TrY. before you buy?

[Disneyfan81]

Did you try out your home resort before buying your DVC contract?

Please see post #16 for the rest of my post...this was sent before I was done typing it. And my subject should read "Try before you buy?". Gotta love little ones playing on the keyboard, lol!

 

[DVCconvert]

Did you try out your home resort before buying your DVC contract?

Yes, for (in my case) BWV...then the add-ons started!

 

[juncker]

To be honest, we had never even visited SSR before we bought. We started looking at BLT (which we had seen, but not stayed at) direct from Disney, but then found disboards which pointed me to resales. We bought SSR sight unseen.

We really just bought based upon the Disney reputation, pictures of the resort, and feedback from DVC members on these boards. We did our first DVC visit home there a couple of months ago. I couldn't be happier how it worked out.

I probably wouldn't have done it without visiting if DVC didn't have the other options currently available, but the money seemed to make sense.

 

[montrealdisneylovers]

We stayed at BLT on cash ressies and bought because we loved it, knew that we had now spoiled ourselves and wanted the possiblility to stay there for (hopefully) many years to come!!

 

[RachaelA]

No. We haven't even been inside. We've only seen the outside and the models. We were leaning towards AKV until I found out I was pregnant and then the idea of a short walk to MK and a monorail to Epcot made us change our minds to BLT.

 

[montrealdisneylovers]

Congratulations on the pregnancy!!

 

[ct_chris]

After staying at the Beach Club in February, we knew this was the home resort for us and thus have two 150 pt BCV contracts waiting for ROFR.

 

[DougEMG]

We bought both SSR and OKW without ever having stayed there or toured the property.

 

[erionm]

Nope. We saw the model rooms at the Preview Center @ SSR, but never stayed there until after the points were purchased.

 

[MissLiz]

We had stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge multiple times before purchasing, but it took us staying at SSR to actually consider purchasing DVC. Or maybe it was the third trip in 12 months....whatever.

BUT, we knew that we wanted to own at AKV, no question, so that's where we bought.

 

[Kidanifan08]

No, but we toured the models during a vacation. We loved the feel of the AKV-Kidani models and knew we would like it for our home. My BIL has been an owner at OKW for years and they have always been very happy with DVC, so that made the decision to buy easier for us.

 

[bwvBound]

Did you try out your home resort before buying your DVC contract?

No. In fact, we were about 5 years into the ownership before ever visiting our "home resort." We bought over the phone (not during a WDW/DLR visit) many months before said "home resort" was open. However, we had enjoyed many stays at BWV (not our home resort) prior to joining DVC and have enjoyed many more since.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Toured the model, but that was it, we previously stayed at the GF and Poly. We knew if we were going to buy it would be at AKV, and after seeing the model we were sold (actually we initially were going to buy enough points for a studio, but after seeing the size of the 1 bedrooms we decided to up the number a lot.

 

[RachaelA]

Congratulations on the pregnancy!!

Thank you!

 

[adminjedi]

My DH had stayed several times at Yacht Club and loved the location. None available. We bought SSR sight unseen. After one stay, decided it wasn't for us. We could have kept it and used it to trade out at 7 months, just didn't want to deal with that and sold it to buy BCV. So happy.
We toured AKV model and loved it. Bought it. Still love it.
Bought Aulani for a close beach trip for us. Can't wait to stay in December.
We stayed at OKW after our cruise in January to test it out. Liked it, bought it primarily for GV.

 

[Disneyfan81]

Thanks for all the great replies! Also, congrats on the pregnancy!

My almost 2 year old hit sent before I was done with my post, so here's the rest of it:

We just did a DVC tour at Disney. Overall, I appreciated the information, but would have loved to tour one of the resorts in person. We're trying to decide between AKL and SSR. We love the decor at AKL, the animals, the kids' activities, and especially that the 1 bedroom will sleep 5. On the other side, SSR, we like the proximity to Downtown Disney and the cost is less, though you can only sleep 4 in their 1 bedroom and we are a family of 5, so I believe we would be required to stay in a 2 bedroom unit due to fire regulations?

 

[rentayenta]

Did you try out your home resort before buying your DVC contract?

We did not try our home resort before buying but we tried OKW and AVK. Looking forward to our first trip home next October. We did tour though.

 

[com_op_2000]

No, but we did book a stay within the 30 day cancellation period. So that if it wasn't everything promised, we could back out. We had been burnted by prevous timeshare purchases, we trusted Disney, so we knew when we heard of DVC that we would take the chance. We have never regretted or looked back at the purchase decision.

 

[chalee94]

Overall, I appreciated the information, but would have loved to tour one of the resorts in person.

that's overrated IMO - there are a lot of pics on the web that will give you a great feel for what the rooms are like.

have lunch/dinner at the resort and walk the grounds if you like, but it's not that big of a deal.

(naturally, i bought OKW without ever being inside a villa there - i did wind up visiting the grounds by accident once...)

I believe we would be required to stay in a 2 bedroom unit (at SSR) due to fire regulations?

basically, yes. further discussion of occupancy would need to move to the occupancy thread...it can be a hot topic...

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=901569&page=171

 

[Disney's Walt]

No. In fact when we bought back in 96 there was only OKW which of course back then was called Disney Vacation Club we had never seen the resort. It was still not finished fully but when I heard about being able to "own" a piece of Disneyworld I convinced my wife that this was the thing to do. We have been back 13 times since and will continue to head down even more now that my oldest (who is a disneyworld child) is heading to Rollins College in the fall. Not only do I get to see my son but I get to 'come home' every time as well!!