DVC Buyer’s Remorse Update!

[Subrbnmommy]

We just bought Vacation Club Points on the Dream last week. After reading all the negatives I am suffering from buyer’s remorse. I am still in my 10 day cancellation window and am considering cancelling.

I would really appreciate some input.

First of all My Dh and I are not really into booking 11-7 months in advance for all our vacations. Our guide told us that wasn’t a problem. The only time of year where it’s tough to go last minute is thanksgiving to Christmas. Is that true?

We like staying at an Epcot resort but bought BLT. He told us that’s it’s not a problem to get Boardwalk or Beach club villas (except December). Is that true?

We told him that we wanted to go to Hawaii next summer again he said no problem.

Were we just being naïve? How realistic are our expectations?

Again input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[silmarg]

We just bought Vacation Club Points on the Dream last week. After reading all the negatives I am suffering from buyer’s remorse. I am still in my 10 day cancellation window and am considering cancelling.

I would really appreciate some input.

First of all My Dh and I are not really into booking 11-7 months in advance for all our vacations. Our guide told us that wasn’t a problem. The only time of year where it’s tough to go last minute is thanksgiving to Christmas. Is that true?

We like staying at an Epcot resort but bought BLT. He told us that’s it’s not a problem to get Boardwalk or Beach club villas (except December). Is that true?

We told him that we wanted to go to Hawaii next summer again he said no problem.

Were we just being naïve? How realistic are our expectations?

Again input would be greatly appreciated.

If you dont plan to stay at BLT or use its 11 month window... then I think resale is a better option for you.

I am a fairly new DVC member, so I may not have as "long" a perspective as others... but I think you can get into most resorts at the seven months (or somewhat less) window... provided you are not going at a particularly crazy time (we bought SSR by resale and are staying in VGC 1BR for a week later this month and we have Beach Club 1BR booked in Sept.

And I paid $67/pt (A think if you bought now, you could get in for less). Boardwalk DVCs are getting attractively priced on the resale market.

 

[cseca]

Oh goodness!!!
Where should we start?

We just bought Vacation Club Points on the Dream last week. After reading all the negatives I am suffering from buyer’s remorse. I am still in my 10 day cancellation window and am considering cancelling.

I would really appreciate some input.

First of all My Dh and I are not really into booking 11-7 months in advance for all our vacations. Our guide told us that wasn’t a problem. The only time of year where it’s tough to go last minute is thanksgiving to Christmas. Is that true?
How early/late do you usually book your vacations? The reason I ask is because certain times of the year could be really difficult to get if you are very set on your resert preference.
BCV and BWV are very hard to get during F&W festival and the usual busy seasons like Christmas, NY, Thanksgiving. And it's well known too that early December is a really popular time for DVC members because the resort is so beautifully decorated and yet it's a low cost season.
If you're a last minute booking kinda people, your choices might be limited to SSR or OKW. You can always waitlist for your choice resort of course.
Usually the earlier you waitlist, the higher chance you'll have on getting the resort you want.

We like staying at an Epcot resort but bought BLT. He told us that’s it’s not a problem to get Boardwalk or Beach club villas (except December). Is that true?
Not necessarily true, see above explanation.

We told him that we wanted to go to Hawaii next summer again he said no problem.

I'm not sure we know about Aulani's availability trend yet since it's so new.

Were we just being naïve? How realistic are our expectations?

Again input would be greatly appreciated.

If you have your heart set on BWV or BCV you might want to look into resales.
Also understand that resales which closes after March 20th has no trade out policy. Which means you can only use your points on DVC specific resorts only. I don't know if that's a big deal for you or not.

I would seriously put a hold on that contract until you have a chance to look at all the available BCV and BWV resales out there.

Good luck!

 

[FindingFigment]

I'm not a DVC member but I've been doing my research and I would say that unless you intend to stay at BLT most of the time, it's not worth buying a BLT contract. You can buy a resale contract at OKW for $55-60 per point (depending on the size contract you need) which means you could either save a ton of money or you could buy twice as many points for what you'd be spending if you kept the current contract. But on the other hand, if you are financing and need to buy through Disney, then stick with BLT as I think it might hold it's value a little better than the other options.

