How does someone know it's a good decision for them, to purchase DVC?

[Childs1stTime2Disney]

I have been a Disney fan since I was a child, planning trips over the years with friends or family. Now we are a family of 4, with teen and a younger child. We have gone to Disney before Covid shut downs, then stopped for a few years due to various factors, and have now gone 3 years in a row. I personally know I could go yearly and never wish for anywhere else. I am not sure my family feels the same, but they do love the trips each time.

So I started thinking, maybe we should be looking at DVC? We are at a point where we stay in one bedroom villas for a week+, rented through Disney using a discount code, & paid for in cash these last trips.How do I figure out if DVC is a good move for us? Worried what if we aren't able to go yearly going forward? So how does a person accurately calculate if this is worth it for them to make the move into buying DVC?

Worried about "life" becoming less conducive to being able to take those week long stays going forward, or things such as jobs, health issues, or other life factors posing an issue to traveling, in the future. Also, I am concerned we'd need to purchase 200+ points to even come close to how we like to stay, etc. FYI, considering direct, since we love RR. Of course, it's a huge commitment financially and a huge leap. Anyone have any words of wisdom to share?

 

[ShaneDJ]

Some paragraphs would be great.

 

[ShaneDJ]

Thank you. The paragraphs look better and make your post much easier to read.

Since you mentioned RIV resort, here is one article specific to that, plus another that should help answer your questions.

And then here is the contact info of one of the best DVC resale guides out there (and he’s a featured speaker on the DVC Fan podcast). He’s a pro and can answer your questions directly.

These links are all from this board’s sponsor…

How Long Does It Take to Break Even on a Riviera Resale Contract?
https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/blo...e-to-break-even-on-a-riviera-resale-contract/

Is DVC Right for You?
https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/blog/is-dvc-right-for-you/

Contact Derek DeBoer:
https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/about-us/team/derek-deboer/

 

[AstroBlasters]

I have been a Disney fan since I was a child, planning trips over the years with friends or family. Now we are a family of 4, with teen and a younger child. We have gone to Disney before Covid shut downs, then stopped for a few years due to various factors, and have now gone 3 years in a row. I personally know I could go yearly and never wish for anywhere else. I am not sure my family feels the same, but they do love the trips each time.

So I started thinking, maybe we should be looking at DVC? We are at a point where we stay in one bedroom villas for a week+, rented through Disney using a discount code, & paid for in cash these last trips.How do I figure out if DVC is a good move for us? Worried what if we aren't able to go yearly going forward? So how does a person accurately calculate if this is worth it for them to make the move into buying DVC?

Worried about "life" becoming less conducive to being able to take those week long stays going forward, or things such as jobs, health issues, or other life factors posing an issue to traveling, in the future. Also, I am concerned we'd need to purchase 200+ points to even come close to how we like to stay, etc. FYI, considering direct, since we love RR. Of course, it's a huge commitment financially and a huge leap. Anyone have any words of wisdom to share?

You seem like a reasonable candidate and identified some of the things to be concerned about.

How big of a financial commitment is this for you and your family? Not just the upfront…. the lifestyle….dues, the park tickets/passes, food, merch, transportation….

Does it have to be Rivera or bust?

In most cases going direct is SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than resale and therefore you are taking more risk because you have to take the depreciation hit if your personal financial situation or family’s travel habits change.

Rivera offers a bigger depreciation hit than most other DVC resorts because the points are locked into just that resort if purchased via resale.

On the other side, Rivera might be “sold out”
in a couple of years… which really means sold direct at a higher price and without incentives….

 

[AnnaS]

Just a thought - and only you know your plans, goals, finances, etc. etc. - if you decide to purchase, split your contract up because of the "worried about life". This is for everyone. No one knows what the future holds for us. Easier to sell. Can keep one contract and go every other year if expenses get to be too much, change up your vacation destination and so on.

Do some research if you have not but you need to also focus on what you want/expect out of your vacations now and in the near future.

 

[Royal Consort]

How do I figure out if DVC is a good move for us? Worried what if we aren't able to go yearly going forward?

Worried about "life" becoming less conducive to being able to take those week long stays going forward, or things such as jobs, health issues, or other life factors posing an issue to traveling, in the future. Also, I am concerned we'd need to purchase 200+ points to even come close to how we like to stay, etc. FYI, considering direct, since we love RR. Of course, it's a huge commitment financially and a huge leap. Anyone have any words of wisdom to share?

