If you knew then what you know now?

We too would have switched our UY from Sept to maybe April. That is our only complaint. We do only use our pts for Disney. It is not worth using for other vacations. So we actually just purchased a marriott timeshare on the beach in South Carolina just to have a "do nothing but sit in sun" vacation. But we do love, love, love our disney!!!
 
I own a couple other timeshares other than Disney, one being a Marriott. We use our Marriott every year for our summer beach vacations. Our other TS is a good trader with II and we usually find a second choice vacation to use during the summer months. We usually visit Disney in January, so I purchased enough BCV pts to stay in a 2-BR every couple of years with banking and borrowing pts. If I have extra pts I will either bank them, rent them out or do a transfer. We just added on at BLT, this will give us the option of visiting Disney during other seasons where the pts are higher. Still planning on only going every couple of years, my DH couldn't take Disney every year. He doesn't love Disney as much as I do. By purchasing DVC, I know I'll get my trip to Disney every couple of years. Before purchasing DVC we didn't go that often. So I'm excited about visiting every couple of years.
 
If I had known how much the points for 1BR's at HHI would go up instead of purchasing our add-on at AKV, I would have purchased a second add-on at HHI. We like WDW, but we LOVE HHI. But the points increase means we will be staying in Studios rather than 1BR's in the future. I may still buy another add-on to HHI in a few years (I may sell our AKV contract when I do that). I would love to have enough points so we can go twice a year to HHI and stay in a 1BR both times.
 
If I knew then what I knew now, I would have purchased more points at my first home resort (BWV) at a cheaper price per point.
 


I don't know that I would have bought....and I certainly would not buy at today's prices and with today's bargains on travel.

We do prefer the Deluxe rooms to the DVC rooms. I like daily mousekeeping

Knowing what I know now, I think I'd be as happy offsite in a house for cheaper as I am with DVC. And with the bargains Disney is offering right now, I'd think I'd take my chances on bargains.

We really have ended up becoming "Disney people" - and that's really restricted the other travel I'd like to do, but I have these points......

The only thing that makes me not regret our purchase is that we bought in after 9/11 and bought resale - and bought a pretty small number of points - so we got a pretty good price. I do like having my kids sleep in a different room - and I have enjoyed treating family and friends to rooms.

I'm glad we didn't buy earlier. And I'm glad we didn't buy more points. And I like my home resort just fine.

I don't care for the instability (point switching, changes to how reservations work - and for us, moving back Food and Wine two weeks - that has created a huge hassle for us - an event we don't particularly enjoy now makes our resort and the parks crowded during our typical vacation time). I don't like Disney's lack of communication on these things.
Well, the economy changes lots of things for lots of people. Economy aside, would you still stay offsite?
 
I don't have many regrets. :goodvibes I'd like to say that I wish we had bought sooner (to save money) but there was so much going on in our lives that it would have been tough to swing--both financially and just in terms of getting to Florida annually.

My primary regret is buying a 40-pt BWV add-on last year. Not just because of the reallocation but also because it's harder than I would have thought to manage a small contract. We aren't locked into any specific room sizes or seasons. We tend to fly by the seat of our pants. So the 120 points we get every 3 years via banking and borrowing is never a perfect fit.

I do like the comfort of owning those BWV points. But if we had waited a year, right now I'd be heavily debating putting that money toward a larger VGC add-on.

The best advice I can offer a prospective buyer is to be very wary of add-ons under 100 points. They sound good in abstract but can be a pain to manage.
 
We purchased last fall and this thread is comforting to me b/c it is convincing me that we made the right DVC purchase scenario for us. It was very, very hard but we tenaciously resisted buying more points then we will absolutely need. We so do not want our vacations locked into Disney. In fact we consider our Disney trips to be our Disney trips and our vacations are a seperate thing. I am glad we bought a modest amount of points that will come with a more modest amount of dues over the years. During our two fold puchase process we kept reminding ourselves that there ARE other places to stay at WDW and DLR in case we run out of points during a given year, lol! We did buy in when our children were relatively little so that makes us happy, too. And our DVC membership should last us the rest of our lives - or at least the rest of our travelling lives.

This will be our one and only timeshare I think, at least until we retire. We want to continue to be able to see our great big world with our children and a lot of the places we go we prefer not to stay in resort type places.

Exactly. :thumbsup2

We bought just enough points so that we are not "forced" to go to WDW for every vacation. Took a small trip to BWV last year, bigger trip planned this year with inlaws @ VWL then probably won't be back to WDW until 2011 as we have a cruise and a trip to DC already planned for 2010. At this point I would LOVE to go to WDW every year, but I think myself and the kids would tire of it eventually. That's something I definitely don't want to happen... visiting the Happiest Place on Earth shouldn't be a chore to them or myself.
 


tink4ever and Jlitfin,
OT, forgive me. ...but would you mind telling me which Marriott TS you bought for the beach vacation in SC? We're looking for one. And where do you buy Marriott resales ?(sorry for the dumb q)
 
Not purchasing more points at BCV when we first bought. We have 500 points (200 at BCV and 300 at SSR). I wish all of them were at BCV.
 
