How Much?

[A4Disney]

Around how much will it cost me to join the DVC?I would like to go yearly in July and we are a family of 6.I love the BC/BW area.
Thanks for any input

 

[Deep-Thots]

It depends upon how much time you spend there and the particular resort you're interested in. For a family of six, you'd need a 2BR. For a one week stay (assuming 306-350 points), the following is a guesstimate:

Boardwalk resale: $24,480 - $28,000 plus closing costs. Maintenance fees would run you about $1400/yr.

Beach Club resale: $28,000 plus closing costs. Maintenance fees would be about the same.

 

[KelNottAt]

I agree with the estimates above. However, when I was in your position, I wish I had bought less than the 306 points my BWV vacation required. If I had been on the ball, I would have saved a few dollars and bought only 204 points. With some creative banking and borrowing, this would have allowed us to vacation at WDW 2 out of every 3 years. Or annually in lower seasons.

Don't get me wrong, we love our DVC membership. (As you can see by my sig, we're using it alot.) But, in hindsight, I could have made a smarter purchase.

Good luck.
Kelley

 

[DVCLiz]

A4Disney - As a new DVC owner, I would also recommend using your points for a Sunday - Thursday stay, when DVC point requirements are much lower, and paying cash for weekend nights, either staying at the same resort or moving to another one entirely.

When I bought my points, I didn't want to pay for a whole week of seven days on points, because the Friday and Saturday nights were 2 or 3 times more than the weekdays. For example, at Hilton Head in high season, a Thursday night is 33 points, a Friday is 66 and a Saturday is 99. I can stay for 5 nights Sunday through Thursday or just two nights if they are Friday and Saturday. The purchase price for 165 points was far less than 330 points I would have needed for a full week.

These are little ways to think about DVC that make it affordable and give you what you want in terms of your vacation. So you might stay 5 nights at BCV or BWV, then move to adjoining rooms at a moderate for the weekend. (Actually, though, most people recommend doing it the other way around, so you finish at the DVC property - awfully hard to leave them for something smaller!!) Does this make sense to you or have I been too confusing?

 

[A4Disney]

A4Disney - As a new DVC owner, I would also recommend using your points for a Sunday - Thursday stay, when DVC point requirements are much lower, and paying cash for weekend nights, either staying at the same resort or moving to another one entirely.

When I bought my points, I didn't want to pay for a whole week of seven days on points, because the Friday and Saturday nights were 2 or 3 times more than the weekdays. For example, at Hilton Head in high season, a Thursday night is 33 points, a Friday is 66 and a Saturday is 99. I can stay for 5 nights Sunday through Thursday or just two nights if they are Friday and Saturday. The purchase price for 165 points was far less than 330 points I would have needed for a full week.

These are little ways to think about DVC that make it affordable and give you what you want in terms of your vacation. So you might stay 5 nights at BCV or BWV, then move to adjoining rooms at a moderate for the weekend. (Actually, though, most people recommend doing it the other way around, so you finish at the DVC property - awfully hard to leave them for something smaller!!) Does this make sense to you or have I been too confusi

Thanks,I get what you are saying..But if we do move to a moderate for a few nights do we pay for that on our own,no points right?I guess I'm not seeing the saving of becoming a DVC member....This year we are staying for a week in CR tower,dining plan,tickets for 4,000.We go every other year.I was hoping to go every year if I became a DVC member but for $20,000+ not to mention the $1400 a year in fees I'm thinking it may not be right for me....How did you decide it was right for you?

 

[ParrotAtOKW]

Thanks,I get what you are saying..But if we do move to a moderate for a few nights do we pay for that on our own,no points right?I guess I'm not seeing the saving of becoming a DVC member....This year we are staying for a week in CR tower,dining plan,tickets for 4,000.We go every other year.I was hoping to go every year if I became a DVC member but for $20,000+ not to mention the $1400 a year in fees I'm thinking it may not be right for me....How did you decide it was right for you?

Yes, you pay retail rates for stays at non-DVC resorts. Less any discounts you can manage that is.

One value of being a DVC member is that you always know how much the DVC portions of your stays will cost. They will stay about the same even though retail rates will most likely increase steadily form year to year.

It really is a big investment and can be hard to decide if it is right for you. In our case, we figured out that it actually would cost less to continue doing what we had always done before - stay at the value and moderately priced resorts 2 or 3 times a year. We still decided DVC was right for us though, after considering that we would always get nicer accommodations in a DVC resort in that we would otherwise, and that the cost would be fairly predictable and not always increasing.

Then there were the intangibles - such as always being able to feel like you really do "own a piece of the magic."

