Aussie DVC members Help me

[mareeld86]

Any aussie DVC members I am looking at purchasing a DVC timeshare but i have some questions for you:
I was wondering how often you travel to WDW?
Do you find that DVC works for you?
and How many points did purchase?
any help would be great!
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[Willow25]

We are looking into DVC ownership as well. I am an american citizen married to an Aussie and living in Australia. We plan to travel every two years and we usually go to Disneyworld for 12 nights. We are hoping to purchase 350 points and the off years we do not go we will rent our points out to cover the cost of the maintence fees.

While we are not current owners we have rented points on three different occasions and now we will never stay in a standard room there again. For us it will save us money in the future.

 

[eel111]

we brought 160 points at SSR and plan on going over every three years, our first proper trip home starts in early january, but we are staying two nights at GCv in anaheim. ITS GREAT

 

[ColinA]

We visit WDW every year, for a minimum of 25 nights.

DVC the best purchase we ever made, definitely works for us. Bought the first contract in 1999.

I would only buy DVC if you can make the trip at least every two years, and use the points at a DVC resort. The option is to rent out if you are unable to use.

PM me if you want to know more.

 

[queenie82]

We go every 2 years or so and stay about 2 weeks each time.
First purchase was a resale 60 OKW, similar for BWV then some VGC , AKV and BLT.
No contract is more than 100 points. We have split contracts on purchase if they were bigger.

Home resort is VERY important to us. We never want to stay at SSR so we didn't buy there. If you are a larger family the Treehouses may appeal which is part of SSR but SSR itself does not appeal.
Home resort determines when you can book. You can book 11 months in advance for home, 7 months for everything else.

OKW is great for relaxed feel, park outside your building and largest Studios. This was the first.
AKV is just beautiful and many options.
VGC...well thats pretty obvious. The only DL one. So if you plan to go to DL...I would consider buying here.
BLT...monoral line and walk to MK.
BWV...location location. Just a wonderful place to be.
BCV has Stormalong bay waterpark and (like BWV) is walking distance to Epcot. Stormalong bay is ONLY able to be used by BCV guests.

There are many resales on the market (there is a dedicated board to it on here) especially due to the current economic climate. Disney has right of first refusal but you can get points for less than Disney direct but be aware older contracts have less time on them (obviously). Resales also get you home resorts not currently available. Resales can also be bought while you are in Australia. Direct from Disney you MUST be in the USA.

We have smaller contracts and split contracts so we can always resell part which
1- is easier to resell
2 - means you don't have an all or none contract.
...plus as the family grows and divides we can split and share.

 

[mareeld86]

Thank you so much Queenie that gives me so much help we wont be doing it right away as we are planning a trip to DL in feb then a wedding and honeymoon so prob about 2 years but i am going to start saving now!!
This make me so happy that othe aussies find it really useful!!

 

[ColinA]

We have smaller contracts and split contracts so we can always resell part which
1- is easier to resell
2 - means you don't have an all or none contract.

An addon of points regardless if purchased from Disny or from resale is still kept as the individual contracts and can be sold as such, our total number of points is at the BWV and is 4 contracts, eg. the resale for 324 points was split into 84 & 240 contracts and is kept that way provided it is the same use year.

I would prefer to keep all the points at the one DVC home resort, makes it much easier being able to book at the 11 month window.

 

[AussiePJ]

Do any of you Aussie owners have points to rent for October 2010?

 

[ColinA]

Do any of you Aussie owners have points to rent for October 2010?

Sorry, we use all ours. Have you visited the DVC rent/trade section http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29

 

[AussiePJ]

Thanks Colin, yes I have. Just feel that little bit safer renting off a local.

 

[queenie82]

An addon of points regardless if purchased from Disny or from resale is still kept as the individual contracts and can be sold as such, our total number of points is at the BWV and is 4 contracts, eg. the resale for 324 points was split into 84 & 240 contracts and is kept that way provided it is the same use year.

I would prefer to keep all the points at the one DVC home resort, makes it much easier being able to book at the 11 month window.

I do understand this.
My point was that when we bought out VGC points for example we got that contract split into 2. So it was 2 contracts at the same resort.
I personally think a contract of 240 points is too large.

As for having them all at the one resort. We like staying at different ones and do split stays.
I love BWV but I don't want to stay there all the time. So by having various home resorts we can book the hard to get nights at 11 months and then get the others that are still likely to be available at 7 months.

 

[ColinA]

As for having them all at the one resort. We like staying at different ones and do split stays.
I love BWV but I don't want to stay there all the time. So by having various home resorts we can book the hard to get nights at 11 months and then get the others that are still likely to be available at 7 months.

One of the things we love is the Boardwalk, and for us would not like to have to pack and move mid stay.

