Taking time out of trip for DVC?

[disneygirl76]

Hey all,
I know there is a DVC thread but I wanted to get the opinions of the planners. I value and love my time at WDW, as we all do. But I am thinking this trip, we should get info on DVC. We love GF and would love to own there. Its probably completely out of our grasp but we are hopeful. What we wanted to know is...does it take away from the Disney magic hearing a sales pitch? how hard of a sell is it - we really just want info? how long does it take? And since we want to see GF, do we go to GF? For planning purposes, I would like to know how much time to block out of our trip to do this if we decide to sit through the presentation.

Thank you!

 

[copcarguyp71]

That is odd! They usually give you a little speech and shwo you through their few pics and try to schedule to sit down with a guide @ SSR. Back in 03' they catered too us. If I asked them to do a couple of back-flips I bet they would have at least tried.

Yeah we sat at the desk for like 45 minutes at the base of the hallway to Artist Pointe getting the sales pitch and how we should rationalize the price. No fast passes, no ice cream, no shuttle.....no sale!

 

[GoofGoof]

Take the tour if you are interested in buying. Even if you decide not to buy it is interesting to see in my opinion. If you are really interested in GF you could wait a little to buy from the second hand market. The cost savings are significant and the only thing you lose are some Disney trade-ins that are generally not great deals. You can still trade in through RCI. When BLT opened we waited a little and bought for much less than through Disney. I think BLT sells for $130 to $140 a point while the resale market is between $90 and $95. On a 160 points that is up to $8,000 in savings. I think Disney offers some incentives to finance too and may be better for that than resellers, but I am not sure since we bought with cash.

 

[Funfy]

What is the benefit of buying in 3 times? I'm not sure I understand how it works...

We bought what we could afford the first time-150 pts-Beach Club. Then we realized we wanted more points and a couple of years later bought either 100 (Saratoga-Beach Club was sold out) on a disney cruise-DVC is on the ships, then we said well if we had 155 more we could do just about what we want with them.

We invite my BIL and family and MIL every few years. Take 2-3 DVC location vacations a year-i.e., Vero Beach, Hilton Head and the dreaded use the points on the cruise. So, 405 points later we have a lot of flexibility with how we want to vacation.

We became members in 2003 and by mid 2010 we had stayed enough times to be break even on what we paid for the points. Because with school/BIL is a teacher we have to usually go during peak times-hardly any discounts-some of our vacations with family would have been over $10,000 a stay-some more.

For instance, when family travels with us, we usually book 2-2 bedroom villas. We stayed at AKL one year with savannah views in 2-2 Bedrooms. That same year we went to Vero Beach (1-2 Bed) and came back to the treehouses (1-3 Bed Treehouse) that fall.

It just works for us.

 

[kashmir]

We bought what we could afford the first time-150 pts-Beach Club. Then we realized we wanted more points and a couple of years later bought either 100 (Saratoga-Beach Club was sold out) on a disney cruise-DVC is on the ships, then we said well if we had 155 more we could do just about what we want with them.

We invite my BIL and family and MIL every few years. Take 2-3 DVC location vacations a year-i.e., Vero Beach, Hilton Head and the dreaded use the points on the cruise. So, 405 points later we have a lot of flexibility with how we want to vacation.

We became members in 2003 and by mid 2010 we had stayed enough times to be break even on what we paid for the points. Because with school/BIL is a teacher we have to usually go during peak times-hardly any discounts-some of our vacations with family would have been over $10,000 a stay-some more.

For instance, when family travels with us, we usually book 2-2 bedroom villas. We stayed at AKL one year with savannah views in 2-2 Bedrooms. That same year we went to Vero Beach (1-2 Bed) and came back to the treehouses (1-3 Bed Treehouse) that fall.

It just works for us.

Thanks for that perspective! I also teach and must go during peak times. If you could tell me...
What is minimum outlay for least expensive place currently?

 

[PhilharMagician]

Yeah we sat at the desk for like 45 minutes at the base of the hallway to Artist Pointe getting the sales pitch and how we should rationalize the price. No fast passes, no ice cream, no shuttle.....no sale!

That's crazy. The DVC kiosks are only there to get your attention and then sign you up for the shuttle, ice cream and FP's. Their only goal is to get you to take time out of your vacation to go talk to a DVC sales associate. Sounds like you may have talked to someone that did not really understand their job.

 

[PhilharMagician]

Thanks for that perspective! I also teach and must go during peak times. If you could tell me...
What is minimum outlay for least expensive place currently?

Your best bet is to talk to DVC when @ WDW or contact TIMESHARESTORE.com and see what you can do their. I would also recommend you talk to a DVC sales rep first for a better understanding of the system before ever buying a resale. Their are a few negatives about buying a resale, but you will save a good chunk of money.

