Is it worth it for me/Would you do it all over again?

[mydogdrew]

Yes, but crisi, four years from now $100/point is going to be the price people look back at and think it was cheap to buy in then.

I bought less than two years ago at the pre-opening SSR price ($79, IIRC) and already it's gone up over $20....

Oh, and heck yes it is worth it!!!

I disagree. I think $85 is the price for some time (regardless of what DVC would like you to believe). Remember that back when SSR was $79 pre-opening, BCV was had for $70 resale. Those now sell for $95 while SSR resales seem to close for $80 to $85. BCV owners have clearly been the big winners in the value game over the last few years (and I don't own BCV).

 

[lizziepooh]

I love our DVC but honestly don't think I would pay $101 for it. That is also partly due to the fact that we are retired now and don't have the same income as when we originally bought.

 

[rinkwide]

Whenever this subject comes up it always reminds me of my dear Uncle Oscar. He absolutely refuses to pay the "outrageous" price of $2.70 for a gallon of gas - so, he sits at home by himself.

 

[crisi]

I disagree. I think $85 is the price for some time (regardless of what DVC would like you to believe). Remember that back when SSR was $79 pre-opening, BCV was had for $70 resale. Those now sell for $95 while SSR resales seem to close for $80 to $85. BCV owners have clearly been the big winners in the value game over the last few years (and I don't own BCV).

Yep. And I think at $101 a point, you can do better with AP rates, staying offsite, etc. At $101 my (in economic terms) utility isn't there. It may be there for other people (for Disney's sake, I hope it is), but they've exceeded the price I'd be willing to pay - or am willing to recommend others pay.

Plus, I'm fairly convinced gas prices are going to make travel difficult over the next three-five years. So four years from now we may be back in a post September 11th situation - where Disney is practically giving away hotel rooms. And if they have or are close to overbuilding DVC (and at some point, they will overbuild DVC) the prices will start to drop.

Something is reminding me of tulips, and I don't buy into a market when I start smelling tulips.

 

[Carneymom]

Consider how much you usually spend on you WDW accomodations and how often you usually go. We usually go every other year and stayed at moderate resorts. In the past we figured about $150. per night for 7 nights regular season. When we first looked into DVD we figured it would take 10 trips (that's 20 years at every other year) to break even.

When planning our most recent trip we found that moderates in regular season were $175/night. That changed things because at that rate of inflation, the break even point gets shorter and shorter.

We purchased resale and only bought enough points to go in a studio every year or larger villa every other year.

We are planning in the off year to use the points at HHI or VB thereby saving the cost of park tickets and maybe airfare (we can Drive to HHI). And be able to use the points for a relaxing beach vacation as opposed to a run till you drop ammusment park vacation.

 

[tara98]

Am I correct to say that if i buy an additional say 25 points resale at another resort (SSR is my home now), that this new resort will also be "my home", and I would be able to book this resort within the 11 month window?

 

[mydogdrew]

Am I correct to say that if i buy an additional say 25 points resale at another resort (SSR is my home now), that this new resort will also be "my home", and I would be able to book this resort within the 11 month window?

Yes but you can only use the new points at the new resort at 11 months. The original SSR points continue to be restricted to SSR at 11 months. At 7 months they are all the same.

 

[whiles]

It is definitely worth it. That being said, once I was "in the know" the add ons we did were resale. Lower price and access to sold out resorts as a home base.

Think ahead also, of how you might use DVC in the future. We also are a family of three and the 1 bdrm didn't cut it after a while. When DS became a teenager who hogged the bathroom, an older teen who tended to sleep in all morning and then finally wanted to bring a friend - that two bedroom really started to look good. Once we stayed in a 2 bedroom it was really hard to go back. Eventually the room becomes important - not just as a way station to the park and a place to sleep. Not having a teenager plus suitcase, backpack, etc in the livingroom is great.

I could not agree more, especially if your are considering adding on - purchase the minimum you require frrom Disney directly and use reale for add ons.

You may wnat to consider, purchasing extra points to rent out. Most people think it is a better deal to invest the money you would spend and then just rent points back - what they don't understand is we are paying a per point value now across 36 - 45 years depending on what resort you purchase into.

