How do you make DVC make financial sense?

[MissCecelia]

We're buying DVC becasue after the initial payment it will only cost us a small amount to stay on Disney Property every other year for a very long time. We have the ability to afford the payment now and it gives me the piece of mind that we can keep giving our kids (and ourselves) the same caliber of a vacation on a consistent basis for a very small cost in the future for a large cost right now. We went to WDW this last time with the knowledge that we were going to buy in the next 12 months, so it was a totally different perspective.


With the kitchen we saved on breakfast, we didn't feel the need to try and "do everything" becasue we knew we were coming back so we only went to 1 park twice for our 5 day trip, we hardly bought any souvenirs and spent a lot of time just enjoying the atmosphere and experiencing all the small details. And eating. Lots of that too. We're planning a no-park WDW trip for 2020 for 6 days so we can head to a water park & check out Universal. We also want to gift a hotel stay for my sister's family and we'll have the ability to do that without any sort of financial burden.

DVC isn't a cost saver for us, it's a premium we are willing to pay to make sure that we can continue to vacation in style no matter where life takes us.

 

[Bing Showei]

We're buying DVC becasue after the initial payment it will only cost us a small amount to stay on Disney Property every other year for a very long time. We have the ability to afford the payment now and it gives me the piece of mind that we can keep giving our kids (and ourselves) the same caliber of a vacation on a consistent basis for a very small cost in the future for a large cost right now. We went to WDW this last time with the knowledge that we were going to buy in the next 12 months, so it was a totally different perspective.


With the kitchen we saved on breakfast, we didn't feel the need to try and "do everything" becasue we knew we were coming back so we only went to 1 park twice for our 5 day trip, we hardly bought any souvenirs and spent a lot of time just enjoying the atmosphere and experiencing all the small details. And eating. Lots of that too. We're planning a no-park WDW trip for 2020 for 6 days so we can head to a water park & check out Universal. We also want to gift a hotel stay for my sister's family and we'll have the ability to do that without any sort of financial burden.

DVC isn't a cost saver for us, it's a premium we are willing to pay to make sure that we can continue to vacation in style no matter where life takes us.

Assuming the economics stay the same and there continues to be a robust DVC rental market, you may want to consider renting a portion of your 2020 points and staying on site at Universal campus with cash for your days there. The Express pass that comes free with staying on site will make your Universal trip so much more pleasant (think Fastpass all day every day... for most rides).

 

[Halefamilyof6]

My point is that a lot of people end up traveling to Disney much more because they are DVC members. Some buy annual passes they may not normally because they can get discounts to do so as members (which in turn means more trips to Disney in a year).

If one is traveling to Disney resorts a lot more than one would normally without DVC, it doesn't matter how much the cost difference is between a hotel room and a DVC room. You're not saving money.

By buying into DVC, financially, the house wins. My travel habits are forever changed until I sell my contracts.

I think it's important for potential buyers to understand this.

THIS! This is fact for our family. We used to be Disney visitors every couple of years. Now? Now, we have APs, we are buying our 3 kids APs in two weeks when we return to Disneyland. We just bought more points in FL. Our trips are Disney based. We dump a ton of money to Disney now. I'm not complaining, not at all. But, they're magnificent at marketing and getting people to spend money at Disney. Our travel habits have changed since buying DVC. Now that my middle kids are teens and hitting that 'too cool' phase, I love Disney even more and will dump way more money to them to see my 'too cool for anything' teens light up like little kids again, get excited about rides and characters, and let me revel in them still being kids, even just for a few days. We have 2018 trips and a big trip in 2019 before we start renting our points so that we can save for a graduation trip to Europe....

 

[jarestel]

Though saving money by pre-paying for vacations we won't actually take for years is a goal for most of us, DVC is still a relatively pricey option and definitely doesn't work for everyone. For the strictly budget minded, DVC point rentals are hard to beat with most of the benefits and none of the responsibilities. Good luck with your decision and let us know how it works out!

 

[.landry]

I calculated the cost of DVC vs. the cost of a therapist for what DW would put me through if I didn't agree to buy, and decided DVC was cheaper (and slightly less stressful, too).

It's all about the math...

Thank you! ive been using the "wear her down" tactic for a few years now. Im super close and will now add this cost into my calculations!

