Owners: would you recommend DVC right now?

[Robbie Cottam]

I love being at the back side of EPCOT so much I bought at RR I cant walk to my room but the sky line is pretty quick......

 

[Robbie Cottam]

I love being at the back side of EPCOT so much I bought at RR I cant walk to my room but the sky line is pretty quick......

I also have never had a car at Disney unless I was down there for work. I found driving in Orlando and eating off property someone stressful. I personally would not want to add that hassle to a vacation, however, my girlfriends thinks it the greatest thing going....

That having been said, I do find that when I'm staying over at BW or BC we tend to eat breakfast and Dinner more often and when staying at BLT we tend to do lunch and dinner, due to the easy of walking to a great breakfast at Cape May... and not being a chef Mickey fan.....

However, in any case I think it is a great time to own DVC. The price goes up about weekly. If you buy direct, the discounts more than pay for themselves and because I am a DVC direct owner, I just saved about 8000 on 200 points at RR.

If I recall correctly, everytime Disney has opened a new DVC resort current owners get a below market, incentives offer to purchase before they go on public sale...

Hind sight being 20/20 if I have put all the money I lost in the market in to DVC and just rented the points ever years I would have done a lot better between 2006 and 2016...

 

[Wiltony]

We own at BLT since 2016. Got enough direct for blue card and then have been adding on resale since. Besides BLT, we have since stayed at BRV, PVB, BWV, OKW, and VGC. We have a ressie at SSR for December, and I just booked 4 nights at Aulani for next February. It's been really fun, and we hope to eventually hit every location!

I took a look to see how much a cash ressie for the same room at Aulani would have cost me. It was $5,900! I would *NEVER* have considered paying $1500 a night for a hotel room, so I certainly feel like I'm getting my money back in value as I use my points.

We're planning a long BLT GV stay down the road that would cost almost $20,000 if booked with cash. It's absurd. I feel like a Saudi Prince or something tossing ridiculous amounts of money around! But it was only possible with DVC for us.

Yes, I agree with many about the erosion of value and a little bit of disenchantment with Disney lately, but I'm not at a point where I want to get rid of my points and still consider my purchase a worthwhile one. Especially considering the fact that my points themselves have appreciated in value as well.

 

[eMoneyBug]

My husband and I have been crunching the numbers and saving up for months and we're finally ready to jump in and buy our first contract! But, with some research on this site, we came across the thread about points discrepancies for the 2022 chart and how they had added points without taking them from others (I believe it was a 0.22% increase across all WDW resorts). We were told that our points would never be devalued and that points changes had to even out somewhere else, but after reading through that thread, it doesn't appear to be that way at all. And now, we're extremely worried about the future of our DVC purchase if our points end up being devalued over the life of the contract.

For current members, knowing about this mess (and thinking back to a few years ago when they tried to screw owners over in a similar way but were called out on it), would you still recommend buying DVC now?

I don't think your points value will be devalued, maybe diving into the weeds too much? For example, for studios you can find a room for under 10 or over 30 points a night. There will always be something at some point you can reserve. If you've waited this long and you sound knowledgeable and love disney and will vacay at least once a year, its time to take the plunge and welcome you home!

 

[eMoneyBug]

We have been owners for almost six years now.

What is so hard to answer about this question, or at least I believe is that we all change, our families change, we get older, the product evolves, a pandemic hits, etc.

I can't believe my daughter's first trip to Disney was when she was still free and how many times we have been back as she enters middle school. I can't trade those memories of her in an Elsa dress or making sure we see Goofy....every day. DVC was a huge part of making that happen. We paid cash for BLT our first trip. Sadly, we could have purchased a smallish contract for that same price.

We have stayed in HHI, Grand Californian and our most favorite trip was to Aulani. DVC made that possible.

Even if I take the discounted rack rate for all our trips, we have already paid for it in just about 5 years. I know that takes longer now with rising prices (we averaged about $125 a point). You will hear many say they wish they bought earlier or more points earlier - because prices rise and if you are still coming to Disney with any frequency, the more value you get from DVC.

