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Stupid question.
- Thread starter Speedbird
- Start date
RickEff
Active Member
It's not that stupid of a question - so don't sweat it.
I believe originally, when DVC first started, it included access to the parks. It was a perk that was eventually removed.
They do offer significant discounts on Annual passes though. You can save $100 or $125 depending on the type of pass you get. Not free - but good!
Rick
PS - I also believe they are currently running a promotion that if you buy at least 130 points (if you're new you have to buy a minimum of 150) that they will give you an annual pass for free. That may have expired now though.
I believe originally, when DVC first started, it included access to the parks. It was a perk that was eventually removed.
They do offer significant discounts on Annual passes though. You can save $100 or $125 depending on the type of pass you get. Not free - but good!
Rick
PS - I also believe they are currently running a promotion that if you buy at least 130 points (if you're new you have to buy a minimum of 150) that they will give you an annual pass for free. That may have expired now though.
donaldduck1967
Member
RickEff said:
When I got the letter about that I had to laugh. If you buy 130 pts @ $90.00 a pt thats $11,000ish you get 1 free annual pass.
Okay, now I am completely lost. You mean that you have to buy park tickets separately everytime you go down there when you are a DVC member? That is just plain stupid. I am an accountant and I have be really racking my brain to make buying into this time share make sense, especially since not only do they want you to pay upwards of fifteen thousand dollars to join but they also have yearly dues, now you are telling me that you don't even receive theme park tickets with the room? I really can not imagine how this makes sense to people. If I were ever going to buy a timeshare in Florida it would make a lot more sense to buy one by the ocean or even in Orlando, but not on Disney property. Do you at least receive 150 points every year, or do they charge you more each year? :brick:
RickEff
Active Member
Caseyis8 said:
Yes. Just like any timeshare, it's for accomodations only. There are perks and discounts from time to time, but they can change from year to year.
For your $15,000 you will get 45 years of accomodations as good as or better than deluxe resorts. Depending on when you go, and how big of a place you require, you will have anywhere up to 16 days a year. The average annual fees are about $600 based on 150 points.
If you figure right now the best rate you'll get in a Deluxe Resort is about $129 a night (that works out to $144 a night after tax I think) it gets pretty easy to see that DVC is worth it if:
1) You visit every year or every other year.
2) You generally stay at Deluxe resorts.
There are many other advantages, but I'll stop there.
It's not for everyone, but it really is worth it. I've never ONCE heard anyone think it was a bad idea to join.
The final kicker for me - if I ever get bored with it - I can sell it for more than I paid for it!
Hope this helps.
Rick
You have to do your own financial analysis. Everyone looks at DVC through different eyes. If it makes financial sense for you, go for it. If it doesn't, steer clear. There are lots of people who think it's a no brainer financially and plenty of others for whom it just doesn't work.
ConstanceIrene
Member
Caseyis8 said:
It sounds like you have not looked into the benefits and flexibility of the DVC. Before you say it's "just plain stupid", get your details on DVC and compare them to the surrounding time shares. Should you decide to purchase elsewhere in Florida or not at all, that's what works for you. For my family, the DVC has been a wonderful investment.
Regarding your last question: Yes, you receive 150 points in your account at the beginning of a particular month each year. You then "spend" your points however you see fit.
I am sorry. I did not mean to say that the DVC is stupid, I meant to say that I believe that if you are willing to pay almost twenty thousand dollars on a vacation destination that they should at least include the theme park tickets with it. I just think that there are definately good and bad aspects to every type of time share. I was seriously considering investing into the DVC, but I truely was shocked that members are still required to purchase tickets.
RickEff
Active Member
Caseyis8 said:I am sorry. I did not mean to say that the DVC is stupid, I meant to say that I believe that if you are willing to pay almost twenty thousand dollars on a vacation destination that they should at least include the theme park tickets with it. I just think that there are definately good and bad aspects to every type of time share. I was seriously considering investing into the DVC, but I truely was shocked that members are still required to purchase tickets.
In my view, it's investing $15,000 not paying $20,000
Like I said - point prices go up, so if/when you decide DVC isn't for you anymore, you will more than likely make money.
You are correct in saying that if you ever want to sell your DVC points you will make your money back. Plus, in a way it will be like you received all of your vacations for free, or really cheap, then. I am sorry that I came across as rude last night. I was just having a bad day. I would love to buy into the DVC, I just really wish that the tickets were included. Do you receive any special sales on tickets or dining?
