Has anything gotten BETTER over time?

[supersnoop]

My ROI has improved dramatically since I purchased in 2014. The asset value of my contracts from that time have increased at least 80%. Comparable room rates have continued to climb, making a DVC purchase look even more valuable in hindsight. I think the prices are high right now, but that's only because I bought a while ago. in 10 years, today's prices will seem like a bargain.

 

[upritbass]

Additionally, my thing is this: There needs to be truth in advertising.

Didn’t you read the documents before signing? Y’know, the part that says perks aren’t guaranteed?

 

[ForWhomTheMouseTolls]

I love angry posters here. Confirmation bias. People who want to stay offsite would not but DVC.

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

Didn’t you read the documents before signing? Y’know, the part that says perks aren’t guaranteed?

Parks are not even guaranteed.

 

[Bjaiken77]

Didn’t you read the documents before signing? Y’know, the part that says perks aren’t guaranteed?

Really??? Is that how it works? I wouldn’t have known without your post.

 

[upritbass]

I like posts like this. It helps me clear "resentful" people off the forums.

 

[Bjaiken77]

I like condescending posts telling me things I clearly already know

 

[kenchilada]

This thread has been very helpful to me and I learned a lot I did not know. Not sure what harm there is in discussing it.

 

[CarolynFH]

In about 2014 or so, DVC significantly changed their RCI deposit strategy. Prior to that, some very prime weeks were being deposited to RCI after being booked right at the 7 month mark. Now, DVC is only giving RCI the "leftovers" that are around after a few months of open-season booking for Members.

When did DVC switch from Interval International to RCI? I was just curious whether this change from depositing prime weeks to “leftovers” coincided with the change in exchange companies, i.e. did it have something to do with what contractual requirements exist insofar as what DVC must deposit. Obviously, OKW and SSR owners aren’t the only ones depositing points to RCI, and deposits surely exceed the amount needed to book 1BR villas! The relationship between DVC and RCI is still a big mystery to me, and I’m very curious about it. Maybe I should start a new thread.

 

[crisi]

No, its changed back and forth twice, but the weeks deposited changing were contemporaneous with either switch. When my nephews were small, my sister traded Windham points for BCV over Spring Break.

I think rooms are cleaner than when we first joined.

 

[Brian Noble]

When did DVC switch from Interval International to RCI? I was just curious whether this change from depositing prime weeks to “leftovers” coincided with the change in exchange companies,

Quite a bit earlier. Maybe 2008 or 2009? I got most of my great exchanges through RCI.

 

[Bruggok]

... Honestly, without the list in front of me, I think every perk could come back right now if they wanted it to happen.

Yep, but plenty of people buy direct so there is no need for DVD to pay WDW Parks for any perks. Same goes for WDW Parks slow rolling on Ratatouille, Tron, GoG, etc. Park reservations so full until the end of the year, so why bother speeding them up?

 

[RoseGold]

I think Poly and VGF, both recent, are the best in the system and at resorts that were at the time booked solid with cash guests. VGF2 follows this.

It’s top tier properties like this that made me buy in. If it were just SSR/OKW, I wouldn’t be interested.

 

[Marionnette]

I like posts like this. It helps me clear "resentful" people off the forums.

I like posts like this. It helps me clear judgemental, close-minded people off of the forums.

But to answer the OP's question, the biggest improvement since I joined has been the website booking tool. I know that this is hard to believe because it's hard for me to say but the ability to modify without having to call has been a huge improvement.

I don't see the addition of "new" resorts as a plus because other than RIV, all of the so-called new resorts since I joined have been either annexation of existing resorts or the conversion of existing resort rooms. Either way, they didn't offer a new and different experience because I could have stayed in those locations with cash.

Skyliner has been a positive addition as has the Fantastland expansion, Toy Story Land, Pandora, and Galaxy's Edge. But those are not just DVC.

I've done a couple Moonlight Magic events and I enjoyed them. I would like to see them continue but with more notice of when they will occur. The booking tool for the events did improve after the first few.

Earlier admission to hard ticket events for DVC members was a nice perk. IIRC, DVC members were getting into MNSSHP and MVMCP at 2 PM prior to the COVID shutdown.

Unfortunately, I've seen a lot more minuses over the years than I have seen pluses. And that's sad. They've taken DVC (and WDW in general) from a premier product that set the standard in the industry and are now followers instead of leaders. Instead of saying "We're not like other timeshares", they now point at their changes and claim "Well, other timeshares do it this way too". Not a good look.

 

[sssteele]

No, but I’m very happy with how the value of our points have gone up since we bought.

We also didn’t buy for any of the extras, so never have been bothered by that.

We bought in 19 years ago at BCV, then added on at Boulder Ridge (VWL) and AKV. Beach Club Villas could be sold on the resale market for twice what we paid. Other 2 resorts are also selling for more than we paid, but not as significantly as BCV. So glad we bought in when we did. We've used the annual pass discount since 2008, and just renewed in April at Customer Service. Hope that perk continues. Time will tell.

 

[thegash35]

I wouldn't really rank website updates and online features as appropriate answers to this question. Those things are simply keeping up with the times and necessary to maintain a competitive business. They also help with costs because ultimately it all leads to less member services cast members required.

