Questions about Disney Vacation Club

[bangzoom6877]

I am so curious about the DVC. We are taking our first trip to WDW as a family in July. DH was there once in 1999 and I was there in 1985, 1989, 1992 and 1994. Neither of us ever stayed on property but we will be staying at Pop Century in July with our 2 sons. Older one will be 3 and a half when we go, little one will be 14 months.

Okay, that being said...let's say we decide we love WDW so much that we want to make it our main vacation each year, be it the WDW resorts, Disney Cruiseline, etc. We have thought once or twice about DVC. However, not sure it would be in our budget just yet. A few questions:

-How easy is it to get a room at the DVC resort you belong to in July or August? We are teachers from NYC and prefer driving down to Florida to make it a long trip. Summer months are easiest for us to go.

-If we want a DVC membership, could we purchase any amount of points we want? For example, let's say we want a membership with 200 points. Is something like that available? What, on average, would something like this cost monthly?

-Are certain resorts fewer points to stay than others? Which one would be the best deal to have membership? We like the way Animal Kingdom Villas looks, since we have 2 boys.

-If you have membership at Animal Kingdom Villas, could you still use DVC points to stay at a different WDW resort, or even the resort on Hilton Head Island?

-What types of vacations could you take besides WDW resorts or Disney cruises?

-Any special resort benefits as a DVC member, or are they the same as a non-member staying at any DIsney resort (EMH, etc.)?

-Could DVC members get the Disney Dining Experience, or only AP holders?

-Do park tickets cost less for DVC members?

-Will our kids always be able to vacation with us under our DVC membership, even when they are over 18?

Okay, I know these are a lot of questions, but any info would really be appreciated. We went to a seminar years ago about a timeshare and we hated the whole concept. What makes this different? I would like to hear this from members if possible, because of course the company itself will try to sell it. What I truly fantasize about is a CM coming up to me when I am there in July and telling me I won the DVC membership through the year of a million dreams! Oh, how I really dream of that!

Thanks so much,
Bonnie

 

[wilderness01]

I am so curious about the DVC. We are taking our first trip to WDW as a family in July. DH was there once in 1999 and I was there in 1985, 1989, 1992 and 1994. Neither of us ever stayed on property but we will be staying at Pop Century in July with our 2 sons. Older one will be 3 and a half when we go, little one will be 14 months.

Okay, that being said...let's say we decide we love WDW so much that we want to make it our main vacation each year, be it the WDW resorts, Disney Cruiseline, etc. We have thought once or twice about DVC. However, not sure it would be in our budget just yet. A few questions:

-How easy is it to get a room at the DVC resort you belong to in July or August? You could book 11 months out at your home resort or 7 months out at another resort.We are teachers from NYC and prefer driving down to Florida to make it a long trip. Summer months are easiest for us to go.

-If we want a DVC membership, could we purchase any amount of points we want? For example, let's say we want a membership with 200 points. Is something like that available? What, on average, would something like this cost monthly?You have to buy at least 160 points, I think. It changed since we bought. You would also have to pay monthly maintenance on your contract. Last I knew it was over $100 a point, but they always have incentives.

-Are certain resorts fewer points to stay than others? Which one would be the best deal to have membership?Yes, Old Key West and Saratoga Springs are less points. BWV, standard view. We like the way Animal Kingdom Villas looks, since we have 2 boys.

-If you have membership at Animal Kingdom Villas, could you still use DVC points to stay at a different WDW resort, or even the resort on Hilton Head Island?Yes, but at the deluxe resorts it costs alot of points to stay in a smaller room vs. staying in the dvc units. You could use your points to stay at Vero or Hilton Head. You get the most bang for your point if you stay at the DVC resorts.

-What types of vacations could you take besides WDW resorts or Disney cruises?Vero Beach. It isn't as easy as they say it is to use your points across the us, the conc. collection as they call it.

-Any special resort benefits as a DVC member, or are they the same as a non-member staying at any DIsney resort (EMH, etc.)?You get a lunch discount at a number of restaurants.

