Bought DVC on Fantasy - 20 Year Anniversary Special

[umspy]

Hi,

We just purchased the 240 point Animal Kingdom DVC . The special was 240 point retro back to Feb 2012 and then another 240 points this coming Feb 2013. Come Feb 2013 we will have 480 points!..we are very excited about that. We will bank those for a while too..

Disney discounted $5300, $500 room credit and some VIP fast passes. We paid $130 a point before discount....With the discount it was approx $110.00. We are still within our 10 day grace period, somewhat nervous. I see lots of happy people and lots of not so happy DVC memebers. We almost bought on our last cruise which they offered a 7 day Disney Cruise to sign up. Glad we waited.

We live in the Orlando area and really are not looking to use our points at Disney very often as Disney as we all know uses alot of points. We may stay a night or so just to get away. Seeing all of the other places we want to go, we decided to go ahead and purchase.

Has anyone else purchased a DVC that lives in Orlando, but uses their points else where?

Thanks,
Kelly

 

[princesscinderella]

Congratulations on your purchase and hope you had fun on your cruise. You are going to enjoy your points which ever way you choose to use them.

 

[erionm]

Has anyone else purchased a DVC that lives in Orlando, but uses their points else where?

Live in Longwood, use our points at DVC Resorts only. You get more for your points by staying at DVC Resorts.

 

[umspy]

Live in Longwood, use our points at DVC Resorts only. You get more for your points by staying at DVC Resorts.

Can you explain how you get more for your points on using Disney Resorts? We do plan on using the new resort in Hawaii for Sure!

 

[AnnaS]

Congratulations!!!

Don't forget Vero Beach and Hilton Head too.

 

[lions1995]

If you use them a DVC resorts (hawaii, Disneyland, WDW, Vero Ceach and Hilton Head) you get the best value. Though some of these are hard to book at certain times of the year unless you have home resort 11 month advantage (your is AK).

If you plan on using them for cruises and RCI primarily, you may want to rethink it.

I see in your comments you mention banking your points for a while. Your 2012 points (which they always give current UY points) can be banked into next year, but will need to be used by January 31 2014 (which still gives a lot of time to use)

 

[k3chantal]

I don't live in Florida but I have used my points 'elsewhere' very successfully.

The best trip in terms of getting a good value for my points was when we went to Kauai, Hawaii and stayed in Princevalle. We used 160 points for a condo that was considered to be a one bedroom but had a huge loft that easily fit two queen sized beds with lots of room around them. It easily fit my family of five. It would of cost $2000.00 to stay there if we had paid cash so for 160 points.....the seven days were well worth it.

We have also taken a seven day cruise on the Disney Wonder to Mexico. That was around 600 ish points and again thought that was fantastic. We had two rooms that were adjoined on deck 7 with port windows.

Ironically enough, when we stayed at the Grand Californian in Disneyland, I thought that was the 'worst' use of points. I absolutely love the hotel and had stayed there before as a cash paying guest but the DVC section is more remote and the studio was super small yet super 'expensive' point wise to stay. When we stay there again I will pay using cash not my points.(we live in California so the chance that we will go again is hight)

The biggest advice I can give you is plan way ahead no matter where you are using your points and when/ if you want to use your points elsewhere be open. When I had called for Hawaii, I told the CM anything West Coast with Hawaii being our first choice. I was lucky and she came up with two resorts. I then took a chance, hung up the phone, researched each resort and called back. I was lucky and got our first choice. But be aware that I don't think this happens often.

Have fun and enjoy your new purchase.

 

[Dean]

Hi,

We just purchased the 240 point Animal Kingdom DVC . The special was 240 point retro back to Feb 2012 and then another 240 points this coming Feb 2013. Come Feb 2013 we will have 480 points!..we are very excited about that. We will bank those for a while too..

Disney discounted $5300, $500 room credit and some VIP fast passes. We paid $130 a point before discount....With the discount it was approx $110.00. We are still within our 10 day grace period, somewhat nervous. I see lots of happy people and lots of not so happy DVC memebers. We almost bought on our last cruise which they offered a 7 day Disney Cruise to sign up. Glad we waited.

