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Buy or Rent for June 2022 Polynesian Bungalow

ds53cns

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We've decided on doing a 7-8 night trip to the Polynesian in June of 2022. We're set on doing a blowout trip and shelling out the money for one of the bungalows. What's the best way to go about this? The price of rental points and availability seems almost seems like it can make sense to buy the points needed and then resell later. Our big issue is that we are on the west coast so don't anticipate doing a lot of trips to Florida. Before COVID we were averaging 3 trips every two years to Disneyland and staying at the Grand Californian. We would love to have DVC points there but those seem to be next to impossible to come by, but that's for another thread. For us this really is about making sure we can get a bungalow for the dates we want for this specific trip. Any help is appreciated.
 

elaine

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IMHO, I’d never ever rent points for a big trip, as most are non changeable and non refundable. Life happens as we all found out in 2020. But, resales are at a high now. If you could find and owner whose willing to book with points that don’t expire for quite a while after your planned trip and is willing to rebook, that would be ideal. But good luck finding that. If you can find a contract with last years points and then plan to borrow 50% from the next year for the trip, you’d need a lot less points. IMHO I’d be tempted to buy. How many points would you need?
 

ds53cns

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Wow! Thanks for the lightning quick response. It looks like we need about 1000 points. We are very fortunate that the upfront cost of buying doesn't represent an impediment. Our only goal is to make sure we can secure the booking for the date we want in a bungalow. If we lose some money on buying, staying and then turning around the following year and selling, that's not a significant concern.

For example, I just looked at a listing for a 250 point contract at $170/pt where they say "There are 444 points as of Dec. 2021 (235 points banked from Dec. 2020 & 209 points from Dec. 2021) + 250 points coming Dec. 2022 + 250 points coming Dec. 2023." It honestly seems like this would be a good way to go given the current situation because a lot of people have points banked and our objective is to use all the points we can in one shot and then likely sell at a loss.
 

Dean

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We've decided on doing a 7-8 night trip to the Polynesian in June of 2022. We're set on doing a blowout trip and shelling out the money for one of the bungalows. What's the best way to go about this? The price of rental points and availability seems almost seems like it can make sense to buy the points needed and then resell later. Our big issue is that we are on the west coast so don't anticipate doing a lot of trips to Florida. Before COVID we were averaging 3 trips every two years to Disneyland and staying at the Grand Californian. We would love to have DVC points there but those seem to be next to impossible to come by, but that's for another thread. For us this really is about making sure we can get a bungalow for the dates we want for this specific trip. Any help is appreciated.
It never makes sense to buy for a single trip. I doubt buying makes sense at all given your distance or you might want to consider owning at Disney Land instead if you'll use it routinely.
 

frank808

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Wow! Thanks for the lightning quick response. It looks like we need about 1000 points. We are very fortunate that the upfront cost of buying doesn't represent an impediment. Our only goal is to make sure we can secure the booking for the date we want in a bungalow. If we lose some money on buying, staying and then turning around the following year and selling, that's not a significant concern.

For example, I just looked at a listing for a 250 point contract at $170/pt where they say "There are 444 points as of Dec. 2021 (235 points banked from Dec. 2020 & 209 points from Dec. 2021) + 250 points coming Dec. 2022 + 250 points coming Dec. 2023." It honestly seems like this would be a good way to go given the current situation because a lot of people have points banked and our objective is to use all the points we can in one shot and then likely sell at a loss.

This Dec contract will not work as it would only give you 569 points to work with. Because it is a Dec UY you can only borrow 125 pts from the 2022 use year.

You would need a PVB 400 point contract.. 400 banked+400 current+ 200 borrowed 2022/2023=1000 pts

Will not be to easy to find a 400 point contract but you could always buy a couple contracts to get the amount. As with Dean, I really do not think it would be worthwhile for one trip maybe a couple trips.

My fast math.
$160x400=$64000 plus closing so let's say $66k total. Pay for 2 years of MF for points $7k total $71k. Resell for $160 a point minus commission around $57k. Savings of $6k compared to renting points (renting 1000x$20=$20k). Calculations could be lower or higher depending on market at time of sale. I personally would not tie up $66k for about 2 years for a DVC trip. But to each their own.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
 

