Are we too "old" to join DVC??

[LorieR]

DH and I just got hooked on Disney a few years ago. DH is thinking of buying into DVC but I am afraid we are too old to get enough use out of it to make it worthwhile. I am almost 54 and DH is 57. DD is 29 and single and DS is 27 and single and neither are Disney fanatics.

A few questions:
1. Is it true that it takes about 7 vacations to sort of "break even" on your investment?
2. DH and I will probably not be around in 40 years and if we are I doubt we will be vacationing as much as we would like to now!! Can DVC be passed on to our children when we are gone?
3. Monthly costs - historically, approx how much percentage-wise have they gone up year by year?


Thank you!

 

[browniemtb]

You are never told old for Disney.
Mathmatically 7 vacations seems to be a typical breakeven. Some will argue this point.
DVC can be passed on to your kids......and their kids and so on.
Monthly cost....or dues....range in the mid to upper $3 range per point owned. I believe typically there may be a 3% increase per year. But there has been years it declined....probably never happen again though.

If you enjoy Disney by all means consider it. Once youre kids find out they will join you and once they have kids watch out. That studio all of a sudden may become a grand villa.

Good Luck
Brownie

 

[OneMoreTry]

If you say you're not you're not.

 

[pb4ugo]

dh [age 61 and retired] - and i [age 59 and not retired] purchased ssr in fall of '05 and added-on pts this past may - and we are not disney fanatics. but we do enjoy quality vacations, and with or without the parks, disney can provide us with that.

we figured that this was a way to prepay our vacations now and for the years after i am also retired. we have no children to whom we can leave our membership, but there are nieces and nephews who might want to inherit it - if not, they can sell it and divide the $$.

our membership guarantees that i can get out of the frozen winters in the northeast every year and will provide us a great jumping-off point from which we can eventually visit our other retired friends who are or will be transplanted to florida.

we can also gift spring break trips to the nieces/nephews still in college, offer honeymoons to them when they marry and bring friends along with us when we travel.

and since we bought when we had the $$ - the trips are all paid for [except the travel and dining expenses - and the pensions should cover that!]

will we get our 7 vacations in? - god willing - if we don't, we won't be in a position to be concerned about it!!!

 

[dianeschlicht]

We are 59 and 60 and LOVE our DVC vacations! If we can take our "kids" or our friends with us, it's even better!

 

[paults]

we bought in 2002 I WAS 54 and DF 57 we have a 25 DS and 27 DD. You are never to old. the kids still go with us in OCT and love it. lots to do. we did addon in 2003 and hope to addon on again. WE have 2 contracts, one for DD and one for DS.

 

[DVC Grandpa]

We purchased BCV during its construction in February 2002 at an age “beyond retirement”. We didn’t think much about our age but rather the potential enjoyment that my kids, grandkids and both of us could have. Thus far we have had two entire family reunions and about 50% of our other trips include one or more of the kids. Thinking about another family “visit” over Thanksgiving 2007 or 2008.

 

[the who #3]

i have been a disney fan for 59 years now. it all started with the mickey mouse club on tv, at the time tvs were first available to purchase in the area i lived in.

i guess i never got over that love of mickey mouse and the mmclub.

i am now 64 years old and have been a dvc owner for 8 or 9 months. i do not know why i waited so long. even if i get too old to want to go to the parks with the children, there are so many wonderful things to do that don't include rides or fast paced activities.

as long as i can afford to pay the dues my children, grandchildren and myself will have a fantastic place to vacation.

i do not feel that my money is being wasted. besides i can now do the laundry in my room. i love it.

 

[BillPA]

I agree, us 'golden ager's" still enjoy Disney. Remember there is a good resale market both to buy and SELL. So if a few years down the road, 8-10 or so, you find DVC really isn't for you, and your children aren't intrested you can always sell and recover all or most of you original price.

 

[disneygrandma]

We have 4 grandchildren (soon to be 5), and we purchased this past January. We never considered us as being too old, only wished we had done it when we were younger. Our 2 children, and our grandchildren, are all crazy about Disney, so we know that DVC will be used long after we're gone.

We now know that we should've bought 2 contracts to begin with, instead of 1. We've since added on with a smaller contract, but wish we would have had 2 contracts in our initial purchase. That way we could "will" the contracts separately to the 2 children for them to use after we're gone, instead of having them share the points. So now we hope to pick up another contract some day to even out the points.

We hope to have many years with trips to WDW with our children and grandchildren, or just by ourselves.