 

[deerh]

Though saving money by pre-paying for vacations we won't actually take for years is a goal for most of us, DVC is still a relatively pricey option and definitely doesn't work for everyone. For the strictly budget minded, DVC point rentals are hard to beat with most of the benefits and none of the responsibilities. Good luck with your decision and let us know how it works out!

True, it is a "pricey option". But, Most timeshares are, not JUST DVC. As for renting points, it is good and not. IF not knowing the renter, you
might take some risk. Also, it is becoming "pricey" to rent now. The average rental point price is $16-17/point. If you are staying in Aulani
for a 2BR OF in May, the price is 483 points. At $16/point that is $7728. Say a week in a 1BR is 250 points at WDW, that is $4000. So, you can
see if I go to Aulani every other year and stay as above, in 6 years (3 trips) that is $23184!!! Now you are getting to the point where you would
have paid that much up front for purchasing DVC... So add 35-45-50 years of trips and you will still come out ahead purchasing DVC..

Just my .02 cents...

 

[jarestel]

True, it is a "pricey option". But, Most timeshares are, not JUST DVC. As for renting points, it is good and not. IF not knowing the renter, you
might take some risk. Also, it is becoming "pricey" to rent now. The average rental point price is $16-17/point. If you are staying in Aulani
for a 2BR OF in May, the price is 483 points. At $16/point that is $7728. Say a week in a 1BR is 250 points at WDW, that is $4000. So, you can
see if I go to Aulani every other year and stay as above, in 6 years (3 trips) that is $23184!!! Now you are getting to the point where you would
have paid that much up front for purchasing DVC... So add 35-45-50 years of trips and you will still come out ahead purchasing DVC..

Just my .02 cents...

The main point of my post was intended to show that buying DVC isn't the only way to enjoy WDW and save money. I'm not sure your examples would be typical of the kinds of rentals the "budget minded" would find appealing.

 

[Cyberc1978]

Hi everyone

Why is value always about $$

When I decided to buyin I ofc looked at the price but definitely not the price alone.

To me you can’t put a value on, memories, family fun, excitement, staying onsite, Disney Magic etc.

You could argue that memories, family fun and excitement you would most likely have anyway. But combined with what Disney else offers then it just won’t be just quite the same.

I can’t put a price on my daughters expression when she wakes up in the morning knowing that Mickey is just next door

I think you should buy DVC if you feel it makes sense both economical both also because of the more soft values.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

Hi everyone

Why is value always about $$

When I decided to buyin I ofc looked at the price but definitely not the price alone.

To me you can’t put a value on, memories, family fun, excitement, staying onsite, Disney Magic etc.

You could argue that memories, family fun and excitement you would most likely have anyway. But combined with what Disney else offers then it just won’t be just quite the same.

I can’t put a price on my daughters expression when she wakes up in the morning knowing that Mickey is just next door

I think you should buy DVC if you feel it makes sense both economical both also because of the more soft values.

Yep. While many will associate the commitment of DVC with negative, I associate it with positive. It's much easier to put priority on something other than a vacation with your family when you've also got to fork over a huge chunk of cash for it. Or to not go this year because the discount isn't as good this year / doesn't work with your dates, etc.

Once that initial buy in is "gone", my monthly dues will be unnoticed like a few Starbucks stops or a night at the movies. If times were tight or we are out of airline miles we could always drive instead of fly. Food is food. It'll cost me more at Disney than at home, but I still can subtract my grocery budget from there. So, basically we have to buy tickets. I'm really looking forward to DVC trip #2 when the APs are all paid for and literally we just have to come up with a money for our food....most likely paid for by my disney visa rewards. It is possible I will ask my kids to start buying their own tickets at some point, but not if it means they can't afford to come.

 

[Dean]

Hi everyone

Why is value always about $$

When I decided to buyin I ofc looked at the price but definitely not the price alone.

To me you can’t put a value on, memories, family fun, excitement, staying onsite, Disney Magic etc.

You could argue that memories, family fun and excitement you would most likely have anyway. But combined with what Disney else offers then it just won’t be just quite the same.

I can’t put a price on my daughters expression when she wakes up in the morning knowing that Mickey is just next door

I think you should buy DVC if you feel it makes sense both economical both also because of the more soft values.

I doubt DVC saves many people money but it should save money or provide additional real value to make buying in reasonable. The pursuit of memories isn't restricted to DVC even where Disney is concerned. One can have the same, or possibly even better, memories not owning DVC as owning. To buy in without some type of savings or true added value is a minimum qualifying factor to a reasonable purchase and do to so otherwise would simply be foolish. Put another way, just to be a member of the club but paying more to do so with no other benefit would make no sense. There are too many risks, limitations and compromises otherwise.

