If someone has time, a brief explanation?

[DisneyMomforLife]

Hello all,

Sorry for the ignorance and I'm sure it's fairly drawn out but if someone has the time, could someone please explain the DVC system for me?

We own a 3 bedroom lockout in Orlando through Interval International so I'm familiar with only that type of thing. I have a few questions that are specific as well ...

1) Is DVC separate from RCI and Interval or if you own at Disney can you use RCI?

2) How do the points work? You only buy POINTS and not an actual unit?

I would greatly appreciate any info that is graciously passed along!! Thanks!

Kat

 

[dianeschlicht]

Hello all,

Sorry for the ignorance and I'm sure it's fairly drawn out but if someone has the time, could someone please explain the DVC system for me?

We own a 3 bedroom lockout in Orlando through Interval International so I'm familiar with only that type of thing. I have a few questions that are specific as well ...

1) Is DVC separate from RCI and Interval or if you own at Disney can you use RCI?

2) How do the points work? You only buy POINTS and not an actual unit?

I would greatly appreciate any info that is graciously passed along!! Thanks!

Kat

DVC is a leased based timeshare that goes for basically 50 years. Those who purchase, do in fact own a portion of a specific building, but you don't always stay there. It can be willed to your children, just like any other asset.

The beauty of DVC is the flexibility of the program. If you own a specific number of points, that allows you to stay at ANY DVC resort for any length of time as long as you have enough points to "pay" for the stay. Different times of the year and sizes of units have different point values, and you purchase with your preference in mind, but you are not locked into that size or that time. You do have a booking priority at your HOME resort though. YOu can book at your home resort 11 months ahead, but at ANY DVC resort 7 months ahead.

If you need a 3 bedroom grand villa for one trip, you can reserve that as long as you have the points for it and it's available. If you only need a studio, you can reserve that for far less points, but also if it's available.

DVC is a member of II for exchange purposes, but not ALL II resorts exchange directly with DVC. DVC does not exchange through RCI. With DVC, the entity is the II member, not the individual.

That's a very quick overview. Ask away.

 

[DisneyMomforLife]

Thank you for the summary of how it works.

What about other fees? We pay just over $600 a year plus our II membership ... what are any other fees associated with it?

Thanks!!

kat

 

[drusba]

The simple explanation from which you can then start getting more:

1. DVC is Disney and has no relationship with any other timeshares but has agreement with Interval International to allow you to do exchanges through II.

2. You buy a legal interest, which is deeded to you, in a unit.

3. Contract has end date, e.g., Animal Kingdom Villas is Jan 31, 2057, and you relinguish everything on that date.

4. Points represent your interest and are used to make reservations. How large an interest you buy determines number of points you have to use each year (you get a fresh allocation of points each use year), the more you pay the larger your real estate interest and the more points you get.

5. Each room, studio, 1BR, 2BR, or 3BR Grand Villa, requires a certain number of points each night to reserve, the smaller the unit the lower the points and the larger the unit the more points. Sun through Thurs nights take less points than Fri and Sat. Then, the points needed vary according to season -- e.g., a lot less during Jan than during spring break times. In other words, the point system allows you to choose when you go every year -- you are not locked into any particular week -- but the points needed vary according to pre-established seasons and days of the week. Disney provides point charts showing what you need and for what rooms -- go to top of this page and click on DVC Point Charts. You can call up to 11 months in advance to reserve at your home DVC Resort (the one you buy an interest in) and 7 months in advance at others.


6. If you don't intend to use your points in a given use year, you may, subject to deadlines for doing so during the year, bank them into the next year (so you may have double for the next year) but banked points must be used in that year (you can't bank them again). Moreover, if you want to go and don't have enough points in the use year for what you want, you may borrow points from the next use year (of course you won't then have them for a trip the next year).

7. Other than Interval International exchanges, you can also use points for other Disney hotels, the cruise, and a number of other hotels, adventure programs with which Disney has agreements. Nevertheless, don't buy unless your intent is to usually use a DVC resort.

8. You pay for your legal interest in a unit once, but thereafter you also have to pay annual dues for the operation and maintenance of the resort and property taxes. Amount varies by resort but currently in the $4-$5 range per point per year. The minimum purchase from Disney gives you 160 points, but many purchase more than that particularly if they want to stay in rooms larger than a studio. Essentially, you will find annual dues for DVC to be higher than many other timeshares.

 

[Caskbill]

DVC works best for those who want to stay at a DVC resort. While points can be used outside of DVC, the 'costs' do not return the same value as if the points are used within DVC itself.

Unlike other timeshares, you may use your points any day of the year. Disney does have seasons, so the point costs for the same unit during one time (eg Christmas) will be different than the point costs for the same unit during slower times.

If you want to get a feel for using points for DVC vacations, feel free to download my DVC-Planner program and play around with different 'vacations'. You can download it via the link in the signature below.

 

[crisi]

Thank you for the summary of how it works.

What about other fees? We pay just over $600 a year plus our II membership ... what are any other fees associated with it?

