New minimum of 75 points for Membership Benefits as of 2/25

[nickys]

Just seen on the DVC pages, right down at the bottom:

https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/discounts-perks-offers/member-events/moonlight-magic/

To receive any Membership Extras, purchasers must present a valid Disney Vacation Club Membership Card along with a corresponding valid photo ID. Effective February 25, 2018, to obtain a Disney Vacation Club Membership Card, Members must accumulate a total of at least 75 Vacation Points purchased directly from Disney Vacation Development, Inc. Disney and Concierge Collections options are not available for ownership interests not purchased directly from Disney Vacation Development, Inc. after March 21, 2011, and, effective April 4, 2016, Members who have not purchased an ownership interest directly from Disney Vacation Development, Inc. will not have access to Membership Extras.


Guess this could mean the end to 25 point add-ons too.

 

[tlking88]

More stipulations....

 

[eliza61nyc]

More stipulations....

actually that doesn't bother me. Disney is trying to protect their brand, I've got no problem with that.

 

[Legendary]

Does this apply to previous direct purchases?

 

[lostpro9het]

actually that doesn't bother me. Disney is trying to protect their brand, I've got no problem with that.

I would like to hear more on how this protects their brand. I always considered the resale value a huge advantage to DVC, this only hurts it. I couldn't care less about random nights of " magic" or wasting points on cruises but I did enjoy knowing if I ever wanted to sell I could for a good rate.

Does this apply to previous direct purchases?

Previous direct purchasers are grandfathered in.

 

[Legendary]

That’s good we purchased a minimum amount because we only could use it every other year.

 

[eliza61nyc]

I would like to hear more on how this protects their brand. I always considered the resale value a huge advantage to DVC, this only hurts it. I couldn't care less about random nights of " magic" or wasting points on cruises but I did enjoy knowing if I ever wanted to sell I could for a good rate.

Previous direct purchasers are grandfathered in.

but that's you, for a new person, Disney does hawk the "flexibility" of using points on a cruise, they do market the "extras" as something special, they do stress the perks of buying directly from them and do you really think that Disney woud market ownership as some thing you could easily get rid of?? lol, the object is to keep you coming to them. Also you (current owners) are not their target owners, why should we be?? They have our money.

sure you couldn't care less but since these events sell out, I assure you Disney cares very much.

 

[lostpro9het]

do you really think that Disney woud market something as some thing you could easily get rid of?

Absolutely I do! It shows value in the product and provides a security blanket for those on the fence about it. Showing that the customer can recoup their money better than a traditional timeshare is a huge selling point, IMO.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

This seems like it's designed to curb the resale market. Stupid question... why doesn't Disney just exercise their ROFR on resale contracts?

 

[lostpro9het]

This seems like it's designed to curb the resale market. Stupid question... why doesn't Disney just exercise their ROFR on resale contracts?

If I had to guess, they don't want to run the risk of overpaying. Why would they exercise ROFR on a contract they cant make any money off of?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

If I had to guess, they don't want to run the risk of overpaying. Why would they exercise ROFR on a contract they cant make any money off of?

Couldn't they? The spread is enormous. People are paying $200+ for direct-from-Disney points while the resale market is hovering around $100 per point at AKL. If I were in the market, I'd gladly pay $120 to get my AKL points direct.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Absolutely I do! It shows value in the product and provides a security blanket for those on the fence about it. Showing that the customer can recoup their money better than a traditional timeshare is a huge selling point, IMO.

So I have no inside information, just my experience buying direct. Disney in their spiel did not even remotely mention, refer to or even acknowledge the "other" timeshare companies.

When I had my tour the emphasis was on these things.
1) how you could use your ownership for everything from cruises to European vacations
2) How generations can use this for years to come. translation: we want you to lock into coming here for decades.

If it was my marketing campaign I would do the same, showing the customer how easy it is to get rid of my product is not my long term goal. just me.

 

[lostpro9het]

Couldn't they? The spread is enormous. People are paying $200+ for direct-from-Disney points while the resale market is hovering around $100 per point at AKL. If I were in the market, I'd gladly pay $120 to get my AKL points direct.

Yes, but then if word got out that disney was executing ROFL on all contracts what is to stop the resale market from inflating? Plus, why would Disney start buying up older contracts without immediate need? They would be on the hook for maintenance fees.

 

[tlking88]

Yes, but then if word got out that disney was executing ROFL on all contracts what is to stop the resale market from inflating? Plus, why would Disney start buying up older contracts without immediate need? They would be on the hook for maintenance fees.

