DVC as your children become adults

[CaoilinnsMom]

I bought my first contract when I was single and my daughter was 3. We went frequently when she was small and I researched and planned those trips to squeeze every magical moment out of them I could. She is 13 now and still loves to go to Disney. I remarried and added several step kids to the mix along with my husband. The younger two are 16 and 17 now and both have adopted Disney as "our thing" and are looking forward to another Christmas break trip this year. I don't know how long that will last but I have stretched my points to make those family trips happen, and have even rented points to fill in the gaps. I don't know what will happen when the kids graduate from high school and move on but I am hoping some adult trips are in our future. I am not worried about leaving anything to my kids or passing it on. I would rather enjoy it myself with my daughter, husband, and grandkids if they come along in the future. I don't want to add on any more points, I would rather do any additional travel elsewhere.

 

[prncssjas]

Just looking for some stories and perspectives of how you have used and (hopefully) enjoyed DVC with your older teens and as they become young adults. We have enjoyed Disney through the years as they have grown and are thinking very seriously about purchasing DVC now. Wish we would have earlier!

Hi there, I will share my experience but as you have seen from your thread, there are such varied responses! DH and I purchased through Disney direct in 2001, when the only contract available was Vero Beach. It was just the two of us at the time (we were married in 2000). My son was born in 2002 and we have taken trips every single year since he was born with the exception of 2021, due to COVID. He turns 20 in two weeks and will not let us go without him, lol! We added direct points in 2012 or 2013 (?) when the VGF opened up, as we love the resort. I say all this to share that we love visiting Disney, my now adult son included. He loved it as a teen (he is an only child) and he knows we will pass our contracts on to him as we get too old to visit. He enjoys the parks, the pools, Disney Springs, etc.. Disney is not the only place we vacation but we know we want to go every year. We are immensely grateful that we purchased so long ago and have built the memories over time. Best wishes to you as you decide--your heart will guide you!

 

[eandt]

Hi there, I will share my experience but as you have seen from your thread, there are such varied responses! DH and I purchased through Disney direct in 2001, when the only contract available was Vero Beach. It was just the two of us at the time (we were married in 2000). My son was born in 2002 and we have taken trips every single year since he was born with the exception of 2021, due to COVID. He turns 20 in two weeks and will not let us go without him, lol! We added direct points in 2012 or 2013 (?) when the VGF opened up, as we love the resort. I say all this to share that we love visiting Disney, my now adult son included. He loved it as a teen (he is an only child) and he knows we will pass our contracts on to him as we get too old to visit. He enjoys the parks, the pools, Disney Springs, etc.. Disney is not the only place we vacation but we know we want to go every year. We are immensely grateful that we purchased so long ago and have built the memories over time. Best wishes to you as you decide--your heart will guide you!

We just purcahsed our first contract in June 2021 and another in Jan 2022 both direct after 25-30 trips over the years both with and without our kids. We took our first trip as owners in Nov 2021 for Food and Wine and our 24 year old son came with us. This December we have another trip booked at one of our homes (AKL) and both our boys and their girlfriends are coming along! We can't put a price on what it means to us to have all of us together in a place where we have shared so many great memories over the years. The contracts have already paid off for us!

 

[john7994]

We just purcahsed our first contract in June 2021 and another in Jan 2022 both direct after 25-30 trips over the years both with and without our kids. We took our first trip as owners in Nov 2021 for Food and Wine and our 24 year old son came with us. This December we have another trip booked at one of our homes (AKL) and both our boys and their girlfriends are coming along! We can't put a price on what it means to us to have all of us together in a place where we have shared so many great memories over the years. The contracts have already paid off for us!

I am glad you found that value! We have had similar experiences with our nieces and nephew (and their significant others). After spending every summer with us (not necessarily at Disney due to cost) as kids, we thought once they graduated from school and moved on with their lives - those summers would be over. Now, we bought in DVC (2021) and we have an annual trip planned with them, and something we can pass on to them for their children.

