Effective 2/25/2018, you need at least 75 direct points to qualify for Membership Extras

[Sherrkel]

Having just returned from our first DVC stay (purchased resale BRV@WL in May, 2017); I can say that this was one of the best trips we've ever had (used our points for split stay Poly and BRV). At the time we purchased last year, DH and I kept saying that we wanted to add on a small direct sale for some of the perks, as well as to be able to increase our points to allow for a couple days more of our vacation each year. I guess I'll join those who are trying to see if they can nab a 25 point contract before the changes take effect - I'm not sure we'll have any luck - but if not, at least we'll still have our resale points

 

[jbinder95]

Sorry if this has already been asked, but we bought a resale contract at AK in 2016 and got in before you had to buy direct in order to receive the perks. Will we still be able to access them? Or does this kill that? Thanks!

 

[Ben E N]

25 point resales will become more expensive, not less.

I get where you are coming from with that: There is less incentive to buy 25 through Disney because that amount of points no longer carries perks, plus people looking to get 100 points would get 75 direct and 25 resale. The problem with that prediction is that you also have to factor in about $600 in closing costs on those 25 points. That already brings the price up close to direct sales cost, so there is not much room for a 25 point contract to increase in price to start with.

 

[Ben E N]

Disney/DVC greed is getting to be over the top. Increasing vacation cost while not maintaining the system is a chump move. So sad.

Bill

Sad for us, perhaps, but the absolute right move for Disney. Last year they showed 14% growth in revenue in Parks and Resorts, their only division to show growth. While Avatar has helped that area, the real driving factor has been raising prices and keeping the same attendance.
"Walt is spinning in his grave" and all that, but the fact of the matter is Disney is a publicly traded corporation in a capitalistic economy, and they have an obligation to make money. This is another way of doing that. I don't like that is it making it impossible for some people to get to the parks, but that is what we get when we work with capitalism.

 

[zavandor]

Sorry if this has already been asked, but we bought a resale contract at AK in 2016 and got in before you had to buy direct in order to receive the perks. Will we still be able to access them? Or does this kill that? Thanks!

You are still grandfathered.

 

[ziravan]

Sorry if this has already been asked, but we bought a resale contract at AK in 2016 and got in before you had to buy direct in order to receive the perks. Will we still be able to access them? Or does this kill that? Thanks!

You’re grandfathered.

 

[ziravan]

You are still grandfathered.

Jinx

 

[mrs_coco]

At this point, no. That's what this statement means:

"All Members who are eligible for Membership Extras as of February 24 will not be impacted by the 75-Vacation Point requirement, as long as they continue to meet the previously implemented eligibility requirements."

thanks so much for clarification

 

[SuzGM84]

Were you already on a waitlist? Did you ask for 25 as a current member add on or 50 as a new member?

They told me they only had December readily available.


Sorry, posted at the same time as your above reply.

When you contacted Disney they had Dec UY SSR?? I called them last night about 25 Dec UY SSR and was put on a waitlist. Seeing it might have been available earlier in the day 1) makes me a little sad and 2) makes me a little hopeful that we're not super far down a waitlist!

 

[Bruin_mouse]

I'm currently in ROFR for a VGC resale contract (my first DVC purchase). I had planned on getting on the BLT waiting list for 50 points after closing for direct purchase benefits. Since there is no way I will close before the 2/24 cutoff I called DVC around 8pm EST yesterday to see what my 50 point purchase options were.

I also spoke to Bill. (One thing I liked about him is that as soon as I told him I'm buying a resale contract and why I was calling he cut the sales talk and got to the point.) Before calling I had wrapped my head around buying 50 points at CCV direct, but the minimum for new members is 75. He told me that I'd probably be looking at OKW, AKV, or SSR. Frankly none of those sounded appealing but I asked to be put on the SSR waitlist (Sep UY) for 50 points. He said hopefully we get lucky and we hung up.

After thinking about it, I do not think it's worth new members compromising your preferred resort choice just to make this deadline so I don't think I will buy the SSR points if they do come up. This is a long term contract that will more than likely cost you to sell if you don't like it. I personally think it's worth it to spend the money upfront to get this right but realize that everyone has their own financial priorities.

