Need Some Input! DVC members!

[alexrapp]

Hello All,
I am relatively new to this whole DVC part of vacationing, but me and my family are intrigued by what DVC has to offer. However, what I can't find from all the websites about DVC is who is a DVC member? Who are you guys? What do you do? Why did you buy into DVC? How often do you vacation? I just would like to see if this is actually worth buying into and I couldn't think of anyone better to ask then current DVC members.

Please help!

 

[Donna M]

We're just plain regular people that think staying in a spacious 1 or 2 bd unit is the way to go. In the long run it will save us money. We never would be able to afford to rent the size place we do with cash.

I'm a teacher and my husband is in QC. My friends own too and she's a teacher and he's a janitor.

We go every year for a week and now since we have 500 points we get larger places and bring down family with us.

We love it.

 

[Sandisw]

Welcome!

My DH and I have been visiting WDW with our children, now 20, 16, and 13, since 1994 almost every year!

We love the place and look forward to our yearly visits. We are also huge fans of the MK and have most often stayed at the Contemporary because we get to walk to and from the park. Now that our children are older, we were able to go back at night ALONE (kids too lazy!!!) and have a nice time just the two of us.

We considered DVC for years, but realized that I would not be happy anywhere but the Contemporary. We just bought in last month through a small resale contract at VWL. We then added on at BLT, which is the main reason why I bought!!!

I am a teacher so we always travel in the summer. We never go on school breaks because the cost to fly from Syracuse to Orlando during February and April is OUTRAGEOUS!!!

DVC is great for anyone who enjoys visiting the world and go at least every few years.

Good Luck!!!

 

[5forDiz]

DVC is something a prospective buyer may want to consider if their plans are to visit WDW every year or every other year and if accommodations you most often book are deluxe resorts. It's a way to prepay your accommodations for a certain number of years depending upon what resort you purchase your points at. Points can be traded outside the DVC system for non-DVC & non-Disney options but if that is something a buyer plans to do regularly it would make more sense to consider other non-DVC/non-Disney timeshare options.

There are folks of all ages, etc. that are members ( not just parents with the kiddies ) and in all honesty we've come to meet some really nice members in our travels over the years in fact we haven't crossed paths with a not-so-nice member yet.

 

[LindaBabe]

We're now retired with a grown son and granddogs. When we bought we were dinks - mechanical technicians. We own 350 points, have never taken family on points, and are always in the hole. We actually like spending time relaxing in the resort, and it's much easier to do that in a DVC than a hotel room. Especially if one's frugality won't allow spending the exhorbitant rack rates of the deluxe resorts.

Yeah, right now there's a heck of a deal on resort rooms - but there isn't always one when I want to go - and as an AP holder, I don't need the always included park passes. Oh, and let's not forget the current perk of $100 off my ap!

 

[Golden Rose]

We bought because we were going to WDW at least once a year, sometimes twice and always staying in deluxes. We often traveled with my mother, and more recently her new husband, so we always needed two rooms or a suite. We were spending a small fortune on hotel rooms. We'd been thinking about DVC for a couple of years before we bought, researching and trying to decide if it made sense to go ahead and take the plunge.

I'm 37, my husband is 41, and our son is 4. He works on the web, I'm currently a stay at home mom. I've been a Disney fan all my life, but my husband really wasn't. He had never been to WDW until I dragged him for the first time almost 5 years ago, and he surprised us both by really loving it. We also agree that it is one of the best vacations one can take with multiple generations of family and have everyone find something they really enjoy.

We bought our first contract at AKV because we think the resort is beautiful and we really love the animals. We bought our second, BWV, almost immediately because we traditionally stayed at either Epcot or Monorail resorts, and BLT was not yet available. Epcot is actually our favorite park, so we knew we wanted to own at an Epcot resort at some point anyway. We currently have a total of 315 points. We will probably buy more down the road, as we want to own at a monorail resort eventually. We're also almost certain to buy in Hawaii if that does happen.

 

[Mom B]

Well, we live in beautiful northern Minnesota but the farthest from home we'd ever vacationed as a family before WDW was in Colorado once, otherwise most of the time we did camping trips within Minnesota, Wisconsin, the upper peninsula of Michigan or the Dakotas. Finally, the year our oldest graduated high school and the kids were soon going to be grown and gone, we decided to try a "final fling" family trip to Florida.

My husband was reluctant and I think nervous about going that far and insisted we stay on property if we went. Well, long story short, we all fell in love with Disney and knew we wanted to do multiple trips in the future.

Our third (?) trip was just the two of us for our 25th anniversary and we wanted to do part beach, part parks, and we wanted a jacuzzi suite...hence we ended up at Vero Beach and Old Key West (thanks to our travel agent, our former daycare provider). We were fortunate to come into a small inheritance that financed our first 100 point resale (at Vero Beach) and eventually did 2 small add-ons (one OKW resale, one AKV thru Disney).

