How much extra $ has DVC cost you?

[tvwalsh]

Just to warn people who are deciding about buying into DVC to save money, I just wanted to begin a thread in which we discuss all the extra money we have spent because we bought into DVC.

Let me begin by saying that I would not have gone to England except that I had "free" accomodations at the Royal Gardens Hotel through the concierge collection.

 

[dianeschlicht]

For us it is the extra airline ticket that we need for additional trips. We also like to eat out at all the WDW fine dinning places, so that always costs a bit more than eating at home too.

 

[spiceycat]

I go more often - so extra meals out and gasoline...but I still think I save money. We don't get a meal out but once or twice a visit and my car gets excellent gas mileage (honda).

especially when I see the prices on a standard room at the Polyn....how do people afford that?

 

[TnRobin]

I guess my airline tickets to Hawaii this summer are going to cost me more than my usual trip to Orlando. I would never been able to go if I didn't have "free" lodging through DVC

Also do forget to add all the merchandise you "must have" when you are a member.

 

[carone0318]

I wanted to respond to this thread because I really thought about it and we don't spend extra money. I really believe at this point in our lives that DVC is just a savings. We are in our early 30's and have 2 kids - (7) dd and (3 on Valentine's Day )ds. We still have limited vacation time from work, so we only go once a year - but average about a 10 day visit. We do buy annual passes, which is probably more that LOS or park hoppers, but then we don't have to buy tickets the following year, so it is really a savings. We do eat out everyday we are there, but we do a sit down once a day and eat breakfast back at the room and bring our own snacks with us. If we were in a hotel room, we would probably eat out even more. I would guess as we get older and accumulate more vacation time and the kids are little older and can be on their own, we will probably increase the trips per year, but by that time we should be done paying the DVC mortgage and only have the dues, so it will just be a re-direction of money Although for many it seems to increase the money they spend, don't freak out, you could actually be saving, we are!

 

[jarestel]

Pre DVC: A trip to WDW every year or two, and easily cancelled if something else came up.

Post DVC:
Well, it starts out as one trip every year. But then I find out that weekend stays consume vast amounts of points. So then, it's the Sunday thru Thursday stay for the first trip, and an extra trip later in the year to use up the points saved from not staying over the weekend. Then, I buy annual passes, and try to cram an extra trip in before the passes expire. Then I stay in a one bedroom and decide I'm never staying in a studio again, so I buy more points to fund my newly adopted 1-bedroom lifestyle. Then, I decide I "must" have the 11-month window at a different resort, so in the blink of an eye, more points are purchased. Bottom line... I would never have spent this much money vacationing at WDW if I hadn't bought DVC. Do I regret it? Not for a moment. But I don't think I saved any money even if I compare the rack rates to the DVC costs, because I never would have come to WDW that often without the incentive of DVC.

 

[SimbaNoodle]

I spend more because I wouldn't have stayed in the nicer rooms.
But like carone0318 said, I look as DVC as an investment in my Disney future. After I have paid off my points, I will have a lot of nice trips for a little money (maint. fees). I now have 410 points and you can vacation lots of days if you budget your points well.

 

[bobbiwoz]

So far, about $200, what it cost us to change our airline tickets after our cruise in December so we could go VWL and see what we bought up close and personal. We didn't own when we booked the cruise, so we had to do some changing.

On the other hand, we were taking a $2000+ cruise for my spring break, which we cancelled when we decided that we would rather try Vero Beach and at 6 months out, and it was available.

So, are we saving money or what!


Bobbi

 

[llane]

We will have gone to WDW 3 times in 3 years, since buying DVC. We never would have done that. We spend less while we are there (food and souviner) than we did before DVC.

tvwalsh - how was the Royal Gardens Hotel? Did you enjoy your stay?

 

[dianeschlicht]

Originally posted by carone0318
I wanted to respond to this thread because I really thought about it and we don't spend extra money. I really believe at this point in our lives that DVC is just a savings. We are in our early 30's and have 2 kids - (7) dd and (3 on Valentine's Day )ds. We still have limited vacation time from work, so we only go once a year - but average about a 10 day visit. We do buy annual passes, which is probably more that LOS or park hoppers, but then we don't have to buy tickets the following year, so it is really a savings. We do eat out everyday we are there, but we do a sit down once a day and eat breakfast back at the room and bring our own snacks with us. If we were in a hotel room, we would probably eat out even more. I would guess as we get older and accumulate more vacation time and the kids are little older and can be on their own, we will probably increase the trips per year, but by that time we should be done paying the DVC mortgage and only have the dues, so it will just be a re-direction of money Although for many it seems to increase the money they spend, don't freak out, you could actually be saving, we are!

