Is DVC really a good deal for the consumer?

[Lanshark]

Our family visits WDW yearly but I have never seen too much benefit to the DVC. My knowledge of DVC is VERY imited but with all of the discount codes available do you come out better with DVC financially or is it a matter of convenience. I did get the information and talk to someone about the DVC but again I'm not sure what the draw is over one of the deluxe/moderates when there is a discount code.

My question for debate is this:

Is DVC a good investment for those who visit on a yearly basis? Do the benefits outweigh the costs?

 

[Deb & Bill]

Yes, we bought our first points in 97. That gave us 45 years to use points. Spread our cost out over 45 years, add the dues costs and it's a whole bunch cheaper than a moderate or deluxe. I have no desire to stay in a value. I get a queen or king sized bed. Full kitchen and laundry or mini-kitchen and free laundry privileges. Hotel prices continue to rise. Discounts don't always happen. I get a full bedroom and living/den/kitchen. I don't only have a bedroom. I arrive with clean clothes in my suitcase and leave with clean clothes in my suitcase. I can prepare meals in my kitchen if I choose. I could have purchased 80 points with the money I spent on my first trip. That would get me several days in a studio or one bedroom. Since we only have three in our family, we can use a studio or one bedroom and still have room left over.

 

[Eeyore2U]

Reading some of the whiney posts on the Resorts Board about codes not coming out and no discounts, blah blah blah it only reinforces the fact that DVC is a good buy. I know what I'm paying for the next 35 years. It is also a comfort to have a washer/dryer kitchen. DW and I will be in a 1br in December. either one of us can get up, go to the kitchen/living room area and make coffee and not disturb the other. Can you do that in a Deluxe?

If packages or rack is coming and the deep discounts are going the way of Mr Toad's Wild Ride I'll take my DVC.

 

[ncligs]

Originally posted by Lanshark
Is DVC a good investment for those who visit on a yearly basis? Do the benefits outweigh the costs?

"ABSOLUTELEY"

if you visit on a yearly basis. We joined in early 99 and it is the best puchase we have ever made. To give you an example of an automobile, which cost around $15,000-$30,000, after about 7-10 years, usually you don't even have the car anymore

. Using that figure to purchase DVC points, you will have the luxury of staying on-site,1-2BR's,Grand Villas,etc, for the next 39 years.

After your initial investment is paid off, all you have is the dues. For example 200 pts with dues around $3.50, it would be around $700 year.
The bottom line is the enjoyment,memories that you and your familyand friends will enjoy, will last a lifetime. You can't even put a price on that.

With DVC you have a lot of flexabilty that other timeshares don't have. You can go for 3 days,5 days, 10 days,etc or not go at all 1 year and stay twice as long the next year.

 

[Lanshark]

Sounds like a bunch of happy customers

Is anybody unhappy with their purchase?

 

[ncligs]

Originally posted by Lanshark
Sounds like a bunch of happy customers

Is anybody unhappy with their purchase?

I posted this thread on the DVC board to get more replys.

 

[Zurg]

I ran some numbers on it. DVC comes out looking good. I am very happy with my membership(s) but don't thell my wife she wants more I am running out of reasons not to get more.

See: http://badshoe.com/dvc_analysis.htm

 

[dianeschlicht]

We purchased longer ago ('96 or '97) and have only one regret...THAT WE DIDN'T DO IT SOONER! We were going to WDW yearly and staying in moderates and spending WAY too much per trip. Then we stayed in a Deluxe and decided it was way past time to do DVC. We had looked at it way back when DVC was first offered, but was scared of that dreaded word "TIMESHARE"! We went ahead and made other timeshare visits to other locations and quickly discovered that DVC was NOTHING like other timeshares!

We purchased 230 points at OKW to begin with and were just blown away by the size of the accommodations, the home feeling, and the DISNEY experience all rolled into one. When we originally purchased, we thought we would be using our points to stay at the Grand Floridian occationally, or maybe the Poly. Guess what! We have never stayed anywhere but OKW since we purchased! We added on another 150 points and now feel we have the right number for us. Our kids are grown, and we still love going to Disney every year. We also like taking family and friends with, and since they don't have to spring for a room, they are more than happy to accompany us. We paid for our DVC points in full each time, so there was no finance charges. We figured we broke even about 4 years out. Now we stay for our maintanace fees each year in a 1,2,or 3 bedroom villa for 10-12 days and sometimes go twice in a year. We even did an exchange to Hawaii last year and still had enough points to stay at WDW for 9 nights in a 1 bedroom unit.

Believe me, there is no way ANY regular room at ANY WDW resort is better than a DVC villa with your own Jacuzzi in the room and your own laundry room, not to mention the kitchen and living room and (in the case of OKW) huge deck.

