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Post by mcd on Apr 16, 2023 8:47:03 GMT -5
So I am the type that usually has our rooms booked 11 months in advance and almost always more than 6 months ahead. We took the AP plunge and plan to come to Disney more often. I am considering buying a Vero contract if I can get it at the right price point for trips planned in shorter timeframes and maybe even somewhat last minute (inside 30-45 days is my definition in this case). I am curious what people's experience is like finding rooms with that short of a timeframe. I have gotten lucky in the past around the 5-6 month mark booking 2 bedrooms at BLT and BWV by checking multiple times a day and snagging days until I have my trip booked. I found that to be more reliable than the waitlist function. But what about at 30-45 days? Do rooms come available as other DVC owners cancel right before the cancellation window is closing? TIA for any sharing of tips and experience!
Edit - It looks like SS and OKW usually have availability, but I was thinking more BLT, BWV, BC, and PVB (2 studios)
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Post by nickys on Apr 16, 2023 9:26:56 GMT -5
Brian5581 would be an expert at last minute bookings. Just wanted to point out the dues at VB are high. Unless you plan to stay there you might want to buy at WDW.
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Post by mcd on Apr 16, 2023 9:40:02 GMT -5
Brian5581 would be an expert at last minute bookings. Just wanted to point out the dues at VB are high. Unless you plan to stay there you might want to buy at WDW. Yes they are high, but I am looking at contracts for $60/point. Compare that to my Poly points that sell for ~$170-175. The dues are about $5 higher per year. Factoring in the time value of money, I don't think its a terrible deal. I hear what you are saying, but I don't think Vero points are a terrible option if you plan to use it for bookings inside of 7 months. |
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Post by helenabear on Apr 16, 2023 10:02:20 GMT -5
Brian5581 would be an expert at last minute bookings. Just wanted to point out the dues at VB are high. Unless you plan to stay there you might want to buy at WDW. Yes they are high, but I am looking at contracts for $60/point. Compare that to my Poly points that sell for ~$170-175. The dues are about $5 higher per year. Factoring in the time value of money, I don't think its a terrible deal. I hear what you are saying, but I don't think Vero points are a terrible option if you plan to use it for bookings inside of 7 months. Savings will be eaten up very fast though. Personally I'd not do that route for a lot of reasons. To get last minute flexibility is key. 2 rooms at PVB will be nearly impossible. 1 bedrooms are far more likely than 2 inside of 45 days. |
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Post by mcd on Apr 16, 2023 10:14:55 GMT -5
Yes they are high, but I am looking at contracts for $60/point. Compare that to my Poly points that sell for ~$170-175. The dues are about $5 higher per year. Factoring in the time value of money, I don't think its a terrible deal. I hear what you are saying, but I don't think Vero points are a terrible option if you plan to use it for bookings inside of 7 months. Savings will be eaten up very fast though. Personally I'd not do that route for a lot of reasons. To get last minute flexibility is key. 2 rooms at PVB will be nearly impossible. 1 bedrooms are far more likely than 2 inside of 45 days. I would love to hear the reasons. My biggest concern is the length left in the contract. But the math seems to balance out over the next 20 years assuming you don't care about booking inside 7 months. I have a good number of Poly points to take advantage of the home window. Unfortunately we are a family of 6 and a 1 bedroom isn't possible. I kind of knew Poly was not likely. Looks like the option for a family of 6 inside of 45 days is OKW or SS. I just thought maybe you could get lucky and snag something right at the cancellation window kind of like with dining reservations. |
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Post by helenabear on Apr 16, 2023 10:25:12 GMT -5
Savings will be eaten up very fast though. Personally I'd not do that route for a lot of reasons. To get last minute flexibility is key. 2 rooms at PVB will be nearly impossible. 1 bedrooms are far more likely than 2 inside of 45 days. I would love to hear the reasons. My biggest concern is the length left in the contract. But the math seems to balance out over the next 20 years assuming you don't care about booking inside 7 months. I have a good number of Poly points to take advantage of the home window. Unfortunately we are a family of 6 and a 1 bedroom isn't possible. I kind of knew Poly was not likely. Looks like the option for a family of 6 inside of 45 days is OKW or SS. I just thought maybe you could get lucky and snag something right at the cancellation window kind of like with dining reservations. One the MFs are huge turn off. I'm considering dumping my original OKW. The percentage increase each year means higher and higher faster. No way I'd willingly buy VB if not to stay at Vero Beach, The last minute option for booking is too much of an unknown possibly causing you to be stuck with insanely higher MFs that you cannot use easily. I have found random rooms inside the 60 day window but really random and not something I'd count on. |
