BLT - Yes or No

[Cookie Princess]

We have pondered purchasing into a WDW timeshare in the past and never did. We are HUGE CR fans and are considering BLT. What are the pros and cons vs. booking a regular vacation with a pin code or other discount?

I have requested the new DVD, but I want to hear from current WDW timeshare owners. What should we take into consideration. We would want to have enough points for a castle view room for about a week.

Are these units already for sale? HELP a beginner... THANKS!

 

[Granny]

We have pondered purchasing into a WDW timeshare in the past and never did. We are HUGE CR fans and are considering BLT. What are the pros and cons vs. booking a regular vacation with a pin code or other discount?

One BIG pro is that you are HUGE CR fans. That means you normally stay in deluxe accommodations which makes the DVC ownership easier to justify on a financial basis.

As for looking for pin codes and discounts...not sure how long you have travelled to WDW but pin codes and discounts tend to come and go, following the economy. Right now there are a lot of codes, but in a year or two from now???? Buying DVC means saying goodbye to searching for deals.

Also, codes and such are restricted to select seasons. DVC locks in your point costs and restricts maintenance fee increases so you are protected both against inflation as well as other things like hotel/resort tax increases.

I have requested the new DVD, but I want to hear from current WDW timeshare owners. What should we take into consideration. We would want to have enough points for a castle view room for about a week.

What size villa? Studio? 1BR? Larger?

And what time of year would you want your week to be? That will affect the points necessary.

Castle View villas will be the highest per point rooms in all of DVC at any given time. The good news is that you can stay in other View categories at CR from time to time to save points or stay longer.

Are these units already for sale? HELP a beginner... THANKS!

I think they are available to the public now. I'm sure someone will come along with the exact date if they aren't yet available.

Good luck in your decision!

 

[CraftyMouse]

The major advantage is that the points total at each resort can never go up. They can reallocate points, but that means that if they raise them in one season or for one size villa they have to decrease them somewhere else. That means that the points cost for your DVC room will not go up over the course of your membership. The same will certainly not be true of resort room prices. Buying a DVC membership is like locking in your future vacations at today's prices, which is fantastic!

 

[JaxFLBear]

BLT went on sale to the general public on 10/5/2008.

 

[Caskbill]

The major advantage is that the points total at each resort can never go up. They can reallocate points, but that means that if they raise them in one season or for one size villa they have to decrease them somewhere else. That means that the points cost for your DVC room will not go up over the course of your membership. The same will certainly not be true of resort room prices. Buying a DVC membership is like locking in your future vacations at today's prices, which is fantastic!

Keep in mind that the dues will go up, so it will get slightly more expensive every year. But a 4% increase in dues is nothing compared to a 4% increase in rack rates at the hotel.

I don't know what a hotel room is, but let's guess it's $200/night plus tax, or about $222/night. A Studio during low season and midweek I think is 12 pts/night. If dues are about $4/point, then your dues for that night are $48.

A 4% increase in dues raises the night's lodging to $49.92/night, an increase of $1.92, (or $9.60 more for a 5-night weeknight vacation, while a 4% increase in the hotel rate goes to $238.88/night, an increase of $8.88 or ($44.40 for the 5-nights). Continue that for 10, 15, 20 years, and you'll see that the biggest advantage to owning DVC is it's hedge against inflation.

Of course this is trying to compare apples to apples. Staying weekends, or staying in a 1 or 2-B/R villa, or getting special views, will cost more points so you may not have any monetary savings, but will have better accommodations.

The above of course does not consider the initial purchase. However we purchased in '93 for $57.50/point and I could sell for more than that right now. If instead I had put that money into the stock market, I don't have a clue as to what it would be worth today, but most likely less than I could sell DVC for right now.

Finally, BLT so far has the lowest dues of all DVC resorts.

 

[Cookie Princess]

I have yet to hear a downside...I am sure there are some cons. The dues make me nervous as it seems like you pay those forever.

 

[jbrowna]

I have yet to hear a downside...I am sure there are some cons. The dues make me nervous as it seems like you pay those forever.

Well, as long as you own DVC, yes you will continue to pay dues.

You own a home? Pay off the mortgage and you still have expenses, like utilities, property taxes, insurance, general upkeep, and so on. That's what your dues for DVC are: payment for those ongoing expenses. So, yes, you pay those "forever" (that is, for as long as you own), long after your points are paid for. One thing dues are not is a profit center for Disney. They can't arbitrarily raise them in order to fatten their bottom line.