-Could DVC members get the Disney Dining Experience, or only AP holders?Only AP holders.

-Do park tickets cost less for DVC members?Yes, $100 off the pass, not premium. Money off event tickets as well.

-Will our kids always be able to vacation with us under our DVC membership, even when they are over 18?Yes.

Okay, I know these are a lot of questions, but any info would really be appreciated. We went to a seminar years ago about a timeshare and we hated the whole concept. What makes this different? I would like to hear this from members if possible, because of course the company itself will try to sell it. What I truly fantasize about is a CM coming up to me when I am there in July and telling me I won the DVC membership through the year of a million dreams! Oh, how I really dream of that!

You would be better going over to the DVC board and they will answer all your questions. Good luck.

Thanks so much,
Bonnie

Good luck with your decision.

 

[Amy5000]

I'm sure someone will move this to the DVC Board, but I'll give it a try:

-How easy is it to get a room at the DVC resort you belong to in July or August? We are teachers from NYC and prefer driving down to Florida to make it a long trip. Summer months are easiest for us to go.

It should not be that hard if you know far in advance. It will be much harder as it gets closer to that time. You can book at 11 mos. out at your home resort. So since you can probably roughly schedule your vacation very far in advance you will be fine. (This is even more true at the larger DVC resorts like SSR and OKW).

-If we want a DVC membership, could we purchase any amount of points we want? For example, let's say we want a membership with 200 points. Is something like that available? What, on average, would something like this cost monthly?

The minimum Disney will sell you for your initial purchase is 160 pts but they will be happy to do more. You can buy smaller contracts in the resale market. You can also explore making your purchase resale. My guess is that 200 pts. would cost you in the neighborhood of $850 to $950 annually depending on resort (although Vero Beach does have higher fees).

Are certain resorts fewer points to stay than others? Which one would be the best deal to have membership? We like the way Animal Kingdom Villas looks, since we have 2 boys.

OKW generally requires fewer points. AKV has several different pt. categories. (so a savannah view vs. standard vs. value) will have different points. The points charts are widely available on the web. You really need to spend some time looking at them.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-vacation-club/DVCpoints.shtml

As for where to buy...that's a loaded question. If you only want a specific resort that's harder to get into like BCV or VWL, then you would be better off purchasing there. Here's a thread with some advice.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=778634&page=1&pp=15

Any special resort benefits as a DVC member, or are they the same as a non-member staying at any DIsney resort (EMH, etc.)?

There are some things....DVC members can usually pool hop to any disney resort (except to BCV or AKV). There are also assorted discounts etc. and $100 off an annual pass. ButI wouldn't be counting on any of those things. They can change at any time.

-Could DVC members get the Disney Dining Experience, or only AP holders?

-Do park tickets cost less for DVC members?

-Will our kids always be able to vacation with us under our DVC membership, even when they are over 18?

No to the DDE, but DVC can currently purchase the DDP. The only discount on tickets is the $100 of the annual pass. Not only can your kids vacation with you when they are older...you have friends come or let them use it or even rent it out if you are not using it one year.

Good luck. Amy

 

[bangzoom6877]

I didn't see a DVC board here. Is there one I should look at?

Thanks so much for the info. $850 to $950 sounds pretty good, especially considering these are deluxe resorts. Same benefits, like transportation and stuff right?

Any other extras or anything I should know about?

 

[james'mommy]

DVC units do not receive traditional mousekeeping services. They get a removal of trash and change of towels on the 4th day and a full clean on the 8th day. We love our DVC. We hoard our points so that we can get themost days from it every year. Our current goal is to stay at every DVC resort there is. We're only a couple of trips away from that.

 

[betsywdw]

I didn't see a DVC board here. Is there one I should look at?

Thanks so much for the info. $850 to $950 sounds pretty good, especially considering these are deluxe resorts. Same benefits, like transportation and stuff right?

Any other extras or anything I should know about?

