Is Anybody Disappointed?

[bytheblood]

My only regret is also wishing we had bought in sooner.

So many of you have said this - this is where I already am. I could have already paid for my ownership - makes me sick. I am afraid if I wait too much longer - then I will really be thinking this.

 

[rentayenta]

Are you or do you know anybody who is disappointed with buying into the club? I am still looking everything over, but it seems like once you make your payments, dues, etc, that the price for your visit is not much less than the cost of paying out of pocket for rack rate or with discounts offered to the public.

But once it's paid, other than dues it's paid. We are taking 3 trips this year, in beautiful and spacious accomodations, using our DVC points and honestly, it's a great value.

 

[dmoore22]

DVC has been good to us. We have never had a major negative experience at DVC. If we discover anything amiss we call the front desk and they bend over backwards to make it right. And they do make it right and then some. If they didn't I would be trying to sell my points right now rather than considering an add-on.

 

[Coach81]

We love our DVC!!!

 

[MommyBell08]

Nope, and I'm not even 'in' yet. Seems pretty great to me...but then again if its Disney it doesn't take much to convince me...

 

[toniosmom]

We've been members for 11 Years. 2 Regrets ~ Not Buying Sooner & Not Buying More Points when they were Cheaper!!

Phil

Same here! Never enough points.....

 

[yitbos96bb]

Call WDW reservation center and get a quote on a 1BR at BLT (the non member price per night). I believe what they tell you may change your mind.

Agreed. I remember staying at BCV and seeing the rack rates for the Villas at the Checkin desk (They had a nice card)... The Studios were $495 a night!!!

 

[yitbos96bb]

I'm sure you will ALWAYS find people with regrets... my feeling is usually they regret it because the over extended and can't afford the dues, payments, etc. Or they get upset at a policy change.

Overall, I think most people are satisfied. It makes getting the room you want much easier, there are some nice perks (the AP perk is my favorite, but remember a perk can go away at any time so don't buy based on that... after all, some resorts used to have free valet parking) and you've lock in the price of the rooms. If and when prices for rooms rise, you will save significantly. Plus you don't need to come up with that money for your vacation.

But, in my opinion, if you aren't planning on going to Disneyworld, Disneyland, Hawaii, Vero, or hilton head, trade your points for another week somewhere else or rent your points every 2 years, then DVC may not be the best fit. We go down once a year, so the number of points we have works for us right now. We can always rent them if we won't use them or use them elsewhere. But if we didn't go on vacation and didn't take the time to rent them and just lost them, it would be a waste.

 

[FigNewton]

Having bought it last year I am EXTREMELY disappointed.

I just looked at the 2011 points chart and discovered that the vacation we take every year now is at 96 points or the 6 nights. Leaving us not NEARLY enough to cover the spring trip we were adding by buying into DVC.

I am steaming mad right now.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Having bought it last year I am EXTREMELY disappointed.

I just looked at the 2011 points chart and discovered that the vacation we take every year now is at 96 points or the 6 nights. Leaving us not NEARLY enough to cover the spring trip we were adding by buying into DVC.

I am steaming mad right now.

Evidently you didn't read the information they give you when you buy about the possible reallocation of points at each and every resort.

 

[dmoore22]

Having bought it last year I am EXTREMELY disappointed.

I just looked at the 2011 points chart and discovered that the vacation we take every year now is at 96 points or the 6 nights. Leaving us not NEARLY enough to cover the spring trip we were adding by buying into DVC.

I am steaming mad right now.

The 2010 points reallocation increased the number of points required for our trips. The 2011 points reallocation almost undid the effects of the 2010 reallocation. It's closer to what we were use to the previous 8 years before the 2010 points adjustment. This time we can't complain.

 

[FigNewton]

Evidently you didn't read the information they give you when you buy about the possible reallocation of points at each and every resort.

No I certainly did (thanks for the snark though) and that eased my feelings about the changes from 09 to 10. However when those changes happen back to back years and they compound and you find your 153 PTs needed in 2009 to 181 points in 2011, the reality becomes infuriating.

 

[Deb & Bill]

No I certainly did (thanks for the snark though) and that eased my feelings about the changes from 09 to 10. However when those changes happen back to back years and they compound and you find your 153 PTs needed in 2009 to 181 points in 2011, the reality becomes infuriating.

Your spring trip didn't fall around Easter or Spring Break, did it? Easter moves every year, so those points move every year as well. Easter usually requires a lot more points than the rest of the surrounding weeks.

 

[FigNewton]

Your spring trip didn't fall around Easter or Spring Break, did it? Easter moves every year, so those points move every year as well. Easter usually requires a lot more points than the rest of the surrounding weeks.

No. Middle of may.

 

[dmoore22]

No I certainly did (thanks for the snark though) and that eased my feelings about the changes from 09 to 10. However when those changes happen back to back years and they compound and you find your 153 PTs needed in 2009 to 181 points in 2011, the reality becomes infuriating.

