wdw vacation club

[wdwmom2+1]

ok i've sat in on the information seminars before and done the tour etc. but that was about 6 years ago and I can't for the life ofme remember these things so i thought i'd ask.

is there really a benefit to joining?

we go to disney every year usually about 2 weeks out of the year (different times added up) sometimes more often. (we got married there) we normally stay in an all stars resort and like it just fine. we curretnly live in florida and are moving to texas. we thought of joining the vacation club. but im wonding if there really would be a benefit??

we normally pay about 70.00 a night at an all star (fl resident rate) so that would be about 1100 a year (with tax etc) wouldnt it cost more then that just to join the vacation club with monthly dues etc? do you get tickets included>?

thanks

 

[Disneygal99]

My fiancee and I just got back from Disney May 16th, did the tour of the DVC, and after a lot of looking at numbers and prices, decided it would be a good idea for us, especially since we will be married in a few mos, will start having children, etc.. We are extremely excited about it!

I do have a question for all of the members on here---
How easy is it to book a room off Disney property, in the World Passport collection? We love Disney but would like to see other places too! We were thinking about Aruba, they have a beuatiful place that is in the World Passprt collection, I am just a little nervous as to how difficult it is to book off Disney property. I understand they have to do a search that costs $75 in order to see if someone is trying to rent their week, in exchange for one of your weeks on Disney Property.

We just received all of our "New Member" stuff in the mail yesterday, but was very curious about this before we sign everything! ANy help would be great! Thanks!

 

[Yanks07]

Hey wdw mom, the # of nites is based on the amount of points you purchase. Each nite is a certain amount of points with fri./sat. being double points. If you want to stay additional nites, you can pay cash and get a 25% discount. For the 150 point min., you will get about 7-10 nites in a studio depending what time of year you travel. Monthly fees are around 4$/pt or so. (I pay $160/mos. for 400 pts)
Hope this helps

 

[brkgnews]

thanks for all the great input I have a few more questions

basically by signing up how many nights a year do you get to stay without paying extra?

How about if you want to add on disney dining etc when you stay?

Also about how much do you pay yearly in the maintance fee?

Thanks!@

Since many DVC owners are annual passholders, DVC is able to "separate" Disney Dining from a ticket purchase (normally you have to buy a ticket to get Disney Dining Plan). You will be able to purchase the dining plan for roughly $40 per day, and you'll need to purchase it for every day of your stay, for every member of your party. Free dining offers are NOT available.

Your other two questions are variable.

Each resort has different maintenance/tax fees. I have the info for Animal Kingdom and Saratoga Springs at home -- I don't remember exactly what they are, but I don't remember them beign rediculously high. You can either pay them annually or monthly.

As for the number of "free" nights, it all depends on the number of points you have -- I think I did roughly figure out that with 250 points at Saratoga Springs, one monthly DVC payment (with principal, financing, and annual fees all figureed in) roughly equalled one NIGHT of rack-rate room there. So... for a year's worth of the same money, you could either get twelve nights at rack rate or (depending on season of travel, room size, and resort) up to about 15-20 days on DVC points. So maybe an extra week or so? Again, it is all VERY variable.

Simple equation to remember... Smaller room at slower time of the year: least points and best value. Huge Grand Villa room on Christmas Eve: Mother of God!

Also remember that Friday and Saturday nights cost more points than the rest of the week. So if you are happy checking in Monday and out on Saturday, your rate will be less than the "weekly" rate on the charts (minus one weeknight point value and one weekend point value).

EDIT: I might also add that I'm buying in while I'm single... so any future wife and kids will have no choice but to go to Disney with me for the next 50 years. :lookaroun

 

[PhilharMagician]

Well we have been members only since 2003. In that time we have spent 55 nights at WDW and if you take the typical rack rates for the rooms we stayed in and add them up it would have cost us over $18,000. That is about what we have spent including the original purchase of my points and maintenance for the past 4 years. So our purchase has already paid for itself and we have another. Along with that we now get our AP's discounted for even more savings.

Don't wait! The cost of points are going up consistantly. We only paid $76.00 per point and now it is $30+ more per point. This also brings up the resale of the points. You could use them for 10 years and most likely (market dependant) sell them for more that you bought them for. Just look at OKW owners. I just wish I had bought in the early 90's when OKW was just starting.