RickEff
Active Member
I didn't think you came across as rude or anything negative at all. Don't sweat it.Caseyis8 said:You are correct in saying that if you ever want to sell your DVC points you will make your money back. Plus, in a way it will be like you received all of your vacations for free, or really cheap, then. I am sorry that I came across as rude last night. I was just having a bad day. I would love to buy into the DVC, I just really wish that the tickets were included. Do you receive any special sales on tickets or dining?
The only discounts for tickets I'm aware of is $100 or $125 off of an annual pass or premium annual pass.
There are lots of restaurants you get 10% off for food. I don't have a list handy though.
hillbilly1170
New Member
My Take on the Value of DVC
Casey,
Opinions are always welcome on boards because most times it brings out the detailed information that people need to make competent decisions. We loved DVC so much that we just bought another timeshare. Our first property we bought was BCV and just two years later it is selling via resale over $20/point more than our purchase. It's nice to know that DVC wasn't a bad investment, but even more so was the fact that our family had one of the best vacations ever using it. I would say a couple of things before buying into DVC:
1. To get the best benefit you probably would want to go to disney every other year at the very least. You get an allotment of points based on what you aquired in purchasing the contract for. For me I purchased a BCV for $200/point. I paid $14,600 for my initial contract two years ago. Right now I'm pretty positive I could sell it for around $18,600 if I desired(which I won't). My maintenance fees are around $940/year. During my last vacation which was 13 days, if I would have stayed in the exact rooms without being a DVC memeber I would have paid $415/night for the time of year we went. That equates to $5395. If I would stay at the same rooms for the same length of time for 4 years it would cost me $21,580. While using my initial purchase and including maintenance fees every year for 4 year, it would cost me $19,300. So my point in this manner would be that it will probably take 4 years for you to start seeing the benefit to DVC. Remember that maintenance fees to increase around 4%/year, but I believe also that the increase in cost disney raises to stay at the resorts increase beyond that percentage. I have since purchased a property at OKW so I can take advantage of the savings even more.
2. No park tickets included....But there are some other options. You get a great discount on anual passes, yea I know if you only go once a year how is this going to really benefit you. Well if you have an annual passe you can purchase the Disney dining experience which for $60 more would allow you to recieve a 20% discount on all food and beverages including alcholic for no more than a party of 10 on select resturaunts. Not all, but many good ones to choose from. You only have to buy 1 annual pass to be eligable but remember it does include up to a party of 10. Even if you don't go through the Disney Dining experience, you still are eligible to save on the glutting Disney Dining Plan if you so choose for $37.99/person for everyone in your party for the length of stay. Even if you don't choose either of the above, DVC member only need to show their card for 10 - 20 % discounts on select resturants. Last time I bought discounted park tickets(5 day hopper with 4 magic your way option) and paid $285/ adult ticket. Next time I think I could buy a annual pass for around $307 without the magic our way option, plus the $60 for the disney dining experience just on one ticket, so I could recieve the 20 % off on the food.
3. Even if you could ever get sick of disney....the great thing with the DVC ownership is that your not stuck just going to Disney. You certainly get your best value with your points staying at one of the deluxe resorts that are in DVC, but you still have that flexibility to go to places like Italy, Ireland, Germany.etc....or stay at one of the 5 star hotels in places such as Hawaii, or New York. The Disney cruises seem to me to be good value as well. Bottom line if you like taking vacation every year then I would recommend considering DVC as an option. The flexibility is termendous, you can really choose what time of year, where you stay, and take advantage of the other discounts like tickets or dining.
4. Disney Vacation Club might not be for everyone, but I can honestly say that we are more likely to buy into more property than to get out of it. While I agree that DVC could add some more incentives to tickets, it still is a great value for my family.
Caseyis8 said:You are correct in saying that if you ever want to sell your DVC points you will make your money back. Plus, in a way it will be like you received all of your vacations for free, or really cheap, then. I am sorry that I came across as rude last night. I was just having a bad day. I would love to buy into the DVC, I just really wish that the tickets were included. Do you receive any special sales on tickets or dining?
