Advice appreciated - looking to buy resale at SSR

[Br'er Bear]

Originally Posted by Dr.JumbaJookiba

14 nights at SSR
studio 165
studio preferred 193
one bed 332
one bed preferred 389
two bed 440
two bed preferred 529

Dues (maintenance fees) currently $7.11 per point per year.

Average resale price now around $125 per point, buying resale means you are not eligible for a blue card which gives AP, merchandise and dining discounts.

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Better still as earlier this month Disney management announced that the Value Season will be extended for the full month, so instead of just 1st to 19th Value will be for the all of September, that will reduce the points required for a 14 night stay in 2022 at SSR to;

studio 156
studio preferred 184
one bed 308
one bed preferred 360
two bed 406
two bed preferred 510

Also, we own at SSR but rarly stay there, in fact we recently managed to grab an 8-night stay in March 2022 at Copper Creek Villas in a studio and that's during the US spring break period. We've now waitlisted on either side to hopefuly secure 14-nights, all with SSR points.

[Clarey101]

We bought 120 at SSR earlier this year. Started researching over Christmas, had a few bids rejected, but found our contract at DVCSales.com mid February.
Offer made: 17th Feb
Points in account: 23 April

We stayed at SSR for our first ever disney trip back in 2014 and loved the resort, although the rooms were dated. The rooms look so nice following the refurb and will be very happy to stay there. We are hoping to do split stays and try out some of the other resorts for a few nights each time.

[YorkshireT]

People say resort hopping is difficult, but in the last 5 years I’ve never stayed at SSR (not because I don’t like it quite the opposite, but I’ve been waiting for the refurb).. Mind you, I mainly book 1 beds which as I say definitely have much better availability. I haven’t made all these trips due to cancellations, some I changed, and also some are rentals but have booked:

Boardwalk, value twice, pool once- all 1 beds. Boardwalk 1 beds you can get all year, studios are often available right on 7 months too.
AKV- Jambo Value 1 bed. Kidani Standard 1 bed.
Grand Floridian standard studio - last Easter. 1 bed last summer (changed booking).
BLT 1 bed- New Year 2019.
Beach Club 1 bed- Xmas 2019.
SSR, OKW- no problem any time (like AKV).
Poly.
Grand Californian 1 beds- twice.
Vero studio.
Copper Creek, 1 beds twice and a studio.
Riviera, standard, studio.
Boulder Ridge, Studio.

So that’s my experience. Please bear in mind this is not 2 weeks but will be a minimum of 4 or 5 days and often a week (we will always do a split stay out of choice).

Covid has tightened availability. It won’t last forever and I did a post about that but I think there was a glitch as more appeared after I posted.

Look at Skier Pete’s charts, these are still quite accurate, if anything in normal times a little pessimistic. That will give you a very good idea.

The most difficult room to get is probably Copper Creek studio as there are not many and they loaded a ton of points into bungalows. Somewhere like Boardwalk is easy in comparison.

If you really want studios at Copper Creek buy there probably. We are flexible as the reason we bought DVC is to book different accommodations, not stay in 1 place. This I factored in when buying enough points for 1 beds.

Remember also UK summer hols is quiet DVC time and availability is better than, say, early December.

[Goldia]

Thank you all. Some really helpful thoughts and points of view for us to consider alongside our personal circumstances.

- I would like to try out other resorts and not just our home resort. Either CCV or SSR works in this situation

- split stay is good for us, but I wouldn't want 5 lots of 2 day stays, my ideal would be 2 resorts in one trip of about 4 or 5 nights each. Again either, would we be happy if we were 'stuck' in our home resort and it was SSR? yes I think so as we have the luxury of walking to DS

- kids are 17 and 14, boy and girl...we are used to staying in a 1 room hotel with 2 queen beds, but this is getting more difficult as they do not like sharing. Therefore, studios or 1 beds which sleep 5 are a big plus. CCV sleeps 4 in both, so not ideal but I love the resort. SSR is 4 in both, but I've just read that the 1 bedroom preferred does sleep 5. My preference would be to split stay with a room that does sleep 5 at least part of the time each trip...Poly, BLT, BWV, GFV etc. Slightly in favour of SSR at this point due to 5th sleeper in preferred 1 bedroom