One thing's for sure....DVC isn't going anywhere. If it were me (and I'm biased towards buying resale), I would cancel the current contract and take the time you need to educate yourself on all your options.

P.S. Congratulations on doing your homework while you're still in the 10 day period.

 

[jekjones1558]

If you are not planning to book more than 7 months ahead at BLT then I would not pay the price to buy BLT when resales elsewhere are a lot less.
If you like the Epcot resorts it makes more sense to buy there. But if you won't be booking more than 7 months ahead, then SSR is probably your best buy. The initial cost and maintenance fees are relatively low there, the contract length is longer than the Epcot resorts, and if you are not using the home booking window it probably isn't worth it to pay more for that privilege.
It is not true that you can book Epcot resorts last minute except in December. Anytime between Oct. and Dec. can be hard and other times as well. September is probably the easiest month to book as well as certain weeks in Jan., Feb. and May. You can always get lucky but I would not count on booking an Epcot resort last minute. In fact if "last minute" means within a month or 2, it might be hard to get ANY DVC room during popular periods.
We absolutely LOVE our DVC, but spontaneous trips are not the reason.
Good luck with your decision. If you choose to go resale, do so quickly before the rule changes coming on March 20.

 

[sleepydog25]

We just bought Vacation Club Points on the Dream last week. After reading all the negatives I am suffering from buyer’s remorse. I am still in my 10 day cancellation window and am considering cancelling.

I would really appreciate some input.

First of all My Dh and I are not really into booking 11-7 months in advance for all our vacations. Our guide told us that wasn’t a problem. The only time of year where it’s tough to go last minute is thanksgiving to Christmas. Is that true?

We like staying at an Epcot resort but bought BLT. He told us that’s it’s not a problem to get Boardwalk or Beach club villas (except December). Is that true?

We told him that we wanted to go to Hawaii next summer again he said no problem.

Were we just being naïve? How realistic are our expectations?

Again input would be greatly appreciated.

I won't say the guide was purposefully misleading you, but you may well have issues getting into a particular resort if you don't plan trips at least 7 months out. Not only is the holiday season a tough one to get reservations for (except your home resort 11 months out), there are other times that are difficult as well since Disney sponsors marathons, spring break extravaganzas, Food and Wine Festival (trying to get a DVC resort near EPCOT, such as Boardwalk, outside the 11-month window is very difficult), and others. Only at your home resort can you book 11 months out, so if you bought Bay Lake Towers but wanted to stay at the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge during the Christmas holidays, you would have to wait until May to do so, and those rooms at a small resort go quickly at the 11-month point. As far as Hawaii, I'm guessing it will be very difficult to book unless you own there.

That's not to say you can't get in other resorts at the 7-month mark--usually you can get something, and many go on a waitlist to try to secure an opening and are successful. However, saying "it's no problem" to book inside the 11 or 7 month windows is truthfully gilding the lily. I've been a DVC owner for six years, and during that time I've had great success with booking where I own at the 11-month mark to secure a room, then switching to the resort I preferred at the 7-month mark with some waitlisting. But, it hasn't been easy, and it hasn't always been successful. I recently bought resale at the resort where I want to stay when I'm at WDW, so now I'm relatively secure in being able to book 11 months out from my vacation. Other than that, I'm not guaranteed anything (even that's not a total guarantee). If you and your DH aren't huge planners, DVC can work for you, but not nearly so easily as your guide led you to believe.

I, for one, have gotten great value out of my DVC ownership, and I'm expecting that to continue based on my particular set of circumstances. However, DVC isn't for everyone. You have to use those points at least once every two years for at least a decade to recoup your cost. There are yearly maintenance fees that will continue to grow, albeit slowly. And you have to be able to plan ahead at least to some degree. If these notions are making you feel regretful, perhaps you and your DH should sit down and talk about it and come to a decision that feels right for your situation. Good luck.

