disney vacation club membership?

danx2plus3more

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Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
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isnt staying at a mod cheaper than renting points or if i were to join how am i benifiting other than having more room? (talking about the vacation club) thanks

i wont stay at the values..im comparing this to the mods.por..we have 5 in our family
 
You can find out all kinds of useful information about this in the DVC threads - but in a nutshell, renting points probably isn't cheaper... I have not rented out our points out, so I am NOT an expert on that question.

The DVC properties will definitely provide a lot more space, unless you are looking at a studio room. The 1 BR's and up are like being in an apartment vs. a hotel room. We like the idea of having a separate space to sit and talk after the kids are asleep - without having to pull chairs out on to the "porch", or hiding together crammed into the bathroom. Plus the kitchens make it easy to eat in the room - breakfasts are much easier that way.

As for the membership, you're basically pre-paying for vacations for the life of the membership, and then making a decision to "enforce" a family vacation every year or two. As members you get to pool hop, you get discounted AP's if you choose, and have a variety of other discounts and perks throughout the WDW restaurants, shops and entertainment venues (they fluctuate from time to time). Plus you can choose to stay at any of the DVC resorts with your points, or you could trade out the points and stay at a variety of Disney destinations around the world - and non-Disney resorts around the world, too, like other timeshare organizations. With DVC you get flexibility in choosing when you want to stay, and for how long you want to stay, vs. traditional timeshares that lock you into a certain week per year.
 
Paying to stay where you could rent points for, you'd pay a lot more cash. It wouldn't be a mod. Even the studios are a lot bigger.
 
Maybe one of these days when we have kids, we will do the DVC. Until then, hubby and I can make do with smaller resorts. I will keep my fingers crossed that one day the pixie dust will fall and we can be DVC members!!!!
 

So if a person goes each year to a value or a mod would they spend more money buying into DVC?:confused3 I would love to visit WDW more often and dream of being a DVC owner but I don't see how it would save us money unless we were to book deluxe resort each time we visit.
 
Most of the DVC properties are deluxe properties.
 
You can certainly save a lot of money on great accommodations in a “Disney Deluxe Villa Resort” (Disney Vacation Club) by renting a reservation direct from a DVC member rather than making the reservation with WDW reservations (aka CRO).

However, please be sure and educate yourself on how “renting points” (as it is often referred to) is very different from a regular hotel reservation.

See the [thread=1669863]Considering Renting from a DVC Member?[/thread] thread.
 
So if a person goes each year to a value or a mod would they spend more money buying into DVC?:confused3 I would love to visit WDW more often and dream of being a DVC owner but I don't see how it would save us money unless we were to book deluxe resort each time we visit.

Membership in the Disney Vacation Club is not for everyone. DVC can make sense financially -- assuming you would always stay in a deluxe resort. If you always stay in a value resort, then it won't -- but that's not an apples-to-apples comparison. The DVC resorts offer deluxe amenities and room size.

DVC membership might make sense if you meet most or all of these criteria:

  • The cost of membership and dues does not appear to present a financial hardship.
  • You vacation at Walt Disney World frequently: ideally at least once every two years.
  • You plan to continue vacationing at Disney World far enough into the future to make the membership at least break even.
  • You prefer to stay in Deluxe or DVC accommodations and/or you stay a long time (10 days or more per year). If you always stay at a Value resort, or always stay off-site, or you really spend the entire day at the parks away from your hotel, and you don't spend time at the resort itself (other than crashing at the end of the day), then DVC may not be for you.
  • You are able to plan your vacations well in advance -- ideally 7 to 11 months out. If you aren't a planner, don't even look at becoming a DVC member. If you can't plan and book your vacations 11 months in advance, and staying at a particular DVC resort is important, then don't join DVC. If you really don't care which DVC resort you end up with, then it's not an issue.
  • You stay more on weekdays and can limit Friday and Saturday night stays.
  • You can do without daily mousekeeping and room service (of course, you can pay extra and get mousekeeping as a DVC member).
  • You desire more space than a typical resort room (such as a 2 bedroom villa, with full kitchen, living room, 2 bathrooms and jacuzzi suite, and even a washer/dryer).
  • You’re not looking at DVC as an investment or a way to make money (it’s not). It is a decision to prepay, at today's rates, the next several decades of Disney trips.
 
I have also been considering joining and for this fall I have been comparing renting versus a Mod resort like PORS or CSR. What I found is that even renting at a rate of $12 or $12.50 per point needed for a basic studio at OKW would save me about $200 or so. This is for an October stay. I think time of year, and which DVC resort would have a great affect on how much you could save compared to a moderate resort. If you stay at the value resorts, then it probably won't save you. If you are like my family and gotta have at the minimum a mini fridge, then you will going with at least a moderate, and that is where you start to save by renting or buying into DVC.
 
DVC membership might make sense if you meet most or all of these criteria:

[*]You stay more on weekdays and can limit Friday and Saturday night stays.

i just wanted to add some numbers to further explain this.

i paid cash for a small resale contract at OKW (less than $4000 total for a contract with 35 years worth of pts remaining) a couple of years ago. annual dues on that are $4.56 per pt this year, which works out to about $15 a month.

i like to visit wdw in nov/early dec when the decorations are up...during that period, it costs 8 pts a night to stay in a studio (with 2 queen size beds, balcony, kitchenette and 390 sq ft compared to 260 sq ft at a value like pop or 314 sq ft at a mod like POFQ) at OKW from sun-thurs.

so for those 5 nights - based on my calculations - i'm paying less than $60 a night, tax included. IMO, that's the best deal on property.

