It cost us nearly $4000 to go to DL...

[Queenbillabong]

What do you mean about the AP holder and Magic Mornings? I was under the assumption that you can only use MM if you have the Getaway today tix or are staying onsite? if I am wrong, please correct me!

I was saying that the other people in my party, the ones who do not have APs, can get Magic Mornings with their park hoppers. You can get Magic Mornings from other sites too, just not the two days from GAT (the others are only one MM).

 

[Lynzer Torte]

The whole DVC thing really is over my head. I'm not sure it's even worth considering if we never go to WDW.

 

[janc]

The whole DVC thing really is over my head. I'm not sure it's even worth considering if we never go to WDW.

I'm a little fuzzy on the DVC thing also, would anyone like to give me the DVC for Dummies version of how it works?

 

[dizneekrazee]

Seeing everybody elses financial plans wants me to figure mine out, for a family of 5 as well, so here we go:

$317.40 4 nights at DI&S
$148 for mickeys halloween treat (pd)
$169 1 adult 3day PH (for DH)
$278 2 kid 3day PH
$70 (approx) my 1 day single park
$0 my complimenary 2 single day PHs
$0 youngest DS admission
$200 at most (I hope) for roundtrip gas (SF to Anaheim, I drive a 4-cylinder)
$450 approx. on food once at the resort ( I am a CM, so I get a 15% discount)
$$$$$???? on souvies, I get a 35% on merch being a CM

$1632.40+souvies

WOW!! I did good!! I sure hope I can stick to this!!

 

[Dobie]

Airfare is what gets us, everytime--it is bloody freaking expensive to fly out of Tri Cities.

That being said, this is my rough budget for our August trip--

Air (for three) into John Wayne 1500
6 Day Hoppers (through Getaway) 570 ish
5 nights Sheraton (on points) free!
Souveniers 250
Cab fare to/from airport 90
Food 700
Our last family vacation before
Baby goes to college priceless

Total $3100ish

 

[EnnEss]

I always find john wayne to cost more and have less flights. Its marginally closer, but its marginal to me and not worth the reduced flight selection. Obviously this will differ based on your main carrier at your air port I guess.

 

[sasywtch]

I haven't posted much but wanted to chime in for the budget minded out there. This is a "no one saved so we are going cheap" trip. Fortunately (or unfortunately right now with the bad air) we are in Sacramento so only 400 miles to drive. First time I've ever driven by gas price signs willing them to keep on going down ----->
We are leaving in 2 weeks.
Staying at Park Place (I think, it's the one at the crosswalk) (Three other adult children are going and we are splitting the cost)
My share
Motel 4 nights $100 (free if I quit smoking tomorrow)
(2 ) 3 day passes through the military $304
Gas (sharing w/1 18+ child) $120
Food at Disneyland $ 80 (got $100 in Dis Dollars as gifts)
(we eat burgers,pizza-take cereal from home, get muffins at motel and because I might go back to the motel around 4pm-6pm to swim, I might take sandwich stuff for me just to save a little bit) I also carry a water bottle with me and refill for free. Got the neck hanger for the bottle at WDW a few years ago.
2 Lunch/1 Dinner on drive there/back-$60

Whatever I have left over is for Dole Whips, Chocolate covered strawberries, expensive coffee I normally wouldn't buy, something else chocolate etc....
We aren't big restaraunt eaters, we are big junk eaters so that's where my money usually goes. They don't know it yet but I saved cans of soda from the 4th of July picnic to take and some boxed snack things. I think I'm actually having fun with this. I started making ice and putting it in a bag just to save $2 on a bag of ice for the ice chest. I think I've totally lost it! I think I'm bound and determined to bring money home.

If I added right $664 for 2 people for 4 nights and 3 days in DL

I must admit, if we hadn't been going since these now adult children were babies, I'd being doing the big splurg like I did for WDW. I'm also an "offsite" person at DL even though I've stayed at the DLH. I like the cheaper options on Harbor for both motel and eateries. Harbor between Park Place and Fairfield Inn is about as far as I will go though.

Whichever way anyone decides to go, it will be great!

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Airfare is what gets us, everytime--it is bloody freaking expensive to fly out of Tri Cities.

That being said, this is my rough budget for our August trip--

Air (for three) into John Wayne 1500

Geesh, airfare from HNL is like $700-1000 now per person. It's insane! I miss the days when I could spend less than $1500 total for 3 of us....

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

First of all, $26k wasnt the cost to buy in...it's how much we bought. you will have to check and see what the minimum buy in is now through disney, but you can buy at the timeshare store too and you can find deals to fit your budget, and how much you would use. our dues are 100 a month, but it's based on how many points you buy. if you buy half of what we bought(which was the initial buy in at the time we bought) then the dues would only be 50 a month. so far they have seemed to go up for us about .50 or 1.00 a year.
the great thing is you can stay where ever you want that is on their list. you can stay at PP or DLH, any of the DVC Resorts in WDW. we will be taking a Disney Cruise that is all inclusive and using our points for it. If we paid cash for the cabin we want it would be about $12,000. You can travel to almost anywhere in the country.
Some people also rent out their timeshare for a cheaper price if not traveling that year and it pays for the dues and then some, depending on what they rent them for. you can see the busy dvc rent/trade board for that.

