Cost of WDW Vacation with DVC

[fumanchu2488]

I see a lot of posts by both seasoned, new and prospective DVC members about the cost of a vacation with DVC. We have an October 2021 trip planned and have been buying our tickets, flights, ADR and other items now. Being a relatively new member (2019) who has not stayed using his points yet (rented out 1 year points) and is super analytical I have been tracking my 'actual' costs for the first vacation. I figured this would be a good post for someone considering DVC and also for those who have been planning or taking vacations more recently, especially in COVID with no AP.

Our trip started as a 5 night stay at RIV in a standard view 1 BR. However, my Disney math kicked in and when I saw that flights for the day before would save us about $350, we added 1 night at CCV in a studio. Essentially saving us about $27 if you see the math below. That being said, the trip is October 16 - 22 and is for me, my wife and 2 sons (3 YO and 1 YO). Here are costs to date:

Cost for points: This is probably the hardest calculation for most, but it is actually pretty easy if you do it year by year. My purchase price for 100 points direct was $18,800. I had a $500 closing cost and paid about $45 of interest since I paid it off very quickly. So my total for my points was $19,345. For that price, I received 5,000 points (50 years and 100 points per year). So my total cost per point is $3.87. I did not take away income from renting out 86 points. For 2020/2021, my annual dues were a bit messed up with COVID rebates or whatever, but for the purpose of the calculation, my average cost per point was about $8.33. So, my total cost per point for my trip was $12.20 ($3.87 + $8.33) per point.

Number of points: My 1 BR at RIV was 170 points. Using the $12.20 per point, my total cost for my room was $2,074 (or $414.80/night).

Additional Night with OTU points: I added 17 points of OTU for my CCV studio. That was $19/point (total) so it was $323.

Flight for 3 people and 1 lap infant from Virginia to Orlando on Jetblue (including 1 checked bag w/ taxes and fees): $675

Tickets: Here is where it gets crazy. The cost for a 6 day park hopper ticket with memory maker, taxes and fees was $2,140. That was for 2 adults and one 3 YO. The younger kid was free.

None of this includes dining, merchandise, tips, extra hours events, or other costs. Without those costs, the total for our vacation so far is: $5,212.

Now that cost is more palatable because my room is paid for so it isn't coming out of my pocket this year like it would with a cash reservation. But the cost to me is accurate.

This tells me a few things:

1. There is a tricky balance between more points, number of nights and leveraging annual passes. With 100 points, even in a studio, we can only swing about a week a year. That is right at the point where the gold pass becomes more cost effective. In the future, once the borrowing restriction goes away, and AP comes back, the best way to use your membership is to stay the most number of points in a 12 month window so that the AP saves money. If you have more points, the cost for tickets essentially becomes fixed, which is an advantage.

2. People who bought in at lower point costs make this equation different. But, not as much as you would think since the vast majority of these costs are locked into the maintenance fees, travel, tickets and WDW costs. For example, if I got a 50 year 100 point contract (5,000 total points) for $9,000 total (or about $88/point), my cost per point would be $1.80 instead of $3.87. That would reduce my overall trip cost only by $352 or less than 10%. I would suggest anyone who is buying either direct or resale to consider the prices of the point in terms of $/point total. Which is just overall cost divided by number of total points received.

3. The vast majority of cost for DVC members on every trip comes to maintenance fees, tickets and WDW costs (dining, merch, etc...). And for everyone that visits regularly, AP is the biggest saver in terms of $ spent per day. This is also the scariest thing, because even with a prepaid room, the cost of a vacation could be very high if WDW keeps raising their prices. This is my hesitation with adding points.

4. Having a kid younger than 3 YO saves money. I need to figure out some sort of time machine to slow everything down so he doesn't get older. Still working on that and I will let everyone know when I finish.

 

[edudansil]

Very interesting! We are soon to be owners (hopefully...c'mon ROFR!) and are debating the AP with 100 points, too. This is helpful-thank you!

 

[Matty B13]

We have 3 kids, 1 now is a Disney Adult, and bought our DVC points in 2017-2018 at decent prices. But with tickets (sometime using Gold Annual Passes), flights (some paid with airline points), meals our costs are easily in the $6,000 to $10,000 range no matter how much we try to economize our vacations. Anyone buying in now to DVC should be planning on at least $5000/a visit with kids.

 

[kilik64]

TLDR - WDW is expensive lol

One other thing to kinda consider that I look at to make myself feel better, is to look at when you are going and see how much same room would cost rack rate. Thats the true actual savings to me of DVC vs other options. Sure I can stay at a cheaper resort or offsite, but I value the onsite amenities and convenience. But to compare what cash vs dvc would be is usually thousands in "savings". I mean for what you are saying your room cost is, you get to stay at ccv and riv for less than what youd pay for AOA family suite, those things are $$$.

 

[FSUSammy]

TLDR - WDW is expensive lol

One other thing to kinda consider that I look at to make myself feel better, is to look at when you are going and see how much same room would cost rack rate. Thats the true actual savings to me of DVC vs other options. Sure I can stay at a cheaper resort or offsite, but I value the onsite amenities and convenience. But to compare what cash vs dvc would be is usually thousands in "savings". I mean for what you are saying your room cost is, you get to stay at ccv and riv for less than what youd pay for AOA family suite, those things are $$$.

