Large family looking to buy

[lovemygrowingfamily]

We are a family of 7 soon to be 8 come August. It is my husband and I and our kids ages 10 to newborn come August. We took our first Disney vacation in February and stayed at OKW in a 2bedroom villa and loved every minute of it. DH and I have been throwing around the idea of taking the kids to Disney when one of them turns 10. That would be either August or February every even year until 2020. We stayed 10 nights and we didn't even get to see half of everything we wanted to and of course we are all addicted even my dh who was 100% going to Disney in the first place.We told the kids that the next time we go will be in 10 years and boy were they dissapointed.

So the past few weeks dh and I have been talking about planning our next Disney trip the end of August 2012 one after that would be Feb 2014.

I have been reading the boards a bit but would like all of your opinions if buying resale at OKW would be the best bet for us over paying 10 nights at rack rate. What would be the lowest amount of points that we could buy so we stay 10 nights. We drive from Minnesota so that is where our other 4 days of out 2 week vacation go. We would pay cash since what i looked at was just about as much as I paid for our vacation.

We loved OKW and walked around other resorts while waiting for our dinners ect. and all agreed that we wouldn't want to stay anywhere else. The spacious rooms did it for me. The kids loved being welcomed home daily and being close to downtown disney.

I need to get all my ducks in a row before i take this to dh and give him the dish on this is how much I spent in February this is how much we would spend in 2 years and every year after and this is how much we could save with going every 2 years for birthdays.

Can you tell I'm still kicking myself for how much I spent?

Thank you!

 

[rlovew]

If you love OKW- then that is the best place to buy- if you are only going every other year you only need half the points- look at the points for both August and February (when you would be going and then look for the price on a contract needing half of the largest amount you would need.

A February use year might be best as even if you cancel in August you have time to bank points- that being said- June would also work as you need to cancel more than 30 days out to bank points anyway.

 

[dbs1228]

If you are planning every 2 years I agree with PP you only need 1/2 the points and you can bank them so you will have enough for a 2 bedroom for 10 ni every other year. What you have to look at is maintance fees also. By buying 1/2 the points your maintance fees will be lower since they are charged per point per year. When looking at resale try to find a loaded contract if possible and a UY you will be happy with (PP had good suggestions) If you buy resale (we just did) look for at least current year points available and all points for upcoming years. The contract we bought had all 2009 (160) points banked which we can use up until July 31, 2011 and all of 2010 points which meant after Aug 1st this year we had 320 points to use and if we wanted to we could borrow 2011 points and have a total of 480! Keep reading these forums you will learn ALOT!

 

[btrim]

You need to look at the DVC point charts (link at the top of the page) and decide how many points you would need to go every other year for 10 nights. Include weekends because I wouldn't want to move with a large family and it just disrupts your vacation. I like to avoid moving if at all possible. Good luck convincing DH. We love our DVC.

 

[Sandisw]

For someone with such a big family, who needs larger rooms, DVC may work out well for you.

Right now, with the 2011 points chart, a 2 bedroom in August (early/mid) or mid/late February would be around 420 for 10 days. Since you will be going every other year, you would only need 210 points to do it.

Now, if you mid/late August, or the beginning of February, then you would only need around 380 or 190 points.

Given that resale price for OKW is around $65 - $70 per points, it would be about $14,000 to buy in with 210 points,. But, this would give you trips for 10 nights, every other year, for a long time.

The only other cost would be MF"s and I believe OKW is somewhere between $4.50 and $5.00 (don't have the actual amount in front of me), giving you yearly costs around $1000.

In the long run, if you are planning to go back, I think DVC will make a great deal!

Good luck!

 

[the donut]

With a family such as yours, perhaps you should consider enough points for a Grand Villa.

 

[sandieb]

I guess our next post will be Welcome Home!

 

[Dean]

For 10 people you're looking at a 3 Br as you won't fit into many of the 2 BR units. That adds significantly to the number of points needed and the difficulty in reserving. Once the kids get older you may have tag alongs and/or you may have trips when some don't go affecting the unit size you need. Good luck in your decision.

