I understand that DVC is a points system. I have a few questions about how the system works:
1. How many points does it take to reserve a 2 bedroom unit? Does it depend on location and season? Is there a list somewhere that spells out all the point values needed?
2. Does it matter what your home resort is, or can you reserve at any of the resorts?
3. What is the retail price per point? Where is the cheapest place to buy resale points? What's a good price for resale points?
4. What are the maintenance fees?
5. Does DVC have high trade value in to other resorts?
Thanks in advance for all your help.
Hi, here's a link with point charts for the different seasons and DVC resorts. Your best value is using your points with the DVC resorts Sunday through Thursday:
http://www.tagrel.com/Points/DVCPointCharts.shtml
Maintenance fees vary by resort. Here were the 2008 fees per resort:
Animal Kingdom - $4.71
Beach Club Villas - $4.80
BoardWalk Villas - $5.04
Wilderness Lodge Villas - $4.87
Hilton Head - $5.16
Old Key West - $4.56
Saratoga Springs - $4.21
Vero Beach - $6.04
You can book your home resort at 11 months out and all others at 7 months (depending on availability).
Retail price varies by resorts - the Bay Lake Tower is $112 without a discount, but $107 if you buy a certain amount. I can't remember the price for Animal Kingdom but I know it's less than BLT. The best value resale (for the extra years) is Saratoga in my opinion. All the resorts are Right to Use and have different ending dates. Saratoga expires in 2054. BLT and Animal Kingdom have later ending dates (by a few years). All the older resorts, OKW, VWL, BWV, BCV, Vero and Hilton Head expire in 2042. Resale for Saratoga is usually around $15 to $20 less than what Disney direct sells it for. But you have to watch the points - if it's a stripped contract, I value the points at, at least $10.00 a point. So if a 150 point contract only has 2009 points, those missing 150 points in 2008 are worth $1,500 to me. Here are a few resalers that I know of:
http://www.atimeshare.com/disney/buy-disney.html
http://www.dvcbyresale.com/index.php
http://www.dvc-resales.com/dvclisting.cfm
I would not buy DVC points to trade on a regular basis - buy to use at Disney. Buy a cheaper system or timeshare to trade. Most DVC trades would be a step down unless you could get another high end resort (like for like).