Trying to decide on DVC

coasterphil

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
My family just returned from WDW and my family is considering joining after my dad was surprised by the price. We are expecting a large sum of money in the near future so we are looking for good ways to use it. I wanted to know whether it would really be worth joining. We just moved to Georgia, so we'll probably make a Disney trip every year or so. There are 7 in the family, so for our most recent trip we had to rent a 3Br property about 4 miles away for 130 a night. We loved the space it offered, but the trip didn't feel the same as it did when we had stayed at the Wilderness cabins. We've also been interested at staying at the Hilton Head property.


My basic question is, does it seem like it would be worth it and how does using other non-Disney properties work? We would like to try other resorts, but have heard the trading price is pretty high so it wouldn't work out very well.
 

crazycalf

New Member
coasterphil said:
We would like to try other resorts, but have heard the trading price is pretty high so it wouldn't work out very well.

All of the trades for vacation club resorts are about the same amount of points. Some are a few points higher than others. You would be able to choose between 5 different resorts at WDW plus the other 2 (vero beach and hilton head). If they add any more DVC resorts you would probably be able to go there too. You can trade for regular disney resort hotels, but the amount of points you would need to trade are not worth it. You can get a better room at dvc for the same amount of points.

If you are going to buy the DVC, make sure to buy enough points. With 7 people you would have to have at least a 2 bedroom or 2 studios per trip.
 

crazycalf

New Member
Sorry, my fault, I miss read it.
I thought the trade prices were pretty cheap, but I havn't done that yet.
We would be able to trade for a week in Hawaii and still have over a week at wdw. We also bought a lot more points than we probably need, at least right now.
 

cinderminnie

New Member
We are members at DVC and TOTALLY is worth it. We also lives in Georgia and making a trip twice a year is easy. We have owned for just over a year and by December, we will have booked enough trips to have paid for the entire 250 points we have if we would have paid regular price for the rooms. We are getting a Grand Villa to take our two sides of family.
The other points to different places are reasonable. I would definitely look at how many points you will need for a family of 7. Look at when you would go and points charts of the resorts that you would like to stay at. Go to DISBoards.com and look for DVC board.
The DIS Discussion Forums - powered by vBulletin
There are alot of helpful DVC owners to answer questions there. I would also get the Caskbill DVC planner (search on that board to find) and it can help your family figure how many points to buy.
Saratoga Springs is our home and we love it there!
Good Luck to your family!
 

cinderminnie

New Member
The DIS Discussion Forums - powered by vBulletin

Go to this board and find DVC board.
There are helpful DVC owners to answer all questions you may have.

Get the Caskbill DVC planner (find on the board too)
and figure how many points you would need for a family of 7 to take 1-2 trips a year. You will have enough for the other trips as well.

All I can say is that DVC is so worth it!
It will spoil you right away because it is so comforting and rewarding!
 

CAPTAINJACK

New Member
coasterphil said:
My basic question is, does it seem like it would be worth it and how does using other non-Disney properties work? We would like to try other resorts, but have heard the trading price is pretty high so it wouldn't work out very well.

We have been members for 4 years now. Family of five, kids all under 10. We chose DVC because we knew that we would be coming back year after year, and we wanted the flexibility of the point system as our needs changed. Most importantly, we chose it because we knew that most of the points we were going to spend on vacations in the near future would be spent AT DISNEY (as opposed to the outside hotel resorts and time share resorts). We also liked the fact that we could go for 2 days or 10, and not be pigeon-holed into a standard week. There are numerous other advantages for US.

What fits for others may not be a fit for you, especially if you may not be visiting Disney property frequently (they are, after all, trying to capture you as a repeat vacationer and have you spend money on park tickets, food, merchandise, etc.). I would look at what your vacation preferences are first, then definitely use the other resources mentioned in previous posts. Then the value of trading into a traditional time share becomes clearer.

FYI, the traditional time shares that Disney deals with are not ALL the time shares in the Interval International network. Disney claims that they only deal with the top resorts, so that may be why the trading price seems high to you. One thing you will get when you trade is a quality II resort (some of them ain't so great). We have only used the Concierge Collection (Hotels), but we stayed at an incredible hotel in Charleston, and were very pleased.

Good Luck.
 

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