 

[PrincessDuck]

I think that there are only 8 total....

For 10 people you're looking at a 3 Br as you won't fit into many of the 2 BR units. That adds significantly to the number of points needed and the difficulty in reserving. Once the kids get older you may have tag alongs and/or you may have trips when some don't go affecting the unit size you need. Good luck in your decision.

 

[dmoore22]

We were a family of 8 (myself, my DW, our 5 DDs and our DS) when we first bought into DVC. However our children were obviously older than yours are. Our kids are spread out so the age range was 6 to 26. Since my DW and I work in education, to paraphrase Groucho Marx, we worked out way up from absolutely nothing to a state of extreme poverty hence our trips were confined to the Value resorts. We would visit either WDW or DL when one of the children graduated from HS, college, or another special milestone. These were spread-out enough to give us time to pay off one trip and save for the next event. We first became aware of DVC through a conversion we overheard between guests on a resort bus. To make a long story short we took the tour, did a little more homework, and finally bought a resale with OKW as our home resort. Then, immediately caught addonitis and bought an add-on. We did find a very good deal which included almost a year's worth of banked points (300 + 286 = 586 available immediately and the seller paid the MFs). Our add-on was 100 pts in which the seller also paid the first years MFs. Ironically we never used all the baked points at once. Hence, each year we ended up with points to bank. Also, we did pay for our points up front so we reached the phantom break even point right away. We noticed immediately that the costs of our trips, compared to our "Value" days were a little cheaper, the stays longer, and the accommodations much nicer. That was nearly ten years ago and we are seeing the empty nest in site. Our accommodations are now smaller. Since we are using less points we make two visits each year of at least 12 nights each. One or two of our kids will usually come with us. No doubt things will change now that the grandchildren are getting a little older. Here is a nice "unofficial" link at Mouseplanet. com that I like to refer folks to for another point of view about DVC ownership. http://www.mouseplanet.com/8739/A_Disney_Vacation_Club_Primer It provides a link to a spreadsheet that you can play around with. We can verify that DVC definitely works for large families. We have six children and lived to tell the story. Good Luck!!

 

[Dean]

I think that there are only 8 total....

Thanks, I read it as 8 kids.

 

[lovemygrowingfamily]

Thank You for your replies. I have been reading and reading. We would go the beginning of February each year and at the end of August because my kids are all born within a few days of each other depending on the month. Our last trip we celebrated 5 birthday's that all happened on our vacation. Its expensive but conveinent. All of our vacations go from Friday drive 2 days check in on Sundays leave the next Wednesday ( count 10 nights) drive home 2 days spend the weekend recovering head back to schoo/ work mondays. So we would have at least 1 full weekend. We will soon be a family of 8 so we would fit into a 2 bedroom and that elimates us from having to bring anyone with us and that is fine by us!

I do have a couple of other questions. Does it matter how much you pay per point? Is there a big difference or is it just how much the person is willing to sell it for? If we aren't planning on going until August of 2012 would it be best to buy in 2011? I am thinking that 200 points would be good for us incase we wanted to do a extra night or because of work have to go at a different time then we would have a few extra points to work with. I'm a planner so booking 11 months out is fine with me. I booked 12 months out and started planning 18 months before i knew we would go.

Since we would be at least 10 nights 11 days at Disney its best that we get the AP for the parks right? Is it similar to the base ticket with parkhopper? We don't do water parks and i don't see my water hateing kids like it anytime in the future.

I think that is all that i have for now back to reading while the little one naps.

 

[sleepydog25]

Thank You for your replies. I have been reading and reading. We would go the beginning of February each year and at the end of August because my kids are all born within a few days of each other depending on the month. Our last trip we celebrated 5 birthday's that all happened on our vacation. Its expensive but conveinent. All of our vacations go from Friday drive 2 days check in on Sundays leave the next Wednesday ( count 10 nights) drive home 2 days spend the weekend recovering head back to schoo/ work mondays. So we would have at least 1 full weekend. We will soon be a family of 8 so we would fit into a 2 bedroom and that elimates us from having to bring anyone with us and that is fine by us!

