DVC Questions

[shari71]

DH and I are seriously thinking of investing in DVC. So far I am not really crazy for what I see about SSR, but really like the others. I don't want to get into the resale part so want to stick with Disney on buying and SSR is all they are offering.

1. How hard is it to book rooms not at your home resort? Say Beach Club or Boardwalk? We usually book 6 months in advance anyway so are they filled by the time you get to the 7 month out time? We usually vacation in Oct/Nov and when the kids are in school it will probably be spring break in Mar/Apr.

2. Every once and a while I see it mentioned you can stay at other Disney resorts but there is no info on how to do it or let alone what amount of points it takes. Has anyone say stayed at the Polynesian or Port Orleans instead? How hard is that?

It is a big investment and we think we will get benefit out of it but we really want to try out a variety of resorts and experiences. We tend to go on vacation not to cook so the kitchen/laundry part is not a plus for us. The big advantage is when it pays for itself after 10 years.

 

[joviacdan]

I looked into it on our last trip last month. I go to Disney World twice a year lately, for at least 7 nights a trip.

People that belong to the DVC think I should do it.

I won't though. There are things I don't like. Most time shares you can pass to your children. You can't do that with DVC. After 50 years (maybe less) you lose it.

The other thing I don't like is how no people that work for DVC can explain to us exactly how many days we could have a year at any 2 given resorts. It always varies according to time of year and day of the week.

No disrepect to DVC, and lord knows, I LOVE Disney World as much as anyone, however, I've heard all sorts of timeshare programs, and DVC confuses the hell out of me. WAY too complicated.

 

[DisneyPhD]

We own at VWL and have only stayed there once. We had no problems getting in BCV, VB, and OKW. We have not stayed at BWV yet (mostly because when ever we got we always want to stay at BCV.) Sometimes you can't get in the exat resort you want for the days you want, but you can always get in one of them (if not your home.)

You can stay at other non DVC resorst, but it isn't as cost effective and they don't have the great DVC accomodations, so we never want to anymore. (better off to pay cash for non DVC on the weekend and use your points for DVC during the week.)

Even if you don't cook the extra space and kicten are helpful. (you don't need to cook full meals, just snacks, breakfest, drinks, and snacks saves you hundreds each trip.)

Do a DVC search, there is many old threads on this with lots of info and links. one link I always recomend is www.disboards.com lots of info and 1000, of members.

There are (at last count) 38 DVC members at wdwmagic.

 

[PixyDust]

We hardly ever stay at our home resorts. And I've never had a problem getting what I wanted when I wanted it. I've been on the wait list a couple of times, but it always goes through. Go for it! I've regretted a lot of purchases in my life (that darn Sebring Convertible that leaked from the day I bought it tops the list, followed closely by the Saturn that went through 18 fuel pumps in 3 months), but we have NEVER regretted the money we've put into DVC.

 

[PixyDust]

I won't though. There are things I don't like. Most time shares you can pass to your children. You can't do that with DVC. After 50 years (maybe less) you lose it.

The other thing I don't like is how no people that work for DVC can explain to us exactly how many days we could have a year at any 2 given resorts. It always varies according to time of year and day of the week. QUOTE]

On passing on to your children, you CAN do this. We hold a deed which can be transferred to our children with no problem.

As for the points, I prefer this method as I can decide when to go, and where to stay. We like to stay during value season so we can get more weeks out of our points. There are point calendars which pretty much stay the same from year to year except for holidays. It is simple to calculate your needs by looking at them.



I think you got a bad sales rep who wasn't good at explaining the program, which is too bad because you could save some major money with your travel habit.

 

[goofyman]

We have been DVC owners at the WLV since 2001. An I agree with what has been said here it is one of the best things I have done.
As for the Availabilty of rooms you should never have a problem. If you stay at your home resrt you can plan up to 11 month in adavance and for the other DVC hotels up to 7 months in adavance. The only times that might be tougher to book might be holidays, say Christmas week at other than your home resort and even then if you plan as far out as you say, you should be fine.
As far as the point system, I think what confuses most potential buyers is that it is actually very simple compared to other timeshares in that it is WAY more flexable, you can use as much time as you own whenever you want, unlike most other timeshares that you own a spacific week at a spacific place. try and trade those places for other times! Not easy to do.
Also, Disney trades higher than just about any other timeshare whick makes it that much more easy to use.
We also don't use the kitckens but it is nice to have the sinks and refrig. The best part is the size of the rooms. Once you stay in a 1 or 2 bedroom its tough to go to a regular hotel room!