Not yet.... Am meeting with the sales people, and gonna drink some of their special punch, when I go to DL in Oct. I'd like to buy GCV but not sure they will be selling by then. If anything I may end up buying a OKW(2057) resale. I'm just not sure about buying in FL because I'm in Hawaii and even CA is far for us, and I don't know if I can get to FL every couple of years if airfares keep going through the roof!

So when you use your points to stay at a non DVC like GCH you don't have to pay hotel tax either? How many points does it cost to stay at say a standard room at GCH?

a standard room is any where from 23-53 points per night..it depends on what night and what season you go.
you do not pay a hotel tax...no...all you do is call member services and say i would like to book a room at this place on these dates they check availability and if it's available you say book it..and they tell you how many points it will be and that is it...they send you a confirmation in the mail.

Be sure to go at the begining of your trip...they usually give you some free stuff, or really good coupons..

I drank the "punch"!! We just bought DVC last month.. we are going to DL at the end of this month.. we will go to FL maybe every 4years??We will be buying at Disneyland Grand Villas as soon as they sell them! We have 300points. We are staying at GCH and just changed our rooms to the 1bdroom suite for 4nights! We will also be going over christmas time and a few more during the year!! For us it worked. We always stay at GCH and love it there!! Yes its a lot of money, but for us its what we wanted. Plus you can stay at over 550 places...mmm the punch is talking!!! I have more trips planned now than I did before when we only went 1 or 2times a year (we went in march 08 for a week) our last 5 trips could have paid for a good protion of the DVC..

Ok that is all I have to add!!

we bought at animal kingdom..it was 94/point.(there was a discount offered).plus we got 2 premium passes to DL .. we also got an xtra 300 points (developer points) so we have 600 points this year. we really want to buy the grand villas, and they will only be offered to current DVC members first and there is a high demand for them, .. we will buy 100 points there as soon as they go on sale. its a lot of money, but like I said we love disney!!

Question for all of you DVCrs and soon to be DVCrs: Does it matter what your homebase is? I mean, if you live on the West coast would it be better to buy at GVC or AKV in WDW? What are the restrictions as far as being able to book a room at another location? I know it's cheap to buy in OKW, but will it be more of a hassle to book at GVC? Sy, isn't GVC being built at GCH for DVC? So technically it's not a non DVC property?

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

I was quoted slightly over $4000 for 10 days at WDW Beach Club and I turned it down because I thought it was too expensive. It would have included meals and tickets including water park and extras. I'm used to staying at Hojos. The airfare would have been an additional $1300 per person , so I said, uh, no thanks....Beach club would have been worth staying on site for though.... I don't think I could ever bring myself to pay $4k to stay at DL. Not when you can walk across to any of a number of decent hotels/motels across the street.

 

[Amy&Dan]

The most important thing to remember when you buy DVC is to buy where you want to stay! Because at your home resort, you get an 11 month booking window. At other resorts, that booking window goes down to seven months. If you want to go during peak times, you need that extra four months, especially for studios and Grand Villas, the standard views at Boardwalk and I imagine when GCV opens up, those will be hot comodities to book.

Also, resale contracts are going to have less use years. When I bought my SSR contract, it had 50 years. Had I bought resale, I would have saved money but I would have less years before my contract ran out. I do believe OKW has some 50 year contracts going right now, when we stayed there in October they kept leaving us phone messages that we could buy directly from DVC a new OKW contract. That was in October, no such messages left when we stayed there last month, so maybe they sold all of those 50 year contracts for OKW, not sure.

If you have questions, go over to the DVC Board. Those folks are experts, I've owned for three years and it still confuses me! And my husband is asleep so I can't ask him (which is what I normally do when I attempt to answer DVC questions)!

 

[Amy&Dan]

I was quoted slightly over $4000 for 10 days at WDW Beach Club and I turned it down because I thought it was too expensive. It would have included meals and tickets including water park and extras. I'm used to staying at Hojos. The airfare would have been an additional $1300 per person , so I said, uh, no thanks....Beach club would have been worth staying on site for though.... I don't think I could ever bring myself to pay $4k to stay at DL. Not when you can walk across to any of a number of decent hotels/motels across the street.

That was a heck of a deal for Beach Club given that it was a package! I would pay 4K at DL if that included meals, tickets and that amount of parks/waterparks in the pricetag. But at DL, the GCH in particular, that would be about what you would pay for the room alone.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

That was a heck of a deal for Beach Club given that it was a package! I would pay 4K at DL if that included meals, tickets and that amount of parks/waterparks in the pricetag. But at DL, the GCH in particular, that would be about what you would pay for the room alone.

I agree. I really wanted to go, but we're short staffed at my job so I wasn't sure what the situation would be like in late August, and my DH just coudn't grasp the idea of paying that much for a Disney vacation when we pay so little to stay at Hojo. So we decided not to do it. It was a great price, and we would've had free dining and the extras! I'm still about it even now...I wouldn't pay $4k to stay GCH - no way!