DVC is like a marriage, but to a vacation. It's a long commitment and you need to ask yourself "Am I going to commit to returning here for the next 15 years, at least once every 2 years?" This is not a Britney Spears sort of marriage. If you are comfortable with the commitment then you're a pretty good candidate. I'd say you'd need your family onboard with this because it could potentially turn into something they resent. Again, long term commitment. Buying resale would be your best case as you can always sell it for what you purchased it for if you want out sooner (generally speaking).

None of us can predict the future so there's no point in trying to estimate health or other life factors that are yet unknowable. All you can do is make the best decision with what information you have. We are international owners and certainly didn't predict the pandemic which prevented us from travel for over 2 years. And yet, we got through it and continue to make good use of our membership.

Just ensure you are in a solid financial position without needing to finance (or at least finance short term) as that will erode any savings. Riviera resale will save you thousands over direct if you're content with staying at the one place forever. We are home resort exclusive people and don't really stay outside of the properties we purchased so resale Riviera wouldn't bother us. If not your cup of tea, consider other resale contracts to save you a good chunk of money.

If you do want Riviera direct, an argument can be made for it but you need to hold on to it for a good number of years as direct contracts depreciate like new cars on the resale market. My view is I like the direct perks but I don't think they're "worth" it.

If buying direct, split your contracts either into 2x 100 points or a 150 and 50 point contract if you want to downsize in the future. Just know you need 150 direct points to keep your perks.

Alternatively, if you go at the same time every year, you can consider buying a favorite week from Disney who will automatically book your desired week for you annually. You can opt out if you choose and use your points like normal.

 

[Childs1stTime2Disney]

You seem like a reasonable candidate and identified some of the things to be concerned about.

How big of a financial commitment is this for you and your family? Not just the upfront…. the lifestyle….dues, the park tickets/passes, food, merch, transportation….

Does it have to be Rivera or bust?

In most cases going direct is SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than resale and therefore you are taking more risk because you have to take the depreciation hit if your personal financial situation or family’s travel habits change.

Rivera offers a bigger depreciation hit than most other DVC resorts because the points are locked into just that resort if purchased via resale.

On the other side, Rivera might be “sold out”
in a couple of years… which really means sold direct at a higher price and without incentives….

It does not necessarily have to be Riviera. We do like to try various resorts. I just thought Riviera would be a good home resort choice, since we do love it.

Is Riviera the only resort that has its resale limited to the purchaser staying there only? Why is that? And what do you mean it might be sold out and the implications of what that might mean?

I guess yes, I was wondering how easy it is to resell should you decide it's not for your family any more.

 

[Royal Consort]

It does not necessarily have to be Riviera. We do like to try various resorts. I just thought Riviera would be a good home resort choice, since we do love it.

Is Riviera the only resort that has its resale limited to the purchaser staying there only? Why is that? And what do you mean it might be sold out and the implications of what that might mean?

I guess yes, I was wondering how easy it is to resell should you decide it's not for your family any more.

Riviera was the first resort with resale restrictions which will apply to new resorts going forward. Villas at Disneyland Hotel and Cabins at Fort Wilderness are also restricted resorts. Disney did this to differentiate the direct and resale products.

Riviera is appox. 77% sold out at this time, looking to fully sell out during the last quarter of 2026. When it's sold out Disney jack the price up as they no longer have points to sell unless they reacquire them. They then move on to the newest resort in active sales (which will be Lakeshore Lodge in 2027).

 

[NY Pirate Princess]

Worried about "life" becoming less conducive to being able to take those week long stays going forward, or things such as jobs, health issues, or other life factors posing an issue to traveling, in the future. Also, I am concerned we'd need to purchase 200+ points to even come close to how we like to stay, etc. FYI, considering direct, since we love RR. Of course, it's a huge commitment financially and a huge leap. Anyone have any words of wisdom to share?

My advice as a risk averse person who straddled the dvc decision for a decade: Life will happen. The challenges you will face later can't be predicted or planned for now, only mitigated.

The personal finance advice that I follow for a luxury purchase like this was and is "How reversible is this action? Is the financial impact of taking and reversing this decision something that my financial plan can survive? Does this action fit with my overall values?"