 

[RumpleMom]

You are never too old for Disney, and being a DVC member allows you to vacation at a comfortable pace. The commando days of park touring are behind us. Disney has something for every age group and new things are always being added. DH parents who are in their 80's will go with us on our next trip. They will vacation at a pace that is comfortable for them.

Our kids have taken friends and a future husband, not a fiance until after the trip to WDW. Yes, liking Disney was a prerequisite. DD will honeymoon at WDW. He bought DVC points as a wedding present. Those twentysomething boys of yours just might have Disney loving friends or girlfriends.

Also Hilton Head Island and Vero Beach are great beach vacations.

If it makes sense financially, thinking of it as a luxury purchase, then start with a small contract and see how it goes. Just be aware of add-onitis. Most people who do this are adding more points before they know it.

 

[whiplash]

DW and I are 58, members for two years, joined after DD forced us to tag along. Fell in love with Disney. Just completed "family" trip in June (all16 of us) Made some memories there, not to mention quality time with kids and gran kids. Upcoming trip (Dec) with brother in law and his wife, an adult Holiday vacation and another trip planned in May, just the two of us. We won't be around forever either but our kids, grandkids and great grandkids can share Disney magic for the price of tickets and dues. A real bargain! You're never too old!!!! Go for it!!

 

[bobbiwoz]

We bought in '03 to have the accomodations for my DM's 85th birthday party. I'll be 60 next year and DH will be 62 soon. Our 4 generation visit was a complete success, that ended just last week.

We'll enjoy our DVC as long as we can. Our next visit is in October, we have another celebration, this one for a DAunt's 80th birthday party! Again we have a 2 bedroom and 2 studios, we're going to enjoy F&W and MNSSHP with this group! DM will be coming again, this will be her 3rd visit this year, she's going to take a break after this. We only had her planned for 2 trips when DS and his family wanted to go, and she couldn't miss that, but she is wanting to slow down a bit. We have her penciled in for December '07 as her next trip after that

After that it's in December, 5 nights at BWV, just DH and I enjoying the holiday activities.

I know people here have talked about retiring to WDW for a month or two every year. I couldn't do that, I would miss my animals and daily life, but we enjoy the traveling back and forth to take in some of every season at WDW.

If you want to buy in, I hope you do it!

Bobbi

 

[mamatojon]

Never too old! My MIL/FIL just bought their first contract and they are both 60 yrs old. I say first contract because after one trip with my MIL they are already talking about adding on for retirement! My MIL said that even if she is 80 and doesn't feel like going to the parks she wants to have somewhere that she can just relax at and felt like DVC could completely provide that for her. As long as you can get there you're not too old!

 

[LorieR]

Thanks, everyone, for the great replies!!! At first I thought it would not work for us but I am getting more and more excited about DVC!!! I need to do a lot more research on this board though because I have lots and lots of questions! Thanks again!!

 

[LisaS]

3. Monthly costs - historically, approx how much percentage-wise have they gone up year by year?

Here is a historical chart showing the dues ($/point) at each resort over the years, the annual increases and the percentages: http://personalpages.tds.net/~rb/DIS/DVC/DVCDuesHistory.htm

Thanks go to DIS board member robinb for this info.

 

[Tigger031266]

No way. Be young at heart!!! You may live to be 100.

 

[corpcomp]

Both my DW and I are in our 50's and we have an 11 year old son. We bought in April 2006. I plan to go there at least another 20 times (been there 30 so far and was too stupid to realize the value of DVC). Will leave the place to DS with the understanding that he continues to call me "Daddy".

 

[disneybass]

No way are you too old!! At 53, the DW and I have been three times in the past five years, and if I can pass this last contract through ROFR we will be DVC owners very soon!! Come join us!!

 

[WolfpackFan]

DH and I just got hooked on Disney a few years ago. DH is thinking of buying into DVC but I am afraid we are too old to get enough use out of it to make it worthwhile. I am almost 54 and DH is 57. DD is 29 and single and DS is 27 and single and neither are Disney fanatics.

Not too old at all. I'm 55 (56 in 26 days). DW is 59. We both love WDW but our favorite DVC resort is HH. We have 150 pts. at VWL and 80 at HH. I can see in a year or so using all of our 230 pts. at HH about every other year and only visiting WDW the odd years. Also, maybe every few years we might try an II exchange. I figure we're good to go for perhaps 20 years and then after that DD can have the points until they expire. She loves WDW also. Hopefully at some point we'll be getting some grandchildren that I can take to WDW. That is what I'm really looking forward to.