DVC Questions

[og4fd]

Hello Everyone,

Last week my wife, and 4 month old along with two other couples went to WDW for the first time. While their we signed up for a tour of the DVC. We were very impressed and hooked on WDW immediately. However, our salesman did not seem to be the best. We are going to purchase between 200 and 300 points but wanted to come home and finance through our bank. Once we explained this to him he seemed to get turned off. I have already contacted the bank and started completed to paperwork for the loan. My question to the salesman was what perks or incentives are offered to members. His only answer was that is not why you are by DVD. While I understand the points and 11/7 rule and tradining for II properties. I just wanted to know what other perks or benefits would be offered. I also hoped to find out if there are any hidden rules or any rules once you buy. We are going to buy one way or the other, justed interested. I am the type that will spend hours or days obsessing over small details when planning a trip and just would like to know the information.

Thank you for any help that may be provided.

 

[kweaver]

Number 1...get a new guide. Sorry to hear you are having problems with your current guide. According to your post, his answers are not what I would expect from a good DVC guide. There is no reason a guide should be put off if you choose to do your own financing (unless guides are getting a comission directly on financing...which I am not aware of...and even then there's no reason to treat a guest that way)

There are numerous small perks for DVC members...10% discount at the Disney store, 10% discounts on some restaurants throughout WDW, 10% discounts on recreation and the "length of stay" UPH passes. There are probably others, but those are the ones that come to mind. I can go to the member website and email the entire list to you, if you like. (It's wordy and LONG)

I wouldn't say there are any hidden "rules". Everything is explained in the paperwork they send to you. However, there are some things that you might not think about (specifically use years and banking rules, etc.) until they actually happen. You can find out everything you want to know about DVC right here by reading the FAQ and browsing all of the posts. There are some very knowledgable folks on this board...and many of them have been DVC members for quite some time.

If you are at all concerned about your purchase, feel free to post some specific questions here and I'm sure they will be answered promptly.

Good luck!

 

[rocketriter]

Step one is to ask for a new salesman. Disney salespeople are human but, on the average, they're more straightforward and less pushy than most timeshare touters.

We've had great luck with Nick Tamberrino (800) 827-7199. He's pleasant, jovial, honest and not pushy. Just call him and tell him you want him to take over your account.

The moment that other posters on this board see that I've recommended somebody good, they'll chime in with other good recommendations as well. You shouldn't have to ask us these questions on this board. Your salesperson should be doing a better job.

 

[tjkraz]

In addition to kweaver's list, we get 10% off at a number of WDW restaurants (some of the discounts are lunch time only), 10% off of a handful of recreation options, 15% off on WDW tours, and there's a fairly nice DVC Golf program if you are a golfer.

While I don't agree at all with the manner in which your Guide communicated this to you (he obviously should have been able to provide some sort of list), as a member, I actually agree with the statement. The discounts are NOT all that substantial. Many of them overlap with AP holder discounts. And, the discount program is not guaranteed as part of the DVC contract. Literally they could cancel all of the discounts tomorrow and we would have no recourse.

That said, a handful of new discounts (mostly dining, IIRC) were just unveiled at the beginning of this month. So clearly there is an interest on DVC / WDW's part to keep us spending our money at the parks.

But I'll agree with everyone else--if you didn't like your Guide, get another.

 

[mbhoxsie]

One thing that guides do not often mention is that NOT all of the point charts are fixed....

The DVC resort collection.. (BWV, BCV, VWL, OKW, SSR, HHI, and VB) are all fixed... DVC cannot raise the price somewhere in the chart, without dropping the points somewhere else...

World Passport Collection points are also fixed until the end of the program...

What is NOT fixed, and can change....

• Disney Collection: Any non DVC Disney resorts - Poly, GF, Contempory, CBR, FW, AKL, etc
• Disney Cruise Line
• Conceirge Collection
• Adventure Collection

While these would not have been show stoppers for me, it never occured to me to ask on whether these are fixed or not... The guides do not hide this fact, but don't often volunteer it... At the last Member Update I attended, it was mentioned though by my guide....

There is an easy enough work around for this though... Rent points out on the Rent/Trade Board, and then take the money from the renting and use it on either the Disney, Concerige, and Adventurer Collections... Most DVC'ers will tell you that this is a better use of your points anyways, and that if you trade points out for things like DCL you are actually not getting your value's worth...

 

[Pa@okw95]

There have been two perks worth mentioning over the years I have been a member. One was the free pass perk that ended back in 2000, the other is pool hopping. Pool hopping is the ability to go to another resorts pool. All these other things are just discounts and not worth mentioning. Your salesman was correct they should not enter into the decision to by DVC. The other thing about the salesman, when you said you want to take it home to finance through your bank, he probably figured he spent enough time with you already and thought he lost the sale. Given what you said about yourself, you probably asked a lot of questions already, and he thought you took enough of his time. If someone is concerned about small discounts or perks they really should not buy because of them. They are very small potatos and really designed to get you to spend money. Pool hopping is the only perk available at this time, and I really do not believe that will last much longer, there are just too many members now to continue it much longer.