 

[dianeschlicht]

I agree with you about staying at a moderate not making sense. We purchased our DVC so we wouldn't have to shell out the $5000 every year for our trip. We looked at it as a week long vacation and planned points accordingly. So it costs more points for Friday and Saturday. We plan so that in a 9-10 day trip, we only have one weekend. That gives us a long enough vacation, but yet conserves points. For New Years Eve next year, we are staying in a studio for Saturday Dec. 31. That would cost us 100 points if we started our 2 bedroom stay that night. It only costs us 36 points for the studio, and we can easily move to our 2 bedroom the next morning. My advice is to buy enough points for your expected travel plans for the year. If you know what seasons you are most likely to travel in, this should be fairly simple.

 

[DVCLiz]

Well, you can use points for other resorts, but the conventional wisdom says that it is less expensive to pay cash, as the points "cost" is very high in comparison to use at the DVC resorts. Obviously, DVC points are best used at DVC resorts. And the other side of my argument, which I have also taken from time to time (I know, find me on the fence always!) says that points are points and should be used wherever you most want to use them. But the bottom line is, yes, if you pay cash for some nights, you are adding more to the cost of your vacation.

My example about the points in my earlier post was just to illustrate that a smaller contract can still be very useful if you don't want to pay for a larger one all at once. I actually have 165 HH points and 165 BCV points, so I could stay the full week at HH if I chose, but so far I haven't had the opportunity to test it out (new member since September 2004.)

How did I decide it was right for me? I'm a single mom, and my daughters and I have had our best family time at WDW. Hilton Head is near enough to be doable every year, and we never get tired of the beach, even if we skip WDW once in a while. I could afford it without having to finance, and I knew after a solo trip that I could use points in a way that made sense to my vacation needs even after the girls had grown up.

Mostly, though, it just felt right. I wanted it and so I bought it for myself and my family. Yes, I do think if I go the correct number of times through the years and stay the recommended number of nights, it will save me money in the long run. But, really, that had little to do with my decision. Mine was made much more emotionally than that. Obviously, I had to look at budget, and yes, I did have to think about the maintenance fees adding to the cost of the ownership, but truthfully, I would never stay in a value or a moderate (NOT a value judgement here) at WDW when I had a chance to stay at a Deluxe, and now that I've stayed at DVC I am completely spoiled - won't even book a studio for myself because I would have to give up the tub!!!

Hope this helps - I did think long and hard about it and did a lot of reading on these boards before I took the plunge. But I love it and I know you will too!

 

[SoCalKDG]

Thanks,I get what you are saying..But if we do move to a moderate for a few nights do we pay for that on our own,no points right?I guess I'm not seeing the saving of becoming a DVC member....This year we are staying for a week in CR tower,dining plan,tickets for 4,000.We go every other year.I was hoping to go every year if I became a DVC member but for $20,000+ not to mention the $1400 a year in fees I'm thinking it may not be right for me....How did you decide it was right for you?

Was that $4000 for six people in two rooms with tickets and dining plan? or are you fitting everyone into one room. You said you have 6 people. Remember that you are getting a two bedroom with kitchen for the costs mentioned above.

 

[Greysword]

I don't know how much a weeks stay in the CR tower costs, but if you took $3000 every other year ($1,500 each year) and used it to pay for a DVC contract, over 10 years you will have been able to buy points worth $15,000. Thats pretty much the cost at SSR (full $95/point) for 165 points (less with the current incentives). Then you only have maintenance fees for the remainder 39 years (much less than your current yearly payout especially if WDW rates go up). Of course, this does not add in maintenance fees for the original 10 years.

Just so you know, Point Charts with dates and room sizes can be found here:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-vacation-club/index.html#hm-dvc-nav

Find the room size you will need (probably 2br) at each resort for the time frame you want (July you said, but also look at late August for savings) and find out how many points you will need.

Take this point total and visit the time share store (link is at the top of this page) to see what prices are per point at different resorts or figure buying SSR at about $90/pont (this is an average of the current discounts).

Just keep in mind that $20,000 may sound like a lot, but that is only about $2,000 per year on 10 year financing. Add in the maintenance cost ($3.80/point at SSR I think) of $1400 (as you mentioned before) and you will be spending $3400 each year for 10 years then it drops to $1400 per year for the next 27-39 years. This si the example you mentioned earlier.

Good luck!!

 

[A4Disney]

Was that $4000 for six people in two rooms with tickets and dining plan? or are you fitting everyone into one room. You said you have 6 people. Remember that you are getting a two bedroom with kitchen for the costs mentioned above.

One room because one of the six is a toddler and will sleep in a pack-n-play.I was thinking futuristically and how much the prices will go up in a couple years when I need two rooms.Especially with our liking of the deluxe resorts!Your daughter is beautiful.

