Disney Tour questions

[Tigger2ntinkerbell]

My DH & I will be going to WDW in Oct and he wants to do the DVC tour.

A Friends of ours did this when they were there and loved it. The couple that went on the tour were told them they could use their stay as a down payment(they did not do a package). Can anyone tell me how this works?? TIA

[DannysMom]

I don't think that kind of deal or incentive to buy DVC has been offered in years, maybe more than a decade.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards App, please excuse any typos.

[tjkraz]

Many moons ago, DVC used to allow guests who tour mid-stay to begin using their points immediately if they agree to buy.

Essentially what would happen is they would cancel the remaining portion of the pre-paid Disney hotel stay, refund the dollars and apply those monies to the DVC purchase. Then the guest would move over to a DVC resort (pending availability, of course) and spend their points for the remaining nights of the vacation.

So, if you were paying $300 per night for a Disney hotel room and agreed to buy with 5 nights left in the trip, they would refund $1500 and apply that to the cost of the DVC points. You would move to whatever DVC hotel had availability and they would charge you however many DVC points were required for the remaining 5 nights.

As the other poster said, it's been a long time since I've heard of DVC offering this purchase methodology. Anything is possible but seems like we would have heard other reports by now if DVC were actively offering that means to purchase.

[Deb & Bill]

I got that deal in 1997. Never since then.

[jennybdis]

Yeah, that was not offered when we toured a day before our stay at the Yacht Club this past June. There's no room for negotiating with DVC, either.

From what I can remember, Disney has a pretty generous cancellation policy--all but $200 back up until the day before check in? (I could be wrong--double check.) It might make sense to call before leaving for the trip to see if you could cancel the reservation, transfer the funds to DVC and manage to re-book a DVC room if you guys are 100% sure that you're going to buy DVC direct through Disney.

[tjkraz]

Originally Posted by jennybdis

From what I can remember, Disney has a pretty generous cancellation policy--all but $200 back up until the day before check in? (I could be wrong--double check.) It might make sense to call before leaving for the trip to see if you could cancel the reservation, transfer the funds to DVC and manage to re-book a DVC room if you guys are 100% sure that you're going to buy DVC direct through Disney.

That won't work unless you plan several weeks in advance. Florida law mandates a 10 day (?) waiting period for any timeshare purchase and then the closing must occur before ownership is certified. DVC will allow new buyers to book a reservation before the closing has occurred but owners cannot actually stay on the points until after the closing.

In other words, if you gave a verbal (or even written) agreement to buy into DVC today (mid-September), the first stay could not occur until mid-to-late October. They would allow a reservation to be made immediately but no actual stay until after closing.

Back when DVC allowed buyers to begin using points immediately, there was an addendum to the contract which stated that if the closing did not occur for any reason the owner must reimburse Disney for costs related to the points stay. Unless Disney revives this process, any purchase would have to be made at least 4-6 weeks before the first points stay is to occur.

[littleaussie]

We just became DVC owners last Friday. We were staying off site and had to find a room for our last night on Sunday anyway so we inquired about using our points immediately (subject to availability of a room) to book something for Sunday night.

The Sales agent we dealt with organized our reservation immediately and we were able to book an Animal Kingdom SV Studio for Sunday night. Unfortunately, my mother threw a hissy fit and I had to cancel our reservation so now those points are in the holding account.

So it seems to still be possible to book something as soon as the paperwork is rolled out.