Just purchased DVC

[anniedream]

Hey everyone
My boyfriend and I have literally just purchased DVC at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Spent a good while there talking through our options etc. We are feeling very excited. We are from the UK, so this will allow us to take more vacations here to Florida and around the world.
Any advice for new members? There is just so much to take in at the moment!
Xxx

 

[Best Aunt]

Hey everyone
My boyfriend and I have literally just purchased DVC at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Spent a good while there talking through our options etc. We are feeling very excited. We are from the UK, so this will allow us to take more vacations here to Florida and around the world.
Any advice for new members? There is just so much to take in at the moment!
Xxx

This: http://www.ownerslocker.com/index.cfm

But check the DVC Member website before signing up because I think you get a discount if you do it that way.

 

[jerseyduke]

This: http://www.ownerslocker.com/index.cfm

But check the DVC Member website before signing up because I think you get a discount if you do it that way.

Yes you do

 

[JustTinking]

First and foremost, congratulations!! And Welcome Home! You're gonna love it! My DH is from the UK and loves all things Disney, so buying DVC made a lot of sense for us.

I would suggest you spend a bit of time with understanding the basics around use year, banking deadlines, borrowing, booking reservations, and the rules around modifying/cancelling reservations. It will make everything much easier if you are familiar with those.

The other advice is to plan early. You will have an 11 month window to book at your home resort, but once the 7 month window opens to others, you may not always get your choice accommodations. So planning early pans out.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

 

[disneynutz]

Hey everyone
My boyfriend and I have literally just purchased DVC at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Spent a good while there talking through our options etc. We are feeling very excited. We are from the UK, so this will allow us to take more vacations here to Florida and around the world.
Any advice for new members? There is just so much to take in at the moment!
Xxx

Take a look at the "around the world vacations" and the cost paying cash using points. Often you can get better availability and spend less money using cash and saving your points for DVC stays.

Since you "just" purchased, direct I'm guessing, I wanted to make sure that you bought at your favorite resort. DVC salespeople don't often volunteer that all DVC resorts are available for sale and that you can pick a different UY than the one that they are trying to sell.

Bill

 

[anniedream]

Thanks for the advice guys. We brought straight from the resort. We wanted either AKL or the new GF villas. For the same price we could get 125 points for GF or 130 points with AKL (thats with taxes and dues included) The points swayed us for AKL. We didn't get told about the availability for other resorts - didn't realise until coming on DIS that there are waiting lists, and I expect there will be a big waiting list for the new GFV.
Didn't realise about the discounts :-/ there was a discount for AKL. $3 per point credit and a $1000 additional incentive.
We still have 10 days to change our mind. Im tempted to change it to GFV.

 

[MickeyFan612]

The value rooms at AKV definitely need your 11 month booking advantage. If you do not plan to take advantage of the value rooms I'd go with GFV as it is a much smaller resort and you will definitely need your 11 month book window to score a studio there! Not to mention GFV will likely have higher resale values and rental rates! I bought GFV direct and my AKV contract on the cheap through resale!

 

[disneynutz]

Thanks for the advice guys. We brought straight from the resort. We wanted either AKL or the new GF villas. For the same price we could get 125 points for GF or 130 points with AKL (thats with taxes and dues included) The points swayed us for AKL. We didn't get told about the availability for other resorts - didn't realise until coming on DIS that there are waiting lists, and I expect there will be a big waiting list for the new GFV.
Didn't realise about the discounts :-/ there was a discount for AKL. $3 per point credit and a $1000 additional incentive.
We still have 10 days to change our mind. Im tempted to change it to GFV.

During your full term ownership you will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars with Disney. Buying where you love makes sense, the problem is you may not know where that is.

We bought AKV then found out that it wasn't our favorite. We sold several of the contracts, (buying direct, we always buy 50 point contracts), we took a loss when we sold.

We still have a couple AKV contracts, but we also have BWV, VWL. VGF, BCV, and BLT.

Bill

 

[anniedream]

Does anyone know how much GFV are in points? Has Disney released these yet?
I am getting the feeling from everyone else what we should do. For us, being from the UK and having long trips here, we thought those 5 extra points would make a difference and from the DVC sales person, he was stating about the points and recommended we get the 130. We can get 125 @ GF for $18,500 and 130 @ AKL for $18,110.
It's hard to get our head around the fact that we are not buying into a room but also we need to consider the 11 month advance booking and whether that 4 months extra really does make the difference.
It really helps talking to DVC members!!!

 

[SarahInMN]

...We didn't get told about the availability for other resorts - didn't realise until coming on DIS that there are waiting lists, and I expect there will be a big waiting list for the new GFV.
Didn't realise about the discounts :-/ there was a discount for AKL. $3 per point credit and a $1000 additional incentive.
We still have 10 days to change our mind. Im tempted to change it to GFV.

I don't want to sound negative or sound like a pessimist but it concerns me that you didn't know about other resort availability or wait lists. DVC has alot of ins and outs, little things you need to know.

I would strongly advise you (before your 10 days runs out) to read on these boards posts about DVC, posts about how it works, do your research!

Does anyone know how much GFV are in points? Has Disney released these yet?...For us, being from the UK and having long trips here, we thought those 5 extra points would make a difference

5 points is hardly anything - take a look at various point charts and get a sense of what you would use or need.

