Has anybody moved to Florida AFTER you bought DVC?

[anniet]

And if you did, how did it change the way you use your points?

Thanks!

 

[vernon]

I will be ( hopefully) in a couple of months. I'm expecting to make more use of Vero, HH and maybe save up points for a cruise. Another possible use is for friends and family when they come to WDW to visit. After several years of points debt , I'm hoping to be able to get square with my use years or maybe even be able to bank some .

 

[Frozenfingers]

I'm still dreaming..

 

[EeyoreJMH]

Funny to see this topic-- my DH and I may possibly be moving to the Orlando area later this year if his job is transferred. Oddly enough, my first thought was-- "What happens with DVC then? Will we have to sell it?"

But then I thought about it and realized we'd be able to use the membership for stuff outside of WDW (he hasn't convinced me to do this yet-- I think I'm a WDW addict . . .) We went to Hilton Head briefly back in 2001 and I'd love to go back for a longer stay. Plus, this might actually get me out to DisneyLAND So it looks like we're keeping DVC no matter what

 

[anniet]

We are actually looking in an area a little over an hour away--somewhere between Melbourne and Vero Beach, so I know we'll keep DVC---just thinking we'll be making shorter trips for one or two nights, rather than our usual 12 nights in January.

C'mon all you Floridians, how do you use your DVC??????

 

[anniet]

****Aaackkk double post!*****

 

[lehrsj]

We purchased DVC in 1993 and moved to Orlando in 1997. Every couple of years I have my family (12 - 15 people) in for 9 - 10 days so I use the points that way. We also will stay at DVC when friends come in to town.

 

[lehrsj]

We purchased DVC in 1993 and moved to Orlando in 1997. Every couple of years I have my family (12 - 15 people) in for 9 - 10 days so I use the points that way. We also will stay at DVC when friends come in to town. And I plan to use more of Vero Beach in the future.

 

[floridafam]

We're looking at moving to Vero Beach soon if DH gets his job transfer.

We will keep our points.

We figure that we will take book a lot of 1 or 2 night stays if we live in town and just spend the weekend at the resort relaxing. We would probably book for Halloween and a few of the other holidays.

Also, it's kind of nice to know that if he needed to, DH could use some of our points to stay at the resort while he is looking for a house/apartment for us-he would go to Florida ahead of us. I would be really jealous if he did this, though.

A nice benefit for us is that the resort has a Bank One ATM and this would save us a ton in fees while we take money out during the moving process.

 

[Deemarch]

My DH is looking and we would be in the Melbourne area. It would not change much for us...Maybe more Sunday to Friday trips. We would also treat family to visits to WDW when they come to visit us.

We are looking forward to it!!

Denise

 

[thegoods]

We moved to South Florida from Illinois in 2000 for a new job opportunity. We purchased VB in 98 and OKW in 2000 before we moved.

When we moved, we wondered how we would make best use of our points and we wondered if we would still want to own DVC. After nearly four years of experience, I can say we love DVC that much more. Instead of planning longer trips, we take advantage of numerous short trips. We have gotten very adept at planning trips around our son's school schedule as well. This year we have done, or will do, a Beach Cottage for three nights (2 nights cash), five nights at HH, 5 nights at VWL, 2 nights at BCV, 3 nights OKW, and 3 nights at VB. Some studios, some 1 BR. All of these trips but one have avoided weekends.

I personally like many shorter trips to get away from it all. My stay at home wife would prefer the longer trips. In 05 I will give in and take longer trips.

In addition to our overnight stays, we have made several short day trips to VB just for lunch or drinks. Its nice being able to do that. We also cruised on partial points. It was nice leaving for port from home and stopping at VB for breakfast on the way!

In a nutshell, we like DVC more since we have moved!

 

[KNWVIKING]

We just had a motorhome customer come into the dealership. He owned at OKW for several years. Retired, moved into Celebration, went to for for Disney 2 days a week, and sold all his points.

Personally, I want to move to Fl in about 3 years but I want to live a couple hours away....probably north of WDW. I think that will allow DVC trips to still feel special.

