If you knew then what you know now?

[oakmanner]

I wish we purchased ten years ago instead of last year. Spent many thousands of dollars on cash ressies over the years that would have paid for our DVC a couple times over.

 

[nordkin]

I would have purchased more points from the get go at my initial home resort, instead of not and then adding on later at the same resort. Adding-on at another resort is okay, but I should have just gotten what we wanted at one time.

I agree with you. We have added on twice and wish we had just bought enough points the first time.

 

[december14disney]

I wish we bought so much earlier. Sigh.

 

[jodifla]

We are REALLY happy with our purchase back in '96. We just missed the park passes....I would have liked to bought in in '93, but we weren't quite ready.

I'm glad we didn't buy TOO MANY points....We bought in at 150, then added 56 at BCV and have always felt like we had enough points to enjoy ourselves without being overly tied to just DVC vacations.

The rules do change...you can't get too locked in to your perceptions of how things should be. Some have changed for the better (free Internet) others for the worse (Stupid 4 month booking rule!) but we still love our DVC.

Good luck to you!

 

[dcfromva]

Our first contract was BCV. Like DebbieB, I would have split our BCV contract into smaller amounts. It would have made downsizing possible. As the BCV contract stands now, it is all or nothing.

I would have also picked a later UY. As it turns out, for BCV we have Feb UY and we use the majority of the points in Dec.

 

[crisi]

I would still buy.

I don't know that I would have bought....and I certainly would not buy at today's prices and with today's bargains on travel.

We do prefer the Deluxe rooms to the DVC rooms. I like daily mousekeeping

Knowing what I know now, I think I'd be as happy offsite in a house for cheaper as I am with DVC. And with the bargains Disney is offering right now, I'd think I'd take my chances on bargains.

We really have ended up becoming "Disney people" - and that's really restricted the other travel I'd like to do, but I have these points......

The only thing that makes me not regret our purchase is that we bought in after 9/11 and bought resale - and bought a pretty small number of points - so we got a pretty good price. I do like having my kids sleep in a different room - and I have enjoyed treating family and friends to rooms.

I'm glad we didn't buy earlier. And I'm glad we didn't buy more points. And I like my home resort just fine.

I don't care for the instability (point switching, changes to how reservations work - and for us, moving back Food and Wine two weeks - that has created a huge hassle for us - an event we don't particularly enjoy now makes our resort and the parks crowded during our typical vacation time). I don't like Disney's lack of communication on these things.

 

[cheezNE1]

...

We really have ended up becoming "Disney people" - and that's really restricted the other travel I'd like to do, but I have these points......

That is so true- I think we have become "Disney People" as well. I want to try other places, but since we already have DVC, why pay for other vacations. I did book a trip to VB this year and try not to go to the themeparks. But the Star Wars week is the week I'm gonna be at VB and I'm so tempted to renew my AP so I can be there. Was gonna wait till my BLT october trip, but.....the
Oh no, we've become Mouses....

 

[rkwier]

First of all, you came to the right place for information. When we were first looking into DVC, I POURED over this board and was able to answer many of my questions and alleviate most of my fears. The people on the DIS offer a wealth of information and are always willing to help.

Sometimes I think that I wish that we had bought sooner, but in reality we bought at just the right time in our lives. The one thing that I did wish that I had known right away was that you can purchase at sold out resorts and not just the new ones. Of course, I found the answer to that pretty quickly on this board! Also learned about the re-sale market here, which I did not even know existed.

 

[Deb & Bill]

If I had not bought in 1997, I wouldn't be buying now. Points are just outrageously high. Then you add in the dues which continue to go up, up, up. If I had known about renting from a member, we probably would have done that.

There are very few costs that have more than doubled since 1997 like DVC points and dues.

 

[Sammie]

I agree with Deb & Bill, crisi and jodifla. I wish I had sold some of my contracts earlier and just kept enough points to use for 5 days, every other year.

We have restricted our travel to only include Disney and I regret that at times. Because we had it and it was paid for, we felt obligated. I thought when we purchased, due to the spill our sales agent gave us, we would use it more outside of Disney, when we tired of Disney vacations. But as we know that usage is truly not the best way to use your points or even travel to other locations.

As Deb & Bill stated dues and point prices have increased at a very high rate while in my opinion, the quality and upkeep of the product has declined in the same time period.

The price of points today, would be a deterent to our purchasing, especially when rentals are so available at a much greater savings with none of the hassle of ownership.

 

[CarolA]

I don't know that I would have bought....and I certainly would not buy at today's prices and with today's bargains on travel.

We do prefer the Deluxe rooms to the DVC rooms. I like daily mousekeeping

Knowing what I know now, I think I'd be as happy offsite in a house for cheaper as I am with DVC. And with the bargains Disney is offering right now, I'd think I'd take my chances on bargains.

.

Well... the "Deluxe" rooms are one of the MAIN reasons I am glad I did buy. Sorry, but Disney's "Deluxe" is a THREE STAR hotel. Yes it's "pretty" but after that it fails EVERY standard for a Deluxe hotel EXCEPT pricing and MAYBE location. And boy do they have PRICING down to an art. At Disney "Deluxe" it's "pay more receive less" and IMHO I was tired of getting ripped of and that was BEFORE the current rates. Even with the "Deals" they are not in the price range for the quality they provide.

