Is DVC Club Worth It???

[Wendybird55]

Hello Everyone,

I'll try to make this short, but have a bit to ask. I am a Disney veteran having been to DW about 18 times over the past 20 years. I am not a DVC member - always booking my stays thru Disney at various onsite hotels. I went to a DVC sales pitch one time quite a few yers ago and it wasn't right for me then. I am now married have a son and am using friends points to plan a vacation this year - my first time using a DVC villa. I know I will be saving alot of money "renting" my friends points than if I booked myself. HOWEVER, is DVC a good value???

My concerns:
In addition to the initial fee paid you have annual dues.
Basically you only get the room and minimal housekeeping. You have to pay extra if you want you additional housekeeping (by the way does anyone know how much that costs??)
You still have to pay for park tickets and are subjet to the same meal plans (which have gone down in value).
If you can't get your choice hotel as your "home base" when you buy in you are subjet to the 7 month rule.
I see many people on this board having problems getting the room/accomdations they want when they want.
I know there are other vacation spots besides DW, but it seems you have to go in at alot of points to have more vacation options and sometimes your points can't get you other vacations. I love DW, but I also enjoy traveling to other places.
I'm thinking of making an appt for another sales pitch when I go there, but am not sure if it's worth my time. I guess I'm used to calling Disney reservations (usually am not on hold for much time) and getting what I ask for. Very rarely was what I wanted not available.

Now I have to wait until Feb 5th to make reservations for Aug 31-Sept 5 and am crossing my fingers that one of my choices will be available (since I only have so many points to work with my choices are limited). Again, I'm saving alot of money and am willing to see what happens on Feb. 5. Plus this will be a new Disney experience for me.
But if I decided to become a member do the benefits far outway the negatives?

I would truly appreciate any input anyone may have on why the DVC is a good deal, because everytime I look into it it seems that it's not worth the initial investment.

Thanks so much
Wendy

 

[dianeschlicht]

Whether the benefits out weigh the costs depends on you and your perception of what is important to you in a vacation.

For US, DVC is the best thing we ever did where vacations are concerned. We get a prepaid deluxe 1,2 or 3 bedroom apartment villa vacation 2-3 times a year and are locked into the price we paid 11 years ago. Sure, the maintenance fees go up annually, but the increase is usually minimal, and still far less than what those same accommodations would have cost us through CRO.

There is just no way to compare a 1 or 2 bedroom villa to a regular hotel room, no matter WHICH hotel it is. Having the full kitchen and laundry in your villa is just not something that is routinely available at the regular hotels without spending HUGE amounts of money.

Most will tell you DVC makes sense if you tend to travel to WDW at least once every other year and are used to staying in Deluxe resorts. If your Disney trips usually consist of teh value or even moderate resorts, it might not be for you.

As far as trading out to other places is concerned...DVC works well as long as you are flexible and learn how to use the system. That will be changing this year, since we will soon be able to book our Interval exchanges direct with II. That has not been the case in the past, so I expect exchanging to get a bit easier in the future.

 

[CarolMN]

In general, DVC is a good economic value for those who:

* Visit WDW at least every other year and stay on site in moderate or deluxe accomodations when they do

* Can plan more than 7 months in advance (or don't mind staying where ever there is DVC space available)

* Can avoid staying Friday & Saturday nights (those are more expensive and many members try to minimize staying over a weekend).

* Can avoid financing (opinions vary on this. My personal bias says it is usually not a good idea to finance a luxury that also costs $$ to maintain).

* Can resist the temptation to visit more often or stay longer than their previous pattern. (It is surprising how many members end up going more often, staying in larger units, or inviting friends and family to vacation with them. That's great, but it is not a recipe for "saving" money, LOL).

DVC is essentially a prepaid vacation plan for lodging. As you say, it does not include food, tickets, souvenirs or transportation. You would be committing to many years of regular vacations that can be expensive.

DVC is not economical if you plan to use it for non-DVC resort stays. If you want to do that, it is a better economic deal to buy only enough points to cover your DVC stays. (Pay cash or buy a less expensive timeshare to provide for the trading/other vacations). Some members use the banking and borrowing rules to go every other year or every third year. They vacation elsewhere in the off years.

