Does DVC Membership Make Sense?

[DVC Mike]

This question gets asked a lot.

Membership in the Disney Vacation Club is not for everyone. DVC can make sense financially -- assuming you would always stay in a deluxe resort. If you always stay in a value resort, then it won't -- but that's not an apples-to-apples comparison. The DVC resorts offer deluxe amenities and room size.

DVC membership might make sense if you meet most or all of these criteria:

• The cost of membership and dues does not appear to present a financial hardship.
• You vacation at Walt Disney World frequently: ideally at least once every two years.
• You plan to continue vacationing at Disney World far enough into the future to make the membership at least break even.
• You prefer to stay in Deluxe or DVC accommodations and/or you stay a long time (10 days or more per year). If you always stay at a Value resort, or always stay off-site, or you really spend the entire day at the parks away from your hotel, and you don't spend time at the resort itself (other than crashing at the end of the day), then DVC may not be for you.
• You are able to plan your vacations well in advance -- ideally 7 to 11 months out. If you aren't a planner, don't even look at becoming a DVC member. If you can't plan and book your vacations 11 months in advance, and staying at a particular DVC resort is important, then don't join DVC. If you really don't care which DVC resort you end up with, then it's not an issue.
• You stay more on weekdays and can limit Friday and Saturday night stays.
• You can do without daily mousekeeping and room service (of course, you can pay extra and get mousekeeping as a DVC member).
• You desire more space than a typical resort room (such as a 2 bedroom villa, with full kitchen, living room, 2 bathrooms and jacuzzi suite, and even a washer/dryer).
• You’re not looking at DVC as an investment or a way to make money (it’s not). It is a decision to prepay, at today's rates, the next several decades of Disney trips.

If the only consideration is whether it makes financial sense, then maybe you should be staying offsite and only eating offsite as well, since that beats staying onsite. Beyond just the financial considerations, DVC membership is emotionally satisfying (you “own a piece of the magic”), and it gives you a reason to take a vacation at WDW.

Buying a DVC membership is a rational, financially viable option for some people: namely people who plan to stay in the higher-end accommodations at Walt Disney World on a regular basis.

Buying into DVC is almost a lifestyle choice. A DVC purchase is a way of committing to an annual Disney vacation with family and friends. For some people, that may outweigh any financial considerations. DVC will pay dividends beyond mere dollars and cents – your return on investment will be the joyous times, the family gatherings, and the experiences of a lifetime.

Only you can determine if DVC membership makes sense for your situation, based upon your lifestyle and financial capabilities.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Thanks.

 

[athenna]

Great post, Mike...That will help a lot of people in their decision making.

 

[brkgnews]

Nice article, Mike. This thread needs a case of the stickies.

 

[reptar77]

I guess another question to ponder is.....
What if you prefer to stay at Deluxe resorts that are not DVC? Is it more beneficial to purchase to DVC points for part of your vacation plan and stay in DVC room and then pay cash for a room at the GF for example?

 

[DVC Mike]

I guess another question to ponder is.....
What if you prefer to stay at Deluxe resorts that are not DVC? Is it more beneficial to purchase to DVC points for part of your vacation plan and stay in DVC room and then pay cash for a room at the GF for example?

If you prefer the GF or the Poly, for example, I wouldn't purchase DVC and use your points to stay there, although you can. The reason is that the number of points needed to stay at the GF or Poly is much more than the points needed to stay at a DVC resort. Plus, the number of points needed to stay at the GF or Poly is not locked in and can go up from year to year, unlike the DVC resorts. Finally, there is a $95 booking fee to book the GF or Poly, in addition to using your points.

You can certainly buy into DVC and book a split stay as you suggest, or even use DVC for one trip and book a cash stay for another trip.

 

[ConstanceIrene]

We've never paid a fee to stay at a non-DVC resort at WDW.

 

[DVC Mike]

We've never paid a fee to stay at a non-DVC resort at WDW.

Yes, the fee is new. It used to be $75 to trade out, and no fee for the Disney Collection.

Now it's a $95 fee for both. The fee does not apply at DLR (yet).

 

[DisneyPirate85]

Thanks Mike....:wave:

 

[ConstanceIrene]

Yes, the fee is new. It used to be $75 to trade out, and no fee for the Disney Collection.

Now it's a $95 fee for both. The fee does not apply at DLR (yet).

This is the first change in membership to which I am completely opposed. In the past, we would enjoy spending a few days at other WDW resorts before checking in for a week at our home base. Now, with a $95 fee, it just doesn't make sense.

I guess I won't be booking a room at CR until DVC arrives and, even then, won't stay in the tower again.
It's a good thing this fee didn't exist when we joined or we would've been completely turned off to DVC. What is the reason for the fee?

 

[DVC Mike]

This is the first change in membership to which I am completely opposed. In the past, we would enjoy spending a few days at other WDW resorts before checking in for a week at our home base. Now, with a $95 fee, it just doesn't make sense.