We are very comfortable vacationing at WDW but we never run out of things to do, have never even felt the need to go off property (except to Vero). My husband has no desire to fly to Hawaii or overseas ANYWHERE so Epcot is the closest I'll get unless I go alone! We're deliriously happy with our DVC points and he enjoys hearing me plan out all the details of each trip, while he comes along for the ride. We love the parks, the rides, the endless variety of activities, and probably most of all, the restaurant dining experiences (he rarely takes me out to dinner at home, and is very particular about where we go, so I am thankful for WDW dining!)

It's such a great family place to take the grandkids (there are 5 now) as well. It's wonderful to relive the magic through their eyes!

Oh, and as to what we do for a living...he's in college food service management and I'm an employment counselor in welfare-to-work programs...no high level degrees here...

So what began as a "last" vacation with our 4 kids became a tradition we can continue as long as we want to (and as long as they want to bring their kids)...thanks DVC!

 

[Moeluv4u7]

We, too, are everyday people-
My DH is now a teacher but prior military and then District Manager of a couple major restaurant chains... I am a Business Manager for the last 4 years- Prior Retail Manager...
We have 5 kids ages 17-7
I am a Disney Fanatic! Our kids love Disney anything and for what we spent on vacations when we did go, it was outrageous for what we got-
I decided last year if this is what we were spending, I would spend it where I wouldn't regret it! Plus, now intead of maybe going on vacation if we could manage to get away, I actually have vacation time put in with our Disney vacation in mind so we will definitely go- It is something I needed to make me take time off work- I have a good benefit plan but have never taken full advantage of it (I guess a bit of a workaholic OR I could just have very stringent work ethics ) At any rate, we will be enjoying our first WDW trip in April & I am so excited I could jump and down and do the boogie dance- LOL Really, we are going to love having WDW to look forward to every year, multiple times a year and will also be adding points at some point in the future- This has not necessarily cut our cost of vacation but we will definitely be staying in style from now rather than trying to get 2 hotel rooms across the hall or next to each other. It is very hard to house a family of 7! Hotels just don't allow it!

 

[TifffanyD]

We are DINK's that work for an insurance company. We decided to honeymoon at WDW and wanetd a nice place. Were planning on 12 nights at the boardwalk or beach club and that would have cost us abou$4-5k. So instead we sunk 8500 into 100 points in DVC via resale. We still got to stay at boardwalk for our honeymoon - although we ended up with only 4 nights there and then a cruise to "save" on points. We were living up north when we bought but now we are about an hour away and use our points for several short trips per year. 2008 points were spent on 4 nights for honeymoon, christmas eve night stay, 2 nights in june for my birthday, 2 nights in Sept with inlaws (in a 1 bedroom suite).

 

[BayouMickey]

You want to talk about weird?
I'm a Dispatcher in a sand pit off the Mississippi river. HotRod is disabled. So we are by far the least you'd suspect to get a DVC.

 

[simba20]

Two friends of ours took us for trip on Spring Break to HH using their DVC poiints. We were intorduced to the DVC that way and our favorite place to go is Disney.

From our friends we understood the basic workings of the system. But figured the "cost" was the catch and we'd never be able to buy.

Last September on a short trip down to Disney we did the tour. I also learned how he points worked and saw how many vacations we could take using our points (160). Got some of my other questions answered and then it came down to the price. Once we saw that it really wasn't that expensive and manageable for us to do we decided that it was worth it for us.

Our last trip to Disney was in May 2002, on our honeymoon. We went for 5 days and stayed at POR and it costs us around $1600 at that time (PH/WP passes and all). We booked a trip for April 2007, same stats (POR and PH/WP passes) and it had risen to $2200 (forget if I added the DP). The trip we were goign to take THIS April (same stats again but this time with our 20 month old daughter) had risen to $2500. Basically when out guide told us that 6 trips woul dnearly pay for our 50 year investment into the DVC it was a no brainer. Plus by having the DVC we get to stay in resorts that we NEVER would have stayed in before and would have put our trip over the 3k-4k range if we wanted to stay in something nice (which we never would have done).

Now that we have our DD, this allows us to visit Disney more (we were averaging every 5 years, although we would try to go more frequently). We live close, so it's not too much of a drive (6 hours) and we have the inital $15,000 investment that would have only allowed us to do to Dinsey 7/8 times over 50 years, that basically allows us to go 2x/year of we want.

Did I know all the ins and outs? NO. Did I research everything I shoudl have? NO. But so far I love having my DVC membership and it will get plenty of use.

