disney vacation club

[RG86VET]

my family and i are interested in the dvc, my childrens ages are 12 , 10, and 6
we were interested in the animal kingdom with 150 points, i dont like the idea it reverts back to disney ownership sometime in 2040, can someone that owns dvc tell me really if i should invest

 

[RG86VET]

i was talking to a sales rep and she stated, since i held stock in disney there was a perk for that
and also i have a disney charge card and she stated i can get free reward points also.
anyone know what she is talking about for both examples?

 

[all4fun]

Go to the DVC-Ops board HERE. You'll have all your questions answered.

Another site you should look at is www.dvcnews.com & www.timesharestore.com has a great faq section.

I haven't heard about the perks you're talking about, but it could be something I'm just not aware of.

As far as it reverting back in 2040... for AK the contract actually ends on January 31st, 2057. SSR's end in 2054. I guess if that bothers you too much, then you shouldn't buy, since there is no way around it. That is 49 yrs from now though. We bought BWV back in 1999 and our end date is 2042. We will be 72 when our contract expires, so we figure we'll probably be doing other things by then anyway, if we' re still around! Of course, DS (only child, now 5) might be a little shocked to find out he won't inherit it LOL. But we did buy it for us to enjoy as a family NOW, and who knows what his interests will be down the road anyway.

anyway, just some food for thought. I do believe DVC isn't for everyone, however, we love our DVC membership and have more than made up for the cost of it with the number of trips we've taken. So no regrets here.

hth

 

[ChelleinNC]

Welcome to the Dis!

You'll find a lot of information about DVC on the DVC forums here. I'll be glad to give you my thoughts

We bought in a little over a year ago, after looking at it several times and not understanding how it would be worth it We are a family of 4, always stay Deluxe and plan to keep coming to Disney every year at least once a year. After seeing the prices on the Deluxe resorts going up every year and seeing how much the buy in for DVC was going up we decided to "rent points" and see how we liked the villas. We checked into SSR (Saratoga Springs Resort) on a Sunday afternoon, went on the DVC tour and played with the numbers a lot with our guide. No pressure at all, we took the information back to our room and DH (the math/excell spreadsheet genius ) kept playing with the numbers and by Wednesday we went back and signed on the dotted lines

We have a DD14 (now) and DS 11, they will not share a bed and teenage girls take up a lot of space and time in the bathroom We decided that we wanted/needed at least a 1BR for a week plus enough points to trade out for a value II week somewhere. I never thought that I'd want a kitchen & laundry on vacation, but I've found that I really do like having it. I still don't cook on vacation (some do and save a lot of money on food) I like have the fridge for drinks & leftovers. The washer/dryer in the room is great because I don't have to pack as much and I come home with clean clothes instead of a big pile of dirty laundry. It's easy to throw a load in at night and toss it in the dryer in the morning when we leave for the day. We've gotten very spoiled and have decided we really like the 2BR villas. The kids each get a queen bed, a tv, their own bathroom. We get a private Mater BR, jacuzzi tub and our own bathroom. The living room doesn't have to get taken apart and put back together each day, there's plent of room and everyone has "space"

DVC is not an "investment" , it is a pre-paid vacation for the next 40+ years. Once our loan is paid off, all we will be paying for is our dues, food & tickets. It also forces us to take the time to vacation & relax.

To answer your questions, yes there are perks/discounts for being a Disney stockholder but I don't know what they are. Yes, if you use your Disney Visa for your down payment you'll earn reward points and from what I understand you can use the rewards points to pay your dues.

DVC does revert back to Disney ownership after a set time (depends on the resort), however, they just added a 15 year extension offer (for extra $ of course) to OKW. It's possible that may happen with other resorts. Also, while some timeshares you own it forever, you may not want to when you see what it looks like after 20 years. Disney has a vested interest in making sure that the properties are well maintained.

DVC ownership is best for families who want to lock in their vacation cost, stay deluxe or at least at a moderate, travel to Disney at least every other year and plan to continue doing so. If you're happy staying at a Value resort, then DVC may not be as cost effective.