 

[DawnCt]

I don't think any time share purchase is a good deal unless one aquires it by "taking over the annual dues". Even it todays stock market, the return on 20K plus annual dues, taxes, etc should net between $1000 and $1200. We can stay at SoG or get a SoG discount at a deluxe resort and still keep our principle. We are also at the point in our lives where we want to go elsewhere. I don't want to incur an additional trading out fee and "hope" that I can get the right week in Hawaii. From owners direct, a deluxe condo is easily available in Poipu, Princeville or Hanalei for under $150 per night. The Hale Koa, under $110 per night, Kihei, under $100 and Kaanapali a little more than that. I don't need a "home away from home" while at WDW. We are hardly in the room. I don't want to cook. I just want to sleep, shower and change and have the resort amenities to enjoy. I should add however, I have done very well going to time share presentations. I have gotton free luaus for my family, $200 dinners, discounts on tours, etc. When I tell them why I would never buy a time share, it really does end the discussion. The salesmen know the truth and when the potential customer knows the truth, their only interest is getting me to leave early. I have rarely had to stay the required 90 minutes.

 

[Dean]

DVC will be a great value assuming the following.

• You will go to WDW most years
• You will pay to stay on property almost every visit in a moderate or higher.
• You will not do long weekends routinely.
• You are not planning much or any use of the non DVC options available like the Concierge Collection, Disney Collection, DCL, etc.

If you will eat part of the meals in the room, that will add to you savings and for some is the largest savings.

 

[vernon]

It's very much an individual case basis, but IMHO for most cases for someone that visits on an annual basis and prefers to stay in a moderate or better then DVC should prove to be a financial saving in the medium to long term.

At present(or over the last 15 months or so may be more correct) there have been some pretty aggressive discounts to try and get people to come visit and spend there money, it is still possible, depending on usage, to show that DVC makes financial sense, although it does need a little flexibility on the part of the vacationer/purchaser for it to be easily obvious. The bigger questions are do you believe that those discounts will remain as aggressive? and will Disney continue to offer them so far in advance? The recent signs are that the answer appears to be no, and many people who were planning trips for later in the year are getting a touch antsy that their trips may cost them a little more than they were expecting/hoping. Without those deep discounts being available the numbers start to swing heavily in favour of DVC. We've seen, IMHO, a very unusual set of circumstances ( a long recession but 9/11 coming when it did really hit the travel industry hard at a critical time) yet DVC has continued to be a massive seller, retain a healthy resale value and even in extraordinary circumstances still shows an economic value, IMHO that value can only improve as the economy recovers and ( God willing) we're spared any catastrophies on the scale of 9/11.

But DVC isn't only a (good) economic option for many people, it is about convenience, quality and a long term commitment to their future vacations. For many people it isn't just about saving money, it is what you can "buy" for the same amount of money had you gone the "discounts on rack rates" route. I believe many people take the view that by buying into DVC it enables them to get far superior accomodation than they would otherwise have been able to afford. It becomes a matter of taste and personal choice. A hotel room at Port Orleans, for example, is a perfectly adiquate place to stay while visiting WDW and does the basic job (somewhere to sleep) as well as a one bedroom unit at any of the DVC resorts. But I don't think ANY of the basic rooms at any of the WDW hotels hold a candle to any of the one bedroom DVC units from king size bed, jacuzzi, walk in shower, living/dining room and full size kitchen. Now if you put it in terms of what those respective units cost to rent from Disney, I doubt many people that stay in the regular hotels would choose to pay 2,3 or 4 times as much for that extra luxury. But if you were to offer them the choice of a regular hotel room or a one bedroom DVC unit FOR THE SAME cost I would think that the vast majority would take the larger DVC unit.

For some people DVC is about saving money for a similar vacation experience, for others it is about giving themself the opportunity of experiencing luxury and making their vacations just that little bit more special for the same amount of money as they would spend on a "regular" room. For anyone that doesn't think the larger DVC units are a little bit special, I suggest they take the time to do the presentation tour. It isn't a product that works for everyone, but if you take the tour and you're honest with yourself I don't think there are many people that would turn down a one bedroom DVC unit for a hotel room for the same cost.

IMHO, it's going to be a pretty one sided debate.

 

[katerkat]

For me? No. We don't go every year - in fact, I'm having enough trouble convincing DH to go sometime in the next 2-3 years. Plus, we get a large discount on other hotels as military members, especially with SoG and AFVC. Personally, part of the appeal of staying on site would be the variety of hotels - yes, sometimes I like the kitchen and washer, but other times I'd like to stay at the AKL - and that costs more points than normal. (I think.) With SoG, I get a discounted rate at just about any hotel I want on site. (Depending on the time of year.) With AFVC, I get the kitchen and washer for a MUCH lower rate than DVC.

