Odds and ends
Jk1970-I own HGVC & DVC (SSR) so can provide a pretty good perspective. For context, we bought HGVC about 9 years back, primarily used it for HGVC resorts, then started using RCI to exchange into DVC 8 times & counting. Exchanging into DVC is easy if you plan ahead-DVC makes bulk deposits across multiple resorts into RCI right inside of 7 months, so you need to create
multiple Ongoing Searches (OGS) on RCI.com in advance-I recommend one for BLT, one for VWL, one for Epcot resorts, one for AKL, one for SSR/OKW (note, you don't pay for an OGS in advance if you skip the payment step). All resorts are deposited at the same time, so a single search will most likely match to SSR/OKW & block additional matches. Multiple OGSes
may match a MK or Epcot resort,
probably will match AKL, &
definitely will match SSR/OK, then you can release the holds you don't want. Keep in mind OGS are minimum room size so a studio OGS will still match a 1 Bdrm (DVC Studios rarely if ever are deposited in RCI & 2 Bdrms are extremely rare other than SSR/OKW). You'll also want to join TUG & monitor the Sightings DL since only RCI Weeks match an OGS & DVC makes both Points & Weeks deposits. As an HGVC member you have access to both Points + Weeks. The other benefrit of HGVC is it has a fixed exchange rate for a RCI Red Week (which DVC always are), e.g. 3400 HGVC points for a 1 Bdrm, 4800 for 2 bdrm. Other timeshare have variable exchange rate based on TPUs, & a given DVC week could literally be any number of TPUs depending on supply & demand so you may or may
not be able to get a DVC week for your exchange depending on the TPUs for the exchange whereas with HGVC you know exactly how many weeks of DVC you'll be able to get for your HGVC points,
regardless of time of year or DVC resort.
As far as buying HGVC vs. DVC, HGVC is the much better value. HGVC points resale for $2/pt, so to exchange into a 1 bdrm at DVC would require 3400 HGVC pts annually which would conservatively cost $7K+ $800 MF. The same week would be 139-551 DVC points depending on time of year, resort, & room type. The cheapest DVC points resale for $40+, so even a 250 point purchase (average point cost in mid-season) would be $10K+$1,800 MF-so you are looking
at least 50% higher purchase cost &
over 100% more MF by buying the equivalent DVC than HGVC resale, which gets comparatively worse if you purchase more expensive resorts (e.g. SSR resales around $70/pt) or if you visit in higher-demand seasons (see my WDW point chart at
http://1drv.ms/1wpoFk8). As far as booking availability on DVC-it is much better but you have to book at exactly 7 mos to get availability at non-Home resorts (just like you have to have a an OGS in RCI at 7 mos). Typically everything is available right at 7 mos, but AKL Concierge. AKL Value go fast, as do pretty much all MK and Epcot resorts. SSR/OKW will always be available at 7 months with the possible exception of week after Christmas.
I know what you are thinking though-while a HGVC resale is a better value than DVC resale, you bought HGVC retail & for what you paid (probably closer to $4/pt) you could have bought the equivalent DVC resale. This is probably true, but having been into the same boat (we bought HGVC retail, then DVC resale) a few things to keep in mind 1) that ship has sailed-sure you could try to get out of it but legal fees would quickly outweigh the net benefit-if any, & you explicitly signed a document saying they are not liable for any verbal misrepresentations 2) the savings of using HGVC to exchange into RCI annually vs. paying Disney to rent the same accommodations will quickly pay for your entire HGVC purchase (ours already has), 3) if you use the bonus points you got to purchase HGVC to exchange into DVC, you are effectively reducing the cost of your HGVC purchase by that value, putting you back in the $2 resale range after consuming that value (keep in mind you can use the bonus points for 2 years from purchase, then can deposit them into RCI for another 2 years). Considering 3, we actually made the choice to purchase another HGVC direct for the bonus points & to build to Elite so we can get free HGVC room size upgrades which increases the value of direct points vs resale points which once you've stripped them of the bonus points is about the same. This doesn't apply to everyone if you don't plan on eventually needing/purchasing enough HGVC points to get to Elite, but for us it makes sense to buy direct multiple times, getting bonus points each time we will use to exchange into DVC in the near term, then get to the level of points where we get free room upgrades & no reservation fees, which will coincide with when we are no longer going to DVC & will use our HGVC points to stay at HGVC resorts.
OK, so if HGVC is such a great value, then why did we buy DVC? So, a variety of reasons here: 1) DVC only deposits 7-night stays into RCI (regardless of Points or Weeks)-so by buying DVC direct you can book extra nights with DVC & add-on to a RCI exchange (even stay in the same room) or stay fewer than 7 nights & 2) discount APs are a significant savings for DVC members & save a ton of money if you make 2 or more visits per year, 3) With DVC or AP, you can buy TIW, which is a significant savings over DDP IME. You can purchase a minimum contract of 100 points resale & easily recoup the cost with these savings in a few years, & have enough points per year to add 1-2 nights per stay.
