buying resale or thru disney? [Disney Vacation Club contracts] - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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If you want to buy at Aulani or Bay Lake Tower, IMO it makes most sense to buy direct. The price savings via resale isn't dramatic enough to justify that course...again, IMO.
As for the others, you'll have to do a lot of soul-searching to determine whether you are willing to forego the benefits lost with a resale purchase.
My advice would be to try and find someone who has been a member for 10+ years and ask them how their outlook has changed over the years. Obviously points go furthest when used for DVC accommodations so the logical advice is to buy with the intent of using exclusively for DVC resort stays. But IMO, that outlook can change dramatically over time. 40+ years of theme park visits sounds like heaven when you're signing the papers, but do you think you will really feel that way after 10 years? 20 years? 30 years? That's a lot of trips on Soarin and Expedition Everest. That's a lot of aging for you and your family.
We have been members for 8 years and have never used a point for a non-DVC resort. But I have to say, the more time that passess, the more I can see it happening someday. Maybe we will want to go to Disneyland Paris someday or use points for a cruise instead of paying cash.
IMO, being banned from those options for the life of the contract is a pretty big carrot to leave on the table when buying resale. When adding-on I can see having some direct and some resale contracts. At least then the option still exists. But being permanently banned from non-DVC hotels, Disney Cruise Line and so on is a very restrictive limitation.
This post is really making me think - thank you very much for it.
I'm still leaning towards re-sale, BUT we have a very important exception. Stitch has a service dog. So most of the perks of buying directly from Disney we could not do while she has the dog. Do we think she'll have the dog forever? No. But I do see him being with her for at least the next 10 years. So for us, we couldn't do Disney Hong Kong or Paris. And we'd be limited with the cruising.
So maybe we do re-sale now, enjoy Disney World and in 10+ years when Stitch feels that she is healthy enough to not need a service animal, sell our re-sale points and then buy into Disney for all the extras.
Then again, this is all academic for at least another year while we save our pennies