Canadian DVC owners?

[MillbrookMom]

Have seen several posts about the Disney Vacation Club, but am not quite sure how it works. Can anyone let me in on the basics? Also, are there any special rules or problems associated with ownership as a Canadian? and finally, for those who own, when and why did you decide to do so?

Thanks

 

[Scratch42]

I'll start!

DVC is for those that at least go to WDW every other year.

The only downfall, addonitis!

What made me decide, well, I'm usually in the group that likes to go down every three to four months, ok, so not lately...........Med Cruise got in the way!

Oh, and our NYC trip for the July Long Weekend, btw, which was booked using points. You don't have to use points just for WDW! More cost effective but when one is Cash Poor at the time.........

Back on topic........

DVC is when you purchase a certain amount of points. You can determine this by when you are likely to travel and what size family you are. There are restrictions as to how many peeps in a unit. Then how many times you plan on visiting WDW. If every other year, this is when you use your Bank and Borrow concept. Minimum purchse thru Disney is 150 pts. Going resale, whatever contracts are available at the time. (Board Sponsor, Timeshare Store, Highly Recommend! )

As for buying, was when our $$ was starting to get good! Plus sat down and calculated what I spent so far on vacations. Plus not being able to get a good cup of coffee without having to get dressed!LOL

I enjoy having the extra space and the luxury accommadations!

This should get you started.

j

 

[F4disneyfan]

Ok scratch me next. We decided in 2001 we actually wanted to join much sooner like back in 98 but with both DW and I being in school we didn't think it was a good idea at the time boy were we wrong. The only downfall as a Canadian to owning DVC is it is to far away to go as often as we would like to go but that rings true for many of us not just DVC owners. Our decision to purchase was easy we looked at how much we were spending on hotel rooms at Disney going every year and decided it would be nice to have that portion of our trip pre paid and only have to worry about passes and other small stuff.

 

[surfer_ed]

We just bought last year, SSR 165 points. We had a 5 year plan to buy in 2008 but then decided to go for it. Our DD is still young <2 years, by the time she is old enough to really enjoy the parks, who knows how much it will be to stay onsite?

From the Canadian perspective:

1. Some provinces require extra hoops to jump thru to buy...if you are in Ontario that it is OK. I can't remember what the issue is.
2. If you can get a US Bank Account opened in the US than the financing is 1% Cheaper. I opened one with RBC, it took a few weeks but it is worth it.

 

[BitsnBearsMom]

What they all said!!

We decided to buy in after a tour we took on our October 2004 trip. We were already staying at WL and were 'hooked' on delux resorts and have always been hooked on Disney - we went there 15 yrs ago for our honeymoon!! Knowing this would be a way to ensure we took quality vacations every 2nd year at least with the kids we took the plunge. I also want to be able to take my grandkids there someday if I have any! It took us a year and a bit to get it paid off and we will be taking our first trip home this October.

 

[MikeJ]

As you have probably deduced, DVC is Disney's version of a timeshare. Unlike a traditional timeshare where you purchase a particular unit in a particular building for a particular week of the year, DVC is a points-based system. Once a year, on your anniversary date (called a Use Year in DVC lingo) you will have deposited into your account the number of points you've purchased. If you've purchased 150 points with an August use year, then on August 1 you can access your 150 points for that year.

Next month, prices will be going up to US$101/pt if you buy direct from Disney. Presently, Saratoga Springs is the resort they are selling. There are a number of reputable resellers around where you can get a bit of a break on price ($80-$85/pt). This is a one-time cost only. You will be billed annually for maintenance fees for your home resort, which are presently in the $4-$5 range depending on which resort you own.

What do you get for your points? The ability to book at any of the DVC resorts at any time of the year. You can book anything from a studio to a 3BR Grand Villa, depending only on availability and how many points you own. Point requirements fluctuate depending on the size of the unit desired (a studio uses fewer points than a 2BR) and time of year (Christmas week uses more points than January).

There is a lot more detail regarding the club I won't get into here, but there's a wealth of information available on the DVC boards.

