Help with info on DVC

[jdlawler]

Hi , I'm Jim , my wife Donna and our two girls ,ages 5,6 live in Maine . We have been to DW the last two years . I thought the DVC was a trip saving plan until the last two days of our trip . Needless to say we are excited about the club but because we never made the open house we have a million questions.

1. Why should we buy in at $14,250 at SS with 150 points when I could buy a resale at wilderness for $11,000 with 160 ?This is a point I really don't understand.
2. Is it safe to buy from this timeshare company?
3. Do I have to stay at the resort I buy in at ?
4. Is it easy to resell the purchase ?
5. How hard is it to get reservation during school breaks?
6. Do you get discounts on park passes ?
7. What about the other Resorts, easy to get into ?
8. Can we get into the new resorts when they are built or are we closed out?
9. How is Disney Financing ?
I hope someone out there has the time and knowledge to answer these questions for us.

 

[Dean]

1. Why should we buy in at $14,250 at SS with 150 points when I could buy a resale at wilderness for $11,000 with 160 ?This is a point I really don't understand.

A matter of personal preference. Buy where you want to stay if you are set on one resort most of the time. With a resale there are other costs of likely around $500-600 (closing plus extra dues). It's easy to finance with DVC but there are options resale as well. You can make reservations from the start with a direct purchase, it will likely take a couple of months or so resale.

2. Is it safe to buy from this timeshare company?

In part it depends on which one but the general answer is yes as long as yo do your home work and understand what you're getting and how much you're paying in the end.

3. Do I have to stay at the resort I buy in at ?

No. You can reserve your home resort at 11 months out but at 7 months reserve anything based on availability. That means high demand units, times may not be available at 7 months thus the buy where you want to stay recommendation.

4. Is it easy to resell the purchase ?

It has been if you're realistic, you might lose money though if you decide to buy then sell later though you're likely to lose more if you buy from DVC due to the higher cost.

5. How hard is it to get reservation during school breaks?

It depends on which breaks you have. For some you will need to call every day at exactly 9 am for the number of days you need.

Do you get discounts on park passes ?

Only for Length of Stay passes, it's 10%. This tends to be a very expensive option for many though.

7. What about the other Resorts, easy to get into ?

Again, it varies with the resort and time of year. You should be able to plan a full 7 months out for this option.

8. Can we get into the new resorts when they are built or are we closed out?

So far yes and I would expect that option to continue. I'm not expecting much or any more resorts but others are.

9. How is Disney Financing ?

Expensive but I'm sure others can tell you rhe current rate.

 

[OKW Lover]

A bunch of good questions here. I hope you get some good answers.

1. The only advantage to buying the SSR package from Disney is that the ownership runs a few years longer. I forget how many, but for my money I'd buy the resale package.

2. If you buy from a reputable timeshare company there isn't any problem. Two of the ones mentioned often are Disney Resale and Disney by Resale.

3. No you don't. You can stay at any of the other DVC resorts. But be aware that there are different booking windows. You can book a reservation at your home resort 11 months ahead, but only 7 months ahead at the other resorts. This might be important to you if you travel during very busy times.

4. Judging from the listings on the resale sites, they seem to go fast if they are priced right.

5. See the discussion above about the different booking windows. You should be pretty well assured of getting even a room at your home resort during school vacation at the 11 month window. Then you could call when the 7 month window opens to try for a room at one of the other resorts.

6. You only get a discount on legnth of stay passes.

7. Don't understand what you are asking here. If you are wondering about the availability of rooms at the other DVC resorts inside the 7 month booking window, the answer is "it depends". Your success will depend on when you are going.

8. Yes, you can get into any DVC resort.

9. Easy to do.

 

[jarestel]

Hi Jim,
Dean and OKW Lover pretty much covered most of your questions, so I'll just chime in with my take on DVC. I've been a member for 4 years now and haven't regretted it for a moment. However, I would caution you about thinking DVC is any kind of savings or investment program. You may think you'll only travel to WDW once a year, but many people end up making multiple trips after joining DVC. ( we have averaged 3 trips a year ) This is added expense for airfare, food, and souvenirs X 2 ( sometimes X3 or X 4 ). I've already spent more on points, airfare, food, etc than I'll ever recoup. Also, consider the fact that park admission costs will only increase over the next 40 - 50 years. Many people "run the numbers" to see if DVC "makes financial sense" and don't consider the rising cost of park admission in their calculations. Some DVC'ers have become dis-illusioned with this and stopped spending time in the parks ( not me ) due to the cost of admission. If you don't go to the parks, I'm not sure the cost of DVC is worth it, but everyone has their own opinions on this. If you want to spend time at WDW over the next 10 - 50 years, I think DVC is a great option. But if you're looking for investment opportunities, there are many better options out there. Good luck with your decision! Hope to be welcoming you to the DVC ranks soon.

 

[FLYNZ4]

Jim,

Just a quick correction to your math. In reality... the cost of SSR is $90/point, not $95. They run a discount of $5 with no stings attached.

Secondly... your 2004 SSR MFs will be prorated... so you will get 100% of you UY points, but you will only have to pay about 25% of the fees or so (depending when you close).

Third, with the resale points... you need to add in the cost of the fees.

Bottom line is that the numbers are closer than you seem to be planning... but having said that, if SSR was available on the resale market to any big extent... I would have bought SSR resale vs buying SSR from the developer assuming there were any savings available.

For some people, the extra 12 years of the SSR contract are not important... but for others (including me)... I want the extra life of the contact even though I will be long gone.

Most important... buy the resort where you want to stay the most... If that is VWL, OKW, BWV, or BCV... then buying resale is the best option (you can try getting them through DVC... but it is hit/miss). If you want SSR... you can either buy from DVC now, or wait for the resale market to develop. My guess is that by the time the resale market for SSR develops... the normal price increased might wipe out any siginificant savings... but that is only a hunch on my part.

/Jim

 

[Dean]

Jim, I believe the $5 pp discount has finished other than a few people already in the discussion stages. Now it's the $10 pp MB where you give up the points to get the price. You are essentially renting the points to DVC.