We live in the Orlando area and really are not looking to use our points at Disney very often as Disney as we all know uses alot of points. We may stay a night or so just to get away. Seeing all of the other places we want to go, we decided to go ahead and purchase.

Has anyone else purchased a DVC that lives in Orlando, but uses their points else where?

Thanks,
Kelly

If you bought DVC points to use for exchanges and cash type options like DCL, you are likely to be disappointed, pay more and have more hassles than you would have not owning DVC. If you are still within your cancelation window, you might want to reconsider.

 

[Irishmom23]

Congratulations I bought SSR direct and have never regretted my decision. It has almost paid for itself with three trips already and a big family trip next year for 10 days. My DSIL has owned at BCV (direct purchase) for 10 years, and now that her kids have grown they use their points to trade in yearly for vacations outside of WDW and use their remaining points for their annual WDW stays. She has always been able to trade in for what she wanted and without any hassle. Best wishes

 

[disneynutz]

You can use your points outside of DVC resorts, many people do but it's not as easy as Disney makes it seem. IMO they deliberately set up hurdles to keep you at WDW.

RCI has around 4000 places to trade to but only 500 or so are available for DVC members if there is availability.

DCL has blackout periods for DVC owners, you may not get to cruise when you want to.

Bill

 

[ELMC]

Kelly,

First off, congratulations on your purchase. You seem very excited about it and I am happy you feel that way. I am hoping that the excitement you feel now will continue throughout your ownership, but I am a bit worried that it might not. Traditionally, the best use of DVC points is to stay at DVC resorts. So if you are planning on staying at DVC Aulani, Vero Beach or Hilton Head as your "outside of Disney" places, you should be in good shape (although you will not have the 11 month booking window because your home resort is Animal Kingdom). However, if you are referring to staying at non Disney locations, I do not think that DVC is the best way to accomplish this. As others have mentioned, the restrictions are numerous and Disney frequently changes the timeshare exchange company that it is affiliated with (it used to be Interval International and now it is RCI). Add to that the fact that a Disney timeshare is incredibly expensive and most likely you will be using it to stay at non Disney resorts that are less expensive. Typically, the best use of a DVC membership is to stay at DVC resorts. This is generally true with any timeshare system. The further away you get from the core of the system, the more difficult/expensive it becomes to use your membership.

I'm not saying that you did a bad thing or even that your purchase won't work for you. As K3Chantal has pointed out, she has managed to get her direct purchase to work for her in many ways outside of the DVC resorts. What I am saying is that it might not be as convenient or worthwhile as you might think. I would spend the next few days really researching whether or not DVC is the right timeshare system for the types of vacations you want to take. If it is, then great. If not, keep an eye on that 10 day mark so that you can consider rescinding.

Good luck making your decision and please follow up and let us know what you decide.

Dan

 

[Deb & Bill]

Hi,

We just purchased the 240 point Animal Kingdom DVC . The special was 240 point retro back to Feb 2012 and then another 240 points this coming Feb 2013. Come Feb 2013 we will have 480 points!..we are very excited about that. We will bank those for a while too..

Disney discounted $5300, $500 room credit and some VIP fast passes. We paid $130 a point before discount....With the discount it was approx $110.00. We are still within our 10 day grace period, somewhat nervous. I see lots of happy people and lots of not so happy DVC memebers. We almost bought on our last cruise which they offered a 7 day Disney Cruise to sign up. Glad we waited.

We live in the Orlando area and really are not looking to use our points at Disney very often as Disney as we all know uses alot of points. We may stay a night or so just to get away. Seeing all of the other places we want to go, we decided to go ahead and purchase.

Has anyone else purchased a DVC that lives in Orlando, but uses their points else where?

Thanks,
Kelly

You must have a February UY, so you were entitled to those Feb 2012 points. It really wasn't a gift on their part.

 

[Sammie]

Have to agree with the others, I would never pay what DVC is asking now for anything except to use the points at DVC resorts.