As far as anything special about purchasing from Canada, the only issue I've heard of is the 10% withholding tax the IRS forces you to pay if you choose to sell off your membership. We purchased two resale contracts (basically paid cash) through A Timeshare Broker and had absolutely no issues whatsoever. We bought because we'd been averaging a trip to WDW one every year to 18 months and it was a way of getting us deluxe accomodations at a much better rate than staying at the GF or Poly. Plus we like having the full kitchen and laundry facilities right in our unit.

I'm sure you have more questions. Ask away...

- Mike

 

[cslittle999]

1. Some provinces require extra hoops to jump thru to buy...if you are in Ontario that it is OK. I can't remember what the issue is.

The issue is that Disney isn't licensed to sell real estate in all of the provinces (they are in Ontario). You can only close a DVC purchase direct from Disney in a province/state where they do hold a license. For most people that means signing the papers while at WDW.

We purchased 200 BWV points this March and are planning to take our first trip next August. We look at it as pre-purchasing a deluxe vacation. We plan to stay at WDW for two weeks every other year. At least till the kids are out of school. After that I can see us taking multiple short trips each year.

We bought our points resale. The agent did offer financing but we used our line of credit instead since it has a way better rate. That would be true of Disney's financing too. One advantage of purchasing from Disney is that you can put your purchase on a credit card. Great if you collect points.

 

[U2FanHfx]

Hi!

We just bought in this month! Still waiting for the closing documents. I've wanted to buy in since 1999 and glad I didn't as I split from my then fiance since then and that would have sucked! But now I have a loving soon-to-be wife that had never seen Disney movies or Disney World when I met her. Introduced her to it all in 2004 and now she is hooked. We have gone 3 times in 1.5 years with our Disney Wedding coming in Aug/Sept 06. Our story is below.

Every province but Ontario cannot buy directly from Disney at home. The reason for this is that if you want to sell in a province you must jump through legal hoops to get EACH property registered. My guide from the tour told us they spend millions each year to get registered and obviously look at the markets to choose where to focus that money. I think there are also two states that cannot purchase from home either.

So, for us Nova Scotians, we had two choices. Buy while on the tour in WDW when we were there in April or buy resale when we got home. When we went down in April/May we rented points and stayed at Old Key West. My DW fell in love in about 60 minutes of arrival. We thought we should take the tour and did just that. My DW was ready to sign as soon as the presentation was over, however I wasn't convinced and didn't have my trusty excel application with me while on vacation for analysis. So we came home without DVC.

Once home, I started the analysis. Most people tell you that you're better off just taking that money and investing it and then paying for your vacations out of it. I call these people the DVC non-believers. They are also the ones that say, "again" "aren't you tired of that place" "you gotta grow up sometime".

So, I created a spreadsheet that had the initial money invested with a growth of 8% per year. My next thing to do was take the last 5 years of Moderate, Deluxe and Value resort prices and figure out the average yearly increase in price. I did the same thing for the DVC Dues. So the final calculation looked like this.... Initial Investment+8%+What you would have paid for dues that year-What you would pay for an equal number of nights in cash=Remaining Investment Account Total.

For Value, you NEVER drain the investment account or break even.
For Moderate, you drain the investment account and break even in year 15.
For Deluxe, you drain the investment account and break even in year 8.

So for us, even if we went every other year, we would still save money. LOTS OF MONEY!

We contacted a resale broker, the sponsor of the DVC boards, and started the process. We submitted an offer on May 17th and it was accepted. Submitted for ROFR on May 18th and Disney passed on May 24th. So now we are waiting for our closing docs. Not members yet, but about as close as you can get.

Hope this helps.

surfer_ed - What are your fees on the RBC account? I have read like $20 a month so I don't know if you save anything

Regs,

Chad J.

 

[MikeJ]

We contacted a resale broker, the sponsor of the DVC boards, and started the process. We submitted an offer on May 17th and it was accepted. Submitted for ROFR on May 18th and Disney passed on May 24th.

Not to go too far off-topic, but where did you buy and how much per point?

 

[U2FanHfx]

MikeJ:

We picked Saratoga Springs for 100pts at $83.00/pt.

The extra 12 years really made up our mind for us.

Don't worry, addonitis has already infected us and we are planning on another 100pts at either SSR or a new DVC resort (rumored to start in a few years).

Regs,

CJM