How many of you have bought in and kept travel patterns the same?

[Mmw37]

Right now we go once a year for 4-5 nights. We just bought a small number of points that will allow that, in a studio, and are planning to add on enough to allow a week in a 1 BR (we're a family of 4 and done with kids). We are planning to go 3 times in 12 mo starting in Sept, but mostly to use the points that came with the loaded contract and try a few resorts before buying more.

It seems like a lot of DVC members vacation all or mostly at Disney properties - is that the case for most of you? I get 6 weeks off a year and hubby has a flexible schedule, so we're planning on interspersing Disney with cruises, Europe, US driving trips, and etc. I'm curious as to what the rest of you have done, what your plan was when you bought your points, and how that has changed over the years of ownership. No judgment either way, just curious what others have done!

 

[Carie Young]

I'll admit we travel more to Disney since becoming DVC members, but I think it's the level of service at DVC resorts. Any time we go elsewhere we now say 'well that would never happen at Disney.' I guess what I am saying is we are spoiled to other accommodations now.

 

[lorenni]

Our pattern changed when we moved. When we bought we lived a short and fairly cheap Southwest flight from Orlando. Now we live in Toronto. So we've shifted from two or more short trips per year to one (or maybe no) longer (week) trips per year. We got a second contract and now have sufficient points for a two bedroom for a week. We invite grandparents and use the trip for Disney and for family time.

I will also say that once we had a full kitchen DH only ever wants to book rooms with a full kitchen, even when it's just our nuclear family.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

When we bought we could travel whenever we wanted to. Two years later I got a teaching job, so am now restricted to college breaks. We do go other places, but in years when there are annual pass deals we tend to go 3-4 times those years because it's just so much cheaper than traveling anywhere else. Since owning we have also done trips to the beach, cross country road trips to Yellowstone, an Oars guided kayaking trip, and this summer are headed to China, Japan and Hong Kong for three weeks. So we definitely go other places, but Disney is our fun trip. It's fun for everyone involved and we find it relaxing. New places are great to see, but to me those trips are less fun.

If you haven't discovered it yet, drive yourself to Buffalo NY and fly out of there. We are actually flying out of Toronto to head to china, toronto's international flights are about half the cost of US ones, so at least you have that advantage.

 

[kniquy]

We bought with the plan to go every other year as a family of 5. I would have to say since becoming owners i am probably more antsy to go more often, but we plan different trips on our off years -- this year is costal ME (although i am going to WDW for a work convention in April!!). I was trying to convince my husband to go for a short 4 day trip (just the 2 of us) for food and wine, but he doesn't want to spend the money on the flights. I tried!

We love Disney, but we also realize there is so much that we need to show our kids around this beautiful country - national parks, DC, Niagra falls the list could go on and on, but we have to keep going back to disney.

 

[disneynutz]

IMO in the beginning of ownership members are learning the ropes, they are excited and they increase the number of Disney vacations. After a few years, and because Disney/DVC has changed, growth, increased ownership, more crowds results in less park time and more resort time along with increasing the room size. Later less Disney time often happens and vacations are scheduled during Disney and member events.

Bill

 

[Anal Annie]

We initially bought our 250 points at SSR with the intention of either going 2x a year in studios or 1x a year for a week in a 1-bedroom during "magic" season. We very quickly decided we'd be fine sticking to studios and going 2x / year in a mix of seasons and that we would utilize the AP perks of squeezing 2 trips in from summer to summer. Since we bought in 2006 they have re-worked point charts (lowering what we have to spend at SSR with the new std. category) and our DS is now in college so yeah, our travel pattern is evolving (we now do a short trip in the fall for F&W).

