Is the DVC worth investing in?

[maganspikes]

My husband and I are thinking of buying into the DVC and would like to know if it is worth the money. We don't understand how things work and wonder if u can book a stay at Disney World with your points for any resort other than the one u buy into. We need some help. Any help anyone can give us we would be very thankful for.

 

[mprewitt]

The answer is: it depends on how often you plan on visiting WDW and where you prefer to stay.

I would suggest you take the DVC tour the next time you are at WDW.

DVC is worth it if you plan on visiting WDW at least every other year and prefer staying at Deluxe resorts.

I'll let others with more knowledge then me chime in with details!

 

[CarolAnnC]

I never looked at DVC as an investment. I did perceive it to be a way of prepaying vacations that are of a much higher quality than I ever had before.

That being said, I have had countless trips, cruises over the past years and could still turnaround today and sell my points at an incredible profit.

So I highly recommend DVC as a way to vacation at WDW.

 

[Donald is #1]

I agree with the previous posters. I just bought into the DVC last month. Although I checked out the resale prices and the fact that the resale prices were high have given me a good warm fuzzy, I bought in because I believe that for me, it will pay for itself in a few years. I like to stay in the deluxe resorts and if you add up the prices that I paid for WL in October 06 and SSR & AKL in May 07, I would have paid for about 1/3 of my DVC membership.

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

Dear Maganspikes:

You can stay at any of the DVC resorts for very reasonable point prices. This includes OKW, BWV, BCV, VWL, SSR, AKV at WDW and at Hilton Head, SC and Vero Beach, FL.

You can use your points to stay at most WDW hotels, DL-California, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, etc. as well as for the Disney Cruise Line and Adventures by Disney (tours).

You can visit other time shares as well as swanky hotels for points as well. This will cost you points. Some but not all say its better to pay cash when trading out of the system.

Generally, people say that you can pay for your DVC's in 6 to 7 trips if you go to WDW at least every other year, and usually stay in moderate to deluxe accommodations on site.

There are points calculators available on the web that will show you how many points you will need.

The system is very flexible as you can bank and borrow points and use up to 3 years worth of points at one time, and you don't have to go for a full week at a time.

If you are interested in get-aways close to Georgia: Disney's Hilton Head resort is wonderful and a great use of points.

People usually don't trade out very much, but you can easily trade out and go to Orange Beach, Al, Panama City, FL, or Gatlinburg, TN for A WEEK trade, or can go to a resort at Sandestin for more flexible periods. The Sandestin points seem quite reasonable. Keep in mind, you can go to Hawaii or Europe or wherever too, but sometimes its just convenient to go a few hours from home.

I think DVC is worth it for my family. We did not finance it, and love going to WDW, and staying onsite. I consider it more of an investment in my marriage and family than for my finances.

 

[tink4ever]

I have to say that for us DVC has been wonderful. We bought VWL in 2001 and since then we have had many wonderful vacations. Our 3 children are almost grown now and we just purchased our second DVC because we know we plan on vacationing with our kids and their kids and we are now guaranteed to stay in 2 of our favorite resorts. So I say for us it has been fabulous but remember too that as the member's increase it will become harder to book at the 7 month window in the other resorts so it is a good idea to buy where you want to stay. Good luck and happy vacationing!

 

[CarolA]

As others have said... a timeshare (and DVC is just a timeshare) is NOT an investment. DVC holds it's value better then most, but none of us have been blessed with the crystal ball and Disney could quit excersising it's right of first refusal tomorrow on any given resort and the bottom would drop out.....

That said, I am sure there may be a "tutorial" on here, but I know if you go to www.mouseplanet.com and search for DVC they have a great overview.

I consider it an investment in me, but it is not part of my retirement plan for example (except that I get to visit Mickey more then LOL!)

 

[huey578]

We are leaning towards buying into DVC. We did the DVC tour and it seems this will work for us for years to come. We should have bought into this a long long time ago!

 

[Esmerelda]

We joined in 2004 and could not be happier. We have had some great vacations just in the last 3 years or so. The nice part is we have something to leave to our kids when we are gone. (SSR is good for 47 years and we are pushing 50 so....) Its also a deeded property and if you finance thru Disney you can use it as a tax write off because its considered a 2nd home.

We love it and only plan to add more as the years go along. As another poster said you can also sell your points if you are not able to use them so its a win win situation all the way around.

Esmerelda

 

[vandy]

My husband and I are thinking of buying into the DVC and would like to know if it is worth the money. We don't understand how things work and wonder if u can book a stay at Disney World with your points for any resort other than the one u buy into. We need some help. Any help anyone can give us we would be very thankful for.

