Why haven't you joined DVC???

[CP_alum08]

DVC has been in the back of my mind for a few years now. My GF and I just got back from a quick weekend trip and on the last day she was asking me about it. I could answer most of her questions but there was still stuff I didn't know. When we got back I started researching it more, next time we go we will definitely go on the tour. For us it actually looks like a pretty good deal. We have no kids and we live close enough that we can pretty much go anytime of year, at least for a weekend.

I crunched some numbers and found that we can stay 10 nights at a value resort spread throughout the year for a little more than typical dues costs (on a 150 point purchase at OKW). If we were to stay those same dates at a DVC property it would cost about 3x the money. While we normally stay at the value resorts, if we went more often I think it would be great to stay at a nicer place and explore what those resorts have to offer instead of running around like crazy people in the parks for our time there. So if we are basically already paying the same cost in value stays as the dues would be, why not pay a little more (assuming we finance) and be able to stay at deluxe resorts AND have the option of vacationing other places DVC offers.

my GF doesn't really like to spend money and like others have said, this would almost force us to take a vacation (or 2 or 3) every year which she would have a pretty hard time finding excuses to do so. With both of us having just started new jobs money isn't exactly something we can throw around right now, but DVC looks like a very good option for us in a year or so.

 

[Pioneer Hall]

DVC has been in the back of my mind for a few years now. My GF and I just got back from a quick weekend trip and on the last day she was asking me about it. I could answer most of her questions but there was still stuff I didn't know. When we got back I started researching it more, next time we go we will definitely go on the tour. For us it actually looks like a pretty good deal. We have no kids and we live close enough that we can pretty much go anytime of year, at least for a weekend.

I crunched some numbers and found that we can stay 10 nights at a value resort spread throughout the year for a little more than typical dues costs (on a 150 point purchase at OKW). If we were to stay those same dates at a DVC property it would cost about 3x the money. While we normally stay at the value resorts, if we went more often I think it would be great to stay at a nicer place and explore what those resorts have to offer instead of running around like crazy people in the parks for our time there. So if we are basically already paying the same cost in value stays as the dues would be, why not pay a little more (assuming we finance) and be able to stay at deluxe resorts AND have the option of vacationing other places DVC offers.

my GF doesn't really like to spend money and like others have said, this would almost force us to take a vacation (or 2 or 3) every year which she would have a pretty hard time finding excuses to do so. With both of us having just started new jobs money isn't exactly something we can throw around right now, but DVC looks like a very good option for us in a year or so.

Just be careful when looking at those numbers.You quoted a purchase at OKW which is great, but to get the best deal on a contract there you are going to want to purchase that resale and the interest rates are higher that way unless you finance privately.

 

[CP_alum08]

Just be careful when looking at those numbers.You quoted a purchase at OKW which is great, but to get the best deal on a contract there you are going to want to purchase that resale and the interest rates are higher that way unless you finance privately.

I am definitely looking at buying resale when the time comes, but I didn't know they had higher interest rates. I guess that brings me to another question; who do you finance through if you buy resale? Is it the company who you buy through or is it more like buying a car or house where you would finance through a bank?

OKW was just used as an example too. We by no means have chosen a home resort yet. Still looking into if it's better to buy at a property with higher upfront costs but lower dues (ie. BLT) or lower upfront with higher dues (OKW).

 

[Pioneer Hall]

The real reason? Near as I can tell, you don't actually OWN anything. And while certain rates get frozen, there is the Black Hole of "maintenance fees" that COULD be used to jack up the cost per year.

Maintenance fees have to be justified though when they release the budget. Money that is allocated to maintenance must be used within the resort. They can't just raise the fees in order to make you spend more money.

 

[MKCP 1985]

Maintenance fees have to be justified though when they release the budget. Money that is allocated to maintenance must be used within the resort. They can't just raise the fees in order to make you spend more money.

Who approves the budget? Those contracts seem awfully one sided in Disney's favor.

