Garden City Event-Any Reports?

[carlbarry]

I just got back from the 1 pm show, which was for non-owners. Here are the incentives they offered us, after telling us that the points are $112, and will go up to $120 in October. Also note that they did not mention different amounts for different properties:
160-199 points- $12
200-269 points- $14 + 2 free tickets to Disney Broadway shows
270-319 points- $16
320 points and more- $16 plus 4 free tickets
Also they are giving the '09 points and "only" charging 4 months MF
Closing will be $350, as they are "splitting" the cost.
They didn't really go into which properties were available, although they used BLT as the example. And of course they emphasised such poor use of points as Cruises and Adventures.
Didn't strike me as too great a deal; I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm wrong.

 

[swankybeth]

I just got back from the 1 pm show, which was for non-owners. Here are the incentives they offered us, after telling us that the points are $112, and will go up to $120 in October. Also note that they did not mention different amounts for different properties:
160-199 points- $12
200-269 points- $14 + 2 free tickets to Disney Broadway shows
270-319 points- $16
320 points and more- $16 plus 4 free tickets
Also they are giving the '09 points and "only" charging 4 months MF
Closing will be $350, as they are "splitting" the cost.
They didn't really go into which properties were available, although they used BLT as the example. And of course they emphasised such poor use of points as Cruises and Adventures.
Didn't strike me as too great a deal; I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm wrong.

That is all they mentioned in the presentation but when we sat down with a guide and we told him we were interested in AKV he told us about the $20 per point credit for a 160 point contract and $22 per point for 200 points. It went up as the points went up but we did 200 points so I don't remember the other deals.

 

[MrsG]

I just got back from the 1 pm show, which was for non-owners. Here are the incentives they offered us, after telling us that the points are $112, and will go up to $120 in October. Also note that they did not mention different amounts for different properties:
160-199 points- $12
200-269 points- $14 + 2 free tickets to Disney Broadway shows
270-319 points- $16
320 points and more- $16 plus 4 free tickets
Also they are giving the '09 points and "only" charging 4 months MF
Closing will be $350, as they are "splitting" the cost.
They didn't really go into which properties were available, although they used BLT as the example. And of course they emphasised such poor use of points as Cruises and Adventures.
Didn't strike me as too great a deal; I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm wrong.

In all honesty, I think that it is a fair deal. It will look like a fabulous deal in October when the price goes up considerably. If people want to join, I would say now is the time to do it.

 

[carlbarry]

That is all they mentioned in the presentation but when we sat down with a guide and we told him we were interested in AKV he told us about the $20 per point credit for a 160 point contract and $22 per point for 200 points. It went up as the points went up but we did 200 points so I don't remember the other deals.

Hmmm. That's an interesting way to entice people to buy: keep the lower prices secret. At least at $22 per point it is competitive with resale for AKV, so I find it strange they didn't use that figure during the presentation.

 

[MrsG]

I think that they want to sell out BLT quickly (I'm sure they have their reasons). It's not a large property and has about the same # of rooms as BCV which is very hard to book during peak times if you don't own there. AKV is very large and will take time to sell out. It is unusual that DVC has so many properties available for sale at one time. I think they want to finish off BLT before Hawaii comes on the market.

 

[SophiasDad]

Hi, we are attending the monday 4pm presentation. Can anyone tell us what they had to offer for the dessert buffet?

 

[carlbarry]

Hi, we are attending the monday 4pm presentation. Can anyone tell us what they had to offer for the dessert buffet?

There were a lot of little pastries, a couple of plates of cut up fruit with grapes and strawberries. Also, some containers of what appeared to be tea, coffee, and lemonade. There were three separate buffets in the room, all containing basically the same pastries. If you were planning to make a meal of it . . . no way!

 

[MinnieLee]

Was there any incentives for buying an add-on under 100 pts?

I looked into adding on my BCV with possibly an additional 50-75 points. The price per point was $106. If you bought less than 100 at BLT or AKV the price pp was $107 but the dues at BLT are the lowest at $3.67 pp. I asked why the lesser amount on dues and he explained to me that because that resort was built up instead of sprawling, dues were less.

