Future of Disney and future of DVC

[Mai Ku Tiki]

Good points, Lisa P.! As far as ownership costs, they are what they are at time of purchase...they (at least) won't go up once you sign on the dotted line. The maintainance fees can increase but are limited by the purchase contract...I'm not an expert on this, but I believe that ,so far, increases have been minimal.

In the end, it's a personal decision. For us, though, it's the right one! Forty years of GUARANTEED Disney memories! Yippee!!!

 

[SlyHubby]

Originally posted by mapny
I don't think of my DVC membership as an investment, but rather as a way to pre-pay for vacations. I have financed my purchase a OKW (5 years left to pay) and will be financing my purchase at BCV over 10 years also.... I realize that I will own nothing tangible in 40 years, but will have had many fun and memorable vacations. That's more than worth it for me.

When we purchased our DVC membership a couple years ago, we had the same perspective. It wasn't an investment, but considering how many times we had been travelling to Disney over the couple years prior, it made sense from a financial point of view. For the types of accommodations we were getting, the DVC membership would have come close to paying for itself already. Since then, we've gotten good use out of our membership, and it has probably paid for itself. But, the way that Disney/DVC has made it's own market by ratcheting up and maintaining price supports changes things somewhat. It's an interesting question/situation that I had not even considered at the time of purchase, but does become an important part of the equation of if/when to sell. Not that it should be, but because it has gone up in value, it has become more than a vacation investment at this point, but a financial one as well.

 

[DemoBri1]

I was on the fence on buying into DVC, and here's somewhat how I went about convincing myself...DW was convinced a loooonggg time ago.

Looking at the minimum number of points to buy in at (150), I multiplied that out by 40 years and came up with the possibility of utilizing up to 6000 points over the life of the membership. Dividing that by the $12,000 you are paying in, and it costs you about $2 a point over the lifetime of the membership.

Now...take that $2 multiply it by 150 and you come up with a base $300. In reality if you are staying in a studio for a week during a value season, which we are in now with these discounts, you would only need to utilize 106 points at say BCV or BWV. That comes out to a base of $212. Add in the $590 for dues for the year and you come out with approximately $900 for a weeks stay.

At $150/night for a week at a Deluxe, you are getting a smaller room with no kitchenette for $1,050.

I may be off base here, but the logic seems sound.

In any event, I am certain that there probably always will be discounts available, that's just the nature of the industry, but will they be at this level??? Probably not.

If you're not willing to use DVC every other year at the minimum, you should probably think long and hard about buying in. I have perused these boards night and day talking with people, and have even talked with some DVC members in person at a local Disney Store. I have yet to run into someone that really disliked DVC.

I was worried about the state of Disney as a company as well before making the purchase. Heck...I own stock in the company that is now worth less than 1/2 of what I paid for it. Will Disney survive? More than likely YES. Will they be the same company, probably not. In the coming months and years you will probably see Disney in the news quite a bit with selling off some stuff, and maybe buying into other things to try out different niches. Will Disney still own WDW and Disneyland in 30-40 years as one previous poster asked? I can't believe that they wouldn't, after all these were Walt's dream concepts!! Now...I could see the Paris and/or Asian parks possibly finding new ownership if the state of affairs gets too desparate, but we are nowhere near that yet. Let's just see what happens in the next couple of years.

Just my $.02

 

[mapny]

SlyHubby,

Actualy, that's good to know that my DVC ownership may have some financial investment value. From that point of view, it seems like "extra icing" on the cake. Thanks for that perspective.

 

[Regina]

It never bothered me that our ownership was going to revert back to Disney after 50 years.

Just my humble opinion, it's far more important to pass along 50 years of wonderful vacation memories to our children (and hopefully grandchildren some day) than a piece of property.