 

[mickg7dyd]

Hi,
I would live there tomorrow if they'd let me..!!

Mick.

 

[colleen costello]

My parents are starting to make sounds about "retiring in Florida." Since them moving there is as close as I will get for a while, I am nagging them like crazy... Mom and I have talked about DVC and would be thrilled to have more flexibility in our planning. For example, if my family went to stay with my parents for a Florida Xmas, we could stay at WDW for the days "before" when points are low. We could see all the decorations, do the Xmas party, then head back to their place just as all heck breaks loose and points go up. My parents are looking around Ocala/Leesburg as friends have retired there and love it. I think living close would just give you more flexibility with your points.

I hope it works out for you two

 

[Paula H]

Great thread - very timely for my family. DH was offered a job just last week in Orlando. We've been tossing around the idea since the first of the year, and turned down an offer in the spring to stay here in New England with family. The current offer is still pending, but I suspect we'll be sticking it out here a bit longer (let's face it - it's a ton cheaper to live in Fla. but coming from the northeast, we'd be taking an enormous pay cut!). But, should we go, our plan is to keep DVC and use it a VB and HHI, and a night here and there at WDW. No way would I give it up!

 

[ducklite]

Yes! We'll use our for other travel, Vero, and rent them from time to time as well.

Anne

 

[madcoco]

ducklite: Your home looks very nice. Enjoy your new vacation home!

We were just discussing this the other night. We currently rent in Melbourne Beach. It has not changed our staying habits at VB. However, just put a deposit down on a homesite in a Lake Nona development( MCO Airport area )Plan on doing the switch sometime in 2005. All out points are at VB. We probably will change our staying habits at WDW to shorter stays. May give us a chance to try exchanging in the future.

 

[Scoootch]

We moved here to FL from N.J. and it's created a monster lol! Now that we can pick up and go whenever we want to without airfare being involved or too long a car ride (we live an hour and a half away) we just cannot have enough points! We didn't find we wanted to stay overnight less, we found we wanted to go all the time lol! Learned the hard way not to use up our points for all those weekend trips -- which by the way feel like teasers. Cannot wait for our week long trip upcoming in Sept. Haven't taken a real weeks vacation since moving here 3 yrs ago.

So for us we found moving closer made us want to go more often -- Need more points!

 

[laceemouse]

Paula, I would do a lot of checking before making the decision to move. People look at AVERAGE home prices in the south and think WOW, but the average home might not be what you want or where you want to live. My husband is from Jacksonville and we lived there for many years. While we love and miss Florida, we did not live in an average home, it would be WAY too small for our family of 6 and not in the school boundary that we wanted. Prices of homes are going up there all the time too. DH was offered a job in Dallas a couple of years ago. My family is in Louisiana so we would love Texas. Anyway, it payed 1/3 what he makes in Chicago. When we checked out houses down there (we would want Plano) we could not afford what we wanted on that salary. Still, we would love to go back south if the right job came through. I am jealous of anyone who gets to move to Florida, and WE would never give up our DVC. Like a previous poster said, I would rather live a short drive away from WDW than in Orlando so it would still seem like a get-away!!! We did not have DVC when we lived in Jacksonville, but we still enjoyed our Disney trips. Good luck to all of you deciding whether or not to move.

 

[Paula H]

Laceemouse - what you point it is exactly where we're at. The home we really want is a STEAL compared to CT prices. I found the area and community in Fla. that I want to raise our family in and after days down there in the spring looking around, I'm not budging on the house part. The same house here would easily be close to $400,000. But the homes are above the Fla. average, and after learning what the pay is like, I can understand why most of the homes in the community are purchased by people moving into Florida, as opposed to Floridians. It's such a hard decision. The job is truly a dream job for DH, but as a stay at home mom who would be moving a thousand miles from home, I feel I need to be somewhere where I want to be, too. Thanks for your advice. And yes, even though we'd only be a short drive from WDW, I have no doubt we'd still use our points, and probably would want more!