 

[Amy&Dan]

I agree. I really wanted to go, but we're short staffed at my job so I wasn't sure what the situation would be like in late August, and my DH just coudn't grasp the idea of paying that much for a Disney vacation when we pay so little to stay at Hojo. So we decided not to do it. It was a great price, and we would've had free dining and the extras! I'm still about it even now...I wouldn't pay $4k to stay GCH - no way!

Oh that is one sad tale of a Disney Dream lost out on! I would never pay that much for GCH either. And I love the GCH but its just outrageously expensive. It is a good deal on points however (as is the DLH) which is the only time I ever stay onsite at DL anymore. I just won't pay those cash/rack rates. And since I am out of points for this upcoming trip, its the Hojo for us! And I am quite happy with that!

 

[OurDogCisco]

We've used our points to stay at BCV & VWL and the Disney Cruise. Also, just recently we used our points to stay at GCH. I consider DVC as a way to prepay for your vacation. I think, at some point after 8 visits or so you break even and you are only paying the MF each year. We joined DVC because it fits our vacation style. We like staying in a one bedroom with a full kitchen. We like having a microwave to heat meals and have a quick breakfast that we can cook like eggs. We'll even make dinner once in awhile in the room. We like having a washer/dryer in the unit (less to pack). We like have 2 tvs in the evening so, we can watch what we want. I think, some people are fine with staying off site etc... But if you have to have that DISNEY theming all the time then DVC might be for you. But it all depends on your spending habits... so, if you are currently spending money to stay in deluxe type accomandations then, I definitely think you are a good fit for DVC.

Here are some pictures of BCV when we stayed there:

Just click the picture to see more:



Here are some of VWL:

 

[lulu2]

and it was worth every penny! I'm trying to convince DH to go again before his AP is up (perhaps October for DS's 14th bday?).

So I decided to calculate all of our receipts from our Feb/Mar trip from this year. Here's the rundown:
-$720-airfare via SWA from PDX-LAX for 4 (baby flew free)
-$112 Disneyland Coach from LAX for 4
-$1963- 6 nights @ DLH upper pool view w/ three 6 day PH passes. (used AP5 code)
-$509 food & snacks (including a visit to Blue Bayou & Carnation Cafe)
-$445 souvenirs
-$130 bfast/snacks/water bottles purchased before trip & packed with us
______
$3879

This is for a family of 5 (see sig) w/ 1 AP holder that received 10% off souvenirs & 15% off food.

I was kind of amazed at the total. Although I'm not sure why- I bought everything I wanted (with the exception of the Mickeydoki bag- dangit! ).

Perhaps this could be helpful to people planning a trip in the near future when planning their budget.

So, we are thinking about going at this same time of the year, how were the crowds? Is this a time of the year when the hours are shorter?
TIA

 

[makthompson]

The whole DVC thing really is over my head. I'm not sure it's even worth considering if we never go to WDW.

that's the thing though, you dont have to go to WDW, they are bringing in GCV

 

[makthompson]

I'm a little fuzzy on the DVC thing also, would anyone like to give me the DVC for Dummies version of how it works?

it's based on points...you buy x amount of points and based on those points you pay x amount of dollars for annual dues.

you pick where you want to go, how long you want to stay, and what room type ie, studio, 1 bed, 2bed or GV and then call member services and request it. they will tell you right there the amount of points it will be and whether or not it is available. i have never not been able to book what i wanted......

any other questions?? just ask

 

[makthompson]

Question for all of you DVCrs and soon to be DVCrs: Does it matter what your homebase is? I mean, if you live on the West coast would it be better to buy at GVC or AKV in WDW? What are the restrictions as far as being able to book a room at another location? I know it's cheap to buy in OKW, but will it be more of a hassle to book at GVC? Sy, isn't GVC being built at GCH for DVC? So technically it's not a non DVC property?

we bought at SSR in feb 04. we have only stayed there once! we have been to Boardwalk, SSR, GCH...really the only difference is booking 11 months ahead of time at your home resort.
SSR we can book 11 months ahead of time. Honestly, we never know that far in advance the exact dates we want to go.
GCH we can book 7 months in advance...this time i called 60 days prior and got the ressie. then added an additional room 45 days ahead of time.
Boardwalk we can book 7 months in advance...depending on when you go you want to call at that 7 month mark..

if you live on west coast and you plan on traveling to DL more that WDW then it would make sense to buy in at GCV..which is part of DVC. if you just book a room at GCH then it's a non DVC property...but the villas are DVC..so cheaper points to stay per night too!

if you prefer traveling to WDW because of having 4 parks in 1..then would make more sense to buy there... however, we love the GC and will stay there again...but when we add on more points in a couple of years we will still buy at SSR (if we can) too keep it all in one place.

 

[RuthieT]

Here is our rough estimate from our trip in December-

3 tickets PDX to SNA- $580
Rental Car 6 days- $130
6 nights at HOJO with Enter. Rate- $380
Park Hoopers- $540
Legoland-$80
Gas-$50
Food-$500
Souveniers-$400

Total-$2,660