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Post by Adelard of Bath on Apr 16, 2023 14:29:29 GMT -5
One thing you could do is take a contract you are looking at and pretend you end up getting it. Then think about your plan for how long you want to keep these points, like to the end, or sell them after 10 or 5 years or whatever. Take the price and then calculate the maintenance fees for the next x-number of years. You will have to make assumptions on how much MFs will go up; you could always leave them the same for the sake of ballpark guesstimating. Add up the price and the MF total for the five years or ten years or whatever. Then do the same for another contract for a different resort like SSR for example, and you can compare.
I think I did something quick and it seemed like 10 years was the breakeven timeframe between a Vero contract and SSR or something. Then after that the more expensive contract would actually turn out to be cheaper. Not to mention, if you sell the contracts, one will undoubtedly be worth more than the other.
Maybe you plan to keep the points until they expire, who can know. Maybe in the long term it would be more worth it to have an extra 100 or something of points at your favorite resort (which I assume would be Poly) which you could have forever if you know what I mean. Of course, the high price of Poly points can be a significant barrier to entry.
(The risk of doing this is you multiply this by that and add 20 years of whatever and suddenly your calculator says it will have cost you $45,000 and you are like "hey wait a minute")
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Post by Adelard of Bath on Apr 16, 2023 14:40:13 GMT -5
One the MFs are huge turn off. I'm considering dumping my original OKW. The percentage increase each year means higher and higher faster. As an OKW owner, I totally get this. But it makes me sad to think about. But it comes down to the way you vacation - wife and I go don't so much "go to Disney World and stay at OKW" as we "go vacation at OKW and we are very lucky because there just happens to be Disney World there also" So I watch the fees go higher and higher in larger and larger amounts every year, and I sigh and think about how when we bought in 2014, it was $5.83 a point. But then when we were there last, just watching out the bus windows at the resort rolling by, I said "no wonder the fees are so high" I mean just look at the landscaping and gardening and all the buildings are separate so that gets expensive, and there are four pools, and the winding roads and all the individual parking lots, but all of it makes it the place we want to be. Even more so did I realize this, when we rode the skyliner and got off at Caribbean Beach to walk to some dining there, I noticed how stark the place is. Makes me wonder if the fees were abnormally low for a long time. |
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Post by helenabear on Apr 16, 2023 14:49:38 GMT -5
One the MFs are huge turn off. I'm considering dumping my original OKW. The percentage increase each year means higher and higher faster. As an OKW owner, I totally get this. But it makes me sad to think about. But it comes down to the way you vacation - wife and I go don't so much "go to Disney World and stay at OKW" as we "go vacation at OKW and we are very lucky because there just happens to be Disney World there also" So I watch the fees go higher and higher in larger and larger amounts every year, and I sigh and think about how when we bought in 2014, it was $5.83 a point. But then when we were there last, just watching out the bus windows at the resort rolling by, I said "no wonder the fees are so high" I mean just look at the landscaping and gardening and all the buildings are separate so that gets expensive, and there are four pools, and the winding roads and all the individual parking lots, but all of it makes it the place we want to be. Even more so did I realize this, when we rode the skyliner and got off at Caribbean Beach to walk to some dining there, I noticed how stark the place is. Makes me wonder if the fees were abnormally low for a long time. I bought in 2004. It was $3.68. I don't think they were abnormally low. As someone who owned as long as I have, I'm less than thrilled. I hate to say it, but it would be a first I sell. The whole PVB thing sucks too because I don't know what I'll be doing. |
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Post by alwaysdreamingdisney on Apr 16, 2023 14:59:20 GMT -5
Another thing to keep in mind is your only 1 hurricane away from those dues skyrocketting!
