nydisneydad
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 26, 2017
- Messages
- 11
I'm a brand-new DVC Buyer (still in my 10-day cool-off window as of this post) and I've been reading these boards closely. I see a lot of recent discussion about resales and the benefits/hassles/experiences, but not as much about direct sales, so I wanted to share my experience/thoughts for others who might be considering direct.
My wife and two kids (12 and 9) went to Disney last week and stayed at the Wilderness Lodge (CY bunk bed). It was our first trip in five years, and the first that we fully planned (last time was a 4-day trip my parents put together for the six of us). We live in New York, but I've been to Disney plenty of times, including for my honeymoon and many times with my family growing up. We almost exclusively stay at deluxe resorts.
It was actually the first time we've done a full week family vacation with just the four of us. I spent tons of time planning (all part of the fun!) including listening to many podcasts. It was through one of the podcasts that I learned about DVC, and for the fun of it I did some research before my trip and put together a spreadsheet to calculate the costs, factoring increased maintenance dues, closing costs, etc. Being in the fortunate position to have the cash to buy in at 100-130 points, I mused on the possibility of it and made an off-hand comment to my wife about it, which she promptly rejected.
I knew about the tours (and the gift card and bonus fastpasses), so wasn't surprised to see an invite letter show up in our room on day two. I didn't really expect anything of it... I considered doing the tour for the bonuses, but didn't expect it to go anywhere given my wife's initial reaction back home. But she blew me away while lounging at the pool that evening when she suggested we consider it, about how nice it would be to make this a regular thing. That was all I needed to hear... I promptly made an appointment for the tour, and started giving serious consideration to what had previously just been a playful fantasy.
Going into the tour, here's what really appealed to my wife and me about DVC:
* Disney vacations are our family's speed. We're not campers or sightseers. We like to have a plan and activities, and we also like a lot of down-time at the hotel, so hotel quality and room size are important to us.
* We want to take trips more often, and going every other year at least was appealing to us.
* We live five minutes from a small airport that has direct flights to Orlando, so it's an ideal recurring vacation spot.
* We really like the idea that we could bring our family members down for larger trips together, or even let them borrow our points on years we don't go.
* It was killing me that I had no chance of seeing Pandora (opened just days after we left), so that's a DVC benefit (I know, not guaranteed) that appeals to me.
Now, I will confess that at the time I didn't know anything about the resale market. I knew about renting points to stay at DVC properties, but not much about the actual logistics. I really didn't even know that much about banking and borrowing points (that was the one main question I had planned for the tour).
The "tour" (more of a presentation, as the only room we saw was a studio) was at the Polynesian. Things didn't get off to the best start... we had a 1:10 pickup from Hollywood Studios and due to some confusion there was only one driver and two pickups going in opposite directions. We ended up having to wait an extra 10 minutes for a different van, which isn't a huge deal, but given that they're trying to court us to drop a lot of $$$, I didn't feel it was a very good first impression.
That said, I cooled down by the time we got to the Polynesian (both literally and figuratively) and getting there late fortunately didn't affect our tour. Our sales agent was fantastic. Very welcoming. Having already crunched all the numbers, we didn't take much convincing. Knowing that we could borrow/bank points and just plan trips every 2-3 years pretty much sealed the deal for us. She only presented the Polynesian and Copper Creek as options, and pointed out that the Poly maintenance rates were about a dollar less. We talked about home resort and booking at 7 months, but she assured me booking 7 months in advance would be fine for our target vacation dates (usually in late January or May).
We opted for 120 points -- basically the cost to stay in a Studio for 6-7 days -- knowing that we could upgrade to a 1-bedroom or 2-bedroom villa by banking/borrowing points. Our use year would be Dec 1 and our incentive (if we signed while on vacation) was to have our points begin in 2016, so basically an extra 120 points to spend by Dec 2018.
We agreed to take a few days to sleep on it, and since I knew I'd have almost two hours to kill between checkout and our Magical Express departure on our last day, I set up an appointment for then. Oh, and at the end of the tour, I mentioned being a little unhappy about the late van (in the context that I could not afford for the van to be late on Sunday), and my agent apologized and gave us an additional bonus fastpass that we were able to use for ANY specific ride any time that day. We chose 7DMT (normally not on the list of possible bonus fastpasses), which worked out great because we were planning an evening trip back to Magic Kingdom. That was unexpected and hugely appreciated.
Between our tour on Wednesday and Sunday I did some more number-crunching, mostly just to figure out how many points to get. At this point I still hadn't visited this section of the DisBoards. On Sunday, we decided to move forward with the buy, and I had quite an afternoon of going back-and-forth between the Wilderness Lodge and the Polynesian. (I went by myself not realizing my wife had to sign, didn't want to deal with signing through the mail, so brought the contracts back to WL to have her sign, then went back to Poly to hand them over). All through the process, everyone I interacted with from my agent to the drivers (three different ones!) was fantastic. I made it back to the WL with about 10 minutes to spare before my Magical Express departure. Whew!
