cold feet

[neiman5]

Hello to all from San Francisco Bay Area of California. We gave our deposit over the phone for BCV. Just waiting for the papers to arrive to sign. We have been looking at this for the last two years. Curious to know of any other California (or west coast) families that belong and how it is working for them. Also, eager to hear from people that have used their DVC points outside the Disney Resorts. We love Disney and make the 6 hour trip to Disneyland several times a year, but also want to vacation other places as well. We really enjoy the "hotel" experience and always stay at the Grand Californian. Are we going to miss that by going to a condo resort? How much different is it from a hotel?Wish I had found this forum along time ago! I have already learned so much by just reading past postings.

 

[ncligs]

neiman5,

"Welcome Home and to the DIS"!!If you love Disney, you made the right decison to buy DVC. You will also be able to use your points all over the USA .
Just keep asking questions on this forum and you will get a lot of usefull info and opinions.

 

[CarolMN]

Welcome to the DIS and most especially to the DVC Forum!

The BCV are not your typical condo. They are attached to the BC Resort and thus have all the amenities of a deluxe hotel PLUS the extra space and room features not found in a typical hotel room. I don't think you will miss the hotel experience at all.

DVC membership returns the most value if you use it to stay at DVC resorts. If you are planning to use your DVC membership for non-DVC options more than for the DVC resorts, my advice is to rethink DVC. There are less expensive ways to pay for non-DVC vacations.

 

[CaptainMidnight]

Well, your subject reads cold feet. There are many timeshares. If I were living all the way out in California, with Disneyland and California adventure close, I'm not sure how often I would make it to Florida to take advantage of WDW accomodations. A great resource for timeshare information is
www.tug2.net
Personally, we love DVC, but living in Ohio, we end up driving to WDW. ONe of the dissapointments with DVC im my opinion, is that they do not have a resort attached to Disneyland and California adventure. They actually had some land that was close that they ended up selling to another timeshare company, I believe it was Marriott. While you can use points at those Disney hotels, the number of points required may not make it worth it. The point charts listed above may be helpful in making those determinations.

I don't mean to cause you hesitation with your decision, just to offer the best information, I'm guessing that's why you were posting your question. There are other timeshares which offer trade potential that do not cost as much as DVC. Trading DVC to other timeshare resorts may not offer the most value. Others are much more knowledgable than I am. I'm sure california DVC owners can be much, much more help than my meager opinion.

Another place for information about DVC is is:
http://www.mouseplanet.com/dtp/dvc/

They list points for 2000 for
Disneyland Hotel
Disneyland Pacific Hotel

Dream Season
January 1 - May 26 & August 27 - December 31
Sun-Thurs / Fri-Sat
26 / 36

Magic Season
May 27 - August 26
Sun-Thurs / Fri-Sat
35 / 45

Perhaps those point requirements aren't as bad as I thought, but hopefully it is helpful.

 

[neiman5]

thanks for the advice...we figure better air fare to florida than hawaii

 

[WDWfantasy]

We live in Redding, California and have been DVC members at BWV since April, 1999. We have NO regrets whatsoever about our decision to join DVC. We make 1 or 2 trips per year. Airfare is much cheaper to Florida than Hawaii. At this point we can't imagine vacationing anywhere else. Our kids are 12 and 10 and they love WDW. We enjoy the resorts and waterparks immensely and find that we spend less time in the 4 main parks the more times that we visit. We are Premium Annual Pass holders and we purchase passes every other year which works out the most economical for us. We squeeze 2 or 3 trips in on our passes. For example we purchased our PAP's on May 25, 2002. We were at WDW for 14 days that trip. DH and I returned for 9 days the beginning of December for our 15th anniversary. We are heading back to WDW, with the kids. on May 2nd for 10 more days. This is all using the same PAP's. We won't have to purchase PAP's again until next year when we return. We may eventually use our points to do other trips but we all agree that our WDW trips have been the best ever. We have never been disappointed in 7 trips so far. The resorts are luxurious. Wonderful. Hope this helps!!

Kami in California
DVC at BWV since '99

 

[Doug Wolfe]

Neiman5.... I love Beach Club! My humble opinion, once you do a DVC villa, you really won't want to do a hotel again. And Captain Midnight is correct, let's get a DVC project at Disneyland.

 

[neiman5]

Thanks again everyone! Great to hear from a DVCer from California. It makes us feel a whole lot better. We'll keep the pressure on about a resort at Disneyland! We get 30- 40 percent off the Grand Californian with our season passes (during certain times) and still pay $220 per night! Not to metion the fact that we are quickly out growing the standard rooms...even with bunk beds.

Eric