How did you convince your "other half"?

[harleyquinn]

Ok, I've been doing my homework, asked myself the tough questions, and come out with the desicion that DVC will be right for my family within the next few years (probably once the next new resort is built).

Now I have the Herculian task of convincing my DH that it is a good choice.

I know that everyone's situations are different, but I was hoping if you would share your experiences convincing your other halves if you've been in the same boat.

So how did you convince your other half to buy DVC?

Thanks!
I promise I'll leave you guys alone for a while after this last post! Really!

 

[Granny]

In my case, it was convincing DW. And all I had to do was get her hooked on WL (that was easy) and then ask if she'd like to stay in a "condo" attached to it! Easiest sale I ever made!

One of the best ways I hear people mention to convince undecided spouses is to rent points for a DVC stay. Once DH stays in a villa, especially a 1BR or larger, it will be obvious how much nicer the accommodations are and there's a good chance he'll be hooked.

As with any sales pitch, the main thing is to find out what his objections to DVC are. Then, once you get those, come back here and you'll get tons of advice on how to counter any objection he can throw at you!

In all seriousness, I'm a firm believer that DVC should be something that both spouses enjoy...not something that one of the spouses "puts up with" (unless you're filthy rich and this is just chump change). If DH is interested in high quality family vacations, that should be the bottom line.

Good luck with your "selling"!

 

[CharlesTD]

Didn't have to we both knew it was a far better option than paying cash for 2 weeks a year at WDW.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I was also quite fortunate, as my wife is a Disney fanatic just like me!

MG

 

[carol1231]

Our first stay at DVC, was a cash ressie at OKW, 1 bedroom, at the rack rate the week after Easter . As you can imagine, a week was a little costly. We took the tour at BWV, took the paperwork home, thought it over for about a week, and bought our first 180 points. Knowing the difference between the cash we paid for the week ressie and buying in (at that time) to DVC, our decision was easy.

No convincing needed

 

[cruise-o-matic]

Mine was hooked after we took the tour. She's getting her MBA in Accounting and liked the idea of "Pre-paid" vacations. Plus owning at HH gives us the 11 month advantage if we decide to alternate summers at WDW and HH.

 

[harleyquinn]

As with any sales pitch, the main thing is to find out what his objections to DVC are. Then, once you get those, come back here and you'll get tons of advice on how to counter any objection he can throw at you!

That's a great idea!

I know for my DH it's going to come down to the cost, which is why I plan to start a special savings account before I even bring it up. I handle the money, I know we can afford it, but DH is EXTREMELY thrifty. He has a hard time buying himself new shoes when the old ones have holes in them!

Luckily he loves Disney as much as me! I'll definitely rent some points. I planned to do that already! Hopefully that will hook him, but I doubt it. He's the type that's pretty happy anywhere.

My biggest selling points will be having "prepaid" rooms, and being able to buy APs and go every other year. The biggest is having something that will more or less force us to go on vacation at least every other year. That, and being about to bring friends and family with us.

Wheew! I need more stories from you everyone!

 

[Laurabearz]

Two things hooked my DH.... First the size of a two bedroom at OKW, second the fact that OKW was surrounded by a golf course.

In a DVC 1 or 2 bedroom villa, parents can also have a vacation when traveling with children. While the kids nap or go to bed early, the adults have a place to retreat too.... priceless.

The surroundings appealed to my DH, another ploy... Peaceful and GOLF...

Pitch the resort you thing your SO would love, and if needed book a stay on cash to get them hooked..

 

[DisneyMim]

I didn't have to, thank goodness. We had been waiting for something like DVC for years!! I don't even remember talking about it, we just bought!!


Good Luck!

 

[bongo59]

i took my wife on a surpirse weekend at OKW in 91.............and when the weekend was over she asked if we could do this more often..........i told her we could because on the previous Fri i bought 500 points at OKW...........that was 14 yrs ago and 1500 points later we go alot more often.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Two things hooked my DH.... First the size of a two bedroom at OKW, second the fact that OKW was surrounded by a golf course.

In a DVC 1 or 2 bedroom villa, parents can also have a vacation when traveling with children. While the kids nap or go to bed early, the adults have a place to retreat too.... priceless.

The surroundings appealed to my DH, another ploy... Peaceful and GOLF...

Pitch the resort you thing your SO would love, and if needed book a stay on cash to get them hooked..

Wow, this is exactly how I convinced my DH too-Peaceful and GOLF-only in the reverse order. And the jacuzzi tub....

 

[mikesmom]

All we had to do was walk into the 1 bedroom at BWV. I think it took 3 minutes. DS turned around and said "Mom, we'll be ruined for regular hotel rooms" and DH turned around and said "They have a tour for information, did you book it?"

 

[dianeschlicht]

No problem at all. He was convinced right away that we could save money over the deluxes. Besides he loves Disney as much as I do, and he also loves those OKW 2 bedroom villas as much as I do! We never thought we would ever do a timeshare, because all the other timeshare presentations we had been to were high pressure and seemed cheesy. DVC was different. Kind of like the difference between a VW beatle and a Mercedes.

 

[ReneeQ]

I convinced DH it wouldn't cost us anything MORE. We had been married 10 years at the time we bought, and for our entire marriage thus far I had a certain amount of my paycheck go directly to savings for vacations. (Mostly Disney vacations!). Then when we would go to Disney, I would withdraw the money from savings to pay for the hotel.

