Be straight with me!!

[HauntedPirate]

That $900 per year is for Deluxe accomodations, not Value/Moderate resorts. That was a big deal for us, as we have basically outgrown Value/Moderate resorts without having a second room.

Also - how much do you think Value rooms will cost in, say, 10 years or 20 years? I'll bet not less than $125-150 or so per night (and that's only a 3% increase per year). With DVC, you pay the same no matter what - the points per room, per resort, per year never change; they are fixed for the duration of the DVC membership.

 

[bassman]

ok from what i can see, most people who are part of the DVC are american and visit on average 2-3 times a year.
i live in britain and visit WDW only once a year.
my questions are simple.

1. should my family and me become part of the DVC or not.
2. if so would it be cost effective
3. is it really worth it

my family and i have also been contemplating wheather or not we should join the DVC.

 

[disbest]

Yes -with Saratoga Springs

I think other DVC's are great but in my opinion, Saratoga did not live up to our expectations. You have to wonder why there are many Saratoga resale postings when other resorts have so few resales, especially since Saratoga Springs is new. If you are only interested in a room than Saratoga is excellent. If you are interested in much more than I recommend you check out the other resorts, especially the Beach Club. Also, I recommend checking out the resale price per point. You will notice some resorts have increased significantly while others have dropped in value.

 

[Main Street USA]

That $900 per year is for Deluxe accomodations, not Value/Moderate resorts. That was a big deal for us, as we have basically outgrown Value/Moderate resorts without having a second room.

Also - how much do you think Value rooms will cost in, say, 10 years or 20 years? I'll bet not less than $125-150 or so per night (and that's only a 3% increase per year). With DVC, you pay the same no matter what - the points per room, per resort, per year never change; they are fixed for the duration of the DVC membership.

But see, the only perk of actually staying at a deluxe is that you can use the pool (which I won't be around to use anyway) and that you see the inside of a slighty bigger room while you're in bed. That's not even close to being worth the extra money. There are a few specific perks of location for a few of them, but that's it, and I can still do it cheaper with other discounts rather than the DVC, and if I couldn't, I'd just rent some DVC points for cheap from someone else.

Also, and this is a HUGE minus that no one has mentioned, you only get to stay at places that are DVC properties for this great point price you all speak of. It's an incredibly HIGH amount of points to stay at a regular deluxe like Wilderness, Contemp, GF, Poly, etc. MUCH higher than a DVC property. What if I want a lagoon view at the Contemporary and I'm a DVC owner?

Here's what.......I'm still locked into paying the yearly maintenance and point costs, AND I'm out a LOT more money for either extra points or regular cash for the room I really want! OUCH. Big ouch...no regular deluxe accomodations without paying WAY more than a normal guest.

 

[HauntedPirate]

You have valid points, for your situation. For us, we were looking at getting two rooms, regardless of where we stayed, with the possible exception of the Contemporary. So it made sense for us to do it.

And, it is true that they steer you to stay at DVC resorts, and the regular resorts have a higher per-night point value. For us, that's not really a problem, as we tend to travel at off-peak times where the point values are lower.

 

[DisneyPhD]

Yes, but see, I read this post and say.....I can stay on property at WDW cheaper than $900 for a weeks stay with no problem whatsoever, so why lock myself into $900 bucks a year? And the $900 a year is spread out. It's, realistically, much more expensive for the first ten years to finance.

I only sleep in my hotel, the "World" is too big to spend the day there, and there are too many other discounts out there for non-DVC members for those to be that big of a deal.

The main difference between DVC and non-DVC seems to be whether or not you're forced into spending around $1000 (or more) on your hotel stay alone.

I'm going for a week this summer during reg. season, and spending less than $1500 for the whole week, for EVERYTHING. That's pretty difficult to do with the DVC.