 

[Richyams]

We bought in '92, I broke even a long, long time ago. I now get 10-12 nights in an OKW GV every year for the cost of my dues, around $1500 annually. I am getting a three bedroom Grand Villa for less than $150 per night.

Ya aint gotta hit me in da head with no tire tool......

 

[Richyams]

Oh yeah, I forgot, I could sell my points for about 40% profit!!!!!

 

[sgtdisney]

For us it was a wonderful investment. We purchased in early 1992 shortly after the DVC opened and got free park admission for 8 years. In those 8 years we figure we got close to the initial cost back on our investment.. Now it is just the dues which are a bargain considering the DVC rooms are not cheap to rent. Put it this way... I could rent out my points at $9 or $10 a point to people and get around 3 times more than I pay in dues. Not that we would ever rent, we use our points every year. You can use your points at Hilton Head and Vero and also at the Disneyland and Disneyland Paris (if you were so inclined... ) at no fee to trade out too. But Dean is right, if you don't plan to make annual trips and are willing to wait for codes and use them where they are offered when you do go it may not be for you.. It really is a personal choice and depends on your preferences. However Rich is right, in our case we could sell our DVC membership now for a substantial profit not to mention the free tickets we got. And I challenge anyone to find a 1300 square foot suite, on property for around 100.00 a night.

 

[5infam]

I am a new purchaser into DVC, so I can not speak to my investment dollars as of yet. However, the reason we bought was not for an investment, but because there is 5 of us in our family (3 kids, ages 12, 4 and 1). After recently staying at a "regular hotel room" I realized that it was a terrible sleeping arraingment. As my little ones get bigger, its going to get worse!! My choices for hotel stays would either be to rent suites or villas (which are very expensive) or to get 2 rooms (also expensive).

Not to mention with DVC, I get a full kitchen and washer and dryer. These 2 things are big in my mind. Not just because I will save a lot of money on "eating in" (which also played into our decision to purchase), but mostly because there is no way I would stay in a regular hotel room all cramped up for that many days (our next trp will be 10 nights)!!

JMHO

 

[JimC]

The maintenance fees have gone up at a compound rate of 2.8% per year at OKW since 1991. Moderate resort rates have gone up about 5.5% during the same time, DVC points at about 4.6% and the CPI by about 2.6% per year.

When we were making the decision in 2002, I forecast the cash flows (cost and fees) for studios and one bedrooms and compared that to moderate Disney Club discounted and deluxe Annual Pass discounted rooms. I purposefully skewed the analysis by using 120% of the average increase in maintenance fees and 85% of the average increase in resort rates. We will break even in ten years.

Based on my reading Disney is working to reign in the availability of room only discount codes. There is an excellent article on that topic in the August newsletter for Mousesavers (www.mousesavers.com). That view has been supported by many others and has been my experience recently as well. If that is the case, then comparisons of rack rates or rack rates with minimal discounts might be a better analysis. That only improves the DVC as a prepaid vacation.

Our conclusion, we should have done this 10 years ago, but could not afford it then. It is a great way to vacation at WDW. The resorts are first rate. You stay in larger units, with more amenities than even the deluxe resorts and pay about the same or less than a moderate.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[Silky]

We've been DVC members for 5 years and feel that it has been an outstanding investment for us. DVC is NOT a great vehicle if you're interested primarily in trading; there are cheaper timeshares which afford one access to great condos around the world. However, if one stays on-site at WDW once yearly, the savings are substantial. We have NEVER cooked in our DVC unit but certainly use its Jacuzzi several times/trip .....

 

[fkj2]

I bought in early as well and received the admission perk for several years. Those of us who bought early did so at a dramatically lower price than those buying today. If the economy was stronger, there wouldn't be nearly as many discounts and codes, and if Orlando-Lake Buena Vista area wasn't overbuilt, regular hotel room rates would be even higher. When I paid cash for a couple of nights in the Contemporary in March 2000, the discounted rate, with tax, was around $375. I remember a guest standing near me at the counter, trying to change from Fort Wilderness Campgrounds to the hotel, any hotel; there wasn't one room available on property. It may be a while until that particular situation exists again. Regardless, in retrospect, DVC membership has been a wise decision for me.

 

[manning]

When I paid cash for a couple of nights in the Contemporary in March 2000, the discounted rate, with tax, was around $375

That same room back in 1972 was around $45. Bring that forward 5% per year the rate today should be around $204. Granted there was heavy inflation in the late 70's, but I don't remember the rates taking steep jumps then. I bought late in life and the only regret I have is a sore butt and leg from kicking myself!!