How large of a contract?

[PrincessNewsie]

My fiance and I have been looking at Disney Vacation Club since May 4th when we got engaged. We will not be buying until we can buy it flat out and budget our MFs. We were going to hold out for BLT... we will be more financially stable in the fall, and ready to buy next summer/fall. However, looking at the pictures, I am just not as in love as I'd like to be. I love monorail hotels... But I'm in love with VWL and BWV.

However, I'm young. But the product will probably have deteriorated in 30some years. I guess my struggle is, should I buy one with a longer contract that I'm not quite as enthralled with, or start with a small resale purchase at a hotel I'm in love with and decide from there?

If it's just DF and I going to disney every year, and a studio's good enough for most of the time... and we can go during off times... A 50 point contract won't be enough. However, Josh and I go 1-2X per year MINIMUM. In August we are staying at SSR.

I guess what I am asking is: Is it worth buying a small contract had a resort with a shorter contract? It feels worth it to me... but DF is the number cruncher, kinda. If your'e relaly a number cruncher, I suspect you stay at the budget inn.

My other issue is, buying the points is not a problem. Once you have the finances, you have the finances. But how has everyone else budgeted MFs into their financial lives?

 

[bgraham34]

I can tell you this about me. My wife and I have gone to the world every year except once since 2002. We plan to go every year or every other year. This year we bit the bullet and bough a 50 point resale at VWL. We plan to get more points when we have kids in a few years. But 50 for now gets us about 4 nights in Sept. I would love to have more points but we paid with cash and did not want to finance it.

 

[PrincessNewsie]

I can tell you this about me. My wife and I have gone to the world every year except once since 2002. We plan to go every year or every other year. This year we bit the bullet and bough a 50 point resale at VWL. We plan to get more points when we have kids in a few years. But 50 for now gets us about 4 nights in Sept. I would love to have more points but we paid with cash and did not want to finance it.

Is there anywhere else to look besides TSS or DVC by Resale? Finding a 50-100 point VWLor BWV that hasn't a sale pending by it is hard to come by!

 

[chicagodisfan]

Call the Timeshare Store and talk to an agent. They can put you on an e-mail list so you will hear about the new contracts for sale before they get posted to their website. They can even put you on a call list so they will call you when they have something that meets your specifications. I do think that the smaller contracts move faster, but that way you can get a little bit of a jump on it. Good luck!

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

I've owned DVC for 15 years and have 2 contracts - I bought the minimum of 190 when OKW was new and added 60 at Vero. We recently extended OKW for an additional 15 years past the original contract end date. We have occasional challenges for this and will have more in the future.

Here are some challenges to think about if you choose to buy minimum now and add later.

1) How easy will it be to add at the same resort? This will keep you from having to wait until "the rest" of your points come available at 7 months to book your vacations. Ways around this that we use are to bank, use, and borrow on one contract for one trip and then bank the other contract for the next trip.

2) How easy will it be to add the same year end date? Our future issue is that our Vero will expire, returning us to only 190 OKW points.

3) What type of accomodations do you think you will use when you start your family? Will you end up taking relatives to help or enjoy the experience? We always seem to end up with 2 BR units at WDW, as well as needing 2 rooms each time we decide to overnight for special events here at DLR - a considerably higher point expense.

My best advice on how to figure out what you will really need in the future - do some math. Run some numbers and do a quick estimate of how much you would spend over the next 15 years in Disney vacations. Then, pick some resorts and room category, add some inflation values to the next several years, and total it up to compare that to what you would want to pay for the appropriate amount of points that would get you through a standard year. To figure that out, get a copy of the points charts for all DVC Resorts off the web and determine the point values for the type of rooms at each resort that you are most likely to use when you stay with DVC. That's a way to see what you really need to spend to make yourself happy. If you think you want to try out the other resorts, and not just your home one - we do that all the time, make allowances for that, as some DVC resorts burn more points/night than others.

Hope this might help.
Nancy