Considering DVC

[donkortajr]

My wife and I have been married 13 yrs and have 4 kids. We make it to WDW every other year. We are seriously considering DVC and thinking of Boardwalk or Wilderness Lodge because of their proximity to the parks. (Our fav. resort is the Contemporary). I'm interested in views/impressions from others on these two. I;ve noticed quite a few resales of Boardwalk popping up, but not as many Wilderness Lodge.
Also, how strict are they on the "room sleeps 4" stuff. With 4 kids we always have to lie and tell them 2 adults 3 kids so they let us in one room.

 

[bcvillastwo]

The conventional wisdom is that if you go to WDW at least every other year then DVC may be a good deal for you. But, of course you would need to run the numbers. You need to compare what you currently spend for lodging and then extapolate what you would expect to spend over the life of your DVC contract. Then you need to compare those expected costs with your total DVC costs for the same period. Doing that will give you the financial view you need to make an informed decision about DVC.

Wilderness Lodge Villas (WLV) is pretty highly prized. It is one of the smaller DVC properties thus there is little supply and high demand. However, if you really want WLV and you are patient you can get into WLV.

Regarding the number of people in a room. That is a hotly debated topic here on the board. You will hear what the official policy is and you will see that many people are sticklers for adhearing to that policy. My advice, keep your plans in that area to yourself.

 

[luvindisneyworld]

My wife and I have been married 13 yrs and have 4 kids. We make it to WDW every other year. We are seriously considering DVC and thinking of Boardwalk or Wilderness Lodge because of their proximity to the parks. (Our fav. resort is the Contemporary). I'm interested in views/impressions from others on these two. I;ve noticed quite a few resales of Boardwalk popping up, but not as many Wilderness Lodge.
Also, how strict are they on the "room sleeps 4" stuff. With 4 kids we always have to lie and tell them 2 adults 3 kids so they let us in one room.

The occupancy questions get threads closed.This will not be around long.

 

[spiceycat]

the studio - believe me you don't want 4 people in here much less 5.

one queen bed and a double sleeper sofa (except at OKW). definitely not enough room for 5.

the 1-bedroom is a different matter. DVC says sleep4 - but CRO has for years allowed 5 in these rooms.

King bed in master, queen sleeper sofa in the livingroom - much more room.

DVC will not give you extra bedding, cots, mats - nothing. So be prepared to bring a 'bed in bag', sleeping bag, or whatever you have - also been sheets and blankets for it. I didn't mention pillows - alot of folks bring their own pillow regardless.

the big problem is in both studio and 1-bedroom - there is only 4 towels, hand towels, washrags....that is it 4.

however the 1-bedroom had a wash/dryer in their rooms. the studio don't. they have a laundry mat - which is free.

 

[wisbucky]

The main thing to keep in mind is "Buy where you want to stay". If your heart is set on BWV or WLV then be patient and wait for the right resale to come up. I'll bet that if you do buy into DVC you will find yourself going more like every year. You may also want to consider giving SSR a look, as the incentives right now are great. It also gives you an extra 12 years compared to the other resorts and the dues are the lowest.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[Yensid_MD]

Buy enough points so that you can go every other year and stay in a two bedroom. You can bank and borrow etc to make it happen They are awesome! We have four kids and have decided that it is the only way to do Disney, all of us in one room is AWFUL! Even when it was just 5 of us. Our last trip to WDW was in a two bedroom because we have 6 now and we will never do it any other way. Much more relaxing, we can watch TV if we want, washed clothes etc. It was great!!!

 

[bcvillastwo]

I completely endorse the previous poster's comments about shooting for a 2 bedroom unit. I've been in every size unit but a Grand Villa and if you have more than 3 people, the 2 bedroom unit it the way to go.

 

[robinb]

the studio - believe me you don't want 4 people in here much less 5.

one queen bed and a double sleeper sofa (except at OKW). definitely not enough room for 5.

the 1-bedroom is a different matter. DVC says sleep4 - but CRO has for years allowed 5 in these rooms.

The OP has a SIX person family (2 adults and 4 kids) not 5. S/he has lied in the past saying that they only have 3 kids so they can stay at the CR without renting 2 rooms. I certainly hope they plan on a 1BR at the very minium since a BWV studio is 77 square feet smaller than a room at the Contemporary.

 

[Olaf]

Yep, think 2-bedroom. Kids grow--fast. When you have 4 teenagers, you will want a 2-bedroom unit.

 

[NYMomof4]

I also have 4 kids and our option is the 2 bdrm. This, however, was a no-brainer decision for me because I would always need 2 rooms. When the kids are much older, I could possibly get 2 studio DVC rentals, but they are not adjoining. The other advantage is that DVC 1 and 2 bdrms have full kitchens and laundry. Just the savings on food for 4 hungry kids is an incentive to me versus paying for 2 regular resort rooms. Every other year in a 2 bdrm would give you 300 points to play with (assuming that you bought 150) Check out the point charts and go from there. With 4 kids, it really is nice to be able to get adequate (and luxury) accomodations on our trips. I think that larger families really do benefit from DVC.

 

[browniemtb]

I just purchased and did some research and number crunching. VWL are not available and the resales are slow coming. BWV are available both through Disney and Resale. BWV is one of the largest DVC resort so it carries with it a higher point allotment. SSR I beleive may be bigger but there still selling the original points not buy backs. So if you buy through Disney they will offer SSR at $98 per point with $8 point rebate or you can get a refferal from this board and save 15% - nets the points down to $83.30.
Since you have 6 in your family a 1 bedroom may not work......so buy points that can give you the opportunity to rent a 2 bedroom, once a year or every other year. We are a family of 4, so I based my decision on where I like to stay the most, connected to a park-BWV, and what the cost would be a peak. April vacation is my base because of school. But in retrospec I may have over done the points purchase.......If you crunch the numbers they can get scary but also look at it this way a 2 bedroom unit at BWV would run maybe $5000 in March and worst case scenerio of finacing for 10 year and paying dues that same week for a DVC would net out to be $1700. Others here may have a different opinion but I believe you will save 40% to 70% off rooms depending on the time of year. Everything else will cost the same - Theme Park tickets, unless you get the AP, dining plan after April 1st, and so on.
For me now its getting the time to get there....being a DVC owner, now I must go.

Brownie

 

[bdb7607]

We looked at it slightly differently - We've done 2 trips the last 2 years, both off-site, had a great time. Basically, renting a 4 bedroom (very nice) house with pool was around $1200 - $1500 for a week....

DW always wanted to stay on site, I decided we'd go all out for a 2 bedroom for one year, the price for the accommodations were around $9k, I started to look at DVC again....

I basically figured that for the maintenance fee we'd be spending the same amount as the rental house and I also figured we'd probably end up "splurging for a DVC 2 bedroom 3 times" which is around the purchase price of our 300 BCV points.

So it's a wash - but we're on site, I have an extremely happy DW, DD, DS & DD and will probably be happier as well with less driving, etc.