Me=SAHM
Hubster=Teacher (we bought at AKL witha 160pt contract)
Friends = Band teacher/5th grade teacher (bought in SSR years ago with a 150 point contract)

 

[jamie&Greg]

Hi! Hope you decide to join the family!

We are a family of 3 (me, DH, DD 20 months). We both grew up in FL. going to the world often, but I was never lucky enough to stay onsite until I 'grew up'. Our first trip together was to a dleuxe on a CM disount rate and we LOVED it. We took 2 more to mod's and just decided to buy. We have allready been 2 on points and have 3 in the hole for this year!

We are just normal people too!! DH is a CPA and I just work part time at a realtalier in the mall

 

[Monorail Purple&Gold]

Welcome (and would love to make that a Welcome Home soon)!!

DW and I are both school teachers, and have 2 young kids.

We go to WDW at least once a year, and with the ages of our kids (and the fact that we are Disney World addicts), DVC really made sense for us.

Over the years (and yes we crunched the #'s) we know our DVC will more than pay for itself in the long run. Our DVC allows us to stay in larger deluxe accomodations and we pretty much know there is always a vacation on the horizon. When we bought, we were 100% confident that our vacation habits will not change, so DVC was the way to go. The resorts are great, the points allow flexibility for most, and we love WDW!!!!

 

[JasonDVC]

I think you have to love to vacation and want to vacation regularly to buy into DVC or any Time Share for that matter.

When we did our tour I asked our guide..."I know it's your job to sell us on DVC, but give me an honest answer...What is the downdside of owning?" he said "The only downside is if you don't use it". How true!

If you know you are going to vacation at least once every 3 years, I say go for it!

BTW, I'm a Property Manager and DW is a teacher. We aren't rich but we sacrafice other things to travel because that's what both of us love to do. We both love Disney and want to take our children there often made DVC a no-brainer for us.

Good luck with any decision you make!

 

[calgarygary]

Hello All,
I am relatively new to this whole DVC part of vacationing, but me and my family are intrigued by what DVC has to offer. However, what I can't find from all the websites about DVC is who is a DVC member? Who are you guys? What do you do? Why did you buy into DVC? How often do you vacation? I just would like to see if this is actually worth buying into and I couldn't think of anyone better to ask then current DVC members.

Please help!

Before buying into DVC, please educate yourself about timeshares by spending time at TUG where you can get a great education on multiple systems including DVC. In today's market, you have to decide if staying onsite is worth spending the extra thousands that DVC costs upfront and the additional hundreds per stay. If you are comfortable with that, sure go ahead DVC might be for you. However, systems such as Starwood, Marriott and Hilton are available for 1/4 of the cost of DVC or less on the resale market and allow greater flexibility when you want to vacation outside of Orlando.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

I'm the comptroller for a small chain of hardware stores. Living in Florida, I've been to Disney 75+, but I was blown away when I was fortunate enough to use a friends DVC. I stayed at OKW for 3 days and I was hooked. I spent the next 2 years pouring over DVC resales and saving till I could afford to buy my own. My friends moved away and I continued to use their DVC till I found the number of points and resort I wanted. We became members in 2000.

For me, DVC enhances my Disney experience. I like that I've prepaid my accomodations till 2042 (OKW) and that my son and his family will continue to enjoy it with me till I'm 80 (he's promised to puch the wheelchair, if necessary), after that he's on his own. And as much as I love Disney, DVC is so much more, we don't always do the parks, we sometimes go for a couple of days to Vero by the beach, sometimes we just enjoy what Orlando has to offer. When vacation doesn't so much have to coincide wth school, I may get to experience Hilton Head, I look forward to it.

Through DVC my friends and family have made many wonderful memories, using accomodations that I could never afford. We've been blessed to have Family reunions in the Grand Villas 4 times with all of us together and that wouldn't have been possible without DVC. I know that it's not for everyone, only you can make that determination, I made my decision only after I tried it, before that I couldn't be convinced, and now I wish I had the money to buy another couple of hundred points, I'm always in the hole!

 

[TIGGERmetoo]

Hi! DH and I go to WDW usually once a year. We thought about DVC for a long time and should have purchased sooner. We stayed at BCV last year and the year before took both our DS's and their GF and stayed at BWV. The year before that just DH and I stayed at BWV. Before those trips we usually stayed at the Poly or off-site at a friend's house. We spent almost as much on those last 3 trips as it cost us to purchase 160 pts at BLT! My DH loves the villas. I don't mind a regular hotel type room but the villas (even the studios) are nicer. DH didn't want to stay anywhere else after our 1st stay at BWV. I am so glad we finally purchased.

 

[wildernessDad]

We've been big fans of Disney for many years. Buying into DVC was right for us.

Good luck with your decisions!