Hope this helps a little Come over to the DVC forums http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=7 --Operations, Planning & Mousellaneous & Rent/Trade for lots of information

 

[RG86VET]

thank you for all the great info

 

[della]

You received great information. I will just say that we have been owners since 2002. We have no regrets.

 

[MLC]

We have been owners since 2000. We have been on six cruises and have stayed in deluxe hotels. I say if you can buy into it.

 

[jtopp]

DVC member since 1998. Paid of loan and now my hotel costs are covered for the foreseeable future. Since we vacation at WDW a lot, we have already recovered our costs, so it turned out to be a wise investment for us. My family loves staying at OKW, and do think of it as a second home.

 

[The Disney Bunch]

We looked at it in 1994 - bouht in 1995 & added on again in 1996 - we have had no regrets! Taken famikly & friends down from time to time - rented out points that we haven;t been able to use - made friends with some of the renters - has been a great investment! we LOVE OKW!!

 

[stopher1]

Animal Kingdom Villas contracts run through 2057.

SSR run through 2054.

The others run through 2042.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Each resort has a different end date for ownership. 2057 is a long way away for AKV. We own there and definitely have no regrets. However, its not an investment at all...if that is what you are looking for, I'd steer clear. As others have said, its prepaid accomodations for a certain resort, that's it. There are perks for using the Disney Visa in your purchase, but that does vary at times on what exactly the offer is. Your guide would be able to give you specifics and tell you how long that offer is good for. Now the stock perk...wish we knew about that one when we bought because we are longtime stockholders. Our guide never mentioned that one when we bought in or added on, but maybe it wasn't available at that time.

 

[Lisa P.]

We're also a family of 5. We found DVC to be more expensive, for what we got, than other equally acceptable options to us. So we sold our DVC points a year or two after buying them. Now we stay in timeshares offsite when visiting other Orlando area attractions. And we trade our other, much less expensive timeshares (under $2000 purchase, under $600 maint fees) into DVC resorts (weekly stays) in quieter times of the year (not during major holidays), when we want to stay onsite at Disney.

Timeshares (incl DVC) are not investments. They're luxury purchases for vacation planning and budgeting. It's unwise to consider any benefits, which are subject to change (and do change regularly), in your decision - only look at the accommodations and arrangements in the contract for the purchase. Then disappointment will not bring regret, a year or two down the road for you.

DVC is especially expensive if you would use it to stay over long weekends, if you need 2BRs (like we did) or 3BRs, if you plan to vacation during Christmas/Easter, or if you want to use the points to stay at hotels or resorts other than the DVC resorts. It's also more expensive than alternatives like trading in, staying in value hotel rooms or staying offsite. So if any of those are equally acceptable to you, then you may find that you're paying more than you need to, by purchasing DVC. Lastly, if you'll need to finance a purchase, it's much more expensive than it looks at first glance due to interest charges.

OTOH, DVC is quite reasonable if you plan to stay more weeknights or full weeks, if you plan to use the points for DVC resort stays at least every other year, if you plan to pay cash for your purchase (or most of it anyway), if your alternative to buying DVC would be paying Disney prices to stay at Disney's deluxe hotels or condos, and if you are not likely to use your points during Premier season (Christmas/Easter).

Like all timesharing, you'd have the most success in getting your preferred reservations if you buy at the home resort where you expect to want to stay the most often and if you'll be able to plan/request early (more than 7 months out, preferably 11 months out.

These describe the ideal candidate for DVC, IMO. HTH.

 

[cogero]

we just bought in to DVC. IT was much cheaper than we thought it would be. We only stay in Deluxe resorts and tend to go at off times of the year we prefer it that way and we wish we had bought in a couple of years ago now.

Since our daughter is 6 and we just took her on her 4th trip to Disney our son is 8 months and has been on his first. We know there are many more trips to Disney in our future.

We also like the option of staying on any Disney property but did fall in love with our Home resort.