How long did it take you to finally join?

[theostwalts]

Just wondering how long it took you guys to join? We have been looking at this for over a year, probably 1 1/2 to 2 years. I held off last year from AKV to see what would happen with BLT. We did a cruise last year and will not be back to WDW until June 2009. I anticipate joining before then.

Everyone has been great here to answer questions and our guide, Byron Helgeson, has been super!!!!! He has not rushed us at all and has been absolutely fantastic.

Just wondering how long it took some of you to finally jump in?

 

[dcfromva]

10 years. I loved BC, when BCV finally came along it was time to buy!

 

[RJLechner]

Just wondering how long it took you guys to join?

We never really gave it any thought until we attended a group presentation on DCL the last week of October. We didn't buy on the ship and in fact left the cruise thinking it wasn't right for us. But upon returning home and already thinking about needing another WDW trip, we started thinking about it more and more. We found DISboards...which has been an awesome way to learn about DVC. We really started to put pen to paper about the expense vs. what we would spend on cash. My DH just rolls his eyes at my spreadsheet I am happy to say that after about 2 weeks of reading as many posts as possilbe, playing out "what if" scenarios, we decided to purchase at BLT.

This is a big decision and you have to be comfortable with the decision you make. Don't rush it...keep reading and learning and asking any and all the questions you need to help you make the decision that is right for your family.

 

[wulfekamp]

About two years for us. If you can afford it take the plung. Its the best money we ever spent. Make sure its not a burden on your family budget. You will not understand the love we have for DVC till your a member. Its the only time of the year my family is truly together. Most night my DH is downstairs watching Tv. I'm in our room watching my shows. My daughter is in her room surfing the net. Were home but not together. At disney its just us. That makes it truly magical for us.

 

[kristenrice]

We took the tour in 2001 and I have been begging DH to join. Back then, we were engaged, hadn't bought a house and planning on having children so a "luxury purchase" wasn't in the cards. Since then, we bought a house and now have 2 children. After taking our 2 daughters to Disney back in January, DH has finally caved in. We bought a resale at AKV this past September. I am looking forward to many years of vacations with my girls. Of course, DH will come along too, but probably not as frequently as I will. It was 7 long years of waiting, but I am so glad we did it! Now, we HAVE to take vacations!

 

[Muushka]

It took us about 2 years. 1 to decide and 1 waiting for VWL to be built.

It will say on my tombstone: She didn't rush into anything

 

[plymouthmom]

We weren't planning on it at all then kidlets starting asking after our trip last fall when we were going back. Knowing I didn't want to do a value resort again ( no offense at all to them, just not our thing)

Anyway, first I talked to Disney about buying direct then the ecomony started going south. So, we saw a small contract at OKW (100) points for a great price, about the same price we paid for our whole vacation, and we jumped on it.

We plan to buy more points in the future, would love to own at HH or VB as we would really like a beach option as well.

Headed down for our first official DVC trip in 49 days ! good luck!

 

[msabol01]

It took us about two years to finally buy. Wife had a bad notion of timeshares and it took a while to convince her. The wait time cost us about six dollars per point. Like most people say, you'll wish you'd bought sooner and that's the truth. If you can swing it I suggest you buy know, epsecially with rumors of a price hike around the corner.

The kicker, my wife who was hesitant about buying just asked yesterday,"when do we think we can add-on more points?" Unforuntately, not as soon as I'd like.

 

[Disney Spaz]

DH had been nagging me for years (since 2002) to do the tour but I refused because I honsetly thought we couldn't afford it and knew when I went on the tour I would want it. Well fast forward to this past March 2008 and I did the tour and fell in love. DS was graduating high school and LOVES AKL so he asked for 200 points at AKV instead of a car. That was enough to push me over the edge and now we just added on 160 BLT points. DH and i agreed enough for now. However if they ever open a GF DVC I will be buying major points into that.

 

[pixierella]

1 day. That's all we needed to think about it. Since we are not beach & sun people we figured this would be perfect for us. We had the best time when we were there last April. When we went back this October and heard the pitch we knew it was for us!

 

[Leenie74]

It took us about 8 years....we took the tour on our honeymoon in 2000. But I had just started grad school and we had just bought a house at the time. After that we spent a lot of time & money to have kids. The thought was always in the back of our minds that we would know when the time was right. After our 2007 trip, our older DD couldn't stop talking about Disney and DH and I loved the thought of being able to spend vacations at a "home" where we wouldn't feel the pressure to do parks commando style and be able to take in all the other activities there is to do. So last spring, I contacted our guide from 2000 and the rest is history.

As PP said, keep reading, learning and asking questions until you feel comfortable. Disney will always be there.

 

[wehavesix]

About 6 months. We asked for information while we were planning our first trip and cruise. Talked to our guide a couple of times during that period. We went to the DVC meeting on our cruise too. After the cruise, we went to the parks and took some time to drive around and see some of the resorts. We fell in love with them! That's when we decided to go to the sales office at SSR and did the full tour. We bought our first contract that day then doubled up when we bought our second contract this summer. It was really a great decision for us. We have a large family and DVC allows us the ability to have plenty of room in a deluxe resort. We love having so many options with DVC.

