Use year question

[Hankmoon]

Congrats but if you need a few more and to buy retail, you can get them at VGC but it will likely take some time and effort.

I would prefer to buy a third home resort if I add more points so I get the 11 month reservation booking window at a third location. Wouldn’t that make more sense? I really love the Grand Floridian and that is a hard one to book without the 11 month booking window. I was thinking 35-40 retail points would allow us to stay there every 3 years (with banking and borrowing and add on points) in a studio or a couple days in a 1 bedroom depending on the season. All the other DVCs in Orlando are easier to book at the 7 month booking window.

 

[Dean]

I would prefer to buy a third home resort if I add more points so I get the 11 month reservation booking window at a third location. Wouldn’t that make more sense? I really love the Grand Floridian and that is a hard one to book without the 11 month booking window. I was thinking 35-40 retail points would allow us to stay there every 3 years (with banking and borrowing and add on points) in a studio or a couple days in a 1 bedroom depending on the season. All the other DVCs in Orlando are easier to book at the 7 month booking window.

I wouldn't get tied up too much in the hard to book idea. I'd only buy VGF if I intended to stay there routinely and I wouldn't buy more points retail. If you truly need/want VGF I'd likely just buy there resale and do a retail add on elsewhere. IMO this is a common mistake many new to DVC make when buying in, going too high up the ladder when they don't need to or it doesn't benefit them routinely.

 

[Hankmoon]

I wouldn't get tied up too much in the hard to book idea. I'd only buy VGF if I intended to stay there routinely and I wouldn't buy more points retail. If you truly need/want VGF I'd likely just buy there resale and do a retail add on elsewhere. IMO this is a common mistake many new to DVC make when buying in, going too high up the ladder when they don't need to or it doesn't benefit them routinely.

Would you recommend buying a small 25 point retail contract at the cheapest price to add to my resale points? Some folks have said that it is a good idea to be a “card carrying” DVC member and they do that after they get their membership ID. I can see the advantage of doing that for emotional and psychological reasons - not financial reasons. It might make one feel like they really are part of the Disney family. However, it probably won’t get much in terms of staying anywhere at the 11 month mark unless you bank and borrow.

 

[Dean]

Would you recommend buying a small 25 point retail contract at the cheapest price to add to my resale points? Some folks have said that it is a good idea to be a “card carrying” DVC member and they do that after they get their membership ID. I can see the advantage of doing that for emotional and psychological reasons - not financial reasons. It might make one feel like they really are part of the Disney family. However, it probably won’t get much in terms of staying anywhere at the 11 month mark unless you bank and borrow.

I wouldn't do it for emotional reasons but I'd do it for options either present or future. Whether cheapest is best depends. For most I'd to it at a resort I owned already, one I intended to buy in the future or where the points gave me real and specific options or I'd go for the cheapest. Take the issue above where RussellSun was thinking about VGF periodically. If that's a real and viable plan, getting the points there might be a good option. OTOH, just because they think they might want to stay there and it's hard to get into isn't enough of a reason to me. What's best will vary the variables like whether I need them at a given resort and how I planned to use them. If one will use them at 7 months or after regularly, it really doesn't matter and either SSR or HH are likely the cheapest long term. The best plan is to build this into the overall purchase plan from the start for anyone else reading. One does need a 10-20% cushion for most situations so the add on retail can serve that need as well.