Almost committed to DVC but have a few questions..

[310girls2]

Took the DVC tour in April 2003. Sister and BIL have been DVC members for a few years and love it.. Our guide Tony kind of turned me off was pretty inattentive actually.. so my questions are..
1. Is it true that BWV and BCV are the two most popular?

2. How do I buy SSR sight unseen..should location be a factor in buying?

3. Buying from Disney vs. resale any pros or cons would be appreciated...

4. Still trying to figure out how the use year works.. frankly I feel "challenged" I just don't understand how it works... We want to vacation the first week of December because we like WDW at X-mas.. should I be shopping for a use year of December?

Thank you so much for all your input and look forward to hearing "Welcome Home" soon..

 

[crisi]

1. Someone posted that VWL is the most popular. VWL and BCV are smaller. BWV is medium sized. OKW and SSR are larger. So while OKW may be just as popular as VWL, VWL has fewer rooms to meet the demand.

2. If you want to buy SSR sight unseen, give DVC a call. Unless you live in a state where SSR is not licensed, they will be happy to sell it to you (we bought BWV sight unseen - and had never taken a tour or seen any DVC room other than pictures on the internet).

3. Resale will allow you to buy a resort other than SSR as your home. You may save some money. It may, however, be a little bit of a hassle. Disney will be fairly fast, a certainty once you decide to do it, offer easy financing, and you'll be able to book as soon as they get your down payment.

4. The biggest deal with use year is that if you need to cancel a reservation last minute, you will only have until the end of your use year to use them. We have an April use year, so traveling in Feb or March could be risky - if the trip needed to be cancelled we might not be able to reschedule it. But we like to travel in Fall, which gives us plenty of time to use points, and our alternate travel time (when school schedules kick in) is Early Summer. Keep in mind that travel plans are likely to change over the course of your contract.

 

[Doug Wolfe]

Chances are if you call DVC again your name will be in their computer and they'll give you the same salesperson again. I suggest you ask for someone else. My guide was Byron and he was great.

There are a lot of great arguments for each side for financing...DVC or resale. I went with DVC. They take all of my payments & fee's right out of my bank account each month. By doing this my annual bill for fee's and taxes is $0. Others must shell out this money in January just as their Christmas bills are hitting the mail box.

Definately pick a home resort that you will want to stay at the most. My home resort is Beach Club Villas and I love it. I have also stayed at Old Key West and I am very impressed by that resort as well.

Saratoga Springs looks like a winner. It will have a lot of great choices for rooms and a wonderful pool. Plus the fact that you can get a contract that runs 50 years is a big selling point to me. Go to www.disneyvacationclub.com and order the free video. It will educate you a bit more. I hope to say "Welcome Home" to you in the near future neighbor.

 

[tjkraz]

The best answer I would give to your first two questions is "buy where you want to stay". The 11 month booking window at your home resort is what you should be the most concerned about--not popularity. Resort popularity will change over the years. My impression is that BWV has gotten easier to book since VWL and BCV opened. VWL and BCV are the two smallest resorts, so they may continue to be the more difficult resorts to book in the forseeable future.

Regarding SSR vs. resale, the first question you need to ask yourself is how are you going to pay for this. If you can pay cash or use a home equity line to finance, then the SSR and resale options are both viable.

However, if you cannot pay cash or use home equity to finance, SSR is probably your only option. With a resale you need to arrange your own financing. Many banks won't touch timeshare financing, and the few organizations that do will almost certainly offer you higher interest rates than DVC.

If both SSR and resale are viable options are viable, many people consider the price vs. additional SSR years to be a critical factor. SSR will end up costing you a bit more than one of the other resorts via resale. But bear in mind that the contracts at SSR run through 2054. The other resorts ALL end in 2042. So, you need to determine whether those addtional 12 years are worth the additional money.

 

[PamOKW]

The Use Year shouldn't intimidate you. DVC describes it as a "birthday". It's just the month when you get your yearly allotment of points (rather than everyone getting them on January 1). It has nothing to do with when you can make your reservations. That is governed only by the home resort priority of 11 months and open to all DVC resorts at 7 months.

As mentioned above, the only time it comes into play is if you have to cancel a trip that is planned for the last 60 days of your Use Year once you are into those last 60 days (or sooner if the trip is using a lot of points). As you get closer to the end of the Use Year, your options for banking become fewer and during the last 60 days you can only make reservations for and take DVC vacations.

December would work well if you plan to take mostly December trips. However, it's not crucial since many people find themselves visiting year-round once they become members or as things change over time.

 

[DVC@BWV]

There are a lot of great arguments for each side for financing...DVC or resale. I went with DVC. They take all of my payments & fee's right out of my bank account each month. By doing this my annual bill for fee's and taxes is $0. Others must shell out this money in January just as their Christmas bills are hitting the mail box.

You can still arrange for your annual dues to be paid on a monthly basis out of your bank account even if you don't buy through Disney. We have one resale contract and one through Disney and our annual dues for both are taken out monthly from our checking account.

 

[rocketriter]

Should location be a factor in buying?

If you're asking about choosing a home resort, the answer is Yes. You should buy into the resort where you want to stay most often. Don't be misled by "popularity" reports; the smalles resorts such as BCV and VWL are in demand because they have so few rooms, not because they're somehow superior. Every resort has its own advantages and its own charm.

If you're asking about choosing a location within SSR, the answer is No. Unlike some timeshares, you're not buying the use of a particular room or building within the resort, nor are you buying a locked-in week of the year. So except for a few months around the opening of the resort, when some buildings simply aren't finished, the building that's deeded to you will bear no relation to the building within that resort where you'll stay on any particular vacation.

 

[BWVDee]

All the DVC resorts are popular and all have their loyal fans. They also vary greatly in many ways, so investigating each resort before deciding on your home resort is very important. They all have their pros and cons and what appeals to one person is very often the exact opposite of what someone else desires in a vacation timeshare. What is popular for many may very well be not what you would like at all.
There are DVC resorts that are much more similiar than others for example BCV & BWV are similiar in very many ways. However there are DVC resorts that vary greatly in everything from resort location to villa sizes and resort amenities. Only you can determine which resort fits your desires for a home resort and which resort you feel comfortable with investing a significant amount of money into.
In regards to Use Year, I tend to think it is more important than some others do. I really researched DVC before purchasing a membership but Use Year was one aspect that I did not give as much thought to as I should have. I have already had poor planning in the choice of Use Year come back to bite me. It is the one thing I would change about my DVC membership, if I could.