............but hey, if I'm wrong here, I want to hear about it. Just trying to play devil's advocate to get a few more "convince me" posts from the one's who know all about the DVC,

Zac, my $900 gets me TWO weeks a year. Our last trip cost us about $400 (through our points) for the room (6 nights) and we bought 2 adult and 1 child annual passes for about $900 (with the DVC $100 per pass discount!!!). The next trip in January is all paid for (at least the room and park admission). I'm not sure what else you've included in your "everything" but I found it down right easy to do with DVC and I didn't have to go searching around for discount codes or renting points. As far as being "forced" to stay at DVC properties, I guess I'll have to suffer with the short walk "home" to BCV after Illuminations or being able to park the car a few feet away from our doorstep at SSR or OKW, or watching the water pagent from the beach at VWL. I don't have one for BWV since we haven't stayed there yet.
As others have said, it sounds like DVC may not be the right fit for you. We bought after our first child was born and now with the second child we find the extra room and amenities that DVC affords is a great benefit.

 

[artvandelay]

I don't have one for BWV since we haven't stayed there yet.

Being able to walk back to your resort after Illuminations and then watching the performers on the boardwalk.

 

[Main Street USA]

Zac, my $900 gets me TWO weeks a year. Our last trip cost us about $400 (through our points) for the room (6 nights) and we bought 2 adult and 1 child annual passes for about $900 (with the DVC $100 per pass discount!!!). The next trip in January is all paid for (at least the room and park admission). I'm not sure what else you've included in your "everything" but I found it down right easy to do with DVC and I didn't have to go searching around for discount codes or renting points. As far as being "forced" to stay at DVC properties, I guess I'll have to suffer with the short walk "home" to BCV after Illuminations or being able to park the car a few feet away from our doorstep at SSR or OKW, or watching the water pagent from the beach at VWL. I don't have one for BWV since we haven't stayed there yet.
As others have said, it sounds like DVC may not be the right fit for you. We bought after our first child was born and now with the second child we find the extra room and amenities that DVC affords is a great benefit.

You must've bought a while ago, and you must also have paid off the cost of the DVC itself. Two weeks of maintenance costs is what it sounds like you're paying. Most people have to pay a LOT more than that for the first ten years to finance the thousands and thousands of dollars DVC costs.

As for the resorts, I didn't say they weren't nice, because they're beautiful and convenient, BUT, you have to pay a lot more than a normal guest to stay at any other WDW hotel now that you own DVC, that's all. I like to have the flexibility to stay anywhere I want on property.

 

[Big-Bad-Dave]

I am interested in purchasing points from someone for my trip in September. How would I go about doing that?

 

[HauntedPirate]

I would check out www.disboards.com, there is a DVC Rent/Trade forum there.

 

[ConstanceIrene]

You must've bought a while ago, and you must also have paid off the cost of the DVC itself. Two weeks of maintenance costs is what it sounds like you're paying. Most people have to pay a LOT more than that for the first ten years to finance the thousands and thousands of dollars DVC costs.

As for the resorts, I didn't say they weren't nice, because they're beautiful and convenient, BUT, you have to pay a lot more than a normal guest to stay at any other WDW hotel now that you own DVC, that's all. I like to have the flexibility to stay anywhere I want on property.

I don't get what you're saying about the "two weeks of maintenance costs is what it sounds like you're paying". Your maintenance is figured on how many points you owe.

Your statement, "Most people have to pay a LOT more than that for the first ten years to finance the thousands and thousands of dollars DVC costs", might be true, but that may not be the best way to buy into DVC. If you need to finance a $15,000 purchase for 10 years, it might not be the way to go or the right time for you to join. We joined when we were able to finance only 1/2 and pay it off in a year. The deposit was put on a credit card that gave us back reward dollars to my favorite department store (it was paid off immediately). We also did not buy all the points we own at the beginning. We bought what we could afford to pay off quickly.

You don't sound like DVC is something for you right now, but it has worked out very well for many others. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[DisneyPhD]

You must've bought a while ago, and you must also have paid off the cost of the DVC itself. Two weeks of maintenance costs is what it sounds like you're paying. Most people have to pay a LOT more than that for the first ten years to finance the thousands and thousands of dollars DVC costs.

As for the resorts, I didn't say they weren't nice, because they're beautiful and convenient, BUT, you have to pay a lot more than a normal guest to stay at any other WDW hotel now that you own DVC, that's all. I like to have the flexibility to stay anywhere I want on property.

