Has anyone bought DVC whilst out there?

[tinkerpea]

Hi,
I was going to ask this on the UK DVC section but it really doesn't seem to get many people on there from 1 month to the next lol,

We have been thinking about DVC for a while now, and so with me having to go through surgery again for the 4th time and finding out its way more serious then we ever would have liked( I now have a Picc line in and nurses come out to me every day to give me meds)
I thought I wanted to do something special with some of the money from our house sale so that if anything happens to me my boys can carry on enjoying Disney and knowing that at least the accommodation is paid for!!

Plus if all goes well and I actually do manage to fight this then we will have something to look forward to
We're going out at the end of October and wondered what people have done regarding buying DVC out there?

1. Does it take up much of your holiday time?
2. Is it simpler then doing it back in the UK.
3. Any perks for being on holiday and popping in asking for a tour and then buying lol.

We're going back again in may and hopefully doing a cruise too, I wanted to at least book it next wk and pay the deposit, if we buy DVC will they change over our booking to reflect and use the points if I book at DVC resort.

Thanks

 

[MrRomance]

Hi,
I was going to ask this on the UK DVC section but it really doesn't seem to get many people on there from 1 month to the next lol,

We have been thinking about DVC for a while now, and so with me having to go through surgery again for the 4th time and finding out its way more serious then we ever would have liked( I now have a Picc line in and nurses come out to me every day to give me meds)
I thought I wanted to do something special with some of the money from our house sale so that if anything happens to me my boys can carry on enjoying Disney and knowing that at least the accommodation is paid for!!

Plus if all goes well and I actually do manage to fight this then we will have something to look forward to
We're going out at the end of October and wondered what people have done regarding buying DVC out there?

1. Does it take up much of your holiday time?
2. Is it simpler then doing it back in the UK.
3. Any perks for being on holiday and popping in asking for a tour and then buying lol.

We're going back again in may and hopefully doing a cruise too, I wanted to at least book it next wk and pay the deposit, if we buy DVC will they change over our booking to reflect and use the points if I book at DVC resort.

Thanks

First and foremost, I hope that your health improves quickly and send you good thoughts and pixie dust to help you fight your way back to health.

Now, for the DVC question.... we did the tour last and year. It's at Saratoga Springs and it takes about 90 minutes. Typically, the do offer some sort of incentive to do the tour (but not always) in our case they gave us FP cards that were good for fast passes for 3 rides each. They also give you a free ice cream!

We don't own DVC and decided against it because we're hoping to to move to Florida instead but we did look into it quite heavily for a while. I guess the biggest question is what would you be looking to use your points for because in some cases, it is much better to buy resale rather than direct from Disney. The only reason we could find not to go the resale route was if you wanted to use your points on one of the options that are restricted under a resale contract.

When we did the tour (last Feb), the figures we got were $115 per point for Saratoga, $120 for Animal Kingdom or $125 for Bay Lake. We didn't buy on the spot, because typically, they'll call you when you're back home and offer you a better deal (they did with us but by then we had decided we were moving and I don't recall the figures!). Resale at that time we could have bought for $55-65 for SSR, $68-75 for AK and $90 for Bay Lake. It's a huge difference and because we were only ever interested in using our points at WDW, resale would have been fine.

My tips would be do the tour, get the incentives if they have them. Tell them you'll think about it and call them when you have had chance to look at the figures and work it out. They will probably call you about a month after you get home. Look at resale if that will work for you and weigh it all up. Remember you don't really get your accommodation "paid for" you will have annual dues that you'll have to pay every year whether you go or not and those are around $5-6 per point, so at the very least you're paying that for your accommodation each year.

 

[disneyholic family]

the annual dues are quite expensive...
i believe it still works out to less than you would pay to stay in a room each year, but just keep in mind that it's not as if you pay once and you're done..

i've done the tour twice over the years, and every now and then i consider it, but so far i haven't taken the plunge..

in the past few months, i've begun thinking i should have bought a holiday house while prices have been so low...

i still would like to, but don't know a reputable agency to help me navigate the issues of buying an overseas property..