Don't believe me, pick a random day. Go search. There are TWO Mobil 4 star hotels in Orlando. Ritz and Peabody. I did several "random" searchs for days this summer. Ritz came up in the $250 range for a standard room. Disney Deluxe... .up to $500 for a STANDARD room. Sure the 4/3 sounds good, but if the "rack rate" is $400 and you pay that for four nights your averge rate is STILL $228 for a room that's not as nice. (I have stayed at Disney "deluxe" and the Ritz. In every way including POSSIBLY location Ritz exceeds or is equal to Disney. Disney has the edge if your ONLY goal for the trip is Disney but.... even then it's very "park" specific. Epcot resorts have great access to Epcot but if you want to go to MK you will be shoved on a bus with folks from up to FOUR other hotels. Gee that's "Deluxe" service?

Seriously I posted once a point by point comparsion on the Resort board... it's funny how poorly Disney measures up. (Even housekeeping is lax. At a Deluxe resort you get daily housekeeping and AUTOMATIC evening refresh including new towels, turndown etc. It's not "if you remember to call and we remember to do it" )


A deal based on an inflated price is just like the loss leaders your "appliance store" does. What's the REAL value?

My average per cost night for DVC is probably well under $100 by now and actually goes DOWN over time even when you add in the annual fees! Heck I could add daily housekeeping and still undercut Disney "deluxe" pricing!

Now I still travel extenisvely outside of Disney. My big vacation this year. Two weeks in Spain and Portugal with NO Disney at all!

 

[crisi]

Oh, Carol - I COMPLETELY agree. Which is one of the reasons I think - knowing now what I know - that I'd stay offsite. But they are better maintained than the DVC rooms and I get my bed made every day. I've stayed at the Peabody. And the Rosen Center. And the Gaylord. Each one is nicer - in terms of rooms and service - than DVC. Even the Hilton is nicer.

If I'm willing to stay offsite, I can get a nicer house or a condo for a fraction of the price. I can get a better hotel room for a fraction of the price. I've never liked to drive around Disney - but a few years of conferences in the area for both my husband and I and we've gotten used to it.

If I'm feeling like an onsite snob, I'd rather stay Deluxe than DVC - EXCEPT that DVC lets me affordably put my kids in another room. For now, and at the prices I bought in at, that's worth it. But at today's prices to buy points, and today's bargains when booking resorts - it isn't. I wouldn't buy today. It would be offsite or Deluxe.

 

[bethy]

We purchased last fall and this thread is comforting to me b/c it is convincing me that we made the right DVC purchase scenario for us. It was very, very hard but we tenaciously resisted buying more points then we will absolutely need. We so do not want our vacations locked into Disney. In fact we consider our Disney trips to be our Disney trips and our vacations are a seperate thing. I am glad we bought a modest amount of points that will come with a more modest amount of dues over the years. During our two fold puchase process we kept reminding ourselves that there ARE other places to stay at WDW and DLR in case we run out of points during a given year, lol! We did buy in when our children were relatively little so that makes us happy, too. And our DVC membership should last us the rest of our lives - or at least the rest of our travelling lives.

This will be our one and only timeshare I think, at least until we retire. We want to continue to be able to see our great big world with our children and a lot of the places we go we prefer not to stay in resort type places.

 

[Disneyaunt4]

Would have bought sooner and would have bought more points,230 just isn't enough

 

[Strackfam]

What is the 4 month booking rule?

 

[DISNEY FIX]

I am so happy we bought at the BCV and VWL! We spilt out first batch of points 150 at each resort. We just added on 200 more BCV and couldn't be happier. I guess we can trade out od BCV into just about anything else but it doesn't allways work out in the reverse for the people who want to try the BCV. So I guess the answer is we would have bought more points when we first bought, but we copuldn't afford to. The 30K we spent a couple years ago would be worth about 12.5k now so I an ok with the purchase. If we could of bought a few years earlier that would be great too but we weren't a family then and didn't catch the Disney bug yet.I posted the same exact question when I first got onto the Dis DVC boards.
Ask Dean and others I was a PITA.

 

[Chuck S]

What is the 4 month booking rule?

Well, the booking rule really hasn't changed, I think the poster was probably referrig to the new-ish 4 month banking window, meaning you can not bank any points during the last 4 months of your use year.

Also you can not initiate a trade outside of DVC, including the Disney Collection, during the last 4 months of your use year. A fairly recent change is that now the Disney collection requires a $95 processing fee per reservation, DisneyLAND is currently exempt, but most folks expect that exemption to evaporate after the VGC come online.

 

[disneybride96]

We have restricted our travel to only include Disney and I regret that at times.

I feel exactly the opposite. Having DVC entices us to go "somewhere", even if it is only WDW. Pre-DVC we would usually do one vacation a year. Now we do 2-3 trips a year and not all Disney. It has been good for us!

 

[ACDSNY]

We typically travel in the Fall so I wish I would've paid more attention to the Feb UY we initially purchased. We've since sold some points in our Feb UY to switch over to an Aug UY. Otherwise we're still happy with our purchase.

 

[njmeisje]

I would have bought an April UY instead of an August UY.