Go for it you will love it! :sohappy:

 

[ZHoyt]

We absolutely love DVC. The villas are absolutely wonderful. We never use the kitchen, but the space is great. A 1 bedroom is like staying in a nice suite. As for home resort, it doesn't make a huge difference unless you always travel in peak seasons. But here is the one big thing you may want to think about. As far as resale value, point values differ. BCV and BWV are generally more valuable than WL, and always more valuable than VB, HHI, or OKW. I would advise resale if you want value. Points will be cheaper and you can get points at whichever resort you please. One thing to consider is the long term value of SS points. SS springs will be expanding until I think 2008. It will by far be the largest DVC resort. Therefore the value of the points will probably go down because they will be easier to find on the market. Also, SS has, in our opinion, a pretty bad location compared to WLV, BCV and BWV. Of course, if you know you'll never need to count on the monetary value of those points, there is no need to worry.

Another thing to think about before buying in is future planning. One sad thing we've encountered is the degradation of point values. It seems like every year it costs more points to pay for the same accomodations. We have had to buy additional points twice in order to accomodate our needs because what we originally thought to be enough just didn't cut it.

One huge thing to consider is how flexable your schedules are. If you can vacation during the week and avoid the weekends, you will get far more value out of your points. Weekends cost twice the ammount of points as a weekday.

One final note, it is true that the deed(s) can be transfered to your children. It is a tremendous legal mess to work out (because of property taxes and things of that nature), but it can be done.

Even knowing the pitfalls I've described, I would still wholeheartedly join again. It has been a tremendous value, and it the accomodations are far greater than general rack rooms.

 

[lilkitty819]

Just to inform people other timeshares are limited years too.
I have DVC and my brother and niece have others, there's go for about the same amount of years, Which is 40-50yrs. So it not just DVC that does it.. Shari51 Go on and buy it is a great investment :sohappy:

 

[DisneyPhD]

shari71, do the tour on your next trip. (They give you a free diner vocher too.) I think you will be impressed with the rooms. Once you do DVC, you don't want to go back. We loved staying at Dixie landings in the past, but now we are so happy to stay at DVC resorts. If you want a moderate resort, OKW has all the carm of it, but is much better. Having small kids DVC is perfect. I actually like the not having room service enter your room daily. It is easier for naps and such. Also grown up don't need the refregiator as much as kids do. Just being able to keep juice boxs, milk, lunch meat, hot dogs, and cheese makes life so much easier. (not to mention bottled water, that alone can save you $50 for 25 cents a bottle, instead of 2.50 in a park, and WDW water is stinky!)

Flexibilty is one of the best things about DVC (and getting to stay right on WDW property.) But there are so many more. We are really happy we invested in it. One hint is get enough points up frount. We wish we had. We want an add on bad, but it is kind of a pain and we have too many other expense right now (plus I was laid off last year so now I am a stay at home mom.) We have 170 points, I wish we had at least 220. We are in a constant state of borrowing points.

 

[Nineinchnailsmk]

Here is a question I have:

What other "perks" do you get with the DVC? We should've went out on the tour (they offered us $100 disney dollars), but we declined because we had lots of shopping to do...lol. (we were in WDW for our honeymoon 09-23 to 09-30).

Anyway, The Saratoga Springs looked AWESOME from the outside, and we really want to join, but we are having a really hard time justifying the $14,000....

 

[shari71]

We were wanting to buy 200 points. Figured that would cover us if we banked what was left over each year we go for a studio. Then we could use the extra points to take family for the 2-3 bedroom suites. Problem is at $95 a point * 200 points = $19,000. Unless I have the point cost wrong, that is just way too much. I did some calculations with 3% inflation and it would take us over 10 years to get our money back. I would have to talk to the DVC people to see how we could buy extra points later on.

I plan to stop by the DVC booth at POR. I just got the video yesterday so I will be watch that as well. My husband is a little turned off on not being able to stay at the other resorts without much hassle, so I may have to do some more convencing and bump the number of points down so we can get it to a reasonable price.

Thanks for all the help!

DisneyPhD - sorry to hear about your job. But I know being a mom has its own rewards - especially those slobbery kisses and the word "Ma-ma" Sweates things in all the world next to Disney.

