DVC, whats the advantage now?

[Albytaps]

Hey all. It'll be my family's first DVC trip in November and I am excited but also skeptical. I've heard alot of people getting the free dining this year and was wondering if that was available to DVC members?

There is also F&W festival which I know nothing about but my wife tells me it's expensive.

What are the perks I should be taking advantage of when I got in November? Are there discounts that I should be aware of?

Thanks

 

[DebbieB]

Hey all. It'll be my family's first DVC trip in November and I am excited but also skeptical. I've heard alot of people getting the free dining this year and was wondering if that was available to DVC members?

There is also F&W festival which I know nothing about but my wife tells me it's expensive.

What are the perks I should be taking advantage of when I got in November? Are there discounts that I should be aware of?

Thanks

Free dining is only available with a full price room package through CRO, including a minimum of 2 day tickets.

Just to compare - I am staying at BWV in a 1 bedroom the last week of October. I'm paying 170 points. I could buy the dining plan for around $500 for 2 adults. To buy the free dining package through CRO for the same room, it would be $3800 for 2 adults. That would include two 2 day MYW passes, which we don't need because we have AP's. Really not so "free".

We love the food & wine festival. The samples at the booths are around $3 or $4 each. Seminars are extra and vary in price.

http://allears.net/tp/ep/fw10/fw10_booths.htm
http://allears.net/tp/ep/fw10/fw10_seminars.htm

 

[Albytaps]

Thanks for the info. I would love to get AP's but I feel like it would be a waste for us being so far away and only going for about 7 days a year.

How many days a year would make the AP's worth buying? I'm guessing over 10 days?

 

[Sandisw]

Thanks for the info. I would love to get AP's but I feel like it would be a waste for us being so far away and only going for about 7 days a year.

How many days a year would make the AP's worth buying? I'm guessing over 10 days?

I think it starts to pay after 10 days, like you mention. We are also currently only a once per year family.

But, we got AP's last summer and just planned our trip this summer 51 weeks later. So, we did Aug 5th - 12th last year and then July 30th - Aug 5th this year.

This gave us two trips out of one pass. We did not renew this year and will purchase new next summer and repeat it for 2011 and 2012.

If we ever want to add in a long weekend trip, we will then plan that during the year we have the AP's so we could end up getting 3 uses out of it on occasion.

 

[kristenrice]

Thanks for the info. I would love to get AP's but I feel like it would be a waste for us being so far away and only going for about 7 days a year.

How many days a year would make the AP's worth buying? I'm guessing over 10 days?

We have to travel around school schedules and can only go 2 out of 3 years with our little contract. So, our plan is to do an early June trip (as soon as school is out) and buy AP's and a TIW card. Then, take a spring break trip the following year, which is always the first full week of April. The spring break trip is generally more expensive overall so it is nice to have the park passes and lodging out of the way. After that, we'll have to take a year off....for now. I'm hoping to talk DH into a small add-on at HHI so we can visit there on our "off" year.

 

[homercrispy]

the rule of thumb that we use is that you have to go more than once per year to justify the expense.

 

[staceymay00]

Thanks for the info. I would love to get AP's but I feel like it would be a waste for us being so far away and only going for about 7 days a year.

How many days a year would make the AP's worth buying? I'm guessing over 10 days?

APs don't make sense for someone going once a year for seven days unless you plan your trips to be 51 weeks apart. Then it may make sense if you are getting a DVC discount and/or you always buy PHs.

We are buying APs to use in December this year (7 nights) and November the following year (5-7 nights). The cost of the APs with the DVC discount is roughly the same as buying two sets of MYW non-PH tickets (actually a little less, I think). We hope to have long weekend trip in between, but even if we don't I feel the APs are still worthwhile for us for two trips. We'll get to hop with the APs and get a TiW card without spending more than buying tickets separately.

 

[staceymay00]

I think for many people staying at deluxe resorts, free dining is not the best discount. A room discount can often save more unless you are squeezing five adults into a deluxe room. We bought DVC to be able to stay in a villa with a kitchen, washer/dryer and more space. I look at it as having a guaranteed room only discount every stay instead of having to hope for a room discount that covers our dates. Rack rate for the OKW 2BR villa we have reserved in December is $935 (!!!) a night (holiday rates). Even with a 40% off discount that is $561 a night, $631 a night incl. taxes.

To answer your question about perks...besides the AP discount, right now DVC members staying on points get free internet and some restaurants do offer a DVC discount. Also, I think you can get a DVC discount on some of the tours and recreational activities.

 

[ELKHUNTER]

Like the others here have posted AP's are probably not a good choice if you are not staying 10 days or more, because even with the DVC discount its still a hard pill to swallow especially if you have to buy five of them like we did in Feb. but for extended or multiple stays their a good choice. Also DVC discounts are offered at most resturants and stores in the tune of 10 to 15%. One thing about AP's is you also get discounts which are sometimes different than DVC so if you have both you can get discounts everywhere.

 

[ToddyLu]

OK I am going to shoot from the hip here. F&W can be expensive if you do the private seminars and other professional dinning options available. But I think you can purchase like a $75 CC thing to wear on your wrist that allows you to purchase food as you work your way around the World. Several countries will have booths set up and they offer small servings of various dishes and wines or alcohol to pair with them. So you could have a special 2-3 appetizers in Mexico, then in a few minutes get a glass of Yellow tail from the Australia booth...(using that as just an example). Epcot is very crowded during F&W on the weekends. OF course you could just pay individually for things you wanted as the PP stated. DH and I do not drink but I can see how it would be fun trying out the different servings of foods.....I say we do not drink because in the past we have enjoyed drinking too much.

