help...considering purchasing SSR

[katrina1122]

but we have some concerns...we'd want dvc for more than just wdw use. How easy is it to use points for non disney stays? Is it really economical to bank points from one year to the next to build up points for a longer stay?
If you don't want to stay at your home resort (SSR) and want to stay at another wdw resort how easy is it to do, even if its something like akl or y&b, doesn't even have to be another dvc resort, we like to switch things up alot (and we don't have kids so we dont need a huge room at this point), also we won't be traveling in the summer, mainly just in Oct or Jan. Also what about renting points out...is this easy to do? What about renting extra points from others for something like a cruise, is this viable?
Ok, can you tell we are overwhelmed...basically we are looking at this as a timeshare, not just a WDW timeshare. Does that make sense? We'd like to take advantage of Europe and Hawaii and the Disney Cruise Line. When we talked to the sales agent she made it sound like it was very easy to do, you just paid a certain $ amount to change out points for non-disney stays, but it just seems to me that there must be a hidden catch there somewhere? Is it worth the money if you don't use it for only wdw stays? Thanks for any words of advice, wisdom, knowledge, etc.!

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

It is fairly easy to use points at non dvc resorts, especially if you want something that is related to disney like the cruise. It is not easy if you want one of the top notch resorts at a popular time of year. They are hard to get unless you own at them.

Is it economical if you use DVC for things outside DVC? No it isn't. In a few cases it might be but for the most part it is not. The DVC costs are fixed for the life of your contract with the exception of maintenance fees. How many points the cruise costs or a night at the AKL will keep going up over the years. For economical, you may want to look at a cheaper timeshare that you can trade into the II or RCI system. Many DVC owners also do that and it works well for them.

Renting points now is fairly easy but who knows what the future will bring. It is nice for members to be able to rent a few points to tranfer into their account to fill out a reservation if they need them.

Don't look at DVC like a traditional timeshare. How many timeshares do you know of where most of the owners could sell them today for more than they originally paid for them?

HBC

 

[dianeschlicht]

Easy, yes. Cost effective? I don't know. We have used DVC mostly for staying at our home resort at WDW, but we have done an exchange to Hawaii with DVC points, and will do that again. As far as staying at the other Disney (non DVC) resorts using DVC points....That too is easy, but hardly cost effective. Your best use is to stay in a 1 bedroom or larger accomodation at your home resort. If you are thinking you mostly want to stay in a hotel room, there would not be much point to buying a timeshare unit. If you were buying a timeshare to trade, buy one that is less expensive than DVC and has cheaper maintenance fees. I think an occational exchange of DVC for prime places might be an okey use, but not as a regular fare. It is also costly to use DVC points for a cruise, so that might be only an occational thing too.

On the other hand, if you travel to WDW at least every other year and prefer the deluxe resorts, then DVC might be a good fit. Look at it as a prepaid vacation to WDW at least every year or two, and it will feel right. We never regret our DVC purchase, and we didn't even do this until our children were grown! We love going several times a year and staying in GREAT accomodations that include a full kitchen, full laundry room, whirlpool tub in the master bath, etc,etc, etc....If you are happy with studio accomodations every trip, don't do DVC.

 

[katrina1122]

While we certainly love wdw, there are so many other places in the world we want to visit too. If its not economical to use your points to trade for non wdw resorts as well maybe it doesn't make sense. We were thinking of using it as something like wdw every other trip and using the points to go somewhere else in between. The wdw trip would be then switched up by resort 'hopping' with some dvc resorts and some deluxe resorts as dh and l love checking them all out.
So from what I'm reading maybe this plan isn't what was described to us afterall? Our sales agent said this would work for us in this way, but maybe it really isn't a good fit?

 

[dianeschlicht]

Oh, it certainly will WORK, but I am not sure it is especially cost effective for how you intend to use it.

 

[tjkraz]

To put some numbers to it, One Bedroom resort accommodations at the Beach Club Villas in January will run you 22 points per night. A 1B runs about 1000 square feet, and highlights include a full in-room kitchen (stove, oven, microwave, sink, dishwasher, utensils and dinnerware), washer and dryer, sunken tub in the master bath and balcony. Plus you get the advantage of having a separate bedroom and living room--two tvs, couch, etc.

On the other hand, a Garden View room at the Grand Floridian during Value Season will run you 37 points. If you've stayed at the deluxe resorts, you know that the accommodations pale in comparison to the DVC description above. In fact, the most similar DVC accommodation would be a Studio (One Queen bed, sofa bed, balcony, kitchenette), and a Studio would run only 12 points for this same time period.

