New to DVC - Beach Club

[PKay]

A week ago my husband and I took the DVC club tour and signed up for 150 points. We were so impressed with the rooms, even the studios (we were staying at the All Star Sports at the time - paying $20-$40 per meal). It is a priority to vacation regularly. We did not sell back the extra 150 points and would like to use them with next years points on a cruise. My general questions are should we have shopped a resale first.............??? Do the monthly fees increase? I am by nature skeptical and worry that we are "stuck" (not taking into consideration what we are getting). And on the other side I wonder if we should add on points (will 150 not be enough) - or if we should we just buy a resale at a later date at another resort..............??????????? Yes, I'm all over the board - any advise???

 

[yesdisneyfool]

Congrats and Welcome Home. We did not give our initial points back because we didn't want to borrow - but after 3 years, we've loved DVC so much that we've taken family members and are now in a small borrowed state. Not to worry, we'll addon again.

We bought from disney and are happy with our move - didn't want the extra (for me) hassle of resale. But don't get me wrong, resale can be the only way to go for some and we were new to the DVC Game.

The monthly maint fees can increase, but the % has a max that can't be exceeded.

You can addon whenever the need comes. You can do a resale or direct from Disney.

We love our DVC (my license plate says DVC OKW).

 

[JOC]

"Buy where you want to stay the most" is the most often heard piece of advice posted on this forum.

You can make reservations at your home resort at the 11-month window and at the 7-month window at your non-home resort. During certain times of the year the 11-month window may be needed (Spring Break/Easter, October/November during the Epcot Food and Wine Festival, first two weeks of December).

Did you take a tour of all the DVC resort models or just the BCV model? If BCV is where you decide you want to stay the most, then purchase there.

If OKW, VWL or BWV are where you'd rather stay, then you have to buy via resale. However, additional inventory of BWV points are now available for purchase through Disney for current DVC members; any remaining points will be made available to the general public on June 1 so you may be able to get BWV points that way.

As far as 150 points being enough for you, it depends on how often you'd go to WDW, time of year and what type accomodations you need during your trip. There are some owners who have posted on this forum that only have 150 points and they have managed to get by with banking and borrowing if necessary.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

<font face="comic sans ms">CONGRATULATIONS & WELCOME HOME! </font face>

And, Welcome to the DIS Boards!

Annual maintenance fees can, and will increase. Keep in mind that the price of a hotel room also increases every year.

If I were you, I would buy as many points as you think you will need (and of course, can comfortably afford). The price of points will also be increasing!

 

[KennySC]

Welcome Home!!

 

[SlyHubby]

"Buy where you want to stay the most" is most overstated piece of advice that I see given that is of questionable use. In the end, all DVC memberships are worth zero. It has a limited lifetime, and at the end of it, you own nothing. Wherever you buy, you will be getting the same amount of use (points) out of it being able to go whenever/wherever you like.

buy where you can get the best overall price. buying at one WDW property is just as good as any other in my book. if you are flexible on your WDW stays, it probably pays to even investigate Vero and HH for additional points depending how cheap they are. your example of using points for a cruise is a good case in point - if you can get cheap HH or VB points, doesn't it make sense to be able to use less expensive points for the cruise? it is going to cost you the same number of points no matter how much you pay for those points. Further, if you check, it turns out that in general, the places with the least expensive points also happen to be the places with the lowest point cost per night.

Over time, you will want to stay at other resorts and if you are not going on the most popular days of the year, if you call up and say "find me some place at WDW" there is never a problem - at least that's been my experience. BCV and most other resorts at 7 months has not been a problem for us.

as far as shopping for a resale first, in the end, I don't think there would have been a big difference. most of the resales I see have lots of the points for the next year already borrowed - yet they are still looking for the going price/point. then again, you never know when you make a lowball offer how badly someone is going to want to sell theirs. Also, not that you took advantage of it, but the Magical Beginnings at $10/point is not going to be available on a resale. We did this when we purchased 3 years ago. We already had a vacation planned and paid for, selling back the points was a nice way to reduce the price for us.

enjoy.

 

[disny4ever]

and Welcome Home !! My DW and I actually did an add-on before we even finished signing our original contracts. I think you will want to see how far 150 pts will get you now. Then take a little while and look further down the road. Will you go on any additional trips now, stay for longer time frames, want a 1 or 2 bedroom unit ? Many questions and just as many chances to either add-on at your current home or look for a resale at another resort.
Whatever you do have a good time and we will be seeing you around the neighborhood .

