How long before you bought?

[mickeykid]

It took me about 4-5 years before I actually bought into the DVC. I did the tour and everything but at the time was not sure I wanted to commit that much money. I kept lurking and reading various materials about the DVC as well as talking to friends who had already joined and decided to buy in with just a small amount of points. Disney is currently allowing you to join with the purchase of just 50 points. I worked with a great cast member Randy, who did not pressure me to join, over the phone for the last 3-4 months and when this opportunity came up I decided to do it. The best part it was for an amount that I could just payoff immediately so the only thing I will be paying are monthly dues. Later I will probably invest in another 25 points. 50 points right now works fine for me and I am looking forward to my November trip as a DVC member.

 

[kikiq]

We first considered DVC in 1992 but the time wasn't right. Flash forward to 2007 and many years of Disneyland and WDW, we took the DVC tour at Disneyland. Put off any decision until our WDW trip, and toured all the DVC properties. When we returned, I found the DIS boards and shortly after we purchased our first contract.

 

[eporter66]

We took a vacation in October of 2003 (had been to WDW twice before as a couple). We saw the DVC booth in the Wilderness Lodge and booked a tour. We decided since it was our last day to skip the tour and go to the parks. We ended up ordering the video when we got home, watched the DVC info and decided to join. In a matter of one month from that trip we were members, still ecstatic with our decision.

 

[ToddyLu]

I knew about DVC back in 2003/2004 and had a nurse friend really talk it up. She talked one of her co workers into buying and she was really happy. Fast forward to 2008 and I found out about the DIS. After about 6 months and getting addicted to the DIS, I decided to just read about DVC through the Forum. That is when I found out about the referral incentive DVC had last year on AKV. I was happy with SSR and just wanted to own a piece of Disney. DH was the one who had to have a specific resort. So he had to have the animals. Not a problem with me and it was the perfect resort for us. We had the best trip ever last year at Kidani and new it was the best decision ever.

My nurse friend was my referral last year and she spent her gift card during Thanksgiving in WDW....see you never know who you will inspire.

 

[cseca]

2 hours
from when I walked in the DVC sales office to when I came out with $500 charge to my credit card

 

[FindTheMickeys]

2 hours
from when I walked in the DVC sales office to when I came out with $500 charge to my credit card

Me too Took the tour on a whim. Fell in love with SSR and bought on the spot. 150 points. Financed with DVC, paid off in less than 4 years. Just added on another 100 points at SSR.. Have never looked back except to wish I had bought in earlier

 

[disney11fan]

Don't do it. Timeshares are a ripoff. Think about it.. you will pay about $16000 up front and if you can't afford it all at once ..pay someone 6% interst over 5 years. Oh then theres the yearly maintence fee around $700 a year. And theres more no free dinning plan and your locked it for a very long time. Your better off pay as you go and stay at the value resorts. Save your money for something better, like your kids college fund or retirement.

 

[disneynutz]

Don't do it. Timeshares are a ripoff. Think about it.. you will pay about $16000 up front and if you can't afford it all at once ..pay someone 6% interst over 5 years. Oh then theres the yearly maintence fee around $700 a year. And theres more no free dinning plan and your locked it for a very long time. Your better off pay as you go and stay at the value resorts. Save your money for something better, like your kids college fund or retirement.

If you are going to post, at least post correct information.

The interest is between 10% and 15% over a 5 to 10 year period.

Bill

 

[ToddyLu]

Don't do it. Timeshares are a ripoff. Think about it.. you will pay about $16000 up front and if you can't afford it all at once ..pay someone 6% interst over 5 years. Oh then theres the yearly maintence fee around $700 a year. And theres more no free dinning plan and your locked it for a very long time. Your better off pay as you go and stay at the value resorts. Save your money for something better, like your kids college fund or retirement.

Been there, done that and got the T-shirt...at Pop and AllStars... we don't have kids and our retirement is funded just fine, thanks. We all drink the Kool-aid at some point on this forum. Why don't you use the money that you pay at the Value resorts and rent from a DVC member to see what you are missing....or maybe you have?

Every one down here on the MS Gulf Coast thought flood insurance was a rip off too--including the insurance salesman. But we got a little water in the garage during Hurricane Georges (1998) and DH bought the insurance. Fast forward...that one thing saved our butts in 2005 and taught us a lesson...Do what your gut tells you and don't look back. Once you take everything that you love to the sidewalk curb, priorities change.