This is what we do lol When we stayed at the Poly one time we had looked up the cost of a regular room and realized it would have cost us over $500 a night for a room. And it hits home even more when you look at the prices for some of the moderate resorts and realize you would have been paying a lot staying there if you didn't have DVC.

 

[PsycProfPlum]

I haven't run the numbers since I first bought in, but what you find largely depends on the assumptions you make about things like future price dues increases, whether you intend to sell the contract, and a host of other unknowable things. I think you'll find that comparing the rack cash rate of the same DVC room, DVC will come out looking very good. For my cheap self, that was a bit of an unfair comparison as I'd probably never splurge on that type of room for cash. It's very hard to get a precise measure of the cost but when I ball parked it, I realized we could stay DVC for about what we were normally paying for moderate resorts.

 

[kilik64]

Quick example, when we are going in March, dvc stay cost is roughly 1400 (assuming 130 point cost for studio stay split between blt and ssr at 10.76 per point cost over life of contract based on current MF), same type room at Port Orleans Riverside is 2200. Bump that to for instance SSR for the whole week and it jumps to $5400. Room alone is more than all your costs combined so far.

 

[🍀TwinsMom]

Has anyone done the math if you’re better off doing one longer trip (10-14 days) versus multiple trips to maximize APs with DVC? We got two trips with COVID airfare deals and now two without deals, so thinking one big trip is more economical and saving on airfare, at least, but maybe it’s a wash.

 

[kilik64]

Has anyone done the math if you’re better off doing one longer trip (10-14 days) versus multiple trips to maximize APs with DVC? We got two trips with COVID airfare deals and now two without deals, so thinking one big trip is more economical and saving on airfare, at least, but maybe it’s a wash.

Depends on AP cost, i think the break even point on the prior dvc ap was around 6-7 park days provided you are a blue member who can purchase one. If you have to get a normal AP, its more like 10ish days for B/E. (based on prior ap cost, who knows what new one will be)

 

[Leight19]

One thing I add on for calculation is the time cost of money. For me I assume 4% interest based on fact I could use the money for dvc to pay mortgage down instead of using the money for dvc (could argue higher or lower assumed rates based on your situation). Adding this to the buy in of $188/pt that adds another $7.52 to the “cost” of ownership for this year which brings cost up to $19.72.

To me the real value of dvc won’t come from looking at numbers today but 10 yrs from now when cost for other hotels and new buy in for dvc have presumably gone up faster then the 4% interest assumed (which you could use to offset cost per year with assumed appreciation).

 

[fumanchu2488]

TLDR - WDW is expensive lol

One other thing to kinda consider that I look at to make myself feel better, is to look at when you are going and see how much same room would cost rack rate. Thats the true actual savings to me of DVC vs other options. Sure I can stay at a cheaper resort or offsite, but I value the onsite amenities and convenience. But to compare what cash vs dvc would be is usually thousands in "savings". I mean for what you are saying your room cost is, you get to stay at ccv and riv for less than what youd pay for AOA family suite, those things are $$$.

This! No matter how you cut it, WDW is expensive. And comparing rack rate helps. My 1 BR for those dates is $845/night cash where I paid $414/night.

The point of doing this is when you try and do projections or full lifecycle analysis with DVC it is impossible to quantify. But I can calculate what my 2021 trip cost pretty accurately.

 

[Bearval]

Has anyone done the math if you’re better off doing one longer trip (10-14 days) versus multiple trips to maximize APs with DVC? We got two trips with COVID airfare deals and now two without deals, so thinking one big trip is more economical and saving on airfare, at least, but maybe it’s a wash.

What you need to do to if you can only go 1week a year is to buy an AP for this year but schedule your next year's week vacation a week earlier to get two trips in with your annual pass.

 

[quandrea]

You should also consider that not every trip will necessarily include parks. We in past years have purchased gold aps. Used them to death over the year and then we take time off from the parks. We still go to Disney, but we do other things. Those trips are substantially cheaper than the trips where we’ve purchased the AP. I suspect going forward, that if AP pricing jumps a lot, that we will be hitting a park only sporadically in the future. Perhaps a one day ticket here and there. Bottom line when trying to figure costs—the trips you take will change over time.

 

[zavandor]

One thing I add on for calculation is the time cost of money. For me I assume 4% interest based on fact I could use the money for dvc to pay mortgage down instead of using the money for dvc (could argue higher or lower assumed rates based on your situation). Adding this to the buy in of $188/pt that adds another $7.52 to the “cost” of ownership for this year which brings cost up to $19.72.

To me the real value of dvc won’t come from looking at numbers today but 10 yrs from now when cost for other hotels and new buy in for dvc have presumably gone up faster then the 4% interest assumed (which you could use to offset cost per year with assumed appreciation).

I agree about the importance of considering the time cost of money, but on the other hand, this year even at $19.72pp you're saving versus discounted rates. Have you considered deducting every year from the capital invested how much you're saving, up to the point you break even?