Casey,
Opinions are always welcome on boards because most times it brings out the detailed information that people need to make competent decisions. We loved DVC so much that we just bought another timeshare. Our first property we bought was BCV and just two years later it is selling via resale over $20/point more than our purchase. It's nice to know that DVC wasn't a bad investment, but even more so was the fact that our family had one of the best vacations ever using it. I would say a couple of things before buying into DVC:
1. To get the best benefit you probably would want to go to disney every other year at the very least. You get an allotment of points based on what you aquired in purchasing the contract for. For me I purchased a BCV for $200/point. I paid $14,600 for my initial contract two years ago. Right now I'm pretty positive I could sell it for around $18,600 if I desired(which I won't). My maintenance fees are around $940/year. During my last vacation which was 13 days, if I would have stayed in the exact rooms without being a DVC memeber I would have paid $415/night for the time of year we went. That equates to $5395. If I would stay at the same rooms for the same length of time for 4 years it would cost me $21,580. While using my initial purchase and including maintenance fees every year for 4 year, it would cost me $19,300. So my point in this manner would be that it will probably take 4 years for you to start seeing the benefit to DVC. Remember that maintenance fees to increase around 4%/year, but I believe also that the increase in cost disney raises to stay at the resorts increase beyond that percentage. I have since purchased a property at OKW so I can take advantage of the savings even more.
2. No park tickets included....But there are some other options. You get a great discount on anual passes, yea I know if you only go once a year how is this going to really benefit you. Well if you have an annual passe you can purchase the Disney dining experience which for $60 more would allow you to recieve a 20% discount on all food and beverages including alcholic for no more than a party of 10 on select resturaunts. Not all, but many good ones to choose from. You only have to buy 1 annual pass to be eligable but remember it does include up to a party of 10. Even if you don't go through the Disney Dining experience, you still are eligible to save on the glutting Disney Dining Plan if you so choose for $37.99/person for everyone in your party for the length of stay. Even if you don't choose either of the above, DVC member only need to show their card for 10 - 20 % discounts on select resturants. Last time I bought discounted park tickets(5 day hopper with 4 magic your way option) and paid $285/ adult ticket. Next time I think I could buy a annual pass for around $307 without the magic our way option, plus the $60 for the disney dining experience just on one ticket, so I could recieve the 20 % off on the food.
3. Even if you could ever get sick of disney....the great thing with the DVC ownership is that your not stuck just going to Disney. You certainly get your best value with your points staying at one of the deluxe resorts that are in DVC, but you still have that flexibility to go to places like Italy, Ireland, Germany.etc....or stay at one of the 5 star hotels in places such as Hawaii, or New York. The Disney cruises seem to me to be good value as well. Bottom line if you like taking vacation every year then I would recommend considering DVC as an option. The flexibility is termendous, you can really choose what time of year, where you stay, and take advantage of the other discounts like tickets or dining.
4. Disney Vacation Club might not be for everyone, but I can honestly say that we are more likely to buy into more property than to get out of it. While I agree that DVC could add some more incentives to tickets, it still is a great value for my family.
Man, that makes the plan sound really great. I would like to buy at the new one(especially since that is the only one that Disney is offering), but they want 100/point. I saw on the resale market that you can buy a lot of points at one of the older clubs for as little as 70/point. Which would you guys recommend? I know that the new one would not expire as soon, but I do not know if I will still want DVC when I am in my twilight years. Then again, I am sure our son would gladly take them. He is only eight years old now so he could definately vacation at Disney a lot.
I would like to buy at the new one(especially since that is the only one that Disney is offering), but they want 100/point. I saw on the resale market that you can buy a lot of points at one of the older clubs for as little as 70/point. Which would you guys recommend? I know that the new one would not expire as soon, but I do not know if I will still want DVC when I am in my twilight years. Then again, I am sure our son would gladly take them. He is only eight years old now so he could definately vacation at Disney a lot. 
Magic Maker
New Member
Caseyis8 said:Man, that makes the plan sound really great.
Hi Casey,
Let me give you a quick background on me.
I am a DVC Cast Member, and I am also a DVC Member. I get into the parks free because I am a Cast Member. I get anywhere from 30-60% of the room rates as a Cast Member. However, with all of that I STILL decided to purchase a membership. That says something.
It also speaks volumes that we have been around for 15 years and we are within months of reaching our 100,000th member family mark ( a member family is not a single person, it refers to amount of memberships there which tends to cover 3 people).
