DVC worth it for me?

[Easto]

Family of 4
Kids are 4 & 6.
Currently sitting pool side at the Poly as I type this

We are here August 23 until September 1 check out.

We are very pleased with the Poly and are talking about coming back next year. Same time, same resort.

We paid $3,154.24 USD for our stay and 6 park days with 1 water park as well. We booked through *** (not sure if I can mention the site/company)

We are thinking about putting down a deposit for next year already.

In the future come back every year, every other year, or every third year depending on life.

Due to work schedules we are limited to this time.

I know Disney will tell me DVC is right for me, but I was looking for some input on my family situation.

Comments?
Suggestions?

Any info I left out?

Oh yah, I am not really interested in a bungalow on the water, club level, etc. My room in Fiji overlooking the marina is perfectly fine.

Can DVC be a good option for us, or stick to booking like we did this time?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

A couple things to consider:

• Your kids will soon both be in school (* unless you homeschool). Will your cadence remain the same as the kids get into school, do activities, etc.?
• The configuration of a Poly DVC Studio will be different than the configuration in Fiji -- in a studio, you will get a queen bed, a sleeper sofa, and a murphy bed that sleeps a child best due to length-width.
• Every other year with banking/borrowing is usually okay, but every third year gets risky.
• If there are point reallocations at the resort, it can create issues with booking.
• You will generally be most successful booking if you book between 11 and 7 months; after 7 months, things can be dicey.
• You end up locked into Disney vacations (and the occasional non-WDW DVC, like Hilton Head) most years.
• Annual dues.

For a Standard Studio for a similar stay, you'd be looking at 195 points. You would probably be looking at a 100 point contract to book every-other-year. That's not enough to be eligible for current incentives/rebates. Current annual dues for 100 points is $602.41. Contract end date is 2066.

So your net cost per point is $9.44/point. So your annual stay, room only, before dues inflation, would be $1840.80. You would be responsible for park tickets, dining, etc. etc. on your own. If your current stay included dining, you actually stayed cheaper than a DVC room + dining plan for 8 days. If it was room + tickets only, DVC would represent a savings, independent of factoring in the time value of money.

This all also assumes that you don't finance the points and pay cash ($17k+ closing).

 

[Easto]

Our kids go back to school in September, typically late first week or early 2nd week, so this time works well for us.

Our current stay DID NOT include dining. But we found we haven't been eating a lot likely due to the heat.

 

[McCrae]

If you can afford the initial purchase without using credit I would say go for it.

The happy memories you will have are priceless.

Whilst you can never be certain about the future, the resale market is very strong and if you find you no longer wish to own at DVC you can always sell or rent your points.

 

[davper]

It's great that you are thinking about DVC. But this is not a decision you should make while on vacation. It requires lots of research and understanding before you are ready to make a decision to purchase. So put down the computer and enjoy your vacation. DVC is not going anywhere and you will be able to buy next month or next year.

There used to be a great resource on this board that I cannot find to link for you.

 

[Easto]

We won't be pulling the trigger while on the trip. We were approached about it and I've received good advice on Disboard pre-vacation so figured it ask now.

We were booked for a presentation in half hour. We only have an afternoon left at MK and the FP+ they offer don't seem as appealing anymore since we can't use them on7DMT

Thanks for the comments!

 

[disneynutz]

Why not rent a reservation from an owner and give the DVC resorts a try?

DVC makes sense if it saves you money compared to what you would do without the ownership. If you spend more or vacation more often because of DVC, they got ya.

With DVC you need to decide on your favorite DVC resort and buy there due to the competition for rooms.

Bill

 

[Deb & Bill]

Deduct the dining plan or other dining, park admission and transportation from the money you spent. You'll spend those anyway if you are a DVC member. You won't get those for free. Will your kids be happy sleeping on sleeper sofas because the Polynesian studios (which sleep five) only have one queen bed, one queen sleeper sofa and a bunk sized murphy bed. Only OKW has two real queen sized beds in a studio at WDW.

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

I just have a couple of thoughts...

If you love vacationing at Disney, then overall it is a good deal. We have enjoyed it and never looked back. When we were your age, we could not afford it, but it would have been wonderful to enjoy it with our kids when they were young. We still had good vacations but stayed offsite.

Without getting too hung up with it, it is useful to think of a lifetime (almost 50 yearts )of needs. The Poly studios are great when your kids are small. They are also great for vacations of you and your spouse after the kids leave the nest. When your kids are teenagers, you may find yourself craving more space, like a 1 or 2 bedroom. Also, how do you keep teenagers interested in going to Disney with their parents? An obvious way is to let them bring a friend. When your kids have kids of their own, they will appreciate DVC even more, but once again, a 2BR will start to look really good.

That is all to say that the Poly is tough because as great as it is, it does not have 1, 2, and 3 bedrooms (except for the ultra high-end 2 BR bungalows.) Most other DVC resorts have studios, 1 BR ,2 BR, and 3BR, so you would retain the 11 month booking advantage through all the stages of life.

Having said that, you can always buy for your current needs, and then re-assess in several years.

However, if you can get comfortable with the ins and outs of DVC, it is possible to buy one of the older resorts though the resale market. THere are pros and cons to this. Cons - You may have considerably less than 50 years to enjoy a resale resort. You will forego some of the perks of buying direct. Etc. For many people the best strategy is to have some points that you buy direct and to supplement with resale points. The pros are getting the resort you want and saving a great deal of money.

Some people have all their points at a single resort, but others enjoy having points at multiple resorts.

You will never have perfect visibility into future needs, but the more you can think through your needs over the first 10-20 years, the better decision you can make.