Every resort has differant rates for the maintenance fees. Check the internet and you can find these out prior to purchasing point. For example BLT and SSR are very inexpensive compared to BCV or VWL. Check this page out 2012 budgets.

Also look at point charts for each resort and figure out when you want to go, how long you want to stay and finally how often. Total up the points needed and that give you a baseline for what you should shop for.

Now I have 200 points that I have stayed @ WDW for 15 nights per year in a studio. I am happy personally with that. You may want a one bedroom and that would approximately double the points over the studio.

There are many things to learn and there is a lot on the internet about DVC. Do your research and again make an appointment if you are at all serious and ask DVC the questions.

 

[Funfy]

I totally agree with Philharmagician. You really need to ask to have a package sent to you and look through the materials. I would also recommend doing the tour. We actually didn't but the booths, etc. were not quite as prolific when we first started looking.

It's not for everyone's vacationing style or budget or the way you like to spend your money. If you like last minute vacations-no long term vacation planning-probably not for you. I however, have pretty much got vacations decided/planned through 2015.

 

[PhilharMagician]

You'll have to shop around to get the Use Year and Points that you want. This could take time. If you purchase directly, you can select these on the day of your purchase.

I still do not understand the impact of the use year. My use year has not effected what time of year I go once in the past 10 years. For most people any use year would work out fine unless they want to borrow and always keep their points available near the zero mark.

 

[PhilharMagician]

For example, a "Standard View" (parking lot view really) at the Boardwalk is 20 points per night during weekdays at Easter and Christmas (by far the most expensive weeks at WDW). This year's BWV maintenance fee is $5.62 per point. So this works out to $112.40/night. However, it currently costs about $60 to $70 per point to purchase a BWV contract. Closing costs might be about $400 to $500 for the contract. If you assume you're going to be a DVC member for 10 years and vacation for 5 nights per year, then the cost is about:

$112.40 + ($65/pt * 20 pts / 10 years) + ($500 / 10 years / 5 nights) = $252.40 per night

From this, subtract what you think you'll be able to sell the contract for in 10 years and add in the realtor fee (assume 10% of selling price). The total cost per night really depends on what you want to guess will be the value of your DVC membership in 10 years.

Remember, this is for Easter or Christmas week, the most expensive times of the year.

Also note that the above calculation is rough and has a lot of assumptions built into it.

I am down below $170 per night mark now and in a few more years it will be below the $150 per night mark. While others are paying more per night, I will be paying less every year.

I am glad I bought @ $70.00 per point. Funny how I thought that was expensive when I bought in!

 

[kashmir]

I agree. For most, the UY doesn't matter. However, we wanted to avoid violating DVC's "Rule of 4". As I understand it, the idea behind this that all points have to be used, banked, or booked within the first 8 months of of the Use Year. In our case, we wanted an April Use Year since we almost always vacation from April to December. We wanted to be able to cancel our vacation plans, if needed, and still have time to bank our points for next year. "But wait," you say, "April to December is 9 months, not 8." Yes, but Disney effectively penalizes you by placing your points in a holding account if you cancel within 31 days of your arrival. Thus, we know that we need to make a final decision for any December vacation some time in November, which means if we cancel a December vacation we'll still have time to bank the points before our November 30 banking deadline.

Thanks to both of you, Parentsof4 and Philharmagician, to be willing to help a non-anlytical parent learn!

 

[GoofGoof]

If you are thinking about buying resale the timeshare store was great to deal with. Really simple process and they were very knowledgeable. I don't get any kind of referral fee or anything like that. Just giving them a thumbs up for good customer service.

To answer your question about min outlay the new contract through Disney are minimum 160 points. On the resale market you can buy less. The old minimum was 150 so you see a lot of the older DVC resorts available at 150 points resale. Sometimes you can buy as little as 50 points if someone is selling add on points (through Disney once you own you have the option to buy add on points in less than 160 point chunks). Check out a resale website to see the inventory for sale. Typically you can find SSR, BWV and OKW for $60 to $65 per point. These are asking prices so you could try to offer less just not too low since Disney has the right of first refusal to buy and contract from an existing owner before they sell to someone else. If you bought 150 points at $60 you are looking at $9,000 plus a few hundred in closing costs (probably less than $500). If you buy from Disney I think BLT is between $130 and $140 so a min of 160 points at $140 is $22,400. BLT on resale is in the low $90s so the same contract could be $14,400 at $90 so you save about $8,000.

Keep in mind that as noted above the maintenance fees are very different between resorts. So you have to look at toal cost Also the length of contracts is different. BLT goes to 2060 while BCV, BWV, WLV and most OKW are 2042. AK and SSR are somewhere in between.