 

[carlbarry]

I looked into adding on my BCV with possibly an additional 50-75 points. The price per point was $106. If you bought less than 100 at BLT or AKV the price pp was $107 but the dues at BLT are the lowest at $3.67 pp. I asked why the lesser amount on dues and he explained to me that because that resort was built up instead of sprawling, dues were less.

What you are calling "dues" is actually the "maintennance fee" or "MF" as timeshare ("TS") owners call it. The MF is a reflection of the actual cost of maintaining the property. Therefore, newness of property and sprawl of property will affect maintenance cost and the resultant MF.

 

[David Raguso]

FYI the only thing i havent seen people post here is that there are discounts for adding on 50 points, they just dont mention that during the actual presentation. If you ask one of the sale people on site they will take you through the rates.

 

[DisneyNutzy]

We purchased an add on contract for BLT at the 7PM event last night. I was just curious how the add on works with our existing guide? Does she get part of the commission? We purchased in to DVC by resale but our guide has always been very helpful whenever we had questions. The timing hasn't been right to add on until now. Now that we did add on at this event I feel a little guilty we couldn't go through our regular guide. Just curious if anyone knows how this works. Thanks.

 

[crazybones27]

We purchased an add on contract for BLT at the 7PM event last night. I was just curious how the add on works with our existing guide? Does she get part of the commission? We purchased in to DVC by resale but our guide has always been very helpful whenever we had questions. The timing hasn't been right to add on until now. Now that we did add on at this event I feel a little guilty we couldn't go through our regular guide. Just curious if anyone knows how this works. Thanks.

I also would like to know the answer to this question. What's funny is that my Dh and I did a tour back in 2006 and the guide at that time was actually at the show. We always said if we bought in we wanted him to be our guide. When we sat down with the guide who we signed in with he said he would make sure the other guide would be our guide going further. So I'm guessing from that he won't get our commission from yesterday. If I knew our original guide was there I would have waited for him.

 

[jpeka65844]

I also would like to know the answer to this question. What's funny is that my Dh and I did a tour back in 2006 and the guide at that time was actually at the show. We always said if we bought in we wanted him to be our guide. When we sat down with the guide who we signed in with he said he would make sure the other guide would be our guide going further. So I'm guessing from that he won't get our commission from yesterday. If I knew our original guide was there I would have waited for him.

If I remember correctly, DVC guides do not work on commission. Just, if at all possible, you're directed to do business with the same one for your transactions.....

 

[hardingk]

We purchased an add on contract for BLT at the 7PM event last night. I was just curious how the add on works with our existing guide? Does she get part of the commission? We purchased in to DVC by resale but our guide has always been very helpful whenever we had questions. The timing hasn't been right to add on until now. Now that we did add on at this event I feel a little guilty we couldn't go through our regular guide. Just curious if anyone knows how this works. Thanks.

We added on last night as well. We were told that our guide would get credit for it.

 

[DisneyNutzy]

We added on last night as well. We were told that our guide would get credit for it.

Thanks! I hope so.

 

[rangermom]

We had a great time last night. We actually got there early, since we live 2.5 hrs away, to make sure we knew excatly where to go. They let us go to the 4 pm one and not wait for the 7 pm. Which was great since it meant we got to go home earlier.

Well, we had not planned on adding on right now, but we decided to! We purchased 125 points at VGC. With the incentive of $25 off per point we bought it at $87/pt plus got 2 broadway tickets.

DH and I decided if we added on we would only do it at DL (were we planned to go every 2 years anyway) or more points to our already home resort at AKV. We decided since we are moving to the Grand Canyon in 2 weeks and would be closer to DL it would be a good investment.

I am so excited!!!!

When I told my DS about our new purchase, he said "now we have 3 homes!"

 

[bangzoom6877]

We went at 4PM yesterday. We were really there for our kids, so they could see the characters. We did not add on any points.