 

[glvsav37]

this is 100% about getting new prospects in the door. The money for these parties and such comes out of their marketing budget and leverages the members to promote DVC. We fill up our social feeds with photos of these swanky parties and great exclusive experiences by being members and it entices prospects to DVC. However, they are not gonna spend their marketing money on a product you can buy somewhere else, so they need to create restrictions to keep the direct purchase more enticing then the resale purchase.

We can fight over current direct members vs current resale members and what they are entitled to until the cows come home. But these restrictions are not about us...it is all about bring ing NEW members in the door. And they are using what we consider 'perks' to us really as marketing opportunities and leveraging us as their platform.

 

[TeresaNJ]

As I think about this - I am still not so sure this puts a big dent in resale.

Say I want 150 point contract - $182 at CCv, or $100 at SSR. Price difference is $12,300. Assuming the price difference of a Platinum Pass $849 versus a Gold Pass at $589 - that's $260 per pass. Have to buy 47 Gold Passes to make up that savings. Since you need to go at least twice a year to make that pass worth it, a family of 4 getting 4 passes every other year would take 23 years to recuperate that money. The other discounts DVC get you can be had buy buying an AP. I think if I was buying resale right now I would tend to still buy resale and keep the $12,000 in my pocket.

That said - resorts like GF or BC or Poly are running $145 / point or more on resale - now you are talking ~$5000 savings - easier to argue you can make that up in perks.

I say this just about every time I look lately - I CANNOT believe the prices of resale. I paid $74 / pt at AKV a mere 4 years ago, and $105 / pt at BWV a mere 9 months ago. Same contracts would probably be $100 and $140 respectively. (Boy did we buy that BWV contract at the right time.)

I bought a 272 point December use year AKV contract at 73pp exactly one year ago, with all points intact, and around 23 banked points, with seller paying closing costs and the dues for the year! I can not believe the resale prices right now! For the record, I would never ever buy direct for the perks, ever. If resale & direct end up being the close to the same, then I might consider adding on direct. Otherwise, nope.

 

[erin1715]

well,I am likely to never be a direct owner... I am running the numbers thinking of adding on to my akv before the change, if there are points available that is.. and I am not sure if its worth it at even 25 points, so for sure won't be at 75! The biggest savings seem the AP and I dont see us needing that very often...

I feel the same way. I likely would have eventually bought direct for 25 points once I saved up the cash to do it, but refuse to rush a purchase now that Disney changed the rules. So, I'll be happy with my resale points. The perks aren't worth THAT much to me.

 

[skier_pete]

We can fight over current direct members vs current resale members and what they are entitled to until the cows come home. But these restrictions are not about us...it is all about bring ing NEW members in the door. And they are using what we consider 'perks' to us really as marketing opportunities and leveraging us as their platform.

This is true, to Disney, it's all about new sales. They don't really care what resale prices are, as long as they can make their quota of news sales. The "perks" are more about marketing as anything else. The good news for those that GET the perks is that they it is becoming less and less likely that they take them away. Clearly, Disney sees the "perks" as motivation for direct sales. They have a pretty decent differentiation now between the two...and while myself and others don't see the "benefits" as matching the costs of direct, many others will look and decide they'd rather have the benefits. In the end, everyone wins in this scenario - folks that just want the benefit of a cheaper room still get it. For those that have the money and want the perks for the direct buy - they have that too.

 

[pkrieger2287]

The people I feel bad for is those who were planning to do a 25 point add on with their current resale contracts and are now suddenly having the rules changed on them. I get why Disney is doing it, but it must be very frustrating for them. I am glad to hear that same guides are doing their best to help some of these people out.
As for those who have not yet started the resale process, all that this does is change the equation in Disney's favor a bit more. I personally think it is a more fair than not change once all the dust settles.
I got in at 25 points this past summer. Those direct points cost me about $1700 more than buying them resale would have. I then immediately bought 4 platinum plus tickets at a discount, saving me close $1000 off of that purchase price. Within 3 years, I will already be ahead. Yes, Disney wins as well because they got me to buy an annual pass, but many people who consider DVC are the types to get those anyway.
If I were starting the process this summer, I would go into knowing that I could go one of two routes - all resale or a hybrid route. People looking for smaller contracts could also go all direct. Taking 175 points at BLT as an example, I could either go all resale at about $135 a point for just under $24,000, or buy 100 points at $140 a point at 75 direct at $191 a point. That would come out to about $5000 more. It puts a little more money in Disney's pocket, and would have kept a little less in mine, but does not completely destroy the DVC system as we know it. Once the current buyers get things settled, I think business will continue as normal.