We purchased DVC because we enjoy vacationing at WDW, plain and simple. Still do, so yes, I would buy today, cost and policy changes notwithstanding.

Advice for prospective purchasers?
Don't confuse the "show" of Disney with the "business" of Disney. Walt and Mickey aren't part of DVC management.

Don't expect DVC to exist as a snapshot of what you buy today for the length of your contract. Changes can and will come.

Consider renting points for a few trips to see if DVC is really a wise decision for you. Take advantage of the Disney Resorts special offers while they last. DVC will still be here later and though it may ultimately cost a few dollars more, it's still nothing more than the price of an average new car. (It's the dues that will add up to some serious money over the years)

Good luck!
 
Well, the economy changes lots of things for lots of people. Economy aside, would you still stay offsite?

Not the poster you asked this of, but the economy had no impact on my decision that if I am not doing DVC I am NOT paying Disney those overinflated rates for thier sub par product LOL!

I am very happy with my DVC. I realized it's a timeshare and you don't get things like "deluxe" service (unless you buy the Ritz or Four Seasons products which make Disney look CHEAP! LOL!) So value for dollar seems good to me. Can't say that about Disney hotels even the value ones!
 
Not the poster you asked this of, but the economy had no impact on my decision that if I am not doing DVC I am NOT paying Disney those overinflated rates for thier sub par product LOL!

I am very happy with my DVC. I realized it's a timeshare and you don't get things like "deluxe" service (unless you buy the Ritz or Four Seasons products which make Disney look CHEAP! LOL!) So value for dollar seems good to me. Can't say that about Disney hotels even the value ones!
I agree also here....there is some cost for "convience", and I feel this is built into the DVC prices. For me, it is worth the cost to be onsite. Funny, I just have no desire to stay at the values, I know POPS gets good reviews. Its deluxe at Disney, or nothing (well maybe the Swolphin!).:wizard:
 
I would not have bought at SSR. As beautiful as the resort and rooms are, I'm originally from Upstate NY so the resort doesn't give me that "I'm on vacation in a warm climate" feel. I miss the palm trees and tropical feel that some of the other resorts have. To me, theming is everything when I'm on vacation and the theme of SSR is just too much like home. I feel like I'm at a local condominium complex instead of on vacation in FL. We didn't think there would be a problem switching resorts at the 7 month window, but we've found it to be quite difficult.

As other Diser's would say "Buy where you want to stay!" (wish I had known that before we bought)
 
As many have pointed out, I wish we would of split our first purchase at OKW into multiple contracts. We have done this at VWL and AKV. :thumbsup2
 
Random thoughts. It's not that we regret buying, but we are getting kind of tired of WDW. Like one year, we went 4 times. How many times can you go on a ride? At first it was nice that they put in a new ride Soarin' and at Animal Kingdom - Expedition Everest, but there hasn't been anything else really new and exciting. No problem. We have been spending our points at Vero Beach and loving the ocean instead of a park. We bought 210 points resale and then added 100 AKV through DVC. We are going in October to see the new Kidani village. I hope it is really nice, because I stayed at Jamba house and was disappointed at the accommodations. Also, we are just now looking at other places to stay and wondering if it might be worthwhile to sell and stay offsite. There is nothing wrong with DVC - don't get me wrong, but I have seen enough off site resorts to know we could probably be better off booking there when we wanted to go. One thing for sure, with DVC we do plan more vacations than we ever had. My daughter married at the Swan and Dolphin, and we were able to book 2 2BR rooms at OKW for the wedding party. And one time, we rented a Grand Villa and had a family reunion. You somehow don't think of the cost when you have points. The guests we bring always, always are impressed!
 
We love DVC!!! However, it is for completely different reasons than I first expected. For instance, no worries about the huge hotel bill and no hotel hijacking my credit card (placing huge holds) for things that we don't even use. Vacations are prepaid for app. 50 yrs. - you may not be saving as much as you expected with the current deals, but what do you think room rates might be in 30 yrs? I expect to save a lot and have already saved a lot.
The reassurance that we will be going back to a really neat place. Staff that go the extra mile to help you so often that people take the service for granted and actually get mad when they don't receive special treatment.

We would have bought more points many years earlier.

Regina
 
We purchased DVC because we enjoy vacationing at WDW, plain and simple. Still do, so yes, I would buy today, cost and policy changes notwithstanding.

Advice for prospective purchasers?
Don't confuse the "show" of Disney with the "business" of Disney. Walt and Mickey aren't part of DVC management.

Don't expect DVC to exist as a snapshot of what you buy today for the length of your contract. Changes can and will come.

Consider renting points for a few trips to see if DVC is really a wise decision for you. Take advantage of the Disney Resorts special offers while they last. DVC will still be here later and though it may ultimately cost a few dollars more, it's still nothing more than the price of an average new car. (It's the dues that will add up to some serious money over the years)

Good luck!


Great feedback! In Dec 2009 I will use 240 points to reserve two, 2 BR units at BCV's. In 2010 this same stay will take 276 points! I wish Walt and Mickey were part of management and not some of the ones currently making decisions!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!









Top