SAP+ ?

[tom1944]

I just don't think I'd ever buy true SAPs unless I really loved every single resort. And maybe if I stayed at every resort at least once, I would love them all. Who knows. I'm really not THAT picky on accommodations. But since we only plan to go every other year, right now, I'd hate to end up at a not-so-great (to us) resort.

But the concept of SAP+ is much more appealing to me. Which is why I'll probably still entertain the idea of CCV down the road since it's still at WL.

If people find that true SAPs works for them...well, more power to them! I just hope they do a lot of research. Because when I started this whole DVC journey a year ago, I really thought there would be more options available at the 7 month mark. That's probably been the most disappointing part of DVC for me.

When do you travel and what type of room do you book?

I have found the 7 month window for the last 15+ days in August and January have been fine.

We are looking at 1 bedroom in BLT or Kidani or 2 bedrooms at BWV, BCV,AKJ,OKW, BRV,CCV or SSR.

 

[Sprinkles&Sprints]

I mean, if one is only looking at overall cost....staying with cash off-site or at a value resort would be the best. That was actually my mindset for years. We stayed value at WDW and off site at Disneyland. I never considered DVC until last year because, to me, the cost wasn't worth it. Value/off site was always going to be cheaper.

But obviously if you look at what you get for your money...DVC is better in that respect.

So if you look at what each resort has to offer....SSR might make the most economical sense but that doesn't mean it will have the most value to buyers. It really is such a personal thing when you look at how much value a resort holds.

This was pretty much how I arrived at GFV as my SAP+ points. The only reason I considered DVC was to give me consistent access to deluxe accommodations I wouldn’t otherwise splurge on. If we hadn’t gone down this route, we would have happily continued staying at the Swan.

 

[AstroBlasters]

This was pretty much how I arrived at GFV as my SAP+ points. The only reason I considered DVC was to give me consistent access to deluxe accommodations I wouldn’t otherwise splurge on. If we hadn’t gone down this route, we would have happily continued staying at the Swan.

I agree that VGF makes very nice WDW SAP+

 

[Sprinkles&Sprints]

I agree that VGF makes very nice WDW SAP+

Spoken like a fellow VGF-er

 

[jcolvin5]

We love WL and that's where we use our SAPs the most. In order to book the cabins to give the four of us a little space on the backside of a split stay (6/6) and a GV when we have my wife's parents with us. So yes, we go for the cheaper SAPs because we need about 1K points to do everything we want to do.

We don't own at CCV or BRV because we just don't need the 11 month window. Plus we are a family of 4 on most trips, so we fall into the 1BR category most of the time. The 1BRs are very small in comparison to pretty anything else out there. This is the one resort that we probably choose a 2BR instead.

I'm sure eventually we will stay at SSR, but it's not on the agenda anytime in the next few years. We travel at the beginning of Feb and mid Oct, so we haven't had any issues booking at 7 months.

To each their own. Value is defined differently for each person.

 

[ClaraOswald]

When do you travel and what type of room do you book?

I have found the 7 month window for the last 15+ days in August and January have been fine.

We are looking at 1 bedroom in BLT or Kidani or 2 bedrooms at BWV, BCV,AKJ,OKW, BRV,CCV or SSR.

January/February...avoiding MLK and President's weekends. Studios, right now. Eventually we'd like more points for a 1-bedroom. BRV is our preferred resort.

The dates we want to go in 2025, there are already no studios at BRV, CCV, BCV, BWV. The 7 month mark isn't until late June. I'm hoping someone will be switching from BRV to somewhere else at the 7 month so I can swipe their reservation.

 

[tom1944]

January/February...avoiding MLK and President's weekends. Studios, right now. Eventually we'd like more points for a 1-bedroom. BRV is our preferred resort.

The dates we want to go in 2025, there are already no studios at BRV, CCV, BCV, BWV. The 7 month mark isn't until late June. I'm hoping someone will be switching from BRV to somewhere else at the 7 month so I can swipe their reservation.

Yes, the first thing I learned was that studios are a completely different product. I believe the only studios we will ever stay in is the POLY studios and we would book two of them. One for my wife and I and one for my daughter and granddaughter. That would also be a once in an ownership event.

We bought so we could have it like a second home for us and not a hotel room.

 

[ClaraOswald]

I don't see us ever cooking meals or anything so I don't need a kitchen. The extra space in a 1 bedroom would be nice though, especially when our son is older. And the washer/dryer would be helpful. I just wish BRV had a 2nd bathroom like VGC. Right now the studio is good though. And he loves that little single murphy bed.

 

[davidhr]

I think if you're getting SSR as SAP to get studios at 7 months, you're setting up yourself for disappointment as the availability will be limited. SSR works well for 1BR and even 2BR. As you can get more points than other resorts, you can aim for the higher value rooms that are available at 7 months most of the time.

CCV in my opinion is the best SAP resort. I just don't see my CCV points as SAP as I find I never like to use them elsewhere lol

 

[jcolvin5]

I don't see us ever cooking meals or anything so I don't need a kitchen. The extra space in a 1 bedroom would be nice though, especially when our son is older. And the washer/dryer would be helpful. I just wish BRV had a 2nd bathroom like VGC. Right now the studio is good though. And he loves that little single murphy bed.

Same w/AKL-K's 1BRs. That extra toilet is a huge advantage and the rooms are large to begin with.

