Calculating External Costs like Flights for Aulani and other DVC Resorts

[gumbydom]

I am beginning my journey of researching a DVC purchase at Aulani. My family and I are based in Santa Monica, and we have Disneyland an hour away which we visit several times a year, we do not care to stay overnight. Aulani is a 5 hour flight from us and airfare has been fluctuating from as cheap as $200 and up for a round trip flight per person. As I do more research on best value for us, usage, opportunity costs, renting/selling points, I haven't read anything about travel and local expenses. The state of Hawaii charges a General Excise Tax per night, and food costs are high, arguably not much higher than SoCal, and flight costs vary by season. We would like Aulani to be our home resort since that is where we want to vacation. Has anyone figured the cost of travel and other indirect costs when choosing their home resort in FL, SC, CA or HI? Thanks.

 

[CarolynFH]

I am beginning my journey of researching a DVC purchase at Aulani. My family and I are based in Santa Monica, and we have Disneyland an hour away which we visit several times a year, we do not care to stay overnight. Aulani is a 5 hour flight from us and airfare has been fluctuating from as cheap as $200 and up for a round trip flight per person. As I do more research on best value for us, usage, opportunity costs, renting/selling points, I haven't read anything about travel and local expenses. The state of Hawaii charges a General Excise Tax per night, and food costs are high, arguably not much higher than SoCal, and flight costs vary by season. We would like Aulani to be our home resort since that is where we want to vacation. Has anyone figured the cost of travel and other indirect costs when choosing their home resort in FL, SC, CA or HI? Thanks.

No, we didn’t take other costs into consideration. We felt that we were prepaying for our accommodations and that the other costs of visiting WDW would be the same whether we booked DVC or a Disney hotel room. Of course, our only decision was whether to buy OKW or BWV - we knew we wanted to visit WDW, not VB or HHI. In your case, if Aulani is the DVC resort you’d visit the most, then it makes sense to buy there. However, it also makes sense to compare the costs of travel to WDW vs. Hawaii if you think you’d visit them equally as often.

One more thing - if what you really want is a timeshare in Hawaii, look at other TS companies. DVC is very expensive. You might find helpful information on the Timeshare Users Group forums - www.tugbbs.com.