 

[artvandelay]

Shari, we just bought at Saratoga Springs. We got 160 points at $85 a point. DVC was running a special program, a free WDW vaation or $10 off a point. Check to see if they're still running this special. Good luck.

 

[dvcnut39]

Being a long time reader of WDWMAGIC and 1st time poster, I wanted to wait for a subject where I wouldn't embarrass myself. To hopefully answer your questions- We have been DVC members since SEP02. BCV is our home resort. We've only had one request for a room that could not be filled. During HHI busy season (summer) we tried to book a studio only two months in advance. It was a spur of the moment attempt. Other than that, we never had a problem. The point charts can be a little confusing, but once you get use to them, they are quite easy. For example- a studio (sleeps 4) at BCV during the "Magic" season (one of the busiest times of the year Feb 16-29, Mar 1-31, Apr 1-3, 18-30, Jun 11-30, Jul 1-31, Aug 1-15, and Nov 24-26) will cost you 14 points/night, Sun-Thu, and 32 points for Fri-Sat night each totalling 134 pts for the week. So as stated in a earlier post, pay cash to stay at a non-DVC resort for the weekend and save those precious points for the week. It's the best way to get the most bang for your buck, plus you get to check out the other resorts. Also, to get back to room availibilities. As I mentioned earlier, BCV is my home resort, but we had no problem booking a 2 bdr at Vero Beach this year 7 months out.
As for as value- we have to keep in mind that this is a Disney Timeshare. In all actuality, all you are doing is prepaying your future vacations, you are not really buying a timeshare. Disney calls it a timeshare so you get a deed in order to write off the interest. I feel that although you lose all interest in the property in 40-50 years, the benefits (flexiblilty, the relief people like us get knowing that they will be going to Disney for the next 40-50 years, The World Passport Collection where you can exchange your points for wonderful destinations outside of Disney's property-example- in "mid season", for 144 points, you could stay at one of seven resorts in Aruba, etc..., many discounts on numerous items- park tickets, rooms, restaurants, shopping, etc, plus they mail and email you publications on the DVC and Disney , etc...) are far more than the negatives. We have been charting the money that we spent on our points (our initial purchase, one add-on, plus the final add-on that we are planning for Dec05) compared to the retail costs for the rooms that we used for that time of year. So far, we have very pleased with our progress.
Finally, since you are going to WDW in a couple of days anyways, go to SSR and check out all the DVC demo rooms. We were just down there and really liked what we saw. I could go on and on about the DVC. Hopefully this helped you with your decision. If you need any more help with the DVC, just post your questions.

 

[OCDisney]

Major lurker here, but I own 200 pts @ BWV. I would like to officially say that DVC is the cat's meow!

In response to the OP: Booking at other resorts is not difficult 6 months in advance, but certain room types are harder to get like that. Also, off-season tends to be DVC on-season; Oct-Dec is very popular because of lower crowds, nice weather, food & wine, Christmas, and fewer points. Resale is not difficult at all, except you must provide your own financing. Resale also provided you the ability to buy 'where you want to stay' the most so that you _can_ reserve the more difficult to acquire room types before the 7 month window opens. I purchased BWV through resale for these reasons.

Another thing to think about before buying in is future planning. One sad thing we've encountered is the degradation of point values. It seems like every year it costs more points to pay for the same accomodations. We have had to buy additional points twice in order to accomodate our needs because what we originally thought to be enough just didn't cut it.
QUOTE]

Just wanted to clarify something. The 'degradation of point values' only applies to point exchanges outside of DVC. This includes other Disney resorts, Disney Cruise Line, and exchanges to other timeshares. The value and quantity of points required to stay at the DVC resorts is fixed and cannot be changed according to the laws governing Timeshares. So you can be assured that your point 'power' to stay in the current DVC resorts will never be reduced.

Hope this information helps you make a will-informed decision. Good Luck!

 

[Mickifan17]

I know this subject is touched upon very often. I'll give my two cents and then be quiet about it and I'll try and be brief.

I've owned in OKW since 1994 and it's the best thing I've ever done. I think if you ask most DVC owner's, they are very happy with their purchases. Points can get confusing, but it's easy to learn and there are point calculators on different web sites that help you out. The dues can get costly, but again, once it's paid off, it is SO worth it.

I'm leaving in 2 weeks for my 3rd trip in 10 months.

