How has DVC changed your vacation pattern?

[DVC Mike]

How has DVC changed your vacation pattern?

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When you first joined DVC, you likely did so to save money, allow you to visit Disney more often, or to improve the quality of your stays.

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However, there are other potential impacts to your vacation patterns since buying – some that you expected or intended, and others that you didn’t consider. You may be booking more or longer Disney trips, or bringing more people along with you.

Another possible side effect is you are visiting Disney so much that you might find yourself forgoing other vacations outside Disney. Many families have limited vacation time and vacation funds, thus requiring choices to be made on where to go and what to do. Do you find that with your DVC membership, those choices are minimized because of the commitment to Disney via DVC?

Perhaps buying DVC has increased the overall number of vacations you used to take.

In the poll, select every item that applies to you.

Of course, reply to this post with the details of how buying DVC has changed your vacation patterns – positively or negatively.


How has your vacation pattern changed since buying into DVC?

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Purchasing DVC

• What was your purchase philosophy when choosing your home resort(s)?
• Headed up or down with your points?
• How much of the DVC legal documents have you actually read?

DVC Resorts

• Favorite thing you love, and what you most dislike, about your home resort?
• Which DVC resorts have your favorite cocktail lounge/bar?
• How much time do you spend at the resort versus the parks?
• Which DVC Resort is your favorite for watching the MK fireworks?
• Are the Polynesian Villas really that noisy?
• What does the future hold for DVC?

Renting Points

• Do you rent out your points yourself or use a “points broker”?

Using Your DVC Membership

• Do you still call Member Services?
• Out of points, but you still want to go to Disney?
• Which room sizes do you book the most?
• Do you still experience obsessive Disney planning?
• How much of your vacation time do you spend at Disney?
• How has DVC changed your vacation pattern?
• What meals or snacks do you prepare in your room?

Just for Fun

• How did you pick your DISboards User Name?
• Are you a "lurker" on DISboards? If not, what caused you to de-lurk?
• How long have you been a DVC member?
• How old were you when you first became a DVC member?
• What is your family status?
• Do you unpack or live out of your suitcase?

http://i235.************************************************************* DVC Mike - *******.com

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[Hunclemarco]

We rarely took vacations, and felt the burnout. Joining DVC required us to take vacations. We now go to Disney at least 2 times a year, sometimes more, about 14 day duration's each.

 

[bwvBound]

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Ha Ha Ha

 

[DVC Mike]

We book longer Disney stays, go to Disney more often, stay in larger rooms, tend to book less non-Disney vacations, and spend more money at Disney.

I think this is exactly the outcome Disney wants.

.

 

[Granny]

We book longer Disney stays, go to Disney more often, stay in larger rooms, tend to book less non-Disney vacations, and spend more money at Disney.

I think this is exactly the outcome Disney wants.

.

Ditto on all counts.

 

[lovin'fl]

After 2 trips to WDW (one off site and then one at POR) we bought DVC to get a 1BR villa for our family of 5 (separate bedroom, washer and dryer, kitchen...etc). We knew we wanted to go to WDW frequently but with owning DVC we have gone way more than we imagined...way more then we'd go without having DVC. Therefor we spend more at Disney (APs, party tix, dining, food, dining, food, drinks, food, dining...) and we take more vacations than we otherwise would. We also bring friends/family on almost every trip.

 

[Popouri DVC]

Ditto on all counts.

Yep. All of the above for us too!!

 

[mac_tlc]

When we first bought we certainly booked more Disney trips, fewer non-Disney trips and spent more money at Disney. We went often enough, and our kids loved it enough to buy a house in Orlando. So we now spend less money at Disney, book fewer Disney rooms, and probably go to Disney less frequently. But we still love the time we are there and look forward to every trip. Maybe someday we will be snowbirds or more......

mac_tlc

 

[Murron]

We rarely took vacations, and felt the burnout. Joining DVC required us to take vacations. We now go to Disney at least 2 times a year, sometimes more, about 14 day duration's each.

This was our family exactly!

 

[bwvBound]

We book longer Disney trips
Yes. We use our points to add a few nights down-time to the work conference visits.

We go to Disney more often
Yes. Before DVC, we'd only visit WDW for work conferences. Since DVC we now also schedule the occasional vacation -- for holiday visits, RunDisney or F&G events.

We stay in larger/better rooms at Disney
Nope. We were staying in the 1BR Villas via exchange against other timeshare successfully for years before buying into DVC.

We bring more family or friends to Disney
Yes! Those 'occasional vacations' I mentioned earlier are often with friends and family!