 

[gstew24]

yes 10 days

 

[allshookup]

You can load the Food & Wine mini gift card with anything from $5-$1500 & pay as you go. It is convenient to just swipe the card & go, but no savings. As others have mentioned, the snack booths are relatively inexpensive & there are some free seminars being offered, you just have to check the schedule.

Free dining? I agree with PP, it's not really free when you are paying rack rate for the room & you still have to pay for appetizers & gratuity. You should really compare what you would have to pay if you booked a room for the same time period you are going.

As for the AP, well if you are comparing apples to apples, then yes I'd say 10 days is about the time you break even, but keep in mind that you can get the TIW card which becomes a huge savings on meals & alcoholic beverages & the freedom to come & go without feeling as if you've wasted a park ticket is an emotional perk that is worth mentioning. We would probably purchase if we were staying 8 or 9 days even, but lately we find that we've been doing shorter trips & only staying about 5 nts now that I work & we end up regretting not buying the AP, because we almost always end up returning sooner than we think.

 

[dunnhorn]

We are DVC members - we go several times a year but don't have the AP. What I"m about to say is certainly applicable to "once a year" families.

With DVC, it's a marathon, not a sprint. For example, if you buy into DVC (seriously look at the going rate on the secondary market and evaluate it against the specials offered by Disney), and if you buy a 10 day non expiration ticket with the 5 "extra" events through one of the discount sellers, say Maple Leaf or Undercover, then you CAN get a better deal over the long run and - this is a big and - you are locking in your fixed cost over the long run. Your room costs (i.e. point value) are locked in. Your ticket prices are now locked in - until they run out. And you can go to Disney, lounging in a sprawling 1 or 2 bedroom with a kitchen, washer/dryer, fantastic pools, etc. etc. Once you go DVC, it's hard to go back to a "regular" room.

Yes, we are exempt from the "free dining" deals, but to purchase the dining plan for a family of 4, it's ranges in the $80 - $120 day range, including tip. Or, you can be eligible for the TIW discount card that pretty much gives you 20% off table service (about the cost of the tip.) There are other DVC discounts - pretty minor in my book, but they are there and certainly not worth the cost to buy into DVC in the first place. The reason to buy into DVC is to lock in your price to stay at more luxurious accommodations in the long run for a fraction of what it would cost on the market.

So - if you don't want to "commit" to Disney, DVC is not for you. If you really plan on mainly using your points to trade out to RCI, the DCL or non-Disney properties, really DVC is not for you. If you are buying because you think you SHOULD and it's not really a passion, it's not for you. If you have to go through crazy financing, it's not for you.

I would say if you are seriously thinking about it, get on one of the email lists for the resellers - there are a couple, including Timeshare store. Get to know the market. Then, the next time you price out a week long vacation, just see how close it would be to buying, say, a 100 point contract. Then it really starts to show perspective... for 2 or 3 of those vacations, you could have points for 20+ years. You'll see what I mean.

HTH

 

[dunnhorn]

Like the others here have posted AP's are probably not a good choice if you are not staying 10 days or more...

I would say definitely do the math on this one - the cost of a 10 day with non-expiry (with or without parkhopper.) I did this a couple years ago when we were making the decision AP vs. ticket and I believe it was something like 7 days was the break even point for AP. If you could go in a park at least 7 days in a 12 month period, you were better off getting the AP.

At any rate, after careful evaluation AND after having annual passes for like 3 years, we decided to try the 10 day non expiry pass with water park/Disney Quest add-ons, and that was 2 years ago... we have gone probably 5 or 6 times in the last 2 years and will be using the last of the park entries this December, and we still have 2 days in a water park left. So, I'd say we got our money's worth on that.

As a caveat, I will say that during that 2 year timeframe, we went to a lot of hard-ticketed "parties" and on those days we didn't use a day off our parkhoppers. just bought the ticket for the event and went into the MK at 4:00 - it worked well for us. We also did the "give a day, get a disney day" thing and got in for free once, and we did a couple of trips where we just enjoyed the resort and went to Downtown Disney - so I'd say we really stretched those tickets out.

Now that we're about to kill this ticket - we'll be facing the same decision again! Do the AP or buy another 10 day... Hmmmm.....

I'll say my husband likes to do the 10 day, whereas I lean towards the AP. The thing my husband doesn't like about the AP is that you have this subconscious "pressure" to make a trip to Disney every time you get time off. He likes to stretch out the expense and really make the most of the park days, instead of just being able to pop in and out of the park for a meal (it's a totally different mindset when you have an AP.)

So anyway - HTH

 

[AUTigerFan]

Just wanted to add that with an AP, you don't ever have to worry about "wasting" a day on your park hopper. We got the AP one year and went for about 20 nights in that year. We loved being able to go the parks for a couple of hours some days and not stressing about not maximizing the day.

 

[Brandis]

if you buy a 10 day non expiration ticket with the 5 "extra" events through one of the discount sellers, say Maple Leaf or Undercover, then you CAN get a better deal over the long run

The "Water Park Fun & More" option gives you the same amount of "Fun Visits" as regular park days. So you get for example 10 park days AND 10 fun visits (not only 5)

Fun visits are:

- Typhoon Lagoon
- Blizzard Beach
- Oak Trail Golf Course
- DisneyQuest
- Wide World of Sports