elaine

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I agree, It’s a lot of $ to tie up for 1 trip. But I don’t know if you’d find one person to rent from. That looks like a very decent poly contract. You could then likely find a smaller contract to add to get your points count. You’d have another closing cost. But the 2 contracts will be much easier resale than a larger single contract. If you plan to go back to wdw a year or two later, you could rent out your points for a while. It’s fairly easy on disboards.
Imho assuming poly somewhat holds its resale pricing, buying a loaded contract and stripping it as much as you can and reselling isn’t that bad of an idea. The 235 2020 banked points are “free” assuming you don’t have to repay annual dues to seller, which is not the norm. As a rental, that’d be $18-20pp as you’d want 11 month booking advantage. So I’d factor that onto my back end which almost offsets brokerage fees 8.5% upon your selling. You could also sell one contact and keep the other if you’d be going to wdw even every 3rd year.
I don’t know that I’d buy enough for 1000 points for just for 1 trip, but I know I wouldn’t rent 1000 points. Another possible option is to get a poly contract and then find a poly transfer of points so you control the points if you need to canx. I’d probably get this contract and if I I couldn’t find a transfer at 11 moths, which is somewhat unlikely, then rent the remainder, but have a lot less as risk than 1000 points.
 
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TheHolleys87

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My understanding is that the Poly bungalows are very easy to book at 7 months (or less) from check-in because few owners (Poly and otherwise) own enough points to book them. The prevailing “wisdom” is that Disney enjoys renting them for $$$ cash while the Poly owners pay for their upkeep. In other words, you could consider buying cheaper points, e.g. SSR, and booking at 7 months, or even booking direct with Disney, in which case you have their more liberal cancellation and rescheduling policies in case your plans run into obstacles. If you own points, you have to watch UY very carefully, as others have shown above.
 

ds53cns

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All the comments are super helpful. I had thought DVC was allowing more liberal banking due to COVID but it seems that would term out before we made it down there so that really kills the deal on this. Tying up almost $70K certainly isn't worth the prospect of saving a few thousand dollars. Very interesting and helpful insight about the 7 month window on the bungalows. It sounds like the way to go is to tie up a nice room at the Poly and wait until the 7 month window and see if we can snag a bungalow.

Might be a stupid question but does Disney offer the bungalows directly as rooms or do you have to rent points and then book even at seven months?
 

elaine

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You could ask over on disboards.com for past practices. I think all poly cash rolls are still covid closed.
A 7 month rental is a lot less risk imho than an 11 month one.
 

Dean

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All the comments are super helpful. I had thought DVC was allowing more liberal banking due to COVID but it seems that would term out before we made it down there so that really kills the deal on this. Tying up almost $70K certainly isn't worth the prospect of saving a few thousand dollars. Very interesting and helpful insight about the 7 month window on the bungalows. It sounds like the way to go is to tie up a nice room at the Poly and wait until the 7 month window and see if we can snag a bungalow.

Might be a stupid question but does Disney offer the bungalows directly as rooms or do you have to rent points and then book even at seven months?
If that on savings. Rental price is likely to be in the $16K range and cash price at 20% discount around $20K with taxes. You'd have a ton more flexibility with cash including the option to cancel a few days out. A rental is almost certainly going to be a non refundable commitment. Buying in mainly for this trip even buying at SSR resale will be close to $50K when you including the fees on 3 years of points even if it works out. Then you'd own a timeshare that's really only a value to use the DVC resorts realizing that getting into the DL resorts is difficult at best. There are other options that most feel have a far better value, why are you tied to the bungalows?
 

presley

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You have a lot to think about and not a lot of time to decide. If you are going to buy a resale contract, it could take up to 4 months to actually get the points from the date of your initial offer. If you are buying direct, you'll have the points within a couple days, I think. You need to do some research on all your options. Based on what you posted, if I were you, I'd probably buy a large VGC contract that I knew I would keep using and book a bungalow at 7 months since people always say it's easy to get those at 7 months. It sounds like a large VGC contract would be easy for you to keep using for a few years or longer. Of course, it will sell immediately if you decide to sell later.

My own thoughts on your choices (if it was me, since I obviously don't know your habits and travel patterns):

1.) Rent from Disney and be done with it? - If I were only going once, heck yeah, I would do that because I like easy stuff. I like being able to cancel on short notice and not having to stress out about trying to get a reservation or more points, etc. If I were going to use more than once, I'd start thinking about other options.

2.) Rent from an owner or a broker? - Not my first choice because all the money could be lost if we had to cancel. I've had to cancel vacations at the last minute for health issues a couple times before. Even with trip insurance and getting my money back, it sucks. If I couldn't get my money back, that would suck all the more. However, if you are confident that you won't cancel and that even if some of the people had to cancel, some of the people would still use it, it may be a good way to go. Make sure you understand the cancellation policy and find trip insurance that will cover a timeshare rental.

