Help me understand

[minnieandmickey]

I was talking to my husband about DVC and we may be interested in buying in 2003 when we make our 2nd trip. We would only be able to go every 2-3 years if we did, would it be worth it? Also what kind of pricing are we looking at? I was looking at the DVC faq but the way I see it you would be paying $75 per point up with the minimum of 150, is that per year? That's over $11,000 per year! Can you give some sort of information on this, thanks.

 

[JackDiznee]

No, you only pay the per point purchase price once. You get an annual allotment of 150 points (in your example) until the year 2042.
You will pay an annual maintenance fee per point (taxes, insurance, salaries, improvements). For 150 points at OKW, it would be over $400 per year. Each resort has different maint. fees.

If you look into the resale market you will do better than the $75
per point purchase price.

 

[Merilyn]

We vacation some where every year. We have traded off to other locations on the years we did not want to go to WDW. We went to Washington, DC one year. We went to CA this last May. We can't go too many years without our Disney fix, going to WDW next May. You can also trade to another disney location, Hilton Head and Vero Beach are very nice for a change from WDW.

 

[dianeschlicht]

If you like the on-site Disney experience and plan to travel every ohter year, then 150 points would be adequate for you unless you want to exchange. You would bank one year's points and use them the next year with that year's points, giving you 300 points to "spend" on one trip. You need to look at the point charts and see how many points you would likely need for the season you like to travel and the amount of time you want to stay.

That said, let me warn you that most of us have changed our WDW travel habits since joining DVC. We now travel more often and for longer periods of time. It is great to have the luxury of staying in a 1 or 2 bedroom unit for 10 days or more. It makes the Disney experience so much better. Don't plan with the assumption that you will only use studios. This is unrealistic and doesn't give you the real benefit of DVC ownership.

 

[jennybobenny]

Just another friendly warning - we also planned on buying 150 points with the idea of going every other year. Having 300 points to work with would have more than met our needs. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it ) I started planning our second trip on the plane ride home from our first. Our 'every other year' plan went right out the window. We quickly added on another 100 points and now we like to go <i>at least</i> once a year. Watch out - DVC (and Disney) can be addictive (in the most wonderful sense of the word ).

 

[Goofy Fan]

You mentioned you may only be able to go every 2 - 3 years. Make sure you understand the banking and borrowing rules before you buy. You may bank all of your points into the following year, but those banked points must be used in that year. This allows an every 2 year scenario, but doesn't fit into every 3 years.

Also, by 2003, it is more than likely all current DVC sites will be sold out through Disney, if not sooner. BCV and VEP will be the newest DVC sites probably at prices higher than $75 per point, possibly at $80 or more per point. You still have the option as someone mentioned to buy through a reseller. Current resale prices are going from about $67 to $72 per point depending on amount of vacation points available. By 2003, those prices may go up as well.

 

[BobH]

Call DVC and get a points chart showing all the resorts and the points required. In this way you can decide exactly how many points needed to get the type of vacation you desire. I figured out how many points it would take to be able to get close to 3 weeks in a years time in a studio one the one hand, and balanced this against the minimum number of points needed to get a Grand Villa in any given year by banking a year and borrowing a year's points. In short you need to define your goals and then buy as many points as you can afford that will let you achieve your vacation goals. You can't do any of this without studying the type of accomodations and how many points you need. Pay close attention to the points required to reserve accomodations at the time of year you wish to travel. If you can travel at low demand times your points will go farther. If you are not going to purchase for a few years you will have get updates on the points charts. I dealt with a very nice Disney Guide who kept me up to date over a period of about 1 1/2 years. All I had to do was request the material. Good Luck!

 

[wdwnut]

hi: just another note- you don't have to be at wdw to purchase; you can purchase from your home. we weren't sure about okw when we first looked into dvc in 93 because our oldest was only a teen and we were used to staying in the mk resorts. after bwv were up and running and we got a video from dvc, we wound up purchasing our initial contract sight unseen. we've never looked back.