Hello tinkandme and welcome to the
DVC board!
You are correct about discounts as a DVC member who is staying on points. When you check in you will get a paper listing all of the current discounts (they change from month to month). To get the discount, you are supposed to show your room key which states "DVC member," NOT your membership card. This is because you do not get the discounts for simply being a member, but by STAYING ON POINTS.
In terms of room discounts, DVC members get a discount (i believe it is 10%...someone please correct me if i am wrong on that) on cash ressies AT DVC resorts only. This discount does NOT apply to other Disney resorts. There is limited availabilty and you must make the arrangements through member services. The reason availabilty is limited is because these are rooms available because people have used their points OUTSIDE of DVC but not necessarily for a trade. Therefore, they won't be staying at their DVC resort so the room is available.
For example, if a member books a Concierge Collection hotel room or books a
Disney Cruise, then they won't be staying at a DVC resort with those points. The room they would have used is available to be sold for a cash reservation. This is how Disney recoups the money they need to pay for your stay elsewhere (or your cruise).
Thus if rooms are being sold for cash, there is no refunding of points. Because those points were already used.
In terms of DVC points staying the same or going up, I am not sure what you mean. The initial cost of DVC points goes up periodically, but once you have purchased the points, their value remains the same throughout the course of the program. DVC can make some adjustments here and there. But if they increase the number of points needed for a specific type of room at a given time of year, then they must decrease the number of points needed at a different time of year for that same room. In other words, the number of points it takes to reserve a specific room type over the course of the year never changes.
There are some limitations on DVC in terms of how drastic of a change they can make. As I understand, they have only made adjustments a couple of times in ten years and they were minor adjustments at that.
In 2042, the program ends. caput. all ownership reverts back to Disney. There have been no comment from DVC what happens then. I am not sure they even know. Some have speculated a DVC 2 starting in the future with an end date further out.
We have already made it clear to our kids that if they expect us to take them to Disney year after year, we expect them to buy into DVC 2 when (if) it is available so that they can take us to Disney after 2042....(with the grandchildren of course).
Hope this helps!!!
Keep asking questions!!!
