Help me convince my mom!

[ShuisFan584]

Hi everyone! This is my first time coming to this board. I'm a big Disney freak and have been a member at The DIS for 4 years now, but I'm not a member of the DVC. So here's my story...

I'm a 20 year old college student, so obviously I've never had enough money of my own to become a DVC member. I've been to Disney 7 times in the last 20 years (but if it were up to me, I would have gone many more times!) My family consists of my mom, my dad, my sister (17) and myself. Whenever we go, we go for about a week and half and we always stay at one of the moderate resorts. We're going to Disney again this August, and this is the first time my mom is actually looking into becoming a DVC member. This year it will be my family, plus my boyfriend, and a guest for my sister, which means 6 people. We would have to get 2 rooms to fit us all, which would be expensive. If she becomes a DVC member, we can just use the points to get a 2 bedroom villa. That's part of the reason she wants to join, and especially why she wants to join this year. She also knows that in a few years, my sister and I will have families of our own, and she knows that we both love going to WDW, so we'll be taking our families there pretty often.

My mom still isn't sure if she wants to join or not, and she has plenty of questions that she's going to be asking Disney. I thought I'd come here, to ask members themselves, to help me convince my mom to join! I also have a few questions...

I know the whole thing about getting the villa 11 months ahead for your home resort (which in our case would be SSR) and 7 months for any other resort. Since we're planning on going the middle of August which is only 5 months away, will it be difficult for us to find an available 2 bedroom villa? This is my most important question, because this is the whole reason my mom wanted to buy the points this year.

I also read the whole thing about banking and borrowing points. If we stay at a 2 bedroom villa for 8 nights, it would come out to a little less than 320 points (with the exception of BCV and WLV). My mom was thinking of purchasing 160 points. If she purchased them today, when would they become available to us, and when would we be allowed to borrow from next year?

And my last question is...is it better to start off with the minimum points and add on in the future, or to start off with as many as you can? My mom only wants to buy 160, but I want to convince her to buy more (even though I should be happy that she's even considering becoming a member ).

Thank you to all who actually read my whole post and thanks in advance for helping me answer my questions. I'm sorry if some of my questions were stupid, but I'm still very new to this and only started reading about this a few days ago. Now everyone, help me convince my mom!

 

[princess mom]

we too are thinking of making a purchase. I called this week and they are offering an incentive for buying now. They will give you points that you can use now, ( not staying at SSR...i don't think) or they will give you a special price per point. I have found this site to be very helpful, maybe you could get her to read some of the threads. I think she'll understand how it all works. We are thinking of purhcaseing 150-210...not sure yet! good luck!

 

[Alexander]

As soon as your contract is drawn up, your points are available. I actually made our first reservation before I even sent the contract back to DVC.

160 points sounds like it will work for your family if you plan to travel every other year. It's probably a good idea not to go for a huge contract because should she ever decide to sell, it's a little easier to sell a smaller one. You can add on at anytime (as long as there is availability).

We booked our villa for August just last week and there was availability everywhere, even BCV where we ended up booking. Now, we were not looking for a 2bdrm so I cannot attest to the availability of those villas.

Good luck, it sounds like you have done your homework!

 

[SueOKW]

Welcome!

We are a family of 5 and I learned that to get the room we needed and all the amenities, DVC was the only way to go!!! We had to have a kitchen for various reasons. The money we save by cooking our own food is amazing.

Tell your mom that another one of the things that sold me was that I could give a honeymoon trip to my kids when the time comes - how nice is that?

In the meantime, our points have long been paid for and we're way ahead in terms of vacation dollars. They are also selling for significantly more than we paid for them, but I never looked at this as an investment - actually more like a forced vacation plan. It really isn't an investment, except in family time... and that's gold.

 

[Scoootch]

Since we're planning on going the middle of August which is only 5 months away, will it be difficult for us to find an available 2 bedroom villa? This is my most important question, because this is the whole reason my mom wanted to buy the points this year.

If you can be flexible about which dates in Aug. and/or which resort, I'm sure you'll find something even if availibility is sparce but you probably won't have too much trouble for Aug. I'd think

is it better to start off with the minimum points and add on in the future, or to start off with as many as you can?

As someone else has mentioned, She may want to start off with a smaller contract and add on OR buy 1 or 2 smaller contracts (like 160 each since you say you'd use 320 per year). If you buy 1 for 160 and only plan to go every other year it would probably work out well...if you'd go every year you could get the 2 contracts and if your mom ever wanted to sell only 1 contract she could...OR if she ever wanted to "gift" them or sell them to you and your sister she'd be able to do so. You cannot sell only part of a contract so having smaller ones may be a better idea years down the road...of course once you become a member no amount of points are ever enough once you catch the "add on bug" lol. But it's something to always keep in the back of your head ...plus as mentioned also, smaller contracts are easier to sell too....again, not that you will want to, but at least if you did later on it gives you more options.

I'm sorry if some of my questions were stupid

Not at all...that's what these boards are for! Ask away with any other's and best of luck and Pixie dust on convincing your mom to join DVC!!
~*~*~*~* *~*~*~*~*~

 

[ShuisFan584]

Thank you everyone for your help! My mom hasn't joined yet, but we've been talking a lot about it lately. She called Disney today, but they had already closed down the services for checking availability. So she has to call the guy tomorrow to find out what places are available during the time we're going. We're not too flexible on the dates we're going because we're definitely going during the 3rd week of August, and we have to go 8 nights that only include 2 weekend nights. We do have the choice of staying at 3 resorts though (and if necessary we can check for 2 studio rooms if we can't get a 2 bedroom), so hopefully we can find something that's available. My mom did talk to the guy about incentives to buy and some other things, and she was doing a lot of calculations during American Idol tonight (which obviously means she's getting pretty serious! ) When she calls again tomorrow and finds out about availability, she'll be able to make her final decision. So I'm just keeping my fingers crossed!!