As a family of 5 we bought into Vacation Club to allow us to have more space and privacy as the children get older. Now if you look at it as purely a financial decision the numbers may not add up. We finally looked at it as buying a boat or other big ticket toy. It's going to allow us to enjoy our vacations more for years to come, but in the end worth nothing - just like an old boat.
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Is my math correct?
- Thread starter captainkidd
- Start date
I guess I am a bit confused? How can you compare staying in a small regular hotel room at a moderate resort to a deluxe villa 1 bedroom? I just checked the prices for a 10 day stay at Wilderness Lodge next July 14 -23 for a family of five, and it costs over $6000! If your dues are only just over $1800, it only costs 1/3 of the regular price for you to stay there. Even if you don't think the amenities are important now (like having a washer/dryer in your room, and the ability to cook meals if you want to save some money on Disney dining), your kids would sure like the extra space. And I think you and your wife would appreciate the king bed in the master bedroom by yourselves after a long day in the parks!!
Granted, if you don't want to stay deluxe, then DVC isn't for you. We own 360 points already, our kids are already in college, and we'll be adding on more points. We go by ourselves at least once a year, and starting next year, we will be doing separate trips with each child and their significant other. Once the initial points investment is paid off (pay cash if you can, but it is still worth it to finance as long as you can afford it), you are staying on dues only, and they will be MUCH less than even a heavily discounted rate in 20 years. Remember, DVC isn't just for a year or two, it's for DECADES!!!
As I said, we're not picky about room size. We don't spend enough time in the room to really care. Not sure what room you're looking at for that kind of money at the WL, but we're staying for 10 nights at the Polynesian for $4,000 (and probably much less when the AP discounts come out.)
I could buy 150 points up front, but that wouldn't come remotely close to being as much as we need. To finance DVC makes no financial sense at all. I have no doubt that DVC could save you money in the long run, but Disney's claim to it paying for itself in 7 trips is completely exaggerated. For it to work that way:
1.You need to compare exact room types.
2.Travel during Value Season.
3.Purchase the minimum amount of points.
4.Don't finance.
5.Pay rack rate when not using DVC.
When you take some of those scenarios out of the picture or just mix it up a bit, the math isn't as tempting as Disney would like you to believe.
slappy magoo
Well-Known Member
According to allears.net, a one bedroom villa at Wilderness Lodge for that time period in July THIS year is $530 a night. Once you include the state sales tax and the county resort tax, you're a hair shy of $6000 for a 10-night stay. LuvtheGoof's numbers are pretty much spot on. Go to http://allears.net/acc/faq_wlv.htm and look for the pricing chart. Granted, these are "rack rates" and do not take any sort of promotion into consideration.
On the one hand, you're right that when Disney hypes a "break even" point to potential DVC members, they're usually comparing rack rates and not factoring promotional prices. But you also have to admit a: there's no 100% guarantee promotions of late will continue; b: promotions will definitely be available during the time frame you'd like to go to WDW. Free dining in late August is of no value to someone who can only take a vacation in early August.
Something else to consider - I believe DVC members get a "cash discount" if they want to stay at a DVC resort without using their points (or take a vacation longer that's longer than your points will allow). I believe the discount is usually 30%. Which means, in theory, you can buy fewer points to still get some of your vacation at a better discount...
THEN pay cash for the rest of your trip, at a discount...
AND - if you're going every year as you seem to indicate - you can use your DVC membership to get the discount on annual passes for each member of your family, which means at least $500 saved one year, AND if you schedule your trips right, no need to pay for park tickets at all the following year. You could also use your annual passes to get annual pass discounts for rooms, if it turns out that's a better deal at any given time than the DVC discount.
And this is less contingent on special promotions like free dining, where you can go when you want to go as opposed to when the discounts apply.
Which means that yeah, you're paying $1869 in your dues for 350 points at VWL. But you could save up to $650 on your annual passes (depending on if they're just park hoppers or include Water Parks/DQ and other perks). Now my math is a little fast-and-loose, and doesn't factor in the usual annual price increases, but stick with me:
10-day park tickets with the Water Park Plus option is $428 per person, 5 people in your family, for two years, is $4280.
Versus $2791 for 5 Premium annual passes that will last you through 2 annual visits, if the second trip begins no later than 10 days before the passes expire.
2 years of VWL maintenance fees at 350 points runs roughly $3738. But you're saving $1489 on ticket prices during that same 2 year period. Plus, you can then buy membership in Tables in Wonderland and save 20% on pretty much all your sit-down meals (including alcohol), but forget that for now. If you apply the theme park savings, then the difference is $2250, for 2 10 night stays in a 1BR Villa.
Just throwing it out there...
ConstanceIrene
Member
I agree. My girls are 22 and 19. We may not spend every minute with them on our vacations, but they still look forward to their WDW time. We meet for sit-down dinners and some park attractions. Thanks to DVC, I have booked two studios, one for us and one for them, since they were old enough to have a room of their own.
That's the thing I don't get - You make it sound as though without DVC, you couldn't get 2 rooms.:shrug:
ConstanceIrene
Member
I understand the confusion and, you're right, a person could book two rooms if they want.