Quick Math Purchase 400 points at 101.00 per and you will pay 1800.00 per year maintenance fee for let's say 45 years! (40,101 for the points +81,000 maintenance fees.) total investment of $121,000 - that is a big chunk for sure! but divide that cost over 45 years and 400 points you get a cost of 6.72 per point over the life time of the timeshare. This means if you rent out half of your points every year for 10 dollars a point (200 X 10 PP X 45 years) you get 90K back of your 121K investment!

In addition to this you get 45 years of taking 200 points worth of vacation when and where you want! plus you receive discounts and special offers for being DVC members.

Lastly, by renting out a portion of your time share points, you get to claim your annual expenses on your taxes as a cost of doing business so your annual maintenance fees, timeshare points trading clubs and trips to resort around the world can be written off on your taxes which help counter act the rental fees ou would accrue whcihc over the life time of the contract could net you easily an extra 25K in savings making the end investment somewhere around 7K?? which can be easliy made up elsewhere and the beuty of it all is that Perpetual renters of points make this all possible.

So I say buy, buy, buy - Rent those points and have someone else pay for your vacations years after year : > ) HEE HEE HEE!

Thanks,
Bill Iles

 

[childsplay]

The price to rent points hasn't risen in the last 10 years.

While I don't necessarily disagree with your advice about renting rather than buying, I'm not sure it's completely acurate to say the rental proice hasn't increased in ten years. Back when started looking at the boards in '98 or '99 I remember the rental price in $6-$8 range...in fact I think that was before they created a special Rent/Trade Forum. Now weather or not it has increased at the correct rate is a completely different question

 

[Sammie]

I wouldn't do it at that price. I'm glad I did buy DVC (four years ago for $63 a point resale), but I wouldn't pay $100 a point for it.

I agree. With maintenance fees and higher point cost, I don't think we would do it again.

If you can get a resonable resale I would suggest that. I will also say the rising number of members, almost 300K now, does concern me. I am just not sure how large it can get and still be manageable.

 

[Dean]

From a dollar standpoint, DVC is a good deal for only one group of people. Those who stay at WDW or other DVC resorts and go neutral or light on weekends and who are willing to pay the price to stay on property anyway. It is a very poor choice to buy with the idea of using points for the exchange options or for long weekends. If DVC fits your situation then consider just buying the number of points you would need for a 1 BR possibly with a small cushion. And do look at resale unless DVC announces a new resort and you just have to have it.

 

[JPC]

Whenever this subject comes up it always reminds me of my dear Uncle Oscar. He absolutely refuses to pay the "outrageous" price of $2.70 for a gallon of gas - so, he sits at home by himself.

I will kick in for a few gallons for Uncle Oscar. Tell him I said, hey.

 

[DrTomorrow]

Whoa, crisi - are you suggesting that DVC points are approaching "mania" status?

Two dissenting comments:

1. People on the DIS are seriously into utility, economics and supply/demand curves - some of the spreadsheets I've seen here would pass muster in a graduate-level Financial Accounting class. However, the vast majority of people (sadly) do not think like this when making purchases large or small; the effect of emotion is paramount to most folks' decision-making processes.

2. Remember the words of the mutual fund commercials: past performance is no guarantee of future results. The last five years ( roughly post 9/11) have been a time of great instability with several uncommon events (9/11, War on Terror, etc) affecting things.

I'm just somewhat suspect of the ability to make long-term (10-20+ years) projections. If anyone in 1986 would have said that in 2006 there would be 300,000 owners of timeshares on Disney property I bet that they would have been locked away in the Happy Hospital.

As always, a stimulating, well-thought-out discussion is being held here on the DIS boards - a tip of the DrT topper to all for their wonderful opinions. I hope we're all still around here in 20 years to see how everything turned out - maybe we can have a DIS meet at VMO (Villas at Mars Outpost)!

IMHO - YMMV

 

[Johnnyfairplay]

I have to say reading through this post everyone has valid points. Would I do it again? Sure I would, but I have the disposable income to work with. As DrT. talked about with his spread sheet stuff, it was an emotional decision for us. I didn't care what the numbers where. I wanted larger rooms on site and I planned on going several times a year. It was like buying a RV for us. This (DVC) is our RV and it will provide vacations for years to come. I have never traded out in 14 years of ownership and still don't plan to. Now would I recomend DVC to everyone, no way. The price is going up and it is a luxury not a necessity. Based on the limited info. you've given, my advice would be to buy a small resale (50 points or less). Try to make those work by staying every other year, going Sun. - Thursday, when the points are cheaper. If that small contract doesn't work for you, rent points, and have them transferred into your account. Good luck with this.


johnny

 

[crisi]

Whoa, crisi - are you suggesting that DVC points are approaching "mania" status?