 

[chalee94]

yep - cancel and do more research.

if you don't book more than 6-7 months out, it doesn't matter where you own - points are points. but if you are thinking about booking 3-5 months out on a regular basis, i'm not sure timeshares like DVC are for you.

and BCV and BWV are popular resorts...aside from october-december, you will probably often find availability at exactly 7 months out if you are flexible...but there's no guarantee. and generally speaking, trying to book BCV/BWV at 5-6 months out is not the same as calling at 7 months exactly.

take some more time.

 

[Conan the Librarian]

All I have to say is that the DVC was one of the smartest things my wife and I ever did. We have had a blast using it. We've stayed at almost all of the DVC resorts and have yet to have a problem getting into where we wanted to stay (though we are concerned about our AVL reservations for May).

As for the planning 11 or 7 months out, we look at it this way. If we plan ahead, when we get there, we can break away from that plan if we choose. If we have no plan, we have to hope for the best. We just make the planning part of the trip.

So, if you don't like making the plans, you're right, the DVC won't be for you.

 

[mdsd8700]

We are also new to DVC and don't have the years of experience that many of the other posters do. However if you are not 110% certain then you shouldn't do it. It is too much of a financial outlay not to be sure. It took us 14 years to decide and we go to Disney every year. DVC isn't for everyone and doesn't work for everyone. I completely agree with what everyone has said so far. Good Luck!

 

[Lynne M]

First of all My Dh and I are not really into booking 11-7 months in advance for all our vacations. Our guide told us that wasn’t a problem. The only time of year where it’s tough to go last minute is thanksgiving to Christmas. Is that true?

We like staying at an Epcot resort but bought BLT. He told us that’s it’s not a problem to get Boardwalk or Beach club villas (except December). Is that true?

Well..in general, timeshares favor those who can plan far in advance, and DVC is no exception. Most DVC owners book 7-11 months out, so availability is going to be limited once you get to 6 months out or so.

What do you consider 'last minute'? 6 months? One month? A week? A lot will depend on your answer to that. If you're looking a week or a month out, the pickings will be very slim, and you may be waitlisting, taking a few nights a this resort and a couple of nights at another, etc. Your home resort choice really won't matter (outside of dues), because you'll likely end up at OKW, SSR, or AKV - they're among the largest and will be most likely to have short notice availability.

BCV/BWV are a little bit of a special case, because they're the resorts closest to the World Showcase, so they're extremely popular during the Food and Wine Festival. In the 9 years that I've owned DVC, I've gotten BWV once at the 7 month mark during F&W, and never gotten BCV during F&W. If you plan to travel between the last week of September and the first week of January, and you want BCV/BWV, I wouldn't recommend buying anything except BCV or BWV.

 

[Orsino]

Cancel.
Get as much information as you can.
Then re-evaluate.

Paying full price doesn't make sense if you don't plan on making reservations more than 7 months in advance. At 7 Months all DVC points are equal. Might as well buy the cheapest ones you can find (that's what we did, for the same reason).

 

[princessbride6205]

We love DVC, but that's because it works for what we want it to do. We like having our vacation accommodations prepaid, we like the variety of the DVC resorts, and we plan to use our points at DVC resorts - not trade out to other places.

Our only problem is that we cannot plan vacations 7-11 months in advance - like you. But we've been able to get AKV and BCV in January at 4-5 mos notice the past 2 years. Only issue was October 2010 - we only tried to book 4 months out and we were on a waitlist for OKW until 5 weeks out, then gave up. We took advantage of the discounts and did a cash ressie instead, and banked our points for the next year.

You will probably be happiest with DVC is if you can get your preferred resorts, which may mean planning further in advance. If that's something you cannot do, you can figure out how flexible your vacation plans are and if DVC can still work for you.

If you will never use your home resort booking window (between 7-11 mos advance) and you don't want to stay at BLT it sounds like, then you'd do better to buy resale, something like SSR or BWV. If you still feel most comfortable buying through Disney, you may want to choose OKW, SSR or AKV, which have a lower buy in cost than BLT and may be something you'd like better.