 

[JulieBeeRN]

We bought so we could have it like a second home for us and not a hotel room.

Same for us. Even just with two of us; we were getting tired of "living"in hotel rooms on vacation. We had started booking cash rooms at SSR and OKW, but wanted to branch out into other resorts. We wouldn't have a chance to get one bedrooms as non-DVC.

And it will really be nice when our grandchildren start coming with us.

 

[Chili327]

Yes, the first thing I learned was that studios are a completely different product. I believe the only studios we will ever stay in is the POLY studios and we would book two of them. One for my wife and I and one for my daughter and granddaughter. That would also be a once in an ownership event.

We bought so we could have it like a second home for us and not a hotel room.

Studios are great now, but I could definitely see booking 1bdrm (or bigger) down the road. So the question is do I acquire points sooner or later to accommodate that?

 

[jcolvin5]

Studios are great now, but I could definitely see booking 1bdrm (or bigger) down the road. So the question is do I acquire points sooner or later to accommodate that?

That's the tough part. You would think that today is the lowest buyin you will experience, but it just doesn't always work out that way. I guess it depends how long it will be before you need/want the 1BR. If you are talking 3 years down the road, sure today SHOULD be a better price than 3 years from now. If you are looking at next year, I'm not sure that would necessarily be true.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Studios are great now, but I could definitely see booking 1bdrm (or bigger) down the road. So the question is do I acquire points sooner or later to accommodate that?

That's kind of where I'm at too. We bought our 160 VGC and 50 BRV with the intent of studios for at least a couple years. BUT...I'm still on the lookout for the perfect smaller contracts to bump those up for 1 bedrooms sooner rather than later.

With VGC, I think we'll have to take what we can get when we see it.

For BRV, I wonder if they will be extra cheap in just a couple years with the expiration or if it won't really make much of a difference.

 

[tidefan]

To each their own. Value is defined differently for each person.

For us, I wish we didn’t have four home resorts. Really, the only one we ever use the 7 to 11 month priority is Bay Lake Tower for Labor Day stays, and I’m not sure we really need that. Other than that, we just like to stay everywhere. Also, we enjoy going to Aulani.

Other than our Bay Lake points, in the past five years, we haven’t used home resort priority for any of our grand Floridian, Polynesian, or Saratoga contracts…

 

[Chili327]

For us, I wish we didn’t have four home resorts. Really, the only one we ever use the 7 to 11 month priority is Bay Lake Tower for Labor Day stays, and I’m not sure we really need that. Other than that, we just like to stay everywhere. Also, we enjoy going to Aulani.

Other than our Bay Lake points, in the past five years, we haven’t used home resort priority for any of our grand Floridian, Polynesian, or Saratoga contracts…

I was going to say it sounds like you could sell off some of your others and consolidate with more BLT, but since all your other home resorts are cheap dues (SAP/+) why bother except for convenience.
Sounds like a good spot to be in.

 

[Chili327]

That's kind of where I'm at too. We bought our 160 VGC and 50 BRV with the intent of studios for at least a couple years. BUT...I'm still on the lookout for the perfect smaller contracts to bump those up for 1 bedrooms sooner rather than later.

With VGC, I think we'll have to take what we can get when we see it.

For BRV, I wonder if they will be extra cheap in just a couple years with the expiration or if it won't really make much of a difference.

What’s the ideal DLR trip? (4 nights, 1bdrm, time of year, etc?)

DLR seems like the perfect length is 5day/4night stay (at Halloween time that’s 88points max for a studio, so my 75 points is plenty to do that every other year), but lately I’ve been going to Knotts in place of a DLR night/day, so not sure whether to add on a day to the ideal trip or just be happy with 3 nights at VGC (& 4day hopper, instead of 5).

There will always be plenty of WDW contracts to choose from, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.

 

[ClaraOswald]

For us, we like to do 6 nights at DLR. 5 park days. We've done 7 nights/6 park days before as well but it's so expensive to add that 6th day. So if we ever did 7 nights again, we'd take a day in the middle to do something else or just relax. It seems like most people prefer less days though.

The nice thing is that when we go in January/February...we don't need that many points so they can be banked towards possibly a bigger room the following year. I suspect even if we add an extra 50-points, we'll still need to stay in a studio some years. Especially if we want to go during a more expensive season from time to time. Thankfully our favorite times tend to be in the 2 lower tiers. We just can't afford a bunch of VGC, unfortunately.

 

[tidefan]

I was going to say it sounds like you could sell off some of your others and consolidate with more BLT, but since all your other home resorts are cheap dues (SAP/+) why bother except for convenience.
Sounds like a good spot to be in.

Yeah, we like to switch things up, and it's too much work to sell and buy contracts, so we are good where we are. Still get something we like more often than not.

And... we are the weird ones that chose our May stay at an SSR studio because we like it just as much as many of the other properties, but the point chart is much better. Could have stayed at CCV, RIV, BLT, VGF, OKW, AKL, or BWV (Garden) at 7 months, but we chose SSR. We love the new renovations. Thought about BWV for a hot minute, but the parking situation there is not ideal.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

We just can't afford a bunch of VGC, unfortunately.

You and me both. I keep seeing contracts under $250/pp and I’m like “oooooh” but then multiply it by the number of points and I’m like “eeewww.”