OTOH, if i wanted to stay for a weekend and booked for fri-sat nights, it would cost me roughly the same 40 pts to stay 2 weekend nights as it cost to stay 5 weeknights. my $58ish room now costs me around $145 a night, tax included. still a fair deal, but a mod with a discount code is much more competitive (and obviously doesn't require the cash upfront that a DVC contract requires.)

naturally, rentals cost more per point, but the ratios are the same. if you can rent a weeknight at OKW for $96, the weekend rate essentially goes up to $240...

something to keep in mind whether buying or renting.
 
The weeknight/weekend issue is one reason we haven't purchased DVC and we don't rent points. When we go to WDW a week's stay involves two weekends. If you're willing to move to a value resort for the weekends it works out well. But, DH won't be bothered moving and I don't like it either. So, we usually just watch for good deals and book through CRO. That way we also have daily maid service.

Also, I can't help but think DVC must be a phenomenally profitable business for Disney. They are now canabalizing existing hotel rooms (AKL and CR) and turning them into DVC, so it must be more profitable than renting hotel rooms.
 
so for those 5 nights - based on my calculations - i'm paying less than $60 a night, tax included. IMO, that's the best deal on property.

You're not including your original investment and the extended cost of that investment.

Despite that, the DVC is a good deal even if you work in all of that, and it gets really complicated if you analyze what you could do with the money instead and how much return that would generate vs DVC. Anyways, DVC is a good deal if you will go to disney every year.

You could go for the same amount of time at a mod and pay more than you would in dues per year and get to stay at a DVC deluxe property. I just looked into this, it'd be say 900ish a year for 8-10 days at the WLV if I bought DVC in dues. It'd be more than that to stay at a mod at the same time of year. There is still the upfront purchase price though and this will cost you more if you don't have the cash and take out a loan. It's still going to take some amount of years to amortize out the cost of the upfront portion, probably 15 - 20 at least so it equals a value.

If you get DVC it will not save money in a strict sense vs a mod for a very long time because of the purchase price. This can be recouped through resale though. It will be better value than deluxe vs deluxe though much quicker. If you go to disney every year and want to stay at deluxes and think you will be at disney every year for awhile, or at least willing to make the effort to sell the points if you dont, its worth it.

Renting points is almost always cheaper than paying cash to stay deluxe, increased hassle though.
 
isnt staying at a mod cheaper than renting points or if i were to join how am i benifiting other than having more room? (talking about the vacation club) thanks

i wont stay at the values..im comparing this to the mods.por..we have 5 in our family


IMO

You can't compare mods to dvc it's just not apples to apples. The basic benefit to purchasing a membership is that if you think you will be returning to disney consistently, you are prepaying your vacations at a cheaper rate.
When we purchased dh & I calculate that with the way we travel (always stay deluxe, generally stay 8 or more nights during late August or early May) we would break even after the 8th trip.

I can't say that it saves us money because now we go to Disney much more frequently (down to once every 10 months) :love:
 
You're not including your original investment and the extended cost of that investment.

i am oversimplifying things a bit - my estimated price per night will increase a bit over the course of the contract - but i am including the original investment in the figures. if i assumed (as is historically true) that the value of my DVC contract will track with inflation and i could sell it in the next 15-20 years and at least break even, the cost of my studio would be less than $40 per night, tax included. that would be really optimistic.

OTOH, if i had invested that $3800 in an index fund in 2006, it would be worth less than that now...after dipping into what was left after market losses to fund a couple of trips, the tiny principal amount remaining won't have time to generate much income before it's completely gone...

(and if the dollar continues to slide against foreign currencies and inflation is higher than normal the next few years, a prepayment plan like DVC may become an even better deal.)

i completely agree with you that DVC is only worth it if people plan to go to wdw at least "every other year," and ideally "every year." i would not recommend that people take out a loan to finance a luxury purchase like DVC (even with budget-minded intentions).

OKW is the DVC for the budget-minded. resale prices are cheaper for contracts + annual dues are cheaper than all but SSR + pt costs per night are the lowest on property. VWL will cost more than OKW on all fronts, so i agree it will take much longer to break even in your case...particularly if you include 2 or 3 weekend nights in your calculations. (there is definitely an additional price to be paid for amenities like a boat ride to the MK and easy access to dining like artist point...depends on how you value things like that...)
 
an important consideration for our family was (& still is) location. the closest resorts to EPCOT (our favorite park) are deluxe (YC/BC, BWI, & non-disney swan/dolphin), and the two DVCs (BWVs & BCVs).
despite it being an excellent value, we don't care for the swan/dolphin. which leaves us with paying easily $300+ a night at the other three ~ gets expensive quickly (we've done it repeatedly :guilty: ).

with a DVC studio, we get the kitchenette (which we do need & use), a bit more floor space (since we only get a studio when it's 2 of us ~ the sofabed stays closed).
most importantly: BWV's BW view is available only when booking on points, not even on DVC member cash discount ~ that view alone is a dealbreaker IMHO:)
 


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