My answers were yes but only on a small resale contract. Now that I have played with my toy, paid dues for it multiple years, and discovered through using the 7 month window the resort i truly want to own, i am still happy I took the leap. I can sell what I bought and buy what i discovered I really want with no harm to my finances, relationships, or retirement plan.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I would put the focus on where you want to stay and how much is that costing you. For a long time, I was set on cash stays, but due to prices going up and me being much pickier about where I will stay, it became better to buy DVC.

You are correct that life is full of "what ifs?" Will any of those scenarios change your travel plans for many years? If it's only a year or two, you can rent your points out until you can use them again. DVC doesn't seem to be a total loss. Meaning if you buy today and have to get rid of it in 10 years, you'll probably still come out even or ahead of paying cash rates.

 

[AstroBlasters]

It does not necessarily have to be Riviera. We do like to try various resorts. I just thought Riviera would be a good home resort choice, since we do love it.

Is Riviera the only resort that has its resale limited to the purchaser staying there only? Why is that? And what do you mean it might be sold out and the implications of what that might mean?

I guess yes, I was wondering how easy it is to resell should you decide it's not for your family any more.

There are a lot of articles in the archives on sites like DVCFan.com, DVCnews.com, etc which go into the history.

Essentially, Riveria resales for around $120 per point. So if you buy it for $200 a point, you instantly have a 40 % depreciation hit + a 9.25% commission to sell and some other costs.

Does any of that really matter if you hold it for a long time? Probably not, because you will have gotten your money’s worth out of it.

But, if you buy a resale contract at Bay Lake Tower for $120 per point and have to sell, then you could likely get your $120 per point back, less the commissions, your initial closing costs, etc.

However, you can’t use resale points to stay at Riveria….. this is why Disney restricted Riveria…. to push people to buy directly from them.

What about buying those resale Riveria points for $120 per point? You can do that, but you can only use them at Riveria….

So if you love Rivera, you have a choice to make.

If this is a “toy” for you to enjoy…. then go for it! Many people absolutely love Rivera and are proud owners.

But, if this is a serious financial commitment…. you need to go in with your eyes wide open…..

 

[radiodome21]

For me I thought it was too much money. Not just the purchase price but also the annual dues. So I put it out of my mind.

A year later we booked a trip to Los Angeles. My wife said we had to go to Disneyland. So I booked that through Costco and when everything was said and done I was shocked but how expensive it was for just a three night trip. My wife then said we should revisit DVC. Three months later we closed on our first direct contract for VGF. Best decision ever. We only went once in 2024 but have two more trips coming up this year, one tied to the Wine and Dine 5k in October.

When I was explaining DVC to my brother he asked me how I can get excited to keep going back to the same place over and over. I laughed and reminded him the same he gets excited to go back to the panhandle of Florida every year at Easter. Except my accommodations are already paid for and won’t go up drastically every year. And airfare is generally cheaper and the restaurants are way cheaper. And we get better weather. Are there hidden expenses? Of course. But that’s also the case with every vacation. I kind of look at DVC as vacation where you to vacation. For us it’s at Disney. When I compared to how we used to vacation as a whole and how we wanted to keep doing it DVC made a lot of sense.

 

[Sandisw]

It certainly sounds like DVC is the right choice. We love RIV and my advice is always to buy the resort you want to be at if you have one!

DVC is too expensive to spend less only to find yourself disappointed that you can’t stay at the one you enjoy.

Since resale is locked out of RIV, unless it’s RIV and then you are locked out of everything else, I’d buy direct there

Yes, it is going to take a hit in resale but none of us know what will happen down the road.

I am also of the belief to assume a resale value of $0. That’s what we did…I also assumed that if life happened and I could no longer go and had to sell, it would mean I had much more important things going on.

If you are financing, then be sure you have thought about being “upside” down and at what point you could cover the difference between sale and what you owe.

Right now, the deals can get your price down to what I consider a decent level!!

Good luck!

 

[sethschroeder]

• Stayed at Disney cash and thought it was expensive
• Found DVC the following trip which we rented
• Left Disney for years as it was expensive and we couldn't have afforded DVC
• Came back to Disney after the 2nd kid was born renting DVC points
• Left that trip knowing we would go to Disney every 1-2 years so started looking at buying DVC
• Lots of back and forth until did 2x small contracts resale
• Then purchased our large Direct contract when Riviera was at a great price

In the end the cost savings is why we purchased. If you didn't save money buying DVC we wouldn't have purchased it. Disney won because if they didn't give us a discount on DVC then we would have spent vacation $$$ on other trips.