I guess I won't be booking a room at CR until DVC arrives and, even then, won't stay in the tower again.
It's a good thing this fee didn't exist when we joined or we would've been completely turned off to DVC. What is the reason for the fee?

When you use your points to stay in the Disney Collection, DVC must turn around and rent out the points you used. They've been having issues trying to rent out DVC villas via CRO, so I think the fee is a way to discourage members from doing this.

 

[Phonedave]

When you use your points to stay in the Disney Collection, DVC must turn around and rent out the points you used. They've been having issues trying to rent out DVC villas via CRO, so I think the fee is a way to discourage members from doing this.

Not only is there the issue of trying to get the points rented in the first place, it costs money.

By booking the Disney Collection you are making a DVC rep do extra work. First they have to do the Disney Collection booking, which takes some extra time. Then there is the time they have to take when the book out the rented points to someone else.

All of that takes time, time is money (salary + benefits)

DVC reps are paid for by DVC dues. Instead of increasing DVC dues for all members, they are placing the costs on the people that are causing them.

Makes sense to me.

Now, is $95 the actual cost or is there profit built in there, thats a question that I don't know the answer to.

-dave

 

[k.hunter30]

From someone who would never buy into DVC and really didn't think it's a wise choice, I appreciate your opening post. You present DVC in a very realistic way. Thank you! :wave:

 

[formercast84]

DVC is for those with money and no "sense"

We looked into the DVC last year. We could not figure out how to make it make sense. We live in the Disney area anyway and have enjoyed WDW since the park opened. But when we ran the numbers, it was cheaper to use our Annual Passholder discounts and stay in the deluxe hotels than it was to use the DVC. We also have 4 kids and pretty much have to have 2 rooms. The points required would have cost so much, I could have rented a suite for a week at WDW and still had change left over compared to the cost of usind the DVC.

Run the numbers for yourself. By the time you finance the $$$$ and then pay their high yearly dues, you could have taken the whole family on a 1st class vacation yourself without using the DVC and for less money than DVC. We actually figured it the cost of a Disney cruise on DVC every year vs. paying for a Disney Cruise every year on our own without DVC and it would cost us about $1200 a year less to not use DVC that to use DVC. Talk about a rip off.

The DVC is a total scam. You can do almost any trip cheaper than DVC and you can control the dates, etc. more than you can with DVC. Stay away. It doesn't even make sense if you stay at disney properties. They don't cut you any breaks. Stay away from DVC.:brick:

 

[WDW-LUVR]

DVC Membership has never made any Sense to me.

 

[DVC Mike]

Run the numbers for yourself. By the time you finance the $$$$ and then pay their high yearly dues, you could have taken the whole family on a 1st class vacation yourself without using the DVC and for less money than DVC. We actually figured it the cost of a Disney cruise on DVC every year vs. paying for a Disney Cruise every year on our own without DVC and it would cost us about $1200 a year less to not use DVC that to use DVC. Talk about a rip off.

The DVC is a total scam. You can do almost any trip cheaper than DVC and you can control the dates, etc. more than you can with DVC. Stay away. It doesn't even make sense if you stay at disney properties. They don't cut you any breaks. Stay away from DVC.:brick:

You are certainly welcome to your opinion, but I have to disagree. DVC is not a scam but a way to save money compared to yearly stays at Deluxe resorts.

There have been several published financial comparisons that show that DVC makes sense -- for some people. I ran the numbers using an Excel spreadsheet and the break-even spot for me was 6 years. From year 7 through year 50, I am saving a substantial amount of money.

Here's a link to one breakeven analysis for DVC:

http://dvcnews.com/index.php?option=com_easyfaq&task=view&id=55&Itemid=148

If you're going to say DVC is a scam (rather harsh words), please put forth some facts to back up your assertion.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Your original post was well thought out and informative DVC Mike. You even gave reasons DVC was not for everyone. Some people like khunter will politely agree it's not for them. Others will not be polite and will feel the need to insult DVC members. I wouldn't give it another thought.

 

[Kamikaze]

We looked into the DVC last year. We could not figure out how to make it make sense. We live in the Disney area anyway and have enjoyed WDW since the park opened. But when we ran the numbers, it was cheaper to use our Annual Passholder discounts and stay in the deluxe hotels than it was to use the DVC. We also have 4 kids and pretty much have to have 2 rooms. The points required would have cost so much, I could have rented a suite for a week at WDW and still had change left over compared to the cost of usind the DVC.

Run the numbers for yourself. By the time you finance the $$$$ and then pay their high yearly dues, you could have taken the whole family on a 1st class vacation yourself without using the DVC and for less money than DVC. We actually figured it the cost of a Disney cruise on DVC every year vs. paying for a Disney Cruise every year on our own without DVC and it would cost us about $1200 a year less to not use DVC that to use DVC. Talk about a rip off.