To answer your question about staying at other resorts other than the one you buy into (your home resort), as stated in previous post - yes, you can stay at any of the DVC resorts. The only difference is that you can make your reservations for your home resort 11 months prior to your trip. If you choose to stay at another DVC resort, you can only make reservations 7 months prior to your trip. Each resort has a different point chart so you may wish to visit the points part of this site, or download Caskbill's DVC planner from Caskbill.com.

 

[Anthony1971]

To make $ it is a bad investment
For memories and a great Disney vacation every year it is a great investment

If you plan on buying it to sell and make money or make your money back I would not consider it it has been the trend that DVC is holding its value and maybe a little more but that is not something that should be taken into considreation as if Dinsney has the first chance to buy your DVC back if you sell it at your asking price if the feel it is to low (ROFR) hence they set the market price if this was stopped we set the market price and that may not be pretty......

 

[VTNuke]

For me, I looked at the money spent per point. If you spend about $10K on a resale for, let's say 120 SSR points that expire in 2054, you get 5,640 total points to use over 47 years. This breaks down into $1.77 per point ($10K/5,640). Then you add maintenance points, $4.12 per point right now for SSR, and you're paying $5.89 per point. This amount per point will go up as the maintenance fees increase, but the % increase for maintenance fees has historically been lower than the % increase for a room at Disney outside of DVC.


When you book your trip, you multiply the number of points you use by $5.89. If you stay five nights at SSR and spend 120 points, you just spent $706.80 for the room. That's a pretty good price for 5 nights at Disney.

You're not going to "make" money with DVC, but you have a chance to save money if you don't waste the points and plan your vacations wisely.

 

[huey578]

To answer your question about staying at other resorts other than the one you buy into (your home resort), as stated in previous post - yes, you can stay at any of the DVC resorts. The only difference is that you can make your reservations for your home resort 11 months prior to your trip. If you choose to stay at another DVC resort, you can only make reservations 7 months prior to your trip. Each resort has a different point chart so you may wish to visit the points part of this site, or download Caskbill's DVC planner from Caskbill.com.

Now if you book your home resort 11months prior are you allowed to switch and rebook another DVC resort at 7 months. I'm thinking you may want to do this to at least ensure you have a room reserved?

 

[luna99]

For me, I looked at the money spent per point. If you spend about $10K on a resale for, let's say 120 SSR points that expire in 2054, you get 5,640 total points to use over 47 years. This breaks down into $1.77 per point ($10K/5,640). Then you add maintenance points, $4.12 per point right now for SSR, and you're paying $5.89 per point. This amount per point will go up as the maintenance fees increase, but the % increase for maintenance fees has historically been lower than the % increase for a room at Disney outside of DVC.


When you book your trip, you multiply the number of points you use by $5.89. If you stay five nights at SSR and spend 120 points, you just spent $706.80 for the room. That's a pretty good price for 5 nights at Disney.

You're not going to "make" money with DVC, but you have a chance to save money if you don't waste the points and plan your vacations wisely.

you make it so clear! and you're right... 706.80 for 5 nights is a steal at disney... it comes out to about 141 dollars a night ... even in the studios that's pretty good. I wonder what a studio would cost if you were just renting it without using DVC points.

heck, hotel prices have gone up so much lately you can't get a decent holiday inn without paying at least 120 bucks a night... in my experience... especially in bigger cities... if you're paying less than 100 dollars a night you're usually in a dumpy room with just the absolute basics. I know, haha, my fiance doesn't like to spend a lot of money on rooms and if it wasn't for me, he'd stay in 70 and 80 dollar a night rooms... but I think I'm rubbing off on him and he's realizing how much nicer it is to stay somewhere a little more upscale.

anyway, great number crunching!

 

[deerh]

IF you like Disney and like to go AND will not get tired of it, DVC is a great "Investment" of vacations. IF you will NOT stay on property much but go to N.C, or Hawaii, or Cruises, etc. It is NOT a good "investment" of vacations...

For us, it was one of the best things we did....

DeerH

 

[jvaleri1]

DH & I just bought into SSR earlier this month. We've done two trips to Disney as couple in 1996 & 2002 and the price more than doubled for our hotel, tickets and meals in that time frame. We are planning a group family vacation in January '08 that would have cost $13k for hotels, meals and park passes for one time stay in the SSR 3BR villa. For a little over $20k we got 200 points per year and can go for years to come. It's an investment in time for ourselves and our families to enjoy together! I think it's more than worth it! Can't wait to go "home"!

 

[flyerron]

You can go to the Disney site & check out the prices for DVC rental units. It will be a great surprise to see how much thay are renting for. You will be very happy you bought your DVC unit(s)