1BR Villas?

[VGCgroupie]

I’ve taken my fair share of summer trips after saying never again. It’s just a different touring style and I don’t like it as much. I booked a Wild Africa Trek one year and had to call and cancel while walking back to my room at YC from DHS because I thought I would probably pass out and die on the trek My summer trips usually come out of FOMO and wanting to experience new rides/attractions. Disney still focuses on having new lands and attractions ready for summer. The Disney demand vs DVC demand is just different.

The daily rain is also problematic for me.

Yes the rain. That is even worse. Im sure I will go and then say never again, again. Eventually I will learn.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I believe less than 5% of cash bookings pay the
published "rack rates" used to evaluate points vs cash debate

Im going to say 5% is false. People arent naive.

I always calculate the best available discount when doing my calculations otherwise Id just be lying to myself.

Edit: I reread your post and Im not sure if I originally interpreted it correctly or not

 

[Mommb]

I would think you can still tour without being direct. Just cant hang in the lounge. Maybe someone can confirm.

I don't have personal experience with the DVC building at Disney Springs, but I would be very surprised if someone who walked in and said "I'm interested in DVC. Can I see a model room?" would be turned away.

 

[Add-On-Itis]

With kids in school. Summer time is when we can go

so part of me hoping they make it cheaper

 

[Mommb]

I have not paid cash for a room at a Disney resort since I bought into DVC, so the relationship to cash costs is largely irrelevant to me. I am confident that the annual dues I pay are less than what I would spend to book the rooms I stay in if I did pay cash. I made my initial purchase over 10 years ago, so it is a sunk cost.

Could I stay more nights in a studio than in a 1-bedroom? Sure.
Could I stay more nights at Walt Disney World with the points I used for 3 nights at Disneyland Paris? Sure.

But those aren't the relevant questions for me. The more relevant questions are:
Did my family enjoy staying in 1-bedroom rooms more than in studies? Yes.
Did my family have a wonderful stay at DLP at a low out-of-pocket cost? Yes.
Would we have taken more days for vacation if we stayed in a studio instead of a 1-bedroom or at WDW rather than DLP? Probably not -- we take as long of a trip as we can, given work and school schedules.

Yes, the differential in the costs of the room using DVC point charts is not the same as the differential in the costs of rooms for cash payments. But I don't even look at the cash costs except to giggle. My family has taken trips we would not have taken and stayed in rooms we would not have stayed in if we weren't using DVC points. That's the value of owning DVC for me.

 

[airjay75]

With kids in school. Summer time is when we can go

so part of me hoping they make it cheaper

Selfishly, I'm also with you, as I expect we will regularly make trips in summertime. But, I also think it would benefit the overall DVC ecosystem. It would help balance demand, it would decrease the incentives to rent confirmed reservations, and it would more evenly distribute the savings associated with using DVC points. In an ideal world, cash rates and points charts should be very closely correlated and set in conjunction with demand. I think people used to feel much more confined by school schedules, but I don't think most parents think anything anymore about taking their kids out of school for a week.

 

[Add-On-Itis]

Selfishly, I'm also with you, as I expect we will regularly make trips in summertime. But, I also think it would benefit the overall DVC ecosystem. It would help balance demand, it would decrease the incentives to rent confirmed reservations, and it would more evenly distribute the savings associated with using DVC points. In an ideal world, cash rates and points charts should be very closely correlated and set in conjunction with demand. I think people used to feel much more confined by school schedules, but I don't think most parents think anything anymore about taking their kids out of school for a week.

I totally agree with you. Not sure why DVC is not doing more about it

 

[DisMomNCM]

Can totally relate. We’ve done July and August and this year we’re doing June. I’m like, June will be a touch cooler, right? LOL. It will be hot, I’ll be drenched in sweat, but we’ll still have fun .

Two years ago I went at the beginning of July and again mid-August, and the temperature differences were actually quite noticeable! July was much easier to bear lol.

 

[airjay75]

I totally agree with you. Not sure why DVC is not doing more about it

I think they did do a pretty big points shifts a few years back that shifted some points from summer to fall and made weekends cheaper too. Others know the history better than I do. I think it is a matter of when not if we see another significant shift in the points charts. All we saw this past year was some minor tweaks.

 

[airjay75]

Two years ago I went at the beginning of July and again mid-August, and the temperature differences were actually quite noticeable! July was much easier to bear lol.

Well, I can hope! Expect the worst, hope for the best .

 

[DisMomNCM]

You guys are answering a different question than the one being asked.

"Is it worth upgrading from a Studio to a 1-bedroom" is what you're answering. That's a matter of subjective preference.

The relevant question is, "ASSUMING I want to stay in a 1-bedroom, should I pay with cash or points?" That's not a matter of subjective preference, it's a matter of objective math.

By all means, stay in a 1 bedroom if that's what you like. But it's a horrible use of points, you should just pay cash for those stays and you'll save money.