There are many emotional reasons to buy - those are very personal and will obviously vary by individual.

You do seem to be a candidate since you travel to WDW so often. I think it is worth it for you to take the tour, crunch some numbers and do some serious thinking about your future vacation plans. I hope your September reservation works out - renting someone else's points is a good way to see what it is all about and if it could work for you.

 

[DVC Mike]

Membership in the Disney Vacation Club is not for everyone. DVC can make sense financially -- assuming you would always stay in a deluxe resort. If you always stay in a value resort, then it won't -- but that's not an apples-to-apples comparison. The DVC resorts offer deluxe amenities and room size.

DVC membership might make sense if you meet most or all of these criteria:

• The cost of membership and dues does not appear to present a financial hardship.
• You vacation at Walt Disney World frequently: ideally at least once every two years.
• You plan to continue vacationing at Disney World far enough into the future to make the membership at least break even.
• You prefer to stay in Deluxe or DVC accommodations and/or you stay a long time (10 days or more per year). If you always stay at a Value resort, or always stay off-site, or you really spend the entire day at the parks away from your hotel, and you don't spend time at the resort itself (other than crashing at the end of the day), then DVC may not be for you.
• You are able to plan your vacations well in advance -- ideally 7 to 11 months out. If you aren't a planner, don't even look at becoming a DVC member. If you can't plan and book your vacations 11 months in advance, and staying at a particular DVC resort is important, then don't join DVC. If you really don't care which DVC resort you end up with, then it's not an issue.
• You stay more on weekdays and can limit Friday and Saturday night stays.
• You can do without daily mousekeeping and room service (of course, you can pay extra and get mousekeeping as a DVC member).
• You desire more space than a typical resort room (such as a 2 bedroom villa, with full kitchen, living room, 2 bathrooms and jacuzzi suite, and even a washer/dryer).
• You’re not looking at DVC as an investment or a way to make money (it’s not). It is a decision to prepay, at today's rates, the next several decades of Disney trips.

If the only consideration is whether it makes financial sense, then maybe you should be staying offsite and only eating offsite as well, since that beats staying onsite. Beyond just the financial considerations, DVC membership is emotionally satisfying (you “own a piece of the magic”), and it gives you a reason to take a vacation at WDW.

Buying a DVC membership is a rational, financially viable option for some people: namely people who plan to stay in the higher-end accommodations at Walt Disney World on a regular basis.

Buying into DVC is almost a lifestyle choice. A DVC purchase is a way of committing to an annual Disney vacation with family and friends. For some people, that may outweigh any financial considerations.

 

[dvcdisney]

I am a firm believer that everyone has different circumstances and situations where some things may be good for them while it would not be a advisable for others. DVC is definitely one of them

To begin with, I would like to say that this was a great investment for my family. We love Disney and do not usually vacation anywhere else (other than local sights). We used to go to Disney once a year and now because of DVC we are able to go twice a year. We look forward to it every time and my whole family LOVES Disney. And since we stayed onsite 6-7 years ago, we had decided that we cannot go anywhere else again. We have mentioned this to many friends and they very much agreed. So, it is worth it for us in this respect.

In terms of finance, we had and continue to do our calculations. Each time we do an add on, we look at the effect and we continue to find that it's worth it. Recently we had calculated, based on our situation, that we would save over $90,000 in vacations using DVC points vs booking it in cash over the life of the points (40-50 years). We have taken into account the annual dues and inflation.

In terms of the actual resorts/accomodations. We love the idea of limited housekeeping ---keeping with the idea of "home away from home". We like the idea that it is a bit more spacious than most of the rooms we have stayed in. We love the idea that we can pack light because we have a washer/dryer in the room (we usually stay in the 1 bedrooms). Although we do not do any cooking in the room, we like the kitchen and full size refrigerator to keep milk and water in it. We also appreciate the extra room especially with two young children.

As for booking, I do tend to book at exactly 11 months out. However, if I do change some ressies (which I have done numerous times), there is some options. However, if you do decide to go past the 11 months whether you change your ressie or it is not your home resort or it is impossible to book that early, well, if you are willing to stay at what is available, then there is no problem. I do have a couple of back up resorts which I find has not been that busy and I could most likely count on it (ie SSR). What I do appreciate is the convenience of it all.