VGF was released in early summer to current members, then shortly thereafter to the general public and (I believe) currently 150$ per point. As above, it concerns me that you don't have all the information you need to make an informed decision about DVC. You really need to go into this with "open eyes" and knowing exactly what you are getting into.

Good luck!

 

[anniedream]

Found the points chart for GFV http://dvcnews.com/index.php/resort...1-grand-floridian-2013-and-2014-points-charts

 

[anniedream]

I don't want to sound negative or sound like a pessimist but it concerns me that you didn't know about other resort availability or wait lists. DVC has alot of ins and outs, little things you need to know. I would strongly advise you (before your 10 days runs out) to read on these boards posts about DVC, posts about how it works, do your research! 5 points is hardly anything - take a look at various point charts and get a sense of what you would use or need. GFV was released in early summer to current members, then shortly thereafter to the general public and (I believe) currently 150$ per point. As above, it concerns me that you don't have all the information you need to make an informed decision about DVC. You really need to go into this with "open eyes" and knowing exactly what you are getting into. Good luck!

This is the second time we went to Saratoga Springs to consider DVC. We came away from our vacation last year and decided to look into more. We mainly focused on finding the right points package for us. We weren't overly concerned with which resort we 'brought into' as we want to travel a lot of other places than Florida. The questions I asked was just for a little advice from DVC members with the new GFV resort as we have not heard much about it. We went into DVC today with AKL in our hearts as we prefer the atmosphere there from all the Disney Hotels we have stayed at. We have already waited two years to do DVC and didn't want to wait until another $9,000 trip in order to join, as that it is more that goes towards our membership. We have friends who are DVC members too and they have never mentioned waiting lists or not getting into resorts.

 

[timandjanl]

This is the second time we went to Saratoga Springs to consider DVC. We came away from our vacation last year and decided to look into more. We mainly focused on finding the right points package for us. We weren't overly concerned with which resort we 'brought into' as we want to travel a lot of other places than Florida. The questions I asked was just for a little advice from DVC members with the new GFV resort as we have not heard much about it. We went into DVC today with AKL in our hearts as we prefer the atmosphere there from all the Disney Hotels we have stayed at. We have already waited two years to do DVC and didn't want to wait until another $9,000 trip in order to join, as that it is more that goes towards our membership. We have friends who are DVC members too and they have never mentioned waiting lists or not getting into resorts.

If you are fine with AKL instead of VGF why don't you look into resale? If more points is what you want you can get a lot more for less money buying resale. We were prepared to spend $24k for 160 points at VGF but wound up spending much less than that for 250 points at a different resort. After a few years you could always add on a small contract at VGF. Just a thought.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Yes, are you aware of resale? For AKV you could probably get closer to 250 points for $18,000. Or get the amount of points you are buying now for far less and then consider taking that additional $9,000 and adding on more in the future. Or just paying cash for other vacations. For travel to lots of other places (and I'm guessing that includes Europe) it's not necessarily that easy to use DVC nor as economical as other options although you can still trade thru RCI with resale points.

Also unfortunately 130 points will not give you much for trades outside of DVC.

If VGF really is the resort you would like then there hasn't been much available resale yet but again, 125 or 130 points will not give you much to trade with. It would probably be better to buy just the amount of points you feel you would use at DVC resorts.

 

[sndral]

130 pts would get you 13 nights a year in a value studio at AKL. 125 pts at GF would get you 7 nights at the GF (depending on time of year.) Since you already pay a great deal to fly to WDW I totally understand the desire to stay longer once you are there.
You paid more for AKV by buying from Disney directly, but I'm not sure how easy it is to buy resale when you live in the UK, or given the current resale market how long you would have to search to find a 125 pt. resale contract and once you found one it would take another 3 months to actually buy it and be able to book your next trip, whereas you have your points now and can book next years vacation next month. You are also protected from any future actions by Disney to further limit resale buyer's benefits. I am looking to save money and buy resale, but that takes time and I'm in the US, I can understand the advantages for someone in your situation deciding to buy AKV direct even though it costs a few thousand more.

 

[disneynutz]

This is the second time we went to Saratoga Springs to consider DVC. We came away from our vacation last year and decided to look into more. We mainly focused on finding the right points package for us. We weren't overly concerned with which resort we 'brought into' as we want to travel a lot of other places than Florida. The questions I asked was just for a little advice from DVC members with the new GFV resort as we have not heard much about it. We went into DVC today with AKL in our hearts as we prefer the atmosphere there from all the Disney Hotels we have stayed at. We have already waited two years to do DVC and didn't want to wait until another $9,000 trip in order to join, as that it is more that goes towards our membership. We have friends who are DVC members too and they have never mentioned waiting lists or not getting into resorts.

If you have made up your mind, I understand. We try to educate about the complexities of the DVC even when you didn't ask the question.

What specific questions do you still have?

Bill

 

[JustTinking]

By looking at the points charts you can quickly determine the difference between AKV and VGF. VGF cost many more points to stay in the same accommodation at the same time of year. Do the math. You can make your points go further with AKV, more nights. If you are already in love with AKV, I'd leave it the way it is, and plan a VGF visit a few years from now.

 

[zavandor]

but I'm not sure how easy it is to buy resale when you live in the UK

It's very easy, I did it twice without any problem.

 

[Skrutti]

I live in sweden and have made 3 purchases with 3 different resellers! No problem at all everything can be done by email except closing docs wich you send by standard mail.