 

[eandt]

I am glad you found that value! We have had similar experiences with our nieces and nephew (and their significant others). After spending every summer with us (not necessarily at Disney due to cost) as kids, we thought once they graduated from school and moved on with their lives - those summers would be over. Now, we bought in DVC (2021) and we have an annual trip planned with them, and something we can pass on to them for their children.

Love it! We are hoping to have a trip with our niece's family (3 daughters) in Nov 2023. After all the trips with our boys it will be something different taking 3 little princesses! Looking forward to it!

 

[4luv2cdisney]

We bought DVC in 2017 when our girls were 19 and 15.

We have taken trips just the 4 of us, brought a boyfriend, mom/daughter bday trip, one DD went with just her friend for a weekend, other DD just went for a week with her boyfriend, DH and I have gone alone, and my one DD is currently in the Disney College program so I sometimes go alone to visit her. I'll be making my 5th trip this year shortly and DD has gotten me a Guardians preview and I got us MM for HS. So, I'm still excited to be going!

We bought a small amount of points and add on as we need to. A couple of my 5 trips this year have been off-site or on-site with my DD's cast discount, since we're out of points! I have pretty regularly needed OTU points and occasionally paid cash for a night or 2 with the DVC cash rate (gulp).

Strongly considering another add-on any day now as DH's family wants us all to go as a large group for / near Christmas. There is no way we will be able to provide accommodations for all of us, but nobody really seems to care if we are even staying in the same place. jUst that we are all there at the same time and can plan a few things together throughout the week.

I strongly prefer staying on property despite the off-site accommodations we've sometimes needed to stay in being quite lovely. Often roomier with a full kitchen for a "studio price" and minutes from the Disney World entrance sign. We strongly prefer BWV though are making our way through trying them all. I intend to stay at Swan/Dolphin soon just to see how it feels compared to BWV. Actually, it may be our option for the Christmas trip in lieu of an add-on and anxiety producing struggle to find DVC accommodations 7 months out.

Already worried about our BWV contract expiration in 20 years. Our direct add-ons are / will be SSR though that only buys another 12 years. I want my kids to have the option of keeping the contracts and having full benefits after we are "done". They will likely be in prime usage years (kids still in the home) when our BWV expires.

We absolutely hope / plan to treat our adult kids and their families to an annual or every other year WDW vacation. They can surely travel wherever else they'd like to go - with their own money. lol

 

[paults]

we have been members since 2002. We have a trip this OCT with our family and grand kids. I would be surprised if our 2 adult children ( both in there 40's) one with our 2 Gkids and one single if they still want to own at Disney with all the take away's and price gouging.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

we have been members since 2002. We have a trip this OCT with our family and grand kids. I would be surprised if our 2 adult children ( both in there 40's) one with our 2 Gkids and one single if they still want to own at Disney with all the take away's and price gouging.

I agree the prices are insane. Which is exactly why we need our DVC to continue to vacation in WDW.

So stupid of me to not buy our DVC AP before they got "paused" again. That AP and our "cheap" DVC room is the only way it makes sense anymore. Full price on a moderate is nearly $400/ night sometimes and the discounts offered usually suck.

I was kind of "saved" this year by having some regular tickets already in my account and my DD is earning guest tickets and getting discounts. We haven't been in the parks as much as we usually are, and we ventured off to Universal rather than spend more $$$ on Disney tix, but we got by without the AP....this time.

Honestly, when our kids were little, we got such good deals on WDW packages including dining, etc that we didn't NEED DVC. We'd looked at it all along, but we were happy enough in standard rooms and could always get a better deal.

 

[rchristiansen]

My daughter is 19 and even though there were only 3 of us, the last 2 trips we did a 2 bedroom. It was so nice to just have that privacy and space. We have 400 points - 200 at AKV and 200 at BRV. We love BRV, so we sold the 200 at AKV and replaced it with more points at BRV so we can ensure we always get that 2 bedroom.