Also, you do not have to commit to coming at a particular time of year. You can come anytime. But having a Use Year that starts before your most-used time can help you avoid situations where you have to cancel and lose points.

 

[Dean]

Family of 4
Kids are 4 & 6.
Currently sitting pool side at the Poly as I type this

We are here August 23 until September 1 check out.

We are very pleased with the Poly and are talking about coming back next year. Same time, same resort.

We paid $3,154.24 USD for our stay and 6 park days with 1 water park as well. We booked through *** (not sure if I can mention the site/company)

We are thinking about putting down a deposit for next year already.

In the future come back every year, every other year, or every third year depending on life.

Due to work schedules we are limited to this time.

I know Disney will tell me DVC is right for me, but I was looking for some input on my family situation.

Comments?
Suggestions?

Any info I left out?

Oh yah, I am not really interested in a bungalow on the water, club level, etc. My room in Fiji overlooking the marina is perfectly fine.

Can DVC be a good option for us, or stick to booking like we did this time?

You need to plan to use at Poly basically every time, pay cash, book 7 or more months out, plan to only use at DVC resorts and be OK with the compromises of a timeshare. If this apply, buying Poly is likely a savings over cash even discounted. But buying a cheaper property resale might even be a bigger savings though wouldn't be as likely to get the poly. If you did go retail at the Poly, I'd go for a fixed week even if I had to adjust on the points a little.

 

[Matty B13]

Take your time and read through most of the threads in the DVC Vacation Forums, we did about three months of serious research about purchasing DVC and also the rules about DVC memberships before buying resale. Since you aren't planning another vacation for at least a year there is no rush to buy a direct or resale contract. A direct purchase will take a few days, but resale purchases take between 2 1/2 months, up to 3+ months.

Also, make sure your not still on your vacation high, the Poly is a great resort and makes you want to stay forever at WDW...... Especially those Dole whips..... We make them at home now

 

[ldo]

be sure to call extension 8844 (or 4488) to book free dining for next year. Might save you $ (or not). You can always canx at 30 days out, but you can only book while still at your WDW hotel.

 

[skateshome]

Look at resale market. I found it difficult to justify direct but resale worked great for us and was about $50 less per point.
I know I don't get all the "extra's" but I just wanted to stay in Deluxe in the closest rooms to the MK (BLT) at a fantastic price.
Nothing is guaranteed but it looks pretty promising that if I decide to sale the contract in a few years I will at least get out of it what I
put in and maybe even turn a small profit.

 

[KiminChicago]

Maybe I'm wrong, but can't you buy direct from Disney even if you want one of the older resorts? It doesn't have to be the Poly.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Maybe I'm wrong, but can't you buy direct from Disney even if you want one of the older resorts? It doesn't have to be the Poly.

You can, but you will pay $50pp extra for the privilege in many cases. On a 100+ point contract, that's $5000 in the name of ephemeral "benefits."

 

[CarolMN]

It also depends on the available inventory - DVD doesn't have all use years for all resorts "in stock".

 

[Anal Annie]

We stayed at the Poly this past June and truely loved it and hope to go again one day. It IS a beautiful resort with a fantastic location. We booked it at 7 months with our (much cheaper) SSR points. I consider us "points challenged" with only 250 points - if we manage them well, plan ahead & are frugal with them we can get 2-3 trips / year in studios. With this strategy tho we can't afford to stay at the higher point resorts very often. Luckily we like to "resort hop" from trip to trip so that each trip is a little different from the last. IMO only staying at one resort is like going to a restaurant over & over and only ever ordering the same thing from the menu and never trying something else just to see if there's another dish that's just as good. We've owned for just almost 10 years and have stayed in ALL of the DVC resorts now except for VGF (which we haven't really tried for yet as it's so point intensive). We find each resort for the most part has something we love which draws us back for return stays. OP you may find the same thing applies to you if you were to experiment with other resorts - this would enable to you buy cheaper points at another resort - which would enable you to afford more points from the beginning. Alternatively if you really only want to ever stay at the Poly I might be inclined to buy a small minimum contract direct in order to have the direct buy-in benefits but then I would supplement with a cheaper resale contract to get up to the number of points you realllllly want to hit in the end.

We have gotten our value out of our points over the years and are now ahead on what we paid. But we only paid $86 / point which is like half of what the Poly costs. Like other posters have advised take your time & do your research.

 

[Judique]

Family of 4
Kids are 4 & 6.
Currently sitting pool side at the Poly as I type this

We are here August 23 until September 1 check out.

We are very pleased with the Poly and are talking about coming back next year. Same time, same resort.

We paid $3,154.24 USD for our stay and 6 park days with 1 water park as well. We booked through *** (not sure if I can mention the site/company)

We are thinking about putting down a deposit for next year already.

In the future come back every year, every other year, or every third year depending on life.

Due to work schedules we are limited to this time.

I know Disney will tell me DVC is right for me, but I was looking for some input on my family situation.

Comments?
Suggestions?

Any info I left out?

Oh yah, I am not really interested in a bungalow on the water, club level, etc. My room in Fiji overlooking the marina is perfectly fine.

Can DVC be a good option for us, or stick to booking like we did this time?

Walk around and look to see if you will enjoy the location of the DVC rooms. I stayed there in a standard/parking lot view and it was fine for me as I could just run down and jump in my car so easy, and then I could walk to the monorail at TTC, as well as the beach area and the pools and the fast food area, etc.

Buy a fixed week if you know which week. You can still use the points anytime.

You should be good with Poly studios for quite a while with kids as young as yours.