Is this a good idea?

[lovethesun12]

You've definitely come to the right place. I'm going to respond to different statements you've made with my thoughts or to correct some misconceptions. It's going to appear a bit critical, but please take it with all good intentions. Also, I may repeat something already in the thread, but I'll try not to.


You mention that depleting your savings is a bad thing, so it sounds like you're reasonable. I think the first step to buying DVC is to recognize whether or not you can purchase without getting into trouble.


Yes and no. At today's resale prices, you are looking at about a 9-11 year break even point vs. simply renting points each year. The initial purchase price is just a fraction of the cost of owning DVC. The annual maintenance fees are what make up the bulk of the cost. To use your example, you are paying $2600 to rent your upcoming reservation. So you think that if you owned you would be saving $2,600. But you wouldn't. You'd still have to pay maintenance fees on those points, which would cost you about $1,000. So really you're only "saving" $1,600 by purchasing over renting. That is the number you should use when you make the comparison between renting and ownership.

This is a bit of an over simplification but it's a good rule of thumb for the purposes of this conversation. So if you're thinking that you're going to save a ton of money by purchasing DVC rather than renting, you're not. That being said, there could be some benefits to ownership, but in your case none that are likely to translate to significant cost savings.


So a few things. While at first it sounds like a good idea to break your purchase into smaller parts, you have to realize that you will likely pay as much as 25% more for your points if you buy a small contract. Plus the odds of finding those contracts all with the same UY will be critical, and the chances of that happening are slim. I think it's a pretty good idea to rule that option out.




You are misunderstanding the term "fully loaded". A fully loaded contract has as many past calendar year's worth of points as possible as well as current and future year's points. What you describe is a contract that only has current and future year's points, and that's not that great of a deal. But to answer your question, depending on the UY of your contract, it is theoretically possible to do what you describe. But not necessarily advisable.





They would all need to be at the same resort in order to do what you want to do. With separate resorts you would have to wait until the 7 month mark to book. While that's possible, you are also going during a high demand time, so you will have challenges getting a standard view room where you want to be.



I know this was covered above, but just to move it all into one place. There are no May or July Use Years. April would work for you but could be problematic in years where Easter is in March. As was said earlier, you want a UY that is at the beginning of your travel dates, not right after. Remember, you don't need to have the points at the time you book. They just need to be available when the stay is occurring. So in that case you would accomplish your goals by buying a FEB or MAR UY. In May of 2018 you will book a vacation for April of 2019, even if you don't currently have any points. On FEB 1 or MAR 1 of 2019 your points will be available for your stay that coming April.





You should really read up on how DVC changes your vacation habits. You may start using your points out of pattern and realize that you want to buy more. That means more trips to Disney and more on airfare, food, park tickets, etc. etc. My guess is that if you go once a year and are happy renting, you might want to consider the possibility that renting points once a year is the best way for your family to visit Disney.

Thank you so much for your response! Really informative. I was aware of the dues but didn't factor them into the thread, and you are right, I should have =)

It is possible DVC isn't for us for sure! I feel like this will be a rest of my life thing now (LOL) but I know that can change!

We were doing annual vacations before Disney but usually Cuba/etc. We are in love with Florida though and keep going back DH didn't care too much for vacations until Disney. He loves the convenience.We also have really young kids (preschool/toddler) so plan to use it for some time. Right now I'm pretty sure it would be more cost effective in the long run but it will take some work to determine for certain.

Either way we won't be buying for a LONG time until we figure this stuff out!

As for how it changes your habits, if I had my way this moment I would be living in Florida 6 months of the year so yes that's definitely a fear! Lol. Luckily we are both big on budgets so if it's not in the cards it's not in the cards.

Thanks for the response! I have learned so many things from this thread alone.

 

[mustinjourney]

stupid question -- but don't teachers get vacation days during the school year? if so, you could save a significant amount of money on lodging by using those vacation days during the off-periods.

 

[Ben E N]

stupid question -- but don't teachers get vacation days during the school year? if so, you could save a significant amount of money on lodging by using those vacation days during the off-periods.

As a teacher, I can tell you that taking a vacation during the school year can be more stressful than not. Tons of sub plans, worrying about what the kids are doing, and the sense of bailing on them.