 

[DougEMG]

Hi everyone

Why is value always about $$

When I decided to buyin I ofc looked at the price but definitely not the price alone.

To me you can’t put a value on, memories, family fun, excitement, staying onsite, Disney Magic etc.

You could argue that memories, family fun and excitement you would most likely have anyway. But combined with what Disney else offers then it just won’t be just quite the same.

I can’t put a price on my daughters expression when she wakes up in the morning knowing that Mickey is just next door

I think you should buy DVC if you feel it makes sense both economical both also because of the more soft values.

In my mind the value for owning DVC is always about $$, because all those other non-tangible benefits will occur regardless if you own, rent or pay cash.

We've stayed off-site, in values, moderates and now DVC and have had great fun, excitement, memories and magical moments regardless of where we have stayed.

 

[cmwade77]

It really does depend on your individual preferences and what kind of incentives they are offering. For us the cost was about three trips worth at the price we were spending at the time and then it was paid for aside from minimal monthly dues. Add in that we got to stay at nicer places and it made financial sense for us. Now we bought into the Grand Californian, which gives us a lot of flexibility as everyone wants it, so we can pretty much book anywhere at 11 months out by trading with people. Additionally hotels in California are much more expensive per night than in Florida, so that does skew the numbers some in favor of DVC, but we based it on what we were spending at Disney World at the time.

Now if you always stay off property, then it probably never will make sense, but at the time even compared to the value resorts it made financial sense, although less so than when you compared it to the nicer resorts that are more equal in accommodations.

Ultimately as I said, it may not make sense for everyone. A viable option is to buy resale as well, but know there are limitations with said points such as not getting all of the perks of being a DVC member, of course some people buy the minimum direct and then add on through resale as well.

Something that many don't factor into the cost savings is how much time you save with DVC, without it, I would spend time comparing the best priced resorts and off property, weighing the pros and cons of staying off property, etc. and with DVC it is simple, figure out where we want to stay, when we want to go and how many points it will take to do it. Time is definitely worth some money as well.

Another factor is that you can exchange for RCI, we spent a week in Manhattan right across the street from Carnegie Hall on something like 100 points plus the $90 exchange fee, that room would have cost around $2,500 when we went due to Comicon or some other such festival going on at the time. So just say on a normal basis it would be $2,000 for the week, minus $100 for the exchange fee would be $1,900. Over the course of 50 years or so that would work out to $95,000 if you just did this type of stay once a year. And it would only take around 100 points a year and while they called it a studio, it was more like a one bedroom with no door between the living room and bedroom area, four of us along with a service dog slept quite comfortably there and it was a good sized room. Can you stay in New York cheaper? Yes, but only if you go outside the city and take the bus, train or subway in all the time.

That is how you make it make financial sense. Now if you only take a vacation every 2 or 3 years it may not make as much sense, but if you take a yearly vacation it certainly can.

 

[Cyberc1978]

I doubt DVC saves many people money but it should save money or provide additional real value to make buying in reasonable. The pursuit of memories isn't restricted to DVC even where Disney is concerned. One can have the same, or possibly even better, memories not owning DVC as owning. To buy in without some type of savings or true added value is a minimum qualifying factor to a reasonable purchase and do to so otherwise would simply be foolish. Put another way, just to be a member of the club but paying more to do so with no other benefit would make no sense. There are too many risks, limitations and compromises otherwise.

As stated you will most likely have the same memories etc but then again you might not. Disney is not like your regular timeshare what they offer is unique. If they are the same I might as well stay offsite at some random hotel, will I then have a great time? - yes I will, but will it be the same most likely not.

I think most buyers find value in locking in today’s cost for future vacations. The value of the uniqueness that Disney provide should not be neglected.

However I wouldn’t buy DVC if I couldn’t afford it or didn’t think that I would get a potential saving on future vacation.

If you only look at cost, why not just buy Marriott, blue green, hgvc etc. They are much cheaper and they don’t have the uniqueness as Disney does.

In my mind the value for owning DVC is always about $$, because all those other non-tangible benefits will occur regardless if you own, rent or pay cash.

We've stayed off-site, in values, moderates and now DVC and have had great fun, excitement, memories and magical moments regardless of where we have stayed.

