Is there anything you hate about DVC?

Can_Dannn

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jul 18, 2019
Is there anything you hate about DVC?

Regrets, wish lists, if you could sell it and get all of your money back, and I do mean all of your money, would you do it?

Anyone out there wished they hadn’t bought into DVC?
 
We regret that DVC has allowed us to see behind the Disney curtain. This has allowed us to see that Disney is just like all other companies who only want to chase the all mighty buck. Some Cast Members still try to make magic but their hands are tied and they are becoming fewer in numbers. We have sold some contracts and bought CCV for cabin stays. I don't see us buying any more, not with the current pricing and not with the way DVD/DVC management is treating the owners. :sad2:

:earsboy: Bill
 
I agree with above. Will add all the stupid pre-planning and having to use Disney's utterly crappy IT to do the pre-planning....HATE IT!!!!!

Regrets...now regretting buying many smaller contracts as I'd like to sell some but the fees to sell eat heavily into the 25 pointers. Also realizing all the small contracts (and 2 UY) with us modifying and canceling trips a lot (due to not being as enthused to go anymore and due to schedules and elderly parents with illnesses and such) are a pain to manage. Yep, it is nice to downsize as we need to but really having three 25 pointers, two 50 pointers, a 55 pointer and a 70 pointer on top of a 150 pointer....the 25 pointers were dumb to buy. It makes sense, still, to not have just one 450 pointer but it also makes sense NOT to break it up SOOOOO much. If I could wave a magic wand, I'd have 1 UY and my 450 points broken into 2-3 contracts (not 8).

And home resorts....I'd also likely change that up too. We had 200 OKW, 100 AKV, 255 BWV (in 4 contracts), 125 HHI (in 3 contracts) and 70 CCV. Regret buying the CCV. We sold the AKV and OKW and should have kept the AKV and sold the HHI due to annual dues being so freakin high at HHI. Though we do LOVE LOVE LOVE staying at the DVC HHI resort. Love HHI. But we can just book plenty of condos that aren't DVC and get them cheaper than our HHI annual dues.

So based on our contract regrets, I'd prefer to own one UY (we have JUne and Aug but wish it were just 1). And maybe a 150 pointer at BWV (which we do have), 125 at SSR and 100 at AKV (which we did have) for 375 total. Yep, that would do it.
 
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Hate is a strong word, but ...

Our home resorts are BLT, VGF, RIV. Enough points that I'm hesitant to say how many here.

I regret not buying in earlier. (pre-2016) We weren't in a position to, financially, until 2013 or 2014, but even that would have helped.

I regret not buying more points when we finally did buy in. The prices were good, we could have afforded it, but I didn't want to overcommit.

I wish the resale restrictions on RIV weren't what they are.

I wish there were less of a distinction (or no distinction, but of course that's not practical) between blue card/white card.

I do regret a little that we've seen behind the Disney curtain as well.

I regret spending 2 years trying to make a long distance relationship work with my college ex when it clearly wasn't working.
 
Not sure that I can say there is much I am not happy with in terms of my ownership

Things have changed in the 10 years since I first bought in and so I have had to adjust but I enjoy my trips enough to go with flow.

Now that I just retired I plan to visit a lot more and my DVC allows me to do that

I do love that we have more dining discounts than years ago.

I really have no regrets. I have home resorts I am comfortable with and while things like restrictions are disappointing, it hasn’t been enough to stop me from continuing to buy.
 


I really hate the first version of the 2020 point charts and their attempt to profit from the lockoff premium at the expense of members.

I hate that they're likely to do it again.

We bought BWV in 2003 when my first kid was a year old. We added on pre-open BLT and my only regret is not buying more BLT. However, we have not added on to it because I don't want more dues.
 
I'm in the camp that thinks the positives greatly outweigh the negatives. But there are a few things that bug me.

First, DVC I.T. I get Disney as a whole has issues here, but getting the Olaf error at 8am on your 11 month window day is maddening. Also, why can't they figure out how to send every member emails about things they want...like MM events and new attraction/land previews. Most of us here wouldn't have gotten Panora previews if not for Dis members providing the info that DVC should be able to.

Second, I hate how many points the Cabins & Bungalows cost. I get they are probably the most amazing rooms on property sans the Castle Suite. But I'd love to see them at a more attainable level between 2br and GV point costs.

Third, I hate how much tougher it's gotten since we've joined in 2009 to book last minute (6 months and under) trips. We booked several long weekends early in our DVC timeline that we booked 3 months or under. Now that's pretty tough to do.
 
I regret that I didn't buy more points back when they were reasonable, but I didn't want to take on debt. At that time they were only increasing the points costs by $3-$5 at a time.
I dislike the whole blue card/white card thing, and the continuing saga of restriction after restriction. When I first bought, it really did seem magical, and I couldn't believe my good fortune for being able to stay at such great resorts. Every time they add another restriction on resale it gives me a sour taste. (I have a combination of direct/resale but all are grandfathered).
I also dislike that now it's becoming hard to book a standard or boardwalk view studio even at 8 am on the 11 month window. Sometimes I'm travelling solo and I hate spending the BW view points for pool/garden view-last time I did that (for a 2 bedroom) my balcony was completely obstructed by a huge tree.
I'm happy with my points though, I still love my resorts. At today's prices, I won't be buying any more though. I've been priced out! :scared1:

...well maybe a little more.
 