With that being said, I am looking forward to taking some days in the future for MNSSHP. That would be a one time trip, though.

 

[crisi]

.We also have really young kids (preschool/toddler) so plan to use it for some time. Right now I'm pretty sure it would be more cost effective in the long run but it will take some work to determine for certain.

We bought when my kids were 3 and 4 - so about where you are now. They are now eighteen and nineteen and both started college this year (my daughter is a Senior in high school, but a full time college student who doesn't actually go to high school).

My son was pretty much done with Disney by 12. We managed a trip or two after than, but it was that painful travel with a teen who doesn't want to be there trip. My daughter still likes Disney. But both really enjoy other travel activities as much or more. My son likes beaches. My daughter cities and museums.

But the past five years - since they started high school - have been challenging. They have sports and activities and jobs and other commitments - and those commitments go over Spring Break and the Summer Its been difficult to fit trips in - even just leaving my son home. Many of our trips have not involved Disney - there is a huge world out there to experience.

If you join DVC, it may change the way you vacation at Disney - but kids may change your vacations even more - making Disney not a certainty, and change your vacation plans continually over the years as they mature.

 

[MrInfinity]

Lots of good ideas in here. You're certainly on the right path of figuring out how to use your $7800 in planned vacation expenses to offset the cost of DVC. But I don't like the method of three 50-point contracts. Others have already pointed out the cons -- mainly that it's just not likely to work out. They'll be hard to find and match UY's, you'll face ROFR which will disrupt your process, you'll pay closing costs 3x, and you'll pay a premium cuz they're small, plus another premium since you're looking for loaded contracts. The extra closing might be $500ea, and the premium might be another $500, so you could be looking at $3000 wasted. The efforts of trying to use this year's funds will be wasted on expenses.

Obviously you're trying to do like we do and optimize the timing / spend. To do that, I'd dip into the savings. Not foolishly of course, only you know what's safe for you... but presumably you save for something and if all else looks good then luxury items that you love and will get use out for the rest of your life are a fine thing to spend savings on. Of the 3 options that have been more or less presented, this will cost the least overall.

And then even if you do only buy some now, you're going to dip into savings eventually right? Unless you're saying that between now and 3 years from now you will have accumulated the whole say $15k-$20k it will cost you? If that's the case that your cash flow is good enough to gain $15k/3 yrs then you should be fine to use the savings now, but apply the same discipline and still accumulate the $15k that you'd planned on to replenishes savings.

Maybe go half-way and stretch it to buy 100 pts now. That will fetch a better price and you don't have to search for the loaded 50-pt bargain contract (purple unicorn). In a couple years you can add on 50 direct if you love it, or be good with the 100.

The difference is you get your DVC now which lets you leverage the immediate $2600. Now whether THIS would even work is another question. If you started looking now, when will you close? In time to book Easter and get what you want? Probably not. You could have 60 days of work ahead of you to buy resale, which puts us into Jan before you're booking anything only a few months out.

HTH!

 

[lovethesun12]

stupid question -- but don't teachers get vacation days during the school year? if so, you could save a significant amount of money on lodging by using those vacation days during the off-periods.

I'm not sure how it works in the U.S., but in Canada we already have tons of fixed holidays so I would feel way too guilty taking more time (it would be unpaid as well).

Also I teach physics and my kids have standardized exams.
This may be blasphemy but even Disney isn't worth the stress of making a week of sub plans!

 

[Dean]

Disclaimer: I am totally new to the idea of DVC and have been doing a lot of research before purchasing. Right now I really have no idea what I'm doing so feel free to be very critical =D

DH & I are currently planning to buy DVC resale in 3-4 years time (we do have enough to do it now but it would deplete our savings for what we want and we aren't interested in financing. We could forego our vacation to do it but really that's just ridiculous ).

We currently go once a year during Easter (past two years and are booked this year). We need about 150 points per year for the vacation we want. We also know our holidays in advance and can book 11 months out.

This Easter we are booked and renting points which cost us ~$2600. So for the next three vacations $7800. I'm thinking it would be so much better if this money went against our own DVC.

While we don't want to purchase the full 150 points at our home resort at the moment, we could afford 50 points per year for the next three years (if it happened to be available).