I do have a couple of other questions. Does it matter how much you pay per point? Is there a big difference or is it just how much the person is willing to sell it for? If we aren't planning on going until August of 2012 would it be best to buy in 2011? I am thinking that 200 points would be good for us incase we wanted to do a extra night or because of work have to go at a different time then we would have a few extra points to work with. I'm a planner so booking 11 months out is fine with me. I booked 12 months out and started planning 18 months before i knew we would go.

Since we would be at least 10 nights 11 days at Disney its best that we get the AP for the parks right? Is it similar to the base ticket with parkhopper? We don't do water parks and i don't see my water hateing kids like it anytime in the future.

I think that is all that i have for now back to reading while the little one naps.

It matters insomuch that the more you pay per point, the larger the cost of the contract. But, in terms of real cost, paying $66 a point for 200 pts vice $67 isn't much. . .but it's still money in your pocket. Go to some resale sites--such as The Timeshare Store who sponsors this forum--and look over the OKW contract offerings. Also, check on the Passed ROFR thread under this same forum heading (DVC Operations) for OKW contracts that have passed ROFR and those which haven't (in case you're not familiar with the terminology, Disney has the Right of First Refusal on all resale contracts). From those two sources alone, you can make a pretty good guess at what size contracts are out there and their cost.

Depending on the contract, you might not have any points until 2011. If so, the price per point is usually lower than a contract with existing points, or at the very least, the price can be negotiated downward. However, if there was a contract that seems perfect for you, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it since the future always holds the unknown.

As for the AP, I don't think it would be cost beneficial to you since they are only good for one year, and to get your money's worth out of them, you need to visit Disney at least one more time in the year they are good for. Perhaps someone else would have a different opinion on that.

Good luck in your search! The DIS boards are a great place for info, and there are lots of experienced DVCers and WDWophiles to answer pretty much any question you have.

 

[Dean]

Thank You for your replies. I have been reading and reading. We would go the beginning of February each year and at the end of August because my kids are all born within a few days of each other depending on the month. Our last trip we celebrated 5 birthday's that all happened on our vacation. Its expensive but conveinent. All of our vacations go from Friday drive 2 days check in on Sundays leave the next Wednesday ( count 10 nights) drive home 2 days spend the weekend recovering head back to schoo/ work mondays. So we would have at least 1 full weekend. We will soon be a family of 8 so we would fit into a 2 bedroom and that elimates us from having to bring anyone with us and that is fine by us!

I do have a couple of other questions. Does it matter how much you pay per point? Is there a big difference or is it just how much the person is willing to sell it for? If we aren't planning on going until August of 2012 would it be best to buy in 2011? I am thinking that 200 points would be good for us incase we wanted to do a extra night or because of work have to go at a different time then we would have a few extra points to work with. I'm a planner so booking 11 months out is fine with me. I booked 12 months out and started planning 18 months before i knew we would go.

Since we would be at least 10 nights 11 days at Disney its best that we get the AP for the parks right? Is it similar to the base ticket with parkhopper? We don't do water parks and i don't see my water hateing kids like it anytime in the future.

I think that is all that i have for now back to reading while the little one naps.

If you buy now with a UY that's August or before, you can likely bank points to use for that trip in the 2011 UY. That would allow you to buy a few less points and still take the same trips for a number of years.

 

[dmoore22]

Thank You for your replies.

I do have a couple of other questions.

Since we would be at least 10 nights 11 days at Disney its best that we get the AP for the parks right? Is it similar to the base ticket with parkhopper? We don't do water parks and i don't see my water hating kids like it anytime in the future.

I think that is all that i have for now back to reading while the little one naps.

As a general rule anything over 10 days the AP is more cost effective. As a DVC member you do receive a nice AP discount. If you stagger your trips, eg. 10 nights in July for year one, then 10 nights in June in year two, you can get two years out of one AP. Purchasing an AP every other year is cheaper than the DVC discounted renewal. The AP does not include the water parks. The PAP does however.