That being said I’ve had great luck in the past booking rooms 30-60 days out during late August to Early September when my kids were a lot younger.
Another thought to consider is with all of these properties going up for resale whoever buys them will be wanting to use up a lot of points fast - either using the points themselves OR renting to others. This in turn makes it much more difficult for us owners who are trying to book last minute.
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Post by pooh bears mom on Apr 16, 2023 15:02:56 GMT -5
I have booked a few trips in a three month window. SSR and OKW are usually available, as is AKV.
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Post by Brian5581 on Apr 16, 2023 16:59:55 GMT -5
Brian5581 would be an expert at last minute bookings. Just wanted to point out the dues at VB are high. Unless you plan to stay there you might want to buy at WDW. Aww, thanks. I’ll take the compliment, but must say I have no issues whatsoever with split stays. So while I have almost always been successful finding reservations for a weekend stay sometime during the week or so prior (random checking at odd times being quite useful), I still am most likely at a different resort for Friday night and Saturday night. Just something to keep in mind, particularly with a family. I also will often permit myself to stay in either a studio or one-bedroom. If someone is restricted to two-bedrooms that will greatly impact the searches, |
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Post by mcd on Apr 16, 2023 17:24:31 GMT -5
Another thought to consider is with all of these properties going up for resale whoever buys them will be wanting to use up a lot of points fast - either using the points themselves OR renting to others. This in turn makes it much more difficult for us owners who are trying to book last minute. What do you mean by “all these properties going up for resale?” I have been watching resales off and on for a few years. Has there been an uptick in contracts up for sale? I was told that Disney has been waiving ROFR for awhile now and will be buying back contracts again soon, but I wasn’t aware that there was an increase in owners selling. |
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Post by alwaysdreamingdisney on Apr 16, 2023 18:54:40 GMT -5
I did a quick search of various websites that list resales (five in total) - there are according to those sites currently 1,586 properties up for sale with one site listing some of those “for sale” going back to a year ago. Not sure if this is an uptick but there are a lot for sale right now.
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Post by bakerworld on Apr 17, 2023 7:53:16 GMT -5
Normally I reserve as soon as a window of opportunity opens but we were in a situation last Spring when we had to cancel trips, which placed points into holding. I did try to rent the points (and now have a very nice renter relationship) but didn't have any luck with the holding points. I kept looking and finally was able to piece together a 6n preferred studio at SSR within that 60 day restriction, so last minute can be obtained (although, I felt extremely lucky!). I was not able to find anything at BC, BW, CC, PVB, GF or HH. I did find one night at VB, which I grabbed for a possible renter but she kept insisting she wanted 2 nights until I released it = frustrating. I would find occasional nights (up to 3) at BL, AK (J or K), OKW, and Boulder. DH kept throwing up roadblocks (resort preferences & split stays). Personally, not a situation I want to be in again = stressful. Our experience has been once we were below 5 months finding more than 3 nights just dried up places like BL and PVB - BW & BC disappear by the beginning of 6 months.
I have to admit that I don't search resale. I use to out of curiosity but DH let me know early on that he had no interest in resale. Our memberships are smaller contracts so the savings aren't a large issue, plus it is very hard - or, at least, I found it hard - to find a contract in the 60 point range. DH also likes to finance because he is not into touching the nest egg (this pertains to everything).
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