You'll also want to do some research to make sure you get the best use year and number of points for when you want to vacation. There is lots of info on the boards about these topics.

 

[Subrbnmommy]

Wow!! Thanks for all the replies!

Let me clarify, by last minute I mean about 6 months out. We do plan one vacation a year about a year in advance but the others are more 5-6 months prior. The more spontaneous vacations are usually the shorter getaways.

I love Epcot resorts (we usually stay Swan, Dolphin or YC). I’d be willing to try BLT but not more than that. The reason we chose BLT was the longer ownership period and lower yearly dues. We figured that BLT might be easier to sell in 20 years (if we choose too) than older resorts with ownership until 2042.

Anyways, I did check The Timeshare Store and the prices are much much lower than what we paid for BLT on the Dream.

I called my DH and we’re going to sit and look over everything (including this thread) tonight.

Wanted to add, we've been going to WDW every year (sometimes more) for about 12 years. Every year we say that we should've bought DVC years ago, so on the cruise we just decided to sign up.

Thanks again!!

 

[bobbiwoz]

Best wishes as you talk it over and make your decision. At 6 months out, you could find your choices limited to SSR, OKW and maybe BWV preferred and AKV for much of the year.

Bobbi

 

[JimMIA]

I won't say the guide was purposefully misleading you...

I'll say it -- the DVC timeshare salesman was purposefully misleading you.

Or he's a moron...your choice.

The most charitable thing you could say about all his "no problems" is that he was just trying to blow off your reservations and dazzle you with pixie dust. But he was consistently giving you misinformation.

As you've seen from previous posts, there are a LOT of issues booking less than seven months out and for many resorts, for many specific types of accommodations (special views, etc), and at many times of the year in addition to Christmas.

(The holiday very heavy booking period, incidentally, runs from Thanksgiving week all the way through New Years...at ALL resorts. Many owners "walk" their reservations by booking reservations on the first day of their 11 month window for a checkin date prior to their actual arrival date and then adding a day at the back end and subtracting a day at the front until they get exactly what they want.)

If you don't plan on staying the majority of the time at BLT, I would rescind your purchase and look into resale. Under Florida law, you have ten days from the time you sign the sales contract to withdraw with absolutely no penalty.

 

[Brian Noble]

I am suffering from buyer’s remorse. I am still in my 10 day cancellation window and am considering cancelling.

If you have any doubts----at all---cancel now. Research the system, both from the developer and in the resale market, and make an informed decision.

 

[wcjoey43]

i dont regret it one bit

 

[lucyem]

My advice would be to do just what you are doing. Really look closely at your options. We bought resale at the BCV because that is our favorite resort. As they say - buy where you want to stay.

 

[Lynne M]

The reason we chose BLT was the longer ownership period and lower yearly dues. We figured that BLT might be easier to sell in 20 years (if we choose too) than older resorts with ownership until 2042.

I'd very strongly suggest that you take any resale considerations out of your purchase decision. It's not like owning a vacation home....timeshares don't hold value well; you'll find many very good, brand name timeshares on E-bay for $1. DVC has performed decently in resale, but that's largely because Disney has been propping up the prices through ROFR. If they change the way they do that....resale value could plummet.

There are so many things that could happen in the next 20 years that could significantly impact resale prices, there's just no use in assuming that you'll be able to sell it for good money in 20 years.

Also, remember that DVC, unlike many timeshares, has an end date. The longer you hold on to it, the less value it will have, just because the time left on the contract will be shorter.

The value of any timeshare is in the USE of it. If you will get your money's worth out of the use of DVC, then it's a good value for you. Don't factor resale value into your decision.

 

[disney11fan]

Oh goodness!!!
Where should we start?



If you have your heart set on BWV or BCV you might want to look into resales.
Also understand that resales which closes after March 20th has no trade out policy. Which means you can only use your points on DVC specific resorts only. I don't know if that's a big deal for you or not.

I would seriously put a hold on that contract until you have a chance to look at all the available BCV and BWV resales out there.

Good luck!

if your having remorse it's for a reason. listen to your gut before its too late. there are alot of other options available. good luck