Basic questions...

[Hidden_Mickey]

OK, I am vaguely familiar with the concept of DVC and that a lot of DISers are happy owners. Today my DH said he would like to look into buying a time share, so of course I said we should look into DVC, which he had no clue existed. He is not a DISer, but after the way the DIS helped us plan 2 killer trips, he trusts y'all

So, he had mentioned previously that he wanted to stay at the Contemporary because of the monorail location close to MK, but it was too expensive and we ended up at the All Stars. Of course, the first DVC property that came to mind was the new one at the Contemporary. I assume they are selling spots for it already? Is it open? What's it called? Is it crazy expensive?

We probably would go to WDW every other year, and go elsewhere in between, or take a short trip to WDW and a short trip elsewhere. We like Mickey but we also like to see lots of other places. In a few weeks we will go to Williamsburg, VA and Washington DC, and next summer we are going to Yellowstone. How diverse are the other locations you can use DVC in? Do they have sites in big cities like DC? Or the boonies like Montana? What about Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, Atlantic City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, London, or Rome? These are all places we would like to go to in the next few years. If they are not serviced by DVC it won't help us, and we may end up going with another company like Marriott, which we know people have it and like it.

My aunt and uncle have Marriott, which has a property in Orlando and they have said we could use it or maybe go with them. I was considering doing that in February, to check it out. At that point we would do the DVC tour I guess. In the interim, how do I get information to research before we go? I have just looked at some of the threads here but all the talk about points and maintenance and borrowing have my head spinning. I will keep reading, but .

So for basic questions, I assume it is just like staying at any other Disney property - you get free transportation, EMH, Dining Plan, advanced ADR's... anything else?

Are prices dropping due to the economy? Is it a good time to buy? Should we buy direct from Disney or resale?

Any advice would be appreciated... TIA!

 

[chalee94]

So, he had mentioned previously that he wanted to stay at the Contemporary because of the monorail location close to MK, but it was too expensive and we ended up at the All Stars. Of course, the first DVC property that came to mind was the new one at the Contemporary. I assume they are selling spots for it already? Is it open? What's it called? Is it crazy expensive?

the bay lake tower (BLT) opens in august, i believe. it's more expensive per point than the other resorts and also takes a boatload of points if you want a MK view.

prices with incentives can be found here.

there are also point charts for all the DVC resorts and resale contract prices linked in the top right hand corner.

We probably would go to WDW every other year, and go elsewhere in between, or take a short trip to WDW and a short trip elsewhere.

you might want to consider buying what you need for disney with DVC (1/2 the yearly amount if you would be going to wdw every other year) and using another timeshare for the off years.

In the interim, how do I get information to research before we go? I have just looked at some of the threads here but all the talk about points and maintenance and borrowing have my head spinning. I will keep reading, but .

ask questions. take your time and read the threads about how using DVC works until it starts to make sense.

So for basic questions, I assume it is just like staying at any other Disney property - you get free transportation, EMH, Dining Plan, advanced ADR's... anything else?

yep - all that. plus perks like free internet, free valet parking and some other discounts. the perks come and go, though, so don't count on them...

Are prices dropping due to the economy? Is it a good time to buy? Should we buy direct from Disney or resale?

yes, it seems to be a good time to buy. if you'd be happy staying at SSR, you can get some great deals there at resale. if you want BLT, you are mostly limited to buying direct.

 

[Metsoskil]

If you are looking at buying a timeshare (DVC or otherwise), spend some time researching first. The general guideline is to spend 6 months before you buy to make sure you know what you are getting into. I suggest checking out the Timeshare Users Group (www.tug2.net) and reading the bullitin boards over there. They are very knowledgeable about timeshares in general, the buying process for new buyers, and there is a DVC board over there also.

The #1 suggestion given over there is to avoid buying from the developer. Sometimes, with DVC it is impossible to buy resale and still get what you want (Bay Lake Towers, for example), and Disney's Right of First refusal keeps resale prices relatively high compared to other timeshare resales. I'm not saying that you should buy through Disney if you decide on DVC, just that the decision to go either resale or through disney is something to consider. With other timeshares, ALWAYS buy resale.

For example, my father and I both own a week at Star Island Resort, about 4 miles from Disney. We both own a 3 BR lock-out unit (it can be traded either as a full 3 BR unit, or as 2 seperate 1 BR units, giving me 2 weeks of vacation in smaller accomodations instead of 1 week in a larger unit). He bought directly through the developer a few years back and paid over $16,500. I bought on Ebay and got my unit for $1, plus $300 in closing fees.