 

[Richyams]

150 points is not enough.

 

[Credit Man]

Congratulations and Welcome Home!!!

 

[Mrs. Snowgod]

And Welcome home, also.

We started with 200, added on 100, and are now planning to add on another 150. Each family has different needs and budgets, so do what is right for you. The add-on bug is hard to fight, though!

 

[gmboy95]

If you are not planning on traveling during christmas, april vacation, or thanksgiving....then I would say buy as cheap as you can, at whatever resort you want.....I also agree with a previous post 150 points is not enough if you want to stay in a 1 or 2 bedroom.

 

[POOH&PIGLET]

Congratulations!
Welcome Home!

P.S. 150 points is not enough.

 

[jaysue]

Have you looked at the point charts in reference to the type of accomodation (Studio/1BR/2BR/GV - at some resorts) and the time of year you are likely to go and see if your plans fit into the 150 point envelope and of course your budget as well.

Also note that points are higher on Friday and Saturday. Some people use points Sunday-Thursday nights and then if they want to stay on a weekend they get a Disney resort through code rates (if available) or a nearby offsite for example.

I think you need to consider primary vacation times, accomodations, refer to the points chart and see how it all fits together.

For our needs, the magic number was 370 points which thankfully we were able to afford as well.

Congratulations and welcome home!!!

 

[westjones]

If you want to use studios, 150 points can go a long way (especially if you can go in off season).

We banked last year's points and used them to book a 3 day cruise this September, but I won't ever do that again. I feel like I get a better deal with cash, and I like having the ability to change my cruise without penalty (with DVC, you have to pay $75 to make the reservation and then another $75 for any changes). It took more points than I thought that it should have to do the cruise, but then, it is nice not having to 'pay' for it this year (we go on the cruise ever year in September).

DJ

 

[cheyita]

Don't be disheartened by some people flat-out saying 150 pts isn't enough. It depends on you and the type of vacations you will take. I agree that expecting to cover a cruise with 150 pts may be asking for a bit much, but staying for 5 or 6 nights (in a one-bedroom) in non-peak season once a year is fine with 150. I can see someone who lives in Florida may have use for many more points - but for those who have to buy airline tickets or drive for many hours, one good trip a year is all we expect!

Either way, WELCOME HOME!

 

[mmmcq]

We bought our first points in 1999 when we had two young girls and a new baby. We started with 170 at BW. We just completed an add-on of more points at BW and 200 at BCV. So we more than doubled our points. Our needs have changed in the past 4 years. With two teens and a very active 3 yr old...we need to have a 2BR instead of a 1BR. And the best time of the year for us is April when the older girls are out of school. So that is driving our need for more points.

But we bought at two resorts because we love both of them and all our kids love the SAB pools at BC. We bought from Disney directly both times because it was just easier. I've looked at resales every week since August and there were only 8-10 in that time frame with my current use year. When our DVC guide called us to say that BW points were available this month we finally made the plunge. We could not have done the 2 resort purchase as easily through a resale nor have found the smaller amount of points that we wanted at BW.

We used Magical Beginnings because it lowered the purchase price for us and we won't be able to vacation every year.

Every family's goals and needs are different. You can always add-on. This purchase was my "birthday, mother's day, 20th anniversary" present! Not bad?

 

[westjones]

That's true 150 points is enough for a nice 1 week vacation in a 1 bedroom or even 5 nights in a 2 bedroom in off season.

We have 150 points, and won't be buying more (I was thrilled to get that many!). We are going twice a year right now, but we are using studios and going Sunday through Thursday. That works fine because we need two days to drive anyway.

After a couple of years we will probably go just once a year (right now there is still the excitement of just buying into DVC--joined 1 year ago last month). When our girls are older, we plan to do just once a year with a larger unit. But for now, we are really enjoying our studios!

Points are like money. You can spend more and more and more if you have them, but if you don't, you can learn to 'budget' and do quite a bit with what you have.