 

[ddoconnell]

We went to the presentation with the understanding that if either of us felt pushed we would leave. This was the least aggressive "timeshare" presentation we had ever been to and we just loved our rep! We ended up buying before we left!

Now....having said that, you have to look at it and see if it works for you. We love to go at least once a year and look at it as prepaying for our hotel.

We would never go back to going to WDW any other way and wish we had bought in earlier!

Good luck with your decision!

 

[adminjedi]

Don't do it. Timeshares are a ripoff...Your better off pay as you go and stay at the value resorts. Save your money for something better, like your kids college fund or retirement.

"Better Off" is your perspective based on your preferences and your financial situation. As a family with 5 kids, we are "Better Off" in the villas rather than the value resorts. Looking at those prices, we are "Better Off" with DVC rather than paying cash. That is my perspective based on my preferences and my financial situation.
By the way, we paid cash for DVC and have very detailed spreadsheets to look at the payoff on our vacation investment. Every time we stay in a 2br villa which retails for $1500-$2400 per night, we are thankful we didn't "save our money for something better". Instead of diamonds and furs and useless gifts to one another, my DH and I buy quality time with each other and with our kids - DVC.

Oh, I almost forgot. We pay cash for college: 2 in grad school, 2 undergrads, 1 to go. We look forward to spending a lot of our retirement time at DW via BCV and AKV.

 

[javamom]

Second trip in. Became a no-brainer. We bought resale, financed only a portion of it through a home equity loan. Wish I had the bucks for those first 2 trips, or we wouldn't have financed any of it!! LOL

 

[mdsd8700]

Our first trip to WDW with our kids was in 1997, DD was 10 months old and it was DS 4th birthday. We have had a Disney trip of some kind every year since then. So DVC has been in our minds for most of that time. However it was always the larger point buy in requirement that made it too difficult to swing financially since we wanted to pay cash we could not afford it. We didn't know about re-sale for many years. In the last 4 years or so we have considered it very seriously but somehow always backed off. It was a variety of factors all coming together but we started talking about it again in early June and 3 days later we had purchased through Disney. Had our eye on a resale contract but went through Disney for the additional 2009 points. All together it was just a few hundred more than resale. For everyone it is different and factors vary. Good luck with your decision.

 

[JWG]

Well, we did the sales tour when it was still at the Boardwalk in summer of 1998. My parents were with and bought in 1999. We, have not purchased a contract ourselves but have certainly benefited from ownership in the family.

We recently had our names added to my parents' contract for estate planning purposes (and I think my mom is tired of planning every trip for the family, whether just them or us or all).

So, I guess technically it took us 11 years? We'll see if I can convince my wife to add on as I'd like a few more points at a 2nd resort that we could bank/borrow for stays every few years.

 

[Bullseye]

Don't do it. Timeshares are a ripoff. Think about it.. you will pay about $16000 up front and if you can't afford it all at once ..pay someone 6% interst over 5 years. Oh then theres the yearly maintence fee around $700 a year. And theres more no free dinning plan and your locked it for a very long time. Your better off pay as you go and stay at the value resorts. Save your money for something better, like your kids college fund or retirement.

Not really, not if you intend to go on a fairly regular basis and you enjoy having finer accomodations than a value/moderate offers. We've gone the last six years without DVC and theres no way I could continue to justify doing that. So we joined about a month ago. It took us about 4 months of serious consideration to make the decision to buy in.

After maybe six or seven trips, I'm going to break even on my initial cash outlay and from that point on, the amount I pay in dues will cover a 10 night vacation in some really nice accomodations every year. Also, there are no guarantees of free dining and it's limited to certain times of the year anyway. Whereas I will always have a full kitchen so I don't have to spend $50 for counter service every time we want a hot cooked meal. As crazy as it may seem, the one time we had free dining, it was too much food anyway! We felt like we were in an eating contest..."time for another another burger and fries"

 

[calypso726]

Don't do it. Timeshares are a ripoff. Think about it.. you will pay about $16000 up front and if you can't afford it all at once ..pay someone 6% interst over 5 years. Oh then theres the yearly maintence fee around $700 a year. And theres more no free dinning plan and your locked it for a very long time. Your better off pay as you go and stay at the value resorts. Save your money for something better, like your kids college fund or retirement.

