From a UK point of view, How good is the DVC??

[Littlegem]

What I would like to know is if any of you have ever used your DVC membership to book one of the other Vacations that are offered within the Timeshare club??

My problem is that I went to view SSR back in 2005 & was quite impressed by the whole DVC idea... BUT.... My DH is not the type of person who would want to vacation at WDW more than every 5 yrs or so ( thats if I could get him to go that often..! ) ....

I have just dug my book out again with details of the DVC membership in it & realised that we could go other places instead & use our points for a vacation there...

The problem is that I don't know realistically how easy or difficult this is to do.. ??

Also my husband is worried that we will be tied to a particular time of the year to take our vacation depending on how much we pay, but I hope I am right in thinking that you can go whenever you like, subject to availability, and enough points of course..!

If anyone has any experience they can share I would be really grateful, as I am back in Florida in 4 weeks time for a trip with my baby son, and plan to make another appoinment with the DVC club to explore the possibility of taking a membership...

Hope to hear from you all soon,

Hazel,Chris & Travis

 

[Pootle]

The Timeshare 'experts' on the US boards (see posts by Dean in particular if you wish to search) always say you should not buy into DVC for trading out purposes and that there are cheaper ways to achieve that objective (eg, buying a different, cheaper but easy-to-trade timeshare and trading into DVC every now and then). However, the occasional trade out should work well.

I've never done it myself, but I know there are UK DVC members who have traded out and have been happy with their trades.

Generally though, DVC works best - in terms of value at least - if you go at least every other year (or every third year if you plan it well enough), use your points only at DVC resorts and are 'light' on weekend use.

If you are only thinking of going every 5 years or so, you might be better renting points from a member. You shouldn't have any problems renting points for SSR.

 

[Littlegem]

Thanks very much Moira,I appreciate the advice...

I must admit I don't know exactly how the DVC points are traded for one of the worldwide holidays, except that you have to make the reservation through WDW DVC hotline... I just assumed that it was all part of the WDW corperation....

Obviously they have bought into a bigger time share company & just swap your points for the trip you want if available...

Oh, well... If it was me I would go at least everyother year ( i have been the last 4, & again this October..! ) but DH just isn't interested...

I hoped to get him excited about the Golfing opportunitys & Scuba Diving ( in the more exotic locations available to DVC members ) so I could justify buying one for me mostly..HA!

Perhaps I need to look at it more carefully before I throw money away on something that will not be so good for us...

Thanks again, Hazel

 

[Pootle]

I think I understand your situation completely

When we bought, we had been going to WDW often because it was a good place for us when our son was young. Even then by 1996, that was coming to an end and so DH was most reluctant to commit to DVC.

Fast forward 11 years (can't believe it's been so long) and DH sees the DVC resorts as places to have a really restful holiday. We were there in April this year after a harrowing start to the year and we went to our favourites, OKW and Vero Beach and it was perfect. Just so restful and what we needed. We only went into the parks for 1 day but found plenty to keep us occupied. Whilst we do go to other places (Canada next week ), the DVC resorts are now the places we associate with total relaxation - a very different scenario to when our son was young and we knew every inch of the parks.

Check out the threads for Disney's Hilton Head DVC resort too - a golfer's paradise as well as Disney's Vero Beach Resort. These give you non-WDW options.

Disney uses Interval International for exchanges and there is also a fee to be paid in addition to the points.

I think you are right to research the whole thing very carefully though. For us it's been wonderful and worth every penny

 

[lesley.a.murray@talk]

Hi Littlegem,
I was kind of in your situation about a month ago.

I'll cut a very long story short to say that we are now waiting to see if we have passed ROFR!!

What changed it for DH was showing him the alternative destinations with Interval International. Now, we may never do it, it may not be a good use of points, BUT it was enough to sway him! I wasn't devious or anything..I don't even have the book that you are talking about. I basically asked on a forum for the website and I showed DH the other destinations. We are just back from touring the Canadian Rockies and when he saw there were hotels in Whistler we could go to....he completely changed his mind! That did it!

Now, for years (we've gone to WDW since 1990) we have joked about coming back to WDW when the DD's have gone( now 13 &9) and that has become an attraction also. We envisage ourselves dining our way around Epcot, watching Illuminations and sauntering back to BCV!! What a dream.
Granted, we are tied to once a year with expensive flights and school holidays for the next 8-10 years or so but after that....we hope to nipping off at short notice whenever it suits us.

We feel that although villas are wonderful and other hotels are nice, we love being in the WDW resorts. Thats our choice. We don't try and convince or even explain to our friends who stay elsewhere, its just OUR CHOICE to be on WDW.

I hear DVC owners only have one regret....that they didn't buy in sooner.
We took the tour about 5 years ago but didn't do it due to a building project we were about to start and we didn't want to tie up cash. I've paid a lot to WDW hotels in that 5 years that would have paid for my DVC!!!


Good Luck!

 

[angel659]

I have and had the same reservations as you. We love Disney and people are right who knows what the future holds will we still love Disney. If not Florida is not all about Disney you can do other things i.e relaxing by the pool, shopping, water parks and other DVC resorts as mentioned above. I know that even if we didnt want to go to Disney when we are older or we just simply could not afford park tickets for whatever reason we have a kitchen and pool. You can just have a relaxing holiday instead. Especially the beach resorts.

I am definately up for signing up, just depends if Bruce will in November.