Does DVC include tickets? No. As stated before, it was when we first started to get our product out there and noticed. It is rumored that we also lost a ton of money on that idea. No timeshare or vacation ownership out there included tickets or anything outside of your accomodations. Some programs give their members the option of upgraded their points for other things, but value is lost on the points, and it costs extra.
DVC is the only vacation ownership that A) offer specific Disney perks B) is owned and operated by Disney and C) Doesn't pull the high pressure, decide now crap that everyone else does.
No matter where you go on vacation room rates go up, every single year, usually 10-20% per night. DVC resorts have a point value per night, that point value is locked in from the time the resort opens to the time the membership goes through. It is not made to be an investment for you to make your money backi if you were to resell. It is a program that WILL make your vacations more enjoyable by giving you better places to stay with more space and not having to pay a hotel bill as it goes up each year. You will also hit a break even poitn wehre the membership has already paid for itself.
The next time you visit WDW you owe it to yourself to go to the Open House we have. Yes, it is my role to introduce Guests to DVC and then schedule the Open House with you. I would not do this job if I did not believe in DVC and believe in the value of going to the Open House. Since you are an accountant you will want to crunch all kinds of numbers. At the Open House you will get every last piece of info you want and then you can take it all back home and crunch away.
That is great. We are planning on going down April 27 - May 5, 2007. We were thinking about staying at POR since it has the boat to DTD. We love to walk around there. I would definately love to see a DVC presentation. To tell you the truth, I will probably end up buying into the DVC on the spot. My husband thinks that I am silly because I am always thinking and talking about WDW and how I wish we could move to Florida. Buying into the DVC just might be the thing I am looking for to hold me over until I can talk my husband into moving to Florida. :lol:
We are planning on going down April 27 - May 5, 2007. We were thinking about staying at POR since it has the boat to DTD. We love to walk around there. I would definately love to see a DVC presentation. To tell you the truth, I will probably end up buying into the DVC on the spot. My husband thinks that I am silly because I am always thinking and talking about WDW and how I wish we could move to Florida. Buying into the DVC just might be the thing I am looking for to hold me over until I can talk my husband into moving to Florida. :lol:
aamove
New Member
Casey,
We had some of the same concerns that you have, before we went to a DVC presentation. We have owned time shares for over 10 years and are very used to the hard sell tactics and we were wondering what angle Disney was going to use to get us hooked.
Last month our oldest daughter participated in the Disney Music Festival, which was held at Saratoga Springs right next to the DVC sales center. We decided to go next door, "just to look at floor plans". What a pleasant surprise. The gentleman that conducted our presentation and tour was just fantastic. He did not try the hard sell. He did not make us any outlandish promisses. In fact the things that he presented as Perks today, he made it a point to say that these perks were not promissed in the future and that they may not be available in the future. He was just totally honest about what he was selling. Like you we have thought about DVC for a while and for us the investment made sense. The discounts that they offered and the fact that they gave us last years points as an added incentive, it was just too much to pass up.
We are now going back at the end of November and are already looking forward to our second trip to Disney this year. Good luck with your visit and have fun in your trip.
We had some of the same concerns that you have, before we went to a DVC presentation. We have owned time shares for over 10 years and are very used to the hard sell tactics and we were wondering what angle Disney was going to use to get us hooked.
Last month our oldest daughter participated in the Disney Music Festival, which was held at Saratoga Springs right next to the DVC sales center. We decided to go next door, "just to look at floor plans". What a pleasant surprise. The gentleman that conducted our presentation and tour was just fantastic. He did not try the hard sell. He did not make us any outlandish promisses. In fact the things that he presented as Perks today, he made it a point to say that these perks were not promissed in the future and that they may not be available in the future. He was just totally honest about what he was selling. Like you we have thought about DVC for a while and for us the investment made sense. The discounts that they offered and the fact that they gave us last years points as an added incentive, it was just too much to pass up.
We are now going back at the end of November and are already looking forward to our second trip to Disney this year. Good luck with your visit and have fun in your trip.
Caseyis8 said:
The people who buy DVC timeshares are people who have a love for Disney, mostly. If you don't see the value, you're not going to understand why anyone would buy it. Probably if it wasn't for the actual attractions, most people wouldn't go for it.
You get 150 pts per year.