PixieDust said:
I just returned from
DCL last week and they were charging $97 a point and said it was a "special" price only during the cruise. This was for Saratoga Springs.
Question #1, I read on line tonight retail is $89 a point, so why an $8 difference on DCL?
That was one SPECIAL price all right! PLEASE tell us you didn't buy! The SSR price during Feb was $95-10 incentive = $85. Now, I think it is $90-8 = $82. You should have thrown that salesman overboard when you had the chance.
Question #2, looking at resales, does it matter what resort is home resort?
You'll get a lot of answers on that one. The answer that makes the most sense to me is - it depends. If you REALLY, REALLY want to be assured of staying at your favorite resort, and/or if you usually vacation during peak periods (which are not always the same for
DVC as they are for WDW), most people would tell you to buy where you want to stay because you will have an 11-month window at your home resort. A supporting argument for that reasoning is that, as the numbers of DVC owners grow, the smaller resorts will become more and more difficult to book for non-home resorters.
The other thing that matters about home resort is dues, which include taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc., etc. SSR has the lowest ($3.83 per point per year) and VB has the highest ($4.87). That's a big spread, and the more points you have the worse it is.
The prices seem so much cheaper at some resorts vs Saratoga.
"Well...that depends on what the meaning of 'is' is." as some famous guy once said.
SSR is $90 without incentives for 49 years of points. That's $1.84 per point per year one-time purchase cost. Or, with incentives, $82/49 = $1.67.
Say you buy somewhere else for $75 per point. Ah...but that's only for 37 years! $75/37 = $2.03 pp/py.
The other thing you have to factor in is "How long am I going to keep this?" I suspect that most owners keep DVC 10-15 years, and I'm planning on doing the same. Current resales have had one generation of ownership. You would be the second. When you get ready to resell, there will still be 20-25 years left on a resale contract. But if I am
your prospective buyer, I have to look at that and say, "Hmmmm...I keep this thing 12 years and I am selling to the last possible owner, who has a max of only 8-12 years left. What kind of resale am
I looking at?" At some point, these resales have to lose most of their value. I would never buy new expecting to keep the contract for 50 years, but that extra 12 years of padding will become increasingly more valuable as the years tick by.
Question #3, does anyone have advice for us? We're a family of 4 who cruises or goes to Polynesian every year (alternating) and think DVC must be a better value than plunking down $6-7k a year.
I'm reluctant to answer that, but I think if you are vacationing like that DVC probably offers comparable accommodations at lower prices. As a side-note, however, many DVC owners feel they get better cruise value by paying cash and renting enough points to cover the cash outlay.
