How often do you have to go to make DVC worth it?

[harbin]

Hello,

We are considering a DVC purchase. I am in the beginning research phase. Resorts I am considering are BWV, BCV, BLT, and WLV. We are a family of 4. Me, two boys ages 7 and 3, and DH. We plan on annual WDW trips for the foreseeable future. I could also see myself going solo or just DH and I when kids are grown. Our most recent trip got me thinking about DVC. The room rate for our 10 day split stay was about $5k for the room alone. I would be ideally looking for a resale contract that would allow our 10 day annual stay without having to borrow points in peak season for most likely a one bedroom. How many trips would I have to take before coming out "ahead"? How do I know it's worth it? It's a little scary to me to make this type of investment when the future is so uncertain. What if my boys get bored with Disney in the next couple of years? How did you finally decide that DVC was a better option rather than just booking a regular room? I plan on renting points in the foreseeable future to see which resort I would like, although technically I have stayed at BWI, and CR. the most important factors to me are more location, as well as amenities of the resort rather than the rooms themselves. I would like to purchase in the next year, to start the clock on the savings we might benefit from as opposed to booking our room through Disney.com. Our next trip is May 2015. Thanks!

 

[honeylove]

I can't really give you numbers to see if you would come out ahead. Honestly, that all comes down to the cost of the contract and fees. Remember to factor in the maintenance fees when you do the math....

In terms of how would you know it's worth it? That varies from person to person. If you enjoy Disney, and intend on using your points frequently, to me that's worth it and even if you don't at least you can bank it or put it up for rent.

How did we decide? Well... At the time we were staying at Aulani for a conference my husband was attending and saw the cost of the rooms at the regular rates (we were lucky to stay on a conference rate) and sat down and did the math. We wanted to go at least once a year to Aulani for a weekend and to the Grand California at Disneyland for a few days. When we looked at the cost between the two resorts, for us, it was a no brainer, we would invest in Disney. We love Disney and felt that we would be using all of our points every year one way or another; hopefully on a cruise someday.

Continue to be vigilant and do your research, and run your numbers accordingly. DVC is a great program and I do enjoy reaping it's continued benefits.

 

[MiramarQE]

"How often" may not be the correct question - as long as it's "at least once every 3 years"

"What type of resort" may be more important. If you stay at deluxe hotels regularly, DVC should be a significant reduction in the room cost of a vacation - remembering at Disney the cost of the room is only one component - tickets and meals can be a big cost driver and while there are DVC discounts they are still not cheap.

If you stay at moderates the DVC cost advantage, particularly if you travel when 30% discounts are available, is not so great - and if you frequently stay in the value resorts I don't think the numbers support DVC at at all.

We used a spreadsheet based on our recent history - dollars for the discount rooms we had stayed versus points required for a studio and a 1 bedroom. Ran it out to 2041 (we own now at BWV) and applied an inflation factor to the maintenance fees and room cash cost. DVC is quite a cost advantage - but you may also find renting points nearly as advantageous without the capital cost.

 

[disneynutz]

If you intend to vacation yearly no matter what and if you always stay at deluxe resorts, you probably will save some money buying DVC.

You are locked in to do something with your points every year. The cost of dues will increase each year as well as your cost of travel, admission, food, and extras.

After years of DVC stays and sometimes not being able to book where and when we wanted, we bought at our favorite home resorts.

IMO you have 1 of 2 ways to proceed.
Buy SSR resale and use the points to experience the DVC system and resorts. If and when you decide on your favorite resort and you have difficulty booking there, you can sell SSR or rent out a reservation with the points and buy your fav.

The other way is that you take your best guess and buy where you think that you want to call home. That's what we did and boy were we wrong. It took a few years to decide which resorts felt like home and we bought resorts that we ended up not really caring for.

Bill

 

[chalee94]

i would say once every 3 years is asking for trouble. you can move pts from one use year to another with banking and borrowing, but once you move them, it's a final transaction and they cannot be moved again. so if you book an every-third-year reservation using banked and borrowed pts and have to cancel it, your banked and borrowed pts are stuck and will expire at the end of that use year - you would be extremely limited as to your options and there is a risk that they might go to waste (especially if you are traveling at the end of your use year).

