What makes owning DVC so special??

[KYCruiseCrazy]

ok, call me crazy for asking, but what benefits will i get for owning DVC?? we are looking into BLT or AKV. we are looking long term. Not planning to resell. want to use are a gift to our kids (help us all) grand kids LOL we are doing all of our homework asking lots of questions on the DIS. (my mil thinks i'm being a jacka$$ for wanting to invest) so in your opinions was it worth it or what is so special about owning DVC? i know I can get many opinions. we are looking at maybe 1 big vacation every other year to make it 10-14 days of fun. there is so much to do in florida. We love WDW. thank you everyone!!

[Lynne M]

DVC is just an alternate means of paying for your lodging.....that's really all it is. It's a pre-payment plan. There's nothing you get as a DVC member that you can't get by getting a cash reservation through CRO, except for a handful of token, temporary perks like free internet. For me, the one and only reason to buy was that I could get into DVC villas for a far lower cost than I would by making a cash reservation. That is what's special about DVC.

I know that sounds kind of cold, and you're going to hear all kinds of emotional reasons to buy, like 'owning a piece of the magic'. I'm a practical sort, though, and I think it's important to read the contract and understand that what you're actually purchasing is the right to make reservations at your home resort with your points, subject to availability, for the length of the contract. That's it. Perks and benefits come and go, and there's no requirement in the contract that they give us any perks at all.

OK, enough of the practical. I'll get out of the way now and let folks tell you all about the magic stuff.

[DisMN]

Well for DH and myself, we're not rich and we work very hard all year round. (DH does heavy labor)
We also love WDW and prefer to have a vacation destination and NOT travel all over on our vacations. We like to go and stay put, so to speak.
DVC helps us to have a yearly vacation at a location we love, for a price we can afford and relax 100% with no driving responsibilities whatsoever.

Every time we go to our DVC I remember how grateful I am to have *found* the vacation club for all those reasons listed above.

[wdwnut]

We're in it for the long haul too. We (idiots!!!) turned down OKW in '93 and waited until BWV were built to buy. Kids are all grown and are joined by 2 grandkids. Grandma and Grandpa refuse to grow up. We have always enjoyed taking other people with us and have done several larger trips 15-25 people. This is a lot of fun. No regrets here.

[nunzia]

I guess we're the same as others. We bought for long haul, our kids are all grown and all of a sudden we have 8 grandkids, so plenty of 'taking the grandkids' opportunities. We are more DLR fans than most here, I think, but we like to go at least once a year and twice is better. Or next trip is adults only for DLR F&W. Can't wait! Yes, we could certainly stay cheaper at DLR, even accounting for our pre-paid DVC room, but we are the type who want to just stay onsite. We did enough off site when the kids were little and we drove out in our Griswold station wagon.
It lets you put vacations in the front of your mind and kind of happily forces you to plan for trips, when otherwise life might get in the way and have those vacations put off until....

[KYCruiseCrazy]

its good to see people in it for the long haul. i look at the DVC Dis site and see daily rent/sell. DW and i love WDW. our kids love it too. we just want to plan ahead for sweet 16 party. high school graduation and maybe a wedding LOL we always seem to spend a ton. we also know there is a ton of things to see and do in florida. and well i guess staying at WDW is a great place to start. i want to thank everyone so far who has posted:nunzia,wdwnut,DisMN and Lynne M. thanks

[LabRat]

I have to agree with those who think it is more practical. We don't like to stay in a standard hotel room with our children since their bedtime is early, and the result would us staring at the ceiling or tv after they go down. A 2 Br villa gives us the chance to put them down and still be able to move about the room after they are asleep. Since I tend to be an early bird, the second bedroom allows me to get up and get moving without waking my wife. We tried condos offsite, but the hassle of driving in and handling the stroller through the gauntlet of parking trams was not fun. Now looking forward to our first stay at BLT next May. Going to MK or EPCOT, no stroller hassles! After we are able to ditch the stroller, we'll then try some of the other properties.

A second for the emotional part as well. As soon as we finished our last vacation and purchased the DVC membership, we started planning our next trip. And we already thinking about the ones after.... Nothing like having something to look forward to, which the membership provides.

[Chic]

KYCruiseCrazy-If you're like my family, we are in the Disney World thing for the long haul. We have absolutely no intentions of ever selling our contract. With this idea in mind, DVC is a fabulous bargain. Why? Do you have any idea what the rates will be to stay in the Disney Deluxe resorts in the next 30 years? An example you could use for comparison is the Contemporary. When it opened in the 1970's, rooms were $36 a night. Those same rooms are now about $400 a night. That's an increase in cost of 11.11 or 1,100% increase. If this percent of increase in room rates continues steady over the next 30 years, in the year 2040 a room at the Contemporary will cost $4,400 a night. I enjoy knowing that after I retire and I am on a fixed income, I will still be able to afford several Disney vacations a year. My SSR contract doesn't expire until I'm 90 years old. If I'm fortunate enough to live that long, you can believe I'm going to use every point up to the final year of my contract! I crunched my numbers comparing maintenance fees, cost of the DVC contract, and years remaining at SSR and my average cost per night in a DVC Studio is $63 a night. That's already a bargain now, imagine how that will compare to room rates in 2050.