- we will only ever be able to travel in English school holidays, all our previous trips have been summer, as I am a teacher. Therefore the availability of other resorts at this time of year is going to be a factor. can't be changed so just got to be on the ball at 7 months

- will we still want to go to WDW in 10 years? Of course this is virtually impossible to answer, I can say now that I think we will, but realistically we don't know. CCV seems to be more of a safe bet if we wanted to sell up

- dues SSR is $7.11, CCV is $7.59 SSR is cheaper by 48 cents at the moment, on a 150 point contract this is $72 cheaper than CCV, not a huge amount

- expiration CCV has the extra 14 years

- price per point difference is likely to be around $35 to $40 per point. Looking at the ROFR thread we should aim to spend about $125 per point at SSR compared to $160 at CCV. On a 150 point contract SSR would cost $18,750, CCV would be $24,000. CCV comes out at $5,250 more for the same size contract. can we afford the extra cost? Yes, but do we want to pay that much?

Conclusion

Once again I'm going round and round in circles. DH doesn't really mind. He's happy to try out other resorts or happy to not. He'd prefer to pay less. I suppose I'm feeling cautious about spending all this money when we don't know when borders will officially open. While SSR is cheaper per point maybe CCV is safer should we be in the position where we want to sell up due to the longer life. At the moment I can't imagine selling, in fact I think those of you who said we would be adding on in the future are likely correct!

I think I'm leaning more towards CCV

Sorry for the very long post, I'm trying to get things clear in my head. I've made all sorts of notes for myself as writing it down helps to think it through. There are pro's and con's for both just got to weigh it up and as ever I'm grateful for all your thoughts.

[KarenG]

Before we bought at SSR I had a massive spreadsheet with all the pros, cons, and that included years of use and purchase price. I compared this to resale at the other resorts (and back then, the difference really wasn’t massive). I want to say we paid about $11k for 150 points and we would have not saved or paid much more for the other resorts on offer (resale, but we bought SSR direct from Disney.

Of course my cost / benefit spreadsheet would provide the right answer, wouldn’t it?!

Actually no. It turned out SSR probably wasn’t the right choice for us but that was simply a heart vs head thing.

Although it shouldn’t be an emotional decision I suggest it’s similar to house buying where on paper a house could be perfect, but you walk through the door and it’s not because it doesn’t ‘feel’ as good as another?

So your husband is right that it’s a big price difference - we agonised over a much smaller one !

Final thought from me - have you stayed at WL before? Beautiful resort, but I’m not keen on the location compared to other options. Your holiday style might mean that doesn’t matter but I find it a bit too cut off / remote for me personally.

[PoohBears#1fan]

Originally Posted by KarenG

Final thought from me - have you stayed at WL before? Beautiful resort, but I’m not keen on the location compared to other options. Your holiday style might mean that doesn’t matter but I find it a bit too cut off / remote for me personally.

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Whereas that's the selling point for both of us, we absolutely love the remote feel of WL, yet you're so close to everything, so different to the feeling of being at the monorail resorts where it's all in your face. We often sit down by the water near Geyser Point and feel like we could be anywhere in the world, absolutely love it

Horses for courses, it's good that we're all different, I agree though with Karen that the emotion has to play a major part in it, the sensible decision is great, but holidays aren't sensible are they...

I've never regretted either of my home resorts, absolutely love both of them for the different feel / benefits, I can't imagine spending all that money and wishing I'd bought somewhere else.

[TinkTatoo]

- expiration CCV has the extra 14 years

- price per point difference is likely to be around $35 to $40 per point. Looking at the ROFR thread we should aim to spend about $125 per point at SSR compared to $160 at CCV. On a 150 point contract SSR would cost $18,750, CCV would be $24,000. CCV comes out at $5,250 more for the same size contract. can we afford the extra cost? Yes, but do we want to pay that much?