The DVC board is great! Here is the link:

http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=7

 

[daisyduck123]

Here's what you need to do:

When you go on your trip in July, you need to go over to Saratoga Springs Resort (Animal Kingdom might work also, I'm not sure) & meet with a DVC guide there. He will answer all of your questions & give you a tour of some rooms. This is not hard to arrange & will not take a lot of time. That's what we did in May 2006. Then, that October for my b-day, DH handed me paperwork saying we were now DVC members.

**One great thing about the tour...as we were leaving, our guide gave us a $50.00 Disney gift card just for meeting with him.

 

[fitzdisney]

You can also go to disneyvacationclub.com and request information to be mailed to you. Before we bought, we got a huge packet of info in the mail with a point book for each resort and a DVD which explained the whole process. We did everything over the phone. Your next trip could even be with DVC. We love it!!!

 

[ldo]

financially, if you like staying at Value or even moderate, you are better off not joining DVC--esp. if you vacation on a weekends (weekends cost double the points of sun-thur). But, if you want a kitchen or more than 1 room, then DVC might be for you. A DVC studio and moderate are fairly similar.
DVC have community halls (CH) with activities, which could be good for your kids when they are a bit older.

We stayed at Pop and also Saratoga Springs (DVC) this summer. Pop was great, esp. for the price, but we needed more space, wanted at least a kitchenette and a pool with slide and a hot tub--now, we could have gotten just about all this at a moderate, but we also loved the CH so much that we decided to buy DVC.
The DVC BBs below have lots of info.

 

[Colinsmom]

I didn't see a DVC board here. Is there one I should look at?

Thanks so much for the info. $850 to $950 sounds pretty good, especially considering these are deluxe resorts. Same benefits, like transportation and stuff right?

Any other extras or anything I should know about?

Wellll...

The $850 - 950 is your annual maintenance fee. You pay that every year, as long as you own DVC. But that doesn't include the cost to buy into DVC, which is a little over $100 per point (with a 160 point minimum, the price starts at around $16,000 plus change).

 

[ppppiglett]

This is going to be long, but I want to tell you our story and what we love about our DVC membership:

We decided to check it out & take the DVC tour on a whim on our last day as we were checking out that day a few years ago. While the rest of the family was at Downtown Disney shopping, we were shopping in a different way!

(Caution: DVC said it would be about an hour, but we were there for 2 hours. But it was a pleasant 2 hours. )

They didn't do a hard sell, they gave us lots of info and a tour, .... oh, and food! There was a great little corner with juice, coffee and pastries.

We left with our info, and on the train home, discussed it and by the time we got home we decided to purchase at SSR.

-If you have membership at Animal Kingdom Villas, could you still use DVC points to stay at a different WDW resort, or even the resort on Hilton Head Island?

-What types of vacations could you take besides WDW resorts or Disney cruises?

This was at Christmas a couple years ago and we used some of our points right away that year to give a christmas trip to my sister and her hubby to Vermont. We used points to go for our anniversary Disney trip @ POR & BWV, and we just took our family to Washington,DC for a weekend @ Mandarin Oriental Hotel this year for christmas with our points and stayed in hotel rooms that were $1000 per night suites! We've not had any problems with it and by banking and borrowing points for 3 yrs. we have just booked a trip for our family, including a studio for me and hubby, a studio for my sister, and a 2 bedroom vacation home for my brother and his family of 6 for a week in October at SSR. "Taking the family away and providing the lodging.....Priceless!"

Our 160 pts at the time were not quite $16,000, and our monthly now is $200 I think. That isn't including the maintenance fees though. As someone stated, that is all extra. I'm thinking that with all fees included, it is between $400 - $600 per month. It seems like a lot of money, but to us it is like having pre-paid vacations.



Go talk to the DVC folks and see what they are offering. Mario at SSR was very laid back for us and didn't try to force us to make any decision right away at all. We were very impressed with him.

 

[2Princes2Princesses]

financially, if you like staying at Value or even moderate, you are better off not joining DVC--esp. if you vacation on a weekends (weekends cost double the points of sun-thur). But, if you want a kitchen or more than 1 room, then DVC might be for you. A DVC studio and moderate are fairly similar.