You truely are using DVC to the best advantage!

 

[MikeJ]

We find that we spend just as much as before DVC, albeit on different things. On our last trip we stayed 2 nights at AKL Concierge. Would we have done that pre-DVC? No way - after spending big bucks on our accomodation there's no way we could have afforded a concierge stay anywhere. But DVC has allowed us to open up the purse-strings a little and try things we never would have done before.

- Mike

 

[Chim Chiminy]

Before we bought DVC, our only trip had been at All Star Movies for $55 a night (Salute to Heroes special). We spent less than $2000 that trip for seven nights stay, four four day hoppers (Military special), two days at Universal.
When bought in at BCV when we got home, sight unseen.

We had only taken short two or three day trips before that, so we really didn't spend a lot on vacations.

After our first trip home to BCV, we just had to add on at SSR!

Since we bought annual passes on that first trip, we have to get our money's worth out of it, so we are taking an unplanned for spring trip to OKW as a surprise for the kids!
Then we go again in June/July for a third time on the passes.

Do we regret any of this?
No. How can you put a price on family memories?
We take my parents on our trips, they live in TX, we are in PA. We have the only grandkids, and these trips allow my parents to spend precious time with them in a place we all love. We have the uncles along too. It makes for great family memories.

Would we spend the money on deluxe accomadations if we didn't have DVC? No.
But we now have 350 points and that allows for a lot of vacation days....in great accomadations.

 

[Laurabearz]

We didnt buy into DVC to save money... we bought to stay in 2 bedroom villas with full kitchens, laundry, wonderful pools, and more things to do that one could ever think about doing, yet time to do nothing at all.

 

[crisi]

Pre DVC - Disney trips every 3 to 5 years. With airfare, staying at a Deluxe or Moderate in a studio. Four people to a room - probably around $1400 in room costs.

Post DVC - Disney trips every 2 years. More airfare due to more frequent trips. Can stay in a 1 bedroom for around $1200 (cost basis of $6 a point or so) - but we end up bringing people along (they used to pay for their own room), so more like $1800 in room costs. No bill for that $1800 - it was paid with the dues check, so more cash accessible when we travel....so we tend to spend more eating out, etc.

Now, our income has also changed for the better and we added children to the mix - so our pre-DVC and post-DVC trips would be difficult to compare - DVC is not the only variable.

 

[KNWVIKING]

Well, prior to DVC I would sell back a week or two of my unused vacation time at the end of the year, putting a few grand extra into my pocket. Now, I use all my time plus a couple unpaid days. So if you add up the lost income and the additional monies spent on a couple extra weeks in Orlando............

Thanx alot OP. You jut made me realize I can't afford to be a member !!!

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

Pre-DVC. Trips to the Orlando every other year but moving towards every year alternating between non-Disney and Disney.

In addition I would have stayed in moderates if I stayed on site at all because I've never seen any appreciable difference between the deluxes and the moderates except for accessiblity to parks or the boardwalk.

Now...owning DVC is causing me to travel more to other locations. I'm trading the other timeshare into other destinations so that adds on say...$250 in trading expenses because I'm constantly splitting the unit and then going off and using it. And unless something changes I'll probably add in an extra Orlando trip every year.

 

[OneMoreTry]

No extra money. Maybe less because we can drive to WDW, where we might fly if we went somewhere else. We definitely save AT WDW because we would get a 2BR.

The main difference is that we go to WDW more.

 

[bcvillastwo]

Hypothetically, we pay less but actually we pay more. I say this because if I were to compare the full cost of an individual trip to a moderate resort (which is where we usually stayed pre DVC) to what would pay for the same trip at DVC (1 bdrm mostly) I judge the cost to be nearly the same. However, there is not question that we spend more than we would have because we go more often--once a year before DVC vs 2 to 3 times a year after DVC.

But, our purpose in buying into DVC was not to save money. We like WDW and we liked the idea of prepaying for our accomodations so that we could go to WDW more often.

So, yes we pay more but we expected to pay more when we paid our money and signed on the dotted line.

 

[JimC]

Pre-DVC

18 trips to WDW from 1978 to early 2002
average stay 5.7 days
average total vacation cost per day $458
Blend of moderate and deluxe resorts

With DVC

6 trips in two years
average stay 7.2 days
average total vacation cost per day $302 (includes cost of points and dues)
One bedroom DVC units and concierge level resort rooms


We are taking more trips, spending more time per trip, spending less per day and staying in better lodgings.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Holy smokes, JimC! I would never have the patience to research my trips for the past 25 years!

Anyway, we do indeed spend a lot more because we take more trips. I would expect that to be a common answer.

MG