My advice: Take the DVC tour when you are there and bring your checkbook. For true DisneyWorld lovers, it's the best


Only 14 more days til I'm Home!!! :sohappy: :sohappy: :sohappy:

 

[patelaine1953]

My family and I (7 of us) just returned 2 weeks ago from our first trip to Boardwalk Villas as DVC members. We stayed in a 2 bedroom and loved it! I will never stay in a small room again. There is so much space and we weren't tripping over each other. During one part of the trip, we were 7 adults in the 2 bedroom. We loved the availability of the the washer and dryer. We never did any cooking but having the refrigerator for keeping our water cold and storing leftover was great.

We're already planning a trip for next year (just my husband and me). We're opting for a 1 bedroom because of the amount of space and the ammenities.

We only bought 150 points but banked last year's points so that we have 270 points available for this year. We even managed to bank the remaining 30 points for next year so we'll be starting Feb. 2005 with 180 points. As far as points go, I was told that the point cost for a week will never change during your ownership. There may be adjustments for certain days but equal adjustments will be made to other days to keep the weekly point cost the same. Right now, during Adventure Season (1/1 - 31, 9/1 - 30, 12/1 - 14) a 1 bedroom at the Beach Club Villas is 22 points per night Sun. thru Thurs. and 45 points per night Fri. and Sat. If they want to raise the points to 50 for Fri. and Sat., they would have to lower Sun. thru Thurs. to 20 points a day. That way the point cost would stay at 200 points for a week.

So far I like the vacation club. My only regret is that I didn't do it several years ago. My husband and I are in our 50's and our 40 years won't be up until we're in our 90's. I'm going to enjoy myself for as long as I can and then pass it to my kids.

 

[DisneyPhD]

Welcome new memebers, if you haven't already please add your name to this post so we can get a count of DVC members on magic. Please post only once to the DVC members thread so we know how many there is.

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?p=747252#post747252

(Post as much as you like to this thread and any other you want!!!!!!!)

And Welcome home!!!!!!!! We love DVC, do you? (of course! :sohappy: )

 

[SwampFox]

To start off, I agree it was the best investment I've made. I feel this way based on the flexibility the points system provides, it is quite easy to understand once you see the charts. They have it for the other Disney resorts, as well as those external ones that participate in the exchange program.

I have had no problem booking to my home resort, BWV, but I generally book on the opening day of the period. I have had problems booking to the BCV in the past, because of its popularity. There are also issues booking to an external resort during its high season (i.e. Cape Cod in August), if you try booking less than a year out. I was able to exchange to Cape Cod in August '04, but the transfer took place in November '02. so, book early to where you want to go.

The accomodations are large, and we use the kitchen for breakfast, most lunches and dinners, so it helps on cost. Only buy essentials from the DVC or Goodings, due to cost. Use the first day of the trip to go to Publix by Intl. Dr., about 15 mins drive away, the prices are much more reasonable. The washer and dryer allow us to take less with us, so we pack lighter. we usually get a 2BDR, so there is space for privacy.

From a discount perspective, it is not that impressive. They provide discount on UPH, but not on AP, which to me is a mistake. They provide discounts on restaurants, but not dinner shows. They have discounts on the tours, which I may use in the future, and at Disney Stores, but not at the park.

I bought ('99) on the resale market and did quite well. That would be the avenue I would take to buy DVC, not at SSR. I am not impressed by either the cost or its' location, and the increase in years doesn't do anything for me.
One thing to remember, some resales are inflating cost to point values that thery could not have bought at, so beware. Another note on SSR, they are running deals (i.e.free vacation, annual passes) that they haven't used since the initial rollout. that tells me sales are not what they anticipated.

Jim Lewis wants to add cachet to being a DVC member, I am waiting to see what is in store. I am quite happy with my purchase into the DVC, I just think that people should know about the warts as well to avoid disappointment. I have used my home resort twice, soon to be 3 times (21 days!), an exchange to a lovely resort on Cape Cod (Brewster Green) and the Concierge Collection 3 times over the last 5 years. i did this on 222 points. I am planning to go next August as well for hopefully 12 nights and that will shoot my points for a couple of years. In terms of recapturing your investment, calculate the cost of a nightly rack rate + the yearly fees for the times you would stay there and find out how many years it would take to break even on the cash outlay. For me this trip should do it. It is a good deal on preplanning your vacation expenses. I'm done and sorry for the lengthy message. Oh, by the way my brother bought 2 lots of 150 at BCV & BWV through DVC and a friend has recently bought BCV on resale market.