DVC Tour- Can you do it without drinking the KoolAid?

[iheartdisney]

On our last trip a few years ago, DD was pin trading with the guy at the DVD booth in the park, and he told us about a tour- that they will pick us up at our hotel, the kids get to play while we do the tour, and the only pressure was what kind of topping we wanted on our ice cream at the end of the tour. (That was such an awesome line, it stuck with me for 2 years!)
It sounded really tempting, but it just happened to be the last day of our vacation- bags were already in the car. We just wanted to go on Expedition: Everest one more time before we headed home.
Anywhoo, we have a few off days in our visit this summer- 6 days, but only 4 day tickets, and thought this might be a great activity for one of our non-park days.
HOWEVER, we are not in a place to buy in. Major debt is frowned upon as one of the qualifications for DH's job. We did a standard timeshare presentation a many years ago in VA, and I still have flashbacks of being held hostage in that little room. So any feedback on the DVC tour would be awesome! Thanks!

 

[bebelle]

Just Do It! We have gone twice. It is amazing to be able to tour the DVC. They explain the concept and give you options but they DO NOT push you into anything! In other words, there is no hard sell. It is very easy to say "thanks but no thanks".

I would LOVE to purchase a DVC membership but my CPA DH does not see the value. Plus since I have found DVC by request--DVC resorts without the maintenance fees--I don't really want to spend the money either.

 

[imthatgirl]

We did it this past May with every intent on buying one and ended up not buying it. Turns out we didn't feel there was much value in it.

But, I don't know why you would want to go if you had absolutely no intention on buying one. They may say there is no pressure, but don't believe it. the entire process is for one thing only...to get you to buy a DVC. You absolutely will have to sit in a room with you sponsor and go over numbers. They absolutely will try to convince you that this is a deal of a life time.

I don't quite get what the appeal of spending a few hours with a salesman is if you have no interest in buying

 

[21hearts]

We just did it in February. No pressure at all && they gave us a Disney gift card for $50 ($10 per person).

 

[Ana~n~Joseph]

We went in September of last year. DH really wanted to look into it and we had a few free hours (although at the end, we were rushing to make our Photopass session but that's a diff story). Anyway, transportation was great, picked us up, had a car seat for DS, etc. Our sales person was - well - not so great and my DH felt he was way too pushy. We left without even having ice cream Overall though, for me, it was really neat to see the showrooms and learn more about the program.

 

[KristyBDJ]

He wasn't lying about it being no pressure. And yes, there is ice cream at the end. Our tour was great. It's really informative, fun and truly NO PRESSURE. they do watch the kids in a really great play room while you take the tour. I know that the lady we were with was super sweet, very attentive, and not bothered at all that we couldn't buy in at the time. She was just as nice when we had to decline the offer as she was at the start of the tour. I say go for it. The only down side for us was wanting so badly to buy in and knowing that we couldn't. Although we would buy resale anyway.

 

[imthatgirl]

We went in September of last year. DH really wanted to look into it and we had a few free hours (although at the end, we were rushing to make our Photopass session but that's a diff story). Anyway, transportation was great, picked us up, had a car seat for DS, etc. Our sales person was - well - not so great and my DH felt he was way too pushy. We left without even having ice cream Overall though, for me, it was really neat to see the showrooms and learn more about the program.

We left without icecream too. All we wanted to do was get back to enjoying our vacation. I was impressed by the icecream room though. I wasn't expecting full blown ice cream parlor.

 

[Lynne M]

It's true that they're (usually) pretty low pressure, but if you have no intention of buying, I don't think you'd find it all that interesting. I mean, yeah, the kids are occupied for 90 minutes and there's free ice cream, but all you're going to be doing is looking at a couple of models of hotel rooms, and getting a financial presentation.

It seems to me that there are WAY more fun ways to kill a few hours at WDW. There's DTD, water parks, exploring the other resorts, renting bikes or boats at a resort (you can do this at any of them, don't have to be staying there), miniature golf, enjoying the pool at your own resort, pony/horseback rides at FW......all kinds of good stuff. A DVC presentation sounds dull as dishwater compared to any of the above.

 

[bumbershoot]

Well first, that's an ugly reference; DVC has nothing to do with Jim Jones or poisoning hundreds of people including children. Man oh man do I dislike that reference, and I seem to hear it only from two thing I like, DVC and Dave Ramsey!