One question you can probably answer, when you transfer, does Disney transfer you or do you have to organize Mears or taxi

 

[queenie82]

One of the things we love is the Boardwalk, and for us would not like to have to pack and move mid stay.

One question you can probably answer, when you transfer, does Disney transfer you or do you have to organize Mears or taxi

Disney can transport your bags but you will be "homeless" between checkout and checkin if your room is not ready. They can also store refrigerated items you might have while you are in limbo. You leave everything else in your room and they will transfer it.
You take yourself by Disney Transport.
We always have a car though ... and storing a few odds and ends in there works well.
Many people go off for the day like a regular park day and then come back at the end of the day. You can "checkin" at the start of the day.

I love the boardwalk but I couldn't spend 2 weeks there I don't think. If it were a shorter trip then I think we would just do one....maybe 2.

 

[paulasillars]

we brought 160 points at SSR and plan on going over every three years, our first proper trip home starts in early january, but we are staying two nights at GCv in anaheim. ITS GREAT

I could just say ditto

160 points at SSR since 2003. We go every 2-3 years for longer stays and we usually book a studio but last time we had a friend join us so got a two bedroom. We also travel in the low season so it makes the most of our points.

Next year we plan on two weeks in October.

One of the best purchases we ever made - sure beats stay offsite!

 

[mareeld86]

Im so glad for all your reply's this really helps in my decision to purchase a DVC i think that i will definatly purchase when i come back from my holidays..

 

[aussiemickeys]

Hi, we are also DVC owners. We bought 150 points through resale at Saratoga Springs in 2005. We also just did a 50 point add on while we were at Disneyland about 3 weeks ago. We love it! We try & get to WDW every 2nd or 3rd year (that's why we only need a lower number of points - we combine years) & have only stayed in 2 bedroom units so far. It is a very individual thing though - you really need to do the math to see if it works for "your" family.
One thing I can't recommend enough is what Queenie82 says as well. Even if buying a big number of points - keep the contracts small. These seem so much easier to sell off if the need ever arises. Even though our main one is only 150 points, if I had my time over I would put that in 50's or even a couple of 25's.
Next year we are going to try & use ours to stay at Villas at Grand California Hotel, but I don't like our chances as there are so few rooms there + we have to wait for the 7 month window. Oh well, we can only try.
Saratoga Springs seems to get a bad rap from a lot of people, but for us we love it there. It has it's down sides (too big, would love to have a proper food court as well, the pool is nothing special), but the main perk for us is being so close to Downtown Disney. So easy to walk over there & always something to do.
We have not yet stayed at any of the other DVC resorts, so have no comments on those. Hope to try them all out over time.
Good luck with your decision!

 

[paulasillars]

Im so glad for all your reply's this really helps in my decision to purchase a DVC i think that i will definatly purchase when i come back from my holidays..

I think you have to physically be in the US to purchase? Or at least that was what we were told back when we purchased in 2003. So definitely check that out before you go as you may need to sort out finance before you trip.

This actually caught us out as we were interested in 2001 but dithered, came back to NZ and wanted to join but couldn't until we went back in 2003.

As always things may have changed and you'd be best finding out before you go... We bought through Disney as we didn't know about resale but when I looked into resale options later, they didn't seem to be able to deal with us - we wanted to purchase using CC - that may have changed as this was some years ago though.

 

[mareeld86]

I have Spoken to the timesahare store and they can help me here in australia it just might take a little longer to get everything through because of postage times.

 

[queenie82]

mareeld86 - I hope you are getting good assistance about DVC. As you say things can take a bit longer...but you will definitely be able to buy resale points from the comfort of home

We just stayed at Grand Cal studio and it is wonderful.
It isn't cheap [15 points per night - compare 12 for BLT or 8 at BWV for comparable time of year] but it was fairly easy to book. We own Grand Cal points so we got first dibs for booking when bookings began though. And we will have 11 months window in the future. But it is still unclear just how easy of hard booking will be. It might be fairly easy for a couple years as people are still working on adding trips to DL to their schedules.

We stayed at other DVC resorts and I will probably start a trip report for them and comparing them...or I will add it to my main trip report area. But given DL is where people visit from Australia most I will refer you to my photo album here with room photos and the view we got in case it is informative to you..
ALL rooms are the same point level there is NO classification so you can't guarantee any particular view.
We got 6th floor park view though

The view

 

[mareeld86]

Oh Queenie Thank you so so so Much! Your Help is great I am going to be seriously looking at it when I return from our holiday in Feb we get back end of March so I will set down and work out the budget and we should be able to buy a small amount of point to start and then keep adding on and on from there!!
OH ITS SO EXCITING I CANT WAIT!