(also, the pts needed can change slightly from year to year. so if you buy exactly what you need for an every-third-year trip, you might wind up short or have extras that you cannot use and cannot bank forward 2 years to your next trip.)

really it needs to be at least every other year, and ideally, every year.

 

[crisi]

If you are moving from a single room to a one bedroom, you won't save money - you'll have more space, a washer dryer, a jetted tub, a kitchen and the kids sleeping in a different room. You won't have daily housekeeping. DVC isn't about saving money for most of us - its about changing your vacations. Most of us end up spending more, on bigger rooms, bringing guests, going more often, but with regular Disney trips, we spend more time in the resort and in our rooms.

As to timing, we go every other year. Banking and borrowing has worked well.

 

[DisKneeDad]

If you are moving from a single room to a one bedroom, you won't save money - you'll have more space, a washer dryer, a jetted tub, a kitchen and the kids sleeping in a different room. You won't have daily housekeeping. DVC isn't about saving money for most of us - its about changing your vacations. Most of us end up spending more, on bigger rooms, bringing guests, going more often, but with regular Disney trips, we spend more time in the resort and in our rooms.

As to timing, we go every other year. Banking and borrowing has worked well.

I agree with this 100%.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

i would say once every 3 years is asking for trouble. you can move pts from one use year to another with banking and borrowing, but once you move them, it's a final transaction and they cannot be moved again. so if you book an every-third-year reservation using banked and borrowed pts and have to cancel it, your banked and borrowed pts are stuck and will expire at the end of that use year - you would be extremely limited as to your options and there is a risk that they might go to waste (especially if you are traveling at the end of your use year).

(also, the pts needed can change slightly from year to year. so if you buy exactly what you need for an every-third-year trip, you might wind up short or have extras that you cannot use and cannot bank forward 2 years to your next trip.)

really it needs to be at least every other year, and ideally, every year.

I agree. -- Suzanne

 

[com_op_2000]

OP, Are you asking about how long it takes to recoup your investment (down payment, closing cost, MF, etc)?
If so that depends on the time of year you are traveling, the size of the accommodations you are staying in, and how often you travel. Plus there are multiple ways of accounting for the investment.
The way DW and I figured this was our initial cost, plus whatever MF we paid up until we decided we were even. We figure that was a little over three years. That was back in the '90s when the cost per point was less.

 

[skier_pete]

We are in the process of buying. I already posted this quote of myself in another thread, but thought it was appropriate for you. Although I very much recommend doing a LOT of research to be sure it is right for you, this is what I found is the argument in favor of buying DVC.

You should only buy DVC if the following apply:
1) You like Disney enough to go at least once a year to maybe every other year.
2) You vastly prefer staying on property AND staying at moderates or deluxes and you have the money to do so.
3) You can regularly schedule your vacations at a minimum of seven months in advance and preferably 11 months in advance. (Last minute and DVC don't go great together unless it's 1 or 2 nights.)
4) You would be 100% satisfied with staying at the resort at which you own points, because sometimes that's all you will be able to get with that long in advanced booking.
5) You don't mind not having maid service in your room. (This is sort of a hidden piece, but it's odd to be staying in such a nice resort and not get the high quality service.)
6) You don't care about trading points outside the DVC family of resorts. Anyplace else is a sucker's bet.
7) Once you spend the initial money, you better understand that you continue to have to pay maintenance fees, and these fees will continually rise. DVC will never be paid off.
8) The biggest thing to me - you have to foresee that you will want to continue stays at Disney World (on property moderate/deluxe) for at LEAST the next 10 years or more. The advantage to owning DVC is not today. When buying resale, the advantage is out about 10-12 years. (It's closer to 20 years if you buy DVC new from Disney.)

If only a few of these items apply to you, it might be wiser to RENT DVC points.

I did spreadsheet working out the costs of buying DVC (staying in a studio room) versus continuing to stay moderate / staying value / or renting points. What i found was it will take about 10 years versus staying at a moderate (full rack) and about 12 years versus just renting points each year. Versus a value was much longer, but really that is not a particularly fair comparison. I did not consider the fact that we could always re-sell the points at a later date to re-coup some or all of our initial investment. In the past we have been frequently using free dining. If we continued to do that, the break even would be 20+ years out, but with our daughter getting to middle school, we think that free dining will not be an option for at least the next 8-12 years.