Try living in a state where even if you wanted to buy the add-on you can't... Yes I'm still bitter a day later. Lol

Apparently our guide Gib (I think that's his name) is now talking with an upper tier within DVC to see if anything is possible for us. Wife and I were even looking at flying down for a day to sign the damn contract.

And here I am a Buckeye fan in West Virginia... I knew I should have moved to Ohio.

 

[disneynutz]

Disney/DVC is a money machine with the tools to make even more. They have teams of people working all day long looking for ways to increase revenue. DVC adjusts ROFR, ROFR response time, now they are playing games delaying and charging for estoppel, they pass contracts off to their business resale partner(s) and break ROFR contracts up to pool points for sale. It all depends on what makes them the most money.

Bill

 

[beourguest2009]

I also spoke to Bill. (One thing I liked about him is that as soon as I told him I'm buying a resale contract and why I was calling he cut the sales talk and got to the point.) Before calling I had wrapped my head around buying 50 points at CCV direct, but the minimum for new members is 75. He told me that I'd probably be looking at OKW, AKV, or SSR. Frankly none of those sounded appealing but I asked to be put on the SSR waitlist (Sep UY) for 50 points. He said hopefully we get lucky and we hung up.

Anyone care to share Bill's contact information? Thank you!

 

[southerngirl528]

What about the poor guy who has been saving for his 50 point direct contract to get him into DVC for the first time? **** you dust rather than pixie dust for that person, because that person is just collateral damage in DVDs quest for ever more greenbacks.

Disney/DVC greed is getting to be over the top. Increasing vacation cost while not maintaining the system is a chump move. So sad.

While I understand the feelings behind these statements, and have to agree that some of the Disney (as a whole, not just DVC) price increases seem to be a bit exorbitant, bottom line is the bottom line. DVC is a BUSINESS and the truth is that we as members NEED them to be a successful business so that our investment in the DVC TS doesn't go belly up. These are business decisions. As for raising the minimum points number for resale members to buy direct and get all perks/discounts/accesses, I am in agreement. DVC was the only TS I am aware of that did NOT have big restrictions for their resale owners, and they had that stand for a lot of years. Buy any other TS out there resale, and see if you can get the same perks as someone that bought direct from that company.

 

[skier_pete]

After thinking about it, I do not think it's worth new members compromising your preferred resort choice just to make this deadline so I don't think I will buy the SSR points if they do come up. This is a long term contract that will more than likely cost you to sell if you don't like it. I personally think it's worth it to spend the money upfront to get this right but realize that everyone has their own financial priorities.

I agree with this statement. It's easy to forget that you are not buying this for the perks - you are buying for the cheap hotel rates.

I just ran the numbers - we are stacking several trips this year, basically using 2 UY worth of points. Staying for 19 nights at Disney via DVC. (7 nights BWV, 4 nights WLV, 3 nights AKV, 5 nights BCV). My total cost, including the buy-in value on the points and the MF, is $2841 - a mere $149 a night. (and 3 nights I'm paying a premium because I rented points from a friend.)

I then recalculated the equivalent cost using 2017 rack rates, and taking a 20% discount off rack (as typical Disney discount nowadays) but also included 12.5% tax. Total came to $8536, or $449 per night, almost $5700 total cost savings. Just this year.

Now in fact - DVC didn't save me that much money - because I simply never would have stayed at these resorts otherwise - I likely would be at a moderate, and also wouldn't be staying 19 days this year. But still, the cost combined with the quality of the resorts and the quality of my vacation is the reason to buy DVC and specifically DVC resale. NOT because you can go to a 3 hour after hours event once every 5 years that you happen to be there, or because you get $100 off an AP. It's important to remember these things when changes like this come along.

 

[Wakey]

I get where you are coming from with that: There is less incentive to buy 25 through Disney because that amount of points no longer carries perks, plus people looking to get 100 points would get 75 direct and 25 resale. The problem with that prediction is that you also have to factor in about $600 in closing costs on those 25 points. That already brings the price up close to direct sales cost, so there is not much room for a 25 point contract to increase in price to start with.

25 point contracts always been at a big premium with no perks since 2016. That won't change. People want them as a way in to DVC at minimal cost. They can't get them from Disney. As DVC grows, 25 point contracts will no longer grow and become proportionately rarer.