Thinking of buying DVC at Saratoga Springs - Advice?!

We bought a 160 point SSR resale from Fidelity. I had kept watching dvcbyresale.com, resalesdvc.com and fidelityresales.com. Our contract had 160 points and 160 banked, so I started my ownership with 320 points at half the cost per point. When those loaded contracts come up, jump quick, they disappear in minutes. We made 3 offers and had 2 contracts before that 2nd contract finally "took". The beauty of having time to watch and wait is GRAND! But I had to watch all day long, pretty much.

DH was not interested and would not purchase a contract full price. His concern was size vs. maintenance fees, contract end date, price per point. I used to work for a property manager and I saw where large communities seem to incur the smallest increases in their dues, most of the time, because there were more homes to divide the costs. There are other things to look at along those lines also, like BLT is part of the Contemporary so it gets to share costs with the resort. (I assume)

We also weighed the cost of cruises and the other perks of a full membership vs. a stripped down membership. If we decide to go on a cruise, it is more economical for us to pay for the cruise and rent out our points. That seems to be how it was for everything we were researching. It looks like we can make more off our points by renting. We determined that the best use of points, to get the most value, we would need to use them at a DVC resort.

We have stayed at SSR and OKW so far. We did not like OKW. The rooms are big, but SSR just seemed to fit our needs better. We like SSR a lot. Our goal is to eventually stay at all resorts, but we would enjoy being at SSR no matter what.

Now, everyone has different priorities. Resort location was not high on our list. This is what we found would work best for us and is in no way intended to be "be all, end all" for everyone. I would not be a DVC owner if it were not for my resale. DH wouldn't even consider it.

Congrats!!! (I will resist the urge to say "Welcome Home.") I did the same thing, but did not get as much load as you. However, I did get a nice chunk of pts this year as well. And now I want more...watching the Timeshare store for a smaller AKL contract with Feb use year to add on....

Congrats to you too!!

HA! I told DH that I could not wait to hear them tell me Welcome Home! I love it every time I hear it!

I have not been able to talk DH into adding points yet. That may not happen for a while, if ever. I am lucky to have convinced him to buy a resale at all.

try Fidelity too. Sharon there is very good. I've used Sharon at Fidelity and Robert at TS store. Both good.

What was it about OKW that you didn't like?? That is the DVC I have decided on when I finally make the leap, although I don't really have a good reason for it, other than the pictures look nice. BWV would be a runner up....

OH!! You make me want to shop for good contracts again! Actually, on our drive home from WDW on Feb 3rd, I was checking out Fidelity and the others and we were chatting contracts. I have to keep DH engaged or he will fall asleep while driving. There were some great contracts that day. Of course, we are not looking, but it's fun to dream. This part of the process is so much fun!!!! Waiting on ROFR, that's a different story.

I have not tried for a Tree House Villa yet. But I would assume that with the 11 Month window you might be better off, especially during busy times. I figure, since you have to change buses for THV, that we will wait until we are out of the stroller. But maybe not. I really want to stay there!

OKW was an option for us except the later expiration dates were more expensive per point. I am happy that we did SSR. As a matter of fact, when we stayed at OKW in Oct we ended up going to SSR QS because OKW QS is minimal.

I am hoping to get BWV for my 40th Birthday!! If location had been one of our criteria, I am pretty sure that BWV would have been our first choice!!!

Good luck shopping!

One of the things is the QS. It is an outdoor counter with just a few outdoor tables. Another was how the bus runs. There is not a direct route through the resort. It takes FOREVER to get through. The bus has to U-turn at most stops. We were in the Old Turtle Pond Road area, just a few steps away from the Turtle Shack snack bar. BUT, the Turtle Shack Snack Bar is open from 11am to 5pm. My Husband showed up in line at 458pm to get our mugs filled and had a time of it because they were closed. So he got his Coke and DD's Sprite and my sprite, all filled by pitcher, so our sprites were brown and tasted like dirty dish water. I guess they did not want us to have a magical day. The Turtle Pond area is FAR from Hospitality House.

With that being said, the QS at Hospitality House stayed open until everyone in line was served, and they smiled the whole time.

OKW is gorgeous, the rooms are huge. We had more storage at SSR, which is something we really like. We will stay at OKW again, we just prefer SSR. But OKW is easy on the points, like BWV.

A few things that really turned us, and these really are just personal issues:

The fan blade broke off the fan one morning and went flying just inches over my sleeping Daughter. If she had been sitting up, it would have knocked her upside the head. I called the front desk immediately and we were not charged for it. Good thing, nobody was near it when it broke.

Mousekeeping keeps a laundry basket of clean linens outside on the walkway. The place is crawling with lizards, at least it was in Oct when we were there. Found a lizard in DD's pack & play and one in the bathroom. We lost the one in the bathroom though.

We have only stayed in studios so far. So that is the only thing that I have an educated opinion on.

OKW is a favorite among many. As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure that we are in the minority with our preference of SSR over OKW.

