I'm considering buying in help....

[zelda1rn]

Hi,
Just received my info about joining DVC. Wow, this is quite a commitment. Is it worth it? Would I be better off just planning trips on my own? I also don't understand how this all works....can anyone help me.
Thanks

 

[alldiz]

Hi,
Just received my info about joining DVC. Wow, this is quite a commitment. Is it worth it? Would I be better off just planning trips on my own? I also don't understand how this all works....can anyone help me.
Thanks

You have to ask yourself a few questions...

How often do you plan on going to wdw?
What type of accomodations do you usually stay at?
Do you plan your trips last minute....or way in advance?

You still plan your own trips...
Need some more info from you...
Kerri

 

[chalee94]

my standard post with general rules:

A) the DVC works best for people who:

1) go to disney at least every other year
2) prefer to stay on-site at the mods or deluxes
3) can plan their vacations 10 or 11 months in advance
4) intend to use DVC primarily for staying at a DVC resort at disney (rather than trading out for other timeshares or cruises, etc.)

(also: are financially prepared to handle the annual maintenance fees.)

once you decide to buy into the DVC,

B) buy where you want to stay (or at least, where you won't be disappointed to stay.)

if you don't really want to stay at SSR or AKL, rooms may be available at the other resorts at the 7 month window or they may not. BCV, BWV and VWL are popular and relatively smaller - if you want to stay primarily at one of those resorts, don't be afraid to shop for a resale or push disney for a contract at a sold-out resort.

C) once you have your resort narrowed down, look at the point chart to figure how many points you need each year. if it's more than the 160 minimum, you may be better off buying 2 separate contracts. it's generally easier if you eventually decide to sell to get rid of a 160 pt contract and a 60 pt contract than it is to sell a larger, more expensive 220 pt contract. (if it's less than 160, you would need to look for a resale contract.)

D) if you have a choice of use year months, it only really matters if you vacation consistently at the same time each year. the rule is that you can bank 100% of your points up to 6 months after your use year month. (example: if i always go to disney around christmas, it's good to have a november-use year month since that gives me till may of the next year to decide whether to bank the points or use them.)

E) maintenance fees per point per year for reference:

Year OKW BWV VB HH VWL BCV SSR AKV
2007 4.40 4.85 5.63 4.98 4.73 4.63 4.12 4.62

scanning threads on the DVC boards (and searching for old threads on topics you are curious about) is a great way to figure out what you're doing.

and here's an old thread (with some outdated info) that still has some useful information:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=778634&page=1&pp=15

ask more questions if this doesn't make sense. (i thought it was a big commitment, too...so i started very small with a 40 point resale contract...enough for 5 weeknights in a studio at OKW in november/december for the next 35 years but payable in cash at less than $4000 up-front and maint. fees less than $15 a month...and if i like it and need more room later on, i can add-on easily through disney...)

 

[maryliz]

Quick question ... if I decide to jump in a buy a smaller contract, and then decide to buy another resale at a different home resort, how does the 11 vs 7 month booking window work? ie. I own 100 pts at BCV and 80 pts at OKW. I want to make a ressie at BCV that is going to take 150 pts. Can I use the first 100 pts from my BCV account and the remaining 50 from my OKW pts? And because I can't "pay" totally with pts from my BCV pts, can I still book at the 11 month window because it's my home resort, even if I don't have enough pts for the entire ressie, or would I have to do it at the 7 month mark?

Thanks ... I've been looking a lot lately, although we've always been pretty happy at the Values and the Mods (not that we don't enjoy the deluxes, though , and have rented pts a few times). That and we have 2 kids (boy and girl) and there's no way one of DH or myself is going to share a pullout couch with one of the kids in a studio/1BR-- so regular hotel rooms have better sleeping arrangements for my family. So not sure if it's "right" for us yet ... DH just whenever I mention my daily emails from TTS.

chalee94 ... that was AWESOME info you provided. thanks!

 

[chalee94]

Quick question ... if I decide to jump in a buy a smaller contract, and then decide to buy another resale at a different home resort, how does the 11 vs 7 month booking window work? ie. I own 100 pts at BCV and 80 pts at OKW. I want to make a ressie at BCV that is going to take 150 pts. Can I use the first 100 pts from my BCV account and the remaining 50 from my OKW pts? And because I can't "pay" totally with pts from my BCV pts, can I still book at the 11 month window because it's my home resort, even if I don't have enough pts for the entire ressie, or would I have to do it at the 7 month mark?

you can't book 11 months ahead at BCV with OKW points.

but you can borrow 50 BCV points from the next year to make the reservation and bank your OKW points into the next year. (since at this point, you're running out of BCV points for the next year, you'll either need to plan to stay at OKW the next year - you can also borrow 80 OKW points from the third year out...giving you 240 OKW points to use every 3rd year - or else see what's available at the 7 month mark and waitlist your first choice if necessary...)

does that make sense? banking and borrowing points gives you more options with 2 home resorts but it can be more of a hassle to keep up with...

