Thoughts on DVC

Minniesgal said:

I don't want to Start a massive debate on payback but for me when I hear people say I reached payback really quickly I'm still unsure how to evaluate that

I don't compare my DVC outlay to the cost of staying in deluxe hotel rooms or DVC villas for cash as I might have wanted to do that but I would never have paid out the cash to do that.

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That's a correct point, but...
My first visit to Disneyland resort I couldn't use my DVC because I had just closed the contract and it was a trip with short notice, so I booked a cheap motel on Harbour boulevard for $77 a night. I'm heading to Disneyland again this November and I'm staying on points at the Grand Californian. I'm paying $300 in MF alone for the points used for the reservation, so I'm actually paying more with DVC, even not considering the buy in cost.
However a comparable stay would have been $1700 at rack rates: no way I would ever pay that for three nights! DVC allows me to stay in the flagship resort and enjoy my stay much more than I would without it. What's the value of this? Has happyness a price? That's why I think that using rack rates for comparison and deciding when you break even has still some sense. It measures the added value you get from DVC, even if you would not book that room using cash.

Mummycat said:

We love the relaxed vibe of old key west and also love the space and facilities of 1 bed villas so would probably aim for there as our home resort. In fact we've never stayed in 1 room with our 2 kids at Disney so we've been really spoilt by OKW! When the kids were little we used to stay off site so are used to space and self catering.

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Getting OKW at 7 months during the summer season it's not difficult. DVC busier season is from late September to Marathon week end in January. Other periods are much easier to get and Summer surprisingly is not difficult to book at all. Some resorts would be difficult/impossible to get (BCV, standard rooms at BWV and BLT, VGF and value rooms at AKV), but at OKW it shouldn't be a problem, unless you want the Hospitality House category. That's to say that maybe SSR could be a good purchase too. It has lower MFs and on the long run it'll be a huge saving.
OKW also has two espiration dates, 2042 can be cheaper but Disney often ROFRs these contracts to resell them with longer expiration date. 2057 are more difficult to find (while SSR already has a longer expiration date).
1 bed villas are the easiest category to book too.

Many say: "Buy where you want to stay". It's good advice if you are really sold on one resort, you would stay there most of the time and you'd be disappointed if you cannot stay there. However if you think you'll use your points at different resorts over time, then paying more doesn't make much sense. I'm with who says: "buy the cheapest resort where you wouldn't mind staying". For me it was SSR.

Another point to consider:- Over the contract term of up to 50-years you'll want to explore other destinations so you can either buy enough points to visit every 2 or 3-years or enough to visit every year and when you want to travel somewhere else then rent your points out.

But be mindful that some resorts are more rent-able than others, so worth investigating if and how that works best for you.

We've never used David's vacation club rentals but it a good source for info.

David classes the resorts into premium resorts like BLT which sells at $13.00 while the non-premium resorts like ALV sell at $11.30 per point.

Annual dues at WDW resorts vary between $5.0504 at BLT and $6.2989 at AKV and dues can on average increase by around 5% p.a. (also annual increases do vary between each resort).

So bear in mind that at this moment in time a BLT owner with say 200-points can rent those to David for $2,600 and that amount will cover two years of BLT dues (approx. $2,100) leaving $500 in the owners pocket.

Whereas an AKV owner with 200-points can rent those to David for $2,260 and that amount won't cover two-years of dues (approx. $2,550).

Of course, the initial cost also has to be taken into account as BLT is much more expensive than AKV.

The above highlights that owners who only every want to stay to WDW every other year can after the initial cost stay basically free or very cheaply in deluxe resorts. The initial cost is also not dead money as there's a reasonable resell market (unlike some timeshares) yes that will eventually change as the contract years reduce so bear in mind the length of contract that you're going to buy.

OKW contracts ends in 2042 unless they've been extended to 2057 while GFV contracts ends in 2064. So while an OKW contract might seem cheap in comparison to a GFV contract, the latter will last an extra 22-years and just imagine what the price could be to stay at the GFV in 2043 and beyond?