The presentation took longer than one hour. It was really cute and nice the first 20-30 minutes but then they started talking about ways we are not interested in using our points, such as cruises and Adventures by Disney. Honestly, we bought our resale at BWV so we could go to BWV every other year for 10 nights with our kids as they grow up, and that is exactly how we intend to use our membership.

Grand Californian Villas looked great! I hope that at some point in the future, like when my boys are teens maybe (in about 10-12 years from now), we could get an accommodation there at 7 months out. It looks beautiful and we had planned on taking them to Disneyland in California at some point anyway. It would be nice to do it on points at a DVC resort. Disneyland's expansions also look awesome!

I was not at all interested in Hong Kong, Tokyo, or Paris theme parks, as we don't intend to ever go to those.

The one thing I found very interesting and intriguing was that they said there are a couple of new Disney Cruiseline ships being built and that there will be a new departure port and we should get ready to write it down. Hmm...could the port be New York? But then, they said they couldn't tell us yet because they did not know what that port would be, but while we had our pen and paper ready we could write down all the incentives for purchasing an add-on contract! Nice segue! I am interested though...I would love to do a Disney cruise out of NY! But I would pay cash for it, not do it on points.

My older son went to the kids' activity center and he had lots of fun. He is 4. The little one is only 2 and not potty-trained so he couldn't go and stayed with us (they had to be 3 and potty-trained). He got impatient after a little while but we kept him busy with coloring. Other kids were also getting impatient but I never found any of them to be bothersome.

The kids LOVED the dessert party with the characters! They got to dance with Pluto and Goofy. We took photos with Mickey and Minnie, and although the line to see them looked long, it was mainly large groups and we only waited about 3 minutes!

We surprised our kids with this event and they were definitely happy! That was the whole idea of going so we are so glad we went! And we are proud of ourselves that we said before going that we were not going to add-on and we did not add-on! It's just not the right thing for us, so I'm very happy with our decision.

 

[gk90]

Grand Californian Villas looked great! I hope that at some point in the future, like when my boys are teens maybe (in about 10-12 years from now), we could get an accommodation there at 7 months out. It looks beautiful and we had planned on taking them to Disneyland in California at some point anyway. It would be nice to do it on points at a DVC resort. Disneyland's expansions also look awesome!

/snip/

The one thing I found very interesting and intriguing was that they said there are a couple of new Disney Cruiseline ships being built and that there will be a new departure port and we should get ready to write it down. Hmm...could the port be New York? But then, they said they couldn't tell us yet because they did not know what that port would be, but while we had our pen and paper ready we could write down all the incentives for purchasing an add-on contract! Nice segue! I am interested though...I would love to do a Disney cruise out of NY! But I would pay cash for it, not do it on points.

We'd love to do California as well, maybe on points when the expansion at DCA is done.

I didn't hear what you did about the new port--DCL out of NY would be awesome!

 

[bangzoom6877]

We'd love to do California as well, maybe on points when the expansion at DCA is done.

I didn't hear what you did about the new port--DCL out of NY would be awesome!

It would be great if they sailed out of NY, but I can't help but wonder if the only reason they mentioned a "new port" is because they were just trying to get everyone's attention, this IS NY and many people are probably wondering if Disney will ever cruise out of here, and they really wanted everyone to hear and pay attention to what they were really about to talk about, which was the add-on incentives they were offering. Who knows? I told my sister and she said that if Disney ever cruises out of NY she is BOOKING!!!

 

[carlbarry]

This is from the New York Examiner on line:
According to the Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Dream is expected to set sail in 2011. Disney Cruise Line's second new ship, the Disney Fantasy, is scheduled to launch in 2012. The two ships will double the Disney Cruise Line's current capacity, adding 1,250 staterooms per ship. Both new ships will be based at Port Canaveral, Florida, which is currently being expanded to accommodate the additional ships and guests. Starting in 2011, the Disney Wonder will be based at the Port of Los Angeles.