How did you make your decision...financially or emotionally?

[Twingle]

Right now we just own at SSR, which was a financial choice, but we're hoping to purchase at Contemporary once they announce that, which will be an emotional purchase.

Have to agree with the pp's, make sure you buy where you want to stay. Personally, I was just glad we owned DVC, but it was much more important to my DH that we purchase at SSR, and we like it there very much.

Good luck in your decision.

 

[El&Asmom]

Our decision to buy DVC was an emotional one. We love Disney, and want to be able to stay in 1-2 bedroom villas every year. Something that would not be financially reasonable if we paid with cash yearly.

Where we decided to buy was a financial decision.
We bought a 50pt resale contract at HH because we knew that with small kids, we would want to be able to go to HH at least every 3 years, and it was a good price with banked points. We thought we'd get our foot in the door, and add on when we needed more points.
Well the ink barely dried on the contract when we decided to add on. We chose SSR for financial reasons. It is not dhs favorite resort, but I like it. It was cheaper to buy in than AKV, has lower dues, and we got banked points with our contract.
I also felt that AKV would be relatively easy to get at the 7 month mark in a savannah view room once Kidani is completed. Time shall tell.
We do love some of the 2042 resorts, however since we are in our early 30s, having the extra years makes more sense.

 

[RLRDA]

Get passed the emotions, and look at the numbers. If it will be a financial stress.....don't do it!! You will have another time in your life to re-explore the purchase. The worry of obligation will overide your enjoyment...just trying to be realistic here. Always put your financial health first!! (Sorry to sound like Suze Orman)

I agree! Our family loves Disney but my DH and I are practical and (relatively) conservative when it comes to finances. If we couldn't afford to pay it in full and not have the payments hanging over our heads, we would not have become members. But again JMHO. We toyed with the idea since 1998.....finally joined in 2004.

 

[Magicdad]

to put it as succintly as possible, emotionally within some financial boundaries

As a new owner, I did the same.

 

[jodifla]

So DH and I are still deciding where to buy. I realized with our last discussion that we are approaching this decision from different perspectives.

He is approaching this from a financial viewpoint. His decision is based on getting the most points we can within our budget.

My decision is based on . I want to buy at the location that I think we will love even if it means fewer points.

Either way we will have enough points for the vacations we adore and that is what matters.

However, I am curious how did you decide...financially or emotionally?!

Luckily for us, both things dovetailed. WE LOVE OKW!!!!!!!!!


We added on at BCV to make sure we always had SAB access, but we don't love BCV like we do OKW.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

Financially-For me as a Single Parent it was important to purchase with the ability to hang on to it, be able to pay the dues and to still have the money to vacation. The saving grace was that I fell in love with OKW from the 1st time a friend let me use hers and point wise it's more affordable.

From there it was the emotional roller coaster of committing to the purchase. I didn't finance, I saved up and bought (210 points) through a resale and I pay my dues monthly. My only regret, is that I wish that I could have done it sooner and afforded more points.

I think about adding often but with that comes more dues!

Good luck to you!

OKW-Family Reunion Jun 08

 

[jimmar6419]

It was a somewhat impulsive decision on our part. In my mind I was thinking I would regret this within a day or two and that I would be reselling a timeshare. I have to say I have never felt regret for the purchase only for not buying the maximum number of points we could possibly afford. DH and I have a joke saying "I bought points while you were at work today". We both secretly wish the other would only be so irresponsible. We are really hooked.

 

[Goofy + 3]

If I could afford to act emotionally, I'd have bought years ago! As it is, the practical side of me is delaying until we put another year or two of college in to the kids' 529 plans. But it's the emotional side that keeps me coming back to these boards and dreaming about becoming an owner!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Definitely financial. We were attracted by the lower dues at OKW. Having said that, when we went over to have a walk around th resort it is was love on first sight. I think this was definitely the right decision for us.

dolphingirl47

 

[southtexasmom]

It was emotional for us, we have 4 children, the oldest is almost 16 and the youngest is 2. We had to pick a resort that would be great for us when we had all 4 kids with us and then would be perfect if we only had 2 children. It also had to be a great resort that would work for us when our children are grown and have their own familys. We tried to think into the future and SSR seemed to be the right choice for us. It has lots of things for kids to do and we love the laid back atmosphere.

 

[TinksDH]

Both for us. We visited WDW in April 2000 as adults, thinking we needed to take our two (at the time, now three) kids there at least ONCE in their lives, so let's do that and check it off the list. WRONG! We fell in love with the place, and immediatly realized that we wanted to go back frequently. For us, staying on property was a must (Wilderness Lodge was our inaugural resort), as we liked the whole "immersion into all things Disney" experience. So our comparitive set was other on-site properties that a family of 4 (and later on 5) could comfortably live in for a week at a time. We scrutinized our finances, looked at all the current offers, thought about it, but just couldn't see how we could afford it at the time.