We bought 170 points in 2002 (it doesn't seem like that long ago) and we paid for it with our credit card (pre Disney Visa). DVC spread the cost out over 3 months for us and we paid the card off each month so no finance charges plus we got "free" plane tix from the credit card points(guess where we flew to).

You are right that using DVC at non-DVC resorts is a lot more points. That doesn't mean we can't pay cash to stay at those resorts. We've used the AP rate for a night at AKL and we had a great postcard rate for POR (Dixie Landings) which allowed us to use more of our points at DVC resorts for other vacations. A lot of DVC members even pay cash (with a 25% discount) to stay at the DVC resorts on the weekends because the points are so much higher. A big bonus for us is being able to use our points at Vero Beach which is a very different vacation compared to WDW. Again our "cost" is about $50 per night compared to the $300+ rack rate (I know you can get big discounts off of this).

 

[tiggerguy2000]

Do you regret buying in to the DVC?

How often do you visit WDW?

How far away from WDW do you live?

How many points do you own? (if that's not too personal of a question )
Thanks for your help!

hello!
#1 No way do we regret buying into DVC
#2 We go two or three times a year
#3 We live on the Jersey shore And its a 16 hour drive
#4 We have 500 points total
200 points at the Wilderness Lodge Villas
200 Points at the Beach Club Villas
100 Points at Saratoga Springs

We are going on our 7th straight year for the 4th of july 6/29-07/09
Being a DVC member has been the best thing for our family.It has become our 2nd home and we feel comfortable and cant wait to go back. maybe you should stay in a 1 bedroom and then make your decision And then you could then say we should have used that money on the down payment :brick:

Tiggerguy

 

[disbest]

hello!
#1 No way do we regret buying into DVC
#2 We go two or three times a year
#3 We live on the Jersey shore And its a 16 hour drive
#4 We have 500 points total
200 points at the Wilderness Lodge Villas
200 Points at the Beach Club Villas
100 Points at Saratoga Springs

We are going on our 7th straight year for the 4th of july 6/29-07/09
Being a DVC member has been the best thing for our family.It has become our 2nd home and we feel comfortable and cant wait to go back. maybe you should stay in a 1 bedroom and then make your decision And then you could then say we should have used that money on the down payment :brick:

Tiggerguy

Did you ever use points from one resort to stay at another? If so, are you restricted with the 7 month window when using another resorts points to stay at a home resort?

 

[tiggerguy2000]

I never had a problem with that because even with 500 points I still barrow.. barrow..barrow..I only have 25 points left from 2006 and im going on the cruise in November and staying in a 2 bedroom at the Wilderness lodge Villas so im barrowing 100 plus points from 2007.I do believe i would need enough points from said resort to get 11 month window.Alternative is book as many days as you can and hopfully they would be able to fill the rest at the 7 month window.Having all your points at one resort would most likely be better but when I bought we wanted beach Club but it was just starting to build and would not be available for another year so we took the Wilderness Lodge and followed it up the following year with the beach Club and was sucked into saratoga Springs the year after with the time extension and how much it keeps going up in price.My next buy would be between keeping home resorts at three and buy another 200 points or a 4th home resort when they open up a Mono-rail DVC resort.

tiggerguy

 

[Main Street USA]

We bought 170 points in 2002 (it doesn't seem like that long ago) and we paid for it with our credit card (pre Disney Visa). DVC spread the cost out over 3 months for us and we paid the card off each month so no finance charges plus we got "free" plane tix from the credit card points(guess where we flew to).

You are right that using DVC at non-DVC resorts is a lot more points. That doesn't mean we can't pay cash to stay at those resorts. We've used the AP rate for a night at AKL and we had a great postcard rate for POR (Dixie Landings) which allowed us to use more of our points at DVC resorts for other vacations. A lot of DVC members even pay cash (with a 25% discount) to stay at the DVC resorts on the weekends because the points are so much higher. A big bonus for us is being able to use our points at Vero Beach which is a very different vacation compared to WDW. Again our "cost" is about $50 per night compared to the $300+ rack rate (I know you can get big discounts off of this).

Ah, yeah, so you were able to pay off the cost of the DVC itself in 3 months. That not normal at all. Most have it spread out over many years. As said before, it can be great for some and not great for others.