 

[crabbie1]

Hi cindy hope you are getting better hun. Such an awful time you are having. Well I am obviously going to say yes as I bought back in 2011. I presume you will be buying outright? If so I would probably go with the resale option as others have said its a LOT cheaper. I had to take disneys finance at the time but I am hoping to swap it for a UK loan as it is a much lower percentage rate. When we bought I knew I wanted to buy at WL . The lease term is not as long but I cant see me going when Im 80 odd but it is one of the lower cost per point at $102 a point and although they were pushing SSR and BLT I knew where I wanted as my home resort.
To me it was a lot less and although you cannot book any other resort till the 7 month window In the 2years I have owned I have been able to get into all the other DVC resorts when I have reached that 7 month window. I think if you are intending to go at peak times it would not be the case but if you look at the size of the resorts akl,okw,ssr are huge so you would more likely get a room there than say WL or BLT.
For a 180 points I pay $224 a month and then dues on top. I pay £60 a month into a bank account and this year I am loading up my fiarfx card to pay the dues as barclays kindly charged me £21 for the privilege!
The extas you get with the perks and hvg the tables in wonderland card 10% off a lot of restaurants without the card plus the shops all ads up.
All I can say is do the tour but be warned they make it sound so tempting. We also had fastpasses icecream dd went into the club.
If you want to know anything else feel free to ask.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[Elise79]

We toured and then bought from home direct from Disney (we bought BLT pre-opening). Tour took close to 2 hours. The incentive to take the tour varies from time to time. Sometimes it's gift cards (although haven't heard that for a while), sometimes FPs but nearly always ice cream.

DVC do not give any special pricing although they sell the offers as limited time they are not really. They also do not negotiate. The only exception to,this can be on a cruise - they sometimes offer something in addition to the standard incentives such as an on board credit.

You can find all the latest pricing here: DVC News - this is kept upto date.

As others have said remember the annual dues which have to paid in January unless you have a US checking account then they can be paid monthly.

While you are DVC news have a look around they have great information on buying DVC. It's a long term commitment and not cheap either.

 

[tinkerpea]

Thanks all, sorry it took so long to reply the treatment is kicking my *** right now

I've done a lot of research on DVC as we have wanted to buy since 2006 ( and wish we had of done back then!!)
So it's not a spare of the moment thing just because I'm so sick, but being sick has made me realise that I really want to buy!
We spend on average around £10,000 a trip every other yr and at least £6/7000 of that is accommodation as we do 3 wks and stay at Akl or SSR when we can.

So my thinking is that if I can just pay the accommodation side off then we can just pay our flights tickets and DDP if we want it, im thinking though as the boys get older that after our next 2 trips in october and may that we wont need the plan as much due to not doing so many character meals!
also if we move with the posting ( its postponed right now due to my treatment ) then smaller trips with the DVC will be perfect

I think resale would be perfect for us due to what we want to use it for, I guess I'm just impatient lol & I've heard resale takes FOREVER as you have to find a suitable lot then go through right of refusal ( see I did do my homework ! Lol)

 

[disneyholic family]

Thanks all, sorry it took so long to reply the treatment is kicking my *** right now

I've done a lot of research on DVC as we have wanted to buy since 2006 ( and wish we had of done back then!!)
So it's not a spare of the moment thing just because I'm so sick, but being sick has made me realise that I really want to buy!
We spend on average around £10,000 a trip every other yr and at least £6/7000 of that is accommodation as we do 3 wks and stay at Akl or SSR when we can.

So my thinking is that if I can just pay the accommodation side off then we can just pay our flights tickets and DDP if we want it, im thinking though as the boys get older that after our next 2 trips in october and may that we wont need the plan as much due to not doing so many character meals!
also if we move with the posting ( its postponed right now due to my treatment ) then smaller trips with the DVC will be perfect

I think resale would be perfect for us due to what we want to use it for, I guess I'm just impatient lol & I've heard resale takes FOREVER as you have to find a suitable lot then go through right of refusal ( see I did do my homework ! Lol)

keep in mind that to do 3 weeks a year at DVC takes a lot of points...especially if you want a 1 or 2 bedroom...but even in a studio...

if you were to go only every 3 years, than you could bank and borrow from the other two years and that would work....but if you want to go every year for 3 weeks - that's a LOT of points...

as i mentioned, we're now looking into buying a holiday place...i think maybe a condo as that would be the least expensive to buy, yet the rental is still pretty good....and we'll have it to use...i figure now that the kids are married, eventually they may want to travel there on their own with their families and they'd be able to use it as well...

 

[zavandor]

Resale takes more time. From start to finish for me it was 2 months the first time and 2 and a half month the second time. If you buy direct, you can have points in your account in a few days after payment, probably less than a week.