That and we have 2 kids (boy and girl) and there's no way one of DH or myself is going to share a pullout couch with one of the kids in a studio/1BR-- so regular hotel rooms have better sleeping arrangements for my family.

in case you weren't aware, OKW studios do have 2 queen size beds. (DVC doesn't have any cots, etc. for when the kids are older though...)

 

[RobDoc]

Quick question ... if I decide to jump in a buy a smaller contract, and then decide to buy another resale at a different home resort, how does the 11 vs 7 month booking window work? ie. I own 100 pts at BCV and 80 pts at OKW. I want to make a ressie at BCV that is going to take 150 pts. Can I use the first 100 pts from my BCV account and the remaining 50 from my OKW pts? And because I can't "pay" totally with pts from my BCV pts, can I still book at the 11 month window because it's my home resort, even if I don't have enough pts for the entire ressie, or would I have to do it at the 7 month mark?

...

At 11 months, only points from that resort may be used for reservations. At 7 months any points may be used.

In the example you used, you could only Use your BCV points at 11 months, but you could borrow from the next Use Year to have enough. You could also reserve what you have enough points for at 11 months and then try to reserve the remaining days at 7 months using the OKW points.

 

[maryliz]

Thanks ... forgot about the banking/borrowing, as I guess I was just trying to use my years allotments up front, to keep things simpler. So at the 7month window, I can use 2 different contracts to "pay" for one ressie? Or would I have to have 2 separate ressies, one for each set of points?

We stayed at OKW in 2005 ... LOVED our studio there. But I don't always want to stay there just to have the 2 beds. Although the more I think about it, the thought of bringing a single airbed with me everytime doesn't bother me as much as it used to ... hence the reason why my DH is a little that I'm going to put an offer in on something!

Thanks again!

 

[vandy]

I agree with all but one comment in CHALEE94's response. The comment on only buying if you can plan vacations 10 to 11 months out is not entirely true. It is true at certain times of the year and definitely at the smaller DVC's such as BCV and BWV, but the 7-month window is usually not a problem at SSR or even OKW. With that though, CHALEE94's other comment on buying where you want to stay is especially true. If you do not care to stay at SSR or OKW and you can only plan 7 months in advance, then this narrows down the times you can stay at the other resorts at 7-months.

 

[chalee94]

i still think DVC "works best" if you can plan 10-11 months in advance, but things can certainly work out for those who wait till 6-7 months in advance to make reservations, as long as they are not too picky...

 

[chalee94]

So at the 7month window, I can use 2 different contracts to "pay" for one ressie? Or would I have to have 2 separate ressies, one for each set of points?

i'd assume you'd need to link 2 separate reservations together, but i'm curious about this myself...

 

[RobDoc]

Thanks ... forgot about the banking/borrowing, as I guess I was just trying to use my years allotments up front, to keep things simpler. So at the 7month window, I can use 2 different contracts to "pay" for one ressie? Or would I have to have 2 separate ressies, one for each set of points?

If the points owned are from a master contract and an add-on, then they may be combined completely at 7 months to reserve at any resort. All of the points will come from the same contract.

If the points are from totally separate contracts, points could be used to reserve individual days for the reservation and then MS would link the all of the days together into one reservation where you would not need to move.
You could also transfer points from one contract into the other and then make the reservation using the combined points, but reserving the individual days is a much simpler way to handle the transaction.

 

[maryliz]

Thanks for the very valuable info. I was thinking I could get DH to agree to a small contract, and not tell him about that "addonitis" that seems to plague DVC owners.

 

[Jon99]

We are planning on buying into AKV by the end of the year or sooner. My wife is a teacher and I own a landscape company, so Christmas and Spring Break are the only times we can play a week trip 7 or 11 months out, which is what we currently take. How about if we decide to take an extended weekend trip of 4 nights during the school year or in the summer, can we get something 2 months out??? Or even a month out??

 

[RobDoc]

We are planning on buying into AKV by the end of the year or sooner. My wife is a teacher and I own a landscape company, so Christmas and Spring Break are the only times we can play a week trip 7 or 11 months out, which is what we currently take. How about if we decide to take an extended weekend trip of 4 nights during the school year or in the summer, can we get something 2 months out??? Or even a month out??

If you can be flexible with your dates, resort and villa-type you may find availability within 60 days. One complicating factor though is that 60 days ahead, any DVC villas not reserved using points are made available to CRO for cash reservations to the public - so you are also competing with cash reservations for any remaining inventory. The membership does benefit from those cash reservations as the income is used to offset our dues.