We did a presentation at Disneyland back in '07, with no intentions of buying in at that time. Our salesguy was very much no pressure, and was happy to hear from us nearly 2 years later when we decided to buy. If he'd been pushy, well first I would have let him know right then and there that he was losing a potential sale, and then second I wouldn't have bought with him as a guide. (sadly he's not with DVC anymore, sniffle sniffle)

It was a very nice way to get out of the park heat, it was lovely to let DS play in the kid's area (where they watched Shrek, which led to an interesting conversation of whether they should be showing Dreamworks movies or not) and DH and I got to sit in the air conditioned comfort drinking coffee and bottled water while on a comfy couch.


Little FWIW, if DH's company goes by credit reports, DVC doesn't show on credit reports; they don't report to the agencies. Just in case that's interesting to you.

 

[ars0525]

I know somebody who did one recently cause they were giving away some freebie or something (maybe gift cards?).

My question--how long does it take? If they sense you aren't interested/buying, do they shorten the spiel? And if you say from the get go we aren't buying & just came for the freebie, do you still get it?

And where do they take you?

 

[exwdwcm]

We went, much to my surprise.........my DH is um, how should I say it, a little 'tight' with his money, works in finance, does a lot of investing. This isn't a true investment in that you aren't getting any return, other than great memories and happiness, but that's more than enough for me!

After taking our 2yo in Dec 09, we had a $100 gift card table tent in our room (I believe at that time, it was $100 if you were in a deluxe, $50 for values/mods)- if we did the DVC tour. So he decided to do it. I never in a million years though he would go for it, but he did. Heck, i never thought i would get him to do the tour, much less buy in. We did the tour, but no one offered us the child care option- is that new or have an age requirement (he was 2).

The tour probably took us a solid 3 hours or more all together with travel time and all. We passed on the ice cream (didn't want it) but got our $100 gift card. It was no pressure and we enjoyed the tour. We did end up buying a few months later.

It will take some of your time, so I wouldn't recommend doing it unless you are interested in really checking it out. i don't know that they would necessarily shorten the spiel or not if they know you aren't buying or not. We told him up front there is no way we were buying that day. But we were still there almost 3 hours. Of course we took our time walking through the rooms and all.

 

[mommystieg]

We never did the tour - we actually purchased DVC after our first trip, sight unseen. The entire experience was absolutely no pressure. As a matter of fact, we put more pressure on our sales rep by constantly calling him and asking him questions I say if you have time, do it. It sounds like a good way to spend a non-park day.

 

[mountdew1]

It is mostly low pressure. They will obviously come back with a better offer if you seem interested, but that was about it. When we did it they did have a $100 gift card offer in our room, but usually I believe it is just a few magic fast passes. We weren't offered ice cream, but that may be because we did the tour at AKL Kidani Village. Basically they will go over the resorts, the perks of ownership, show you the rooms, and then get down to the numbers. Explain the cost per point, push the 160 pt minimum. When we seemed interested, but not sold, they did counter with a "limited time offer" of 100 pt minimum. When we still weren't sold, they said take your time, here is all our info, call with any questions. And later on, they were even letting people buy 50 pt buy ins.

As several PPs said, there is no harm in taking the tour, but unless you have a gift card offer in your room, or have a possible interest in DVC, it's not going to do much for you but kill a few hours.

We did end up buying in, but through the resale market instead of direct, and a year after we took the tour. Saved $40 per point, with all the same perks. However, in a day or two the resales will lose some of the perks of ownership, namely the ability to use the points for cruises and stays at other Disney owned, but non-DVC resorts.

 

[Disneylvr1971]

A few years ago, we were waiting to waste some time before driving home (the girls were at DHS). We decided to check out DVC. We told our sales rep right away that we had limited time to look. He skipped as much as he could and we were done in about 1 1/2 hrs. As other pp have said, there is no pressure, they will not let you sign on the spot. My DH is an accountant and was in no way thinking of ever buying into a timeshare. Our sales rep was very surprised when about a month later we called to purchase.

 

[disneywatcher]

My DSis and I went to it last year, my kiddos (all minus my youngest she was with us) went to this little day care area until we were done. Then we got ice cream and driven to DHS.

