just joined DVC!! How many points to start?

[davper]

You could stay in that room for less than 300 per night without being a DVC member.

I'm curious about this point. I have never seen rooms (even regular hotel rooms) go for less than 450 or 500 in the last 5 years.

You can rent the necessary points for as little as $12 but more realistically $14.

20 points * $14 = $280 for one night

 

[Deb & Bill]

Yes we would likely stay at a monorail resort every time....poly, cr or gf. I think our main concern would be availability of rooms there through DVC but we often go at non peak times and can book far out.

Thanks and please let me know if u have any other advice or input!!

DVC peak times and WDW peak times are not the same. What do you consider peak times? You will probably never get to book GFV studios at seven months out. It's a really small resort and usually books up before that time. You might get a single night or two, but that might be all you get. Seven months will be as far out as you can book a non-home resort.

And if you want a bigger villa (there is just so much more to DVC that a studio; that's just a glorified hotel room), you won't get that at the Polynesian. You might be able to book a BLT one bedroom, but it will probably be a lake view at seven months out.

 

[Deb & Bill]

...
As for the question about room cost per night a Poly studio standard view is 18 points weekday, 20 points weekend in October. Poly has $6 per point dues. So a standard studio on a weekend would be $6 X 20 = $120. So it would be even less than the 170 he quoted you.

If you would go to Poly every trip and pay $600 for a standard room you should see significant savings with DVC even with buying direct. Personally I think you made a good decision if Poly is what you want. If you just want to be on-site as cheaply as possible then choose SSR resale. But if you want Poly or Grand Floridian I think buying Direct makes sense.
...

That $120 a night doesn't include the original purchase. So she is not getting it for $120 a night. And if it was financed through Disney it will be more than paying out right for it, especially if you financed it for a long time (like ten years). A better comparison would be to compare your price (dues plus cost of original points) to what was paid by renting points, not Disney rack rate.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Can u elaborate a little more? How are we paying thousands more and not getting match points? We know about only staying in dvc resorts.

We just paid about a third of the buy in price for the trip we just took so it seemed like a no brainier to us.

Thanks

Ca

When you say match points, you were not given extra points. My guess is you were sold a December UY. Currently we are in the Dec 2014 UY and Dec 2015 starts on Dec 1, 2015. So you only got what was due to you since you are currently in the Dec 2014 UY. They probably allowed you to bank the 2014 points into your 2015 UY, so it appears that they gave you matching points. Disney doesn't give you anything for free. It's best to learn that now.

I would also suggest you rescind your purchase now, learn more about DVC and then make a more educated purchase. You might wind up repurchasing the same points, but you will at least give yourself a little more time to think about it. You should have ten days to rescind the purchase.

 

[ustasmom]

She said that she paid in full upfront.

Even though most here buy resale, it isn't to say that some would simply prefer the whole package. Even today when DVC called me and I said that we went resale, he gave me a couple of reasons that might be valid points for some, not me, but some.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Hi, thanks for your reply

Yes, I would say we are now at least familiar with everything u mentioned above from our session and since researching. Our rep went over the 11/7, point usage, banking, maintenance fees, etc

Buying Resale sounded like a lot of trouble so we didn't look into that too much

I guess what sold us was the bottom line price for the room we just had.... We paid 600 a night (stayed in a studio villa) and had we been DVC it would have been 170 a night (unless he lied to us). I know annual dues would need to figure into that comparison.

It seemed to me as I looked around on this board most people were pretty happy being DVC members. Is that not the case in general do u think?

Not sure if we would use points or not on the cruise, maybe for adults but not for the kids.

Again I appreciate your input!!

Using points for cruising can wind up using a whole lot of points. Your 100 points will not get you much on DCL. You are required to use points for at least the first adult. You can pay cash for the rest. But you will not be paying DCL prices, you will be paying DVC negotiated cruise prices and they can be more than the best price you can get directly from the cruise.

My guess is that there are a lot of happy DVC members as well as a lot of unhappy members. We bought direct from Disney in 1997 for $50 a point. At that time there was only OKW, BWV, VB and HHI. We've been relatively happy using our points mostly at OKW in one bedroom villas. Our son is now a CM working at the MK for the Horticulture Dept, so we can get into the parks on his guest passes once our APs expire. We like F&W and F&G so we'll go during those times. And we'll spend time at our beach timeshare twice a year, too. But the APs, I'm using now, I paid about $425 each for three of them. Now the equivalent goes for a lot more. I guess I'm paying my son's wages now, but we don't buy souveniers, we do a few TS dining, a few CS dining and spend a lot of time at the resort.

All I know now is that I would never pay direct prices now. They are just way too high.

 

[fantasmicfantastic]

OP...welcome to the DVC, I am very happy for you.

I do agree that you should perhaps crunch all the pertinent numbers (overall cost, maint. fees, rent vs. buy) to see if the contract suits your needs. However, if you aren't putting yourself in the poor house with this purchase, and you are happy with what you paid for, then that is all that matters. Just because other people on this board have found other cost-effective ways to buy into to DVC, that doesn't mean you were wrong for buying into it. I hope you enjoy your DVC membership as much as DW and I have (we are direct-buy owners at VGC).