As Diane said, your best value will always be staying at the DVC resorts. Even though all of these units have common "Disney" ownership, the DVC resorts and other Disney resorts really are separate entities. When you buy DVC, you are buying ownership in a DVC resort. If you want to stay at another Disney property, DVC has negotiated an exchange program, but the rates (points) are clearly not as favorable as using them within the DVC program.

In case you weren't aware, DVC also operates properties in Vero Beach, FL and Hilton Head, SC. Those properties fall under the DVC umbrella, and point values are comparable to the WDW properties.

When Saratoga Springs opens in May, there will be 5 DVC properties at WDW. If you are content doing your resort hopping largely at those resorts, with the occasional WDW exchange, the benefits may be tremendous.

If you are comfortable with the Studio accommodations, a minimum DVC purchase of 150 points could get you more than 12 nights per year at BCV or *18* nights at Old Key West. But be aware that the point tables do vary greatly by resort, type of accommodation, date and even day of the week.

With regard to other non-Disney stays, I certainly wouldn't recommend buying DVC with the intention of using it for ALL of your travels. You're better of buying a small amount of DVC points, and then trying to bank/borrow your points for every-other-year visits to WDW. If you do a lot of other travelling, look into a more national timeshare program like Hilton. But don't buy into another timeshare with the intention of trading INTO a Disney resort. From what I have heard, trades into a DVC resort are next to impossible.

 

[katrina1122]

(thanks for all the info by the way)
I'm starting to see that maybe this might not be the best way to go, but here's a thought. We had planned on buying 150 points for SSR as that's the minimum you can buy. However we still plan on visting WDW every other year or so. I understand you can buy dvc resorts resale such vwl, or bwv, etc. Can you buy less points, enough for say something in value season that might get you into a studio or maybe a 1 bedroom for a week to 10 days? We don't really need enough for 2 weeks/ year, and since it seems that going to non-disney resorts isn't economical, but the dvc is, maybe less points is a better option for us. I'd love the 50 years, but dealing with lesser number is certainly and option as well. I appreciate the larger accomodations as well as I have stayed at the Boardwalk Villas before, and now that I see the point value comparision between a dvc vs a wdw resort I see the point of not switching other than maybe for a night or two. As I understand it you can always buy more points later so if we wanted more than a weeks worth later we could that right? Does this make more sense than buying a full 150 points at SSR? We really think that shelling out money at Deluxe resorts is silly, even when coupled with a short stay at a value resort, which is what prompted us to talk to the dvc person in the first place. We like to have 'deluxe' vacations. Even with our ap discount, this just seemed like a better deal, but like I said we like to travel other places but if the trading isn't worth it, well I'm all confused! Thanks again

 

[tjkraz]

You can buy contracts of under 150 points on the resale market. These are typically add-on contracts that DVC members are trying to get rid of. Members can add to their ownership in increments as low as 25 points. So, if someone was to add-on 50 points in 1998, and then find that their travel plans had changed and could justify selling the add-on contract, those 50 points could hit the resale market.

So, to answer your question, yes you can buy less than 150 via the resale market. Just be aware that the buyer normally pays closing costs in a resale. Closing costs run about $400-500 dollars per contract regardless of the size of the contract. So if you were to buy 200 points, your marginal cost per point for closing costs would only be $2 per point. But for a 75 point contract, it could increase the cost by $5-6 per point.

Contracts of fewer than 150 can be difficult to find. Also DVC has Right of First Refusal on any resales. Therefore even if you make an offer and it is accepted, DVC can step in and buy the contract for the agreed-upon amount and you start over at square-one.

Lastly, if financing is an issue, you may find your options limited. DVC finances purchases themselves, and they are pretty liberal with approvals. Purchases can be financed for as long as 10 years with 10% down. If you buy a resale, you need to handle your own financing. Many people use a home equity line, which will probably give you the best interest rate available. DVC's rate is about 9.75%, which is competitive in the world of "timeshare financing", but about half of what you would pay via home equity line.

Once you are a member, you are a member. When you buy a resale, you still get membership cards and mailings from DVC just as if you had purchased directly. And you can add-on more points at a later date if you so desire.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

You need to decide what type of accomodations you would be happy with, what time of year you normally travel to WDW and look on the point charts of each DVC resort to see how many points you would need to go every other year. For instance, a one-bedroom @ OKW during Adventure Season would run 160 pts./week. I you really intend to travel every other year, I would buy 75-100 pts. through resale. With the banking/borrowing options you would always have enough points. If your circumstances change down the road, you would probably be able to add-on however many points you need for future trips. Why pay all that extra money up front if you may not be able to use the points. Oh, and let's not forget that "dangling carrot" of renting points. I imagine it's great when it works, but what if it doesn't? Good luck with your decision. We first considered DVC back in 1997 and could kick ourselves for not buying. We are currently in the process of waiting for our resale purchase to pass ROFR and can't wait for the green light to start planning our next vacation "home"!!!

