HELP! Are we good DVC candidates? UPDATED - We Joined!

[teri]

Originally posted by Ricola

...We've been to WDW once or twice a year for the past 6 or 7 years. We almost always go in Jan/Feb, or Sept/Oct, and we rarely are able to plan more than 2 or 3 months in advance, often much less time than that. We usually are more than happy staying in the moderates at WDW, and almost always have gotten pretty good discounts on them, even booking last minute like we sometimes do....

That is enough information for me. You like WDW, you go frequently, you stay onsite. Your kids will soon cramp your space in the moderates -- they are little now, but believe me they grow fast. Instead of paying to rent the rooms, your investment in DVC has the potential of paying itself back in 8 years, or whatever the current calculation is for that number (somebody fill me in here) so that you will break even for your investment, and you can sell your points if you are not happy.... it isn't a total loss, like paying to rent the rooms.

You will have a kitchen so you don't have to schlep the kids out to restaurants at every meal, a place to sit comfortably and nurse your baby or watch TV or play games or plan your next day or entertain friends. And of course, you and your spouse will have privacy if you have a separate room, a DEFINITE plus. After all, it is a vacation, time to relax and have family time together. For about the same amount of money over time, look at the benefits you get! OK, there is that downpayment, and those annual fees... but still! Over time, if you are staying onsite at the DVC properties, you will certainly be preserving your assets.

I have been able to get last minute reservations, not always exactly what I wanted but it worked. But we were once like you, didn't plan our vacations in advance... this was actually a good move for us, to discipline ourselves to schedule family time together.

I never attended a single presentation, bought over the phone, very low-pressure. I remember on our trip to Vero Beach there were several families there on the introduction package... our biggest complaint was that people in the hot tub or by the pool who saw that we were members kept asking us questions about the program and whether it was a good deal. We really though we should have been getting a commission! None of them complained at all about the presentation or sales tactics. That is my only personal experience.
Oh yeah, by the way, I never would have tried Vero Beach if it hadn't been for DVC membership! What a nice vacation that was!

 

[JonHM]

To answer your question about owning at multiple resorts (and please correct me if I am wrong, everyone), the answer is No, you can't transfer points from one resort to another.

BUT

My impression is that you can do effectively the same thing using banking and borrowing. Here's what you do. In one year, you would bank all of your 200 OKW points into the following year. You would then go ahead and borrow all of your 200 VWL points from next year into the current year, and VOILA! 400 VWL points one year, and 400 OKW points the next.

I know that that's not *exactly* what it sounded like you wanted to do, but it does come reasonably close.

We bought 250 points at VWL and are stretching it as far as we can by planning trips where we arrive Sunday, and return home the following Friday night. If you don't stay over for a Friday night or a Saturday night, you can save *so* many points it may allow you to take an additional trip that year.

 

[Ricola]

wdwendyd, I think you answered my question. I didn't realize that you were limited to just one transfer in either direction; I thought you could do a one time transfer outward, but I didn't know you were limited "inwardly". So if I "transfer" my points to you, do they still expire at the end of my use year, or at the end of yours? Does this mean that when people "rent" points from others that they can only do this once a year?

raidermatt, Thanks! I've got the video and the hardcover brochure from DVC. They're nice, although I wish they'd spent a little more time and space on the details of DVC, instead of making it quite so much work to figure out . If there was more information in them and less pictures of cruise ships and skiing and stuff, I think we might have bought a couple of years ago. The idea of them leaning so heavily on outside exchanges as a selling tool makes me a little uncomfortable, like they don't want you to look to closely at the other option: staying at a DVC resort. I'm looking at the book, and over half of it is dedicated to non-DVC stuff, with only 4 pages geared toward the available resort, VWL. It just seems a little suspicious.