Wow, that's a blanket statement. To those who don't understand them and don't do their homework yes. People shouldn't be buying things they can't afford so I don't see the point there. DVC is a different animal than mnay timeshares though. While DVC is not right for everyone it is certainly not a rip off for the vast majority of us. We bought DVC so we could STOP staying at value and even moderate resorts. Now we can go more often, 4-5 times per year and stay in better accommodations. I would never lay out the cash for what it costs to stay club level at AKV even though we can afford it. I am happy to say we will be ahving our first CL stay at AKV in September right before our DVC member cruise!

Before buying, we priced out staying in a value/moderate resort with a FL resident discount, took into account inflation over the next 25 years. We then compared that to the buy in to DVC, maintenance fees and their increase yearly over the next 25 years. DVC came out ahead, so we bought. This was by far a wonderful and perfect decision for us! We have made some amazing memories along the way and it's darned near payed for itself. Well, the initial purchase at SSR. Addonitis has set in twice for AKV and we should be closing on 200 points soon

Free dining, I could care less about because that means paying rack rate for rooms. I won't pay rack rate I much prefer using my TIW card which gets me 20% off didning including alcohol

While DVC may not be for everyone it is most certainly not a rip off for everyone either.

 

[adminjedi]

Wow, that's a blanket statement. To those who don't understand them and don't do their homework yes. People shouldn't be buying things they can't afford so I don't see the point there. DVC is a different animal than mnay timeshares though. While DVC is not right for everyone it is certainly not a rip off for the vast majority of us. We bought DVC so we could STOP staying at value and even moderate resorts. Now we can go more often, 4-5 times per year and stay in better accommodations. I would never lay out the cash for what it costs to stay club level at AKV even though we can afford it. I am happy to say we will be ahving our first CL stay at AKV in September right before our DVC member cruise!

Before buying, we priced out staying in a value/moderate resort with a FL resident discount, took into account inflation over the next 25 years. We then compared that to the buy in to DVC, maintenance fees and their increase yearly over the next 25 years. DVC came out ahead, so we bought. This was by far a wonderful and perfect decision for us! We have made some amazing memories along the way and it's darned near payed for itself. Well, the initial purchase at SSR. Addonitis has set in twice for AKV and we should be closing on 200 points soon

Free dining, I could care less about because that means paying rack rate for rooms. I won't pay rack rate I much prefer using my TIW card which gets me 20% off didning including alcohol

While DVC may not be for everyone it is most certainly not a rip off for everyone either.

Thanks Calypso. Pretty much what I said, but you were less snarky!

 

[kikiq]

Truthfully, DVC is a major outlay of money and you should take some time to do your research. Your family is young now and there may be other priorities that come before putting this amount of money out. Also your vacationing habits may change. When our DDs were young, we felt that vacation time was precious family time, it was and still is a high priority. How we vacation has changed. My DH and I are older, enjoy the deluxe rooms, and now enjoy WDW as a destination. We like the option of cooking or dining out always have. Our DDs grew up going to mom and dad's seminars and conventions, so going on vacation, they would rather eat in than out. And frankly, I love to cook so I don't mind cooking while vacation.

Again, it all goes back to how you like to vacation and your financial priorities at this time. May I suggest you take some time during your next WDW vacation and look at different WDW properties, not just DVC. Look at your other options, like the family suites or deluxe resorts that sleep 5. Some people enjoy the thrill of the "hunt", getting the PIN code and maybe free dining. I don't enjoy that neither does my DH. He wants to go when he wants to go.

It took us almost 15 years to get to a point that we were in the right place to purchase DVC and DVC was STILL right for us.

 

[Mamiamjo]

We toyed with the idea on and off for several years. When we finally got serious about buying DVC we took the advice from these boards and rented some points for a ressie at BCV. We loved it so much we bought a resale contract a few months later.

 

[magicron]

General awareness maybe 10 years ago. Co-worker has been a DVC owner for many years. Went to a presentation while on a Disney Cruise last Spring. We bought at BLT before the cruise ended. Wish we would have done sooner. Have another good friend who is a DVC owner. Both know that we go to Disney at least once a year, so would have been great if they filled us in a few years ago.

We bought based on studio points needs. Then we used development points (incentive at the time) and stayed in a 1BR at SSR. Since then, we are hooked on 1BR. Kids have their own space, etc. Now we're thinking about getting 2BR sometime and bringing friends or family. Points rental/transfer board, here I come!

I like getting up in the morning toasting a bagel, pouring OJ, or having a bowl of cereal, etc, then hitting the parks. Faster, easier, and cheaper than going to the hotel dining. Plus, this last trip was very hot and humid, and we got rained on one night. It's nice to throw a few clothes in the washing machine.