Considering DVC Purchase - Help Please!

[airtime]

I'm considering buying DVC, but I'm trying to make sure it makes sense for me. I am an experienced timeshare owner (since 1988),but not DVC. I have been trying to research on the Web, but I keep finding a lot of out-of-date information. Can anyone answer the following questions (or direct me to the information):

1. What has the recent history of dues/maintenance fees been?

2. Where is an up-to-date point chart for non-DVC resorts?

3. What is the current direct sale price per point (and are discounts possible)?

4. As an experienced DVCer, what do you now wish someone would have told you before you bought?

5. Are there any "secrets" that you feel help to push up the value of the DVC (vs. booking like anyone else)?

6. What exactly is guaranteed in a DVC purchase vs. what is just "perks"?

7. Feel free to add any other observations you think valuable.

Thanks a lot!


Tim, who wouldn't mind saving a buck at Disney!

 

[Mad]

All I can tell you is, apparently you have to read and fully comprehend EVERY SINGLE WORD in the documentation you can find and recieve from DVC. DON'T rely on your salesperson knowing what he's talking about, I'm currently involved in a nightmare that appears to have been caused by a salesman saying one thing while policy dictates something completely different.

 

[browniemtb]

1. What has the recent history of dues/maintenance fees been?

Dues vary by resort.......figure mid to upper $3 range per point

2. Where is an up-to-date point chart for non-DVC resorts?

At the top of your screen....you'll see DVC point charts

3. What is the current direct sale price per point (and are discounts possible)?

SSR I believe is $103 less $8 per point...some one correct me if I'm wrong please...

4. As an experienced DVCer, what do you now wish someone would have told you before you bought??

To do it sooner. You will learn more here on these boards than any DVC CM will tell you. Do your research and crunch numbers.....

5. Are there any "secrets" that you feel help to push up the value of the DVC (vs. booking like anyone else)?

Being able to rent extra points for $$......staying at a deluxe...large....accomodations for the price of a regular hotel room.

6. What exactly is guaranteed in a DVC purchase vs. what is just "perks"?

Your points for a stay will not change. DVC may re-allocate points though. So if you buy 300 points and you stay 2 weeks 10 years from now those 300 points would give you 2 weeks...they never go up. But it may not be the same 2 weeks.....because they may raise the amount of points in a week but if they do that they have to lower another week. Hopefully this makes sense.

7. Feel free to add any other observations you think valuable

If you travel to Disney every year or every other year it is worth it. But do not buy in for the trades since the best value is at Disney......

Good Luck
Brownie

 

[browniemtb]

All I can tell you is, apparently you have to read and fully comprehend EVERY SINGLE WORD in the documentation you can find and recieve from DVC. DON'T rely on your salesperson knowing what he's talking about, I'm currently involved in a nightmare that appears to have been caused by a salesman saying one thing while policy dictates something completely different.

What happen to you???????

Forget it.....I found your other post.......

 

[airtime]

At the top of your screen....you'll see DVC point charts

Right, but those links only show the point costs for DVC resorts. What about for Contemporary, All-Stars, Poly, etc?


Tim, trying to work out every angle...

 

[browniemtb]

Right, but those links only show the point costs for DVC resorts. What about for Contemporary, All-Stars, Poly, etc?
Tim, trying to work out every angle...

Good question......in your DVC packet they give you a book with point values for other Disney resorts. Beleive it or not but the other non DVC resorts are considered, I guess, out of network. The points values for the Poly, Cont and others are very high....not worth it high. If you buy DVC expect to use the points at the 5 Disney resorts.....plus 2 non site resorts.
Brownie

 

[Sarnia]

All I can tell you is, apparently you have to read and fully comprehend EVERY SINGLE WORD in the documentation you can find and recieve from DVC. DON'T rely on your salesperson knowing what he's talking about, I'm currently involved in a nightmare that appears to have been caused by a salesman saying one thing while policy dictates something completely different.

The salesman may have given you some bad advice, but at the end of the day you should have read the DVC documentation. The booking system is pretty straightforward, but because you didn't check for yourself you seem to be trying to blame everyone except the person resposible for your predicament (you).

 

[ScooterL]

5. Are there any "secrets" that you feel help to push up the value of the DVC (vs. booking like anyone else)?!

As a DVC member, you pay waaay less than what Disney charges as rack rate on the rooms!!! And we've found that we pay less for a studio room (and sometimes less for a one-bedroom) than we would pay at one of the Moderate resorts - but you get a much nicer room with DVC. Deluxe accommodations for the price of a Moderate!

6. What exactly is guaranteed in a DVC purchase vs. what is just "perks"?

As someone else pointed out, what is guaranteed is accommodations of similar size for the same number of days/year, though the time of year might vary.

Perks include things like discounts on Annual passes, discounts at various restaurants and retail establishments around property, the ability to "trade out" of DVC for cruises, stays at other timeshares or resorts around the world, stays at other Disney hotels around the world, etc. DO NOT buy DVC for the perks, since those are not guaranteed. Personally, for the most part I have found that they are a poor trade - you get much more value out of using your points at a DVC resort.

Laura

 

[Tumblwd501]

I couldn't find any charts for the non-DVC resorts. But I did notice that the DVC Points calculator on the Dis Boards website right here does include a good number (but not all) of the non-DVC resorts. The big downside is you have to put in the dates to see what the actual points costs is. But it's better then nothing! Just not as easily accesible as an actual chart.

Here's the link: http://www.wdwinfo.com/resort/dvcpoint.cfm

 

[DizneyNutz]

The salesman may have given you some bad advice, but at the end of the day you should have read the DVC documentation. The booking system is pretty straightforward, but because you didn't check for yourself you seem to be trying to blame everyone except the person resposible for your predicament (you).

I believe everyones contract says the same things Why all the fuss over what someone said when we get a contract in black and white and sign the document saying we agreed to it. I DID THEN and STILL DO NOW

 

[tkd lisa]

You got the answer to the non-DVC points required question.

There is a new thread that lists the outside disney points for 2007.

The current rate for SSR is $101 per point. Closing costs are just over $200. Promotion as of one week ago was: 1) $10 discount per point or 2) matching number of builder points for the current use year.

I was told that that promo will probably change soon. The builders points were supposedly offered since Phase 3 of SSR isn't currently complete. Not sure if that was a sales pitch or not, but I was ready to buy, and I have plans for those extra points so I took them.

 

[ceejay13]

I think your questions have been answered but I agree that the thing I now know that I didn't before is I wish I would have done it sooner. That is 6 years and 5 contracts later. It sure would have saved me some money. You probably have heard this also, but buy where you want to stay most. Also, one perk that we have had only for a year or so is $100 off annual passes, which many of us try to get two trips in one year to use them twice. We bought ours last year the third week of December. This year we are going at the end of November for 11 nights. In the end, we will have gotten 23 days out of our park passes for $320.