Thanks!!

kat

With DVC you'll pay dues on your points - dues will vary depending on what resort you own and how many points you own - but are somewhere between $4 and $5 a point - so a "minimum" 160 point contract would be $650-800 or so.

For the timeshare world, DVC dues are expensive. But they do cover things like EMH, ME, Disney transportation, etc.

 

[cudworth]

This is a great thread for someone considering DVC. Now i have a question . If I purchase dvc do my 160 point buy less time every year even if I go at the same time every year or will I use the same amount of points for the same amount of time for 50 yrs. I hope I worded this right .Sorry for asking a question in a thread.

 

[Dean]

This is a great thread for someone considering DVC. Now i have a question . If I purchase dvc do my 160 point buy less time every year even if I go at the same time every year or will I use the same amount of points for the same amount of time for 50 yrs. I hope I worded this right .Sorry for asking a question in a thread.

The simple answer is 160 points will always buy you the same thing at the current resorts. DVC could do minor adjustments by lowering one thing and raising something else but that's only been done once so far. It will likely happen again at some point. Future resorts could escalate the points and thus price but I don't see DVC using that route as a way to devalue previous buyers points.

 

[tidefan]

For the timeshare world, DVC dues are expensive. But they do cover things like EMH, ME, Disney transportation, etc.

Are they really that much more? We also own at Sunterra's Royal Palm in Sint Maarten and our yearly MFs are about the same as our 200 SSR points. Also, FIL and MIL own at a Marriott in Panama City, and their fees are about the same as well.

One difference that I can note was that we bought the St Maarten timeshare a couple years ago b/c there are now 8 of us (4 units) that own down there at the same week, so it is a yearly family vacation. However, we found that for that timeshare, the resale market offered a very large discount over what you could purchase the same unit from the developer (Sunterra). We paid about 1/4 of what they are currently asking for a week's usage.

Disney has a right of first refusal on their contracts, which is actually one of the things that I liked about the Disney program. If Disney thinks that a resale price is to low, they can buy out the contract at that price. I grant you that DVC is no investment, but at least ROFR keeps the value of DVC ownership up. This means that buying DVC resale, unlike other timeshares, is not much less (and sometimes no less) than buying DVC direct from Disney. The one advantage, though, to the resale market is that you can buy contracts for less than the 160 minimum points that is required to buy direct from Disney.

The value of almost all other timeshares drop like a rock. Disney, while maybe not being an investment, at least gives you value in terms of the product you receive, especially while staying at WDW, HHI, or VB.

 

[Dean]

Are they really that much more? We also own at Sunterra's Royal Palm in Sint Maarten and our yearly MFs are about the same as our 200 SSR points. Also, FIL and MIL own at a Marriott in Panama City, and their fees are about the same as well.

DVC fees are that much higher, usually about 50% than a comparable resort off property in Orlando. Of course you'd need to compare to points for 2 BR for a week to get a good comparison. The last numbers I have for Legend's Edge in PC and for CH and GV in Orlando for Platinum season were for 2005 and just under $700 for a 2 BR. At GV that would be a lockoff so two trades or two weeks possibly. Assuming they're $800 now, still cheaper compared to almost $1500 for 300 points , 300-350 would seem to be the most reasonable comparison. Most of the ones I saw for St. marteen were right at or under $700 for a 2 BR as well.

 

[tidefan]

Most of the ones I saw for St. marteen were right at or under $700 for a 2 BR as well.

Dean, we are at $750/year for a 2-Bdr at Royal Palm. Of course, I find our DVC to be much more valuable than our Royal Palm.

On Orlando resorts, I have no doubt that you are right on the money. We bought DVC b/c if you want to be on Disney, it seemed that DVC was the way to go as it is very hard to get what you want, when you want it trading in through II.

We haven't had the easiest time trading the St Maarten timeshare. We tried for the first time last year and our 2-BR in St Maarten only got us a 1-Bdr in Phoenix last year (Sunterra Villa Mirage -even though IMHO St Maarten property is nicer). Of course, that could just be a RCI thing...

 

[Dean]

Dean, we are at $750/year for a 2-Bdr at Royal Palm. Of course, I find our DVC to be much more valuable than our Royal Palm.

On Orlando resorts, I have no doubt that you are right on the money. We bought DVC b/c if you want to be on Disney, it seemed that DVC was the way to go as it is very hard to get what you want, when you want it trading in through II.

We haven't had the easiest time trading the St Maarten timeshare. We tried for the first time last year and our 2-BR in St Maarten only got us a 1-Bdr in Phoenix last year (Sunterra Villa Mirage -even though IMHO St Maarten property is nicer). Of course, that could just be a RCI thing...

Unfortunately many have seen this problem with both RCI and using St. Marteen. Can't you trade it also with II, if so and you can provide a week between 51-16, you should do much better overall including DVC 1 BR at times. Sorry to say but for the rest of the weeks, they're barely worth their maint fee unless a lockoff so you can get 2 or 3 for 1 trades.