Fast forward 11 months later and we were once again visiting FL, but this time staying at a Hilton property in Cocoa Beach on frequent guest points for a March get-away, and were doing day trips up to WDW. By methods unknown to me even to this day, somehow my DW convinced me to spend a big chunk of one of our days in WDW at a DVC presentation at their offices on the Boardwalk. I mean, why go? We had been through the finances - we just couldn't afford it yet. But I agreed, so we trudged the whole family over to the Sales Center.

I believe that they were in the process of selling BWV, as I think VWL had just sold out. We listened to the presentation, and were sold on the concept but once again we felt that the costs were just slightly out of reach. Then, in a stroke of salesmanship genius, our Guide asked us if we were aware of the DVC Vero Beach resort, and if we enjoyed going to the beach. We were of course aware of it, but had assumed that it was sold out. She indicated that it wasn't, and that they were wanting to sell off the few remaining contracts that they had so they could "close" that resort and get on with building another property. I think they were selling VB at $10 a point below the going incentives, which amounted to a nice amount of savings on the contract size we were interested in.

That was the match made in heaven. The finances worked, the location was awesome (we LOVE the beach, we LOVE Vero, and we LOVE Disney), and the deal was too good to pass up. I said "let's do it!" right there on the spot and we signed. My DW could NOT believe it - she had never seen me make such a (seemingly) impulsive financial decision like this before. Actually, it wasn't impulsive at all - we had determined months ago what the price had to be in order for us to afford it and this was just the first time a DVC contract of a size that we wanted approached the price that we were comfortable with.

Even though we own at VB, we have NEVER had a problem getting in at a WDW DVC resort on the dates we want. Granted, we have to be more flexible than others with the location, but even with our 7 month booking window, we have only had 1 time come up where we didn't get the property we wanted. And even in that instance, I think it eventually came through on a waitlist, but we decided to stay where we booked anyway.

Owning at VB gives us access to the beachfront cottages (only 6 units total on site) that really can only be obtained by booking 11 months out from the summer season. Sure, they will open up from time to time and some folks have gotten lucky, but to be certain in getting them you need to own there. We've stayed in them twice since 2000 and are going back for our third time next July. Since buying at VB, we have added on VB, added on at SSR (we want a piece of DVC-II for our kids), and are seriously considering getting KTV if/when that goes on sale. We have also used our points to stay at the Poly, and just recently went on a 7 night western caribbean cruise on DCL by using them to pay for DW and me. Our ONLY regret is that we did not happen upon DVC earlier on in our lives (i.e. pre-kids) as we had much more disposable income then versus when we did actually buy. But over time we'll just keep adding on here and there!

 

[n2mm]

My decision was financial all the way. Hubby was a CM and his division of the WDC was being sold (the Disney Catalog). We were going to miss those 50% and 60% discounts off of our rooms, so we quickly took the plunge (though we had talked about it off and on often). This was the one time we could get a CM discount off of the DVC purchase. So we got the current incentive $10 per point off, plus 15% off the entire total. It saved us $6,000. Plus the fact that our children are all adults now and with DVC there is no extra adult fee, which was also a plus. We have no regrets.....actually, not buying into it earlier would be my only regret. Even though hubby would no longer be a CM, there was no way we were going to stop coming to WDW, we just had to find another way to handle our addiction.....though I tried to get hubby to be a snowbird, that just wouldn't work.....(I'm still trying).

 

[naf917]

Our decision was purley emotional. Once we made the decision to buy into DVC then it was done by the numbers, where to buy, how many points, how much to spend and how to pay for it.

We bought in July 2007 and we went once and have our next trip planned.

 

[Snow Shoe]

Really both. We liked the idea of DVC and since WDW was going to be our vacation spot, it made a lot of sense. Also we had the cash to outright purchase which helped in the decision making.

 

[JonJ]

Our decision was both financial and emotional. We visited the DVC office at BWV while we were staying at the Dolphin & then Wilderness Lodge. I had grown up in the Los Angeles area and loved going to Disneyland (emotional). Our special needs daughter was over 18, so we had to pay for an additional adult in the room (financial) if we stayed at the regular Disney resorts. My wife had been diagnosed and treated for breast cancer the year before (emotional - a reassurance that both of us would be able to enjoy WDW for many years to come). I ran the figures (financial), and they were reasonable. We did go resale (financial) for the first 200 points at BWV, and have added on to BWV and VWL through Disney. We have used the points for family trips, including ones when our son and daughter-in-law with us in a 2 BR. We initially chose BWV for its lower points for standard rooms (financial) and location (emotional). We added on to VWL because of the relaxed atmosphere and theming (emotional).