*If* I found a "fully loaded" (I think that's the name?) 50pt contract with 2018, 2019, and 2020 points (so this would be in the new year) could I use all 3 years points to book our resort next year (i.e 2019 Easter vacation)?

Then the following year, look for a similar contract, do the same thing. And again the year after that.

If all three contracts were from the same resort, would they basically combine (if similar use years)? Even if they were at different resorts I would be ok with that. I am good with all things Disney

I'm thinking if I started looking now, I would have to look for a contract with a use year in either April, May, June or July so points would renew as soon as our trip was over and I could book again.

Hopefully this makes sense to some of you Just wondering if anyone thinks this is a good or bad idea and why. I'm thinking finding that type of contract is not completely unrealistic since I've been seeing them come up here and there as I've been watching.

DVC during premier tends to be less of a value than at other times so if it's easter it'll be high no matter what. If you need 150 points, I'd buy that up front. You need to spend a few months investigating anyway and visit the resorts for your easter trip with the idea of evaluating. Even if you have to skip a trip to be able to do the 150 at one time, I'd do that. Regardless I would not buy 50 points in increments, you're additional costs on 150 points will be in the range of an additional $2000 or so that could go toward points. The best UY is going to be March followed by Feb for Easter. April is bad and May/July worse. If you're looking at a studio every year for 7 nights, you'll likely need a small cushion of points anyway.

 

[Ben E N]

DVC during premier tends to be less of a value than at other times so if it's easter it'll be high no matter what. If you need 150 points, I'd buy that up front. You need to spend a few months investigating anyway and visit the resorts for your easter trip with the idea of evaluating. Even if you have to skip a trip to be able to do the 150 at one time, I'd do that. Regardless I would not buy 50 points in increments, you're additional costs on 150 points will be in the range of an additional $2000 or so that could go toward points. The best UY is going to be March followed by Feb for Easter. April is bad and May/July worse. If you're looking at a studio every year for 7 nights, you'll likely need a small cushion of points anyway.

It's also worth noting that flights are much more expensive during spring break. Flying from Chicago, flights are 2x more expensive over the week of spring break than any summer week. If it is what people want to sign up to pay every year, that's completely fine, it's just something that drove me away from considering visiting WDW that time of year or a yearly basis.

 

[kboo]

DVC during premier tends to be less of a value than at other times so if it's easter it'll be high no matter what. If you need 150 points, I'd buy that up front. You need to spend a few months investigating anyway and visit the resorts for your easter trip with the idea of evaluating. Even if you have to skip a trip to be able to do the 150 at one time, I'd do that. Regardless I would not buy 50 points in increments, you're additional costs on 150 points will be in the range of an additional $2000 or so that could go toward points. The best UY is going to be March followed by Feb for Easter. April is bad and May/July worse. If you're looking at a studio every year for 7 nights, you'll likely need a small cushion of points anyway.

It's also worth noting that flights are much more expensive during spring break. Flying from Chicago, flights are 2x more expensive over the week of spring break than any summer week. If it is what people want to sign up to pay every year, that's completely fine, it's just something that drove me away from considering visiting WDW that time of year or a yearly basis.

Agreed. We originally bought thinking we'd go over Easter break (we have a school age kid in a rigorous school, and it's not worth the drama to take her out, plus we think it sends the wrong message about taking school seriously) because that's a time of iffy weather in the northeast - could be hot, could be freezing. But after looking at points and all we will probably end up using our points USUALLY for a late summer vacation instead. Even though it is hella hot (we were just there at the end of August), we've done WDW in the summer and know we can do it. Parks are far less crowded, and the same # points will get us 2 more nights, or a 1BR instead of a studio. Flights are cheaper too.

 

[mort1331]

Being a Canadian owner one big thi g to remember is the dollar. You camt predict where it will be. We bought at par dues at par. Now we have dues 20-30% more. Where if you see the dollar sink without DVC you could skip a year or travel somewheree else.
This is the big expense not to forget.

 

[lovethesun12]

It's also worth noting that flights are much more expensive during spring break. Flying from Chicago, flights are 2x more expensive over the week of spring break than any summer week. If it is what people want to sign up to pay every year, that's completely fine, it's just something that drove me away from considering visiting WDW that time of year or a yearly basis.