Enjoy your 150 points! We are enjoying ours very much!
DJ

 

[Disney Doll]

I think 150 points is a good start. You may find that once you take a few DVC trips, that 150 points may not be enough. It really depends on how you vacation, and what kind of accomodations you want to stay in. I will say, if you stay in a 1BR unit, you'll never want to go back to a studio!!!!! When we had just the 200 points, we would stay in a regular resort for the first 3 days which were usually over a weekend(Friday and Saturday nights are the most expensive DVC point-wise), and then we'd move to the DVC property on Sunday or Monday, and use our points for the less expensive weekday nights. I enjoyed that because it was a nice way to get a little "taste" of a regular resort without spending a fortune. It's a lot easier to justify the deluxe hotel stay if it's only 2 or 3 nights as opposed to 7 or 8 nights. IMHO, Disney made it very easy to move..they transferred your belongings for you, ad I never found the check-in processes very odious. If you're a nurse, teacher, or government employee, the Swan and Dolphin have a great rate of $129/night (although then Disney doesn't transfer your luggage I don't think). We did always start our trip at the regular hotel and move to the DVC property though, because we usually booked a 1BR DVC unit and so I was able to plan packing to take advantage of the washer/dryer that's in the 1BR and bigger units.

DH and I bought our first contract in 1997 with 200 points at OKW. At the time, only OKW and BWV were available, and OKW was cheaper, both in cost per point and dues. We looked at both properties, and our basic thought was "If we could never stay anywhere else on Disney property again except for OKW, we would be very happy here". Of course, that has not been the case, since we have stayed at BWV and BCV, and had VWL booked for early May this year but had to postpone due to my father having eye surgery. Truthfully, we haven't had much difficulty getting a reservation at whatever property we wanted. We do go at "off" times of the year(October/November or January/February) usually, but I have spoken to Member Services recently about re-booking the postponed May trip for July, and they have said there is a lot of availability, especially at OKW, which works fine for us.

Late last year, we decided that we wanted to have another contract, so we bought a 230 point OKW resale through The Timeshare Store. Pat Spell was our agent, and she did a great job, everything went very smoothly and quickly, about 6-8 weeks from start to finish. My DH is a realtor, so we had more of a comfort level maybe since he was in the business and could head off any potential problems, but there really were no problems. As I said, very smooth. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend buying a resale, and you can sometimes get them for a better price than buying direct from DVC, but if you're comfort level is better if you buy from DVC, or the DVC financing offers work for you, then I'd buy from the DVC. I think it's a matter of personal preference.

I'd try it with the 150 points for a while, get the "feel" of working with the points and the times of year and related point values, learn the ropes a little, and then decide if you need an add on or another contract. That's how we did it, and it worked for us.

As an aside, if you think you will be spending more than 8 days in a 365 day period at WDW, then it pays to buy an annual pass.

 

[invalid_char]

While I have not done an official poll, I would hazard a guess that a large percentage (if not the majority) of members have done add-ons. While many of these people may not have been able to afford more at the time of their initial purchase, many also incorrectly predicted the number of points they would need. What I am saying is that, whatever number you currently pick, and however long you agonize over picking the right number, chances are very good that you are underestimating your total need. And given that points have a tendency to go up in price, chances are also good that you will benefit by buying more than you think you will need up front.

We agonized over the right number of points to buy initially and came up with 300 as the right number. But unfortunately, we made a couple of assumptions that proved not to be true: 1st we assumed that we could occasionally get by in a studio. We realized this would not work during our first trip, so we did a 100 point add-on at $10 more pp than it would have cost us for our initial pre-sale purchase. With 400 points still not being enough for us to stay in the room size we wanted for the time we wanted, we told ourselves we would just avoid weekends. Well, after doing a very hectic 5 day trip (and all the packing and unpacking involved in going with 2 small children), we realized this would not work and we are planning on doing another 100 point add-on. Even then, we will only be able to go once a year instead of twice as we originally planned. 2 full weeks during the seasons we like to go would require 600 points. I really wish someone had persuaded me to just buy more points up front when they were cheap.

Another way to look at this: how many people have added on vs. how many people say they have bought too many points? I think the people who have think they bought too much initially are in the minority.

I would also have to second the advice to buy where you want to stay OR atleast buy one of the park resorts if you know you will always want the option of staying at WDW and don't mind OKW (the easiest resort to get at the 7 month window). While using VB points might work now and seem very cost-efficient, what if demand patterns change in the future (as they likely will) and you can not get a park resort at the 7 month window? Will you be happy then? Would you want to take the chance. I think the price difference, when you amortize it over 39 years, is not really worth taking the chance. My opinion, for what it's worth.