I completely agree with this statement. If values work for you as a rule, you probably would not save with DVC. A DVC studio is a little larger than a moderate room (mods are 314 sq feet, DVC studios range from 355 sq ft to 376 sq ft).

As far as other benefits, DVC members get free valet at the DVC resorts. And laundry facilities are free. If you are in a 1br/2br/3brGV, you have a washer/dryer in the room. If you are in a studio, there are laundry rooms available to you for no charge.

The DVC board is the best place to ask. They are EXPERTS and you will pretty much get a cost analysis breakdown over there. I went over everything on those boards prior to buying in and not only received great advice, but even saved some $$. I was going to finance part and pay it off in a year, but instead, I made a huge downpayment, and put the remainder on a 0% interest CC for 1 year, and paid that off, so I saved 1 year worth of interest charges.

 

[disneymomto5]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents as well. We took the tour, came home and discussed it for about 3 months and then bought resale through the Timeshare Store (a disboard sponsor). We were able to buy less than the Disney required minimum and the whole transaction from start to finish was 3 weeks long! As an aside, we had looked into the DVC 10 years ago and passed, I could kick myself for that as the price went up alot. The nice thing about it is it's flexible and you can stay for a long weekend, or save up and come every other year for 2 weeks. The extra space is really nice, and so is having the kitchen, washer and dryer. I really wish we had purchased 10 years ago instead of 2 years ago.

 

[bangzoom6877]

Could I go for the tour in the afternoon one day while my husband stays in the room with the kids as they nap? Would they allow me to go by myself? I really think it is a bad idea to bring my kids since they are so little, and will need an afternoon break each day.

Value resorts are for us right now because of budget issues, so I thought maybe the DVC would be do-able since we can pay monthly and still stay at a deluxe resort (interior corridors, more restaurant options, etc.). Plus the club level rooms at AKVillas look great, and you get the early morning safari and breakfast at AK with admission to that park if you stay club level at AKVillas, right? Also, with 2 boys I thought AK Villas would be nice, especially the Savannah view rooms.

Bonnie

 

[revrob]

We own 200 points at SSR. Our initial purchase was in 2004, we purchased 150 points. Last May, we purchased an add on of 50 points. We did the minimum down payment for each purchase, and financed the rest through Disney (there are no early buy out penalties). Our monthly payments are:
$196.50/month for the points and $66.54/month for our dues. If you did the same, your payment would be slightly different because the purchase price is slightly higher right now. But this will give you an idea.

 

[bangzoom6877]

Thank you for the info! HOw much is the minimum down payment for DVC? Do prices per point vary from resort to resort? Which is the least and how much? Which is the most and how much?

 

[graygables]

Could I go for the tour in the afternoon one day while my husband stays in the room with the kids as they nap? Would they allow me to go by myself? I really think it is a bad idea to bring my kids since they are so little, and will need an afternoon break each day.

Value resorts are for us right now because of budget issues, so I thought maybe the DVC would be do-able since we can pay monthly and still stay at a deluxe resort (interior corridors, more restaurant options, etc.). Plus the club level rooms at AKVillas look great, and you get the early morning safari and breakfast at AK with admission to that park if you stay club level at AKVillas, right? Also, with 2 boys I thought AK Villas would be nice, especially the Savannah view rooms.

Bonnie

I went by myself. They want both of you there so you can both be on the same page (and sign more quickly...), but I don't think they'd turn you away.

As far as interior corridors, I may be wrong, but I think only VWL and AKV have those, so that may impact your decision (although we own AKV and don't want to stay anywhere else!)

