We recently took the plunge and closed on our first
DVC resale contract, and currently have a second in ROFR. These boards are an incredible resource, and I think this specific thread is a great one to review for those considering buying into DVC, so I decided to share my story.
I had previously looked into DVC a handful of times over the years, but concluded that it just wasn’t worth it for us. My wife and I certainly enjoyed Disney, but we wanted to leave our options open and just figured we could stay in Values/Moderates and save a fair bit of money over DVC in the long run.
Before getting into what pushed us over the top, note that we ‘completed’ our family this year with our DD’s birth in January. Our DS is four, and we actually took him for a quick stay last year in early November as part of a trip to visit some family. We did two nights at an AoA Cars Suite and one full day at MK. It was incredibly special for all of us, and we looked forward to returning once our new daughter was “old enough”.
Fast forward to February/March of this year, and I got the urge to schedule SOMETHING… I couldn’t really stand the idea of waiting several years to visit Disney again. So we scheduled a trip to California for June, where we would spend 4 days at the
Disneyland Resort (and another 3-4 with some family out there). After much deliberation, we decided we weren’t going to be happy if we stayed off-site and went “all-in” at the Disneyland Hotel… because we weren’t going to be back for several years, of course. (I’ve gotten very good at justifying spending extra money on vacations…)
Anyway, it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. We absolutely loved it more than we ever thought possible with our 5-month old. There were many takeaways, but perhaps three were more important than any other:
1. Having more days to visit the parks made for a very relaxing experience. In the past we had shortened our stays (again, often pairing a Disney visit with a family visit), and only one a 1-day ticket. DW and I even hit MK, EPCOT, and DHS all in one day way back when… Those are terribly long, tiring days, and while they are certainly packed with fun, taking a more relaxed approach is clearly better… especially with kids. So having 4-day park hoppers to cover DLR’s two parks was amazing. We never felt rushed or pressured by a schedule.
2. Walking to the parks was incredible. Now, I know the set-up at DLR is quite different from WDW. But you can achieve a similar result at WDW by staying at places like BCV and BLT, which is where we purchased our contracts… though there were other things to consider when choosing where to buy, that proximity was the most important factor for us. If you’re going for a week and have to schlep around on a bus every day, that’s not quite as nice as being able to walk most of the days. At DLR, it made a midday hotel/pool break so much more manageable. It literally changed the way we look at these trips.
3. We don’t have to wait to travel to Disney as a family. I was one of the “wait until they’re old enough to remember it” people, and I’ve completely changed my tune. We held out until our son was 3.5, but we won’t be waiting with our daughter. Part of that is because he is in some prime Disney years right now, and we don’t want to miss those. But part of it is that even at her young age she can see the magic and enjoy it all the same. Will she remember it? Of course not. That’s what pictures are for. And if you’re going to use the “remember it” standard, I suppose there’s no travel allowed between birth and age 5 (at a minimum) for any family vacations, ever.
So we concluded that (1) we want to stay for longer periods of time and truly relax more instead of check-listing our way through the parks; (2) we want to stay as close as humanly possible to the parks and avoid busses/other transportation; and (3) we would definitely want to visit WDW/DLR on a more regular basis, and we didn’t have to wait for the kids to reach any age in particular.
This translates to staying in Deluxe Resorts, and if we want to go more frequently and/or for longer periods of time, the costs add up significantly. Even at today’s all-time high prices for DVC points, the cost compares favorably to cash rates at Deluxe resorts for years and years.
If our travel habits change in the future, we have bought into what seems to be the most marketable timeshare in existence. And if they don’t, then good for us
I explained a bit above about how/why we ended up with BCV and BLT (both resale)… the location really won out above all else. Stormalong Bay at BCV is a big draw for us and our kids; I’m sure we will spend many days there! And EPCOT and DHS are our favorite parks, so being able to walk to both of those was just a no-brainer. As for BLT, the Contemporary has always been my favorite resort… I know BLT isn’t actually the Contemporary, but it is close enough for me. And again, walking to MK!
For DLR, we are on the waitlist for some direct VGC points… despite some reports about the impossibility of getting VGC points, I have a lot of faith in my guide, who I’ve been talking to every couple weeks since July about all of this. It may take some time, but I’m sure Disney will find some points to sell us eventually. We decided to go VGC direct for two reasons:
- The available VGC resale contracts were closer to VGC direct prices than BCV and BLT were (so not as much resale savings on VGC).
- We are buying fewer VGC points than BCV or BLT, so it made sense to pay the premium on fewer points.
We want *some* direct points, to be grandfathered in before they up the requirement again simply to be considered a “full” member… I know many on these boards don’t care for this and think it’s silly, but I don’t. We’d like to go on a member cruise someday, too, which you can’t book without a blue card, and there is some financial value to the other benefits as well.
Lastly, we ended up with different use years at BCV and BLT, and likely will at VGC. This was something I was hung up on a lot early on in the process, but as time went on I realized that it really didn’t matter for our specific purposes. We are buying at three different resorts to get home resort priority and use the points exclusively at those resorts 90% of the time. On the few occasions were we do want to combine points for a stay elsewhere, it doesn’t seem terribly difficult to transfer points or link two reservations… now, if I ever bought more points at any of the resorts, I would want to make sure to match the use years. But for our purposes, it was truly irrelevant. I wish somebody would have pointed that out to me sooner.
Hopefully something here helps somebody as they are considering a DVC purchase, one way or another. It certainly is not for everybody, and it really wasn’t for us until I realized it this summer. It would have been silly for us to have it 2, 5, or 10 years ago. But now, with two young kids who are going to grow up over the next couple decades, the time is right. We are a ‘Disney family’; it just makes sense for us. I look forward to sharing that magic that captured my heart with my kids in the years to come.