Let's say that you want buy 200 points at AKV, that is one of your favorite. You can buy direct and pay 140$ per point after incentives, less 1000$ credit. The total would be $27,000 and you can have points loaded in your account in a few days.
Or you can try to find a contract resale. You might have to wait for the right amount or the right UY, but AKV is a big resort so there are many contracts out there, shouldn't be difficult to find one that suits you. Prices vary a lot, but it shouldn't be difficult to find somenthing in the 70$ per point range. Less if you wait for a good deal.
Then you make an offer, send it to ROFR (not much of an issue at AKV) and wait, wait wait. Total cost would be something in the $14,500 including closing costs.

Is waiting 2 or 3 months worth $12,500 (or more)? In my opinion: yes! Without any doubt.

Also, buying resale you won't be able to use the points for cruises and other booking like Disney hotels that don't have a DVC resort attached (like the Poly). But before considering this a con, please look at the points chart for these options.
For the cost of 3 nights cruise for one person, you might stay 2 weeks in AKV!
The real value of DVC is for using it for DVC resorts, all other options are nice in theory but an awful value. Also, thse options are very limited (number or rooms bookable with points is very limited) and are not guaranteed. In the past cruise booking was suspended and might be removed tomorrow.

Someone say that in the future they might add more restrictions for resale points, this might be a little (very little) risk for resale. I don't care about it.

 

[Elise79]

Thanks all, sorry it took so long to reply the treatment is kicking my *** right now

I've done a lot of research on DVC as we have wanted to buy since 2006 ( and wish we had of done back then!!)
So it's not a spare of the moment thing just because I'm so sick, but being sick has made me realise that I really want to buy!
We spend on average around £10,000 a trip every other yr and at least £6/7000 of that is accommodation as we do 3 wks and stay at Akl or SSR when we can.

So my thinking is that if I can just pay the accommodation side off then we can just pay our flights tickets and DDP if we want it, im thinking though as the boys get older that after our next 2 trips in october and may that we wont need the plan as much due to not doing so many character meals!
also if we move with the posting ( its postponed right now due to my treatment ) then smaller trips with the DVC will be perfect

I think resale would be perfect for us due to what we want to use it for, I guess I'm just impatient lol & I've heard resale takes FOREVER as you have to find a suitable lot then go through right of refusal ( see I did do my homework ! Lol)

Three weeks is a lot of points - a 1 bed std view at AKV which sleeps 5 is 543 points for 3 weeks or a 2 bed at SSR is 786 points. This is for October which one of the cheaper seasons but keep in mind you might have to travel in more expensive times as the kids get older.

That's going to be huge difference in cost for waiting 6-8 weeks.

Don't forget you still have food & tickets to buy and you will no longer qualify for free dining.

 

[Samaya]

Also, buying resale you won't be able to use the points for cruises and other booking like Disney hotels that don't have a DVC resort attached (like the Poly). But before considering this is a con, please look at the points chart for these options.
For the cost of 3 nights cruise for one person, you might stay 2 weeks in AKV!
The real value of DVC is for using it for DVC resorts, all other options are nice in theory but an awful value. Also, thse options are very limited (number or rooms bookable with points is very limited) and are not guaranteed. In the past cruise booking was suspended and might be removed tomorrow.

Someone say that in the future they might add more restrictions for resale points, this might be a little (very little) risk for resale. I don't care about it.

Completely agree with zavandor's statement above and here's another prime example within The Disney Collection.

It took a minimum of 54 points to stay in a garden view room at The Grand Floridian Resort & Spa plus a $95 fee, whereas the minimum points required to stay in a garden view room at the DVC Villas, Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is only 20-points. If we were looking to buy more points then we would also choose re-sell.

 

[disneyholic family]

Resale takes more time. From start to finish for me it was 2 months the first time and 2 and a half month the second time. If you buy direct, you can have points in your account in a few days after payment, probably less than a week.

Let's say that you want buy 200 points at AKV, that is one of your favorite. You can buy direct and pay 140$ per point after incentives, less 1000$ credit. The total would be $27,000 and you can have points loaded in your account in a few days.
Or you can try to find a contract resale. You might have to wait for the right amount or the right UY, but AKV is a big resort so there are many contracts out there, shouldn't be difficult to find one that suits you. Prices vary a lot, but it shouldn't be difficult to find somenthing in the 70$ per point range. Less if you wait for a good deal.
Then you make an offer, send it to ROFR (not much of an issue at AKV) and wait, wait wait. Total cost would be something in the $14,500 including closing costs.