Unfortunately I do not have the wisdom of Solomon. I felt the exact same as you did when the 2010 point allocation came out. If I had not had some extra points banked we would have been staying fewer nights than we had in the past. With the 2011 we are almost back to where we were prior to 2010. In looking at the 2011 charts I played around with numbers during times of year that we do not usually travel. If we traveled at those times we would definitely be upset. Like many folks I'm not sure what the pattern is that DVC is using for the new allocation. Just when I think I see the pattern I find a season that doesn't fit. We have our reservations for next Christmas, a peak period, and our points usage has increased by only 4 points for 12 nights over the same time we stayed last year.

 

[crisi]

I'm sure you will ALWAYS find people with regrets... my feeling is usually they regret it because the over extended and can't afford the dues, payments, etc. Or they get upset at a policy change.

I wouldn't say I'm disappointed, but I'm not necessarily DVCs biggest cheerleader either. And we CAN afford the dues and have been affected by only one policy change personally (the lack of discount on UPHs when they dropped that - which since they restructured the ticket prices, ended up with us paying less for full price tickets than we paid with the discount anyway). So that isn't it.

Things I don't like - I don't like the eleven/seven month booking - I was under the impression that it would be easier to move around than it actually is - and its been made more difficult because there are now more owners looking for the smaller resorts. I don't like (but tolerate) the condition of the rooms and the cheap linens. Not DVC, but Disneys food has gone WAY down hill, from "we look forward to it" to "do we have to eat?" during the time we've been members.

It IS worth it to us - the kids sleep in a different room, we have space to spread out.

Its probably truer to say that I haven't been overall disappointed, but I haven't been overall delighted either. Its been a good, pragmatic, value for us - but we bought in at $63 almost a decade ago.

 

[FigNewton]

Unfortunately I do not have the wisdom of Solomon. I felt the exact same as you did when the 2010 point allocation came out. If I had not had some extra points banked we would have been staying fewer nights than we had in the past. With the 2011 we are almost back to where we were prior to 2010. In looking at the 2011 charts I played around with numbers during times of year that we do not usually travel. If we traveled at those times we would definitely be upset. Like many folks I'm not sure what the pattern is that DVC is using for the new allocation. Just when I think I see the pattern I find a season that doesn't fit. We have our reservations for next Christmas, a peak period, and our points usage has increased by only 4 points for 12 nights over the same time we stayed last year.

And for people who stay both fri and sat these reallocation work out Nkt bad for you. One of our problems is that we rarely stay Fri nights and never stay Sat night. We like to generally arrive on Sunday, and have a day or two at home when we get back before heading back to work the next Monday. Since friday and saturday costs have been spread out to the weekedays two years in a row its made for incredible increases in our point needs. I really feel like they've gone too far in some areas. We seriously considered how
many points we would need and felt like we would have enough, even if it mean once ever 4 to 5 years we might have to skip a trip. As things stand now we're going to be skipping a trip every other year.

Which in a way kind of hurts Disney as well. That trip we are skipping also means they won't be getting any money from us for over priced souvenirs and food for that same time period they otherwise would have.

 

[bytheblood]

So when you do DVC, can you still have the dining plan? We would have to purchase park tickets for each visit as we would only go once a year (unless we did something like December and then November) - so would there be an option to add the dining plan onto park tickets - similar to a package?

 

[dmoore22]

And for people who stay both fri and sat these reallocation work out Nkt bad for you. One of our problems is that we rarely stay Fri nights and never stay Sat night. We like to generally arrive on Sunday, and have a day or two at home when we get back before heading back to work the next Monday. Since friday and saturday costs have been spread out to the weekedays two years in a row its made for incredible increases in our point needs. I really feel like they've gone too far in some areas. We seriously considered how
many points we would need and felt like we would have enough, even if it mean once ever 4 to 5 years we might have to skip a trip. As things stand now we're going to be skipping a trip every other year.

Which in a way kind of hurts Disney as well. That trip we are skipping also means they won't be getting any money from us for over priced souvenirs and food for that same time period they otherwise would have.

We generally stay 12 nights beginning on Sunday and including a Friday/Saturday night. We still lose a few points compared to the pre-2010 points adjustment. For us it would have been much better to have never adjusted the points. If we were not in a position to change the time of year we can travel (like years ago when the kids were in school) we would also be looking at a visit every other year or much shorter visits.

So when you do DVC, can you still have the dining plan? We would have to purchase park tickets for each visit as we would only go once a year (unless we did something like December and then November) - so would there be an option to add the dining plan onto park tickets - similar to a package?

You can purchase the DDP as an add-on but it's not really the same as a package. You can get the details at dvcmember.com for the various plans and pricing. If you do choose to go with AP you can get the AP discount for Tables in Wonderland as an alternative, or in addition to DDP.

 

[Nikisha421]

Two years and 1 month as a member and I have no regrets...I book my trips when I like (as long as its 11 months out or less)...I have never not gotten a reservation that I wanted...If I get to a resort and there is something that skeeves me out...I always call and ask politely to have it changed, fixed, or removed...It is alwasy dont courteously and in gracious timing...

...only regrets not knowledgeable enough to split my contract in half (so I didnt get stuck with a large allotment of points) and not buying 40 more points at the time...