Joining the DVC?

[CHEK]

Hi I'm new to this, but I'm quite intersted regarding the DVC, we are a family of 4 who absolutely love Disney and have been here 3 times in the last 4 years and will be travelling there again on the 31st May for another fun filled 2weeks along with my parents (not that bad really love them loads), does anyone think this could be for us?, our daughters are still very young 8 & 6 so we anticipate many many more trips I would be grateful for any input you may have. Is this something we need to look at when we're in Disney this year I mean you see their little booths up all over the place advertising it.

 

[gilld]

We bought sight unseen just by telephoning. But if you're not certain, you could do the tour when you're there and either sign at the time, or think about it when you get home.

Although we don't care to go every year, we love to be able to treat family to trips either at WDW, DLP or elsewhere. It works for us on our terms.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[dor1]

Hi-we have just bought into the DVC when we were out there over christmas.My family set up is similar to you (family of 4,young kids)and as we had been 3 times in the last 4 years we thought we'd take a look.We got shown around SSR as this is the resort they are selling and were impressed with the rooms/amenities etc.If you decide to visit the DVC i would allow for about 2 hours of your day to be shown around and to be told about the product,the kids can either stay with you or are supervised in a kids room with playstations and other things to amuse them.To make up for the loss of 2 hours disney gave us magic fastpass tickets which allow to to get on any ride straight away and some disney dollars.
I didnt want to sign on the day of our meeting as i wanted a few days to think about it all,we were not pressurised and a few days later went back and did the business.The main thing for us as a family was the level of comfort that the resorts can give us and also if we didnt fancy Orlando for a few years we can choose elsewhere.Aso i think you can save money if you are referred but others would know more about that than me.
Good luck in your decision!
Dave

 

[mattnkatsmum]

The best advice I can give would to do as much research as you can before hand. Consider how many points you need and whether you are able to make plans 11 months beforehand. If so, the choice of your home resort is important - if not (I can never make plans more than 6 months in advance) then it matters less.

I think, and it's just a personal view, that if you are happy stayng in a value or a moderate resort then DVC isn't necessarily cost effective. I have 150 points and sometimes do DVC point stays and sometimes cash stays. I have resisted buying more points because of the additional cost of annual dues. I've just paid this years dues which I think were £350 or so, but we have a kind exchange rate. I could probably stay in a value for the same price as my dues.

I would suggest you do the tour on your next trip, but in the meanwhile weigh up all the pros and cons. For us, it is definitely worth it, but I did an awful lot of humming and hawing before we made our decision.

 

[CHEK]

Thankyou for all your ideas, I'm really grateful for your input as I know very little. But I'am going to do some research and it's probably something we'll look into in June while we're there.

 

[edenlee]

We were also dubious about buying into DVC. My partner is the kind of person who looks at th epros and cons for ever!!! What finally swung us was this. We compared the cost of DVC (including annual dues) and the cost of buying, siting and paying fees for a static mobile home in Cornwall. The dvc worked out cheaper year for year!!!
We love staying in luxury and save up our points for a long trip every two years. We book flights, cars etc on the internet and get really good prices.
The other year we take a trailer tent to Cornwall!!!!!
Give it a try - we didn't feel ripped off. In fact it turned out quite difficult to buy in the end because they kept checkin gover and over again that we were absolutely certain it was the rigth decision for us!!!
We own at BVC and love it!!!

 

[JohnW]

Have a look at this link for my thoughts from when we joined last October:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1278913

 

[UKDEB]

Regardless of all the other, very good, reasons for joining DVC, the biggest single factor for us was that of inflation-free accommodation for the next 47 years. When you look at the cost of staying at a Disney resort, savings are immediate and it could easily pay for itself in just a few years, but it will be in years to come that it really comes into its own.

Until the 20th January (i.e. this Saturday), you can achieve a $15 per point saving if you're introduced by an existing DVC member. If you're interested, drop me a PM and I'll let you have my details.

 

[jjpenguin]

We love our DVC and the way I looked at it was we can stay in luxury accommodations for the price of moderate now and value down the road as prices go up and up!!

I know if I didn't have DVC I would be constantly looking for the best deal and scrimping to save on accommodation, now it's all paid for and all I have to do is enjoy the great resorts. Nothing beats coffee and donuts on the balcony in the morning andhaving your own whirlpool tub in the evening after a day at the parks

 

[CHEK]

How much are we looking at really?, could anyone tell me?

 

[UKDEB]

Saratoga Springs, the only resort currently available directly from Disney, is $101 per point ($86 if you avail yourself of the discount before Saturday). The minimum number of points you can buy (unless you buy resale) is 150. That's a total of $15150 ($12900 discounted): approximately £8000 (£6800).

Here's the 2007 points chart for SSR.

 

[scottishsue]

So what you are saying is for around £7000, one off fee, you can have a 1 bedroomed house, or studio for basically the next 47 years then?

Not that I'll still be here in 47 years, but it does sound good, even if you only get half of that out of it.

How does the point system work Deb?

 

[CustardTart]

It's now a 160 point minimum buy-in and the price is currently (until June 4th I think) $96 (including $8 incentive) for AKV and $94 (including $10 incentive) for SSR. So the initial cost would be approx £8000. Dues work out at between £350 (SSR) and £390 (AKV) per year. You need to look at the points chart to get an idea of what 160 points will get you. HTH...

 

[brightspark]

Hi there, the dues (annual charges) are so many £s per point, so you pay more £s each year if you have more points.

You can save a lot of money (over time) if you usually would stay in a moderate of deluxe resort. Dh is an accountant and thinks that it will take us about 10 trips before we start saving money, because we varied between moderate and value resorts in the past.

We save a little money by buying in some food (you can pre-order it and have it delivered to your room before you arrive) and eating breakfast and some lunches in our room. This only saves a little - but every little counts in my book.

There are some discounts - 10% off UK disney store, and 10% off some restaurants at WDW but these are a bonus if you have DVC and not enough to swing your decision.

If you have to borrow a lot of money to buy DVC then I would say not to do it.

Definately do the tour when you are out there, and make a decision when you come home and the magic fades a little, so you can make a rational decision.

Oh yeah, you only get your rubbish taken away 1x a week, rather than every day and you don't get your beds made up at all. So if not having any 'house work' is important to you on holiday, then you should bear this in mind too.

Hope this helps