Incentives that save money, please!

[tvwalsh]

The Holy Grail of incentives for DVC members was the "Free WDW park tickets until 2000" promotion that we early buyers (I bought in 1992) got from DVC.

Why was this incentive so special? I think it was because it saved us money instead of costing us additional money to use. In addition, it made our planning easier instead of harder, and it was of use to every single buyer.

Today we see incentives like cruises which cost lots of money to use and can be hard to schedule. We also see RCI trades. At Doorway to Dreams we even saw tickets to the Play, Mary Poppins. To paraphrase Humphrey Bogart, If I had wanted cruises and RCI, I would have bought cruises and RCI."

 

[CarolMN]

Apparently, you are not the target market, LOL.

 

[tvwalsh]

You are absolutely right, CarolMn!

I am afraid, though, that Disney is thinking more about making additional money on the incentives and less about actually selling more DVC points.

 

[mgroshans]

You are absolutely right, CarolMn!

I am afraid, though, that Disney is thinking more about making additional money on the incentives and less about actually selling more DVC points.

I think they are trying to do both (they are in business to make money-don't take that the wrong way, please). If the price per point was at when we bought in last August, we MIGHT have added on yesterday. Honestly, no matter what the incentives were yesterday, we probably wouldn't have added on. We actually don't know if our current # of points (100) will be fine or need more. We are going on our first trip home in October, so we are going to wait until after then to see.

 

[CarolMN]

I think the cruises and World Passport/developer points incentives are working for them. Keep in mind that none of those really cost Disney as much as comparable cash discount off the point price.

Bookings on DCL are down - why not fill the empty cabins on the less popular departure dates with DVC members? Incremental cost of that is small and will increase the cruise revenue. Space on a cruise,like an airplane seat, is highly perishable.

RCI vacations are just another way for the developer to use points it already owns. Those points expire (just like ours do) if not used and CRO/WDWTC has been having trouble renting DVC villas for cash. Note the steep discounts offered at SSR & OKW. So why not offer an exchange? The Developer gets a possible new prospect in the deal (the people who trade in), and again, less cost than a comparable cash discount, especially since the villas are hard to rent right now.

So until/unless sales really tank, I do not believe we will see larger cash discounts. In fact, I am wondering if the incentives will continue to be available for the very small California DVC. If sales go well, there may be no need for them at all.

 

[ACDSNY]

We the cruise incentive worked for me on the VGC as we've been booked on our Nov 15th cruise since last March. This way I only have to pay for 2 of our 3 cabins.

 

[Duckfan-in-Chicago]

We were going on a cruise anyway. It saved us money. If the incentives didn't work, I'm guessing they'd stop using them pretty quick.