As stated above if it’s only about costs you should look at another timeshare they are much much cheaper.

 

[Dean]

As stated you will most likely have the same memories etc but then again you might not. Disney is not like your regular timeshare what they offer is unique. If they are the same I might as well stay offsite at some random hotel, will I then have a great time? - yes I will, but will it be the same most likely not.

I think most buyers find value in locking in today’s cost for future vacations. The value of the uniqueness that Disney provide should not be neglected.

However I wouldn’t buy DVC if I couldn’t afford it or didn’t think that I would get a potential saving on future vacation.

If you only look at cost, why not just buy Marriott, blue green, hgvc etc. They are much cheaper and they don’t have the uniqueness as Disney does.



As stated above if it’s only about costs you should look at another timeshare they are much much cheaper.

I've had great memories from many timeshares. DVC really is just another timeshare. In many ways an also ran except for location. One can even stay at DVC on a routine basis without owning. All of those others you mentioned do some things far better than DVC, 2 of them a lot of things better. I'd agree one needs to be able to afford it, I'd go a step further in saying in needs to be money they can just throw away if something happens. But there's no reason to commit to a timeshare for many years if it doesn't offer some type of savings or added value, absolutely none, ever.

 

[deerh]

Don't know if I would go as far as saying DVC is $ thrown away if something happens. In the 18 years we have owned, I could more than
"break even" on my timeshare purchase. I don't think Disney or (Marriott for that matter) is a bad timeshare and you would not lose $ on
them. I cannot speak for Marriott, but I can for DVC. In 18 years, it has gone up (point cost) 80% (from purchase price of $67 to $120/pt
for BWV. So that is 4.44% increase/year. Even if it goes up 2%/year from now, in 20 years that would be 40%...

This is not true of other Timeshares, but for DVC it is a fact... For Now.... But I am by no means an expert on TS, but just stating what has
happened to DVC since I have owned it.

 

[zavandor]

I cannot speak for Marriott, but I can for DVC. In 18 years, it has gone up (point cost) 80% (from purchase price of $67 to $120/pt
for BWV. So that is 4.44% increase/year. Even if it goes up 2%/year from now, in 20 years that would be 40%...

Sorry but in 20 years BWV will have 4 years remaining on the lease and it will be worth next to nil.

 

[Dean]

Don't know if I would go as far as saying DVC is $ thrown away if something happens. In the 18 years we have owned, I could more than
"break even" on my timeshare purchase. I don't think Disney or (Marriott for that matter) is a bad timeshare and you would not lose $ on
them. I cannot speak for Marriott, but I can for DVC. In 18 years, it has gone up (point cost) 80% (from purchase price of $67 to $120/pt
for BWV. So that is 4.44% increase/year. Even if it goes up 2%/year from now, in 20 years that would be 40%...

This is not true of other Timeshares, but for DVC it is a fact... For Now.... But I am by no means an expert on TS, but just stating what has
happened to DVC since I have owned it.

The point was related to personal situation and reasonableness of buying a timeshare, not timeshare value per se.

 

[DougEMG]

As stated above if it’s only about costs you should look at another timeshare they are much much cheaper.

Never said that I wanted the absolutely cheapest option out there. What I wanted was the cheapest way to stay on site in a deluxe resort . When I did all my spreadsheet comparisons and modelling, buying DVC (2010-2014) was the best option to get what I wanted.

My point is still the same, you can stay in the exact same DVC room by owning, renting or paying cash, therefore it only makes sense to compare costs since all other factors are the same.

If I was rich, I wouldn't even bother with DVC, I'd just book whatever room I wanted directly with Disney and then not have to deal with all the 11/7 month booking pain in the butt, but sadly I'm not

 

[Cyberc1978]

Sorry but in 20 years BWV will have 4 years remaining on the lease and it will be worth next to nil.

I don’t agree. The points will as a minimum have the same value as renting points. Agreed with only 4 years left it won’t be 120$ Pp

 

[deerh]

Sorry but in 20 years BWV will have 4 years remaining on the lease and it will be worth next to nil.

I misspoke. I meant to say IF you purchase a new product (CCV) (Poly), in 20 years from now, you would be looking at (2% increase/year x 20 years)
at 40% increase. If in 20 years (at 4% increase/year) you are looking at 80%! Seems reasonable to me.. I don't think DVC will go down anytime
soon..