Does Disney have to offer DVC perks?

[Philsfan77]

Except now there is a resort...and will be future resorts down the line...that is not available for resale buyers. So, blue card benefits aside, that is a big difference for many new buyers. RIV is proving popular enough to lead some buyers direct, even when they know resale exists. Especially if the resale resorts they are considering are near park resorts where savings are no longer as big as they once were.

This is actually my fear for Perks. DVC is building in an incentive (which to me is not a perk) to promote Direct buying. If other timeshares can sell without any perks...Disney can, if they are simply offering to allow you to stay in all of their resorts instead of just 1, as we move further down the line.

 

[Carol_]

You got caught up in 1 word in my entire post, and completely missed the point of the actual post and the quote I was replying to. I also bought direct (at the time Copper Creek was $182 with incentives, and resale was $150...the $32 difference was substantial enough for me to be deterred because my math said I can make that money up). The post I replied to, said why would anyone buy direct if there were no perks. The answer to me is simple, and it's why other timeshares have no issues selling out their own timeshares without offering any perks. Thats the key point of my response.

We were on our honeymoon 4 years ago in Costa Rica (awesome time, and beautiful country - at least the parts we were in). Our last part of our trip, we stayed at a Secrets - I believe it's AM timeshare group, but not positive. Anyways, throughout the trip, their sales reps walked the grounds, and would try and get people to go to the presentation. My wife and I, wanted to do the sunset booze cruise one night, so we said, sure we will go to the presentation (got our $200 in activities benefits for going, that paid for the sunset booze cruise). We knew we weren't going to buy in, but we sat through the presentation with 10 other couples, and then they split us off with a sales agent. In that time of the 10 couples...3 bought this timeshare. This is who Disney targets on their cruises, in the Resorts and in Disney Springs. It's ultimately why I feel, even with no perks, they would still have no issues selling direct. While you and I did research...a lot of other people simple get caught up in the moment. They don't do the research, and they buy on the spot. They definitely don't know about resale.

Spend a couple of weeks on the facebook group for these boards. You'll see at least once a week a post from someone saying Resale or Direct and why. Within that post you will see at least 8-10 other people comment "what's resale" or I wish I knew what resale was before I bought in.

For me, All salespeople are out to bamboozle you. I'm sorry if that word offended you...but the reality is, if they didn't mention the bustling resale market to you within their presentation (of course they never would because they don't want people to explore that market), than to me, they left out pertinent information about how you can become a DVC member.

Good post. My reply to your post wasn’t simply meant to reply to your post, though and I apologize if it felt that way. I’ve been reading posts here on the Disboards for a few years and there’s been an unjustified negativity toward DVC direct sales and the salespeople from my perspective. Our salespeople were straightforward and well informed. I just got my ire up when once again they -who had done their job well with us - were framed as shysters. They weren’t.

 

[karen4546]

What would be awful is if they restricted the resale purchase of DVC to 7 month booking window with now "home" resort booking advantage. Sort of like "you want to book @ 11 months? Buy Direct."

I am not sure that is something they could ever do but that would probably make direct purchase more valuable. We only bought 100 direct initially, and I had done a bit of homework from the Dis. I knew about the Gold APs for members, Moonlight Magic, member discounts, TOTWL, and a few other "perks". Since our purchase was only 100 points and we were going to go from Platinum APs to Gold APs x 3 people, then the cost was not much out of the ballpark of resale.

We bought in May and our UY is August so we got "double points". For our welcome home booking, we got two BCV for September during the Food & Wine festival. The studios were sold out but our rep worked some Magic and secured the rooms. (We purchased AKV).

We wanted to book a 2br at AKV for March 2020 but we needed 30 more points and so a couple of months after we bought the 100, we bought 25 more. Again, the transaction was done in a day or two.

Regrets for that initial direct purchase? Nope! I have said it before and will say it again, WHEN we buy more points, it will most likely be resale.

I do believe that Direct purchase should ALWAYS include the discounts and the option to purchase a Gold AP because owners do have "real estate" in Florida.

I would LOVE free fast pass (if they bring it back as a paid option) for the length of stay, free transport from MCO to resort, 20% off food (including alcohol) and keep the 20% off merch.

 

[Sandisw]

What would be awful is if they restricted the resale purchase of DVC to 7 month booking window with now "home" resort booking advantage. Sort of like "you want to book @ 11 months? Buy Direct."

I am not sure that is something they could ever do but that would probably make direct purchase more valuable. We only bought 100 direct initially, and I had done a bit of homework from the Dis. I knew about the Gold APs for members, Moonlight Magic, member discounts, TOTWL, and a few other "perks". Since our purchase was only 100 points and we were going to go from Platinum APs to Gold APs x 3 people, then the cost was not much out of the ballpark of resale.