The DVC is a total scam. You can do almost any trip cheaper than DVC and you can control the dates, etc. more than you can with DVC. Stay away. It doesn't even make sense if you stay at disney properties. They don't cut you any breaks. Stay away from DVC.:brick:

I find it hard to believe that you did ANY math whatsoever.

Say you buy 250 points. Just roughly, that is going to cost you $25,000. Yes, its actually less. But lets go with that number. Lets also say that dues are $1000 a year. Those are less too. But call them $1000. So you have a total of $75,000 for 50 years, or $1500 a year. Now, with 250 points, you can get anywhere from 10-20 days a year. Calling it 10 for the sake of argument, that makes it $150 a night, which is slightly higher than a moderate, but much lower than a deluxe in most cases. And that is ONLY if you are going to use the points when they are the most per night.

Now, the room prices are going to continue to go up. Just look at rack rates in the past 5 years to see how much they have come up. Which means that the value you are paying in actually goes up.

Lets also take into account that the points can be used in lots of other places besides WDW.

Now, I will agree with you concerning the cruise. The points for the cruise are pretty inflated, and using DVC points for the cruise probably isn't smart.

However, you are neglecting the fact that DVC rooms are much larger than regular rooms, and you wouldn't have to get two rooms for your family if you were going to stay in a DVC room.

Basically its like this. If you stay only at values (or off property) and you are happy with that, DVC is out of your price range and probably isn't a good decision. But if you stay at moderates and up, you should at least look into the DVC. With the break even point for moderates not even that far out, it does make sense to buy in if you are only staying at mods.

Full Disclosure: I am not a DVC member. However, once they (officially) announce the Contemporary DVC, I will probably be buying in.

 

[djs]

Run the numbers for yourself. By the time you finance the $$$$ and then pay their high yearly dues, you could have taken the whole family on a 1st class vacation yourself without using the DVC and for less money than DVC. We actually figured it the cost of a Disney cruise on DVC every year vs. paying for a Disney Cruise every year on our own without DVC and it would cost us about $1200 a year less to not use DVC that to use DVC. Talk about a rip off.

The DVC is a total scam. You can do almost any trip cheaper than DVC and you can control the dates, etc. more than you can with DVC. Stay away. It doesn't even make sense if you stay at disney properties. They don't cut you any breaks. Stay away from DVC.:brick:

I think the important thing in the original post was that DVC "might" make sense if certian criteria were met. The OP did not say that it was the "best" deal out there as surely one can own at a different resort and exchange into DVC; again this too may not be the best use of a week but I recently exchanged into a DVC resort and my all-in cost for the week I used was about $1,000. Now if I thought I'd go to Disney every year (or at least every other year) it might make sense for me (no exchange fee, no exchange company fees, and I presume no $95 fee, though I could be wrong there).

A "total scam" is a bit harsh, but in order to make a TS week work well, one needs to put in the time (something I've done to my advantage), but not everyone has the time necessary to do so.

 

[formercast84]

Not to be rude

I am not trying to insult anyone. But I would hope that everyone on the forum is entitled to an opinion. We did run the numbers. We stay at all levels of rooms at the resorts at WDW. We have never paid more than $235 at the Animal Kingdom Lodge (Deluxe hotel according to WDW) and that rate was for a Savanah view. The charge for the room through DVC came out to about $272 for the same room at the same time. Considering the cost of buying into the DVC, the incredibly high yearly dues, and for most people, the finance charges for financing over 10 years, you end up paying about $366 for the room. So, how do you make up for that over time? Granted Disney raises their room rates far too often, but it would take at least 8 years just to balance out and that assumes that the DVC wouldn't raise their rates in kind.

You can easily beat DVC rates almost anywhere. Further, given that with DVC you would have to book at least 10 months in advance to get their rates and you don't have to book that far if you are booking on your own, why would DVC make sense? As far as bigger rooms for DVC members, I am not sure what that means particularly at the resorts. DVC members don't get the suites unless you pay a lot more for it which you would do if you were a DVC member or not. Also, if you read the fine print in the DVC membership booklet, you will notice that only a MAXIMUM of 22% of the rooms at DVC resorts are reserved for DVC members. That makes popular destinations very difficult to get. Many of us with families can't book a year or more in advance and therefore don't stand a chance in getting popular spots during peak seasons.

I am not being rude, but I am stating that every resort we checked and every destination we checked, we were able to beat the DVC pricing and didn't have to make a large investment up front and a continuing infusion of funds to go to those destinations. I still say DVC makes absoutely no sense. You can save money by staying at places without using your DVC membership and without giving DVC $100,000+ to get enough points to go to the really nice places. Bu the way, you can go on "The World" cruise for $15k a week. That is considered the nicest cruise ship in the world. The $100,000+ would allow you to go on that cruise for almost 7 consecutive years and no yearly dues are needed either.