Which resorts and how likely?
 

Been pricing up, thinking of renting points for our next stay.

About us...

We are a couple in our 50s with no children, and no car. We will mostly be onsite for everything including meals. Probably won't self-cater much but nice to have the option.

Not afraid of public transport, use it all the time at home, although being able to walk to a park would be awesome.

Don't care about pools as we virtually never use them. Don't care much about view as not planning to spend much time looking at it.

Our favourite parks are MK and Epcot, and we would be going in early November so Food & Wine would be on, and MVMCP just starting.

I'm thinking the best bang for our buck would be:

Boardwalk Villas standard view
Bay Lake Tower

However - how likely would we be to get BWV standard view? I bet they go like hot cakes at that time of year.

Also, why are AKV Value resorts so 'cheap' points wise? Is it just because AKL is a bit out of the way? And I'm a bit confused as to where the different categories are - are the cheaper ones in Kidani Villas rather than Jambo House?

Looking at this forum, AKV seems to feature the most. What are the chances of BWV or BLT being available on here? Or would I be better just to go through David's or another agency?

Or - do we just suck it up and go for AKV value if we can, and just use the buses like before?

Which brings me to another two questions (sorry!)

Say we go for a split stay, say 10 nights AKV and 4 nights BLT. Does that mean we rent from two different people?

And what happens if we change our minds and want to stay elsewhere after we have booked? Can we change resorts?

I am an owner at both Bay Lake Tower and Animal Kingdom Lodge.

I think your best bet is to go through David’s and give him as many options as possible. Trying to get ‘the best bang for your buck’ is less likely for renters (owners struggle getting some ‘cheaper’ rooms at certain times of the year, and end up having to ‘walk’ bookings - complicated to explain on this post but involves booking rooms as soon as you see them come up and moving the reservation forward until you get to the date you actually want - and no owner will do that for a renter as it’s a lot of hassle & I'm sure it wouldn’t be something a company like David’s would offer). Likewise, once you’ve made your reservation, as a renter, that’s it - you’ve paid your money, you’ve made your booking - the 7 month window changing resorts wouldn’t come in to play as a renter, as the owner wouldn’t be changing around the reservations for you - as generally you won’t be using the same number of points and it would be too complicated for them to bother with - again, I doubt David’s would entertain this.

I’d be tempted to decide your first choice of rooms - if it’s a boardwalk standard so be it, but then give an alternative if that’s not available but in the same resort (the best way to proceed with a rental company would be to opt for one resort, as David would contact say a boardwalk owner, ask then to initially check for the difficult to get standard room, but then book the easier garden view if that’s not available - that way at least one owner is looking (and hopefully getting you) one reservation.

You could certainly do a split stay - that would just require two enquiries into david’s for separate resorts and separate dates.

As for AKL value rooms, we always stay in them as they are, as you say, the best value. The only real difference is that the square footage is slightly smaller and all the rooms are in Jambo House (which is our preference anyway!). Oh and they don’t have the sleeper chairs in the 1-2 beds, so the occupancy is limited to 4/8 rather than 5/9 with the larger rooms). Value rooms are currently very difficult to get without walking (as mentioned above) - I don’t know if that is because of the arrival of Star Wars, or if more people are walking reservations - but I’ve been looking lately and availability is getting less and less it seems ☹️

As for kidani/jambo differences - jambo is the main hotel and kidani is all DVC - it’s down to personal preference (some prefer the pool at one over the other, some prefer the quieter, more intimate nature of Kidani & others the bigger, more lively jambo - I prefer the pool at jambo and having the counter service option there - but they are both great resorts).

Hope that helps 👍

We have just returned from 2 weeks at Boardwalk Villa's. It is a great location and easy to walk to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios We had a pool view room and after having done some research it was better than a Boardwalk View, due to the entertainers at night and the amount of people walking around. We all felt that it was the best place to stay as you have lots of options both for walking and food. Avoid the Pizza Window it's rubbish. When you walk to Epcot you enter via the International Gateway. You can walk easily to Yacht and Beach Club and also Swan and Dolphin

If you rent direct from a DVC owner there will be a reason why they can’t use their points, combine this with the fact they are taking a risk renting them to you and they aren’t getting anything out of it, other than their costs back, I think you’re asking too much. Just book direct or via David’s to stop any hassle for both parties.