 

[bookwormde]

I agree for a 2br 210-230 points would be good for every 2 years. If you have time there are some listed for as low a $50 a point and you take your chances of Disney buying it back.

bookwormde

 

[dmoore22]

Looking at the current points charts you will need 380 pts for 10 nights in February and 398 pts for 10 nights in August in a 2 BR at OKW. With this as your baseline, and knowing how often you plan to travel, this should help you determine how many points you may wish to start with. But be advised! Addonitis is the inevitable malady we all catch.

 

[lovemygrowingfamily]

I think i am getting a hang of this. I have read the ROFR thread part 2 yesterday onto part 3 today along with other threads.

dmoore thank you for telling your story that is where i see us going over the next many years. Once the kids are grown up we hope to be able to take the grandkids on vacation or maybe take a vacation alone without the kids.

I talked about it a little with dh last night and he said that he wanted to talk to someone when we were down there but there was no extra time. Nice of him to share this with me. We know that for the next 6-10 years we could only go once every 2 years because of my job. I need to learn all that i can and we will make a final decision in November and then start actively looking for something that fits our needs and wants. It would hopefully then turn into a Christmas present for the family. Dh's only concern is that he would like to vacation elsewhere sometime but where or when he doesn't know.I've read about the RCI properties and mentioned that but it wouldn't be the best use of our points.

I paid for our 1st Disney vacation and he has no clue what it cost me until last night and then i showed him a few listings for OKW and told him about yearly inflation ect and i think that is what is getting him 90% on board since birthday trips are his idea.

After hearing the ideas of the AP i don't think it would be a good match for us since we wouldn't be going more than once a year or 2 times in a 11 month period.

Are all 2 bedroom villa's the same amount of points for reservations? Incase we decide we would like to try a different resort one time would we need more? Do they increase the number of points per resorts ever? I would like to avoid the addonitis for at least 2 years after we buy. Is that possible? I'm sure the kids will have something to do with it once they get older and want to go for sweet sixteens and graduations.

I'm still trying to figure out what a good UY would be for us so we would have all the point and no be short and have to borrow from another year. The month/years are. Aug 2012,Feb 2014,Feb 2016,Feb 2018, Aug 2020. I was thinking August ( we would go at the end of the month) and December or January since we go beginning of February but would that be too close to when we would leave?

What if we have a UY of August and make a reservation 11 months before but don't have enough points until Aug 1. Can we then apply the points for the August trip when they are available?

Sorry for the naive questions but i haven't come across those ones yet. I need to read part 3 of the ROFR thread and then I will see if I have more questions.

The Disboarders are the best! The Disboard helped me so much when I was planning our first trip so when we talked about planning our next trip its the first place i came! Kind sad when you start to plan 2 plus years out for your next vacation. Slowly the addiction begins!

 

[rlovew]

Your use year has nothing to do with booking- you can book as long as you will have points at the time of booking. I would say a Feb Use year might be good- a cancelled Aug vacation could still be banked and a Feb vacation could be rescheduled until later in the year.

Each resort has its own point chart- OKW is the cheapest resort on points per night so you might need extras for a different resort- or to stay a few less nights. You could get some points transfered or you could buy points from Disney (they just started to allow members to buy 1 tiome use points of up to 24 points each year).

If you buy what you need with a small cushion you should be okay for the first couple of trips anyway.

 

[DeeCee735]

I do agree with what all the PP's are saying here, however you do need to consider that once you buy in (like so many of us), you may want to start going more often than once every two years, and that as your children grow they may want to start using it for trips of their own. So take into consideration maybe buying more than 1/2 of exactly what you need.
The points charts have changed a little in the allocation of how many points are needed for each night (weekdays became alittle higher, while weekends became alittle lower, for instance), leaving some people alittle short on the amount of points they used to use for a specific time in a specific size accommodation.

We bought when I our kids were just 10 years old. We bought because my DH and I love it so much, thinking the kids would eventually get alittle tired of it! What were we thinking!! We've created monsters
Now they are 21 and ask to use it for long weekends with their friends, etc.

We've added on a few times so that we can go more often, finding that the once a year just wasn't good enough!

Anyway, just another angle to think about.
Good luck with your decision and happy planning!