Yes this is 100% true.
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I’m honestly surprised by that.
We went with resale because I just couldn’t bear to pay the extra amount when I thought about how many more points I could get with that money! 
But I can totally get wanting to go direct, especially if you are going to go to WDW every year (which might make APs and discounts more lucrative). We only plan to go every other year (we’ll see how that goes LOL).
My experience has been similar to what others have shared - 1BR are relatively easy to secure at most resorts. Poly studios pop up from time to time, even at / after the 7-month mark.
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Yup! We all are. I fully expected it to tank mightily as soon as it hit the resale market. But a lot of people just do not care about that restriction
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For us, buying direct made the price financially place the return on investment way too far out, if ever. So, resale it was. Plus, we wanted a smaller contract (looking for 100 points). Since we went with SSR, we were able to buy 120 points for the same price or cheaper than if we had found a 100-pt BWV (which was proving unlikely).
But we, like yourself, are only planning for a trip every other year. If we want to go more than that, we’ll have to drop down from a 1-bedroom to a studio.
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ditto!
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We initially bought in 2007 and currently own at AKL and Riviera (both direct), with a resale contract pending for BC. As far as availability at the 7 month window, we haven’t had much trouble getting in to hotels other than our home resorts. In fact, we haven’t even stayed at AKL in at least 5 years. We usually get a 2 bdrm for family trips and a studio or 1 bdrm for couple trips. The thing to keep in mind is the availability calendar for the next year or so is going to still be borked because of all the extra points in the system from the closure. I wanted to rearrange my dates for our upcoming May family trip, staying at AKL, and I can’t even modify it by a day in either direction. May is typically a slow month, but everything is booked out. Except SS. There’s almost always availability at SS. My concern for you is the time of year you’re looking to stay. They are all in the higher point chart categories, indicating not only that you need more points to stay at that time, questioning if 200 is enough, but also it means it’s a busier time of year, so getting availability is more competitive. Again, the ability to get a reservation today is not the norm. Once the system clears out, most resorts should be available to book at 7 months, with specific exceptions including BC and AKL-Jambo value. The question is - if you couldn’t stay anywhere else, would you be happy at OKW?
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Thank you for the very thoughtful post.
I’ve been curious as to what the availability looks like in the present due to COVID.
I recently walked through OKW to get a feel for the resort but have not stayed there. I liked what I saw! I have watched several room tours and really like the rooms. I think I would be very satisfied staying there, however I don’t know how I feel if I wasn’t within a 5-10 minute walk of the hospitality house.
My main reason for looking at OKW direct contract was the 2057 expiration date,
and choosing a use year. We really don’t have an interest in a 2042 contract.
I’ll have to revisit looking at AKL resale contract. When I do look, it seems like a lot of December Use Years and a striped contract.
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Our SSR resale contract expires in 2054. Just as an FYI.
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Thank you and I’ve looked into that as well. It’s definitely up for consideration.
If I recall, you bought there to try and stay at Boardwalk, which is similar to what I want to do. My wife doesn’t seem to keen on staying at Saratoga if we had to, however I think the new rooms look really nice!
Off topic, from reading your posts, I’m pretty sure I’m one town over from you, I live in Plymouth.
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Really? Our church is in Canton, where we also run our errands mostly. We actually live in Superior.
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We plan to stay in SSR next December, but the hope is to get a BWV 1 bedroom in our following trip, which we plan for a January Trip instead.
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This may seem a little hokey, but it absolutely works. When looking at the resale market, decide what contract you want to buy, specifically. For example, we wanted a 250-270 point contract at Beach Club with a June use year, with no points left in 2021, fully loaded for 2022 & 2023 at a total cost of around $38k-$42k. I set a texting alert at dvcreasale market for BC contracts and just started watching them come in. There were a lot that did not meet our parameters. But when one came in that did (260pts, June UY, 2021-13pts, 2022-259pts, 2023-260pts, $40k), we were able to move forward on it, knowing it checked all the boxes. We were able to watch the pricing trends and know when something was way out of the norm and when something was priced to move fast. The point being, when you are super specific in stating out loud what you want, you’re more in tuned to seeing it when it shows up.
If you want to stay at Boardwalk, I would really consider buying there. I know it expires in 2042, but consider where you are going to be in 20 years. Will you still be going to Disney? Is it your intention to gift the contract to children or family? The reason I ask is because after running numbers six ways to Sunday, for us we decided that the difference in the per point cost of buying resale at a resort that expires in 20 years vs buying direct with a 50 year expiration was negligible. The only reason we submitted an offer on BC instead of adding to our contract at Riviera was because we REALLY want to stay at BC. As the family continues to grow, we want to be able to bring our nieces and nephews, and future grandkids to stay there for that amazing pool, and close proximity to two parks.
I recommend watching this video for an explanation of the calculation to compare contracts The TRUE Cost of Disney Vacation Club | How much $ does DVC really cost? - YouTube It’s a simplified approach to comparing contracts, but it does put them all on the same playing field so they can be compared.
(ps - my sister and family live in Plymouth! Such a small world!)
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It would be weird if we found out we already knew each other somehow. (Not likely…but still, cool to think about.)
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I wonder when they will start offering extended contracts direct. Because then it might become worth it to buy that BWV contract direct vs resale. It was a major factor in our decision to buy our second OKW contract direct - the cost difference between the RARE 2057 on resale and the guaranteed 2057 direct was minimal (when we bought).
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For sure! I’ll give you a shout next time I’m out your way. Don’t hold your breath though. That drive is brutal and I avoid it at all costs. 
That’s a good point. An option I’ve been theorizing that they may do is let the contracts expire, do a pretty big refurb and then sell it as new again to all new people. I don’t know if there’s a law that would prevent them from doing it that way though.
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I’m really curious to see how they handle that too. I hope they extend my BR to expire more in line with my SSR contract.
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We did the exact same with our small Beach Club contract. Stalked the listings until the right one came up. We wanted to know we could stay there at least every other year.
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This is why I’ve been thinking OKW direct. Although AKL resale would save a little money. I seem to be finding listings between 135-150/point depending on how stripped the contract is.
Also, selfishly, I travel to Orlando a lot for work and would like to somehow justify an annual pass.
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I follow the My DVC Points podcast and they were saying for direct they have changed their recommendation with the last price increase to now buy AKL. They argued that AKL allows you a fuller range (from value to CL) at almost the same price?
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