[Prezcatz]

Fellow Buzzers-

I need your opinions on something. We are finally making the plunge into DVC sometime this year, but have a tough decision to make. We have a family of 5 (with 3 young kids), so the AKV's look real attractive to us, since their 1-bdrm units will be large enough for us for quite some time. However, our sales rep is calling us tomorrow, but has already let us know there are some "significant sales" going on for SSR (because they are trying to finish it out before they get into the bulk of AKV and potentially begin selling the new DVC resort near Contemporary). We toured the SSR in '05 and thought was nice, but we weren't "wowed over" by it.

What do you guys think??? Do we go with the resort that we think is best for us, or take the deal and save some $/buy a few more points???

Prezcatz Paul

[Dopey]

Wow, congratulations on making that decision.
I don't know anything about it, but there were some really positive comments about SSR lately.
I know that Wishuponastar and Llama both had some good things to say in their most recent trip reports, if you want to check them out

[DisneyTeacher]

Congratulations on making the move.

This is just my opinion so take it for what it's worth. Buy where you want to stay. DVC was a lot of money for us and I wanted to be happy with what we bought. The special deals offered didn't sway us one bit because we wanted to be happy for 30+ years. I didn't want any regrets.

I don't know that you will save money by taking a better deal at SSR because you'll have to buy more points so your family can stay there because you'll have to get a 2 bedroom to fit five. You can book 5 in a one bedroom but you have to bring your own bed and bedding and that's not always possible.

[XQIXX]

I am a SSR owner and love it there.I have also stayed at AKV. I would take the SSR deal.More points at a better price will pay off in the long run.Every DVC we stayed at has been great.You can stay where you like the best.I have never been shut out at a non home resort and I go during school vacations.Your choice though.You will be happy either way!

[Andrea]

I can't help feeling by the tone of your message that you'll be a little bit disappointed if you go with SSR for practical reasons. I understand wanting to be "wowed"... and you should be super-excited about every aspect of this!

On the other hand, if you don't think you'll be bothered... go with the best deal.

[DVC Mike]

Originally Posted by Prezcatz

We toured the SSR in '05 and thought was nice, but we weren't "wowed over" by it.

Do we go with the resort that we think is best for us, or take the deal and save some $/buy a few more points???

I typically advise people to “Buy Where You Want to Stay”. If you really love a particular resort, then buy into it. There are some people who have a particular fondness for a resort and really want to stay at that particular resort, and they would be unhappy if they were not able to book there. These folks should buy where they want to stay, provided that they can reliably plan and book to take advantage of the 11-month home resort booking advantage.

If you don’t have a particular fondness for a certain resort, or if you’re not a planner and anticipate always booking at the 7-month window (or less), then look for a resort where you wouldn't mind staying that would be a better deal financially.

Personally, I much prefer AKV over SSR, as the subdued theme of SSR lacks some Disney "magic" to me. Others love SSR and think AKV is too "dark" or has a feeling of remoteness.

[MissDisney]

Just my opinion, BUT -- buy the resort you love the most!

That 11-month window might come in really handy someday, when you want to go to your favorite resort in a particular type of room at a popular time of year (like Christmas in a 1-br standard view villa at your beloved resort), and you will need that extra time to make sure you can get the room of your dreams.

[WDW Rules]

I know nothing about DVC, but wanted to say Welcome to MouseBuzz DVC Mike. Hope we hear from you again.

[MickeyMcFizzle]

I just made this decision this month - we chose AKV, b/c to me, I wanted my home resort to be a place I absolutley loved. I think SSR is GORGEOUS, but I fell in love with AKL when we stayed there the last 2 times, so that was my decision maker.
I would say, go for what your heart tells you to do. The differnce in money is minimal at best.

[joseph3947]

If you are spending that kind of money, by all means get what you want and what you feel fits your families needs.

[KingOMiami]

DW & I went with resale because...

1)The initial price and amount of points to buy direct from Disney is more than we can afford at the moment

2)We had never stayed there, but DW & I really wanted VWL which Disney did not have on hand at the moment when we were looking into it.

We do want to try out all the other resorts before we think about more points, but for now we are very happy to know that when we make a reservation for a trip we are staying at the place that we think is the most beautiful.

I guess what I am trying to say is go with what your heart feels. Buying DVC is definitely a "heart" instead of "mind" investment. If we went with the sane thought, we would have never bought into DVC but gosh are we ever glad we did!

[leslieh]

I would also suggest to buy where you want to stay at the most. That's why we bought at BCV- you need the 11 month window there for busy times.

[Boss Mouse]

The best advice I can give you is to consider the future. We started with 200 points because the children were - well Children. AS they grew into young adults, we need more room and so, added on points - at a higher cost.


So my advice it to get as much as you can - now. SSR is very nice as is any Disney resort. You won't regret it and can visit another resort in the future. It has worked out fine for us.

[Elmo]

Originally Posted by leslieh

I would also suggest to buy where you want to stay at the most. That's why we bought at BCV- you need the 11 month window there for busy times.

We bought BCV sight unseen and we love it - location and the pool. To us, location is the key.

I think the bigger decision is how many points. Look at when you will be going most often and what size accomodations you will need - rather than a strict number of points. We bought 200 points, which has served us well for the most part. As the kids are getting older, it harder for them to miss school. What we SHOULD have done is purchase enough points for a 1 bedroom anytime of the year. Upon further reading - I see I am echoing the Boss Mouse - so.... What he said too

[DisneyTeacher]

Originally Posted by Elmo

What we SHOULD have done is purchase enough points for a 1 bedroom anytime of the year.

We had a lot of years to think out buying DVC and that was one of the things we made sure we did, we bought as many points as we thought we would need. Our trips have been about 10 days so we made sure we had enough points to book a studio for 10 days any time of the year. If we have extra points (we should have about 60 points left each year) we can always bank those and get a one bedroom the next year. What we didn't want to do was plan out trips around weekends (Sunday to Thursday) and pay even more money because we are moving to a cash resort because we're short on points.