I think the discounts etc are all great bonuses, but it was not our deciding factor. But I do appreciate that DVC, in most cases, try to give good benefits to the members.

One other thing I wanted to mention, I do believe that a lot of people are worried about being able to get the ressies they want. However, as I mentioned, if you have a few options, you will most likely get one of your choices. Like many others, there will probably be lower availability and hence you need to book as asap during holidays, school vacations and special events.

Again, I do believe it is up to the individual if DVC would be a good investment for them. When we first joined our guide had mentioned that if we think that we would be able to go to Disney at least once every two years, it would be worth it. I do think that it would be worthwhile going to the tour and ask all your questions. There is never any pressure.

One last thing. My husband and I loved Disney before we became DVC members. Now we are truly Disney fanatics and are quite addicted to it. It is most likely because of DVC.

Good Luck.

 

[chalee94]

I know I will be saving alot of money "renting" my friends points than if I booked myself. HOWEVER, is DVC a good value???

what resort are you hoping to get and what type of accomodations (studio/1BR)?

i think DVC can be a great value, but it depends on how you use it. if you use your points only at DVC resorts and mostly, if not exclusively, for weeknights...it's a great deal - if you want to go other places, pay cash or buy a cheaper timeshare for trading...you can buy a resale contract for fewer than 160 pts if you are only planning to use DVC every other year at wdw...

 

[Esmerelda]

This was my response to a post a month or so ago titled "Why DVC is not for me" (I'm sorry, I forgot the OP's name). I didnt' want to retype so I copied it for you. My response was about overall cost of the DVC vs staying on your own. My family and I are SO happy with DVC we already are wanting to add on!!

I realize you did ask "why is DVC not for you" in your post. I have read everyone's complaints/concerns posted.

Here is why DVC WAS for us (maybe this will shed some other light on it)

We normally go to Disney and stay in a deluxe room for at least 6 days per year. (WL is my favorite resort) We have two sons, teens that enjoy going but we all like our space. Normally, we were staying at the WL for 6 nites so my post reflects these prices for 2008 and DVC points for 2008.

6 nites @WL in a courtyard room for June of 2008 $2,229

if we stayed at the 08 prices @WL for the next 50 years (length of our current SSR contract) we would spend over those years a grand total of
$111,450.- (yikes!)

Our current contract with DVC cost us around $13,200 for 180 points and was purchased in summer of 2004. Our annual dues run @ about $725.00 per year.

this works out too: $13,200 total contract
36,250 total for dues at 08 prices for 50 yrs of dues
total $49,450.-

If we paid cash at SSR for our 1 bedroom each year at 08 prices we would spend a total of $145,150 for the next 50 years. (yikes again)

As I stated, I based my math on the 08 prices but that is as far as I can go at this point. As we all know, the room rates will rise as well as the dues but the dues have only minimally risen (or at least for us)

The other advantages it the tax write off and the fact that its a deeded property we can will it to our boys if anything happens to us. We will have years and years to enjoy it. Plus the options for exchanges are endless. We have plans for Hawaii in 2 years. Also, we have never had ANY trouble staying whereever we want. We plan ahead at 11 months or 7 months and sometimes 2 months.

As you can see DVC DOES work out to be money saving. If you plan to do Disney each year at least once or do what we do. We do Disney E/O year and take a cruise E/O year. We absolutely love it.

It is a lot to think about and only you know your family and your finance and what you want in the future. For us, it was a no brainer for the money we were giving to Disney each stay in the years past. Our contract will be paid off in the next 2 years and then we will pay just our dues. If it comes to paying $2229 for 6 nites in a resort room or $725 for annual dues and having a beautiful condo with tons of space/kitchen/washer/dryer....I'll take the dues anyday.


best of luck to the OP on ALL their future vacations,
Esmerelda

 

[Inkmahm]

In general, DVC is a good economic value for those who:


* Can resist the temptation to visit more often or stay longer than their previous pattern. (It is surprising how many members end up going more often, staying in larger units, or inviting friends and family to vacation with them. That's great, but it is not a recipe for "saving" money, LOL).