3.) Buy a contract for this? - Yes if you are going to use it again. You are looking at a large contract which is harder to resell. You can buy Polynesian to make sure you get what you want and if you buy direct, you can book 11 months in advance and feel very secure about it. If you buy resale, you'll be able to book at 7 months, but you may not have your points available right at 7 months and it may be more difficult to book exactly what you want. If you decide you want to visit WDW every couple years, it could help you with that. As you already know, you can rent your points or resell your contract, but a large contract will be more difficult to sell. If you are buying direct, you can buy several smaller contracts, which will be easier to sell, but you may have more closing fees. If you do several smaller contracts, you can always keep one and sell the rest.

Buy a large VGC resale? - If you are serious about staying at DL on a regular basis, just do this. If you don't have enough points to book the bungalow, you can have points transferred in by another member for whatever they are charging to rent points, but if they are transferred in to your own account, those belong to you and if you need to cancel, you still have those points to book somewhere else.

Lots of things to consider, but it sounds like money isn't one of them. So, that helps a lot. How much time and effort do you want to put into this? If you don't mind spending a lot of time going through the buying process, transfer process, selling process, etc., that sounds like a good plan. If you prefer to be one and done, it will be much easier to rent the room from Disney if they rent those to the public. There's a broker that rents points about $24./point that will give you cancellation protection. I don't think you get your money back but they give you a window of time (maybe 2 years) to rebook.
 

elaine

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Buy a large VGC resale? - If you are serious about staying at DL on a regular basis, just do this. If you don't have enough points to book the bungalow, you can have points transferred in by another member for whatever they are charging to rent points, but if they are transferred in to your own account, those belong to you and if you need to cancel, you still have those points to book somewhere else.

Lots of things to consider, but it sounds like money isn't one of them. So, that helps a lot. How much time and effort do you want to put into this? If you don't mind spending a lot of time going through the buying process, transfer process, selling process, etc., that sounds like a good plan. If you prefer to be one and done, it will be much easier to rent the room from Disney if they rent those to the public. There's a broker that rents points about $24./point that will give you cancellation protection. I don't think you get your money back but they give you a window of time (maybe 2 years) to rebook.
either of these. $24 w/rebooking up to 2 years would be a good option--as long as it's a well-known reputable broker.
 

TheHolleys87

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All the comments are super helpful. I had thought DVC was allowing more liberal banking due to COVID but it seems that would term out before we made it down there so that really kills the deal on this. Tying up almost $70K certainly isn't worth the prospect of saving a few thousand dollars. Very interesting and helpful insight about the 7 month window on the bungalows. It sounds like the way to go is to tie up a nice room at the Poly and wait until the 7 month window and see if we can snag a bungalow.

Might be a stupid question but does Disney offer the bungalows directly as rooms or do you have to rent points and then book even at seven months?
The “more liberal banking” was only for a brief time and only for owners of specific use years who had bookings during the time the resorts were closed and were unable to bank because their normal banking deadline had passed. So that would not have benefited you in any case. The 50% limit on borrowing is still in effect, so that would affect the number of points you’d need to buy.

Disney does offer the bungalows but I’m not sure how far in advance of checkin. As the DVC owner with the most points, Disney is entitled to book them as much as 11 months in advance, but I’m not sure they pop up on the WDW resort booking website that early. When you’re at or within 11 months of your desired checkin date, you certainly could call and ask! Or book regular rooms at Poly and wait for the 7-month window and check with Disney for a cash reservation and simultaneously look at the possibility of renting from another owner.
 

Bailey#1

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We've decided on doing a 7-8 night trip to the Polynesian in June of 2022. We're set on doing a blowout trip and shelling out the money for one of the bungalows. What's the best way to go about this? The price of rental points and availability seems almost seems like it can make sense to buy the points needed and then resell later. Our big issue is that we are on the west coast so don't anticipate doing a lot of trips to Florida. Before COVID we were averaging 3 trips every two years to Disneyland and staying at the Grand Californian. We would love to have DVC points there but those seem to be next to impossible to come by, but that's for another thread. For us this really is about making sure we can get a bungalow for the dates we want for this specific trip. Any help is appreciated.
Kept in mind that there is a sufficient point change in June. For example if you book the first week in June for 8 days the point total will be 1078 points.
If you book after the first week or so the point needed for 8 days will be 1276. This is from the 2021 point charts.
 

Deb & Bill

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To me, you get too few beds in the bungalows for the points or money you pay. Only one king bed and one queen bed. Plus a queen sleeper sofa in the living room and two fold down murphy beds (bunk sized). The cabins at Copper Creek aren't much better with one king bed, one queen bed, one queen sleeper sofa, one fold down murphy bed and one twin sleeper chair. The cabins also have a fireplace and outside hot tub. Bungalows only have a plunge pool (and I've heard it is not heated or jetted).
 
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