 

[becanya]

We just joined this month. We are a family of 4 with no intention of growing anytime soon, so a studio is perfect for us. I projected out the cost of the room we always get for 32 years, and the cost of our 100 points plus dues for 32 years. We will be saving $45,000 in the 32 years, just on the price of our room. It was really a no-brainer for us. We were able to put the balance on a no-interest credit card, thus avoiding any financing of the purchase. I personally think it's a great deal, and I'm so excited about getting to go to Hilton HEad and try out that resort. For Wilderness Lodge points they went all the way back to December 2009 as our start date, so we essentially got 100 extra points our first year. Super cool. Although I do resonate with the comments people have made, and I did weeks worth of intense research before we signed on the dotted line.

 

[thewhitequeen]

The real reason? Near as I can tell, you don't actually OWN anything. And while certain rates get frozen, there is the Black Hole of "maintenance fees" that COULD be used to jack up the cost per year.

I agree. I admit to listening to the DVC talk a few years ago, but it just wasn't worth it for my family.

 

[ABigBrassBand]

For us, it's more of the asking price: we don't want to commit ourselves to going to Disney, as there are other places we'd like to visit as well, and if we made such a big investment then it would seem like we should visit it sooner or later. However, at the rate we're going (once every year), I don't see why not.

 

[DVCOwner]

The real reason? Near as I can tell, you don't actually OWN anything. And while certain rates get frozen, there is the Black Hole of "maintenance fees" that COULD be used to jack up the cost per year.

I am a civil engineer that has spent the last 35 years working on facility maintenance and repair. So I understand what DVC is doing by making 50 year ownerships.

Keeping the maintenance fees as low as possible is why in your words you really do not "own anything". Until Disney came up with the point system time shares where mostly done by buying a give week of a set time share. The person owns this forever. But which most large time shares the maintenance cost had to include a cash reserve to cover a large planned maintenance that happens in all buildings when they need major repairs. This usally happens when the building are somewhere around 50 years old. This is the time frame when many large building systems most be replaced and the cost of this is usally about the same as building an all new facility. So when planning time shares dues would be collected and invested to cover this cost. I some time shares this was much greater than the annual maintenance of the building. Disney can only charge its maintenance fees to cover cost that will accure in the first 50 years of the building because that is all we "own".

At the end of the 50 years, Disney is going to have to make an extensive investment in the buildings (I think they will remove and replace them with more up-to-date facilities) and than resell them for another 50 years.

 

[Master Yoda]

I am a civil engineer that has spent the last 35 years working on facility maintenance and repair. So I understand what DVC is doing by making 50 year ownerships.

Keeping the maintenance fees as low as possible is why in your words you really do not "own anything". Until Disney came up with the point system time shares where mostly done by buying a give week of a set time share. The person owns this forever. But which most large time shares the maintenance cost had to include a cash reserve to cover a large planned maintenance that happens in all buildings when they need major repairs. This usally happens when the building are somewhere around 50 years old. This is the time frame when many large building systems most be replaced and the cost of this is usally about the same as building an all new facility. So when planning time shares dues would be collected and invested to cover this cost. I some time shares this was much greater than the annual maintenance of the building. Disney can only charge its maintenance fees to cover cost that will accure in the first 50 years of the building because that is all we "own".

At the end of the 50 years, Disney is going to have to make an extensive investment in the buildings (I think they will remove and replace them with more up-to-date facilities) and than resell them for another 50 years.

I have always wondered why Disney did the limited time contract on DVC. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[diste2]

If you want to stay at a deluxe hotel at Disney than the DVC club is the way to gr else be ready to pay between 400.00 to 500.00 for the same room.

 

[captainkidd]

If you want to stay at a deluxe hotel at Disney than the DVC club is the way to gr else be ready to pay between 400.00 to 500.00 for the same room.

I really dislike this argument. DVC is not Deluxe. In a Deluxe room at Disney you get daily housekeeping, fresh towels every day, and if requested, turndown service.

