……NO….not THAT kind of little Disney Souvenir! A Disney Vacation Club membership!
As you will recall from reading several of Mom or my recent posts, we sailed on the Disney Fantasy back in April. I did something rather unexpected during this cruise. I bought my own DVC membership! You may wonder why, since mom’s posted about DVC already and has been a LONG time member and as her primary Disney loving child I get to reap the benefits. But I certainly had thought about buying my own membership prior to this trip. I even occasionally look at prices on some of the DVC Resale sites, though I’ve been less interested in buying resale since the rules changed about what you can/cannot do with those points. But anyway, I opted to buy in. And I wanted to talk to you about what I decided to buy….because its probably not what one might have expected.
Anyone who has looked into DVC knows there’s generally various promotions running at any given time. One good resource I’ve found for this info (for anyone interested) is DVCNews.com. While I was on the ship Disney was doing the buy 100 points, we’ll give you an extra 20 promotion. But this promotion was only valid at select resorts (I think Aulani and Animal Kingdom). However, the price per point at these various resorts, came down quite substantially when you considered you were getting 120 points but only paying for 100. There were additional benefits like an onboard credit on the ship if you bought into one of these resorts.
So what did I do? I bought at Boardwalk. I know what you are thinking…WHAT? Okay…if you weren’t thinking WHAT…now you are…because clearly I’m indicating you should be. So the math worked out such…that what I paid per point at Boardwalk was HIGHER than what I might have paid under one of the specials. Plus, my Boardwalk membership runs through 2042 while I could have gone through 2062 had I bought at Aulani.
Boardwalk
First of all, I have to say. I was thrilled to be able to buy Boardwalk direct from DVC. Part of why I had been watching the resale options was that I assumed I COULDN’T buy Boardwalk from DVC. At least not as a new member. But because of Disney buying back some points from folks wanting to get out of their DVC, they do have a limited number of points available at some of the resorts that had long ago sold out. PLUS, they didn’t require me to buy the typical 160 point minimum. I know Disney has toyed with changing the minimum point values for special promotions – I believe to as low as 50 points at one point last year (I can’t imagine how I’d make due with 50 points but that is besides the point!). I asked about this when I was told Boardwalk was available to buy as a new member, and they said I could buy as little as 100 points. I opted for 120.
So why did I do it you may now be asking? Why pay more per point, and have less years, by buying at Boardwalk? For me….the decision was all about the 11 month booking window. But I’ll get back to that in a minute.
We’ve been lucky to stay at Boardwalk a few times in the past few years, and really fallen in love with it. We absolutely LOVE the location, super near Epcot, and easy to get to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We really enjoy having a nice dinner in the World Showcase and having a leisurely walk back to the resort. We also really enjoy the Boardwalk Bakery for breakfast in the morning. One of the other advantages, is the points required to stay at Boardwalk is pretty much the lowest at any of the WDW DVC resorts, so you get the most bang for your buck.
So back to the 11 month window, if we’ve stayed a few times in recent years, on mom’s points (using the 7 month window) why is the 11 month window so important? Well…..because sometimes it is! We’re having quite the marathon trip to WDW this November for my 35th birthday celebration. 2 nights in WDW, a 4 night cruise in the Disney Dream, and 9 nights at WDW. We successfully got into Boardwalk for our initial 2 nights. But have not been able to get into it for the rest of our nights. Now we did also really want to stay at Bay Lake, and we will be there a few nights towards the end of the trip. But we’ve been unable to get ANYTHING at Boardwalk for post cruise. This was confusing us some, as we’d never had trouble booking Boardwalk at 7 months. We knew Food and Wine was still going on, but the resort availability wasn’t opening up after food and wine either. Finally someone at DVC mentioned the magic words “Jersey Week”. For those not familiar, Jersey Week is typically around Veterans Day, and schools in New Jersey often plan a teachers convention around this time, so parents take advantage of the extra time off school to take their kids for a trip. And this week happened to coincide with our next trip. And apparently they wall wanted to stay at Boardwalk!
So….suddenly that 11 month window at Boardwalk that hadn’t been so important to us…because pretty important. So rather than buy cheaper points at Aulani, where I might go to once or twice and don’t really need the 11 month window…I decided to buy at Boardwalk. Where I’ll have plenty of time between now and the year 2042 to enjoy lots of magical vacations at Boardwalk Villas!
Share
Awesome article, I am so happy for you! That is a great location.
Congrats!
Even with the restrictions, I think resale is the best way to go, but the important thing is you are a DVC member now and Boardwalk is fantastic! Enjoy your 11 month window during Food and Wine too!