We spend more money at Disney
Well, maybe. Before DVC, we didn't vacation at Disney, ate on the Conference, and left the day following the closing session. Now ... sure, we stay an extra day or two, relax and eat at the restaurants.

We tend to book less non-Disney vacations
Nope.

DVC has allowed us to take more non-Disney vacations
I didn't vote for this -- but it is sorta true. Before buying DVC, I was using a good chunk of 'other timeshare' to exchange into DVC for work purposes. Now, having DVC, I can return to using my other timeshare for personal travel. Yeah.

DVC has resulted in us taking more vacations then we used to
Nope.

 

[DougEMG]

We book longer Disney stays, go to Disney more often, stay in larger rooms, tend to book less non-Disney vacations, and spend more money at Disney.

I think this is exactly the outcome Disney wants.

.

Same for us.

 

[hakepb]

What's funny to me, we basically decided that (late) May was the perfect WDW vacation time, then bought DVC .... And I think we've only had one May DVC trip since then

For a while, it was all "it's just points, let's try MVMCP" (loved it and returned) then MNSSHP, then summer sports got in the way....
I'd eventually like to return to May

 

[Micca]

Voted "go more often" and "larger/better rooms." We really feel like we've honed the cost of our trips down to a reasonable level so it's not like we're just throwing money in the wind for a few days of fun. Obviously, the room is "paid", we use freq. flyer miles for transportation,we have APs, and we pay for our food & trinkets with our Disney Visa Rewards card. The only significant oop expense is the rental car, and maybe the grocery run for the room depending on how expensive the wine is.

 

[ziravan]

I bought 252 points at BCV a year ago. (Got my membership number almost exactly one year ago).

Since then....

September trip and bought annual pass. (Air travel, car rental)

November trip. Brought MIL. (Air travel, car rental)

February trip (drove fm TX)

March - bought 168 points at PVB. Now own 420 points. My call to my guide went something like this, "Howdy, I'm ready to buy. I want a 168 point Week 44 guaranteed week Poly Lake View with a June UY. I know it's a different UY and will be a different contract, I'm fine with that because I can walk and chew gum at the same time. I'm ready to buy today, hook me up."

June trip with DW's extended family. 17 people and rented BCV 2 BR and 2 studios for a week. 8 of these were kids and for 6 of them, first trip to WDW. Because they had a newly experienced and expert WDW travel guide with them (me), they rode every E-ticket ride in four parks, and girls got to see A&E. The subset that wanted to got to go to Cindy's RT. 12 of the 17 ate at BOG and that same night, the other 5 went to wishes dessert party. We spent $900 at Publix and served 3 meals/day in 2br for anybody who wanted to eat in. plus the alcohol was much cheaper that way. (Drove)

August trip on the fly. Started booking 1 month out and pieced together, 2 nights 1br at OKW HH, 2 nights studio at BCV, and 2 nights studio AKV Kid Savanna. Changed reservations something like 15 times over a 2 week period. CM: "You sure know how to use your points." Me: "Yes. Yes, I do." (Air travel, MDE, first time a prisoner of the World with no car on property.)

Was planning to go again for F&W in Oct, but a co-worker is sick and on FMLA. Easy enough to change plans, it's not like it's a 'once in a lifetime trip', or anything.

Upcoming plans:

Dec trip for Christmas at Poly. We're going to, for the first time since being members, spend 2 days of this trip at Universal. (Air travel already bought)

May, 2016 week at BCV booked for my side of family. 2br and studio BCV booked for a week. 12 people coming, maybe 13. 9 of them first timers. They'll have an expert travel guide with them and I'm fairly confident they'll hit all the E tix. (We will drive).

Before I became a member, last trip to WDW? 2005. In the last year? 5 trips and 31 nights on property.

Yeah, DVC probably tweaked a smidge the way we do Disney...

(BTW, Southwest Airlines greatly appreciates that I'm now a DVC member. DVD needs to ask for a kickback or something.)

ETA: my work schedule is a monthly rotating schedule that naturally gives me 8 days off in a row each month without using vacation time. I'm an RN and work 12 hr shifts and for that two week arc, my schedule is S-M-T first week, Th-F-S the next, so off Wed-Thurs in between. So all of the above, I used a total of 4 vacation days from work, and that was only because I had to align my June trip with a large party.

 

[disneynut]

I really don't remember a life before DVC...and I don't want to! 26 days and counting until our next trip home!

 

[tgropp]

We now tend to relax in bigger rooms and bring friends with us