 

[Main Street USA]

I don't get what you're saying about the "two weeks of maintenance costs is what it sounds like you're paying". Your maintenance is figured on how many points you owe.

Your statement, "Most people have to pay a LOT more than that for the first ten years to finance the thousands and thousands of dollars DVC costs", might be true, but that may not be the best way to buy into DVC. If you need to finance a $15,000 purchase for 10 years, it might not be the way to go or the right time for you to join. We joined when we were able to finance only 1/2 and pay it off in a year. The deposit was put on a credit card that gave us back reward dollars to my favorite department store (it was paid off immediately). We also did not buy all the points we own at the beginning. We bought what we could afford to pay off quickly.

You don't sound like DVC is something for you right now, but it has worked out very well for many others. Different strokes for different folks.

DVC is actually fine for me now, actually. I'm just playing devil;s advocate for those who have questions. The only way they'll get answers is if they here both sides of the story, not just never ending posts about how much people love it.

Again, most people who buy into DVC finance over the whole 10 years. It's not normal at all to have it paid off sooner, and it seems that the people who enjoy it the most and call it a great value are those that can actually afford it immediately and then get a deal by only paying for the maintenance costs of their points. (which is what I meant by "weeks". a lot of timeshares sell by the week, sorry 'bout that, slip of the tongue, or fingers, if you will)

 

[Main Street USA]

maybe you should stay in a 1 bedroom and then make your decision And then you could then say we should have used that money on the down payment :brick:

Tiggerguy

Hopefully, you aren't referring to me with the brick wall icon. I've stayed in many, many one, two, and three bedroom villas, so I'm well aware of what they offer. As I said above, I'm just trying to get the whole truth out for those who want to know. There are both positive and negative things about DVC, (depending on who you are) and the original poster wanted to know all about it, so I'm helping by bringing up the other side. Thanks.

 

[ConstanceIrene]

DVC is actually fine for me now, actually. I'm just playing devil;s advocate for those who have questions. The only way they'll get answers is if they hear both sides of the story, not just never ending posts about how much people love it.

Again, most people who buy into DVC finance over the whole 10 years. It's not normal at all to have it paid off sooner, and it seems that the people who enjoy it the most and call it a great value are those that can actually afford it immediately and then get a deal by only paying for the maintenance costs of their points. (which is what I meant by "weeks". a lot of timeshares sell by the week, sorry 'bout that, slip of the tongue, or fingers, if you will)

1)The never ending posts from people who love DVC appear because other people keep asking for opinions. Perspective members should read the posts, contact a DVC rep, and use their own personal financial situation to make the final decision.
2)Most people who buy into DVC finance over the whole 10 years? Do you have statistics on this? Perhaps the people who paid it off quickly and, according to your estimation, enjoy it more are doing so because they didn't spend money they didn't have or get into payments they couldn't afford. If that's not normal, it should be.

 

[Main Street USA]

1)The never ending posts from people who love DVC appear because other people keep asking for opinions. Perspective members should read the posts, contact a DVC rep, and use their own personal financial situation to make the final decision.
2)Most people who buy into DVC finance over the whole 10 years? Do you have statistics on this? Perhaps the people who paid it off quickly and, according to your estimation, enjoy it more are doing so because they didn't spend money they didn't have or get into payments they couldn't afford. If that's not normal, it should be.

People finance over the whole ten years because it's the only way they can afford it, and here in America, yes, it's normal. Should it be normal? Of course not, but people in this country will always spend way more money than they have. Thus the reason the average person's credit card debt is over 8 THOUSAND dollars, and that figure climbs every year. It's ridiculous. The abnormal people are the ones that CAN afford it, and pay it off right away. It's rare, and that's all there is to it.

This is the reason I'm posting what I am. Those that finance will spend a LOT more on DVC than they would by simply using well-known discounts on Disney Resorts and tickets. Would they in the long run? Of course not, but that's not what the normal person has to worry about. They worry abot the here and now, and DVC will only add too their monthly bills.

Once again, I'm not against the DVC or any other timeshare program. I think the DVC is fantastic. It works great for those that can afford it, but many get suckered in who can't afford it, and it can really ruin them financially when they could have been fine visiting the mouse the usual way.