DSis and I are considering buying into DVC in a few years when we both have the money (we want to take trips together) or when I win the lottery (I REALLY hope this happens soon!). There was no preasure to buy and it was really informative.

 

[CampbellScot]

It's pretty low key, but they ARE trying to sell something. So just keep that in mind. Overall my DH and I found our tour guide to be very friendly. We enjoyed the tour. The gift card was nice too. We did NOT buy at that time. My step son enjoyed the playroom. My step daughter, not so much. It's not like a kids club in terms of staff interaction (according to my step daughter). But she was rather furious that we didn't let her come with us on the tour!

If you are interested in DVC, the tour is great and informative and not overly long. The sales staff is friendly and not over the top. We didn't stay for ice cream, but the parlor is lovely!

 

[grumpydad]

Well first, that's an ugly reference;


As you tell I don't post that often and haven't even logged in for awhile,
but I read the boards daily, but you have gotten a rise from me

You are what's gone wrong with this country, people cannot say the slighest thing without someone like you getting offended.

There was another thread about the crowds on GAY Days and right away
someone was with "what you have an issue being in the parks with Gays'

I am really tired of all the politically correct liberal crap

I go by the basic credo, I'll say what I want , when i want and whoever doesn't like it, stuff it, just as it is your right to be offended, it is my right to say it.

Thank God it's still a free country, at least for now.

Roughly 1 year, 9 months until no more Obama, thank God.

Oh wait I take that back, you'll probably think I said that because I'm a racist,
not because of the simple fact that the guy hasn't got a clue on how to run the country

 

[IlliniMouse]

Wait a minute! We didn't get ice cream at the end of our presentation!!!

We went to one in 2009. We ended up buying in, but we felt no pressure while we were there. We were given "x" amount of days after our tour to call if we decided we wanted to join...which we did after we got him.

Our guide was super nice. He explained everything really well and we were given Fast Passes (3 per person) that were for immediate use. Transportation was great. We were picked up outside of the Poly where we were eating breakfast, and dropped off wherever we wanted to go afterwards.

 

[LisaDKG]

On our last trip a few years ago, DD was pin trading with the guy at the DVD booth in the park, and he told us about a tour- that they will pick us up at our hotel, the kids get to play while we do the tour, and the only pressure was what kind of topping we wanted on our ice cream at the end of the tour. (That was such an awesome line, it stuck with me for 2 years!)

YOUR line might stick with me for the next few years because we TOTALLY drank the KOOL-AID!!! Just like you, my pin-trading kids sidled up to the nice guy at a DVC booth at GF and while we were admiring his collection suddenly I found the words "Do you have any new news about DVC Aulani?" falling from my mouth. It was an honest question b/c I really was digging for news about the resort in general. Within minutes, my husband was sucked in by the promise of a direct ride to Beach Club (we were switching resorts) and we found ourselves in "the van". I was shocked b/c we had already been to one "talk" at DL a few years ago and decided that it wasn't for us. 2 trips to WDW later and we are new owners at BLT. We were impressed both times by the lack of pressure by the agents. They were nice when we weren't interested and, of course, pretty happy when we realized we were. For my husband, it was seeing the show suite and the master's bedroom that sealed the deal. We had just spent a week sharing a basic room with our lovely children and were facing 5 more for the last leg of our trip. I guess the ideal vacation in my husband's mind involves a master bedroom???
The bottom line is that if you really won't miss those hours of your vacation, and if you like complimentary non-alcoholic beverages and a scoop of ice cream in the afternoon then go for it. My kids had been kind-of choked that we weren't sending them to one of the kids' clubs this vacation so their time in the kids' care took care of that. I have to admit that showing off my knowledge of Disboard-gleaned, random Disney facts and tidbits with our super nice agent put a little feather in my cap. I didn't mean to honk my own horn or anything but where else could I put my useless (or so I thought) knowledge of Use Years and Banking and Borrowing into action?

 

[CopasFamily]

I don't know. I went to the presentation with the intent to buy. Sat down with our guide,Tony, told him not to say anything and just bring me whatever paperwork I needed to sign. He actually made us slow down and go look at the models and everything. Explained a few of the finer points that I hadn't been able to discover on the boards, and finally let me put my John Hancock on those papers.