We have stuck to using DVC properties since we bought and have tried all of the current properties except VGF. Guess we'll have to add Copper Creek to that to-do list soon. We loved VGC and Aulani. That was a fantastic trip. We've also tried HHI and VB. Our trips have varied from 4 nights to 10 nights. When DS was younger and still in public school he was a competitive swimmer so we had summer swim team so we always used to go in mid-August after swim season ended and when the charts switched to Dream season. Now he has to go back to college by then so we're sort of bouncing around over various times in the summer. One year late July, 1 year early June and this year over July 4th. We no longer have a pattern but I can tell you with college tuition bills due in August and January we're very thankful we have our DVC so we can even go anywhere. Without DVC we would be in a pickle. In 2011 we transferred half of our points to someone else and we used the money toward a trip to DLP & a DCL Med cruise. We always have a summer trip somewhere and now we have the fall quickie trip and lately we've been doing 6 nights in January while DS is home on winter break. We have learned how to spread our measley point allotment out into 3 trips / year by using different seasons!! For 2 years now we have done 6 nights in January, 8 nights in summer and 4-5 nights in Sept. with the January & Sept. trips only using "choice" season points. Will this pattern stick? Hummm. Hard to say. Already thinking that we may need to start forming a plan for a special trip of some sort for when DS graduates college. Just gotta make sure he stays on track 1st for a 4 year graduation plan.

 

[clayfolks]

We are self-employed and have adult children. When we bought, our children had both finished their undergrad degrees and we were excited to be able to take them and their families with us in great accommodations. We have since discovered the joys of traveling without them! We went on the members cruise in 2011 and met the best group of DVC members, ever. Since that cruise, we regularly travel together or get together when we are at WDW. We go to WDW 2 or 3 times a year, usually during F&G, F&W, and December/January.
Additionally, we take a road trip from Chicago to Portland,OR every year in the summer. This past year, we also went to Malaysia and England. In two weeks, we are going to London and Barcelona for a few days.

 

[CarolynFH]

We've owned for 19+ years, so yes, our travel patterns have changed! When we bought we had come every year for four years, our DS and DD couldn't share a bed, and our most recent trips had been for Thanksgiving week, so we bought enough points for a 2 bedroom that week. That first year, we spent a week at BWV for Spring Break, then took a 3-night Disney cruise followed by 3 nights at BWV.

However, my parents own several timeshare weeks in other systems, and eventually we bought into another timeshare system as well. Given that at the time work only allowed two weeks of vacation each year, and some of that was spent visiting family for holidays and other occasions, we didn't always use our DVC weeks because we'd travel somewhere using my parents' or our other timeshare weeks. So in the early years, we did rent out and transfer points from time to time, although we generally spent a week at WDW every 12 to 18 months, staying mostly at BWV but also at VWL (now Boulder Creek), AKL and OKW. And DH and I came a couple of times for short adults-only trips too.

Now that we're retired and empty nesters, DH and I come several times a year, staying both onsite with DVC points (for longer stays in 1-bedroom units at BWV or AKL, with 1-2 nights in studios at BLT and Poly as well as a couple of nights in an OVIR at VB thrown in) and offsite through my dad's trades. We're looking forward to trying out CCV!

 

[SpaceMountain77]

We are in our third year of regularly scheduled trips. We visit the last week of April/first week of May for Flower & Garden, the third weekend in September for Food & Wine, and the first two weeks of December for Holidays Around the World.

 

[gzmtlock]

When we feel like doing Disney, we plan ahead and use points. When we don't, we rent them through David's and use the cash for a different vacation. I don't believe we go any more or less than we did prior to purchasing DVC.

 

[quandrea]

Ours have changed too. We have added points all by the way. Started with 200 and now have 860. Our family grew by twins so we need bigger units. We do way more cooking now than we used to and spend less time in the parks. Our patterns will change again in about a year and a half when dd goes from homeschooling to public high school. Not sure what things will look like st that point. Right now we go for two trips about twelve to fourteen nights in length. We rent out any points we don't need.

 

[DenLo]

We changed a lot after buying as we had large gaps of time between Disney visits because it was so expensive to get a moderate hotel room at WDW. We switched fairly quickly from 4 or 5 nights to 7 to 10 nights. Now we are retired and we travel to WDW 2 - 3 times a year for 10 - 12 nights at a time. Of course we have added more points to get so many nights.

