Thinking of Doing DVC...What's Best?

[toyboy]

I'm about 95% of the way to convincing myself to go the route of DVC. Couple of questions to the DVCer's:

1) I plan to go about once a year in a 1 Bdrm. So if I do a resale of say 250 points - is it better to get all of the points at one resort or maybe split it up to two contracts at different resorts of 125ea so I have a better shot at getting one of the two resorts I like at 11 months by playing the bank / borrow game?
2) Which of the resorts is generally considered the "better" of the resorts and tougher to get into? Which of the resorts is more kid friendly?
3) Is there anything special about use year other than that is the point at which your account gets the points? If you go on vacation at generally the same time every year, is it better to have the use year before or after the time you would go for planning?

Thanks everyone.

Scott

 

[salmoneous]

Random thoughts:

1) Buying a single 250 point contract will be about $600-900 cheaper than two 125 point contracts

2) Having 2 125 point contracts not only give you the 11-month window at two different resorts, it also allows you to see half your points and keep the other half.

3) Toughest resort to get into is probably BCV, which is probably why the points there are the most expensive. The resale market is reasonably efficient.

4) Kid friendly is tough to say. The BCV is great for kids, but some parents find it hard to keep their eye on their kids 100% of the time. BWV/OKW/SSR have nice clubhouses for kids. Some parents find being able to park near your door is a good advantage for OKW/SSR. Others find the ability at BWV/BCV/VWL to get to a park without a car/bus to be key.

5) Banking deadlines come into play with use years. You have to use your points in the year you get them, or bank them. But you can't wait 'till the last minute to bank them. In particular, you can't bank any points in the last two months. Assume you have a September use year. If your annual trip is in November, and you have to cancel, you can either bank your points or use them before the next September. If your annual trip is in July and you have to cancel, it's too late to bank those points and you have to use them before the end of August.

 

[ebenmax]

Keep in mind the ending years. . .OKW, BWV, VWL, BCV are all 2042
SSR - 2054
AKV - 2057
You get quite a few more years with the ones that are currently selling, but there are perks to all of them.