This was all with re-sale points at AKV @ about $75 a point. "Full price" points would've taken us nearly 20 years to recoup and I wouldn't do that.

( If you are regularly staying at a deluxe resort paying at or near rack rate, then your recoup rate is much, much faster.)

Hope that helps.

 

[harbin]

Thanks for all the replies! Yes I suppose my question is/was twofold. If it would save us a susbstantial amount of money over time on our annual WDW trips to own DVC versus booking rooms directly every year, and if so how many trips would we have to take before we started to see those savings. We also tend to do one Disneyland trip for a weekend at Christmas season every year, and a Disney cruise (although would not use points for this). I would be looking for a resale contract that would have enough points to allow a 10 day visit at our home resort and possible weekend visit at grand Californian once per year, and would be paying cash (no financing). I am on no rush and trying to do all my research before buying... But am excited by the prospect!

 

[PacoDF]

Thanks for all the replies! Yes I suppose my question is/was twofold. If it would save us a susbstantial amount of money over time on our annual WDW trips to own DVC versus booking rooms directly every year, and if so how many trips would we have to take before we started to see those savings. We also tend to do one Disneyland trip for a weekend at Christmas season every year, and a Disney cruise (although would not use points for this). I would be looking for a resale contract that would have enough points to allow a 10 day visit at our home resort and possible weekend visit at grand Californian once per year, and would be paying cash (no financing). I am on no rush and trying to do all my research before buying... But am excited by the prospect!

If you compare buying DVC resale (not at VGF nor VGC) vs booking direct with some kind of discount (let's say 15-25%) my numbers show a break even after 4-7 yearly trips.

If you compare buying DVC resale (not at VGF nor VGC) vs renting points from another owner my numbers show a break even after 8-12 yearly trips.

Of course the numbers vary a lot from case to case, depending of the size of the room you'll use, the resort, the season, etc.

 

[NoleFan]

3 years on my 100 point BW & 5 years on my 50 point bcv contract. We stay in studios & std (point saver) at BW. We also travel during lower point times so we get on average 10 nights/year. BW contract was stripped & bcv was loaded.

 

[graychef]

Get a point chart or find a DVC calculator online to see what a typical 10-day trip will require in points during your expected travel period. Holidays are more "costly" than other times (such as Jan/Feb or Sep/Oct), as far as points go. The room type will also play a huge role in how many points are needed.

I plan to make trips in those off-peak periods more than the on-peak periods. And I'd need a studio or 1-BR reservation for the most part. I have a 200 point contract. So I'll be able to make multiple trips per year or bank/borrow for a larger family trip.

It just depends on your preference.

 

[graychef]

I did the math. On my 200 point AKV contract, it will take 10 years (2000) points to break even on the following comparison:

Buying resale + closing costs + MF

vs.

Renting points @ $14/point



That's if I use all 2000 points for resort stays.

 

[DizBub]

I guess I look at it from a different angle. If you are paying $5K just for the room each trip in 5 years that's $25K. For that you could buy a 300 point contract at BWV and go for 10 nights every year until 2042. Other resorts have longer on the contracts and lower MFs. Of course you have to factor in the yearly MFs (which are quite high at BWV) but you will have a 1 bedroom (double the square footage of a regular hotel room) with a full kitchen, a whirlpool tub and a washer/dryer. Definitely a quality of life situation.

If you know you are going next year you could put the money you would spend on the rooms toward a purchase and start getting your money's worth right away.

 

[DisKneeDad]

Something that makes a surprisingly large difference is if you purchase the annual passes at a discount. For a family of 4, that can be almost $1000 savings each time you buy one.

 

[CMOORE185]

Something that makes a surprisingly large difference is if you purchase the annual passes at a discount. For a family of 4, that can be almost $1000 savings each time you buy one.

Isn't the annual pass only $100 off per person?

 

[DizBub]

Isn't the annual pass only $100 off per person?

It's $149 off. Regular Annual Pass is $634 + tax. DVC AP is $485 + tax.

Special offer on the Premium AP is $484 + tax. Offer expires April 30, 2014.

Last year the same offer was $399 + tax.

 

[DisKneeDad]

Isn't the annual pass only $100 off per person?

I was referring to the current discount on the PAP which is $245.