 

[crisi]

We bought when our kids were preschoolers. Our kids are now 22 and 23. My 23 year old son hasn't been to Disney since he was thirteen. Had no interest in it after that. He enjoyed a pre Covid HHI trip and we were starting to discuss an adult trip with him when Covid hit. Our youngest took their last trip at 15 - which is now seven years ago. High School, activities, jobs, college - that took a hit on their availability for both of them - plus they wanted to do different things with the vacation time they did have. I don't think I'll get grandchildren from either of them, so I'm not waiting for that either. But we don't do Disney much either any longer- we only bought for every other year and have been using points for spend a week or two in the Winter at HHI for the past few years (we spent a week at Aulani last year, but I didn't like it). This year I just banked all my points to delay any decisions.

I agree that the insane pricing is keeping us away - especially when my husband and I have expanded our own travel horizons a lot within the past decade. Disney has become a speck as we no longer need easy trips with kids - and we completed continent bingo last year. I can see England in Epcot or Africa in AK, or I can actually go to Africa and England for the amount of money we spend at Disney. Airfare is the expensive part of those trips - and when your kids are adults and you don't feel the need to pay their way, you can go for so much cheaper.

 

[UA DVC Member]

That’s a really good question. I have 2 daughters, 28 and 26 and the older one is married. We take a family trip each Spring and the whole crew always want to go to Disney World. We own at SSR and love it. The older daughter and SIL love to hang out at the pool, go to D Springs and relax. The younger one brings her best friend and they are rope drop to fireworks park people. We always go out to a fun happy hour and nice dinner each night. It’s nice because there is something for everyone to do.

We went frequently when our kids were little and thought that they would not want to go back much when they were older. What we found was that they really look forward to this trip every year. We’re now thinking about adding on more points to accommodate grand children!

 

[gharter]

We went to Disney yearly when the kids were young. When they went off to college, it became an adult only trip and was a lot of fun.
Now that the kids are older and married, about every 2 years, one of them join us on a trip. We just have to budget points for a 2 BR for that trip.
Still a lot of fun, but different from when they were younger.
We love owning DVC for this and many other reasons.

 

[Travel60]

We bought when kids were in middle school, HHI home. Added on a few times. Many annual trips to HHI and WDW, several eastern/western cruises. DH and DS occasionally used points for Florida spring training games. DD and I for spring break trips. We traded out for Disney Collection a few times.

Offered both kids points for honeymoons. Took family cruise to Alaska with DSIL (his first). Had a Boardwalk 3-BR reserved for a week for family in 2020 but, you know, Covid. The last couple of years DH and I spent 5-6 weeks Jan/Feb at VB and WDW. We have so far not had a problem getting a 1 BR at 7 months.

Currently, DD and I have fall cruise reserved as a girl's getaway. We want to plan family cruise in 2023 or 2024 but waiting to see where DS and DDIL are on baby front.

Many say cruising is not the best use of points but we don't care. We didn't buy points to make money (and don't want to deal with tax ramifications). We bought them to use. Haven't been to a park in years but first grands are getting old enough so that may change.

 

[mlayman7]

We have been owners since 2013 and had two kids, ds3 and dd2. Now have another dd6 and have thought about the future for us as they get to college and beyond. We want more points for longer trips for just the two of us. Our ds now 12, still enjoys going but would rather go to Universal instead. The girls love both places and will probably be that way for a while. With our two oldest becoming more involved in activities that we can't (or they don't want) to take them away from, it is more difficult to schedule our annual trip. Last year we went over new years (which was great but busy) but I think they may be some years in the future where we rent some points out. Once they are off to college then we can spend more time down there just the two of us in studios or 1 br vs 2br so we can stay longer and do more frequent trips. Despite the ridiculous genie plus (waiting for that guy to get fired) and all the price increases, dvc has made it to where we still enjoy it because we will be back again. And again. And again.