 

[jjpenguin]

I was just talking to DH about this the other day, after 5 or 6 DVC holidays it is now much more a place for us to relax, unwind, enjoy the great atmosphere, excellent service and the fab weather. We don't have to dash around the parks but can enjoy breakfast on the balcony, potter around the resort, go to the pool and end up with a great dinner at one of the resorts.

We have exchanged to Spain and the process was very easy and the place we stayed at was nice. I'm sure we will exchange again, Canada is high on our list and there are also so many places in the US we would love to go.

I will be going on a quick solo trip at the end of the month, which I can do as all I have to do is book a flight and phone member services. That will be a more park oriented trip.

We look at it as a pre-paid holiday and feel as it's so flexible it works for us. We don't see exchanging as a hassle or a bad value as we don't have to shell out the cash ;-) The points are there anyway.

 

[SammieG]

we own three timeshares including dvc.. and trading out is usually easy.

DVC will be one of the most sought after properties so you wont have any problems getting something good via II (the exchange company).. however.. as another poster said.. if youre not going to use DVC that often its a jolly expensive way of buying into the system.

Your best bet is to look at the DVC partners in II and choose one of them to purchase at.... it will almost certainly be cheaper to do that and dues etc will also be cheaper most likely because they dont have the overheads that disney resorts have.

When you have one of these resorts (it must be one on disneys list though) im expecting you can trade IN to disney from time to time and that would seem the cheaper and more sensible option to me.

We trade out of our timeshares all the time.. infact, we own one in Lanzarote that we have never been to, but trade to Florida every year..

(this is a classic example of a good trade.. we have a one bed apartment on a good apartment complex in lanzarote.. we trade our 1 bed in lanzarote for a 2 or 3 bed in Florida (thats because we have a good exchange value on our property and also because Orlandos market is saturated with good time shares..)

 

[Littlegem]

My Sincere Thanks to everyone who has replied today....


I just know that this will be a tough descision to make....

My heart wants me to jump in and buy into the DVC straight away, but I dare say the sensible side will kick in at some point & rein in my fantasys of buying at least 500 DVC points
Hopefully I will work out a comprimise that both DH & I can live with..

Who knows, perhaps I won't have to decide at all & I will just be picked to get the DVC membership, during Octobers WDW visit!!!

Well a girl can dream can't she....

Disney Wishes to you all,

Hazel

 

[mark&sue]

We have used our DVC points for an exchange in Devon in half term, a stay at the New York Hotel at Disneyland Paris and this year we used them for the Disney Cruise. All of the these transactions with member services went very smoothly and quickly. We absolutely loved the cruise and know for sure if we were not DVC members we would never have tried it. We see it that we have paid for our points when we purchased in 2004 the money has long gone and is done and dusted and therefore the cruise was a freebie. We are now considering waiting to see if there will be a med cruise again in 2009 and banking our 2008 points to use for this instead of renting out as we were previously thinking. The chances of it hitting my only two week holiday window at work is slim but have our fingers crossed.

I know that everyone says rent out your points and use the cash for other holidays but we will consider this as a last resort.

My DH is a bit fed up with Disney after four years on the trot and we are going to have a two year break. We will probably rent our next year and bank for the next and perhaps take friends with us.

The only big downside as recently mentioned on this forum is the price of flights during school holidays times. However DVC is for a long time and there will be periods of our lives that we do not have to go during peak times.

Good luck with your decision.


Susan

 

[Littlegem]

Thanks Sue,

Its nice to hear from someone who has sucessfully swapped there points for something other than WDW...

Just one question, how do you find the maintainance fees..?? Have they increased much during the time you have had your DVC memebership?

Thanks in advance, Hazel

 

[Sue's Mum]

We have exchanged our points a couple of times for holidays at the Tanque Verde Ranch in Arizona. The points requirement does seem to increase per year, unlike the points for a Disney resort which stay static (more or less) each year. So, I dare say that we would not have enough points now to go to the Ranch.

As for the annual dues, I think any increases are pegged at no more than 5% per year.

 

[Littlegem]

Thanks Jan...

On the whole are you glad that you bought into the DVC...

My heart is still having a battle with my head, over whether this is a good thing or not..!

I know my husband will definately want to do stuff other than WDW..

Also I hope you don't mind me asking... do you guy's have a small or larger number of points..?

I will look at getting 160 - 200 to start & then bank & borrow as needed..

Thanks, Hazel

 

[Sue's Mum]

Hazel, we're glad we bought into DVC and have often wished we had done it sooner. The money we spent on on-site hotels could have been plowed into DVC.

We have 236 points which is ample for our needs. There is just the two of us and a studio meets all our requirements. I don't want to be cooking meals on holiday and a 1 bedroom unit would be a complete waste. Before we purchased DVC we only used to have one hotel room. We have two adult children (one of each) and I have slept with DD and DH slept with DS. None of us is too prudish but respect each other's privacy. We have managed quite well.

DD and her family bought DVC points about 18 months ago but they require a 1-bedroom unit, as their DS is a little livewire and would think it great fun to sleep with mummy and daddy. Also grandson starts school next September and they will be stuck with school holidays - probably Easter, one of the two most "expensive" times of the year to visit.

The number of points a person needs depends on their own lifestyle, personalities and time of year it is intended to visit. A lot to think about and put together.

Also not good if you're only going to visit every five years, IMHO. I think you would soon find that the number of points you needed for an exchange was more than you actually had available.