If staying on Disney property every year is what you are looking for, DVC is for you. If you want a timeshare to stay on property once in a while and trade for other destinations at other times, buying a good RCI trader via resale will do the job for much, much, much cheaper.

 

[bookwormde]

Yes if you want to travel other than WDW buy a resale timeshare other than DVC, you can get them typically for $1-1000 for just about as many points as you want. Just a note it is still often for non WDW timeshares cheaper to rent a week than to own (but you do not have as much control).

If you “have to stay” at BLT then buy BLT points from DVC, if you have more flexibility then go resale for about 2/3 of the price (or 50% more points). Be sure you fully understand the DVC system since while it is one of the most “flexible” systems it also is more “complicated”. In reality if you go reasale you should use a number of $7-8 per “reservation” point (do not confuse this with contract purchase points) since that typically is what they “cost” by the time you figure purchase costs plus maintenance fees. If you buy form DVC figure more in the $8-10 range. Just multiply these numbers by the cost per night in the points charts for the time of year and number of weekdays plus weekend days (which take more points) and you will have a good estimate of what you will be spending per night. If you stick with studios (hard to do once you see the villas) and stay only on weekdays, you can say very reasonably ($80-150) per night. If you stay on weekends an/or want a villa then is goes up a lot, and $400/ night average is not unusual.

The most important thing is to spend enough time to fully understand what you are buying, what your “exit” losses would be if it does not work out and how you would use it so you buy the right number of points, resort, and use year for your probable vacation style.

bookwormde

 

[Dean]

OK, I am vaguely familiar with the concept of DVC and that a lot of DISers are happy owners. Today my DH said he would like to look into buying a time share, so of course I said we should look into DVC, which he had no clue existed. He is not a DISer, but after the way the DIS helped us plan 2 killer trips, he trusts y'all

So, he had mentioned previously that he wanted to stay at the Contemporary because of the monorail location close to MK, but it was too expensive and we ended up at the All Stars. Of course, the first DVC property that came to mind was the new one at the Contemporary. I assume they are selling spots for it already? Is it open? What's it called? Is it crazy expensive?

We probably would go to WDW every other year, and go elsewhere in between, or take a short trip to WDW and a short trip elsewhere. We like Mickey but we also like to see lots of other places. In a few weeks we will go to Williamsburg, VA and Washington DC, and next summer we are going to Yellowstone. How diverse are the other locations you can use DVC in? Do they have sites in big cities like DC? Or the boonies like Montana? What about Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, Atlantic City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, London, or Rome? These are all places we would like to go to in the next few years. If they are not serviced by DVC it won't help us, and we may end up going with another company like Marriott, which we know people have it and like it.

My aunt and uncle have Marriott, which has a property in Orlando and they have said we could use it or maybe go with them. I was considering doing that in February, to check it out. At that point we would do the DVC tour I guess. In the interim, how do I get information to research before we go? I have just looked at some of the threads here but all the talk about points and maintenance and borrowing have my head spinning. I will keep reading, but .

So for basic questions, I assume it is just like staying at any other Disney property - you get free transportation, EMH, Dining Plan, advanced ADR's... anything else?

Are prices dropping due to the economy? Is it a good time to buy? Should we buy direct from Disney or resale?

Any advice would be appreciated... TIA!

As noted, spend time researching. I'd say 6 months minimum of actual work in research. If you decide timeshares are a good choice for you for these purposes, you should likely end up with about the number of DVC points you'd actually use AT DVC resorts with a small cushion. For EOY (every other year) non DVC, you may want to consider other options. These other options may be buying a non DVC timeshare, cash or working with your family who owns Marriott (likely the cheapest option). Timeshares may not be right for you, DVC may not be right for you but at least you'll know better once you investigate. For one who timeshares make sense for both components, DVC WILL NOT make sense for the non DVC component unless you'll limit yourself to non park DVC resorts such as VB, HH and possibly HI if it happens.

 

[cdelphia]

From the information that I have, DVC is connected to RCI and has over 500 other resorts besides Disney locations. Is there some reason that I would need to get a different timeshare if I want to do non-DVC vacations?

 

[Lynne M]

From the information that I have, DVC is connected to RCI and has over 500 other resorts besides Disney locations. Is there some reason that I would need to get a different timeshare if I want to do non-DVC vacations?

For a once-in-a-while trade, IMO, it's fine to use DVC points. If, like the OP, you want to trade out every other year, you'd be spending thousands of dollars more than you need to by buying DVC for that instead of another timeshare.

You can purchase a timeshare that will trade into those same RCI resorts for a fraction of what DVC costs. As I said on another thread, it's like paying $100K for a Honda when they're available for $25K.

