I need some advice please.

[4mygrls]

We went through a dvc presentation a couple years ago but never did buy into it. We wanted to but we would have to finance it and just wasn't sure if we should. Here are the pros and cons for us and our usual situation with accomidations we usually stick with.
We stayed onsite for the first time with two of our kids during our last visit. It was alot less hectic then all of our offsite previous visits. We stayed at pop century. We loved it. We don't need fancy accomidations. value resort is just fine for us. We do Disney about every other year or so. We also like Universal. We like to go camping for vacations and we did a cruise last year that was great. We love the water. We love to go camping and go to the lake for boating. We are adventure type vacation people. We usually try to budget our vacations since we are a one income family and have 4 kids. But, two of our kids are grown now and probably would not go to disney with us. But, you never know. We drive to florida since it's not too bad of a drive. it's about 11hours. I wish we could fly but it's expensive to fly all of us. We want to move to florida in a few years. We are looking at the pensacola or ocala area. ocala is close enough to orlando to go for a couple days here and there. what i'm concerned about is the price of the resorts getting out of hand. we could rent dvc points but that scares me. I'm just not sure what to do? I know you can use points for a disney cruise but how many points does it take? I'm just a mess with all of this. TIA
Kathi

 

[JudyS]

It's not usually cost effective to use DVC points for cruises. Also, it is possible to use DVC points for stays at other DVC hotels, but it is not cost effective to do this at all. You wouldn't use DVC points for camping, so I would just leave that out of the discussion entirely.

Buying DVC is generally less expensive in the long run than staying at deluxe resorts, and can be less expensive that staying at moderate resorts. However, DVC will generally cost more than staying at value resorts, unless maybe you are talking about staying only on weeknights (Sunday - Thursday.)

When would you go to Disney? Are you tied to a regular public school schedule for your kids?

 

[Safari Queen]

DVC doesn't sound like a fit for you. If you're happy in a value resort that's likely to be cheaper in the long run, expecially if you need to finance.

 

[4mygrls]

It's not usually cost effective to use DVC points for cruises. Also, it is possible to use DVC points for stays at other DVC hotels, but it is not cost effective to do this at all. You wouldn't use DVC points for camping, so I would just leave that out of the discussion entirely.

Buying DVC is generally less expensive in the long run than staying at deluxe resorts, and can be less expensive that staying at moderate resorts. However, DVC will generally cost more than staying at value resorts, unless maybe you are talking about staying only on weeknights (Sunday - Thursday.)

When would you go to Disney? Are you tied to a regular public school schedule for your kids?

we usually go just after they get out of school which is usually late May, early June.
I'm wondering if it would be better to rent points or if we just purchased resale? Maybe we can start with enough points to go for a week every other year? But if we did move to florida then we would be able to whenever we wanted to.

 

[crisi]

Renting points, maybe - but honestly, why wouldn't you stay in an offsite condo for much much cheaper. Resale no. Your travel pattern does not make DVC a good choice and if you had money to waste, you could buy DVC and be happy, but that doesn't sound like the case.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

Maybe some hard numbers would help. If you purchased a 150 point resale at Saratoga Springs your maintenance fees would be a bit over $618 per year. Double that for an every other year trip and you are looking at $1,220. Seems to me that $1,220 would probably cover your room expenses pretty nicely for six nights. And that's without using the principle amount of the DVC.

The amount you pay for DVC remains fixed but it seems to me the maintenance fees run pretty close to value resort rates anyway. My soon to be home no more runs me around $700 a year.

 

[vascubaguy]

I think if you did decide to "buy-in" you should go the resale route and get under 100 pts, or enough to cover you in a studio at one of the resorts. Since you only go every other year, you could bank or borrow points so that you'd have enough to go every 2 years. Then if you needed to add on more later, you could buy 25 pts at a pop to get where you needed, and then if you didn't need them anymore it's easier to sell off the lower point contracts.

 

[WDW LifeLong Fan]

I agree with different components of the above posts. My initial reaction was that DVC is probably not best for your circumstances and travel plans.

If you decided that you still wanted to buy, I would go with a small resale.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[Dean]

Exploring the off property option, you could buy an every year timeshare and trade in to Orlando for a 2 BR and in some cases, DVC for a 1 BR. There are also some every other year options. You could likely find a timeshare for $500-1000 with yearly fees of around $500-600 for a 2 BR. Add to that around $85 yearly for the exchange company and an exchange fee of $150 or so for each exchange. Or you could go with a different, and much cheaper, points system and avoid the exchange company if you wanted and if you wanted to exchange, many times the membership is included with your points.

The Wyndham, RCI points and Bluegreen systems seem to be good thoughts for what you want. I am not sure about the others but I know BG has EOY memberships and works fairly well to use 2 years worth of points at one time.