We bought in May and our UY is August so we got "double points". For our welcome home booking, we got two BCV for September during the Food & Wine festival. The studios were sold out but our rep worked some Magic and secured the rooms. (We purchased AKV).

We wanted to book a 2br at AKV for March 2020 but we needed 30 more points and so a couple of months after we bought the 100, we bought 25 more. Again, the transaction was done in a day or two.

Regrets for that initial direct purchase? Nope! I have said it before and will say it again, WHEN we buy more points, it will most likely be resale.

I do believe that Direct purchase should ALWAYS include the discounts and the option to purchase a Gold AP because owners do have "real estate" in Florida.

I would LOVE free fast pass (if they bring it back as a paid option) for the length of stay, free transport from MCO to resort, 20% off food (including alcohol) and keep the 20% off merch.

As an owner of any resort you must be given at least one month advantage per the POS.

I don’t see them heading that way to give direct points an advantage. It would be too messy and honestly don’t think it is needed.

I think the restrictions from new resorts and resale being limited it’s own resort will take care of that in the long term.

Covid changed things so I can imagine the plan in place had to shift when Reflections had to be stopped.

 

[karen4546]

As an owner of any resort you must be given at least one month advantage per the POS.

I don’t see them heading that way to give direct points an advantage. It would be too messy and honestly don’t think it is needed.

I think the restrictions from new resorts and resale being limited it’s own resort will take care of that in the long term.

Covid changed things so I can imagine the plan in place had to shift when Reflections had to be stopped.

8 months would still make getting into BCV, BWV, CCV difficult.

okay

?

in many years-agree.

 

[Sandisw]

8 months would still make getting into BCV, BWV, CCV difficult.

okay

?

in many years-agree.

I think my point was that we all could be given only a 1 month advantage. Nothing guarantees us more than that no matter how we get the points.

Many don’t realize that the current 4 month advantage we get is not required. But, as I said, it does not seem like something DVD will do based on resale vs direct.

 

[Marionnette]

I think my point was that we all could be given only a 1 month advantage. Nothing guarantees us more than that no matter how we get the points.

Many don’t realize that the current 4 month advantage we get is not required. But, as I said, it does not seem like something DVD will do based on resale vs direct.

So basically, DVC could reduce the home resort advantage to 1 month but if they did, it would have to apply to both direct and resale points? Is that how you're understanding it?

 

[Sandisw]

So basically, DVC could reduce the home resort advantage to 1 month but if they did, it would have to apply to both direct and resale points? Is that how you're understanding it?

Yes. I think it would be difficult to justify direct vs resale for booking purposes.

DVC sets those, not DVD who sells, so making that change would be hard as they manage the system for all owners of the condo association.

I think they could have different windows for different resorts but booking window is not a perk, but a function of the system.

For example, I don’t think there is anything that prevents them to limit trading into say RIV at 5 months for non resort owners while keeping SSR at 7 months.

 

[Marionnette]

Yes. I think it would be difficult to justify direct vs resale for booking purposes.

DVC sets those, not DVD who sells, so making that change would be hard as they manage the system for all owners of the condo association.

I think they could have different windows for different resorts but booking window is not a perk, but a function of the system.

For example, I don’t think there is anything that prevents them to limit trading into say RIV at 5 months for non resort owners while keeping SSR at 7 months.

So taking your example a step further, would that also affect trading out? IOW, hypothetically speaking, if trading into RIV were to be restricted to 5 months instead of 7, would RIV owners then also be restricted to trading out to other resorts no sooner than 5 months?

 

[Sandisw]

So taking your example a step further, would that also affect trading out? IOW, hypothetically speaking, if trading into RIV were to be restricted to 5 months instead of 7, would RIV owners then also be restricted to trading out to other resorts no sooner than 5 months?

No because it would be based on the rules of the actual resort. So if SSR was listed as available for non resort owners at 7 months it would apply to all non resort owners.

There is even language in BVTC that allows different rules such as fees for different resorts. Basically, it does not have to be equal. Just like they can create non home resort trading charts that don’t have to balance to total points.

Again, all that is use and not perks so I don’t see it being allowed based on direct vs resale.

I also don’t see them ever doing this but they have the ability to change the booking windows.

 

[sssteele]

I will be visiting that much as well, but will just buy an AP at regular price because it will still be better than daily tickets,

So, for us, it will still make sense even at full price.

Yep. Probably next year we'll do the same, assuming the AP discount for Gold is not an option. We renewed this year while at WDW, and we're good until 4/28/22.