 

[A4Disney]

I don't know how much a weeks stay in the CR tower costs, but if you took $3000 every other year ($1,500 each year) and used it to pay for a DVC contract, over 10 years you will have been able to buy points worth $15,000. Thats pretty much the cost at SSR (full $95/point) for 165 points (less with the current incentives). Then you only have maintenance fees for the remainder 39 years (much less than your current yearly payout especially if WDW rates go up). Of course, this does not add in maintenance fees for the original 10 years.

Just so you know, Point Charts with dates and room sizes can be found here:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-vacation-club/index.html#hm-dvc-nav

Find the room size you will need (probably 2br) at each resort for the time frame you want (July you said, but also look at late August for savings) and find out how many points you will need.

Take this point total and visit the time share store (link is at the top of this page) to see what prices are per point at different resorts or figure buying SSR at about $90/pont (this is an average of the current discounts).

Just keep in mind that $20,000 may sound like a lot, but that is only about $2,000 per year on 10 year financing. Add in the maintenance cost ($3.80/point at SSR I think) of $1400 (as you mentioned before) and you will be spending $3400 each year for 10 years then it drops to $1400 per year for the next 27-39 years. This si the example you mentioned earlier.

Good luck!!

Thank you!This gives me a lot to think about.I'm definitely going to discuss it with my dh.Thanks again

 

[tjkraz]

One room because one of the six is a toddler and will sleep in a pack-n-play.I was thinking futuristically and how much the prices will go up in a couple years when I need two rooms.Especially with our liking of the deluxe resorts!Your daughter is beautiful.

Then here's your difference: You're trying to compare $4000 TODAY (one room) with a Two Bedroom DVC accommodation that will fit your party both today and well into the future.

You're also not factoring in an additional degree of luxury that certainly exists. DVC two-bedrooms are about 1400 square feet. By comparison, your CR room is about 350-400 sq ft.

The DVC room has a full kitchen--how much can you save in a week just by eating breakfast in your room each day? It also has a whirlpool tub, three TVs (one with DVD player), in-room washer and dryer, balcony, and so on. These are some of the most luxurious rooms on Disney property.

If you just want a place to sleep at night, then forget it. Walk away now.

 

[Greysword]

I also forgot to add....

If you do decide a larger contract is better for you, then consider two or more smaller contracts instead (300 = 2x150, 200+100, 150+100+50, etc). The minimum buy in is normally 150 points through Disney, but with multiple contracts, you will be able to sell them more easily once the kids have grown. You could also just transfer the smaller ones to them as a present in the future (for wedding, birth of their first child, etc).

Just something to think about.

 

[A4Disney]

I also forgot to add....

If you do decide a larger contract is better for you, then consider two or more smaller contracts instead (300 = 2x150, 200+100, 150+100+50, etc). The minimum buy in is normally 150 points through Disney, but with multiple contracts, you will be able to sell them more easily once the kids have grown. You could also just transfer the smaller ones to them as a present in the future (for wedding, birth of their first child, etc).

Just something to think about.

Where should I consider buying from?Disney or a resell?

 

[Greysword]

My colleagues can answer that more precisely, I think. My wife and I just bought ur 165 points at SSR during our honeymoon this past january.

We decided on SSR and through Disney for a couple reasons: the contracts have more years on them, Disney paid closing costs and had easy financing at an ok rate, and once she said yes I didn't want to give her the chance to change her mind ...er...I mean she loved th SSR property and tour.

You can buy SSR right now or get one Disney's wait list for the other properties if you prefer them. You can also buy with your own financing/cash from a reseller. I guess this decision will depend on your current needs.

After my fellow DVC DISers post their great suggestions, you can call the DVC sales team and ask them what they think (once you have decided on different point options/time of year to stay).

 

[Deep-Thots]

Also, since you seem to go only every other year, you could probably purchase somewhere between 160-175 points and be okay.

Re: resale vs. DVC purchase: DVC gives you ease of financing and some good incentives for its newest resort, SSR (note that SSR's deed also lasts longer than those of the other resorts). But note that SSR can also be purchased as a resale!

Resales give you the ability to purchase at the sold-out resorts, though you have to secure your own financing. Also remember that these deeds are only good until 2042 (whereas SSR is good until 2054).

Click on the "Current DVC Resales" link at the top of this page to see some of the resales available through our sponsor, The Timeshare Store.

 

[SoCalKDG]

Where should I consider buying from?Disney or a resell?

Buy where you want to stay. That was pounded into my head before resale(and before I knew SSR was going to be huge). I'm glad I did as I can guarantee staying at BWV anytime of the year.

Thanks for the compliment on my daughter. She's going to be very excited having breakfast with the princesses in April, she adores them.

 

[palmtreegirl]

Best advice I can give you is buy where you want to stay!