Did you stay at your home resort prior to purchase?

[sara mom]

We purchased direct at Animal Kingdom without staying there prior. Now that we are looking to add on, each of our upcoming visits are split stays to check out other resorts we are considering.

[candiemonster]

We stayed in Aulani before we purchased. If it wasn't for the stay 3 get 5 nights promotion that they offered last year, we wouldn't have stayed at that resort. We fell in love as soon as we it there and decided to purchase because their rack rates we're very expensive!

[disneybass]

Originally Posted by joanne312

DH and I have decided after much consideration and number crunching to buy a resale. Because of location, transportation to Epcot & DHS we are thinking BCV or BWV. DH also likes the idea of the restaurants/bars at BWV.
We have never stayed at or been to either of these resorts. We've done lots of research and seen lots of pictures online, but I'm still hesitant to buy into a resort that I have never actually been to! We are thinking of going down for a quick trip just to take a look at the resorts, but then that's money we are using for the trip and not for our resale purchase, so our purchase will be delayed a bit. But if we went down we could see if we had a preference BCV or BWV.

Did you have a stay at your home resort prior to purchase? If not, did you worry that you wouldn't like it (even though you'd have no reason to think you wouldn't!)

No, we had always stayed a CBR and love the tropical feel since we are beach people. Did some research on DVC and saw OKW and fell in love. We just bought a 50 point resale to see if DVC was for us and we have been happy ever since. We have added on 3 more small resale contracts since with the last being BWV. ( for food and wine)

[mommyarewegoingback]

Nope. We have been going to disney since before we were married. Stayed at BC, BLT, AKL, all the mods except CBR, Pop and ASM. But we bought BWV, because of location and cost. We know the resort and area since we visit BC or BW every trip for lunch or dinner. We love the bustling Boardwalk and all the awesome restaurant choices around all of crescent lake.
-Virginia

[rmcildw2m]

I have never seen my resort HHI but the pictures sure look nice , maybe one day .

[DebbieB]

No, I did not tour either. I stayed at Beach Club the year before (1998) and what really got me thinking about it was a stay with friends in a 2 bedroom at OKW. I liked the larger OKW room but I loved the Boardwalk area location. Those were the only 2 choices at the time. I decided on BWV because reservations were harder to get. For the first few years (2000-2005) my mom was still alive and we did May at OKW and early December at BWV every year, both 1 bedrooms. After she passed, I did either solo trips or trips with friends, really no pattern. I have done all the WDW DVC's except BLT and SSR. I am staying in a BLT studio in 2 weeks so SSR will be the only one left. Have also done VGC twice. None of the offsites.

[barrylisa]

We made a quick trip in November to stay at BCV and ended up staying at BLT also. We chose BCV for location and value. We bought resale.

[geraghty]

We never stayed at BLT but our kids are young (2 and 5) and our favorite park is magic kingdom. We rode the monorail several times on our last trip when we ate at chef mickey's, 1900 Park Fare and Aloha and imagined one day being able to afford to stay at one of the resorts on the monorail. We only bought 100 points resale so we left room to add on somewhere else in the future if we want to. Like many others I did my research and will use our next trip to do some more research.

[Tunseeker1]

Nope. I found out about vacation club when they started building HHI, where my parents had a condo. I bought at what is now OKW. I did an add-on at vero without ever going there because we couldn't get in at the times we wanted to go without the 11 month window, then we added AKV because we have kids and I thought it would be a good idea if I ever wanted to book a value room!

[Evita227]

I am VERY new to DVC information, thus this question - When we sat down for this presentation at Disney back in 2009, the guy said it doesn't matter what resort you get a time share with, except that different resorts have different maintenance fees, points cost different amounts, and you get higher priority for booking if you book at your home resort? Why does it matter if you "like" the resort or not?

[disneynutz]

Originally Posted by Evita227

I am VERY new to DVC information, thus this question - When we sat down for this presentation at Disney back in 2009, the guy said it doesn't matter what resort you get a time share with, except that different resorts have different maintenance fees, points cost different amounts, and you get higher priority for booking if you book at your home resort? Why does it matter if you "like" the resort or not?

I enjoy staying at a resort that I like. If you don't care about where you stay I guess it doesn't matter.

Bill

[jekjones1558]

Originally Posted by Evita227

I am VERY new to DVC information, thus this question - When we sat down for this presentation at Disney back in 2009, the guy said it doesn't matter what resort you get a time share with, except that different resorts have different maintenance fees, points cost different amounts, and you get higher priority for booking if you book at your home resort? Why does it matter if you "like" the resort or not?

As DVC has grown, it seems to become more difficult to book some of the smaller resorts outside of the priority booking window. If you don't really mind staying at any DVC resort, then your home resort decision should probably be based on what is most cost effective in terms of initial price, maintenance fees and number of years on the contract. If there are resorts that would be a disappointment to you, then definitely do not buy those resorts.

[hjgaus]

Originally Posted by joanne312

DH and I have decided after much consideration and number crunching to buy a resale. Because of location, transportation to Epcot & DHS we are thinking BCV or BWV. DH also likes the idea of the restaurants/bars at BWV.
We have never stayed at or been to either of these resorts. We've done lots of research and seen lots of pictures online, but I'm still hesitant to buy into a resort that I have never actually been to! We are thinking of going down for a quick trip just to take a look at the resorts, but then that's money we are using for the trip and not for our resale purchase, so our purchase will be delayed a bit. But if we went down we could see if we had a preference BCV or BWV.

Did you have a stay at your home resort prior to purchase? If not, did you worry that you wouldn't like it (even though you'd have no reason to think you wouldn't!)

YES WE DID! 2005 we stayed @ Beach Club Resort hotel side then back again 2007 BUT this time in a BCV STUDIO which we paid for! That totally got us HOOKED! We bought 2 resale contracts @ BCV for total of 450 points back in 2008! Love being close to Epcot & DHS!!
The actual rooms COULD use some updating decor but we can over look it because of the location!!!

Since then we also bought into VGC direct with Disney in 2009 at 160 points by only seeing the MODELS but it was a no brainer to own there because we LIVE in Southern California! NO REGRETS!!!

[wcpamotm]

VWL: technically, no, but we've stayed in the main lodge a couple of times and knew this was where we most wanted to be.

BLT: yes, and we enjoyed the stay there a good bit more than we expected. Before that, we would have expected that if/when we added on, it would likely be at BCV or BWV. Beach Club would still likely attract our attention if we ever were to add on again, but that's not likely any time soon.

[Evita227]

Originally Posted by jekjones1558

As DVC has grown, it seems to become more difficult to book some of the smaller resorts outside of the priority booking window. If you don't really mind staying at any DVC resort, then your home resort decision should probably be based on what is most cost effective in terms of initial price, maintenance fees and number of years on the contract. If there are resorts that would be a disappointment to you, then definitely do not buy those resorts.

Thank you for helping me to understand this better!