Completely clueless about DVC - Can you guys help me???

[RamseyTrio]

Hi everyone -

First let me say that I am COMPLETELY clueless about timeshares/DVC! I read thru the FAQ's and still don't get it. Can you guys help me clarify a few things I'm almost embarrassed to ask this!

My mother said she was *thinking* it'd be nice for us to get a timeshare at Disney. We hope to be able to go once (maybe twice) a year 5 days minimum stay, 10 day maximum stay. It'd always be DH & myself plus DS6 and DS1. My mom would occasionally join us too.

I understand buying the points but I don't understand how it works out to be a good deal. If we went for 10 days in May and got a 2 bedroom it would cost us about $30,000. Is that right??? And then if we want to go again the following year do we pay anything else or would that just be if we needed extra points?

Are the points you buy initially replenished each year?

For $30,000 I could go to WDW about 20 times based on a regular hotel room without entering a DVC. How long does your membership last???

I'm sure these are dumb questions and perhaps I'm just a bit brain dead tonight

Thansk a bunch for any help!

 

[Loubon]

Every year for the next 39 years you get a new allotment of points. You only pay the point fee at the beginning. After that it is just maintenance (roughly $4 per point per year).

You can also bank or borrow points enabling you to use up to 300% of your points (if for example you travel every other year). That might help you need less points depending on your travel habits.

 

[ryley26]

first you need to decide how many points your buying. say you buy 200 point you get those 200 points for the next 39 years each year on your use month. the season you go in also determines how many point you need to rent the room. sunday thru thursday are usally half the point of friday and saturday. depending on room size number of points and time of year length of stay these will all factor into how many trips you can take and how often. my suggestion is call dvc get the book from them it explains all these thing and the salespeople are not pushy hope this helps

 

[Doug Wolfe]

DVC memberships expire in 2042. You do NOT pay $30,000 each year. Your points are replenished. The annual fee's you pay are maintenance and taxes.

Go to www.disneyvacationclub.com to see the Disney properties in Orlando, Vero Beach & Hilton Head. A new resort at Disney is also being built called Saratoga Springs, which will open in 2004.

There are also exchanges to over 300 destinations worldwide, so you do not have to go to Disney every year.

Also, while on the web site you can order a free video. Hope this is easy enough to help you!

 

[Caskbill]

In the old traditional timeshare somewhere, you would normally purchase a week (or more). It's like buying a house. You're paying for the actual property. Technically it's more like buying 1/52 of a house, or your week.

Also, like a house there are costs to run it, electricity, water, and so on. However for a timeshare, your 'house' is fully furnished and you don't do any maintenance on it, so these costs are all factored in also. Cutting the grass, maintaining the streets, property taxes, staff for handling reservations, cleaning units, updating furniture. All of the above is a maintenance fee.

You pay for the 'house' one time, you pay the maintenance fee every year. Typical 1-week timeshares may have an initial cost of $15,000 to purchase the property. After that you pay only your share 1/52nd of the annual maintenance. Because operating costs are usually high, this can typically run anywhere from $400 to $700 for your share, or annual fee for you for your week.

Your week is yours to use every year from then on out.

Disney is similar except instead of getting a specific week (example the 3rd week in April) every year, year after year, you instead get points. Say you purchase 200 points for $16,800. This gives you a real estate interest in the actual property itself. Something like x% of building #y. (As opposed to 1/52nd of unit xxx in building yyy as in a traditional timeshare). The only difference is that you purchased a percentage of the total property, not a percentage of a specific unit.

This gives considerab flexibility. You now 'spend' your points for the accommodations you want. One day or 10 days, Adventure season or Premier season, a Studio or a Grand Villa, OkW or BCV. All of these and everything in between.

And like a traditional timeshare where you get to use your week again every year, with DVC you get a new allotment of points every year. To spend as you see fit.

Only the maintenance costs are annual payments. In a traditional 1-week type timeshare, everyone's maintenance costs would be the same because everyone owns the same thing: One-Week. For Disney people can own different amounts of the resort. Some may own 150 points worth, while another may own 250 points worth. Thus for Disney maintenance is paid on a per point basis. This varies somewhat by the different DVC resorts, but you can say right now it's about $4.00 per point.

To make a long story short (whoops, guess it's too late), you make the initial purchase, then after that pay only annual maintenance fees.

200 points would cost $16,800. You then receive a new allotment of 200 points every year, year after year. Your only continuing costs would be the maintenance fees on those points.

Hope this helps.

 

[cindy_k]

Lets see if I can give an example for you that will help clarify:

Normally you will be 4 people but occasionally you will be 5.
Right now because the baby is under 3 you can stay in a one bedroom. So lets go with that.

To stay in a 1 bedroom villa for 10 days during the summer you will need at least 420pts at $82.00 a point that's $34,400 for the time share at the Beach Club.

Now you have purchase 420 points. You will receive a chart that tells you how many points it costs a day to stay in a DVC resort for the year.