The reason I bought into DVC is that I don't want to ever pay to stay at Disney in cash again. My points are "free" (minus dues); cash comes out of my bank account. If you have the points, why not use them?

 

[DisMomNCM]

Well, I can hope! Expect the worst, hope for the best .

We always plan on lots of pool breaks, at least 4-5 hours midday

 

[WinterSolider]

The reason I bought into DVC is that I don't want to ever pay to stay at Disney in cash again. My points are "free" (minus dues); cash comes out of my bank account. If you have the points, why not use them?

See follow-up:

That's fair as long as both of these two things are true:

1. You never pay cash for a Disney stay; you only stay if you have the points to cover it in full.
2. You only ever stay in 1-bedroom villas.

So long as both of those things are true, then yes using points for a 1BR makes sense. But if you occasionally run out of points and need to supplement with cash or if you might have an occasional Studio or 2BR stay sprinkled into your itinerary, it would be wise to be more strategic about *which* trips you paid for using which method.

 

[Brian Noble]

But it's a horrible use of points, you should just pay cash for those stays and you'll save money.

This is not true.

I amortize my purchase price at 4% over the horizon, and add in the cost of dues. I routinely book 1BRs. My discount rates vs. rack have been no lower than 46%, and are usually comfortably north of 50%. The highest discount on a DVC 1BR I've ever seen Disney give in the last ten years is 40%. Usually it is 25-30%.

There are certainly specific units and times of year in which the cash rates will beat my effective DVC cost. But it is not the universal truth you claim.

 

[Brian Noble]

You can quibble with the amortization rate and argue 4% is too low. But even at 7% (the after-tax long-term rate of return of the SP500) I'm still competitive with prevailing cash rates, without having to worry about whether my preferred resort will have 1BRs available in the discount pool for my entire trip.

Even better: over time, this gets better for owners, because only my Dues are subject to inflationary pressures. The amortized purchase cost is fixed in absolute dollars, and hence only gets smaller in constant-dollar terms. In contrast, the full rate paid for by a cash guest is subject to inflationary pressures.

 

[IsDVCForMe?]

Off topic, kind of, but how’s the weather in June compared to July and August? I could see going in June when the kids get older.

 

[Brian Noble]

However @WinterSolider does make a good point: It is worth checking cash rates to be sure. For example, that SSR week I posted on the first page of this thread is a cash cost of $15/pt if you have an AP. Most developer purchases over the last few years will have an effective cost-per-point above that, and maybe even some resales, though that is a closer thing.

So, you can probably arrange an annual week-long vacation in 1BR units, paying cash, for less than it would cost to buy and use DVC points for the same thing. But, it would require traveling at specific times of year and staying at specific resorts.

 

[ark101]

Off topic, kind of, but how’s the weather in June compared to July and August? I could see going in June when the kids get older.

We never go in the summer after our first miserable Sept trip but went in June 2 years ago for a dance school trip for my daughter and we were pleasantly surprised. We repeated it last year and it wasn't bad and we are going again this June. June is also our daughter's birthday month.
What helps is to set expectations and carry hats/umbrellas and cooling fans. Keeping yourself and kids hydrated and cool is key. We take breaks in the afternoon too.

 

[Mirabell Rose]

Don’t have the lounge perk.

Can still tour the model. The first floor is the DVC sales center. Just ask in there.

 

[Brian Noble]

One final thought on the "how to stay at DVC resorts cheaply" question:

The cheapest way is not cash. It is not renting from an owner. It is not owning DVC points. The cheapest way is to use an inexpensive no-name timeshare week that you can use to exchange into DVC.

I have such a no-name trader. It cost me something like $750 to buy, total, and I bought it 20 years ago, so we can ignore the purchase price. The annual fees on that week for this year are a little less than $1,150. A year's membership to Interval is $100. The exchange fee is currently $250. DVC charges inbounds a nuisance fee of $190. So my total cost-of-stay for a week in a 1BR villa at any time of year is $1,690.

That summer week at SSR is 206 points, for a cost-per-point of $8.20 and change. In other words, I pay less in total cost than any DVC owner pays only in Dues for the same stay---including AUL-s---even if their points were free. My most recent exchange was in late February/early March at OKW. That stay would have been 227 points, or a shade under $7.45/point. Total.

And in case you were wondering, there are even cheaper ways to get this done. I am pretty sure a WorldMark owner, for example, would pay even less. I would also pay less if DVC were still with RCI and I could use Wyndham points. And I used to do just that.

Now, there are some downsides. You can stay at any resort you want, as long as it is either OKW or SSR. A few other resorts do get deposited, but they are rare. You are probably only going to get a 1BR, though they do sometimes deposit 2BRs. Not all weeks of the year are deposited, so if you have one specific week you might be out of luck. You will be staying for exactly one week, and checking in on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, and you usually don't get your choice of which of those you get. And that's before even dealing with the constantly shifting world of timeshare exchange.