I crunched the numbers and realized I could have the monthly DVC mortgage payment direct debited from my savings account. Then when we went to Disney, I DIDN'T have to take money from savings to pay for the room. It was a wash.

We originally financed for 10 years, just to keep the payment managable, and so we wouldn't get in a bind. But we paid it off in just 5 years, using bonuses and tax refunds. Our original purchase was 200 points at Boardwalk. We went on the Disney cruise in 2001 and added on 100 points at Wilderness Lodge. And now it's all paid off! It's the best decision we ever made! Good luck!

 

[geffric]

we had done lots of Timeshare presentation for a few years. But our BIL/SIL suggested that we look at Disney. This was back in '93, my kids were 2 years old and the other was 4 months. At that time length of stay park passes came with the condos too. I told the kids that we were going for the ice cream sundaes. We heard the stuff, had the kids with us when we toured the units. The studio was okay, but my oldest son walked into the 1 bedroom and the loved the tub, and the the big bed. I loved the washing machine and the kitchen. Then we saw the 2 bedroon and the Grand Villa..WOW!!! We talked with a sales rep and thought about it for a few days while we vacationed in a pigsty, called our rep over and over again with questions and then bought points before we left. DH would have never bought it for himself, but for his growing family - it was perfect!!!

 

[MELSMICE]

DH never wanted to spend the money because it wasn't a good "investment". We finally rented points at OKW in a 2BR & my parents met us there.

When he saw the size of the accommodations, the great upkeep & realized how much fun we had bringing other family members along he was sold. We came home & bought a resale. We have since done 2 small ad-ons.

I think starting to save before you try to talk him into it is a great idea. I know I have done this with many things that I really wanted!!!!

 

[Disney Doll]

He felt sorry for me! The trip we were on when we toured was a "cheer-up" trip after a long, hard period of time.

Actually, we took the tour, he asked a lot of questions, he reviewed all their information, and he determined that for us, it was a good investment, based on how we liked to travel to WDW.

PS-He's a realtor!

 

[WDWLVR]

I'm blessed with a DH who loves Disney as much as I do. Still we talked long and hard about whether DVC was right for us. We went over all the material together and had pretty much made up our minds when we went down for the tour. Seeing the one bedroom sealed the deal for us. It works perfect for us. I'm a morning person - he's more of a night own. So at night I can go to sleep while he stays in the living room and reads or goes on the computer. In the morning when I'm up before him I can make a cup of tea or have a bowl of cereal and read or watch tv without disturbing him.


I'm the planner in the family, but we always talk about our upcoming trips together.

The other thing that we have really enjoyed about DVC is that we can share it with family. We've sent my in-laws to Vero Beach (which they love) a couple of times now and even shared a two bedroom at Boardwalk with them.

 

[kristielee]

It's easy.....

Lots of and lots of and then if that doesn't work, then lots of

Life's too short and as someone once told me "dead is forever!"

Yeah, it was a bit of a stretch and we did finance the purchase (used the Disney Visa for the pts ). There are sooooooooooo many other things that probably would have made more sense, but with 2 kids who love WDW as much as I do, he just caved. I only regret that we a) didn't buy sooner and b) didn't buy more pts.

I must tell you, that DH who took all that convincing is now hooked! In fact, he and I had plans to go to Marco Island in March (ALONE! No kids...what a concept) and just last week he calls me from work and says "you know, why don't we just go back to Disney?" In which I proceeded to accuse him of having an affair . TE HE HE! Either that or he's got some kind of sick plot to make me so sick of the place that we'll never go back! This is the same man who used to call WDW "rat world" and complained that everytime we went, there went the kids college funds and/or his retirement.

The other factor for us, is that it is so easy to get to Orlando. We can fly direct, be there in 2 1/2 hrs, usually get some really good fares, and most of escape these Godforsaken upstate NY winters (even if only for a few days).
Also, once you have kids, you'll NEVER want to stay in another hotel room! NEVER, NEVER, NEVER! OMG! If I didn't have a washer/dryer and a kitchen (not to mention a separate room) going away would not be a vacation. It would be work. Pampered? Maybe, but if you're like me, you like the comforts of home.

Good Luck with your convincing.

 

[NMW]

We had gone back and forth with it for a year, both of us unsure. Our last "hotel" stay DH took our boys to the pool with a small ton of laundry and I stayed in our BC room with our then 23 mos old daughter to nap. The laundry took forever, we had damp clothes spread all over our room and were an hour and 1/2 late for our Portabella Yacht club PS in DTD, which led to a melt down by our DD during the dinner. When we got back to the BC, DH went straight into the store and bought some beer, unfortunately, the tiny fridge in our hotel room was filled with milk and juice for the kids.

I swear that was THE deciding moment for him. He wants to be able to wash the clothes we wore that day every night and sit on his blacony and have a large fridge filled with beer. He wants less checked bags (we always have a ton of them). Plus we have 3 kids, so we would always be staying in Deluxe resorts. We looked at the cost of yearly 8-10 day trips in Deluxe VS buying DVC and it seemed like a no-brainer. Then the biggie was finding out about the resale market. DH is crazy about the Epcot resorts and didn't want to give up staying at them in favor of SSR. He found out we could buy a BWV or BCV resale and that was it for us. We skipped our Disney vacation we had planned last year and bought a BWV resale. We are doing out first trip to our new "home" in Dec.