You call Disney and book a week (7 days) at Beach Club for the date you wish to go. Lets say it was summer so the little one was out of school. It cost you 270 points. You decide you are not going again, so you Bank the rest of your points: 150 so you can use them next year.

You go and enjoy a wonderful vacation... then the next June you will receive 420pts again to use book a room. Since you have 150 Banked from last year, you now have 570 points.

Since you have so many points this year you decide to bring Grandma, and to book a 2 bedroom at the Wilderness Lodge.
In the summer again, this will cost you 550 points to stay for 10 days. You have it so you book it and Bank the 20 points to use next year.

June comes again and Disney puts 420 points in your account again....... and the cycle continues until 2042 when the club ends.

The only money's you pay over the original cost are maintence dues.

I hope this helps.

 

[Stimpy]

I have a quick question.....how often do the point values go up? For example....right now 3 nights in September would cost me about 49 points. Will that same 3 nights in Sept 2004 cost me 50 points?

In other words, the points we buy stay the same until 2042, does the point value of the resorts go up over the years like inflation or stay the same forever?

 

[CaptainMidnight]

There's a pretty good explanation here to:
http://www.mouseplanet.com/dtp/dvc/

Hay, we all started trying to figure this system out at some time, you got lucky, you stumbled on this site, one of the best with wonderful helpful people to answer your questions. Quite a difference between $30,000 for one year or $30,000 for the next 39 years, huh?

Ask any question you want, accept is it OK to have 5 people in a one bedroom.... that's relagated to the debate board because the answer is controversial and undecided.

Oh, here's a good site for pictures of resorts:
http://www.wdwig.com/g_bcv.htm

 

[cindy_k]

Originally posted by Stimpy
I have a quick question.....how often do the point values go up? For example....right now 3 nights in September would cost me about 49 points. Will that same 3 nights in Sept 2004 cost me 50 points?

In other words, the points we buy stay the same until 2042, does the point value of the resorts go up over the years like inflation or stay the same forever?

Stays the same.. It's in the Contract. Disney can not raise the amount of points it costs to stay at the resort for a year. The best they can do is shift the points around.

For example:
If they raise the cost of staying in December, they would have to lower the cost of staying another month in the year.

What Disney tends to do is shift the points from year to year based on Holidays. They have also set Weekends to cost more points than Weekdays. Since Weekends are more popular.

If Disney were to lower Weekends, they would have to raise Weekdays to spread out those points.

I hope this helps clarify.

 

[CaptainMidnight]

What increases is the cost of points for new members. But when you buy in, the number of points required will remain constant, with some possible shifting between seasons, but it is rare. The cost per point steadily increases.

 

[jimmytammy]

We joined DVC because we came to the conclusion we would be going at least once a year. If you go that much with that many people you are DVC material. We joined without seeing WLV and without these boards. Dont feel as if any question is to silly, cause if you dont ask, now thats silly.

Flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to DVC. Buy a regular timeshare, your stuck to one particular week. DVC lets you come when its best for you. DVC allows you to be on property with full advantage of all transportation. Other timeshares allow you to pack up the car and fight traffic getting into and out of the parks.

DVC wont steer you wrong.

 

[RamseyTrio]

Thank you everyone! That sure cleared up a bunch of stuff for me

You guys are the BEST!

 

[paults]

just remember Friday and Sat night stays are more than double the pts and Sun to Thursday are the lowest pts. We always stay at a disney resort Fri & Sat and move to DVC Sun To Thur to save pts for more vacations.

Also what's with your log-on name (RamseyTrio) are there not 4 of you How about (RamseyTrio plus One)
just making small talk. Good luck with your decision. you can't go wrong with DVC see ya

 

[RamseyTrio]

Hi Paults - YOu are right! My name should be RamseyTrio plus 1! I've been too lazy to change it (even though it's been a year now!). Old habits die hard I guess . Perhaps I'll change it now!

 

[dianeschlicht]

I suggest you rent points at one of the DVC resorts from the rent/trade board here, and then make an appointment with a DVC guide while on your trip. Be sure to tour ALL the DVC properties. Then if you like something that Disney no longer has available, you can hunt for a resale for that resort and point total that you think you might need. Resales are usually less per point than direct from Disney, but you will not be as easy to finance. Most folks get a home equity loan so it goes into their low cost mortgage. If you can pay cash....all the better. We purchased two contracts direct form Disney, because we didn't know about resales at the time we purchased 7 years ago. We started out with 230 OKW points, because we thought we would do one 2 bedroom trip every other year and a studio trip the year between. One visit changed all of that. We added on 150 OKW points so we could go more often and always stay in the larger units. Even when it is just the 2 of us, we opt for a 1 bedroom so we have the kitchen, laundery room and whirlpool tub. With banking and borrowing, 380 points has been more than enough for us. We have even done an exchange to Hawaii and still had enough points left over for a WDW 9 day trip the same year.