 

[quinnc19]

You can rent the necessary points for as little as $12 but more realistically $14.

20 points * $14 = $280 for one night

Okay. That price does bring some limitations like no cancellation and no control over the reservation.

 

[drusba]

My personal advice is that if you like Poly (many do), will likely go to WDW at least once annually and stay at Poly the majority of your trips, did not suffer a serious financial set-back by making your purchase that would render it questionable whether you should buy at all, understand that current dues for Poly are about $6.03 per point per year and are likely to go up a little (2%-3%) per year, understand that for your trips, you will not have daily room service (just a trash disposal and replenishment of towels and bathroom items on the fourth day), then keeping what you have and maybe even buying that extra 50 points could be just fine. You can learn quite a bit on these boards and a lot of information can be found here http://www.disboards.com/threads/★-☆-★-the-dvc-information-center-★-☆-★.3436037/ Some issues raised by your posts above:

1. As to whether 100 points is enough, the answer can be found in the Poly point chart, which I assume you may already have, which can be found here: http://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-vacation-club/Poly-Points.htm 100 points will get you six nights in a standard Poly studio only during adventure season (Jan, Sep, and first half of Dec) and a 5 night stay in choice season (Oct, much of Nov, and third week of Dec)). 150 would give you a lot more flexibility, but starting with the 100 is also OK.

2. The extra 100 points you got is the result of how Disney typically sells points. For a resort that has already been open for a while, it is usually selling a use year that begins several months before you purchase. For example, I do not know which use year you got but likely it is one from earlier this year such as April (I will just assume April for this discussion). That means your first allotment of points started this year in April and your seocnd allotment comes next April. Since you were in Disney just now, there is a high chance that your next trip won't be before next April. Thus, you can bank that first set of points you got and use them with points coming next April to take your first DVC trip next use year. But reality is you did not get anything out of the ordinary as that is how Disney is usually selling ownership interests. But that does not mean what you got is bad or you were fooled. What Disney is giving you at the beginning is a good thing to have.

3. You can buy more Poly points later from Disney and possibly even in the resale market when it fully develops for Poly. If you buy 50 more Poly points later from Disney, the process will be different. Disney will sell you points in the use year you already have. It will go back several months with the new points as long as your subsequent purchase time allows that. For example, if you have an April use year and wait until Sep 2016 to buy more points, you will get points that start April 2016. However, if you have that April use year and buy more points in May 2016, your points will also start in April 2016.

4. DVC demand patterns are significantly different from Disney in general demand patterns. DVC at WDW has two demand seasons: (a) high to extremely high demand time running from late Sep to marathon weekend in Jan; and (b) low to moderate demand time running from just after marathon weekend in Jan to late Sep, and even the holidays during that lengthy "off-season" do not have high demand when measured by what is available at 7 months out when owners of a DVC resort can book other DVC resorts. At near park resorts, you will find little available in studios at 7 months out during much of the high demand quarter; during the 8 1/2 month off-season much will be available at 7 months out. However, certain room categories are difficult to get at 7 months out throughout the year and not just during that high demand season. In studios (your likely focus) that includes VGF studios (which you mentioned), BLT standard view studios, AKV club level and value studios, and BWV standard and boardwalk view studios. In other words, you should assume from this point forward that you may never be able to get VGF studios as a Poly owner booking at 7 months out, particularly if seeking as much as 5 to 6 nights in a row.

5. As to trading out points, such as for the cruise, understand that the number of points needed for trade-outs to any non-DVC resort or the cruise can and have risen often on an annual basis, i.e., there is no rule preventing the points needed from going up. Also,100 points is currently just barely enough for 1 person for the shortest cruise available; you can find the cruise point costs here
http://disneycruiselineblog.com/201...-updated-for-new-2016-disney-cruise-sailings/

And unless others above have somehow managed to change your mind, welcome home and enjoy your DVC.

 

[davper]

That $120 a night doesn't include the original purchase. So she is not getting it for $120 a night. And if it was financed through Disney it will be more than paying out right for it, especially if you financed it for a long time (like ten years). A better comparison would be to compare your price (dues plus cost of original points) to what was paid by renting points, not Disney rack rate.

$165 / 45 years = $3.67 per point each year
$3.67 + $5.00 MF (EST) = 8.67 * 20 points for one weeknight = $173.40 per night.

This will go up over time as MF increase. But the guide wasn't lying at that point in time.

 

[kamik86]

I also bought into Disney directly, without having even seen a DVC resort, I did some research but not a HUGE amount... and I was happy with it for years. The reasons I'm less happy now and may choose to sell have alot more to do with things in my life then with disney.

I could have gone resale but like the OP the idea scared me. I had never bought property at that point, I was nervous about how resale would work and felt better going through disney directly. I also wanted to use my points soon and I had seen from here renters trying to figure out when they would get their points loaded so they could book something.

 

[kamik86]

As for advice though I would stay with 100 points for now if your not sure. If you find yourself borrowing ahead and needing more points you can add more on later.