News Disney Vacation Club announces plans for more than 350 new cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort

[nickys]

Which then poses the question of how it can be legal to offer a 49-year property ownership (and maybe an associated loan) in a property that only has a life span of 25 years. In the UK, I suspect a property lawyer that let you sign that sort of contract might lose their license to practice on the grounds that they hadn't spotted a potential lawsuit waiting to happen.

I suspect the new structure of the Palmetto trust has something to do with it.

You don’t buy a deeded interest in a property (cabin), like you do for other resorts. It’s a “right to use” instead.

Don’t ask me about the specifics, I am not a lawyer!

 

[nickys]

Thinking about it, the new Trust model of the cabins might make combining Lakeshore and the Cabins tricky.

If they were one and the same, like Kidani and Jambo, that means the ownership would have to be the same. Would that work for a traditional property?

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Thinking about it, the new Trust model of the cabins might make combining Lakeshore and the Cabins tricky.

If they were one and the same, like Kidani and Jambo, that means the ownership would have to be the same. Would that work for a traditional property?

They can put traditional properties in the trust if they want to. Other timeshare companies do this.

 

[nickys]

They can put traditional properties in the trust if they want to. Other timeshare companies do this.

But would that mean that the contracts at Lakeshore would also be non-deeded? Or could those be traditional DVC contracts?

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

But would that mean that the contracts at Lakeshore would also be non-deeded? Or could those be traditional DVC contracts?

They could be non-deeded. There are a lot of different ways it could be set up.

 

[nickys]

They could be non-deeded. There are a lot of different ways it could be set up.

I don’t know why exactly but personally I wouldn’t buy a non-deeded contract. It feels like that “right to use” is less concrete than “you own a deeded fraction”. Legally that is probably not the case, but sometimes perception is more important.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

They called me again to follow-up.

The combined offers end this coming Monday. Somewhere around $4K+ discount off the Cabins, plus $1500 discount for Disney Chase Visa cardholders. As previously mentioned, this brings the cost down to approx. $29,500.

Then they take the first year's points and you can either use them or sell them back for $3K. New points start December 1. So that brings it down to $26,500. That sounds less horrible.

One of the biggest roadblocks for me was the annual fee - around $1800 - more than most other places.

Turns out (I may have heard this before but forgot) I can pay those fees with my Chase Disney Visa points. So basically that means $0 annual fee.

Now, I don't know if a new (possibly even better) deal will start on Tuesday, or in 6 months, if sales are slow.

But that seems like a fairly decent deal, unless I'm losing it. I'm not living until 2075, so I presume we would sell it at some point - and what, break even? Slight loss, slight gain? I thought about leaving it collectively to nieces & nephews, but that saddles them with an annual fee, so...meh.

Any opinions changing based on this post?

 

[Comped]

I'm not living until 2075, so I presume we would sell it at some point - and what, break even? Slight loss, slight gain? I thought about leaving it collectively to nieces & nephews, but that saddles them with an annual fee, so...meh.

If you sell it, you're not going to get what you put into it (unless you're bloody lucky and this ends up becoming beloved somehow), so I wouldn't take that into consideration as a potential positive.

 

[nickys]

They called me again to follow-up.

The combined offers end this coming Monday. Somewhere around $4K+ discount off the Cabins, plus $1500 discount for Disney Chase Visa cardholders. As previously mentioned, this brings the cost down to approx. $29,500.

Then they take the first year's points and you can either use them or sell them back for $3K. New points start December 1. So that brings it down to $26,500. That sounds less horrible.

One of the biggest roadblocks for me was the annual fee - around $1800 - more than most other places.

Turns out (I may have heard this before but forgot) I can pay those fees with my Chase Disney Visa points. So basically that means $0 annual fee.

Now, I don't know if a new (possibly even better) deal will start on Tuesday, or in 6 months, if sales are slow.

But that seems like a fairly decent deal, unless I'm losing it. I'm not living until 2075, so I presume we would sell it at some point - and what, break even? Slight loss, slight gain? I thought about leaving it collectively to nieces & nephews, but that saddles them with an annual fee, so...meh.

Any opinions changing based on this post?

I take it you accumulate enough Chase Disney Visa points from your yearly spending to cover the annual dues. I’ve owned since 2010 and the dues increase has never been above 4% iirc; the maximum permitted is 10%, but the property taxes could be more.

This is the first DVC using the Trust set-up. So there is no data as to what impact that will have on resales.