I hear you. We paid $1200 PER PERSON this year. Yes that is $4800 for a family of four for just flights! Friends of ours booked 1 week after us for $2900 =( We have a good travel credit card we use for all our expenses (and pay off in full monthly of course) to offset the cost (reduce it by half).

I priced our vacation for July and it was depressing - reduced by half (or double the length . But where I live is so flipping cold I just need that heat in April. We have such a nice July/August leaving at that time just doesn't feel like a vacation.

We really do love our Easter vacations too much to give them up!

 

[lovethesun12]

Being a Canadian owner one big thi g to remember is the dollar. You camt predict where it will be. We bought at par dues at par. Now we have dues 20-30% more. Where if you see the dollar sink without DVC you could skip a year or travel somewheree else.
This is the big expense not to forget.

Thank you. I have considered the dollar when factoring into our budget (and of course we would consider it for determining when to buy) but really hadn't taken into account how it would swing for dues. Definitely have to consider that.

 

[Kim Gillihan]

I feel like I am in the twilight zone reccomending this, but I would finance a 150 point resale contract if I were you. By the time you are done searching for loaded use years with loaded contracts, and then playing their closing fees, you would be better off just paying interest on one contract. The key is having the financial discipline to actually pay it off in 3 years.
This way, you wouldn't have to worry about the improbably small odds of finding three small, loaded contracts with the same UY, all for a reasonable price.

LOL... I agree... I am not usually for financing but in her case if she intends to go all 3 years anyway, it seems crazy to waste all that money when it could be going to her DVC contract..... better deal on more points, not having use year issues, seems best answer for her situation.

 

[cw62803]

First off, I would like to commend you on the diligence you are using in making your decision. Taking input from a variety of sources is wise. Like you, I would not finance a vacation - or a vacation plan like DVC. I don't like debt and would not consider it for a luxury. I also respect your reluctance to empty hard-earned savings for DVC. If I didn't have the equivalent of 6-12 months of expenses in accessible savings, I don't think I could feel comfortable booking a vacation, much less spend the thousands of dollars a DVC contract costs.

With that said, I have to say that I love being a DVC member. We go to Disney one to three times per year, and we enjoy planning and booking the trips. It is definitely a savings over renting or booking deluxe units. It is more expensive than booking value stays, but what you get in return is far superior to staying at a value.

I deliberated and tried to learn before I made my purchase, and if I could do it again, I would do two things the same way I did, and one thing differently. I bought a 160-point resale contract, a 25-point direct add-on, and then a second 160-point resale contract. I would buy a resale contract and a small add-on again. The direct purchase opens the door for a number of benefits, the most significant being access to discounted annual passes - a perk well worth its cost. If I had a do-over, I would buy a resale contract plus a direct add-on. I would not buy two resale contracts, though. Each time you buy a resale contract there are closing costs, plus larger contracts go for less money per point than smaller ones. I would buy all my points (minus the smallest possible add-on) at once.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

the most significant being access to discounted annual passes - a perk well worth its cost.

Just to comment that for OP I don't know that this would be a benefit. DVC Gold AP's are blacked out over Easter which is their planned travel time. So they would have to go up to Platinum. Tickets will almost certainly be a cheaper route to go plus not require the premium price of a direct purchase.

 

[bumbershoot]

I guess I'm just thinking it would be much more cost effective to roll the $2600 per year we currently spend (plan to spend) on a resort into a DVC somehow! But it doesn't seem like that may be possible =D.

At some point it just becomes a math problem.

Thanks. I feel like I am in the twilight zone for even thinking this too.

The problem now would be convincing my husband to finance (who *I* have worked very hard to convince NOT to finance anything; I've created a monster :O ). LOL

Again, it's a math problem. Likelihood of finding those magical small contracts and how much they are in total, vs financing and a solid written PLAN to pay it in x years.

 

[a742246]

Keep in mind that DVC resorts have different expiration dates.

eg. OKW, BWV, BC, FW, has a 2042 exp date.
SSR has a 2054 date, AK 2057, Bay lake 2060 etc...