Besides, this has been said time and time again on this thread. Just because people like to stay Deluxe, that doesn't mean DVC is going to be less expensive. If you spend 5 or 6 nights in a studio, yeah, DVC will work better for you. But if you spend 16 nights per year at Disney, DVC gets obnoxiously expensive with finance charges and dues.

 

[Lynne M]

I really dislike this argument. DVC is not Deluxe. In a Deluxe room at Disney you get daily housekeeping, fresh towels every day, and if requested, turndown service.

DVC members aren't forbidden from getting daily housekeeping. When you rent through CRO, it's charged in the room rate, when you use DVC points, it's charged separately. I could have housekeeping clean the room twice a day and my per-night cost still would be WAY below what CRO charges for the same room. At least with DVC I have the option to NOT get housekeeping some or all days, and not have to pay for it. You can refuse housekeeping in a room booked through CRO, but you're still paying for daily housekeeping in your room rate whether you get it or not.

And as for turndown service, it's nice, but for the couple hundred a night I save by staying on DVC points, I'll very happily turn my own bedding down.

Besides, this has been said time and time again on this thread. Just because people like to stay Deluxe, that doesn't mean DVC is going to be less expensive. If you spend 5 or 6 nights in a studio, yeah, DVC will work better for you. But if you spend 16 nights per year at Disney, DVC gets obnoxiously expensive with finance charges and dues.

I'm not getting this.....how does staying more nights per year have anything to do with the cost-effectiveness of DVC? Yes, if you buy enough points to cover 15 nights in a studio, it's going to cost 3 times as much in purchase price and dues as the points for 5 nights would.

But if you stay 15 nights in a room at the Poly, it costs three times as much in room rate and resort taxes as 5 nights would.

The per-night cost doesn't change just because you stay more nights.

 

[slappy magoo]

Besides, this has been said time and time again on this thread. Just because people like to stay Deluxe, that doesn't mean DVC is going to be less expensive. If you spend 5 or 6 nights in a studio, yeah, DVC will work better for you. But if you spend 16 nights per year at Disney, DVC gets obnoxiously expensive with finance charges and dues.

But wouldn't spending 16 nights per year in a Deluxe resort paying cash be more "obnoxiously expensive" then spending 5 or 6 nights in the same room? :shrug:

And if spending more money up front by buying DVC - and admittedly having to spend more on dues - means you can spend longer vacations than if you just paid cash outright,* how is that getting "obnoxiously expensive?" It's a big chunk of cash outright (or financed), true. But you could say the same thing about buying a luxury car when you can get by with a cheaper car, or moving into a McMansion when you really only need a townhouse. Money to get what you want (as long as it's something you can afford) need to be considered obnoxious...except of course for gold jewelry bigger than a baby's head.

 

[Funfy]

For 10 nights in the summer in a 1 bedroom villa at Wilderness Lodge requires 374 points. Points are now, what, $110 each? So, that gives you a purchase price of $41,140. At the current interest rate quoted by Disney of 12.5%, that puts you at a monthly payment (dues not included) of $602.19. Over 10 years, you have now paid $72,263 for your 10 nights per year. At $5.20 per point in dues, in that first 10 years, you've paid an additional $19,074. So, even if dues did not increase, your total in the first 10 years is $91,337.

You can't count the points each time you book. You purchase the points once-period. Your bookings over the next 5-7 years pay for the initial purchase depending on where/when you stay.

So, after the 5-7 years or less, the only thing you are paying for is the dues-with our 405 points is running 1900.00 or so. We just booked a 2 bedroom villa and and 1 bedroom villa this summer at AKV (not counting the other two vacations we went on and stayed at DVC villas)-the street rate for this was almost $9,000 with tax. Our overall was probably about $12,00-15,000 this year.

I have been a member since 2003. So, 12-15K covers several years of dues. So, if we vacation the way we want, because of DVC, for my family it saves us money-lots of it.

 

[slappy magoo]

Who approves the budget? Those contracts seem awfully one sided in Disney's favor.

