We also want to explore Beach club, Bay Lake Tower and Copper Creek/Boulder Ridge on our upcoming trip to see if we would prefer to buy in there.

Generally point heavy resorts will have lower dues because they’re able to split the dues among more points, I wouldn’t say it necessarily correlates to the buy in price. It also depends on a bunch of other factors like which transportation options a property uses, amenities, for the beach front properties insurance etc. For a long time Saratoga was the king of value and many still consider it to be with some of the lowest dues with a low buy in price.

 

[JackosinDIS]

Can I ask who you fly with? We have always flew with Virgin or Tui as heard bad things about BA.

That's a good point about AKL being available at 7 months out. We loved staying there and figured best book what we know but are now open to other resorts. We're going Disney world in a couple months so will check out other resorts like BLT, CCV, BRV, BCV etc.

Can I ask where you own and what's your experience with any of the above resorts?

We always fly with BA from Gatwick… mainly because we collect Avios points so do reward flights with them. I have never had a bad experience though.

I own at BCV, CCV, SSR, BLT and Poly. All fantastic… I do also love AKL but use my SSR points to book that.

If you work out the cost per point over the life of the contract, these resorts (with the exception of BCV) come out at the lower end despite the slightly higher buy in cost.

 

[zavandor]

If you plan for a 1BR you can pretty much get whatever you want at 7 months during the summer. You might even be lucky with a 1BR standard at BLT or BWV, not impossible (1BR AKV value or Club is more difficult).
This way you can buy SSR which is cheaper, both buy in and dues, so you can buy 200.

 

[skier_pete]

I disagree with what some others say. If you want DAK - better to buy there. Even though some times of year you can get studios at 7 months there, it's usually the savannah studios and if you want to save the money to stay in the standard rooms as studios or 1-bedrooms, it's still not a bad choice to own there. As long as you don't mind the longer travel to MK. (We own 320 points at AK because we would rather stay at Jambo house, and that is harder to get into. We also have used the value rooms on occasion, though they are awful hard to get.)

As far as dues - this link shows the history of dues at all the resorts year-over-year. As others have pointed out, history has that the average increase has been between 3.5 % to 5 % at different resorts, but you also shouldn't use history as the be-all end-all. For instance in 2017 Old Key West was one of the cheapest resorts for dues, but increases in the past 7 years have been in mostly in the 7-8% range and now OKW went from being the low end to the high end. You just can't predict dues - but regardless I have to tell you the cost for us staying in deluxe studios is generally higher than a value room but significantly less than a moderate room. Been owners for 10 years and now have 4 contracts and not one regret about the purchase.

My advice would be buy the 200 points up front. If you don't use them all, you can always rent them out and get your dues back plus some extra.