Is waiting 2 or 3 months worth $12,500 (or more)? In my opinion: yes! Without any doubt.

Also, buying resale you won't be able to use the points for cruises and other booking like Disney hotels that don't have a DVC resort attached (like the Poly). But before considering this a con, please look at the points chart for these options.
For the cost of 3 nights cruise for one person, you might stay 2 weeks in AKV!
The real value of DVC is for using it for DVC resorts, all other options are nice in theory but an awful value. Also, thse options are very limited (number or rooms bookable with points is very limited) and are not guaranteed. In the past cruise booking was suspended and might be removed tomorrow.

Someone say that in the future they might add more restrictions for resale points, this might be a little (very little) risk for resale. I don't care about it.

so you can't use resale points to book non-disney hotels? (e.g hotels in europe)...

 

[wilma-bride]

so you can't use resale points to book non-disney hotels? (e.g hotels in europe)...

Edited: You can only use resale points for booking DVC resorts, RCI exchanges, Club Cordial and Club Intrawest.

 

[Samaya]

Also bear in mind if you're going to require 500-plus points for a 3-week stay.

Not many resell contracts become available for 500-plus points, so it could be a long wait.

AKV and SSR are normally okay to book at 7-months from your arrival date so it wouldn't matter which of DVC resort points you purchased.

We would look for the cheapest but also include the dues payment for at least 20-years.

Although Vero Beach is the lowest cost with most reselling between $43-$47 per point, once you pencil in the difference in annual dues of $7.41 for Vero Beach and say $4.81 for Saratoga Springs, there's an extra cost of $52 per point over a 20-year period when compared to Saratoga Springs.

We also own at Vero and now and again use the Vero points for a beach stay and when we don't, we use those Vero points to stay at any of the other DVC resorts and that's the beauty of the system.

So as long as we book at the 7-month window we can normally book either our first or second choice resort. We've stayed at BLT and AKV this year but we don't own there while next year we're staying at our other home resort of OKW, we love the flexibility of not going back to the same resort.

So when doing your sums bear in mind not only the initial cost of the points but also the annual dues payment as that can mount up especially if you're looking to purchase around 500-points.

500 points at SSR, annual dues for 2013 - $2,405
500 points at WLV, annual dues for 2013 - $2,895
500 points at Vero, annual dues for 2013 - $3,705


2013-Annual Dues copied from http://www.dvc-resales.com/dvclisting.cfm
Bay Lake Tower $4.50, Grand Californian $4.58, Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas $4.77(Subsidized), $6.25, Saratoga Springs $4.81, Old Key West $5.34, Animal Kingdom $5.67, Beach Club Villas $5.65, Wilderness Lodge $5.79, Boardwalk Villas $5.84, Hilton Head $6.02 and Vero Beach $7.41.

 

[disneyholic family]

Also bear in mind if you're going to require 500-plus points for a 3-week stay.

Not many resell contracts become available for 500-plus points, so it could be a long wait.

AKV and SSR are normally okay to book at 7-months from your arrival date so it wouldn't matter which of DVC resort points you purchased.

We would look for the cheapest but also include the dues payment for at least 20-years.

Although Vero Beach is the lowest cost with most reselling between $43-$47 per point, once you pencil in the difference in annual dues of $7.41 for Vero Beach and say $4.81 for Saratoga Springs, there's an extra cost of $52 per point over a 20-year period when compared to Saratoga Springs.

We also own at Vero and now and again use the Vero points for a beach stay and when we don't, we use those Vero points to stay at any of the other DVC resorts and that's the beauty of the system.

So as long as we book at the 7-month window we can normally book either our first or second choice resort. We've stayed at BLT and AKV this year but we don't own there while next year we're staying at our other home resort of OKW, we love the flexibility of not going back to the same resort.

So when doing your sums bear in mind not only the initial cost of the points but also the annual dues payment as that can mount up especially if you're looking to purchase around 500-points.