The resorts actively selling now are Saratoga and AKV at $104 per point. There is a special until 2/18 that includes discounts of $10pp for SSR and $8pp for AKV as well as developer point bonuses. You'd have to call a guide for details. The minimum to buy new from DVC is 160 points, so you are looking at $15040 (w/ the discount) up front to buy into SSR. You have to put down 10% (they sometimes ask for more if there's a credit issue). On top of that, you will also have maintenance fees to pay every year, based on the resort and the number of points. Right now, SSR is $4.21 per point, so
$673.60 per year. Once the basic cost of your points is paid, you will still pay the maintenance fees for the duration of the contract. If you choose to finance, you'd be looking at about $380 per month for 5 years (points/fees, I'm thinking the finance rate is 10.75%?), then at least $56/month (increases as the fees increase) for the duration of the contract.

HTH!

 

[daisyduck123]

I
As far as interior corridors, I may be wrong, but I think only VWL and AKV have those, so that may impact your decision (although we own AKV and don't want to stay anywhere else!)

BCV has interior corridors as well.

 

[2Princes2Princesses]

BWV has interior corridors too.

The sunset and sunrise safaris are available Club level at AKV, but they do cost extra. You do not need park admission to take the tour, but I do not think you get to stay in the park for the day, just for the safari and meal.

You can buy any resort direct from Disney (price per point varies). We bought BWV in October of 06 as an add-on. However, you may have to wait until they get the # of points you want in inventory. They happened to have what we wanted right away, so we did not have to wait.

Our contracts are all in my name, I just added DH as an "associate" so he can make/cancel reservations, etc, but I signed alone on all the paperwork.

As far as the maintenance fees, those are paid each January (regardless of what use year you have). They can be paid all at once, or direct debited monthly. Right now, AKV has fees of 4.71 per point for 2008. These fees can go up or down, depending on work done on the resort, property taxes, etc.

Club level at AKV for DVC consists of 5 2BR equivalents. Meaning there are 5 studios and 5 one bedrooms, but if anyone books a 2BR club level, they take one studio and 1 one bedroom from that total. As of now, there are no plans to have club level in the new Kidani building, so those 5 or 10 rooms will be it for concierge DVC rooms at AKV. I just wanted to point that out so you know during some periods, you may not always be able to get the club level there. However, it IS more likely that you would if you owned points there and had the 11 month advantage.

We absolutely love our DVC. If I could go back, I would have bought in a year earlier when we first stayed at SSR and loved it. But I do think a look at your vacation habits, your room preferences, and the overall cost breakdown is really a good idea. DVC should be looked at as a luxury purchase. With a regular Disney vacation, if you run short of $$, you can always cancel and go later. With DVC, if you finance, those loan payments will still be due every month, and even if you don't, the maintenance fees will be due every month or every January, depending on how you choose to pay them.

Good luck on your decision and enjoy your tour. Wait until you see those AKV models. We toured them in October...I had no interest in AKV at all, was just curious.

After seeing the models, we just closed on an add-on AKV contract in December.

 

[Calle&Jakesmom]

Lots of advice here already, but...
LISTEN TO THIS: I am going against all Disney Vacation Club theory here, but if you DON'T buy DVC and take my advice you'll have lots of great vacations without the cost of a DVC membership.

My husband and I (and on most trips our 2 kids) have been to Disney at least once- most often twice a year for the last 8 years. Our best investment has been an annual pass. With this pass we have been able to get great discounts on Disney resorts and felt free to go in and out of the parks when we want (without worrying about "wasting" a day ticket on a few hours in a park). If you're going to invest in anything- get an annual pass- not DVC!

DVC has been really appealing to us- since we visit so often, but has never been something we invested in becaue you can get GREAT deals on DVC stays at all the resorts on-line. Many members are looking to sell their weeks on-line. We have found that we can get great deals, especially from DVC members for four/five night stays, at most resorts much cheaper than we could get in any other way. As new to Disney people (I assume you have not stayed at many resorts) you definately don't want to buy DVC right away and miss the experince at all the wonderful resorts. Getting a room on-line from a DVC member allows you access and the room without the commitment. We've traveled this way to Disney for years and as much as we'd like to make DVC make sense for us, with this optionof getting rooms on-line from DVC members willing to sell buying DVC just doesn't give us back what $ we would put in!!