 

[rocketriter]

Although trading out to other timeshares is unfashionable on this board (watch how many people pop in to disagree with me), it can be done occasionally and still be a reasonable value. No, I wouldn't give up 160 points to stay in West Hoosenberry, Indiana for a week, nor would I use points instead of cash to stay at the Grand Floridian or the Plaza in New York. But my family is giving up 144 points to stay at a well-rated resort in Hawaii for a week next March and are perfectly happy with the arrangement. Could we buy a second timeshare and use it for this kind of trading instead? That would be both smart and admirable, but as my wife and I both work more than full time it's not worth the time to us to do so. Same goes for renting out our points and using the proceeds to rent a condo. For us, the convenience and simplicity of going through MS also has a dollar value. Bottom line: we're quite happy using points at Disney resorts every other trip, and using points to trade out to carefully-chosen resorts on the alternates.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Originally posted by rocketriter
Although trading out to other timeshares is unfashionable on this board (watch how many people pop in to disagree with me), it can be done occasionally and still be a reasonable value. No, I wouldn't give up 160 points to stay in West Hoosenberry, Indiana for a week, nor would I use points instead of cash to stay at the Grand Floridian or the Plaza in New York. But my family is giving up 144 points to stay at a well-rated resort in Hawaii for a week next March and are perfectly happy with the arrangement. Could we buy a second timeshare and use it for this kind of trading instead? That would be both smart and admirable, but as my wife and I both work more than full time it's not worth the time to us to do so. Same goes for renting out our points and using the proceeds to rent a condo. For us, the convenience and simplicity of going through MS also has a dollar value. Bottom line: we're quite happy using points at Disney resorts every other trip, and using points to trade out to carefully-chosen resorts on the alternates.

Actually, the kind of exchange you are doing is the one I too think is a worthwhile one to do with DVC. Since DVC is hard to trade into, and so is Hawaii, it is a good apples to apples exchange.

 

[katrina1122]

Caribbean resorts, Europe etc. One night stays in VT, NYC, not full weeks in NYC. I too would not trade an entire week for a resort that doesn't 'match' a Disney resort, airfare alone does make sense. However, as I've said we like to travel and buying 2 timeshares just doesn't make sense, so when this was first explained this just seemed like the perfect fit. However if its impossible to trade for a non-disney resort due to availabilty, or if its really not economical then we won't do it. However if its not economical because people are just that 'pro disney' and really does make sense to swap points for non-disney resorts every other year or so, then maybe this is the way to go for us. I'm glad to see these last 2 responses that some of you are using your points to go elsewhere as well. Which brings me back to my other question, how hard is it to swap resorts? Is there a long wait time? Obvisiously for more popular destinations i'd think it would be harder, but is it nearly impossible?
Sorry for all the questions, but this is a huge decision (as if you didn't know that )

 

[tjkraz]

Originally posted by rocketriter
Although trading out to other timeshares is unfashionable on this board (watch how many people pop in to disagree with me)

OK, I'll bite.

I don't think it's "unfashionable" so much as it's simply not as beneficial as DVC makes it sound. The promotional videos tout the benefits of "The Disney Collection" and "The Concierge Collection" and all of the properties to which they give you access. The problem is that perhaps 95% of those options don't return nearly the same "bang for the buck" as a DVC stay.

I assume you are referring to II exchanges in your post. As I understand it, that is the one area where you really CAN get a good deal. But I've also heard availability is spotty at times.

If you'd care to share more of your experiences, good and bad, I'd be really curious to hear about it.

 

[rocketriter]

Which brings me back to my other question, how hard is it to swap resorts? Is there a long wait time? Obvisiously for more popular destinations i'd think it would be harder, but is it nearly impossible?

Trading out is not difficult if you can give MS at least 6 months notice (more for Hawaii--15 months worked easily for us), and a choice of dates and/or resorts. However, if you have your heart set on that cool-sounding cabin in the mountains of Norway for 1 particular week at the height of ski season, you might not get anywhere.

The people who are chiming in on this subject are ALL right (and I'm not being ironic when I say that). Trading out is doable if you're careful and flexible, and you make sure that what you're trading for is of high enough quality to merit giving up days at DVC. And it's certainly not much work; you just tell MS your choices, and sit back until they call you with a match.

 

[katrina1122]

We surely don't mind waiting to find out if we get our 1st or 2nd choice on a swap or not, and if we don't we can just try again. DH and I like to travel at non-peak times in general so that would certainly help I'm sure.
Thanks for all of your ideas, pointers, etc. Anything else we should know?