500 points at SSR, annual dues for 2013 - $2,405
500 points at WLV, annual dues for 2013 - $2,895
500 points at Vero, annual dues for 2013 - $3,705


2013-Annual Dues copied from http://www.dvc-resales.com/dvclisting.cfm
Bay Lake Tower $4.50, Grand Californian $4.58, Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas $4.77(Subsidized), $6.25, Saratoga Springs $4.81, Old Key West $5.34, Animal Kingdom $5.67, Beach Club Villas $5.65, Wilderness Lodge $5.79, Boardwalk Villas $5.84, Hilton Head $6.02 and Vero Beach $7.41.

on the other hand, if you were to pay to stay for 3 weeks in a 2 bedroom at OKW - i'm just guessing that's at least $500/day (probably a lot more than that).
so that would be $10,500 for a 21 day stay in a 2 bedroom.

so even with the annual dues, you'd be saving a great deal of money!!!

i'm starting to think that maybe i should look into DVC again.

i didn't know about resale points. It really does seem to be a very good deal.

I know that people who are already DVC owners buy resale points to add to their points.

But can i also buy resale points? without ever owning directly from DVC?
that is, just buy resale points?

 

[disneyholic family]

Edited: You can only use resale points for booking DVC resorts, RCI exchanges, Club Cordial and Club Intrawest.

thanks!!

that's fantastic! i just checked RCI exchanges and i see that they even have 9 hotels right here in Israel, so if i couldn't go anywhere else, i could make use of the points here.

so the question is, how do the DVC points convert to RCI points?

how many DVC points do i need for a night at an RCI resort?

and are resale points valued the same as regular DVC points when exchanging them for RCI?

 

[Samaya]

on the other hand, if you were to pay to stay for 3 weeks in a 2 bedroom at OKW - i'm just guessing that's at least $500/day (probably a lot more than that).

But can i also buy resale points? without ever owning directly from DVC?
that is, just buy resale points?

2013 rack rate for a 2-bed at OKW starts at $618.00 plus 12.5% tax in Value season rising to $995 plus 12.5% tax over the Holiday season - Dec 21-31.

But if you were in Europe you can get a 2 Bedroom OKW Villa starting at £300.00 per night through Walt Disney Travel UK.

And yes, you can buy resell without already owning DVC points.

 

[Samaya]

thanks!!

that's fantastic! i just checked RCI exchanges and i see that they even have 9 hotels right here in Israel, so if i couldn't go anywhere else, i could make use of the points here.

so the question is, how do the DVC points convert to RCI points?

how many DVC points do i need for a night at an RCI resort?

and are resale points valued the same as regular DVC points when exchanging them for RCI?

Don't know too much about RCI exchanges but I think it's selective resorts and none are showing up in Israel. The nearest is the Paradise Kings Club in Paphos, Cyprus and here's some info for a 2 Bedroom Unit for dates 26-Oct-2014 to 02-Nov-2014, 7 Nights - using 270 DVC points.

www.paradisekingsclub.com

Hopefully, another member who has already use RCI exchange can help further.

 

[disneyholic family]

Don't know too much about RCI exchanges but I think it's selective resorts and none are showing up in Israel. The nearest is the Paradise Kings Club in Paphos, Cyprus and here's some info for a 2 Bedroom Unit for dates 26-Oct-2014 to 02-Nov-2014, 7 Nights - using 270 DVC points.

www.paradisekingsclub.com

Hopefully, another member who has already use RCI exchange can help further.

thanks so much for checking!!! that's really helpful!

 

[Minniesgal]

Firstly sorry to hear about your medical issues I hope it all works out for you.

We bought DVC while we were out there last year. It took about 3 hours but could probably have been quicker but our guide wasn't good with computers and we forgot our passports.

We financed which you can only do there, not to finance but to allow me to manage the cash flow back home when I could see our bank accounts and work out the best way to pay it. It just gave me time to think. We have it paid now so we will be adding on a small contract this year in August at VGF and we will finance again for the same reasons.

Resale is not necessarily slower than buying direct from Disney depending on where you want to buy. Unless you buy at one of the resorts actively being sold by Disney AKV,VGF they will put you on a waiting list. We went on the wait list for VGC in January and bought resale in the end as it came up quicker.

 

[zavandor]

With DVC we don't get a full RCI membership and we can only book a limited amount of resorts, I think only 600 over the everall thousands RCi resorts in the world. So an Israel RCI resort might not be available to DVC members.
Also, to make exchanges you have to plan waaaaay in advance, ideally 2 years in advance if you want a specific resort or location.
It would be better to rent the points and use the cash to pay for an holiday.