To make this work with BG you'll need likely a minimum of 8000 yearly points (or 16K EOY) to get a 2 BR at the Fountains for a week. Yearly fees about $700 but no costs to reserve and included RCI membership (but exchange fees would be extra). Those points should be somewhere around $3500-4000 to purchase. They have around 50 resorts you can reserve directly. But if you play the exchange game well, you can do even better with all of the points systems for Orlando by reserving smaller/cheaper options and trading in. All of the above points systems will work well for Orlando for a full week and should work well for less than a week in most cases, assuming you can plan ahead 12 months out.

Or you could go with a cheaper Marriott option and then trade in. A Marriott trader that can get you in to Orlando an be had for as little as about $5K (less in some cases) yearly (some have EOY options at around $3K) with yearly fees around $650. A couple will even have lockoff's allowing you to get an every year vacation or more owning EOY at half the fees and about 60% the buy in compared to yearly. Or one could even buy in to one of the Orlando Marriott's and avoid the exchange companies totally , or use an independent without a yearly fee, if desired.

The bottom line is that if one wants to get to Orlando yearly or EOY, there are far cheaper ways to do so than with DVC and that will give one a lot of other options. The exception for some might be to use DVC for Sun-Fri EOY for 5 nights avoiding weekends but it will still be more expensive than many of the other options for a 1 or 2 BR. The question is whether staying on property is worth the extra expense or not, it is for many but not for a lot of other people.

 

[crisi]

I wouldn't buy at all, if money is tight, the last thing you want to do is tie up capital in a luxury. There are plenty of timeshare rentals (house rentals, condo rentals) in the WDW area for a small percentage of what you'd pay with DVC, some of them you'd even save money over buying a timeshare in a different system - and you have the flexibility with paying as you go in not paying if you can't go.

 

[CarolAnnC]

You mention that you may be moving to FL in just a few years. You may want to wait on any DVC purchase and consider FL Resident deals at that time. Especially since the Value Resorts appeal to you.

 

[buck4568]

We went through a dvc presentation a couple years ago but never did buy into it. We wanted to but we would have to finance it and just wasn't sure if we should. Here are the pros and cons for us and our usual situation with accomidations we usually stick with.
We stayed onsite for the first time with two of our kids during our last visit. It was alot less hectic then all of our offsite previous visits. We stayed at pop century. We loved it. We don't need fancy accomidations. value resort is just fine for us. We do Disney about every other year or so. We also like Universal. We like to go camping for vacations and we did a cruise last year that was great. We love the water. We love to go camping and go to the lake for boating. We are adventure type vacation people. We usually try to budget our vacations since we are a one income family and have 4 kids. But, two of our kids are grown now and probably would not go to disney with us. But, you never know. We drive to florida since it's not too bad of a drive. it's about 11hours. I wish we could fly but it's expensive to fly all of us. We want to move to florida in a few years. We are looking at the pensacola or ocala area. ocala is close enough to orlando to go for a couple days here and there. what i'm concerned about is the price of the resorts getting out of hand. we could rent dvc points but that scares me. I'm just not sure what to do? I know you can use points for a disney cruise but how many points does it take? I'm just a mess with all of this. TIA
Kathi

I am surprised that the majority here feel that DVC membership would not be for you. I happen to feel that your vacation habits fit perfectly with the DVC!

First, let me begin by saying that when we first joined we did not live in Florida. We now live three hours from Disney World and enjoy our DVC vacations even more now.
"We stayed onsite for the first time with two of our kids during our last visit. It was alot less hectic then all of our offsite previous visits. We stayed at pop century. We loved it. We don't need fancy accomidations. value resort is just fine for us."
If you compare what your getting for accomadations even if you stay in a DVC studio, I think the cost is going to be about the same if you take into cosideration that your buying your future vacations at todays prices when you purchase DVC points. And, you can get to Universal easily from DW. Being onsite can not be beat and if or when you purchase points and stay at, lets say Boardwalk Villas. You will be hooked for life!

"We do Disney about every other year or so. We also like Universal. We like to go camping for vacations and we did a cruise last year that was great. We love the water. We love to go camping and go to the lake for boating. We are adventure type vacation people."

Every other year is ideal for new members, and as I said Universal is close by. Camping? There is more to DVC than visiting the parks. Have you heard of the Adventurers Collection that DVC has? Visit this page http://dvc.disney.go.com/dvc/index?id=ProspectsAdventurerCollectionOverviewPage and see what else DVC has. Its not just about going to Disney World. Plus, with the exchange program with Interval International you can get a week just about any where. And, there are all kinds of options for the beach like Hilton Head, or Vero Beach Resort just to name two.

And, you mentioned Disney Cruises. We have been on over nine Disney Cruises! Using POINTS ! And I know there are those that think that is a waste but guess what? We bought the points to use for vacations and not to belittle those that sit by there abacus day in and day out breaking down the cost vs. cost per point theory .

As mentioned in a previous post, you can start out with a small resale contract and add on that way. Right now the incentives are pretty good if you buy the minimum 160 points required for first time buyers. Double developer points or $ discount off the points cost. We just added 100 points and ended up with 400 total with the double developer points incentive.

So, don't be discouraged and go back and take the tour again. There are some options that may make it affordable for you.

Have a magical day!!