Also, if you're unsure maybe consider buying a smaller contract and borrow for your first member stay, if you like it then buy another contract; the benefit of having smaller contracts rather than one larger contract is that it gives you more flexibility as you never know what's around the corner, so you can always sell one while still keeping the other.

There's a lot to consider so check out as many web sites as you can such as DVCNews. com, but in saying that our OKW purchase was made within 24-hours of being introduced to DVC while staying at CBR. In fact we made up our minds before the presentation ended and went back the following morning to start the buying process. We've now been members for over 16-years and we still love and enjoy it as much as we did back then, this year we would have used our points at AKL, BCV, BLT's and GFV and we're not members at any of those resorts which is yet another option to take into consideration.

We only have two regrets, firstly we didn't know about DVC earlier and secondly we didn't buy more points when the exchange rate was over $2.00 to the £1.00.

Best wishes in your choice.

Thanks to everyone for their responses. Just one more question-have you all been happy with your allocated room? We've read that you can't move rooms unless there is an actual problem with it so we're wondering if you can request an area on booking as you usually would or do you just get allocated what's left? We only ask this as we like the peaceful, river view areas away from the clubhouse at OKW and would hate to have a great holiday spoilt by a bad room. Thank you

We don't always make requests but have only been REALLY unhappy with our allocated room once. We just accept that we get what we're given, we are pretty laid back about it. The time when we were really unhappy, we hadn't made any requests but when we checked in, the CM asked if we had a preference for location. It was Beach Club and I said a view towards Epcot but would be nice but we weren't too fussy. He checked his computer and said "I have got the PERFECT room for you, but it's not quite ready yet". Long story short, over an hour later (5.25pm by now) we were still waiting for the room (had we known it was going to be that long, we would have left our luggage and gone out). We asked twice if it was ready and both times were told housekeeping hadn't declared it ready but somebody had gone to check. Eventually after nearly 90 minutes we got to the room, which was the furthest away from the lobby as it could possibly be. We get to the room and the key didn't work. So I traipse all the way back to the lobby, find the manager who eventually helped us and she accompanied us back to the room, apologising profusely for the delay. I said it didn't matter as the guy told us we had a great view and she kind of hesitantly said "well, if you don't like it, we'll see if we can find you another room". We get into the room eventually, pull back the curtains to see this marvellous view only to find we were looking straight out on trees and a main road. I straight away asked if we could possibly have a different room if it wasn't too much trouble and they moved us later that night to a room with a view of the quiet pool, which was much better.

The point of that long, drawn out story was that had we been allocated that room, got straight in and nobody said anything about what a great room/location it was, we would have accepted it without a fuss. But the 'promise' of a fabulous room when we checked in, coupled with the long wait and the problem with the key made me make more of a fuss than I would normally.

In my opinion, a request is just that - a request. Even if you are paying cash, you are not guaranteed a particular location or view. At OKW, most people seem to want to be closer to HH so if you request somewhere further away, you will most likely get it. But just don't get your hopes up and then you won't be disappointed.

We accept that over the years we will get great rooms and not so great rooms. We have had our requests met and ignored - down to luck and check in time I think.

You can ask to move however there is a fee ($45 for a one bedroom) and we have paid twice. Both at BLT where our only request was not ground floor and we got ground floor! Both times it was a move the next day. I have got round this problem by now booking lake view as they are not on the ground floor!

wilma-bride said:

We don't always make requests but have only been REALLY unhappy with our allocated room once. We just accept that we get what we're given, we are pretty laid back about it. The time when we were really unhappy, we hadn't made any requests but when we checked in, the CM asked if we had a preference for location. It was Beach Club and I said a view towards Epcot but would be nice but we weren't too fussy. He checked his computer and said "I have got the PERFECT room for you, but it's not quite ready yet". Long story short, over an hour later (5.25pm by now) we were still waiting for the room (had we known it was going to be that long, we would have left our luggage and gone out). We asked twice if it was ready and both times were told housekeeping hadn't declared it ready but somebody had gone to check. Eventually after nearly 90 minutes we got to the room, which was the furthest away from the lobby as it could possibly be. We get to the room and the key didn't work. So I traipse all the way back to the lobby, find the manager who eventually helped us and she accompanied us back to the room, apologising profusely for the delay. I said it didn't matter as the guy told us we had a great view and she kind of hesitantly said "well, if you don't like it, we'll see if we can find you another room". We get into the room eventually, pull back the curtains to see this marvellous view only to find we were looking straight out on trees and a main road. I straight away asked if we could possibly have a different room if it wasn't too much trouble and they moved us later that night to a room with a view of the quiet pool, which was much better.

