How did you decide which DVC property?

I stayed as a guest at the Beach Club and I was hooked immediately. I went and bought 150 points on an impulse without even looking into it. You know, I just had to have it. I then added on at Beach Club and I'm so glad I did. I bought when it was $73 per point direct. I later learned about resale and bought at Boardwalk as well for $60 per point.

For me the Beach Club has everything except good views:

Walk to two parks.(Epcot my favorite park)
SAB the best pool and pool area
Access to the Boardwalk restaurants and bars

I like the Boardwalk view rooms, but for me it's a distant second. There is something about the Beach Club, and I think that's why it still commands the big prices all these years later.

AKL was the main property being sold when we bought. Jambo House had just been finished and Kidani was under construction. I had stayed at AKL in the regular resort rooms and loved it, so I knew that I would be more than happy there. Plus - only DVC resort with concierge rooms - hello!

As far as the buses go, yes it's further out from the Magic Kingdom, but once you are on a bus, you're on a bus - does an extra few minutes really matter? And if you think about it - Bay Lake Tower is only closer to one park and furthest away from three. The Epcot Resorts are closest to the most options in parks, dining, and recreation.

As a side note: I HATED that slog to the Parking Lot at Wilderness Lodge, it was crazy. I also wanted to shoot someone trying to get the bus from Wilderness Lodge to Hollywood Studios, I had never had that problem coming from at Animal Kingdom Lodge. I love visiting Wilderness Lodge and eating there, but I don't think I will be going back to stay in the Villas any time soon. It's not that I disliked it, I would just rather be someplace else.

Well we bought AKL as we love it, and love that low point values and club level though we haven't stayed in either yet (we only bought in August!). The bus situation would put me off but we hire a car when we are there, we like the remote feeling of the resort whereas some hate that feeling. I didn't care for the state of BLT, it was in serious need of tlc and has put us off staying there till after a refurb. We added on at the Grand though I wouldn't own there as my first purchase as it's very point heavy, you would need a lot of points and at the min you can get much cheaper by going resale, whereas you could get a deal at AKL.

Also as a side note, it's interesting that you mention the slog to the car park at VWL, we were considering it for next year for a week but as we use the car every day I'm not liking the sound of that! We were tossing up between there and BCV so I think we will try for BCV first

We just bought at BLT. BLT and AKL were the only two we really considered mainly because the others have contracts expiring in 2042 ( with Saratoga in 2054) while AKL is 2057 and BLT in 2060. We wanted the extra length. We bought resale so Grand Floridian was out ( plus I don't really have a desire to stay there. Seems to classy for me lol). We ended up going with BLT because it was a longer contract, walking distance to MK where we spend the most time.
However, we've never actually stayed at any DVC resort we wandered around most of the resorts last trip and liked what we saw at BLT and AKL. But since I've never been in the rooms, I'm not much help

Becks, that's another reason we love AKL, we like to experience 'America' as much as we love coming to visit Disney so we like to spend time offsite as well and there's a nice easy access point to the 192

Let me put this in a little more perspective for you Robyn. I had an ECV and I hated how far away the car was!!!
It was awful in the heat, it was awful in the rain, and there's no real easy an natural path from the Villas to the parking lot. I found it to be difficult all around.

Kristen, that's when you start yelling "Valet"!

Oh, Doh! Yeah I usually use Valet as I can get it free with the disabled badge only costs the tip.... but it would be nice not *having* to valet everytime....

I just didn't have the extra $60 for someone else to park the car. LOL... you know what they say about hindsight though.

We ended up picking a Saratoga resale contract. Factors that we considered were:

1. Buy-in cost: we got a 200 point contract for $60 per point.
2. Expiration: I forget when our contract expires, but it was longer than the rather inexpensive OKW contracts we were considering and not that much shorter than other resale contracts that were significantly more expensive.
3. Dues: the dues isn't the absolute lowest, but it's close. This is a huge consideration because you will have to pay this fee every year. If you pay an extra dollar per point on a 200 point contract, that's an extra $10,000 over the life of a 50 year contract.

Our assumption going in is that we would not like Saratoga relative to other resorts because of the location and the lack of transportation amenities. We intended to try to switch our reservation every time. As luck would have it, we were unsuccessful at switching our very first reservation this past December, but we ended up LOVING Saratoga! The grounds are really beautiful. Our room was clean and well-maintained. We had a car, so any transportation "shortcomings" could be avoided. I think if cost was not an issue, I would prefer to own at BCV or GF and to a lesser extent at BWV or BLT, but for the deal that we got on these points, as long as I can switch once in a while to try out the other resorts, I'm very happy with our purchase. I was worried about feeling "stuck" at Saratoga if we were unable to switch resorts, but I would be content to stay there anytime if we couldn't switch anywhere else.

We purchased BWV resale for the proximity to Epcot, and also because fewer points are required for the standard rooms. The std room view is not a big deal for us, but we do enjoy sitting out on the Boardwalk for a nightcap or two, almost every night. An added bonus that came about after the fact, was when the Swan and Dolphin restaurants started accepting TIW. Just a five minute walk away from our favorite restaurants, Il Mulino and Blue Zoo.

We have also been talking about purchasing DVC and have been asking ourselves
the same question- where to buy?

We are down to Animal Kingdom and Boardwalk, but leaning towards AKL.

We love that AKL has a darker, more shaded feel to it and the pathways are covered.
In the Florida heat it's a nice respite to have lots of shade available.
I love the more exotic feel and that they have tons of activities at the lodge
for all ages to participate in. We are huge animal lovers, so having a giraffe
on property is way cool.

The main thing we loved about Boardwalk was the Boardwalk itself.
The feel of being on the water, the Boardwalk Cafe and being able
to walk to Epcot. But this is only going to occupy me for a few hours-
where as AKL has things that I could see myself doing or enjoying
all day if I was there and not in a park.

Yay for AKL!