DVC other vacation options - need help to decide

[breabuds]

My wife and I (Calif. residents) are retired (62) and yes we have grandkids. We have a family vacation to WDW (AKV) scheduled in January ’10 (purchasing member points). We are considering joining DVC but don’t think we would be a WDW every year. We would love to hear member experiences that use the other offerings of the vacation club including U.S. and European travel through RCI. Does it work well? Is it hard to get reservations? Is it a real value (inc. the $95 service fee)? Any thoughts would be very helpful in our decision. Thanks in advance.

 

[disneynutz]

Based upon your comments, you would not be a good candidate for owning a DVC interest. DVC's value is best if you vacation at WDW every two years and stay at a DVC resort.

 

[RysMomma]

I was actually wondering the same thing. Why is it better to stay at a DVC resort other than change over to an RCI vacation? Thanks!

 

[breabuds]

I believe that in '09 you can get a week at one of the 450 RCI resorts offered in the DVC for 160 points 1 bedroom 270 points 2 bedroom. The points are the same for all resotrs U.S. & Europe.

 

[mccarts]

I have also been wondering how you use points at other places. This
one of the reasons I bought in to DVC. While I love Disney, I would like to go other places too. I find that disney doesn't make that information available too easy.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Lynne M]

It's a question of what you're paying to go to those other places.

There are many other timeshares out there that cost a fraction of what DVC does, that will allow you to trade to the exact same RCI resorts that DVC does. And more - DVC only allows you to trade to some of the RCI resorts.

So yes, it's 'only' DVC 160 points for a 1 bedroom at an RCI resort. You need to look at what those 160 points are costing you,purchase price and maintenance fees, and then compare it to the cost of other timeshares that will get you access to that same RCI resort. You'll find a very dramatic difference, especially if you buy those other timeshares at resale.

The recommendation you'll usually see here is to only buy the DVC points you need for your DVC vacations, and buy a second timeshare at resale for your other vacations.

 

[lah3hh]

I guess I am one of the few 'other opionion' folks here on the DIS. We have been members of DVC for 11 years and of course we go to WDW and we have been to DL a couple of times. But....I have used my points for other travel locations as well. We have taken over the past 11 years probably 10 Disney cruises to various destinations including Carribean, Panama, Mexican Riveria (sp?) and next year taking a TransAtlantic cruise coming back from Barcelona Spain.

In addition to those wonderful vacations we have used our DVC points for exchanges with the former company (II) and we have gone to Las Vegas, Upper Michigan (close to Makinaw City/Island) as well as Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallerto MX.

Now many folks here on the DIS will tell me I did not 'spend' my points getting the best value. I understand their point but for my family we decided to own only DVC as our only timeshare company and am VERY happy with their selection of other options. I feel we have been able to take vacations that otherwise would probably have never happen. For me that is truly the beauty to DVC and thrilled I chose to take other vacations beside just WDW or DL over and over and over. Don't get me wrong, I love WDW and DL but still feel I want to enjoy other destinations as well. Can't wait for Hawaii!!!!!

Hope that gives you another viewpoint...

 

[littlestar]

Don't buy DVC to trade it on a regular basis. It sounds like you'll need holiday/school vacation times, too, since you may be traveling with grandkids. A lot of people don't even trade their high demand time timeshares in RCI because they bought high demand time to use it and not trade it.

I'd consider buying less DVC points for Disney travel and another system for traveling the world (or just pay cash for the other trips). Trading DVC through RCI on a regular basis would be like trading a Mercedes for a Ford Pinto most of the time. I'd probably only consider Hilton for the most part in RCI as a fair trade for DVC. And I think those have a one in four restriction in RCI. Meaning you'd only be allowed to trade into it once every four years. RCI has a ton of resort systems that only allow you to trade in once every four or five years. When DVC was with II (Interval International) there were no restrictions like that.

 

[Babsbeast]

I'd have to agree with the general concensis that if you love going to Disney, DVC is a great bet, but the trading aspect of ownership may leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.

My own experience has been one of mild displeasure. I traded 160 developer points into RCI and had to be very flexible about the resort and time of my vacation just to use the points. I ended up with a place that was still under construction (with NO pool, clubhouse or anything else) and having to find out that information on my own. (I decided to go through with it anyway because we wanted the area, not the resort amenities, but that is besides the point.)

Recently, in planning 2010 vacation, I looked at the RCI selections, and was dissapointed. There aren't many locations available in places I want to go (Mid Atlantic, South (but not Florida)) and the reorts didn't seem to be anything special. The pictures of some looked like the resorts were decorated in the 80's, not exactly what I wanted considering the quality you can get at our resorts at Disney.

If you want to just trade a timeshare and vacation in different places every year the resale market is full of much cheaper alternatives than DVC. The Magic of Disney however, is something that you can't get anywhere else. Maybe buying a smaller contract with DVC that you can use every couple of years is a better deal, and buy a regular timeshare to trade off with as Littlestar suggested.

 

[Dean]

I believe that in '09 you can get a week at one of the 450 RCI resorts offered in the DVC for 160 points 1 bedroom 270 points 2 bedroom. The points are the same for all resotrs U.S. & Europe.

But those options aren't automatically available and are likely to be easier to get more cheaply using non DVC options. Here's the way I think of it. Think of a car based timeshare system where you use other people's cars when you travel. Using DVC to trade is like owning a BMW or MB and almost always getting a Chevy or Toyota. It's even worse than that because those people with the Chevy often have a BETTER chance of getting what they want than you do. I've quoted a real world example a couple of times recently. I have exchange in MX for this winter that would be over 1800 DVC points but yet my total costs are under $1K for the 3 weeks. It's an extreme example but the principle carries through to every situation you can think of. Even when you do get the BMV on trade, you still could have gotten it with a chevy.

Some will say they are giving up a week and getting a week at a good resort in return so it's a good value. This may be true for a trade every 4-5 years or less but for other situations shows a lack of understanding of the basic system in place and the variables of the system or else an "I don't care" attitude for one reason or another. DVC is an extremely poor vehicle to use routinely for trading.