Sage advice.
Also, I will be curious to see if there is any depreciation over the next year or two after this craze settles down, at least on the resale side. I don’t think DVC has ever depreciated, but I’m wondering if this might be different and the bubble might burst eventually.
I would imagine that whatever happens with the future of APs will probably have some impact on the resale prices. Like right now without MM or APs, is there a single blue-card perk left? (I have gotten a DVC discount 94% of the time with a white card.)
Nope. Because yes, discount is obtainable most of the time.
The only time I was denied it was by a blue-card holding CM who actually pulled it out and was like, no, you need one of these! Lol.
Snarky CM!!
I mean, it was a dream anyway… From your experience, what’s it’d been like trying to book a room you want? I’ve read a lot about home resort, the dates you want, etc, but would like to hear some personal experience.
So even without the “blue card”, you say “yes” when they ask about a being a dvc owner for the discount? DH keeps bringing this up in every conversation we have!
Yes.
I answer the question that is asked.
“Are you DVC?”
“Yes, I am!”
If they asked, “Are you a DVC member with a blue card?”
I would answer, “No I am not.”
I have been asked to show proof of membership, which I do through MDE where it does not indicate one way or the other but merely proves affiliation as a member.
Ya, they usually seem to ask something along the lines of “Do you have any discounts? AP, DVC?” And I reply, I have a DVC card and show the screenshot on my phone. They do often ask for ID but don’t seem to care that it’s white and not blue.
My first trip after being a member I said no a bunch of times but once think I said, oh I’m DVC but not the right kind and one CM basically insisted that I use the discount. After that I just answered truthfully and no one but that one CM.
Have also had that interaction. So I stopped pushing back and being overly honest.
Am I DVC - yup!
So I’ve only stayed twice and just booked my third trip as a DVC owner. We own at SSR. Obviously the price was right there but I do actually really like the theming (I think @OBNurseNH and I have opposite opinions of OKW/SSR but that’s what makes the world go round!) and all the different pools and vicinity to DS. I would never be disappointed to stay here at all. I think “buy where you would like to stay” is relatively important but I also wanted lots of years left on my contract.
First trip was multi-generational and we needed a 2-bedroom so we were at SSR. I booked at 11 months and added a night with OTU points at 7 months. I had watched a bit and could probably have moved to AKL at 7 months but wanted the DS proximity for my parents. Second trip was in the middle of Covid and I changed that trip so many times within 7 months so don’t go by that experience. We started in a 1-bed at AKL, moved to a studio at OKW, then a BWV/BRV split and finally ended up with a BCV/BRV split!
After staying at BCV we bought at BWV because we wanted a Crescent Lake resort. I just booked BWV studio at 11 months for March 22 but then we wanted to move that trip to this December and it is NUTS! Like I had to stalk for about a week to find a single night at BLT so far. If I can even find another night I’ll be lucky but it will have to be a 1 night each split which is less than ideal.
If you are very flexible with dates (i.e. no school vacations), have time/energy to spend daily on the DVC site and are ok with split stays, then buy anywhere. But if you have your heart set somewhere specific and want a guarantee of that resort or a peak time, buy at that resort!
When I checked out availability charts, it seems that December is the worst time to try to book anything…even at 11 months sometimes. So, while we wanted to buy at BWV, we likely couldn’t afford it based on what we’re seeing. So, we did SSR. This means that if we stay at Christmastime, we’ll do SSR (unless we can piece together something elsewhere). But for other trips we plan to do probably in late January, we are much more likely to be able to find something at 7 months we want outside of SSR.
In the end, we got 120 pts through SSR for less than we could hope to buy 100 pts at BWV. In 2022, we’ll do Christmastime at SSR. In 2024 (or really, early 2025) we’ll probably do BWV or Beach Club in January.
Hmmmmm where do you see this in the app? I don’t think mine are linked maybe?
@melcort10 and @OBNurseNH Thank you for this advice! I am a baby DVC owner and have felt the awkwardness of that question. I won’t any more!
You do have to go in and link it. That option is on the main menu “Link To Account”
Once linked you’ll find it under My Profile and then Memberships and Passes
I see it! Guess I never really checked there before. I wonder if that is enough to activate my gold pass?
I don’t think it activates anything. Only links things
You can link your Gold Pass to your MDE but it won’t activate until you actually go through a tapstile w/ it. If it’s a FL Gold you’ll have to go to a ticket or GS Window to show proof of FL residency before you can use it at the tapstile.
Yeah I figured that much, but wondered about using that screen to show proof of dvc to be able to activate the gold pass I was sold.
Not FL resident, but dvc.
oh… well until your ticket is linked you won’t be able to make park reservations.