Thanks WDWfanatic!! That's helpful to know. I like to eat, so having a decent QS for snacks and such is nice. Someone today told me BWV was the way to go. I'm leaning more and more that direction....

i own at ssr and the resort is very nice and the pools and restaurants are great, if you like dtd it is very convenient, having said that i would say if you have an option of buying somewhere else closer to a theme park like bwv or bcv at epcot or blt or vwl near mk i would go for that. you may pay a little more money, but the convenience of being that close to the parks is so worth it. ssr is so huge that if your not near the carriage house you need to take a bus just to get to the lobby, or rent a car which we always do when we stay there to get to parks, without a car i feel like i am spending all my time on a bus when i should be in a park. The other thing is getting to adr's on time, from ssr you need to factor an extra half hour of travel time on top of what you normally would from closer resorts. But it is a nice resort

Well think it through good, but don't get me wrong it is a very nice resort and if you are used to taking disney transportation it isn't that bad, we just like to be where we want to be in a hurry, we are very impatient people lol. Also there are about 6 bus stops just in ssr alone so you can get to the carriage house from everywhere it just takes a while

I've stayed at SSR twice and it was my least favorite resort for a number of reasons.

The very long trasportation and wait times.
The lack of theming.
The motel design- I never take a car, so I want a hotel rather than a motel.
the feeling that I am miles from anything and not even in WDW.

However, if you can make reservations at 7 months and be happy, then the price is right.

EXCITING!!! YAY!

SSR is not heavily themed, we didn't notice the bus rides being all that long, but certainly not as short as when we have stayed at CSR or CBR. It was great walking to DTD though. It is so close, and we like some DTD time. So it works for us. The room was nice and it was fairly quiet.

I can't say that we got the motel feel from it though. I get that more with the All Star resorts. It is whatever suits your taste. We were not picky about the resort we chose, we really didn't care. Thankfully, we were really happy with SSR. But I think we would have been happy no matter where we purchased, since we were looking more at numbers and longevity than resort theme or location.

And when we are at WDW, we try to forget that we drive. Except for late ADR's at other resorts, we drive to those. We never had a major wait for a bus while we were there.

Our way will not work for everyone. You just have to do what you think will make you happy!!!

"Home" is where you make it!!!

There's been no real reason I haven't stayed there. Ive been a DVC member for 3 years or so, Points were cheaper there at the time although dues was a little higher. The times I've vacationed so far, I've been out voted on the destination.

I'm 90 minutes from AC and I go there at least once a month to visit my money. One thing I can tell you with confidence is that BWV and BCV feel absolutely nothing like AC or any other part of the Jersey Shore. And I love the shore.

SSR is themed exactly like it is supposed to be, like Saratoga NY. It's our home resort and has never felt like a motel. Feels more like a condo. The rooms are beautiful. Congress park section has great views of DTD. It is a very large resort, so those without a car, it can be a pain getting to the food court. We still love it and have no regrets what so ever buying there.

The Boardwalk , that's themed after early 1900 Atlantic City, not Casino City like it is now.

I live about the same distance from AC also. BWV doesn't remind me of present day AC, but I do get a boardwalk feel there, minus the beach of course, so not necessarily a Jersey Shore ( thank god, cause Snooki would ruin WDW for me), but I definitely like the atmosphere.

As for staying at SSR, I should be there in a few weeks if things work out. I can give you my opinion of it then, I can also say I've stayed at my home resort.

SSR is themed beautifully if you consider naming the buildings a theme. Oh, and they tell you on every interminable bus ride about the theming in case you miss it.

I love the theming at SSR, don't get me wrong. It just isn't all encompassing like AKL or WL. We really like SSR, inside and out.

As for the Poly! TOTALLY AGREE!!!! I have never stayed there, but I want to sooo bad. We would have been able to stay there, but our trips would have been shorter. We are all about more days. So when I budget for a trip (pre DVC) I would figure a few days at the Poly or we can stay many more days at a Value or Mod. Always went for the longer vacation. We are cheap like that.

I am really looking forward to the GF DVC also! There is something so grand and elegant about that resort that fascinates me. I would love to live like that for a week.

Yeah, with Fidelity I had some stress as far as communication. We used Rachel. She really was very nice, but I still kind of stressed when I got nothing. So I would talk to the other girl there, I can't remember her name though. But others can help you there. I sent emails to Rachel also.

I watched 3 different companies until I had a contract that "stuck". Just so happened that Fidelity always had the contract that I wanted.

OK, just so you know, I got almost what I wanted. My 2nd choice really.

Today is my 7 Month call date for the first part of my Fall trip. My parents and Aunt are coming out from Saturday through Friday then my immediate family of 4 will be staying through until Sunday. So I have to wait a few more days before I can see if my 2 bedroom lock-off request will work out for me so that we can stay in the locked off studio for the last 2 nights, without changing rooms.

At 8am (when my 7 Month window opened) I was on dvcmember.com to change my SSR res to BWV for my 40th Birthday celebration/pity party. STD and preferred views not available for this part of the trip, but BCV did pop up with a 2BR as an alternate, so I chose it and waitlisted BWV preferred view (only 1 night was not available) and then waitlisted my REAL 1st choice, BWV STD view (easy on the points). I had a question afterward so at 9am I called DVC (when they open) to change my res to a dedicated 2 br with 2 queens instead of dedicated 2 br with a queen and pull out in the 2nd bedroom. I had not realized that there were three 2 br options at BCV. He asked why I wanted to do that with a waitlist at BWV that had been confirmed! So, apparently, someone else was doing exactly what I was doing at the same time, and changing to another resort. THANK YOU to that person!

So, it IS fairly easy to get BWV or BCV during F&W. Now, I wait to see if my other waitlist comes through for me, saving me a few points. Just hoping that there are others that still need to change from their home resort to a different resort. Of course, this is for a 2 br, it will all be different when I try to get a studio at BWV for Fri and Sat nights after everyone else leaves.