That's us, to a "t." We're going 3 times this year and taking relatives 2 of the 3 trips.

Except I say our "downfall" started with that first darn annual pass we purchased so that we could get a room discount and then go more often just in case there were cheap airfares available. Since that first AP we've never gone LESS than twice per year. DVC just made it easier to so longer and take more people than before...

It is NOT a money saver in our household.

 

[dvcdisney]

That's us, to a "t." We're going 3 times this year and taking relatives 2 of the 3 trips.

Except I say our "downfall" started with that first darn annual pass we purchased so that we could get a room discount and then go more often just in case there were cheap airfares available. Since that first AP we've never gone LESS than twice per year. DVC just made it easier to so longer and take more people than before...

It is NOT a money saver in our household.

That is us as well. We have gone once a year before we joined and 3 years into the membership we added more points and increased our vacation to twice a year. And of course the AP just adds to the "situation" .

But we're not complaining.

 

[2Princes2Princesses]

That's us, to a "t." We're going 3 times this year and taking relatives 2 of the 3 trips.

Except I say our "downfall" started with that first darn annual pass we purchased so that we could get a room discount and then go more often just in case there were cheap airfares available. Since that first AP we've never gone LESS than twice per year. DVC just made it easier to so longer and take more people than before...

It is NOT a money saver in our household.

Us too!! We need a 2BR villa often, since we have 4 kids. That makes 6, so mom and sis usually tag along to fill that room for me.

Between DVC, our APs, and SW and their low fares, we spend ALOT of time in WDW.

 

[Wendybird55]

Thanks everyone for your replies so far.
As far as this vacation, my days are 8/31 - 9/5 (Sun-Thurs). My first choice is 2Bedroom (standard don't have pts for preferred) at Boardwalk. If not Boardwalk a 2Bedroom at OKW or maybe Standard at AKL. I would like a 2Bedroom because it's me, my husband, ny son & my sister.

As far as my vacation habits. I usually stay at Deluxe resorts. (I've been to Beach & Yacht Club, Boardwalk, Wilderness Lodge, AK Lodge, Contemporatry, Polynesian). I like the BC, YC & BW because of location - very convenient. I think WL is my favoirte overall. I've also stayed at Dixie Landings, Ports Orleans, Carribean Beach & Coronado. I am usually out of the hotel room - either in the parks or Downtown or playing minature golf or shopping.

As a single adult with friends I know my experience was different from what it will be like with my son. I like the idea of a vacation club villa because I know I will spend more time in the room with my son (he'll be 23 months at the time) and the kitchen and washer and such will come in handy. However, if I can avoid laundry, cooking, washing and such during vacation - I will.

At first Disney was my main vacation, but as time went on it was my "mainstay" vacation and I usually booked another "big" vacation as well. I needed my annual "Disney Fix" and usually went the week after Thanksgiving. However I also went on other big vacations - Italy, Alaska, cruises to Europe & the Caribbean, Canadian Rockies....
Now with a family my vacations will of course change, but I look forward to traveling to different places with them in addition to Disney. If I could, I would love to continue my 2 annual vacations - one to Disney and the other to wherever.

I love to plan trips in advance - I love Disney - my husband enjoys it too and I think my son will like it. So in those respects DVC is good for me. BUT I want to travel to other places besides Disney - I like hotel ammenities and usually don't spend lots of time in a hotel room when I vacation.

Oh well, i guess I'll get another coupon for a free lunch and take the DVC tour again. In the meanwhile I can't wait to make my reservations and hope I can get one of my choices.

Thanks again for all your input.
Wendy

 

[dolphingirl47]