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I regret not buying more points right off the bat. Also regret not buying in on our honeymoon in 2004. We almost took a tour at that time. I'm sure we would have bought if we took the tour.
 
Only regret so far (in our very early months of ownership), is that we did not buy sooner. We just had assumed all these years that it was "just another timeshare" and we had a very dim view of timeshares because we know people who had to pay to get out from under their MF's.
Once we did a little research and realized that DVC was very different and that even with the restrictions, there's still a decent secondary market for both rentals and sales, we finally jumped in.
 
I don't think there is anything and I've read through the previous responses and thought about the question a bit more. DVC has been and continues to be one of the most enjoyable purchases I've ever made and though I have no intentions of holding on to my contracts until the bitter end, I expect I'll continue to enjoy them until my traveling days are over.
 
Nope, to all three questions. Interesting thread but IMO there is something very 1st world problem-like to be complaining about owning a luxury item such a s DVC. As they say, YMMV

1. Is there anything you hate about DVC?

Hate is a strong word. Have my thoughts on how to improve DVC but it’s coming from my specific wants/needs vs overall profitability, woe unto them if they did listen to me. If I truly hated the experience after buying into DVC would’ve divested myself I’m the sort to chalk it up & move on in life in general.

2. Regrets, wish lists, if you could sell it and get all of your money back, and I do mean all of your money, would you do it?

I consider the $ spend on my DVC as entertainment $ already spent. Only thing that gives me pause now & again is when adding up the monthly dues. It gets to a certain point when if you add on enough, it becomes a ‘real’ bill. Will eventually gift a contract to each of my now adult children. Not as though they haven’t been enjoying it already :)

3. Anyone out there wished they hadn’t bought into DVC?

Absolutely not, one of the biggest bonuses of DVC (aside from all the happy family memories that continue to this day there) is that buying into it ‘forced’ my workaholic DH to start to take regular vacations. Now that he drinks the koolaid, he’s often the one looking at flights for a spontaneous weekend there, usually not on DVC points but do-able with our discounted APHs.
 
In my post above, I didn't answer all the questions so here are a couple more answers:

My wish list:
-wish they would lower point costs for 1BR when the, inevitable, raising of point costs for studios happens
-wish they'd lower my HHI weekend point costs and raise the weekdays to balance...the difference there is incredible
-wish we'd get some great ticket/AP offer (I would LOVE the FL resident weekday pass....LOVE IT! Or a return of the non expiring tickets)
-also would be nice for DVC to get 4 FP or some sort of FP early booking, before the 60 day window, since we are loyal big spending customers (I'd really like 4 FP that we can use at 2 parks each day...here is an idea, mouse, sell an odd number -or even number- days DVC AP where we get 4 FP a day bookable at 2 parks....I'd do AM park and PM park eating and buying stuff in both parks every other day and then we'd do DS, eating/drinking/shopping or monorail crawl or pool day and resort hopping while eating and drinking and shopping on the other in between days....maybe the AP should be even numbered days so as to keep us out on Dec 25 and 31 and help with crowds a bit....I'd buy that pass if it came with the 4 FP at 2 parks). Yeah, an even steven AP where we can enter parks on even numbered days and we get 4 FP on those days that can be used at 2 parks.

If I could sell right now and get 100% of my money back, yes, I'd sell some. I'd sell 50-100 of our 450.

Do I wish I had NOT bought in? Nope. Even being a bit down on DVC (waning in our forever waxing and waning feelings on Disney/DVC), I am still glad to own. We just need to take a time out every now and again. But we still love it and our three 20-something kids love it and DH's parents, sister and her kids all love it. And the significant others these 20-somethings hook up with fall in love too (niece-21's BF and nephew-24's GF....as I hope my kids' SO's will someday as well, they just have to get some first- LOL). We are a Disney/DVC family and that won't change. We may gripe sometimes and need that break, but we will always come back. ANd we will ALWAYS have the memories we've made with our DVC.
 
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There's plenty to hate about the way Disney runs things, but I still don't regret buying in 1999. We used them annually in Florida for years, but stopped about 7 years ago. We rent out our points every year now and have traveled to Europe multiple times, Universal Orlando, Hawaii and all over the US using the profits from the rentals. Someone is always willing to rent my points and pay a lot of money to do so. Some day, we will go back to WDW and I will be glad I have the points to stay where I like to stay.
 
Our only regret is that we didn’t buy when we first wanted to. It took us 3 years to pull the trigger.
I love the family trips and memories we have made over the past decade.
 
I don’t understand what you mean by this- can you explain?

They tried to raise the cost of studios and 1 bedrooms by a good amount, despite there being no evidence that 1BRs were in high demand. In exchange, they lowered 2BRs by a bit in order to keep the points "even". Except that at many resorts, especially Boardwalk, many 2 bedrooms are made up of a studio and a 1BR (a lock-off). As long as the studio is booked, the unit can no longer be used as a 2BR, only a studio and a 1BR. As long as people kept booking studios, which is the most popular unit in DVC, then Disney got to double dip in terms of points usage on those lock-off units. This would in turn lead to open units, as owner's points would be all used up, and then Disney could then rent those out for cash profits.
 

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