 

[DonkeyHoTay]

So how does a person accurately calculate if this is worth it for them to make the move into buying DVC?

Not surprised you are getting a wide variety of answers to this... everyone's use case is different.

I live 3 hours away from WDW and been visiting for 45 years, and investigating DVC for the last 25 years (mostly to get the free ice cream). Always concluded the math (based on the way I do the math, which is also different for everyone) did not work ... until last year when there was a fire sale on direct. Then I decided the price for direct was right and the main goal was to gift my kids contracts that would preserve affordability for them at nice WDW accommodations and counter inflation on rack room rates for the next 30+ years.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I would start with a small resale contract, that is less financial commitment and will allow you to see the ins and outs of DVC, if you love it you can then qualify for member pricing on direct if you choose to do that.

We spent many many hours running the numbers to decide it would be right for us. For us our 1st small resale contract was a no brainer. We had just retuned home from a trip that we paid $5500 cash for, when I learned about the price of resale I was shocked thinking how much cash I spent that it could've been put towards a DVC contract.

Our first resale was $13,000. What we did was take the time we would typically travel and looked at the point chart to see how many points we would need and did the math at how long it would take us to break even if we continued that yearly trip and did cash stays. I bought that resale contract almost exactly 1 year ago, I have gotten $8500 in cash stays out of that contract. (yes I included discounts I would have gotten on cash) I could sell my contract today easily for $12,000. While this isnt always going to happen you can see how my choice was well worth it. Do your research on pricing and dues and I think you will make the right choice for your family.

My biggest warning for DVC isn't making that 1st purchase if its resale... its that you WILL want more points and you WILL want to go more often.

Edit to add. Be open minded about where you stay. There is so many great places you can stay that aren't restricted like RIV. Resale is the way to go and if you love DVC then decide if you want to buy RIV direct. Direct is a HUGE financial decision, and resale if you are buying 100 points is not more commitment than a couple trips and if you decide to sell you wont be in the hole nearly as much as RIV. I own direct at a restricted resort and resale so I say this from personal experience.

 

[sethschroeder]

So how does a person accurately calculate if this is worth it for them to make the move into buying DVC?

If you are trying to do the math calculation there are tons of ways and long threads about it on here from the past.

Do you spread the upfront cost value over the life of the contract? Do you plan to sell and account for that recovery of funds? Do you plan on renting out some of your points at times? What future growth to MFs do you account for? What are you comparing it to regarding your non-DVC purchase vacation choices? Are you buying direct and calculating in AP money saving? Do you put any value on other benefits?

This is just a few different questions I would answer when putting together a cost analysis.

Some people though simply are "I am going to Disney so I buying because I have the money".

 

[asunutgirl]

Definitely crunch the numbers to see what is right for your family - and I'll add to the discussion about finances. Husband and I are both CPAs and we have never financed our DVC contracts. It drives the cost up significantly and honestly, if you can't afford it unless you finance then it's probably not the right purchase.

Buy where you want to stay. (That's how we ended up with 3 home resorts.) You can book at 7 months at other resorts but that isn't always easy to do - depending on the time of year and the resort.

If you are a planner and like to book your vacations in advance, DVC is great. If you always book your vacations last minute, DVC isn't always a great option because last minute bookings are hard to come by. DVC members LOVE their resorts and I've found that last minute reservations aren't usually an option.

If you buy on contract, be prepared that you'll want more points. DVC's best customers are their current members.

 

[VGCgroupie]

What @asunutgirl said I should've pointed out. If you are not financing your Disney trip every year it doesnt make sense to finance DVC, that can reduce any potential savings significantly.

 

[Floridian From Afar]

Ultimately its a luxury purchase. Only do it if you can easily afford it.
All DVC gets you is the hotel room. You still need to pay airfare, food, tickets and all those other extras that Disney will get you to buy.
If you're not sure you can afford it, there's always renting points which gets you a much cheaper room than direct through Disney. And it'll give you flexibility to vacation when you want without the commitment.