DVC Worth it for Central FL Family?

[egorss78]

Been reading a bunch of threads about is DVC worth it. I see in different threads that the best value is when you stay at DVC resorts. People in various threads stated it is not worth it to use points for the cruises or the other 600 places that trade points.

Can someone explain to me why it isnt worth it, or points me to some threads that discuss this in more detail. We live 40 miles from Disney and are season pass holders, so we thought we could have short weekend trips to the local DVC resorts, and Vero beach. But we have been focusing on the other resorts or cruises for a bulk of our point spending.

Thanks for any advice or comments.

 

[ldo]

Sun-Thurs stays are 1/2 the points of weekends, and at some times, weekends are even more than 2X the points. Only you can decide if it is "worth it" for you. Personally, for mostly weekend stays, I would not do DVC. Elaine

 

[tomandrobin]

As already mentioned, weekend points are expensive. That said, it depends on how you use your ownership. If all your trip are Friday and Saturday nights stays, then no. If you stay for a week at a time or peak times, that are not weekend stays then maybe.

 

[Coach81]

If I lived in Florida, I do not believe we would have bought DVC. When we could drive to WDW in 45 mins or so.. save your money for Character Dinners

IMO I do not think it is worth it in your situation.

 

[JaxFLBear]

There are a number of Florida residents who are DVC members. I'm one of those and I live 45 minutes away. My SO and I both love Disney. Yes it does seem odd to some people to drive less than an hour to go on vacation. But a vacation is about the destination, not the trip there. It's also much nicer to just go back to the resort and relax after a long day in the parks then to drive home.

I'm going to be doing to much driving this weekend as my sister and niece are coming down for a school trip. My niece is in the school band and they are marching before the Dreams parade on the 15th.

I'd suggest going to the Florida Owners thread here and see why other Floridians are members.

 

[OlderMan]

We've lived in FL for the last 7 years--moved here in November 2000, but bought OKW in 1997.

Living just over an hour from WDW allows us to go more often, but for shorter stays. For example, my wife has a conference in about 3 weeks in Orlando. We'll go over Saturday AM and return Tue PM. We also have a trip booked around July 4 and another around Thanksgiving.

It's what works for us!

 

[Arthur27]

I just bought into DVC and my wife and I weighed in the same questions. We live about 40 minutes away. We have stayed at Wilderness lodge and Coronado (sp) spring before and loved it. It really felt like we got away for a weekend. We are also pass holders. It was wonderful to stay for the fireworks and NOT worry about traffic for we are bussed back to our resort before most people hit I-4. Also, we plan on using our points for off property resorts as well like Vero and HH. For us, we think it was a great investment for the family.

 

[hellerjw]

Can someone explain to me why it isnt worth it, or points me to some threads that discuss this in more detail. We live 40 miles from Disney and are season pass holders, so we thought we could have short weekend trips to the local DVC resorts, and Vero beach. But we have been focusing on the other resorts or cruises for a bulk of our point spending

As some have already mentioned the "worth it" question is subjective. Some people bought enough points, myself included, to stay one 7-day week at a time. We knew Fri. & Sat. nights are double the point costs of Sun. - Thurs. nights but we didn't want to have to move during our stay.

As for the cruises, cash resorts, Interval International exchanges, etc. DVC has to negotiate the rates for those each year. The Disney cruises are already more expensive than most other cruise lines even when paying cash.

When DVC negotiates the point exchanges with the cruiseline each year you tend to get a lot less value per point than if you stayed at a DVC resort. So instead of being able to use 160 points to stay a week at a DVC resort, you might have to spend those same 160 points to just get a 3-day cruise for 1 person with a lot smaller accomodations. The cruise does include meals so there is some inherent value there.

The same is true for the cash resorts (Contemporary, Polynesian, etc). DVC has to negotiate with Disney each year on those rates too. So you may end up spending 320 points for a week in a regular hotel room where you could have had a 2-bedroom villa through DVC for the same point cost.

This is why you often here that DVC is a good value if you primarily stay at DVC resorts. Yes, you can exchange for cruises and other destinations but your points and the value they hold don't go as far. The flexibility is one of DVC's best features but its designed to be used with DVC resorts and you get the most value using it that way.