It will also have the restrictions that Riviera has, so resale buyers will be limited to staying at the FW Cabins.

Assume that you won’t get your money back by selling.

If that doesn't matter to you, that’s fine. DVC is not an investment, it’s a large, emotional purchase.

 

[LAKid53]

They called me again to follow-up.

The combined offers end this coming Monday. Somewhere around $4K+ discount off the Cabins, plus $1500 discount for Disney Chase Visa cardholders. As previously mentioned, this brings the cost down to approx. $29,500.

Then they take the first year's points and you can either use them or sell them back for $3K. New points start December 1. So that brings it down to $26,500. That sounds less horrible.

One of the biggest roadblocks for me was the annual fee - around $1800 - more than most other places.

Turns out (I may have heard this before but forgot) I can pay those fees with my Chase Disney Visa points. So basically that means $0 annual fee.

Now, I don't know if a new (possibly even better) deal will start on Tuesday, or in 6 months, if sales are slow.

But that seems like a fairly decent deal, unless I'm losing it. I'm not living until 2075, so I presume we would sell it at some point - and what, break even? Slight loss, slight gain? I thought about leaving it collectively to nieces & nephews, but that saddles them with an annual fee, so...meh.

Any opinions changing based on this post?

There was a recent resale of points at the Cabins. I'd check and see what Disney offered under first refusal. That will give you an estimate of the resale price.

 

[Doberge]

They called me again to follow-up.

The combined offers end this coming Monday. Somewhere around $4K+ discount off the Cabins, plus $1500 discount for Disney Chase Visa cardholders. As previously mentioned, this brings the cost down to approx. $29,500.

Then they take the first year's points and you can either use them or sell them back for $3K. New points start December 1. So that brings it down to $26,500. That sounds less horrible.

One of the biggest roadblocks for me was the annual fee - around $1800 - more than most other places.

Turns out (I may have heard this before but forgot) I can pay those fees with my Chase Disney Visa points. So basically that means $0 annual fee.

Now, I don't know if a new (possibly even better) deal will start on Tuesday, or in 6 months, if sales are slow.

But that seems like a fairly decent deal, unless I'm losing it. I'm not living until 2075, so I presume we would sell it at some point - and what, break even? Slight loss, slight gain? I thought about leaving it collectively to nieces & nephews, but that saddles them with an annual fee, so...meh.

Any opinions changing based on this post?

So $176.67 per point and you get December 2026 points? I think the price is fair. I'd expect that's about a $40 premium of what we'll see for initial resale, and you're picking up more flexibility to use the points at other resorts (compared to resale).

Dues are my concern as well. I would still price out Riviera and Poly to compare because buying a resort with lower dues and switching in to a cabin at 7 months is another option.

For budgeting I also suggest factoring what I call a "cart tax" because it's diffcult to stay at a cabin without renting a golf cart (can bring own but that's a different talk). It's such a high additional cost at ~$70/night. A promotion they'd not do but would get me to consider buying is to offer a 50% cart rental discount for length of contract. It's effectively similar to a $1.25-$1.94 dues credit. It'd be imperfect because still high dues without savings if not staying in a cabin, but I could at least squint my eyes and start seeing some value if mostly for personal use at cabins.

 

[nickys]

I would still price out Riviera and Poly to compare because buying a resort with lower dues and switching in to a cabin at 7 months is another option.

I don’t think that booking at 7 months is going to be very easy. I suspect there’s a mighty scramble to do so.

 

[nickys]

There was a recent resale of points at the Cabins. I'd check and see what Disney offered under first refusal. That will give you an estimate of the resale price.

How can you tell if Disney took it in ROFR, unless the seller reported it of course?
Also Disney doesn’t offer, they match the asking price.

 

[DisneyHead123]

They called me again to follow-up.

The combined offers end this coming Monday. Somewhere around $4K+ discount off the Cabins, plus $1500 discount for Disney Chase Visa cardholders. As previously mentioned, this brings the cost down to approx. $29,500.

Then they take the first year's points and you can either use them or sell them back for $3K. New points start December 1. So that brings it down to $26,500. That sounds less horrible.

One of the biggest roadblocks for me was the annual fee - around $1800 - more than most other places.

Turns out (I may have heard this before but forgot) I can pay those fees with my Chase Disney Visa points. So basically that means $0 annual fee.

Now, I don't know if a new (possibly even better) deal will start on Tuesday, or in 6 months, if sales are slow.

