How many visits before purchasing DVC?

[geargrinder]

I think you may have misread the question.

If you have been to Disneyland the answer wouldn’t be zero. The question was how many times have you been to either Disneyland or Disneyworld before buying DVC.

No, I understood. But there's a difference that your question doesn't capture.

Being there as a child, before DVC exists, has a bearing on the answer. Your question references DVC, so why would visits prior to DVC even matter?

 

[Arguetafamily]

I believe it was our 5th or 6th visit to DW, 2016, we purchased a very small direct 50 point contract at Poly.

During the pandemic after 4 years of owning that small contract we decided to take advantage of the lower price point in the resale market and purchased 240 BWV and 160 AKV. This year we purchased another 150 direct VGF and this week another fixed week contract at RIV for 194. Still waiting in ROFR for 175 CCV.
I guess you can say the addonitis comes in waves

 

[Arguetafamily]

No, I understood. But there's a difference that your question doesn't capture.

Being there as a child, before DVC exists, has a bearing on the answer. Your question references DVC, so why would visits prior to DVC even matter?

I didn’t even think to include Disneyland visits only because we live 45 minutes from Land and I have been there more than 500 times, literally. We had annual passes for a decade and went almost every weekend, that doesn’t include the at least dozens of times I went as a child.

As for World I did go once with my mother and brothers but didn’t include that time either.

 

[Arguetafamily]

I wont count the tons of trips pre kids as would never really have don’t this without having them. About three trips in and lots of YouTube videos watched we started getting recommended DVC videos by the YouTube machine (thanks Pete and your crew). Looked cool, but was mostly a WDW and HI thing…. Then found VGC and was hooked. Wanted to stay at the Grand Cal for many years but the rack rate just never made sense vs getting a nice room nearby. As we were going to Disneyland at least two times a year and really love the location and theme at the Grand Cal we became obsessed with trying to get into VGC if we could. The sellers market gave us a chance to jump in. Fast forward a few months and we now have 1120 points

About half at VGC and the rest at WDW. The WDW points are for awesome longer trips every other year or so to WDW and for use at Aulani. VGC for 4 to 5 night trips to Cali. Hope we love this for many years to come…. Also not excited about the first round of dues next year LOL

I honestly CANT WAIT to buy direct at the new tower. That will probably send us over the 1k mark

 

[FamilyGuy]

First visit to WDW was in December 2004 - ended up initiating a direct purchase on that visit. It's odd because I remember having a hard time seeing the value because I had secured a low rate for a contemporary garden room. It was only around $200 nightly if I remember correctly... almost 18 years later, DVC ended up being a great value for our family!

 

[DVCanadian]

No, I understood. But there's a difference that your question doesn't capture.

Being there as a child, before DVC exists, has a bearing on the answer. Your question references DVC, so why would visits prior to DVC even matter?

There was a time before DVC existed? LOLOLOLOL

The Aulani graduation trip is a great idea!

 

[smrice95]

2 DVC tours - and lots more visits in between!
A few trips as a child pre DVC and then with DH 1992 engaged at WDW), 1995, 1998 (first looked at DVC), 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2012, 2016, (bought in between these trips) 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022 soon!

Direct with Poly and addonitis during pandemic with SSR

 

[geargrinder]

There was a time before DVC existed? LOLOLOLOL

The Aulani graduation trip is a great idea!

I'm old. Ha ha!

 

[bumbershoot]

Edit: note that the question does not related to staying at any hotels, or DVC hotels. The question is asking about visiting the parks.

I visited Disneyland several times before buying, but we did not buy DVC for Disneyland. And I purchased just before Grand Californian, Bay Lake, and Kidani opened, so it *really* wasn't done to stay there.

The DVC-relevant bit is that I had zero visits to WDW before buying DVC at Bay Lake.

 

[Pens Fan]

I voted 5 -10. We didn't buy into DVC until my husband was near retirement age. Prior to that it just didn't make sense for us. We love Disney and would go every 3 or 4 years to the parks with a cruise thrown into the mix in between. We thought about it, but the math just never made sense. We would have loved to go more often, but there are just so many vacation days available and we had lots of other non-Disney places we wanted to go and family obligations as we live 11 hours away from them. Now that he's retired, we love our DVC contracts and go as often as we want!