My grandparents were early buyers at Old Key West (back when the resort was simply called Disney's Vacation Club Resort) and honestly it just felt like a better overall experience compared to now. The castmembers (for example those running poolside entertainment) seemed to be real people with individual personalities rather than interchangeable parts. The food from Good's Food to Go was better. You got free park tickets to use during your stay (I believe this was a purchase perk in the early days, and forget how long it lasted).

We bought DVC in 2012 and as others have said, I doubt I would buy again today. Overall the Disney experience has diminished in the last decade. However, they still pull in millions of guests who don't know how much better things were "back in the day" when Disney cared about guest experience first and foremost rather than pure profit. Until revenue starts to decline (which seems unlikely), things are not bound to change in the direction that "we" would like it to.

 

[thegash35]

Let's see. I bought 25 years ago. Here are the benefits we have used beyond just a room.

-- Many more resort choices. This is a huge benefit. There were 3 resorts when we joined.
-- Much easier booking. Holidays used to be by lottery and you had to do everything by phone. Website makes planning a lot easier.
--Discounts on food and merch. We used that a lot the past trip.
--Free parking. That is really adding up these days!
-- Specials like Moonlight Magic. That's several hundred dollar perk if you bring friends like we did.
-- Ticket specials. We used the buy 4, get 2 days special last month. Before that we used the Gold Pass and the super special pass that came with all the bells and whistles before that.
-- booking cruises with our points. This worked out perfectly One year for a last minute cruise.
-- using our points in Chicago. Perfect for our anniversary.
-- the Epcot lounge, which we enjoy every stay.

One thing we lost that we weren't happy about was the valet parking.

A lot of these aren't really "benefits."

While you may use your points for booking cruises and vacations in other cities, this is actually a very poor value. Using DVC points for anything other than staying at DVC is basically throwing money away. It's not really a benefit.

Free theme park parking is a perk for all on-site guests, not just DVC members. So not really a dvc member benefit. Parking at DVC resorts has always been free and is a deeded member benefit, it's not a perk. Obviously now there is an advantage vs. hotel guests who have to pay a daily parking rate as of a couple of years ago...but DVC parking has and will be free. It isn't something new in the past 25 years.

The dining and merch discounts are nice, but you can also get the same 10% off if you have a Disney Visa card, which one can obtain absolutely free.

The ticket specials seem nice, but Disney has overall reduced the utility and value of tickets by stripping away expiration times and so forth. I forget the exact timings but if you get a 5 or 6 day pass now you have to use it within a week from the first use or something along those lines. We are going down for two weeks in August so this means I can't start our park days until the middle-end of the first week because they'd otherwise expire way before the last days of our trip. WDW's solution to this was to try to upsell me a pass greater number of park days. I told the CM we would spend a few days at Universal Studios instead.

 

[dez1978]

Didn’t you read the documents before signing? Y’know, the part that says perks aren’t guaranteed?

I think we all are well aware that the perks aren't guaranteed. The fact remains that the guides use those perks as a huge selling point, and for those that buy who aren't a member of these boards, while you know they could go away, you figure Disney would never get rid of them entirely. Yes we all signed the contract that said the perks aren't guaranteed. But I think there is a large number of people who didn't read boards like this and only listened to the guides who for sure are not telling them that all the perks could go away unless directly asked. Heck I did ask our guide who told me "Technically they are not guaranteed, but they aren't going anywhere without an equal replacement. Disney wouldn't disappoint guests like that" Did I know better? Absolutely. Does everyone know better? Absolutely not. Not everyone reads boards like these. I feel like I did a TON of research on DVC, but most of it led me to resort reviews and just the use of DVC, how many points I need etc. Only DVC FB groups and places like this generally point out the truths of these things. That is where the truth in advertising comes in. They should be honest and up front that these things CAN and HAVE been taken away or lost over time.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I wouldn't really rank website updates and online features as appropriate answers to this question.

All it means is it's the best we've gotten.
They were so far behind others in doing it that it was pretty bad.

 

[Bjaiken77]

I think we all are well aware that the perks aren't guaranteed. The fact remains that the guides use those perks as a huge selling point, and for those that buy who aren't a member of these boards, while you know they could go away, you figure Disney would never get rid of them entirely. Yes we all signed the contract that said the perks aren't guaranteed. But I think there is a large number of people who didn't read boards like this and only listened to the guides who for sure are not telling them that all the perks could go away unless directly asked. Heck I did ask our guide who told me "Technically they are not guaranteed, but they aren't going anywhere without an equal replacement. Disney wouldn't disappoint guests like that" Did I know better? Absolutely. Does everyone know better? Absolutely not. Not everyone reads boards like these. I feel like I did a TON of research on DVC, but most of it led me to resort reviews and just the use of DVC, how many points I need etc. Only DVC FB groups and places like this generally point out the truths of these things. That is where the truth in advertising comes in. They should be honest and up front that these things CAN and HAVE been taken away or lost over time.

That’s my point exactly. Besides, never in the history of message board posts has anyone received a positive response by saying “didn’t you read the documents before signing?” You have two possible scenarios: 1) someone didn’t read the contract or understand and feels awful right now or 2) the person did read the contract, understands it, and is trying to make a larger point. Either way, it’s an antagonistic comment.

And you are highlighting my larger point. Regardless of what the contract says, if you promote perks on your website, use them as a tactic to reel people in, AND aren’t equally as forthright in the sales pitch that you should focus strictly on the timeshare, I find that to be dishonest advertising. That’s just my opinion.