Buying but using for adventures by Disney

[djwang]

We're close to buying at animal kingdom. For at least a few years, though, I see us taking a number of adventures by Disney vacations. I'm wondering whether using points for this purpose makes the vacation club "not worth it." The kids are 10 and 8 now and I see at least a couple of more trips to Orlando in the next few years (in addition to ADC trips). After that, I would think someone would be using the points at AK at least every other year.

Thoughts?

 

[Tara]

We're close to buying at animal kingdom. For at least a few years, though, I see us taking a number of adventures by Disney vacations. I'm wondering whether using points for this purpose makes the vacation club "not worth it." The kids are 10 and 8 now and I see at least a couple of more trips to Orlando in the next few years (in addition to ADC trips). After that, I would think someone would be using the points at AK at least every other year.

Thoughts?

Depends on how you define "worth it." In my mind, no, it isn't worth it.

Say you choose the "Cities of Knights and Lights" (London and Paris itinerary, 7 days, 6 nights). That costs 543 points per adult WITH early booking (at least 6 months in advance). The same trip with early booking is $3799 cash. That's a value of 6.99 per point - your points don't have a lot of buying power in this case. Plus I'm not certain, but I don't think you can mix points and cash to pay for one person - so you'd either have to buy a LOT of points or being in a situation where you're using all of one year and a lot of another year (banking or borrowing) to just pay for one person.

Now, why I say whether or not it's "worth it" depends is that if you are planning on taking these trips, perhaps cash out of pocket for this versus for paying for your DVC is a consideration. If you've already bought DVC (financing or paying cash), your money has already been spent, so you might want to use points (no matter how bad the value) instead of paying out even more cash.

One thing to consider I guess is renting your points - you'd get $10 per point more or less so you'd at least have some cash in hand for booking and your value per point would be higher than using them directly on the Adventures trip.

 

[JimMIA]

My personal opinion is, the farther you get away from unique Disney vacations, the less value these things have...when you pay cash. If you use points, you're getting even less value, IMHO. For example, many people love Disney cruises, but you're really paying several times more than you would pay for a regular cruise from someone like Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, etc.

The Disney Adventure series, in particular, seems tremendously overpriced. For every one of those trips, there are much better and much less expensive alternatives from reputable companies who have been providing tours to those destinations for generations.

 

[CarolA]

The Disney Adventure series, in particular, seems tremendously overpriced. For every one of those trips, there are much better and much less expensive alternatives from reputable companies who have been providing tours to those destinations for generations.

I agree, when I see these prices I just HOWL!

I have done the Paris/London deals. As a matter of fact Christmas 2008 I spent in the SAME hotel in London as the Adventures by Disney. Trust me I spent a HECK of a lot less. (And I got to see WICKED instead of Mary Poppins for my Theater night! )

Disney is making a fortune of "Americans" scared to vacation with anyone but other Americans.

 

[Tara]

I agree, when I see these prices I just HOWL!

I have done the Paris/London deals. As a matter of fact Christmas 2008 I spent in the SAME hotel in London as the Adventures by Disney. Trust me I spent a HECK of a lot less. (And I got to see WICKED instead of Mary Poppins for my Theater night! )

Disney is making a fortune of "Americans" scared to vacation with anyone but other Americans.

Funny, I didn't even think about it that way, but we went to London and Paris for a week in 2006 and paid significantly less for our trip than the Adventures prices, even when I factor in airfare. AND we stayed at the Dorchester in London, which is a much better hotel than the ones Disney uses. We took our son to see Mary Poppins (and had excellent seats) and we also had a private tour to Stonehenge before opening so we could walk among the stones. And we took the Eurostar to Paris. Now that I look at the itinerary, we did virtually everything on the London portion of the Adventures trip, although we had tea at the Dorchester (less touristy than Harrod's).

CarolA I agree with you that there's some fear/comfort factor at play here, although I also suspect that the guides are pretty darned good, too. I've come to look at Disney the way I look at the bridal industry - slap the word "bridal" on something and it suddenly becomes more expensive!

 

[CarolMN]

Disney has been canceling some of the Adventures by Disney trips lately. Not enough takers, I presume.

Also, the points for those are NOT guaranteed to remain the same. I predict they will increase each and every year that they are an option for DVC members.

IMO, you should buy only the amount of DVC points that you think you will use for stays at DVC resorts. That's the best value - everything else can be gotten for less via other means.

 

[CarolA]

CarolA I agree with you that there's some fear/comfort factor at play here, although I also suspect that the guides are pretty darned good, too. I've come to look at Disney the way I look at the bridal industry - slap the word "bridal" on something and it suddenly becomes more expensive!

Actually I met the guides. That's how I found out ABD was at the hotel. The guides were eating in the Concerige lounge for breakfast (the rest of the tour was at the resturant)

They were very nice and probably very good, but....you were in London... most folks outside the hotel spoke English, Did you really need to be handheld that much. I jokingly told someone that if those tourists met anyone outside of the hotel with a British accent it was by accident.


Now, I like to travel and I like to travel MORE then less so I tend to go more budget. That does mean I have more contact with locals and not near as much "handholding" It also meant I could take 10 teenage girls to London, Paris and Switzerland for almost THREE weeks a few years ago for $2,500 each, EVERYTHING but shopping included! So I tend to think that Disney wants too much money! LOL!