Teri, I'm sorry if we're being like those people in the hot tub . I really appreciate everyone taking the time to answer my questions. You've all been so friendly! Makes me even more eager to join just for the chance to meet more people like you guys! I suppose just knowing that most of the people you run into in the halls have an "ownership" in the place gives the DVC resorts a different "feel" than the other Disney places. I know the other timeshare we own feels that way. I think we're pretty convinced, we just need to make sure that the money's there to do it, and how many points we can buy right now...

John HM, Thanks for the information on borrowing. It sounds kinda complicated to keep track of 2 seperate sets of points, that's all that has me worried. I guess that's a bridge we'll hopefully cross when we get to it.

 

[JonHM]

Well, I wish they would spend more energy in the book on DVC as well, but they WANT you to get that info from a DVC guide. It's really only marketing material - which is to say next to useless...

I would have found it suspicious as well (and was prepared to, actually) IF we had been put under *any* pressure at all to sign on the spot or even to sign relatively quickly. But the complete lack of pressure allowed us to research it to our heart's content, which is what lead to us deciding to buy in.

 

[Ricola]

JohnHM,

I sense that lack of pressure too, considering we called for the info a couple years ago, and have always gotten a prompt response from our guide, but never any real "push" to buy.

I guess we're just "investigators". The non-information in the book and video just frustrates us. Thankfully, theres always the DIS!

The only real "pressure" we've felt was from a guy at the DVC booth in AKL who treated us like we were silly to not want to spend 2 or 3 hours of our 3 day vacation sitting through a sales presentation.

I still think that the properties would almost sell themselves with just a few pictures of Mickey and no skiing, dude ranches, rafting, cruise ships, and the like. And it would seem a little more honest to me.

But I guess not everyone is as enamored of staying at WDW as some of us are

 

[JonHM]

I agree. By the way, if you have an experience like that again (with a CM at a DVC desk pressuring you), you should tell Member Services about them right away. I am sure that they don't want their CMs behaving like that.

 

[Ricola]

Yeah, he was just a little pushy, but I think he thought he was being funny. I had just stopped by while DW was buying some lemonade to ask a couple of questions, and he wanted to give me his whole schtick. Believe me, the last place I wanted to be at AK in July was standing in the direct sun listening to a sales pitch.

I just politely moved on. Hopefully he learned something from the exchange. He wasn't really rude, just a little too "gung-ho". I'm sure its a fine line to walk. I didn't really feel like he needed to be reported, but I certainly would have if he'd been a little pushier.

 

[Marisa'sMom]

I just wanted to respond to your concern about getting the accomadations you want on short notice. We have been members since Dec. 01 and in January we were able to book a 3 day Wonder Cruise with 4 nights at VWL for June. We live in NC and one Saturday morning decided we wanted to go to the beach. Called HH they had availability! We just called last week and we were able to get a 1 bdrm villa at BWV. Couldn't believe it, but it happened!

As the other folks have posted if you need a full week you may have a harder time getting a reservation, but we have been extremly pleased with DVC! I'm so excited just talking about it!

If you purchase before you see it, you will not be disappointed! It's the best investment our family has made. We looked at DVC 3 times before we bought and that was ONLY because we didn't think we could afford it. We've made a few sacrafices but they are well worth it. We have family and friends that live in Orlando and we have gone from staying with them for free to wanting nothing more than to stay at DVC.

Good luck!

 

[Ricola]

I've been meaning to thank all of you who gave your time in helping us to make this decision! We bought 200 points at VWL in Nov, and have planned our first trip "Home" in Oct 2002!

We are so excited, and so thankful to all of you that helped us. All I can say is that I wish we had done this years ago!

Looking forward to lots of happy trips home,
Ric, Angie, Christopher & Susan!

And once again,
Thank You!

 

[pentex]

Congratulations to all of you! I am certain that you will never regret your decision .... it will bring wonderful times and memories to the four of you!

 

[ralphd]

Congratulations on your decision and welcome home!!

ralphd

 

[ZerasPride]

I'm so happy for you! Congratulations and Welcome Home Neighbor!

Lisa

 

[BobBrazeal]

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[KathyR]

Welcome Home

 

[robinb]

Welcome Home!