But that seems like a fairly decent deal, unless I'm losing it. I'm not living until 2075, so I presume we would sell it at some point - and what, break even? Slight loss, slight gain? I thought about leaving it collectively to nieces & nephews, but that saddles them with an annual fee, so...meh.

Any opinions changing based on this post?

Were you the poster who said earlier that it was heavily implied the new Fort Wilderness DVC will be reciprocal with the cabins when booking? That might make a difference because I see the new DVC being a hot property. Either a cool place to stay or you could easily rent the points!

 

[Doberge]

I don’t think that booking at 7 months is going to be very easy. I suspect there’s a mighty scramble to do so.

So far it's not been bad but admitedly I've not seen availability charts so I'm only going from my own experiences. There are some very difficult dates like around Halloween and July 4. I was able to book most of my dates for July 4 weekend last year, except for July 4 itself and that waitlist eventually worked.

I think we are past the wave of existing members trying out a new resort that created some initial booking pressure. It feels like every time I look it's available at 7 months, including today.

 

[nickys]

Were you the poster who said earlier that it was heavily implied the new Fort Wilderness DVC will be reciprocal with the cabins when booking? That might make a difference because I see the new DVC being a hot property. Either a cool place to stay or you could easily rent the points!

You mean Lakeshore, presumably?

The cabins are at FW, Lakeshore is right next door.

But like I said, renting pints to stay at the Cabins won’t be easy. But Disney will have plenty for the public to book.

 

[nickys]

So far it's not been bad but admitedly I've not seen availability charts so I'm only going from my own experiences. There are some very difficult dates like around Halloween and July 4. I was able to book most of my dates for July 4 weekend last year, except for July 4 itself and that waitlist eventually worked.

I think we are past the wave of existing members trying out a new resort that created some initial booking pressure. It feels like every time I look it's available at 7 months, including today.

I’m not sure what happened to the rest of your post, I can see faint text but can’t make it out.

But with so few cabins declared, renting points to stay there will be tricky.
Very few Cabins owners will be renting their points out, and at 7 months any other members will be competing for the remaining ones.
Unless you had an owner lined up who was prepared to jump on straight away, the chances are fairly low.

 

[LAKid53]

So far it's not been bad but admitedly I've not seen availability charts so I'm only going from my own experiences. There are some very difficult dates like around Halloween and July 4. I was able to book most of my dates for July 4 weekend last year, except for July 4 itself and that waitlist eventually worked.

I think we are past the wave of existing members trying out a new resort that created some initial booking pressure. It feels like every time I look it's available at 7 months, including today.

Depends on the weekend. It was not available for Marathon weekend in January.

 

[nickys]

Depends on the weekend. It was not available for Marathon weekend in January.

Yeah, I had a look for general availability for April / May and I admit I was surprised at the possibilities.

However, although there are open dates, they are often interrupted by dates with no availability. So booking a week, for example, could be tricky.

 

[BrianLo]

They called me again to follow-up.

The combined offers end this coming Monday. Somewhere around $4K+ discount off the Cabins, plus $1500 discount for Disney Chase Visa cardholders. As previously mentioned, this brings the cost down to approx. $29,500.

Then they take the first year's points and you can either use them or sell them back for $3K. New points start December 1. So that brings it down to $26,500. That sounds less horrible.

One of the biggest roadblocks for me was the annual fee - around $1800 - more than most other places.

Turns out (I may have heard this before but forgot) I can pay those fees with my Chase Disney Visa points. So basically that means $0 annual fee.

Now, I don't know if a new (possibly even better) deal will start on Tuesday, or in 6 months, if sales are slow.

But that seems like a fairly decent deal, unless I'm losing it. I'm not living until 2075, so I presume we would sell it at some point - and what, break even? Slight loss, slight gain? I thought about leaving it collectively to nieces & nephews, but that saddles them with an annual fee, so...meh.

Any opinions changing based on this post?

You need to be sure you have reasonable stable employment, health and/or savings that you hold confidence you will retain this property for a good while. Most of the devaluation will occur in the first five years so if there is a hint of needing to sell before 7-10 you’ll eat it. You also have to love the cabins because you are overpaying for a booking edge on holidays or prime times.

If your heart is absolutely set on the Cabins it’s probably the cheapest it will be for you. Other than picking up a resale cabin in 7 years. It’s hard to recover the magical beginnings discount by delaying past December 1 and losing a free year of points. Base prices always go up in the new year.

I think Riviera or Poly are more economical decisions, almost anything resale is more economical, but I also doubt the cabins will ever get cheaper than the current offer.