 

[castleri]

When we bought only OKW and BWV were available and we had not toured either although we did buy at the sales office at BWV. We had taken a boat rental from PO to DTD and then back up and went over to OKW on the way back (didn't) know what it was then. Took a couple of pictures from the boat and said "wonder what those are? It would be nice to stay there some time". Our every informative guide nudged us towards OKW since we really didn't have a preference and I have been grateful ever since - It is still my favorite resort. That was mostly based on a financial thinking that it was less points and lower dues (mostly the lower dues at the time). When my deed came I found out that my real estate interest is in building 55 which is the one I had taken the picture of from the boat the day before we signed the papers- That made it emotional. The purchases at BCV and SSR were presale and based on finances of buying at the low rate. I could sell either of those with no problem but don't even talk about selling my OKW.

 

[Tink-n-Belle]

We picked BWV over SSR--- The cost to Buy BWV was more and we got 12 years less, but I am so happy we purchased at BWV-- I just love it.

I had stayed a number of times in the Disney Institute Villas(pre SSR) and The one thing I didn't like is that you were too far away from every park, whereas the BWV is so close to Epcot and DHS. Buying where I wanted to stay was more important to me than the better deal I could have gotten with SSR. (And I'm a very frugal person, but sometimes its not about the money) But there was a silver lining to buying the BWV-- they have lower points for their standard rooms, which have come in handy since we are ALWAYS borrowing.

I don't know how the 4 new DVC resorts (AKV, KTV GCV and Hawaii)will play out the 7 month window. I am assuming that it will be easier to get another resort at the 7 month window due to all the choices everyone has. In fact I got VB during their peak season in a 5 month window for Presidents Day Weekend (I never thought I would). And alot of people get the BWV at the 7 month window too.

If you really love a resort buy there at min points and buy an add on elsewhere for the longer term contact. We plan on buy KTV once they are announce. I asked DH how many points he wanted there, I was figuring 100-120 and he said We should at least do 150 PT So in the long run we will have 330 points for 35 years and 150 for 15 more(which will probably go to the kids at that point anyways.!!

The only problem with that is finding the time to go!!

Good luck

 

[stopher1]

Get passed the emotions, and look at the numbers. If it will be a financial stress.....don't do it!! You will have another time in your life to re-explore the purchase. The worry of obligation will overide your enjoyment...just trying to be realistic here. Always put your financial health first!! (Sorry to sound like Suze Orman)

I agree here. Looking at your signature, it's clear you are emotionally attached to WDW. We are too. It took us years to finally get to the point that we could join, but the financial piece was key - depsite wanting to join all those years (I requested my first literature back in 1994, but couldn't do it).

Financial was what primarily dictated when and where we purchased. In my final discussions with our guide a couple of weeks ago before finally joining, I asked about BWV and OKW having seen rooms at both resorts while on-site in Jan, and she was more than willing to sell me points there if I really wanted to buy them. When the numbers were compared side by side, financially it simply didn't make sense to us, especially since they are both in the system and we have the opportunity to stay there from time to time (granted the booking windows are different)

We haven't stayed at AKV yet, but there was definitely an emotional pull from our peanut gallery (kids) that helped sway us to AKV over SSR, what with the possibility of animals in view, etc. At first blush I really liked the SSR models better and my wife really liked the AKV models better. But when I really disected it, I realized that I really liked the Grand Villa model at SSR better than the AKV models, and I like the light-airy feel of the SSR models better than AKV until I stopped to think about the fact that the AKV models are in a dark warehouse building vs. being at the actual site.

So in the end, it was more realistically a 65/35 split - financial (incentives & contract length at 65%) and (emotional overall likability and family feelings at 35%).

 

[Mad4Mickey]

We had toyed with the idea before , My DH just got hooked about 4 years ago on his 2nd trip with me . He has made 3 more with me this past trip was trip # 32 for me and #6 for him .
We got SSR for a great passholder rate and after staying one night in the 1 bd rm they had bumped us up to I knew what I wanted . Little did I know that my DH had already arranged for us to tour with the DVC Guide nad had already brought the money with him. He bought it for me for Valentines day back in Feb. : ) He bought it for EMOTION LOL MINE !
I thought we would buy WL since it is my favorite but SSR hooked me in .
I have a great DH ( he is not without faults though girls ie: cant find the clothes basket !) This got him extra bonus points .

 

[emlutz23]

Our decision was a financial one. We wanted to join in 1999 on our honeymoon, but we couldn't do it financially. So all those years of waiting were emotional ones, until 2006 when we knew we could finally afford it! Now, our latest add-on, pure emotional!