How so? Disney has to justify all uses of maintenance fees, and those budgets are open for DVC members, if they choose, to go over and question the wisdom behind certain expenses. Granted, most members won't, but out of the thousands upon thousands of DVC members that exist, betcher bum at least a few of them are -retentive line-itemizers who want to make sure they're not getting taken by The Mouse.

Padding may occur, but I'd be curious to know where you think it exists.

 

[captainkidd]

DVC members aren't forbidden from getting daily housekeeping. When you rent through CRO, it's charged in the room rate, when you use DVC points, it's charged separately. I could have housekeeping clean the room twice a day and my per-night cost still would be WAY below what CRO charges for the same room. At least with DVC I have the option to NOT get housekeeping some or all days, and not have to pay for it. You can refuse housekeeping in a room booked through CRO, but you're still paying for daily housekeeping in your room rate whether you get it or not.

And as for turndown service, it's nice, but for the couple hundred a night I save by staying on DVC points, I'll very happily turn my own bedding down.



I'm not getting this.....how does staying more nights per year have anything to do with the cost-effectiveness of DVC? Yes, if you buy enough points to cover 15 nights in a studio, it's going to cost 3 times as much in purchase price and dues as the points for 5 nights would.

But if you stay 15 nights in a room at the Poly, it costs three times as much in room rate and resort taxes as 5 nights would.

The per-night cost doesn't change just because you stay more nights.

As a family of 5, you can't stay in a studio. If I wanted to stay just 5 nights, I'd have joined DVC years ago. We go for 2 weeks in the summer. It's expensive as hell, but we always seem to get discounts. For 16 nights through DVC, we'd need over 600 points. Unless we had $70,000 to buy it outright, when you factor in finance charges (plus maintenance dues on so many points) the price is insane.

I feel OK spending a lot of money this year to go for the 2 weeks. I may not feel as comfortable next year, but if I finance DVC, I still have to make those payments, and still have to pay those dues. Of course, you can always sell, but that's a whole other headache.

 

[DVCOwner]

As a family of 5, you can't stay in a studio. If I wanted to stay just 5 nights, I'd have joined DVC years ago. We go for 2 weeks in the summer. It's expensive as hell, but we always seem to get discounts. For 16 nights through DVC, we'd need over 600 points. Unless we had $70,000 to buy it outright, when you factor in finance charges (plus maintenance dues on so many points) the price is insane.

I feel OK spending a lot of money this year to go for the 2 weeks. I may not feel as comfortable next year, but if I finance DVC, I still have to make those payments, and still have to pay those dues. Of course, you can always sell, but that's a whole other headache.

Where do stay with 5 people and how much does that cost you for 16 nights?

 

[Phonedave]

As a family of 5, you can't stay in a studio. If I wanted to stay just 5 nights, I'd have joined DVC years ago. We go for 2 weeks in the summer. It's expensive as hell, but we always seem to get discounts. For 16 nights through DVC, we'd need over 600 points. Unless we had $70,000 to buy it outright, when you factor in finance charges (plus maintenance dues on so many points) the price is insane.

I feel OK spending a lot of money this year to go for the 2 weeks. I may not feel as comfortable next year, but if I finance DVC, I still have to make those payments, and still have to pay those dues. Of course, you can always sell, but that's a whole other headache.

That is a totaly valid, but DIFFERENT argument.

DVC is cheaper in the long run. Part of that reason is because you are making a committment to the long run. If you are not comfortable doing that, then the DVC is not for you. That is a perfectly logical and sound reason for not buying into the DVC. But it does not mean the DVC is MORE EXPENSIVE, it means it requires a committment that you do not feel comfortable making.

-dave

 

[captainkidd]

Where do stay with 5 people and how much does that cost you for 16 nights?

Well, we could stay at Riverside for $3,300. We're choosing to stay at the Poly for $7,000.

And yeah, if we do that every year, we'd spend a fortune. The thing is, we WON'T do that every year. When my kids are a bit older, we'll get 2 rooms at a Value or stay at Riverside then. With their age, we really need the monorail.