? on trading out to other places

[zalansky]

Hello,
My husband and I have been wavering back and forth for what feels like an eternity on buying into DVC. I think I have seen here on this board and have heard from a few people, that DVC members have a difficult time getting into other resorts. (I am guessing Interval resorts?)
So I am here to ask the experts! We would like to buy a timeshare and want it to be DVC, but we are realistic and know that down the line we will want to travel places other than Disney. Will it be hard? Do we need 500 points in order to do this? Am I best buying DVC if I plan on using it primarily for Disney as I have been advised? I AM SO CONFUSED.
TIA and Happy Thanksgiving everyone....

 

[tjkraz]

Your best course of action is to buy only the number of points that you need to suit your Walt Disney World touring needs. Even if you only plan to vacation at WDW every 2 years, you can still make DVC work with the banking and borrowing provisions.

Use the additional monies to buy into another timeshare program like Mariott which can be used toward other stays in other locations.

The main reason for this philosophy is cost. DVC is one of the more expensive timeshares into which you can buy, and the annual maintenance is among the highest in the industry. Buy a cheaper timeshare to use for non-WDW travels and you'll have just as good an experience.

To address your comment about DVC members not being able to trade into other resorts, I don't think that's true at all. In fact, DVC resorts are some of the toughest to trade INTO if you are not a DVC member. Again, the main issue to remember is the economy of using DVC point for other locations. There are cheaper ways to accomplish the same goal.

Good luck.

 

[allforpooh]

We traded for a Marriott Resort in Williamsburg VA, 160 pts 1bdrm for a week. It was a very easy trade, we just called Aug 03 and gave them about 6 weeks to work with - June and July 04, then waited. It only took about 1 month to hear back, and book. I can only comment on that one trade since this is the only one we have done. For us the simplicity of owning just one time share and the ease of the point system for use on many different types of vacations is why we only have DVC.

Denise

 

[Dean]

I agree with tjkraz, buy only the DVC points you are likely to use at DVC resorts, maybe with a small buffer depending on what you're looking at. For the other options, consider other timeshare, cash, timeshare rentals and the like. Why complicate your life with something that's not guaranteed, requires a great deal of investigation and understanding and isn't cost effective.

We traded for a Marriott Resort in Williamsburg VA, 160 pts 1bdrm for a week. It was a very easy trade, we just called Aug 03 and gave them about 6 weeks to work with - June and July 04, then waited. It only took about 1 month to hear back, and book. I can only comment on that one trade since this is the only one we have done. For us the simplicity of owning just one time share and the ease of the point system for use on many different types of vacations is why we only have DVC.

And this is exactly my point. One could likely rent that same 1 BR 4th of July for under $1000 and for Xmas get a 2 BR for even less. And I could trade in every year for a total cost of under $500 per year. I know there are two ways people look at this. One is but I want (or liked) it and the other is analytical. Well, I'm the latter. What someone wants to do with their points is up to them but I'd like members and potential members to know where they stand and what their options are. After that they can throw their points down any hole they want, their choice.