As as you have seen OPs, we all go "not at these prices" since we paid far less. I keep looking at contracts kicking myself I didn't buy when it was $50-75 a point cheaper and we could have already been using them! I bet even 5 years from now the same discussion and the same grousing about pricing will occur.

Our vacation plans certainly have changed as we have started to visit more places than Disney. I see us using more points for larger spaces as our daughter gets older and wants her own space or brings a friend. DVC makes that possible for us. We can scale back our points since we have three contracts later in life or as life changes. Hopefully, values will still remain but we have gotten our monies and memories worth. If we sell for more than we purchased it is a windfall and unexpected. Am I thrilled with all the changes, of course not but that has not impacted the value and memories we have received.

Plus...life is short and as we have seen last year, nothing is guranteed.

WELL WRITTEN and I nodded at every sentence, I considered selling my SSR 2012 contract to make money when my kids hit HS and didn't even want to goto WDW when I proposed it, but a few years later they said, you're not going to sell it right, we want to go again and than I added an AUL 2019 contract as i envision 1 day traveling with grand children and leaving the DVC contracts to the kids as part of my disney legacy fandom to them <3

 

[scoobdoo]

yes I ran out of 2021 points (March use year) and booked two nights cash at AKL value studio and if’s costing me $1,000. I actually added on a second contract yesterday. I couldn’t afford to come as frequently and stay deluxe without DVC

Are you buying all your add on contracts at the same home resort?

 

[Meem93]

Are you buying all your add on contracts at the same home resort?

I have two at CCV- 135
one at Animal Kingdom- 50

it makes sense to have one resort to book the entire trip there, but I like split stays

 

[Robbie Cottam]

Here is the way I look at DVC
I just purchased 200 points at RR, cost per point was 180, if think they are 200 for none members
May cost per point per year 3.75 , $180/point 48 years (4.17 for non member)

taxes 7 dollars per year

my cost per point 10.75 per year.... (average)

Currently those point are renting at $18-$20 dollars per point...
so any year I don't use them I see a positive cash flow of 7 dollars per year.

If I use them It cost me about 33% of rack rate to get the room I want.

I know some people compare DVC pricing to the Value resort.... Yes the value resorts are CHEAPER. I personally do not enjoy staying at a value resort.

So if you enjoy the value resorts and want to go as cheaply as possible that might be the way for you.
If you want a better accommodation DVC would be a great choice.

Also the market value of both my SSR and BLT have just about double since I first purchased them. I see no reason to believe that DVC in general will not continue to increase in value over the next 30 to 50 years that I continue to own these properties....

Finally, I have also had a few times over the 17 years since I purchase my first DVC contract that I need cash.
I was able to mortgage contracts as needed to handle those needs, like any real property. Not always what I wanted to do, but having the ability to do it gave me the flexibility to continue forward during some of the challenging financial times we all went through in recent years...

 

[CaoilinnsMom]

I am with a lot of you, DVC has given me the chance to enjoy fabulous and memorable vacations over the past decade. I first bought in 2011 at VWL, after my daughter's first trip (at 2) We went a lot, to DL and WDW, in the following years. Those were financially lean years for me, but with DVC we had a deluxe hotel stay at many resorts ( paid for over 12 months with the dues spread out) and we used the heck out of our annual passes. So many memories...Then my family changed and grew and I can still take my teenagers for a great family vacay every 18mo our so. I can afford to splurge a little more. My now teenage youngest daughter considers Disney "our thing" and last year in the midst of the pandemic I bought another contract. We used those points to visit Aulani as part of a wonderful Hawaiian vacation, and visited WDW 3x this year. Never thought I would buy another contract with escalating prices, but with the way things have changed with availability, I wanted to guarantee the ability to book at GCV. I am not missing the annual passes, it no longer makes financial sense for us to purchase them. I still use the dining and other discounts. I know I will enjoy those points, for many years after BRV expire. If it made financial sense for me I would probably buy again, who knows what will happen when I get some grandkids to spoil...

 

[Heather07438]

We're planning a long BLT GV stay down the road that would cost almost $20,000 if booked with cash. It's absurd. I feel like a Saudi Prince or something tossing ridiculous amounts of money around!

I got a good giggle out of that