The beauty of DVC and other points systems is the flexibility.
If you stay in the same size unit for 7 days most trips, you really should compared to the numbers I posted. If you take advantage of the flexibility, esp with the S-F stays or 12 days with one weekend for example, the value increases significantly. If one compares to trading the playing field shifts dramatically. My Marriott trader, which cost about a third and has fees about a third, will not only give me more options it will actually trade better head to head than DVC. It's a 2 BR lockoff and I get a bonus week for the 1 BR portion. So each round of trades costs me about $1200 including the maint fee, lockoff fee and exchange fees. This past year I used the bonus week to get a 1 BR at DVC. I used the lockoff portion to get a studio at the Maui Marriott for my daughter for Sept. I still have the BR mostly looking for a 1 BR at Ko Olino on Oahu. It matched Aruba in a 1 BR for Jan 2008 at the Aruba Ocean Club but I cancelled it within 24 hours with no penalty because we had decided to go to HI.

 

[tidefan]

Unfortunately many have seen this problem with both RCI and using St. Marteen. Can't you trade it also with II, if so and you can provide a week between 51-16, you should do much better overall including DVC 1 BR at times. Sorry to say but for the rest of the weeks, they're barely worth their maint fee unless a lockoff so you can get 2 or 3 for 1 trades.

The beauty of DVC and other points systems is the flexibility.
If you stay in the same size unit for 7 days most trips, you really should compared to the numbers I posted. If you take advantage of the flexibility, esp with the S-F stays or 12 days with one weekend for example, the value increases significantly. If one compares to trading the playing field shifts dramatically. My Marriott trader, which cost about a third and has fees about a third, will not only give me more options it will actually trade better head to head than DVC. It's a 2 BR lockoff and I get a bonus week for the 1 BR portion. So each round of trades costs me about $1200 including the maint fee, lockoff fee and exchange fees. This past year I used the bonus week to get a 1 BR at DVC. I used the lockoff portion to get a studio at the Maui Marriott for my daughter for Sept. I still have the BR mostly looking for a 1 BR at Ko Olino on Oahu. It matched Aruba in a 1 BR for Jan 2008 at the Aruba Ocean Club but I cancelled it within 24 hours with no penalty because we had decided to go to HI.

Dean,

We have week 45 on St Maarten, which is OK, because that is when we all go, and quite honestly, we usually use our week there and don't usually trade. As to RCI, I believe that we have II availability, but the contract we purchased was one of the original weekly deeds from the pre-Sunterra days, and I think back at that time, RCI was the only player, so that may be why they keep steering me to RCI. Since I have a fixed week, I have to go through the resort to trade and not Sunterra. I believe that we can go through II, but the exchange fee would be about $100 more, but I am not sure on that. It may be worth it. II seems to have better properties available.

FWIW, They (Sunterra) don't really like all of the fixed week owners at Royal Palm b/c most owners there own weeks rather than the points, so their points members tend to have a tough time getting in there. So, to "punish" their week ownership members, we can't even trade internally to another Sunterra property. We have to go through RCI to do that. Of course, Sunterra will allow you to "purchase" a conversion to points. Compared to Sunterra, I think that the Disneys and Marriotts of the world really have far superior programs. (Of course, I picked up RP on the cheap and we have really enjoyed it, so the resort is great, just don't care for Sunterra...)

Thanks for the info. If I have further questions on that timeshare (which I may), would it be OK to PM you with those? (Don't want to take up DIS board space with that...)

 

[Dean]

Dean,

We have week 45 on St Maarten, which is OK, because that is when we all go, and quite honestly, we usually use our week there and don't usually trade. As to RCI, I believe that we have II availability, but the contract we purchased was one of the original weekly deeds from the pre-Sunterra days, and I think back at that time, RCI was the only player, so that may be why they keep steering me to RCI. Since I have a fixed week, I have to go through the resort to trade and not Sunterra. I believe that we can go through II, but the exchange fee would be about $100 more, but I am not sure on that. It may be worth it. II seems to have better properties available.

FWIW, They (Sunterra) don't really like all of the fixed week owners at Royal Palm b/c most owners there own weeks rather than the points, so their points members tend to have a tough time getting in there. So, to "punish" their week ownership members, we can't even trade internally to another Sunterra property. We have to go through RCI to do that. Of course, Sunterra will allow you to "purchase" a conversion to points. Compared to Sunterra, I think that the Disneys and Marriotts of the world really have far superior programs. (Of course, I picked up RP on the cheap and we have really enjoyed it, so the resort is great, just don't care for Sunterra...)

Thanks for the info. If I have further questions on that timeshare (which I may), would it be OK to PM you with those? (Don't want to take up DIS board space with that...)

Week 45 will not trade all that well. You should have access to II as a fixed week owner. You'd have to pay a yearly fee but the trade fees themselves for II are actually cheaper than RCI and have been for a long time. As for Sunterra, I'm sure they would love to sell you a conversion. But not allowing you to trade as a Sunterra Member directly is not punishing you. You can do that through II or RCI as applicable and could convert to points if you wanted for direct points reservations. You could also get a points account with RCI and possibly deposit your fixed week there for points if you wanted. The rules there are more complicated than appropriate for this discussion and I'm not knowledgeable enough in that area anyway.

 

[3DisneyKids]

Always learning....