[DisneyFreaks]

All of the above and then some! We rented DVC points the first time we took our new grandson (then 9 months old) to our favorite vacation destination. We fell in love on the spot and purchased a contract within months of that stay. I have always hated hotel rooms so the DVC villas were the answer to a prayer for me. The comfort cannot be beat. Having the means to fix meals right in the unit should we want or need to do so is wonderful. And don't even get me started on how terrific it is to go home without what seems like a months worth of dirty laundry. These are the perks for us. There doesn't need to be any special things offered as far as we're concerned. DVC is the ultimate perk! If you love WDW and Florida the way you say you do DVC would be a comfortable way for you to enjoy it together at a fraction of the cost. I don't think you would regret buying. I know we don't. Here's hoping to say Welcome Home to you real soon.

[daddykirbs]

Our family found DVC on a vacation two years ago. We, as a family, haven't taken a vacation for over 12 years. All of our time off was visiting people. Visiting is fine but we felt like we were missing something by not taking vacations too. While on this wonderful trip (land and sea) we were introduced to DVC. My imagination went nuts... I loved the idea of having a prepaid vacation for the next 49 years! I thought that it was just the thing to "insure" that we did something as a family every year. Now that we've enjoyed one vacation on DVC we are looking forward to visiting in a different way. We plan on banking points every other year so we can do the larger villas and invite people to come enjoy that with us. There are times when I think that maybe I shouldn't have spent that money, but overall it's good. We are happy to "own a piece of the magic".

[msp2mco]

We bought DVC about 6 years ago on our first trip to WDW when our DD and DS were in elementary school. Our family loved WDW, and we had been looking for a time-share that made sense to us. We were glad we could come back to WDW a lot. We added another contract a couple of years later. Maybe we'll keep both...maybe not. We've enjoyed taking friends and relatives with us too. Now that our kids are older, we do not want to take them out of school, so our vacation time is more limited. This past year, we rented out points and we also did an exchange with our points. Both were great, although doing an exchange doesn't seem like an economical use of points.

For us, DVC has given us great vacations in a variety of lovely resorts. We've been able to spend great family time together with both our immediate and extended family.

Best wishes on your decision.

[crisi]

Like Lynn said, do the math, and look at the value for what you are contracted to get.

Also consider offsite or timeshares offsite. If you are an onsite snob (as most DISBoarders are) the extra cost of DVC is probably worth it. If value is more important than having Mickey on your shampoo bottle - there are offsite timeshares that are great values (and some aren't close enough that you can argue they are more convenient than some spots onsite.

DVC is nice in that you can get two and three bedroom units for reasonable rates - difficult to get on property without owning DVC.

But the other "special stuff." That comes and goes.

Buy for what you are contracted to get. Make sure DVC is a good fit for you and how you travel and plan. Understand the program well enough to understand what you get when you trade out.

If Disney gives you the ability to buy the Dining Plan, or Magical Express for free or discounts on APs - that's the gravy of the program.

If it enforces vacations for you, makes you take more time when you travel to enjoy things, makes you feel like you own a little part of the magic - those are things that you may or may not experience - and in it for the long haul, those feelings may change. I liked the enforced vacations for the first eight years - and of late.....forced vacation at Disney are starting to loose their charm.

Read the thread on the removal of valet parking privileges. Try and see why some people are upset. If that sort of thing would change your decision now or make you regret your purchase, DVC probably isn't a good match for you.

[dmoore22]

I agree with all of the above. You can view it as a practical decision with an emotional payoff or an emotional decision with a practical payoff. All of our six kids were still at home when we bought a DVC resale and add-on. From the practical point of view we found we could stay twice as long for the same cost we had been paying for a Value Resort. That was nearly 8 years ago. It seems that, in spite of the loss leaders that Disney is promoting to fill rooms, its still an affordable option for us. Don't hesitate to investigate what resales are available. There are some good buys that come along if your patient. Not all the bargains are posted on the web, hence ask the sales person what's available that hasn't been advertised yet.

[Reddog1134]

Without DVC, I would have saved up a bunch of money to stay in a deluxe resort for a few days. It probably would have been my only opportunity to stay in a deluxe.

Now that I've joined, I'll probably get a week long stay every year for the rest of my life.

[backyardponder]

If you do a split stay between a moderate and a DVC studio, you'll feel a huge difference right away.

In October we did our first night at POFQ. It was a nice resort and, as a resort, we really enjoyed it...but...the room was small, kind of dark, had 2 beds without much space, and not one in which I felt I could relax.

On day 2 we moved to our studio at BWV. The room was large, bright, had a couch, and was quite comfortable. We were down for F&W and after a few hours of grazing decided to walk back to the BWV to relax. The room was fantastic, especially compared to the moderate.