Two dissenting comments:

1. People on the DIS are seriously into utility, economics and supply/demand curves - some of the spreadsheets I've seen here would pass muster in a graduate-level Financial Accounting class. However, the vast majority of people (sadly) do not think like this when making purchases large or small; the effect of emotion is paramount to most folks' decision-making processes.

2. Remember the words of the mutual fund commercials: past performance is no guarantee of future results. The last five years ( roughly post 9/11) have been a time of great instability with several uncommon events (9/11, War on Terror, etc) affecting things.

I'm just somewhat suspect of the ability to make long-term (10-20+ years) projections. If anyone in 1986 would have said that in 2006 there would be 300,000 owners of timeshares on Disney property I bet that they would have been locked away in the Happy Hospital.

As always, a stimulating, well-thought-out discussion is being held here on the DIS boards - a tip of the DrT topper to all for their wonderful opinions. I hope we're all still around here in 20 years to see how everything turned out - maybe we can have a DIS meet at VMO (Villas at Mars Outpost)!

IMHO - YMMV

1. People react to utility, even if they don't understand supply/demand curves and financial models. That's why economics works on a grand scale. Most people act rationally (in an economic sense - which isn't rationally in any sense I know) even if they've never taken an economics course.

2. And my gut on the future is that the approximately 20 years prior to 9/11 were an abberation. That we will have a lot of global instablity for the next 20 years. There are a lot of forces acting to make life uncomfortable for those of us used to comfort over the next 20 years - globalization, Middle East politics, the price of gasoline, personal financial irresponsibility.

3. I think that there is a population of people who DVC is right for. It isn't right for my coworker who has been to Disney and thinks I'm insane to go there every few years. It isn't right for my friends who LOVE Disney but don't have two dimes to rub together. At some point Disney will have reached the point where they've saturated their target market. I think that is coming. My hope is that they stop building, rather than overbuild.

 

[CarolMN]

.....(snip)....Something is reminding me of tulips, and I don't buy into a market when I start smelling tulips.

Whoa, crisi - are you suggesting that DVC points are approaching "mania" status? (snip).......

I'm bookmarking this thread - as proof that all those history and literature classes I was forced to take in high school and college were worth it, LOL! And even more amazing, I actually remember some of the material!!!

Makes me feel good that I can follow along with the best of you even if we don't always jump to the same conclusion, LOL

Best wishes -

 

[Boas]

i just purchased a small contract of 100 pnts. I plan to go every other year so that size made sense... and I can alawys add more later if needed.

Remember once you are a member you can borrow, rent, trade, etc...

Don't get tricked into thinking you need a lot of points.

Also, remember the resale market... lots of good deals for small points. Be patient wait for the right resort, remember you can always sell it.
If you really want out fast, low ball the price and it will sell to 3rd party or WDW ASAP.

 

[shellbelle1971]

1. People react to utility, even if they don't understand supply/demand curves and financial models. That's why economics works on a grand scale. Most people act rationally (in an economic sense - which isn't rationally in any sense I know) even if they've never taken an economics course.

If this were true, then there would be no way to explain the popularity of the higher "point-priced" resorts. In other words, if people weren't making decisions based on emotion (i.e. "I really LOVE BCV...") then we'd all always try to book OKW based on utility (lowest point cost per night) right?

(Please, no flames! I love all the resorts and am not knocking any of them!)

 

[Luigi's Girl]

Whenever this subject comes up it always reminds me of my dear Uncle Oscar. He absolutely refuses to pay the "outrageous" price of $2.70 for a gallon of gas - so, he sits at home by himself.

I LOVE THIS POST!!!

 

[rinkwide]

...all those history and literature classes I was forced to take in high school and college were worth it, LOL! And even more amazing, I actually remember some of the materials...

Good for you! I just Googled "tulip mania" instead (but I still feel a bit guilty about drinking beer all night and then sleeping through those same boring lectures you're referring to).