The contracts were signed, payment plan was set up (charges through Disney Visa which we can just pay off with cash on hand, so that we could at least get some reward points for it). Total cost was about $21,500 for 120 PVC that expire in 2066. No financing needed (either from Disney or from Credit Card), as we'd never have even considered buying into DVC if we didn't have the money available.
We felt great about the decision. And then after the trip I started reading articles here on the DisBoards and elsewhere. What is this about resale? Cheaper? Other home options? Uh oh...
I started having concerns that maybe I'd jumped in a little too quickly. Except I hadn't been entirely unprepared. I had done research. I'd even gone into my meeting using inflated numbers (CCV maintenance instead of Poly) not realizing then that Poly was cheaper, and my initial calculations didn't factor the incentives either.
Nevertheless, I did quite a bit of reading, and ultimately felt more and more comfortable with my decision to go direct instead of resale. Here's why:
1. Whether it's cars, appliances or whatever, my wife and I tend to always buy new. At the end of the day, the question we ask is -- can we afford it, and is the price reasonable? Even buying DVC direct, the answer to both was yes. So just because we *could* have gotten it cheaper (in theory) doesn't mean we were taken.
2. I'm not a negotiator. The idea of surfing the market for the right offer, then having to go through a month-long closing process is stressful to me. There's a cost there that can't be measured in dollars. It's the same reason I tend not to buy used... having a smooth and, more importantly, certain process is worth a lot to me. It's part of the reason I went through the rigamarole to get the contracts signed while we were still in Orlando.
3. Ultimately the 1-Bedroom Villas will appeal to us most, which made me question our Poly choice, but.... We love the convenience of being on the lake or monorail, and we can always get adjoining studios. Also, for now even just a studio at times will be enough for us. We did fine in a WL Bunk Bed room, and that's not nearly as spacious as the Poly studios. Also, since we don't plan to travel at the peak DVC times, it seems like we won't have much trouble getting villas at most of the other resorts at the 7-month mark. So ultimately I think the Poly was the best choice for us, which meant direct was really the way to go anyway.
4. The membership card. It's a small thing, and not a deciding factor, but we really liked getting our embroidered DVC bag, and it does add just a little bit to the exclusivity. Yeah, you can do resale + direct to get those benefits, but see #2 above.
Bottom line... I think Direct vs. Resale really is going to be a personal decision. For me, not having to deal with uncertainty, hassle or possible stress is worth any money we might have saved otherwise. But for others, the cost difference could be the factor that makes joining DVC possible.
Of course, I'm still fresh off the decision to purchase, but I feel really good about the choices we made.
My wife and two kids (12 and 9) went to Disney last week and stayed at the Wilderness Lodge (CY bunk bed). It was our first trip in five years, and the first that we fully planned (last time was a 4-day trip my parents put together for the six of us). We live in New York, but I've been to Disney plenty of times, including for my honeymoon and many times with my family growing up. We almost exclusively stay at deluxe resorts.
It was actually the first time we've done a full week family vacation with just the four of us. I spent tons of time planning (all part of the fun!) including listening to many podcasts. It was through one of the podcasts that I learned about DVC, and for the fun of it I did some research before my trip and put together a spreadsheet to calculate the costs, factoring increased maintenance dues, closing costs, etc. Being in the fortunate position to have the cash to buy in at 100-130 points, I mused on the possibility of it and made an off-hand comment to my wife about it, which she promptly rejected.
I knew about the tours (and the gift card and bonus fastpasses), so wasn't surprised to see an invite letter show up in our room on day two. I didn't really expect anything of it... I considered doing the tour for the bonuses, but didn't expect it to go anywhere given my wife's initial reaction back home. But she blew me away while lounging at the pool that evening when she suggested we consider it, about how nice it would be to make this a regular thing. That was all I needed to hear... I promptly made an appointment for the tour, and started giving serious consideration to what had previously just been a playful fantasy.
Going into the tour, here's what really appealed to my wife and me about DVC:
* Disney vacations are our family's speed. We're not campers or sightseers. We like to have a plan and activities, and we also like a lot of down-time at the hotel, so hotel quality and room size are important to us.
* We want to take trips more often, and going every other year at least was appealing to us.
* We live five minutes from a small airport that has direct flights to Orlando, so it's an ideal recurring vacation spot.
* We really like the idea that we could bring our family members down for larger trips together, or even let them borrow our points on years we don't go.
* It was killing me that I had no chance of seeing Pandora (opened just days after we left), so that's a DVC benefit (I know, not guaranteed) that appeals to me.
Now, I will confess that at the time I didn't know anything about the resale market. I knew about renting points to stay at DVC properties, but not much about the actual logistics. I really didn't even know that much about banking and borrowing points (that was the one main question I had planned for the tour).
The "tour" (more of a presentation, as the only room we saw was a studio) was at the Polynesian. Things didn't get off to the best start... we had a 1:10 pickup from Hollywood Studios and due to some confusion there was only one driver and two pickups going in opposite directions. We ended up having to wait an extra 10 minutes for a different van, which isn't a huge deal, but given that they're trying to court us to drop a lot of $$$, I didn't feel it was a very good first impression.