 

[Minniesgal]

Not even close. We bought to continue to travel once every three years but added on pretty quickly to do every other year. We now go every 18 months or so so we end up at WDW most years

 

[bobbiwoz]

We have increased our WDW travel, but we have retired, and have increased our travel. We want to travel while we can. Aulani is amazing! We just came back from our second week long stay with friends, and we're pencilling in another stay in 18 months. We have DCL Transatlantic in May and have a two night stopover in Iceland.

Eventually we may decide we have too many points, but as long as we can travel, we will, and we get a lot of travel bang out our our Member fees.

 

[TexasChick123]

We were very careful not to overbuy on the first go around. We bought 200 VGF points so that we could stay in a 2-bedroom every 2-3 years. After this first trip in the 2-bedroom, I decided I wanted to go at least once a year. Our kids are young, but the oldest is about to be school-age which will clip our traveling wings a bit. We like to travel to a lot of different places, so we didn't want to be locked into Disney-only vacations. I have never stayed at Aulani, but Oahu is my least favorite Hawaiian island. We prefer Maui. We went on a trip to Croatia last year for our 10-year anniversary. We're headed to to Cali wine country next month, Vegas the month after, Destin, FL after that, and Colorado after that. Also, we are going to DL later this year and will also go to San Diego for part of that trip. Needless to say, we travel a lot, and I will say that DVC increases our Disney trips from once every 5+ years to maybe once a year. It's so great to have the kitchen, living room, washer/dryer, etc. We love DVC, but we have to have freedom to travel anywhere without too much of a financial commitment to DVC.

 

[Kidanifan08]

We bought in October 2008 when DS was only 2.5 years old. We initially bought enough points for a 7 night stay in our home resort (AKV) during Magic season, knowing that we would eventually be stuck with the school schedule. We received developer points at SSR with our purchase, so our first trip was "free" in a 2BR at SSR a few months later. We used our purchased points for the first time in June 2009, but we're able to stay in a 2 BR for 9 nights, since we had the "free" 2007 points banked into 2008. We didn't use our points again until December 2010, when we went "on the cheap" and stayed in a 2BR standard view. We had a couple of cash trips between 6/09 and 12/10, but we became accustomed to the larger accommodations for longer periods of time. That led to our first purchase of additional points in March 2011, followed by 4-5 add-ons through 2012, leading to more that twice as many points as we started with. The recession helped keep the cost reasonable, compared to now.

So, basically, we bought in planning on 7 days in a 1 BR annually, and have learned that we like to stay longer and bring family/friends. Since 2008, we have visited WDW at least twice a year, sometimes on points, sometimes on cash (travel expense/mtg). We had a 15-night trip last summer and are doing that again this summer. We still do other things, but we love out time in "Fantasyland". We anticipate annual summer trips for 10-14 days and occasional trips at Christmas. We will eventually get to a point where we go in late fall. We still do other stuff, but love our DVC!

 

[MPS516]

No real change so far. We do about 4 trips during a normal year, with WDW generally one of those. We bought mostly for food and wine however now and again end up with multiple trips if extended family are planning a trip and ask us to come along (this year 3 short and 1 full week). While our pattern has not really changed, our time at Disney sure has, much more relaxing now and more like a vacation.

 

[Leilanie94]

We bought in March 2011 and have been keeping on schedule with annual vacation.

2012 We traded points with our friends who are DVC members and stayed at the Grand Californian - Disneyland.
2013 We had our very first trip to Disney World and stayed at AKV- Kidani
2015 Back to Disneyland. Our 13 year old son and his school performing arts club at a show at DCA. We missed the RSVP deadline so we stayed at a non-Disney hotel.
2017 We made our first RCI trade. Going to the East Coast.

The interesting thing, our home resort is Disney Aulani. We are Hawaii residents. If we cannot travel to the mainland, we use our points and plan a Holiday / weekend staycation at Disney Aulani. We also rented our timeshare to family and friends.

 

[keaster]

We bought in 2011 and have pretty much stuck to our annual March Break trip (we've either done WDW or Aulani) and usually one at the end of August.