 

[Disney_Daddy]

We live about 75 minutes away and also have passes. We were staying at Disney for 1 week per year prior to DVC. Now, the week is defined a little different (Sunday - Friday). But we also do a few Sun-Tue or Sun-Wed throughout the year.

This year we are staying at HHI in May (Sun-Fri), plus our regular week at Disney and two other short stays as well.

We would normally drive over for the day...but it is SO much more fun for everyone when we can drive over and spend 1 or 2 nights!!

At the end of the day, we didn't buy DVC for anything other than DVC resorts. We will pay cash for cruises or other resorts and reserve our points for the DVC Resorts. That is the best way I see to get the full value of our points.

 

[Y-ASK]

I think if I lived in FL within 2-3 hours of WDW, I would use my points differently than I do now. I would probably have more Sunday thru Friday trips and less of the 7-10 nights I do now because I have to drive pretty far to get there. But it really all depends on what is "worth" it to you to be able to stay for a 2-3 nights stay over the weekend on the resort. If that is what would make several wonderful trips for you and you don't mind paying for that go for it....

Y-ASK

 

[JimC]

We bought when we lived in PA and were AP holders then. We moved to Orlando June 2006. Our use of DVC went from week long stays to five weeknight stays. We still enjoy being on property and in the resorts. So much so that we added on AKV when it first opened for sale. We also enjoy VB. HH is a bit far for us to drive.

We calculated the cost of our points and determined what we were really paying to use the exchange options. We found we could do better owning MVCI (Marriott) for non-Disney holidays and to pay cash for DCL.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

I think if I lived in FL within 2-3 hours of WDW, I would use my points differently than I do now. I would probably have more Sunday thru Friday trips and less of the 7-10 nights I do now because I have to drive pretty far to get there. But it really all depends on what is "worth" it to you to be able to stay for a 2-3 nights stay over the weekend on the resort. If that is what would make several wonderful trips for you and you don't mind paying for that go for it....

Y-ASK

That's, exactly what we do! We hit Disney from Sunday afternoon and go home Friday. Very rarely do we use week-end points. This June w/ the big reunion at OKW we are arriving Saturday night, only because I have people flying in from all over. In doing our vacations this way I feel that I get more bang out of my 210 points and we can go more often.

 

[DISNEY FIX]

A long shot.
I would not buy points. I would learn how to become a professional renter. If you can go with the flow renting cheap or distressed points may be a way to go.

 

[deej696]

My fiance live in Ocala, and we love our DVC . It enables us to hop down for 1 or 2 nights a month Sun-Thurs, and we love it. I figure we get about 15 nights a year which is great considering we (only) have 180 points. When we did the math on how much we were currently spending for hotels, and then added how much more we would get to go, it just made sense for us Being flexible on which resort you stay at helps, because it makes it much easier to get last minute reservations, which is probably more common for us locals. We would probably never use our points outside of Disney or for a cruise, because of the reasons others have already mentioned, although we did use them for DL over new years!

Oh and check out our Florida DVCers thread where many have given their thoughts as well!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1741319

 

[vicki_c]

When we lived in Florida (Melbourne, as well), it wouldn't have made sense for us to buy even though we went frequently. We would usually grab the kids from school on a Friday and go for the weekend only. Also, due to the frequency of visits when we lived there, we actually stayed off-property (shudder!) a lot to save money. So it didn't make sense in our minds. But now that we are back to being 900 miles away, we take longer and more deluxe trips, so it worked for us now.

 

[egorss78]

Thanks for all the great ideas and opinions. I figured there was a thread for FL DVC, so I will definetly check that out.

I have rented points for last 3-4 times we stayed on property, and figured it was time to look into getting our own, but just wanted to see how other people from FL dealt with it.

We have two daughters, age 2 and 4 so we have been looking alot at Vero beach for quick getaways.

Been watching these forums for awhile, and the people here are great, thanks again.

With all the incentives going on at the moment, figure my wife and I will decide within the next week.

 

[durango kid]

We live 5 minutes from Epcot, close enough to hear the fireworks at night. We use our points ALL THE TIME. sometimes it's when the kids come home for a visit, other times is just to get away for a night or two.

 

[egorss78]

In case anyone who wondering, we bough 160 points last week. With all the incentives, we will get 4 smaller vacations this year, and a cruise for the wife and I next year. Thanks again for the help.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

CONGRATS

 

[deej696]

Thats awesome, Congratulations!