 

[Tink-n-Belle]

Took us a year and a half to join. We were going every 2 years at that point, as the kids were 4&6 on the last trip in 2004. We had been staying at the all Stars but in 2006 I wanted to upgrade to the Contemporary (garden room -because it was cheaper & then go to VB for a few nights- -- But after I priced it all in and found out it was going to be $3000 - I thought, hey, for another $8500 I can buy into DVC And we did. We are planning our 5th trip in 3 and a half years and just bought at the BLT too.!!

 

[bama106]

My DW had been trying to get me on board with the idea for almost 2 years, but I never thought much about it until this past September when we took the tour and I was sold on it. To my DW surprise while we were talking to our guide I looked over at her and said, let's do it. She was so excited, and are looking forward to our first trip as DVC's in January and many many more after that.

 

[Buckeye Fan]

We got DVC materials when they were selling VWL. We didn't take the tour, just got the booklet and pricing information through the mail. At that time, we were in our early 30s, and didn't know if we wanted to commit to WDW long term. It also wasn't the best time financially for us to purchase.

Fast forward 5 years, and 5 trips later. We were at WDW in the summer for a short visit before our beach trip, and I remember passing SSR on the Disney bus and thinking, "Wow. What a beautiful resort. I would love to own there."

That winter, we decided to go down over Christmas. We rented a 1-BR at OKW. I wished I had purchased DVC prior to that visit, but I just didn't know how it worked. That would have put an additional $1,800 toward my purchase, versus throwing it away for that trip. Anyway, we were at WDW long enough to go on the tour. At that point, we never looked back. We ended up buying resale, and have since purchased additional points at VB.

Per the PPs comments, it's been the best money we've ever spent. We've stayed at SSR, OKW, BWV and VWL. This spring, we are staying at AKV over Spring Break. We'll be back down in July for a week at VB, and 5 nights at either BCV or THV. I thought we may get tired of WDW, but the more we go, the more we love it.

Best of luck with your purchase! If you can incorporate it into your budget, definitely purchase before your next vacation. I felt we just threw away $1,800 when we knew we were going to buy anyway.

 

[castleri]

We got the informational package in the mail in1992 (did not ask for it) and did not really give it another thought until we stayed onsite for the first time in 1997. At that time we stopped at the sales center on the Boardwalk and asked a few questions got the literature, went out and had a beer and some nachos at Big River Brewery and went back in and signed the papers. So I would say it took about an hour.from when we really looked into it. Others might say it took 5 years but we really did not ever even consider it when we got that original pre building info. In fact i think I thought at the time "who would want to do this?" and threw the brochure away. Now I think it is the best money I have ever spent. Wish I had paid more attention in 1992 and of course had the money then. I did not have the money to buy in until we actually did anyway and that was only because it was an inheritance that enabled me to pay for my first contract in full. Being able to pay in full made the decision that much easier. If I had had to finance I don't know if we would be DVC owners today. I would however give up the DVC to have that person back in my life.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

We received material in our room at VWL in Sept 2005. They were doing tours at VWL (maybe some last sales to do? I still can't figure out why they had the tours and sales going on there at that time). We walked over and looked at the atrium and lounge areas but declined to go up and see the rooms thinking that we would get a real hard sell. I wish we had!

Last December while I was on my 3rd visit of the year to WDW (DH's 2nd) we were riding the monorail and I told DH that if the new building was DVC that is what would get me to buy in. Then in March of this year I was doing some searching and ran across resale! Pretty soon I was putting an offer in on a VWL contract. Should have just done it in 2005!

 

[jamstew]

Just a few months. I chatted with a guy at one of the kiosks at MGM in May of 2007 and decided it sounded interesting. As it was my last day, I didn't take the tour but started reading about it here and then ordered the DVD, etc. I fell in love with WL on that trip and then rented points for a split stay at BCV & BWV in September. By then I had pretty much decided to do it, and I found a good VWL resale a couple of months later. I've added BCV since then, and I'm done with add-ons (seriously )

 

[ACDSNY]

I think it took us about 3 years to get off the fence, mainly because we couldn't pay cash for the full min. buy in and we typically went to DLR instead of WDW. Finally after paying Disney rack rates for several trips we purchased a 100 point resale contract in Sept 2005 thinking we'd start out small, that didn't last long. Earlier that year we won a trip to WDW from Alamo for Oct 2005, we came home from that trip and promptly added on 120 points so we'd be able to take more of our family. Now we have two different UYs, 2 home resorts and a total of 260 points.

It's been wonderful to be able to have our grown children travel with us on our trips to DL, WDW and Kauai. Our next trip we'll have 18 of us on the Wonder with some of us doing WDW before and after the cruise.

We're impatiently waiting for the GC so we can add on again. DVC is very addictive!

 

[TheDISneyFamily]

We stayed in a studio at BWV about a month after it opened. I was completely sold, but it took us a year to get together the money to buy our 1st contract in cash. 5 add ons later, I'm just as happy as I was over 10 years ago. Our 1st trip as members was in a 1-bedroom and I was . The next trip was in a 2-bedroom, and that's all she wrote! LOL! Let's hope I never book a grand villa!