DVC ?'s

[MikeD]

I am seriously thinking about joining the DVC. My question(s) are these:

1) We usually ( 2 adults & 3 kids - 8, 5, 3) take 2 vacations per year - 6 nights at WDW in December 2nd or 3rd week and 5-6 nights in summer at DL. How many points would be required if we stayed at Grand Floridian and a DL hotel?

2) Does it matter what your home resort is? We love the GF and usually stay there when we go to WDW.

3) If I buy the points required to take these two vacations each year, what would be the breakeven point?

Thanks for any help!

 

[PamOKW]

Joining DVC to always stay at non-DVC resorts is not the best use of points and probably will not give you much in the way savings. Technically, the resort program is subject to renewal every year and the points needed can fluctuate. DVC resorts are set in the amount of points barring the possibility of minor adjustments (if something goes up, something else has to go down).

To answer your question. A room at the GF in mid-December will run 30 points a night Sun-Thurs. and 53 points a night for Fri-Sat.

In the summer, the Grand CA is 31 points Sun-Thurs and 41 points Fr-Sa. Disneyland Hotel and Paradise Pier are 27/37.

For the same time you are looking at the GF, a two-bedroom preferred view at the BWV or at the VWL is 32 Su-Th and 61 Fr-Sa. Standard view at BWV is 24/58 and OKW is 24/56. Once you've stayed in a 2-bedroom you may find it hard to stay in a hotel room again.


The recommendation is to buy where you plan to stay most often. The home resorts are: Old Key West, Boardwalk Villas, Villas at Wilderness Lodge, Hilton Head Island and Vero Beach. OKW and BWV are sold-out through Disney but available by resale. DVC has also announced plans to open the Beach Club Villas next year and will begin building a large resort including an Inn on the Eagle Pines Golf Course.

 

[TnRobin]

If you are planning on not staying at the DVC resorts at all, DVC may not be for you. While DVC does allow the versatillity of stay at the GF and GC, they are not the most economical use of your points.

We just recently did stay at the GC, it was great. We spent around 110 points (can't remember exactly) for 4 weekday nights. With these points we could have had a 2BR condo at a DVC resort. While staying at the GC was great, it would not make the timeshare pay for itself it that was all I did.

As for your home resort. This only comes into play when booking a DVC resort. The home resort can be booked at 11m months from your departure date, while other DVC resorts can be booked at the 7 month mark. Non- DVC resorts can be booked at 11 months out.

Again, you break even point will all depend on whether you use your points to stay at DVC resorts or at WDW/DL resorts. I am not sure that we have anyone who has calculated a breakeven for an exclusive non-DVC stays.

 

[PamOKW]

Just as a rough comparison for you, I looked at rack rate for December at GF vs. BWV. For roughly the same amount of points, you could stay in a room at the GF or a 2-bedroom at the BWV. The dollar cost for a lagoon view room at the GF would be $380 while the 2-bedroom is $520.

The ability to use DVC points at WDW resorts is to offer members some variety from time to time. It is also hard at first for some people to think of giving up forever a resort they have come to love. Usually once a family stays in a one-bedroom or larger they fall in love with their "vacation home" instead of a hotel room and find they don't miss their old resort much, if at all.

 

[ScottOKW2K]

I would suggest that you should at least tour the "demo" units at the Boardwalk or the Wilderness Lodge before you make your decision, and have a talk with the DVC guides at those locations. They will be able to explain the benefits of staying at a DVC resort, and the differences between the DVC resort experience and staying at the other WDW resorts.

My suspicon is that if you and your family are the type that enjoys the GF/GC experience, that you may want to consider either the Boardwalk Villas [ via a resale ] or wait for the Beach Club Villas to come online next fall. These would both allow you access to all the "hotel" services that you would enjoy at the GF, but with the added space and comfort that DVC offers.

Whatever your choice, this board is one of the best sources of information that one can find about DVC. It is a great source for unbiased opinions about DVC ( NOT !! We love our DVC !).
Have fun, ask questions, and take your time. DVC will be around for the next 40.5 years.

 

[normr]

I think you have the concept wrong, although you can use you points to stay at WDW hotels like the Grand Floridian, at people have stated the best use of your points, not to mention MUCH better accomodations are when you stay at a DVC resort, where you have accomodations that vary depending on resort like the studio, one bedroom villa, two bedroom villa and the Grand Villa, with the one-bedroom and larger units you have accomodations that can't be touched by staying in a regular hotel room, these units give you the things like the full kitchen, washer and dryer, a living room, big screen TV, VCR, a huge bathroom with jacuzzi tub.;

You really need to see what DVC units give you compared to anything else at Disney, once you see the accomodations on a tour, you'll see what we mean.