MammaMoe48
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2015
We bought into DVC in 2013 while on a cruise and we were excited at first, then we were scared, then I wanted to cancel, then we booked our first trip with our points, now I don't regret it. I will tell you, it is scary to think about spending all that money - especially when you see your bank statement every month.(lol) So as a fairly newbie I can say that the only person who knows if you made the right choice is you.
People who have been members for 8 or 10 or more years didn't pay as much for points and have probably paid them off by now (or at least will soon be done) and have probably already taken a few vacations so they are beginning to recoup their initial investment. Of all the members I've spoken to, the longer members seem to be the happiest with their decision. Newer members obviously paid more for the points and probably haven't been on enough trips to see a return on their investment yet so it seems they are the ones less happy. By no means am I saying this is so for all members, just in general this seems to be the case.
We got our 2013 points when we bought in and banked them, then used our 2014 points and borrowed our 2015 points to go on another cruise last summer and we had a great time. That cruise would have cost us over $7,000 easily just for the stateroom, not including airfare and onboard expenses, if we had paid out of pocket (we prefer Verandahs so the price was higher). Now we are going to WDW in August and staying in a 1BR villa at the BWV and that room would probably run us close to $5,000 if we paid out of pocket (granted, if we were paying OOP, we would not be staying in a 1BR, we'd be staying in a regular room but even that room would have run us about $3,000 for the week. So right there after two trips we will have already recouped about half of what we paid. We figure that if we take two or three more trips, we will break even and all our trips after that will actually be saving us money. It still makes me cringe though at the thought of paying this off for another 7 years but I don't regret it.
With that said, if Poly is your home resort you can book as early as 11 months out so it shouldn't be a problem booking. The villas are DVC hotels and members have preference in them when booking. My home resort is AKV but we booked BWV with no problem at 7 months.
I really hope you re think it through and come to a decision that works for you but go by how you feel. I concur with some others on here, if I had read this before buying I would have been scared off. I'm glad I didn't.
People who have been members for 8 or 10 or more years didn't pay as much for points and have probably paid them off by now (or at least will soon be done) and have probably already taken a few vacations so they are beginning to recoup their initial investment. Of all the members I've spoken to, the longer members seem to be the happiest with their decision. Newer members obviously paid more for the points and probably haven't been on enough trips to see a return on their investment yet so it seems they are the ones less happy. By no means am I saying this is so for all members, just in general this seems to be the case.
We got our 2013 points when we bought in and banked them, then used our 2014 points and borrowed our 2015 points to go on another cruise last summer and we had a great time. That cruise would have cost us over $7,000 easily just for the stateroom, not including airfare and onboard expenses, if we had paid out of pocket (we prefer Verandahs so the price was higher). Now we are going to WDW in August and staying in a 1BR villa at the BWV and that room would probably run us close to $5,000 if we paid out of pocket (granted, if we were paying OOP, we would not be staying in a 1BR, we'd be staying in a regular room but even that room would have run us about $3,000 for the week. So right there after two trips we will have already recouped about half of what we paid. We figure that if we take two or three more trips, we will break even and all our trips after that will actually be saving us money. It still makes me cringe though at the thought of paying this off for another 7 years but I don't regret it.
With that said, if Poly is your home resort you can book as early as 11 months out so it shouldn't be a problem booking. The villas are DVC hotels and members have preference in them when booking. My home resort is AKV but we booked BWV with no problem at 7 months.
I really hope you re think it through and come to a decision that works for you but go by how you feel. I concur with some others on here, if I had read this before buying I would have been scared off. I'm glad I didn't.
Last edited:
Bill