There is actually a lot of interest for people that want to buy into those older contracts at resorts that have sold out. There are wait lists for people who want to add on directly from Disney for 25-50 points to a previou contract at current resorts and older resorts as well. So they wouldn’t be holding those points for maintain cr fees at all. The difference between direct and resale is 100% inflation for most resorts resale is $100/ppt for direct it’s $200/ppt... and those extras are maybe at a value of $100 or so for a ticket and a slap in the face discount $100 off annual passes.


Also one of the nice things at the start was the fact that that things in your life change circumstances that make it impossible to use your memebersjip you could sell your contract without losing a lot of your investment.

 

[DisneyFans4Life]

My wife and I have been talking about buying a DVC membership. As of now...we're looking to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 200-240 points. I plan on buying outright and not financing, but I also understand that if our circumstances change in the future I'd never be able to recoup all of my investment. I think anyone going into buying a membership and relying on the hope that they can sell in the future and recoup their investment is crazy.

 

[nickys]

There is actually a lot of interest for people that want to buy into those older contracts at resorts that have sold out. There are wait lists for people who want to add on directly from Disney for 25-50 points to a previou contract at current resorts and older resorts as well. So they wouldn’t be holding those points for maintain cr fees at all. The difference between direct and resale is 100% inflation for most resorts resale is $100/ppt for direct it’s $200/ppt... and those extras are maybe at a value of $100 or so for a ticket and a slap in the face discount $100 off annual passes.


Also one of the nice things at the start was the fact that that things in your life change circumstances that make it impossible to use your memebersjip you could sell your contract without losing a lot of your investment.

There was a lot of demand for 25 point add-ons! Most people looking for the minimum points were to gain the benefits (mainly I suspect the AP discount, but also recently interest in the Moonlight events).

The point is they exercised ROFR on those contracts they needed. There is no incentive for them to have a huge stock of points at every resort. If you tell people "we don't have any points right now" and make them wait, they might just buy at the newest resort. Which of course makes DVD much more money.

 

[nickys]

My wife and I have been talking about buying a DVC membership. As of now...we're looking to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 200-240 points. I plan on buying outright and not financing, but I also understand that if our circumstances change in the future I'd never be able to recoup all of my investment. I think anyone going into buying a membership and relying on the hope that they can sell in the future and recoup their investment is crazy.

Very wise.

My advice is to split your purchase into 2 contracts, even if you're buying the same resort for all points. The smaller ones are easier to resell. Plus for bequeathing purposes. It's my one regret, we have one contract and two sons. Whether either of them will want it I don't know, they both love WDW but we're from the UK so it's expensive to come out. But we can't split the contract and leave half to each.

 

[DisneyFans4Life]

We thought about purchasing from someone else or through a third party, but it'll be better in the long run to purchase directly from Disney.

 

[dreamfinder]

We thought about purchasing from someone else or through a third party, but it'll be better in the long run to purchase directly from Disney.

Depends on your exact scenario. Better how?

Its been a while since I've done the numbers on the back of a napkin, but for instance with the new ticket prices, DVC saves $120 on a platinum AP. I could (in theory) buy AKV direct at $170/point, or pay around $105-110 resale. So a $60 ish/point savings. That means that the savings from every 2 points via resale equates to one year of AP savings if I bought direct. A 100 point contract would mean I would need to buy 50 APs to come out ahead. A party of 2, thats 25 APs each, party of 4 ~12 APs each. If you are able to stagger your vacations so that you can do two years of trips on a single AP (Late Jan in '18, early Jan in '19) then the party of 2 would have 50 years worth of APs, which is more than the life of the deed. And the party of 4 would take 25ish years to come out ahead buying direct. Admittedly, this doesn't account for any AP cost increases, closting costs, dues increases or financing or anything else that makes the math yucky.

And most of the trade outs are usually viewed as a bad waste of points. You wouldn't get access to things like Moonlight Magic, but those are a relatively new phenomenon, may or may not last, and are really only practical for a very small subset of owners so are had to include in any calculations.

Now this is a single scenario so yours may very well be different, but one of the things people always ask about is the discounts. Direct/Resale is kind of like DDP/OOP dining. Yeah, it will work great for a subset of people, and be a terrible option for others.

 

[EOD K9]

Not knowing any better, I had purchased 150 points direct in 2005 at SSR. A few years ago, I added 35 points at the same location and use year. Based on how I use my points (DVC resorts only) had I had more info, I would have went resale. Obviously prices were different 13 years ago. If you cant always use your points, renting them is a great option. It really depends on how you want to use the benefits. But as has been said, they can be taken or added any day.