The point of that long, drawn out story was that had we been allocated that room, got straight in and nobody said anything about what a great room/location it was, we would have accepted it without a fuss. But the 'promise' of a fabulous room when we checked in, coupled with the long wait and the problem with the key made me make more of a fuss than I would normally.

In my opinion, a request is just that - a request. Even if you are paying cash, you are not guaranteed a particular location or view. At OKW, most people seem to want to be closer to HH so if you request somewhere further away, you will most likely get it. But just don't get your hopes up and then you won't be disappointed.

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Thanks for the reply and glad that I can at least have a request-even if it's not guaranteed it's nice to know we have a chance

Elise79 said:

We accept that over the years we will get great rooms and not so great rooms. We have had our requests met and ignored - down to luck and check in time I think.

You can ask to move however there is a fee ($45 for a one bedroom) and we have paid twice. Both at BLT where our only request was not ground floor and we got ground floor! Both times it was a move the next day. I have got round this problem by now booking lake view as they are not on the ground floor!

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Thanks for that, great to know that if we get a room we really don't like we can pay to move and that there is the opportunity to have a request with DVC

We have just taken the plunge. We put an offer in on a resale on Tuesday which was accepted and paid the deposit yesterday.

Will it work out for us? Who knows! We have bought 100 points at Beach Club Villas. Now, for what we are doing over the next two years this is what we need and is cost effective. It gives us enough for a studio (4 of us). Would we rather stay in a 1 bed villa? Of course. Could we afford that much money? At the moment, no. Husband is keen to sell in a few years time once we have had these two holidays, plus maybe one more in 2020. I'm keen to keep them and look at buying more for a bigger room. I'd like to keep them as a legacy for the children.

But what we are doing is dipping our toes in the world of DVC and i'm very excited

Willowfae said:

We have just taken the plunge. We put an offer in on a resale on Tuesday which was accepted and paid the deposit yesterday.

Will it work out for us? Who knows! We have bought 100 points at Beach Club Villas. Now, for what we are doing over the next two years this is what we need and is cost effective. It gives us enough for a studio (4 of us). Would we rather stay in a 1 bed villa? Of course. Could we afford that much money? At the moment, no. Husband is keen to sell in a few years time once we have had these two holidays, plus maybe one more in 2020. I'm keen to keep them and look at buying more for a bigger room. I'd like to keep them as a legacy for the children.

But what we are doing is dipping our toes in the world of DVC and i'm very excited

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Congratulations! Buying was the best thing we did, I hope you enjoy it

We have never had a room I was upset enough with to ask to move

We weren't massive fans of the bathroom in the OKW 2 bedroom villa as it seemed a bit grotty but the rest of the villa was nice

Willowfae said:

We have just taken the plunge. We put an offer in on a resale on Tuesday which was accepted and paid the deposit yesterday.

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Congrats!

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Congratulations! I don't think you'll regret your purchase.

We bought five years ago and only wish we'd done it sooner. We've been going to WDW since 2001 and visit twice a year. At first we stayed in moderate resorts (usually POR/POFQ) and then started to stay in the deluxes. We bought 260 points at AKV although as yet we haven't used our home resort! We use our points mainly at Christmas - we've tried the studios which we're not over keen on and now save them for a one bedroom.

Next summer we're visiting Disneyland in California and then flying down to Orlando and I'll try to use the points at the Grand Californian (although I'm not raising my hopes too much for 7 months)

I hope you enjoy your purchase for many years!

Thanks. It's been with Disney for a week now and the wait is killing me! We are already in our 11 month window so I know that every day that goes past is going to reduce our chances of getting what we want next year