That said, I cooled down by the time we got to the Polynesian (both literally and figuratively) and getting there late fortunately didn't affect our tour. Our sales agent was fantastic. Very welcoming. Having already crunched all the numbers, we didn't take much convincing. Knowing that we could borrow/bank points and just plan trips every 2-3 years pretty much sealed the deal for us. She only presented the Polynesian and Copper Creek as options, and pointed out that the Poly maintenance rates were about a dollar less. We talked about home resort and booking at 7 months, but she assured me booking 7 months in advance would be fine for our target vacation dates (usually in late January or May).
We opted for 120 points -- basically the cost to stay in a Studio for 6-7 days -- knowing that we could upgrade to a 1-bedroom or 2-bedroom villa by banking/borrowing points. Our use year would be Dec 1 and our incentive (if we signed while on vacation) was to have our points begin in 2016, so basically an extra 120 points to spend by Dec 2018.
We agreed to take a few days to sleep on it, and since I knew I'd have almost two hours to kill between checkout and our Magical Express departure on our last day, I set up an appointment for then. Oh, and at the end of the tour, I mentioned being a little unhappy about the late van (in the context that I could not afford for the van to be late on Sunday), and my agent apologized and gave us an additional bonus fastpass that we were able to use for ANY specific ride any time that day. We chose 7DMT (normally not on the list of possible bonus fastpasses), which worked out great because we were planning an evening trip back to Magic Kingdom. That was unexpected and hugely appreciated.
Between our tour on Wednesday and Sunday I did some more number-crunching, mostly just to figure out how many points to get. At this point I still hadn't visited this section of the DisBoards. On Sunday, we decided to move forward with the buy, and I had quite an afternoon of going back-and-forth between the Wilderness Lodge and the Polynesian. (I went by myself not realizing my wife had to sign, didn't want to deal with signing through the mail, so brought the contracts back to WL to have her sign, then went back to Poly to hand them over). All through the process, everyone I interacted with from my agent to the drivers (three different ones!) was fantastic. I made it back to the WL with about 10 minutes to spare before my Magical Express departure. Whew!
The contracts were signed, payment plan was set up (charges through Disney Visa which we can just pay off with cash on hand, so that we could at least get some reward points for it). Total cost was about $21,500 for 120 PVC that expire in 2066. No financing needed (either from Disney or from Credit Card), as we'd never have even considered buying into DVC if we didn't have the money available.
We felt great about the decision. And then after the trip I started reading articles here on the DisBoards and elsewhere. What is this about resale? Cheaper? Other home options? Uh oh...
I started having concerns that maybe I'd jumped in a little too quickly. Except I hadn't been entirely unprepared. I had done research. I'd even gone into my meeting using inflated numbers (CCV maintenance instead of Poly) not realizing then that Poly was cheaper, and my initial calculations didn't factor the incentives either.
Nevertheless, I did quite a bit of reading, and ultimately felt more and more comfortable with my decision to go direct instead of resale. Here's why:
1. Whether it's cars, appliances or whatever, my wife and I tend to always buy new. At the end of the day, the question we ask is -- can we afford it, and is the price reasonable? Even buying DVC direct, the answer to both was yes. So just because we *could* have gotten it cheaper (in theory) doesn't mean we were taken.
2. I'm not a negotiator. The idea of surfing the market for the right offer, then having to go through a month-long closing process is stressful to me. There's a cost there that can't be measured in dollars. It's the same reason I tend not to buy used... having a smooth and, more importantly, certain process is worth a lot to me. It's part of the reason I went through the rigamarole to get the contracts signed while we were still in Orlando.
3. Ultimately the 1-Bedroom Villas will appeal to us most, which made me question our Poly choice, but.... We love the convenience of being on the lake or monorail, and we can always get adjoining studios. Also, for now even just a studio at times will be enough for us. We did fine in a WL Bunk Bed room, and that's not nearly as spacious as the Poly studios. Also, since we don't plan to travel at the peak DVC times, it seems like we won't have much trouble getting villas at most of the other resorts at the 7-month mark. So ultimately I think the Poly was the best choice for us, which meant direct was really the way to go anyway.
4. The membership card. It's a small thing, and not a deciding factor, but we really liked getting our embroidered DVC bag, and it does add just a little bit to the exclusivity. Yeah, you can do resale + direct to get those benefits, but see #2 above.
Bottom line... I think Direct vs. Resale really is going to be a personal decision. For me, not having to deal with uncertainty, hassle or possible stress is worth any money we might have saved otherwise. But for others, the cost difference could be the factor that makes joining DVC possible.
Of course, I'm still fresh off the decision to purchase, but I feel really good about the choices we made.
(In the interests of full disclosure, we just bought resale at BLT and added on 25 points direct.) When I was reading your account, I really thought you were going to go with CCV since you know that you'd want 1BR in the future. We love the feel and the restaurants that the Poly, but ... not having an 11-mo booking window on a 1BR (or, practically speaking, a reasonable 2BR) sealed it for us. 
Bill