I think it is not only important to look to your vacation history, but also how your needs an expectations change when you make the decision whether or not to join. Looking back on how we used to vacation, DVC most certainly would not be for us. We have always stayed on International Drive, sometimes went years of coming to Orlando without going anywhere near Disney World and hardly spent any time in the hotel. It is also just the two of us travelling and we have no wish to stay in a 1 or 2 Bedroom apartment. So looking at that there seems to be no gain in becoming members. The reason why have always stayed offsite is that we would have to pay at least twice as much to stay at Disney that to stay on International Drive. We tend to travel off peak and usually stay in 4 star properties. For two weeks on International Drive we pay around $1000 per person. The same vacation in a Disney Value Resort would cost us just over $2000 per person. I personally have no wish to spend two weeks in a value resort. For a moderate resort we would look at at $2600 to $3000 per person and for deluxe $4000 to $5000 per person. That is quite a chunk of change! The reason why we often do not go to Disney World is because we do not drive. Getting from International Drive to lets say Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios is quite an undertaking. We did this in November. We got on the Lynx Bus right by our hotel at 7:00 am and arrived at Animal Kingdom at 9:20. We had a great day and it was well worth it, but I would not want to do this regularly. So we often just stuck to Seaworld, Universal and other attractions around International Drive. Because we do not drive and even the International Drive area is pretty spread out, we often leave fairly early in the morning and only return after dinner. Often when I come back from a vacation, I feel like I need another one just to recover.
Last summer we went to a beautiful resort on Tenerife where we had a one bedroom apartment with patio. We went there with my family as it was my dad's 60th birthday. We loved it. We spent most of our time in the resort either on our patio or by the pool. We did learn however, that a 1 bedroom apartment is wasted on us as in the whole week that we were there, we did not use the kitchen or the living room once. We also learned that traveling with other people did not really work for us. So with this in the back of our minds we went back to Orlando in November. Yes, we had a great vacation, but we increasingly get the feeling that the International Drive area is going ever so slightly to seed. There also seems to be a move away from traditional hotels to condo hotels. The hotel that we love to stay at is being turned into a condo hotel as we speak. Again, I am not too happy about paying for extra space and facilities that I neither want nor need.
So when we were invited to do the DVC tour this all made a lot of sense. DVC does give us the option to just have a studio if that is what we desire. This will work perfectly for us. Having a balcony will be a great plus. I get to go to Disney World all I want, but the way how I approach Disney World will be different and much more enjoyable for me. I intend to make full use of both the annual pass and the Extra Magic Hour. This means that I will be at the parks as soon as they will let me in and when it starts to get busy around 11:00 to midday I will be out of there. I then will spent some of the day enjoying what the resort has to offer and then might go back in the afternoon for the last two hours of regular opening and the evening Extra Magic Hours. DH prefers the water parks to the regular parks so he will probably will end up getting an annual pass just for the water parks. This is the kind of vacation that we want in the future and DVC can provide this for us. In the last 10 years, we have been to Orlando 7 times and to Anaheim, California three times. So knowing that they are building a DVC resort right at Disneyland was a big pull. Essentially there is little need for us to vacation outside DVC from now on in. The minimum points that we could buy will pay for two weeks in a studio at Old Key West at the time we like to go on vacation. Time will tell how much vacation we would get at Great Californian with our points, but there is a distinct possibility of an add on there anyway. We were lucky that we became members in November with a December UY so we ended up with the 2006 points as well that we were allowed to bank. What essentially amounted to double points we blew on a 4 night Disney Cruise followed by 8 nights at Old Key West. I know that using points outside the DVC is not economical, but we have wanted to do a Disney Cruise for so long and we had all this points burning a hole in our pocket so we just went for it. The cheapest I could have booked an equivalent package in the UK would have been $6000. So considering what value we get out of the membership in the first year alone, this is pretty amazing. So even though we probably do not come even close to fit the ideal member profile, I think that becoming a member was definitely the right thing for us. And the fact that we do not get daily Mousekeeping is another advantage. I hate knowing that housekeeping is waiting for us to vacate our room. At Old Key West, if we wanted to sleep in until midday every day, we could on most days without feeling in the slightest bit guilty.

dolphingirl47

 

[KevGuy]

Simply put, yea it's worth it.

 

[NewmanFam6]

For us as a family of 6 it is completely worth it! We love Disney and that is where the children have the most fun on vacation anway We just used points for DCL and that was phenomenal. We would not have been able to afford it if we had to pay cash for 6 people. Next year we are taking extended family and DVC makes this possible

 

[eliza61]

Hey Wendy,
It's always hard for me to answer "worth" post simply because at this stage of my life I measure worth as a lot more than $$$. In fact, usually price is down the list. I'll give you my families look at it.