There are way less expensive ways to travel and staying in better accommodations than using DVC.

As far as using your AKV points for Aulani, HHI, or Vero Beach, there will be times you really need the 11 month home advantage.

Also please know that anything other than staying at your home resort is all that is really promised to you that could not change.

 

[umspy]

Kelly,

First off, congratulations on your purchase. You seem very excited about it and I am happy you feel that way. I am hoping that the excitement you feel now will continue throughout your ownership, but I am a bit worried that it might not. Traditionally, the best use of DVC points is to stay at DVC resorts. So if you are planning on staying at DVC Aulani, Vero Beach or Hilton Head as your "outside of Disney" places, you should be in good shape (although you will not have the 11 month booking window because your home resort is Animal Kingdom). However, if you are referring to staying at non Disney locations, I do not think that DVC is the best way to accomplish this. As others have mentioned, the restrictions are numerous and Disney frequently changes the timeshare exchange company that it is affiliated with (it used to be Interval International and now it is RCI). Add to that the fact that a Disney timeshare is incredibly expensive and most likely you will be using it to stay at non Disney resorts that are less expensive. Typically, the best use of a DVC membership is to stay at DVC resorts. This is generally true with any timeshare system. The further away you get from the core of the system, the more difficult/expensive it becomes to use your membership.

I'm not saying that you did a bad thing or even that your purchase won't work for you. As K3Chantal has pointed out, she has managed to get her direct purchase to work for her in many ways outside of the DVC resorts. What I am saying is that it might not be as convenient or worthwhile as you might think. I would spend the next few days really researching whether or not DVC is the right timeshare system for the types of vacations you want to take. If it is, then great. If not, keep an eye on that 10 day mark so that you can consider rescinding.

Good luck making your decision and please follow up and let us know what you decide.

Dan

All:

Thanks so much for all of your input, as of today we have decided that we are recinding our contract as of today. We are within our 10 day grace period. There are a number of reason for cancelling, but mostly because we will be traveling outside of the DVC for our future vacations. I would really hate to spend that kind of funds if I "might" have issues.


However, we will continue to cruise our favorite Disney Cruises. We did book onboard for the future.

Thanks again,
Kelly

 

[AJA]

All:

Thanks so much for all of your input, as of today we have decided that we are recinding our contract as of today. We are within our 10 day grace period. There are a number of reason for cancelling, but mostly because we will be traveling outside of the DVC for our future vacations. I would really hate to spend that kind of funds if I "might" have issues.


However, we will continue to cruise our favorite Disney Cruises. We did book onboard for the future.

Thanks again,
Kelly

Thank you for coming back to the thread and updating. IMO these threads really help newbies in figuring out the "right" time share for their needs, as a first glance at the DVC info can be confusing. I know I've learned a lot in the last couple of years here on Dis. If your family will be staying at deluxe Disney locations then DVC can save a lot of money, if you'll mostly be traveling outside of Disney there are much better time shares that are priced much less than the original DVC buy in and will provide better access to more locations.

-much luck on your next purchase!

 

[ELMC]

All:

Thanks so much for all of your input, as of today we have decided that we are recinding our contract as of today. We are within our 10 day grace period. There are a number of reason for cancelling, but mostly because we will be traveling outside of the DVC for our future vacations. I would really hate to spend that kind of funds if I "might" have issues.


However, we will continue to cruise our favorite Disney Cruises. We did book onboard for the future.

Thanks again,
Kelly

Thank you for taking the time to update us. Good luck on your research and whatever timeshare system you decide on.

 

[Dean]

All:

Thanks so much for all of your input, as of today we have decided that we are recinding our contract as of today. We are within our 10 day grace period. There are a number of reason for cancelling, but mostly because we will be traveling outside of the DVC for our future vacations. I would really hate to spend that kind of funds if I "might" have issues.


However, we will continue to cruise our favorite Disney Cruises. We did book onboard for the future.

Thanks again,
Kelly

I think that's a wise choice in your situation. DVC is a great option for the right person but a chain around the neck if you put all of your eggs in the wrong single basket.