The thing is, I own enough DVC points to allow me to book 2 studios for each vacation. The dues I pay each year are still less than the cost of the rooms I book and the taxes in my dues are deductable. I don't think we'd book two rooms if we had to pay for them each time we visited. For that matter, I don't know how often we'd visit WDW.
I've always said that I purchased DVC to make sure I'd have a vacation each year. Knowing the points are there to be used each June makes me feel like I own my vacation already. Without DVC, money would've been put aside for 14 years (so far) of tuition, insurance (We're covering our cars, as well as our 2 DDs), braces, repairs, you name it. Vacations just wouldn't happen for us.
DVC was a good decision for us, but it's a highly personal one. Each family has their reasons for and against DVC. Without rambling on any further, I hope I've made my point.
toolsnspools
Well-Known Member
To compare Apples to Apples, take the points required to stay in a studio at VWL instead of a 1bd. For 10 days in Magic season, it would be 178 pts. (for 2012). I haven't tried it, but I've been told on the boards here that you can book 5 in a studio, which if I understand correctly, is what you're doing in the other hotels. The same dues on 180 annual pts is $961.
Pioneer Hall
Well-Known Member
Studios only sleep 4. I think the exception you are looking at is booking 5 into a 1 BR even though some of them only say that you can put 4. All 1BR units allow 5 people although some of them will not have the sleeping space for that extra person. So you either have to put 3 in a bed or bring an air mattress.
That's exactly what I've been told.
Phonedave
Well-Known Member
Or use the pack and play (crib).
Think I can get an almost 7 y/o to agree to sleep in the pack-n-play?
-dave
toolsnspools
Well-Known Member
I didn't realize that was for the "sleeps 4" 1 bd villas only. I though it applied to any "sleeps 4" room. 
So where are you comparing the VWL stay to? According to the Disney Web page, http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/planning-guides/in-depth-advice/groups/, you're in a DVC villa, a cabin at FW, PO-R, or ASMu if you have 5 guests. Sounds like you're putting 5 people in a room for 4 anyway.
So where are you comparing the VWL stay to? According to the Disney Web page, http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/planning-guides/in-depth-advice/groups/, you're in a DVC villa, a cabin at FW, PO-R, or ASMu if you have 5 guests. Sounds like you're putting 5 people in a room for 4 anyway.
disneyeater
Active Member
You can put 5 in a standard room at PO as well as BC and YC (they have some rooms with a day bed). There are probably others as well.
Pioneer Hall
Well-Known Member
7 year old can be stubborn...I would probably say you are going to have to sleep in the pack and play yourself. :ROFLOL:
Poly, Contemporary, Grand Floridian, Dolphin, FW Cabins, All Star Suites, AoA Suites and Boardwalk all can sleep 5.
I went to the WDW web site, plugged in a 10 day stay for July 2012 for 5 (2 adults, 3 children), and the website quoted just over $6000 for the stay. Now granted, you can get less with discounts, but the discounts are NOT going to be there forever. Disney will eventually phase most if not all of those out, and you will pretty much only get rack rate for the majority of the year. If you are flexible enough that you can travel when the discounts are available (we cannot due to school and work commitments), then you might save some money.
We bought in 2007, and have made 9 DVC trips so far. We have a spreadsheet that tracks what we would have paid in cash for a particular room, and we broke even at 5 trips. I agree that you shouldn't finance it, but some people make the math work for them as well. DVC is NOT an investment, but a luxury, just like any other. Some people buy boats, we bought DVC.
For us, we own 360 points at SSR, and our dues run about $1700/year. We have a trip booked for next month to OKW that would have cost us $2925. Earlier this summer, we stayed in a SSR Treehouse (no such thing as a discount for them) that would have run $5200 when we were there. So, for this year - cost of the rooms - $8125 minus our dues of $1700 = we saved over $6400 in room costs alone. We also buy the APs for $100 off each for the 4 of us, so saved another $400 there, plus we bought the TIW for $75, and we calculated that on our summer trip, we saved approx $600 using the card. We have multiple ADRs next month that will save us even more, and will bump our total savings this year on the TIW to about $800!
So to recap, we have saved, in 2011, $6400 on rooms, $400 on APs, and $800 on food and wine. That does not include the 10% merchandise savings we get at certain places. Total savings of at least $7600 this year alone, so DVC makes complete sense for us. Obviously, YMMV.
We're paying $4,500 with a AAA rate. AAA rates will ALWAYS be available.
Disney will never phase room discounts out completely. They can't. There will always be AAA discounts, and I can not see them taking away AP room discounts.
Did you pay for DVC up front?
There were approximately 18-24 months where there were no AP rates at all. 2003-2004ish??? I will need to check my notes. It was an odd time.
I've also seen timeframes where resorts had nothing available with AAA rates, they only allocate so many rooms per date and resort.
Never say never.
I can only go by what I've seen. Maybe we've just been lucky. We've gone twice a year since 2004 and never paid rack rate.
Yes, they will always be there but they are not immune to inflation.