As many have said before, we always stay Deluxe. We've tried almost all the other resorts and we have found the deluxes fit our style best.

We generally stay at least 6 days. lately we've been going yearly for 1 week. I do use my points for the weekends (I purchased enough initially to cover 9 nights during the time we usually travel) and love it.

Even though our family is changing (my sons are approaching college age) we still get great use out of our points. This year I will take a short (long weekend) trip with my high school buds and then celebrate my anniversary with the "gorgeous old guy".

We pretty much have figured that barring an meteorite hitting my house, we'll be going to disney for the next 10 years.

The only regrets we have is that we didn't buy sooner and more points.

 

[kam0202]

Back in 2002 when we heard about DVC during a vist at DTD, we didn't want to deal with the upfront cost of vacation.

6 years and many $$$ later, we wish we would've purchased and saved that money we spent booking Deluxe direct.

We can't wait to come home this April 2008 - VWL - we kept in contact with the DVC sales rep we met 8 years ago and purchased unseen.

It took her 8 years to make the sale with us, but it shows you how patient and non-pushy they are in making sure you make the right decision for you financially (and right timing) and for your vacation lifestyle.

 

[bluenosemickey]

As a new member, I understand your situation.

Just wanted to add a couple of things we also considered:

With the kitchen, we are able to save some money on food, at least the breakfasts. We don't plan to do DDP any more for entire vacation, but with a split ressie, you can do a few days only. This can be done independantly of your park passes if you are a DVC member.

As far as the passes go, we intend to go with 10d delux, with no exp. This will give you 20 days of potential activity, if you are ultra conservative. We don't plan to be that frugal, but with 10d of park visits and 10visits to water parks(you could also do disney quest or other things) it could be spread out over at least 3-4 vacations.

Over a typical one week vacation, we would like to spend 3 days in parks, 2 days in waterparks and leave the first and last days for the resort. Or some combination similar. Maybe in cooler months, we would use more park visits and use the water parks and resort days more during warmer visits. This would give us some savings over spending money on 7d tickets every visit. Which is what we have always done during past vacations. For our family of 5, we can get the 10d passes for $2500- again, this could last through 3-4 vacations.

We visited as many of the properties as we could the last time we were there, and I was just thrilled to imagine myself vacationing in such accommodations. With 3 small kids, we can stay in a 1bdr and later would move to 2bdrs. To pay for 2 rooms in the future would be extremely expensive, the annual dues will look cheap comparitively.

Anyway, as everybody else has said, it's not a way of saving a lot of money. It's just a method of getting quality vacations, with a little planning, and it's so nice to have these trips to look forward to.

Good luck with your decision

 

[s&k'smom]

I'm just beginning to look into membership and I feel so clueless. We go about every other year and usually stay deluxe. My DH works for an airline so we get almost 50% off a night for ex: we got a GF room for 200/night.

I'm guessing how it works in a very broad sense is you buy a certain number of points at a particular site. But can use it at any of the DVC resorts? You book in advance, which I do anyways to make sure I can get the airline discount so that's not a problem.

You pay an annual fee as well as any financing you might need. OK that's all I can think of so far.

Thanks guys for your help.

 

[chalee94]

I'm just beginning to look into membership and I feel so clueless. We go about every other year and usually stay deluxe. My DH works for an airline so we get almost 50% off a night for ex: we got a GF room for 200/night.

umm...i love the DVC options, but if i got 50% off the GF, i'd just stay there instead.

I'm guessing how it works in a very broad sense is you buy a certain number of points at a particular site. But can use it at any of the DVC resorts? You book in advance, which I do anyways to make sure I can get the airline discount so that's not a problem.

you buy at a particular resort and have exclusive booking rights from 11 months out to 7 months out. at 7 months, if there is availability at the other DVC resorts, you can book at one of those.

You pay an annual fee as well as any financing you might need. OK that's all I can think of so far.

yep - that's it.

annual fees are assessed per point owned, and vary based on which resort you own.

 

[s&k'smom]

Wow thanks so much for the quick reply. I'm guessing I will do just as well sticking with the airline discount. Course I'm playing Mega Millions here tonight in Mass so if I win I'm buying the most points possible!!