The recommendation here is to buy only the DVC points you need for your stays at DVC resorts, and then pick up another timeshare that's a good trader on the resale market, thereby saving yourself a ton of money.

 

[Dean]

From the information that I have, DVC is connected to RCI and has over 500 other resorts besides Disney locations. Is there some reason that I would need to get a different timeshare if I want to do non-DVC vacations?

There are several reasons DVC is not a good choice for non DVC trips that are RCI related. RCI has almost 5000 options, as not noted, DVC only lists 500 of those (roughly). You'd be buying more DVC points to do trips you could easily book for pennies on the dollar outside of DVC. For a one time trip it may be worth spending an extra $2000 over other options but not for periodic trips. And there's no guarantee that RCI will continue to be an option, DCL either for that matter. Plus having a direct membership with II gives you several other advantages though it can increase the costs slightly in some cases.

Lets assume a 2 BR one a year for 7 days with 25% of the time being non DVC options. For 300 points every year you're looking at a buy in somewhere in the $20000 range and yearly fees around $1500. If you back down to looking at only DVC options, you're somewhere around $16000 buy in and $1200 for DVC options. That gives you about $5K to spend on a trip every 4 years.

Lets explore none DVC options and how that might look/work.

• Buy a Marriott to trade at say $2-4K with yearly fees of $800. More cost but a week to 3 weeks every year depending on specifics. Extra costs for exchanging could be from $0 to $600 total if you went up to the 3 weeks and that includes the extra cost to use the bonus week. MVCI is II, not RCI, but I included it because it's the focus for many DVC members in exchanging, same could be said on a smaller scale for Westin.
• Bluegreen points - Buy 10K points at say $2000 OR LESS with yearly fees around $600. Free RCI weeks membership and a lot of flexibility. Up to 4 trades a year but certainly one great trade per year.
• Wyndham - Similar to BG with some plusses and some minusses.
• Joe Blow cheap timeshare - the inherent value and trade value will vary so it's important to do your research even more dilligently than some of the options above.
• RCI points membership - $2K or so with variable fees but easily under $6-700 including membership and trade fees.

The list could be endless. And those that are in RCI have the added advantage of cheap rentals short notice as well as the possibility of trading back in to DVC and saving your points for other options or future trips. All of those options I listed would give you more choices for less overall with more guarantees and a MUCH better chance of many non DVC exchanges.

 

[Grandbuddy]

Should you decide to take a chance on purchasing a less expensive RCI timeshare (non-DVC), with the idea of occasional trades into DVC - DO NOT purchase a timeshare in the Orlando area. These will not trade into DVC. Someone may have already noted this, but I didn't see it.

 

[Hidden_Mickey]

Oh boy, we will have to do a LOT of research, lol. Thanks everyone. I will keep reading.

 

[arthur06]

There are several reasons DVC is not a good choice for non DVC trips that are RCI related. RCI has almost 5000 options, as not noted, DVC only lists 500 of those (roughly). You'd be buying more DVC points to do trips you could easily book for pennies on the dollar outside of DVC. For a one time trip it may be worth spending an extra $2000 over other options but not for periodic trips. And there's no guarantee that RCI will continue to be an option, DCL either for that matter. Plus having a direct membership with II gives you several other advantages though it can increase the costs slightly in some cases.

Lets assume a 2 BR one a year for 7 days with 25% of the time being non DVC options. For 300 points every year you're looking at a buy in somewhere in the $20000 range and yearly fees around $1500. If you back down to looking at only DVC options, you're somewhere around $16000 buy in and $1200 for DVC options. That gives you about $5K to spend on a trip every 4 years.

Lets explore none DVC options and how that might look/work.

• Buy a Marriott to trade at say $2-4K with yearly fees of $800. More cost but a week to 3 weeks every year depending on specifics. Extra costs for exchanging could be from $0 to $600 total if you went up to the 3 weeks and that includes the extra cost to use the bonus week. MVCI is II, not RCI, but I included it because it's the focus for many DVC members in exchanging, same could be said on a smaller scale for Westin.
• Bluegreen points - Buy 10K points at say $2000 OR LESS with yearly fees around $600. Free RCI weeks membership and a lot of flexibility. Up to 4 trades a year but certainly one great trade per year.
• Wyndham - Similar to BG with some plusses and some minusses.
• Joe Blow cheap timeshare - the inherent value and trade value will vary so it's important to do your research even more dilligently than some of the options above.
• RCI points membership - $2K or so with variable fees but easily under $6-700 including membership and trade fees.