 

[DVCanadian]

One thing I add on for calculation is the time cost of money. For me I assume 4% interest based on fact I could use the money for dvc to pay mortgage down instead of using the money for dvc (could argue higher or lower assumed rates based on your situation). Adding this to the buy in of $188/pt that adds another $7.52 to the “cost” of ownership for this year which brings cost up to $19.72.

I’m not sure why you would add this as a “cost”. This is a pretend calculation and is part of accounting, not calculating the actual cost of a trip.
You did spend the money to buy DVC, you didn’t do the other option.

 

[fumanchu2488]

I’m not sure why you would add this as a “cost”. This is a pretend calculation and is part of accounting, not calculating the actual cost of a trip.
You did spend the money to buy DVC, you didn’t do the other option.

Exactly! You can run infinite what if scenarios for the money the initial purchase price and what the time cost of money is. And for me, prior to purchasing, I spent months in my own head trying to justify this financially.

At the end of the day the vast majority of our costs as DVC members comes to the maintenance fees and Disney tickets and expenses while visiting that has nothing to do with the initial investment. Even if we got the points for free, we are paying between $7 and $9 per point per year that is an expense. We are also paying for tickets, travel, dining and merchandise for taking the trip.

A lot of people have said this, but if we used 300 points per year to stay 12-14 nights on property with 4 people and we got free points, those trips would cost about $5,000 or $6,000. Maybe more depending on how you eat, how you get to WDW and what you buy at the parks.

That is why my first and only recommendation for people who are considering DVC is, are you going to visit WDW every year or other year regardless of being DVC members? If the answer to that question is 'yes' that means you are already planning on all of the expenses that come along with a Disney trip. And DVC will save you money on your room costs.

The only thing I think you can compare is a 'Do Nothing' alternative (meaning you don't go to WDW), a cash trip and a DVC trip.

The do nothing comes off the table if you are going to visit anyway.

A cash trip vs. DVC trip becomes a bit trickier to calculate.

In my example, I showed that my room was over 50% off of rack rate. Well, as DVC members we typically do not get any of the package deals that Disney offers. So using our points we do not get free dining, we do not get the 30% off rack rates, we do not get ticket packages. Depending on the time of year, the savings for the overall vacation could be as little as 10% or 20%. So the question is, is that savings, which could be thousands of dollars depending on your vacation habits, worth locking into a 20 - 50 year contract essentially requiring you to spend money at Disney?

For me the answer was yes. My plan is to vacation at Disney at least once every year or other year. So to save even 10% on my vacation it is worth it.

All that being said, I go back to 'Why would Disney offer this'? Here is what I have deduced. Disney wants to give its most loyal customers a program that gives them a feeling of owning the magic and a bit of a break on room costs but in exchange they have guaranteed income for operation and maintenance of these resorts and people who are going to visit the parks year after year to spend money.

 

[CarolMN]

All that being said, I go back to 'Why would Disney offer this'? Here is what I have deduced. Disney wants to give its most loyal customers a program that gives them a feeling of owning the magic and a bit of a break on room costs but in exchange they have guaranteed income for operation and maintenance of these resorts and people who are going to visit the parks year after year to spend money.

And those folks come even when the broader travel market is down. Very good deal for Disney

While I enjoy reading the posts on the financials, my decision came down to "I WANT it". Of course, I knew that we wouldn't really miss the initial investment and I still consider that a sunk cost. If/When we sell, anything we get back will be pure gravy. But we bought our points at $65 back in 1999 and I won't be using that same "logic" at today's prices!

 

[EYL]

At the end of the day the vast majority of our costs as DVC members comes to the maintenance fees and Disney tickets and expenses while visiting that has nothing to do with the initial investment.

We typically ignore our initial investment if we do any calculating. Maybe it's a bit of "creative accounting" in our heads, but we always anticipate that we will be able to sell our PVB contract for the same amount or more than we purchased it resale. If we don't sell it, once it gets to the point where the contract has 10 years left and the value starts declining, we would have had our money's worth in trips and memories.

 

[Sandisw]

And those folks come even when the broader travel market is down. Very good deal for Disney

While I enjoy reading the posts on the financials, my decision came down to "I WANT it". Of course, I knew that we wouldn't really miss the initial investment and I still consider that a sunk cost. If/When we sell, anything we get back will be pure gravy. But we bought our points at $65 back in 1999, I won't be using that same "logic" at today's prices!

This was us! I was going to visit regardless and having DVC just helps me spend more now because the money I spent to buy is long gone! Well, maybe not since I am still buying...but still! I don't even use the MF's any longer as part of my "vacation budget". It's just a yearly expense like my car insurance!!! LOL

Shhh...don't tell DH!!!

 

[fumanchu2488]

This was us! I was going to visit regardless and having DVC just helps me spend more now because the money I spent to buy is long gone! Well, maybe not since I am still buying...but still! I don't even use the MF's any longer as part of my "vacation budget". It's just a yearly expense like my car insurance!!! LOL

Shhh...don't tell DH!!!

Haha!

I bought because it made me happy in my pea sized brain that I 'owned the magic'. It was a given that we were going anyway so that money was going to be given to the mouse one way or the other.