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$5,250 over 14 more years means your only paying $375 per year extra, that would probably be the decider for me.

Conclusion

Once again I'm going round and round in circles. DH doesn't really mind. He's happy to try out other resorts or happy to not. He'd prefer to pay less. I suppose I'm feeling cautious about spending all this money when we don't know when borders will officially open. While SSR is cheaper per point maybe CCV is safer should we be in the position where we want to sell up due to the longer life. At the moment I can't imagine selling, in fact I think those of you who said we would be adding on in the future are likely correct!

I think I'm leaning more towards CCV

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CCV would be a safer bet and give you a bigger return in the future if you decided to sell. Also you'd have no trouble using your points to stay at SSR anytime of the year.

It's a big decision and you're right to explore all angles.

[Goldia]

Again, thank you Karen, Poohbear and Tink.

Funnily enough I did do the calculations $5250/14 = $375 and thought that's basically a dollar a day! LOL. Feel like I'm talking myself into CCV, trying to justify it.

Yes 100% agree it is an emotional decision. I could spend far less money staying at a Rosen Inn or similar, that would be the sensible decision, but I just don't want to. So, buying DVC isn't about saving money for me or being sensible. I want to be able to keep going back to WDW staying on site and one day in 15 years I want to take my grandchildren there. To do that we will need more points! But, within the next 10 years we will have paid off the mortgage and there will be spare money 😉 So, yes definitely buying DVC is an emotional decision.

We've not stayed at either SSR or CCV, so I'm totally blind and naive in the realities of staying at either of them. In fact we've never even been to SSR not even for a meal or to just look around. When we first went to Wilderness Lodge I just loved it 😍 I completely and utterly fell for it as soon as we walked in the lobby. I'm well aware that looking to buy at either of them when we've never spent the night is not sensible, but that takes us back to the decision being emotional and not sensible in the first place.

[TinkTatoo]

Originally Posted by Goldia

We've not stayed at either SSR or CCV, so I'm totally blind and naive in the realities of staying at either of them. In fact we've never even been to SSR not even for a meal or to just look around. When we first went to Wilderness Lodge I just loved it 😍 I completely and utterly fell for it as soon as we walked in the lobby. I'm well aware that looking to buy at either of them when we've never spent the night is not sensible, but that takes us back to the decision being emotional and not sensible in the first place.

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All I will say, and this is no disrespect to SSR owners as everyone has different reasons for choosing / loving their home resort, but if you fell in love with WL then I'd seriously consider buying there. SSR is a sprawling resort and can't be compared to WL at all, it has a completely different vibe.

Edited to add...

I'm well aware that looking to buy at either of them when we've never spent the night is not sensible, but that takes us back to the decision being emotional and not sensible in the first place.

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I bought a resale at OKW back in the day after spending just one night at the Contemporary I realised I loved the magic of staying on site and have never regretted buying DVC.

[Lizzim]

Originally Posted by Goldia

We've not stayed at either SSR or CCV, so I'm totally blind and naive in the realities of staying at either of them. In fact we've never even been to SSR not even for a meal or to just look around. When we first went to Wilderness Lodge I just loved it 😍 I completely and utterly fell for it as soon as we walked in the lobby. I'm well aware that looking to buy at either of them when we've never spent the night is not sensible, but that takes us back to the decision being emotional and not sensible in the first place.

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Have you looked on youtube at videos of the resorts and rooms? There will be plenty and might help you get a better feel for what you want?

We own at Bay Lake Tower because I love the Magic Kingdom and wanted to be able to walk there (we bought in 2010 so no path from the GF at that point).

We have stayed at SSR and really like the resort, the ability to walk to Disney Springs is great. It is spread out though and some people don't like that.

We haven't been to Copper Creek but I imagine it is more 'compact' than SSR.

I wouldn't be unhappy staying at SSR but if you really think CCV is more likely to be your preference then I would seriously consider paying the extra and buying there...