 

[culli]

I have yet to hear a downside...I am sure there are some cons. The dues make me nervous as it seems like you pay those forever.

The pro/con thing for DVC has been discussed many times on the forums do a search and digging. DVC is right for some and bad for others. If you don't plan more than 7 months out it really doesn't matter what resort you own. Home resort advantage if 7-11 months out for booking. Every situation is a little differnt so hard to say if good or bad. DVC is $$$$ for what you get if you just compare the rooms to other timeshares, the main difference is staying onsite at WDW. We own pts as we only want to stay onsite, if you don't care if you are onsight there are plenty of other TS options out there. DVC is great for our family but we also own a few other cheaper TS to trade into other places (including DVC) much more cost effectively.

 

[spiceycat]

the mk views are the most expensive at WDW.

it is cheaper to stay at BCV or BWV than BLT.

all Sun-thurs points per night
the MK view - CR or parking lot -

adventure season - Jan, sept, dec - 14
studio - 17
1-bedroom - 32
2-bedroom - 44

choice season - Oct, Nov (except thankgiving), dec 15-23
studio - 18
1-bedroom 35
2-bedroom 46

dream season - feb 1-15, May, june 1-10, aug 16-31
studio - 20
1-bedroom - 41
2-bedroom - 50

magic season
spring break - except easter & palm (Feb 16-April 30)
summer (june 11-aug 15)
thanksgiving (wed, thur & fri)
studio - 22
1-bedroom - 44
2-bedroom 56


Premier Season
easter & palm weeks
christmas to NY
studio - 29
1-bedroom - 56
2-bedroom - 73

this is just the MK view - the standard (CR and parking), Bay Lake - are cheaper.

 

[hakepb]

I have yet to hear a downside...I am sure there are some cons. The dues make me nervous as it seems like you pay those forever.

The biggest downside is the reason DVC is cheaper. You prepay accomodations with DVC, which makes your prepaid portion less "liquid" than other means of investing money for vacations. DVC is a longer term commitment of your money than just paying cash vacations out of a vacation fund. Well worth it if you continue to go to WDW at least every other year!

The other potential disadvantage, is sometimes there may seem to be more cash room availability than points rooms. By definition DVC points rooms should run at 100% occupancy (Except for owners that forget to use all their points)
I've never had an issue booking another resort at 5 or 7 months (but had a few days on a waitlist that came through OK), Generally you should get your room, or have a waitlist come through if you book at 11 months, so I would not be too concerned, DVC does favor advanced planning a little more than the cash reservation system.

Then many here say that really the biggest downside is that you get "add-on-itis" you keep wanting to buy more points!

 

[ead79]

We are relatively new DVC owners (we bought at AKV in November of last year), and here are some of the things we thought through before joining.

First of all, we thought about our vacation habits. We typically visited WDW once per year and stayed in a deluxe resort for about a week. We are advance planners, so we like to have things worked out in advance. DVC is best for those folks who are willing to plan their hotel stays months in advance (though it will work for shorter lead times as well in most cases).

Second of all, we weighed the pros and cons resort-wise. Our favorite WDW resort was AKL, so AKV was very appealing to us. In the past we have enjoyed splitting our stays between 2 different deluxe resorts, but since we had tried all the deluxe resorts, we knew what our favorites were (plus, we can still split our stay between 2 DVC resorts as often as we'd like). We decided that we would really enjoy the extra space that a 1 bedroom provides, as well as the extra amenities (like a jacuzzi tub and full kitchen). We figured that the extra space would be especially appealing once we have kids. For us, the con was the lack of daily housekeeping service. But now that we've adjusted to that, it's not a big deal to us anymore.

Third, we looked at the finance aspect of joining DVC. We figured that we typically paid about $2000 per yearly trip for the hotel portion of the trip. Since the joining fee at the time we bought in was roughly $16,000 that's a break even point of 8 years. Factoring in the fact that we financed most of the $16,000, we still figured that we'd break even in maybe 12 or so years. That still left us with an additional 38 years of free accomodations, plus annual dues. So overall, we decided it was just a smarter move for us in the long run.

I hope that helps a little bit!

 

[spiceycat]

the biggest one I have seem - is people who couldn't afford a 2-bedroom - were staying at value resorts or offsite before DVC - suddenly decide that since it is DVC they can. They also seem to spend alot more money than is wise.

if you are on a budget then stay with studio and rent the rest of the your points to help pay for your points.

be wise with your points and your money - and DVC is pretty wonderful!!!