The list could be endless. And those that are in RCI have the added advantage of cheap rentals short notice as well as the possibility of trading back in to DVC and saving your points for other options or future trips. All of those options I listed would give you more choices for less overall with more guarantees and a MUCH better chance of many non DVC exchanges.

Dean...As always, when TS's in general come up...you are the man!

If you could only have one TS going forward...what would it be and why!

I so much look forward to reading your posts! I would like to add another one next year, possibly for some International travel..Ireland and Europe especially... When we travel in the US, just call me Clark Griswald and DW Ellen!

 

[Dean]

Dean...As always, when TS's in general come up...you are the man!

If you could only have one TS going forward...what would it be and why!

I so much look forward to reading your posts! I would like to add another one next year, possibly for some International travel..Ireland and Europe especially... When we travel in the US, just call me Clark Griswald and DW Ellen!

Thank you for the kind words. If I could only have one timeshare going forward, boy that's tough given I just bought 3 more 2 weeks ago and haven't even closed on them yet. I'd have to give you an either/or. One choice would be a good but cheap trading Marriott that was a lockoff coupled with an II membership. The other choice would be a Platinum Bluegreen points membership. If BG you get free RCI and for Platinum, I'd likely pay extra for II as well in that scenario. If you don't give me the liberty of the larger BG Platinum contract and limited me to just ONE WEEK, the Marriott would be my first choice otherwise the BG would be the better value.

The reason for Marriott would be cost combined with quality and value. You'd get up to 3 trades per year (lockoff plus bonus week), internal Marriott trade preference and every trade would be a trade up. Total cost up front about $2-5K with yearly fees in the $1.4K range or less including Maint fees, lockoff fees, II membership fees and exchange fees.

BG would put it about $10-12K to get the Platinum benefits, about half that without the platinum developer benefits. Yearly fees in the $3K range (variable depending on # of exchanges) including II membership and exchange fees (RCI is included with BG). That would give you from as many as 20 exchanges a year and as few as 5-7 depending on how strong a deposit you wanted and whether you mostly traded with RCI or II (you could get more with RCI). It'd also give you the chance to use their resorts internally including Big cedar and the possibility of renting bonus time at their resorts for $50-70 a night (studio to 2 BR). And with RCI currently, it'd give you the chance to trade for DVC and with II, the chance to trade to Westin's and Marriott's which I've done using BG. If you went with a Silver BG contract (20K vs 60K points) you're costs would go to just over 1/3 of those listed above and you'd give up some of the other premier benefits that I personally do use but you could do everything I specifically listed on 20K points (except numbers) with a buy in of $3K and yearly fees about $1200 plus the exchange fees but you wouldn't get the Premier benefits which usually include exchange priorities, free weeks (which I didn't add in above), access to bonus time, waiver of cancelation fees and the like.

I love DVC, don't get me wrong, but you see the cost/value difference between the options I've laid out and DVC. Better for the above and pay for Disney/DVC trips OOP, trade in to DVC, or stay off property at any one of a number of great timeshares. I just traded a Marriott studio for a 3 BR at GV recently as a gift for one of my staff. The best you could do using DVC for this purpose would be around $20K up front and yearly fees about $1500 assuming SSR resale around 300 points and the current cost/fee structures and amounts. And that'd only give you basically one week a year, period.

 

[littlestar]

I love my Marriott 2 bedroom lock-off that I bought resale.

A few days ago the II Marriott desk called me and asked me if I wanted to upgrade a studio into a 2 bedroom at Marriott's Ko Olina resort (same Hawaii location where Disney is building). For another $99 trade fee, they upgraded me from a studio to a 2 bedroom. It's for my nephew's honeymoon and he is thrilled.

I also like owning my DVC points, too. My daughter has a family wedding near Disneyworld in a few weeks. We had booked a Marriott Grande Vista Orlando 2 bedroom week for her and her inlaws and they ended up having more family come in for the wedding. We needed more room, so by going on the wait list with DVC, I was able to pick up a SSR studio for the days we needed to gain more space. I truly love the combination of DVC points and my Marriott ownership together.

We also thought that after DVC completes the Hawaii DVC that we would try to book a big family trip by using our DVC points for the Disney resort and our Marriott week for Marriott's resort at Ko Olina. We've also done combination trips using DVC points and Marriott on Hilton Head, too. As Disney has a resort on Hilton Head and Marriott has a ton of properties on Hilton Head.

 

[arthur06]

You guys are simply awesome! I want maybe another 125 at BLT, that would give me 250 there. I really want my kids to grow up with Disney! That being said...I would like to add another one for non Disney travel. I also want my kids to know that there are great places like Washington DC that have tons of history! I would really like them to experience International travel as well.