Paid Cash $ saved £'s and points!! :-)

[catherine]

Originally we were staying at OKW using points and purchasing the DDP. However I've just booked the same dates, accomodation etc. with Disney UK and with free dining I've ended up saving the points that we were going to use and approx £300!

 

[Neoshoegal]

Nice! Some extra spending money is never a bad thing!

 

[wayneg]

I looked at renting points this August for OKW, I think it was 248 points for the 16 nights. If I paid £5/point thats £1,240. Only paid £1,456 for OKW with DDP for 3 of us.
I have never found renting or owning points good value but I know many do.

 

[karentan]

i'm looking at renting 13-17 points for a one night stay, so for us its good, but i looked into it for 2 weeks and it didnt work out as nice!
i PM'd a few people yesterday, just waiting to hear back from them......

 

[wilma-bride]

What you have to consider is that those of us who own DVC aren't paying £5 per point each and every time we use our points - I have never considered that renting points is good value (although usually it does work out heaper than paying cash for the same size accommodation) but owning them certainly is.

 

[catherine]

Just to point out that we were not renting points. It just so happens that because of free dining it's cheaper for us to book accomodation and get the DDP free than it is for us to use points and get the DDP through MS and pay for it when we get there!

 

[wayneg]

What you have to consider is that those of us who own DVC aren't paying £5 per point each and every time we use our points - I have never considered that renting points is good value (although usually it does work out heaper than paying cash for the same size accommodation) but owning them certainly is.

Yes Joh correct not paying £5/point but take into account annual dues ( I believe approx £800/year OKW x 248) and lost interest over the years on your initial investment if you had invested rather than buying DVC it works out at more than £5/point.
Even not taking into account the inital investment just the £800 dues is not a great deal with the current general public offer of 42% disc and free DDP.
I agree if you only want to stay onsite and Disney don't give these offers then DVC might be a good option. if I owned DVC I would be spitting feathers with the current offer. why give a great offer to someone like me that would prefer to be offsite when a loyal DVC member pays top money and no free DDP.

 

[Pootle]

Yes Joh correct not paying £5/point but take into account annual dues ( I believe approx £800/year OKW x 248) and lost interest over the years on your initial investment if you had invested rather than buying DVC it works out at more than £5/point.

Hi Wayne, had to jump in here because I'm a long-time DVC member and have kept very detailed records of my costs of membership over the years and the points to me are definitely NOT more than £5 per point.

Each year on my spreadsheet I have 2 figures for cost of my points, one is simply the cost of the dues per point, the other figure is total purchase price of points multiplied by the interest I could get in a tax-free cash ISA divided by my number of points added to the dues. Sorry if you've dozed off with that, LOL - and I am still comfortably under the £5 per point.

Yes I did buy my most of my points in the low $60s per point; but many people are paying just a little more than that resale now. I can still sell and get all my money back (although I don't expect this to continue to be the case as the years roll on) - how many non-cash investments can you say that about these days? Not that it's ever been seen as an 'investment'. Oh, and I've had a blast using my points over the past 13 years and have no intention of selling

.... if I owned DVC I would be spitting feathers with the current offer. why give a great offer to someone like me that would prefer to be offsite when a loyal DVC member pays top money and no free DDP.

I'm not spitting feathers at all. It's obvious to all why there are those great deals out there at the moment. It doesn't harm me and I still expect to get my good deals when the economy picks up. Previously, the free dining offers were only available during the times of the year I wouldn't visit if it were free - because I went in those months summer months when I was tied to school holidays and hope I never have to do so again!

I've said many times that I don't think that DVC is a good fit for a lot of people, but for those of us who did our research, it's been a great way to get nice accommodation on site at a really good price. It is not bargain basement and nor is it true deluxe IMHO, but it's been one of my best buys

 

[wilma-bride]

Originally we were staying at OKW using points and purchasing the DDP. However I've just booked the same dates, accomodation etc. with Disney UK and with free dining I've ended up saving the points that we were going to use and approx £300!

Are you saying that the cost of the dining plan for your party was £300 more than you are now paying for your accommodation and tickets, with free dining - if so, that's fairly impressive. Would be interested to know how though

 

[wayneg]

Sorry Moira I stand corrected, I would have expected over £5/point. As I say DVC works well for many, if you want onsite every year I am sure it works out better than paying rack rate and over the years the savings will make up for odd years when offers beat DVC costs but you know me, I prefer getting deals trip by trip, if I commited to DVC then they offered DDP to general public I would go mad. I am just in middle of getting broadband upgraded and a monthly reduction with Virginmedia because they are offering new customers better deals than old customers, something that annoys me so much. I don't think businesses look after their loyal customers enough.

 

[catherine]

Are you saying that the cost of the dining plan for your party was £300 more than you are now paying for your accommodation and tickets, with free dining - if so, that's fairly impressive. Would be interested to know how though

We were originally staying on points and adding the DDP through MS. We have now cancelled that and booked a package through Disney UK it has cost us approx £300 less than it would have done if we'd paid for the DDP when we got over there!

 

[Pootle]

I am just in middle of getting broadband upgraded and a monthly reduction with Virginmedia because they are offering new customers better deals than old customers, something that annoys me so much. I don't think businesses look after their loyal customers enough.

LOL Wayne, tell me about it - I'm just doing the same thing with Virginmedia right now - and not for the first time!

FWIW, I never pay more than I need to for anything, and your posts make me smile so often . Your attitude to flights, rooms etc could have been mine 15 years ago .... as in: get me there as cheaply as possible, room needs to be convenient but so long as it's clean it doesn't matter; hardly ever in it etc ..... But then something happened ..... age in my case I think

Now I want nicer accommodation with lovely grounds, more often than not, PE or business flights .... so beware Wayne, your August trip with business class flights, DVC accommodation and a son whose years of travelling with you are probably limited (been there too!) could even see a change in you

 

[paulh]

ok i just did a sample booking and for 2 weeks in a studio for 2 adults and 2 teens for 2 weeks in aug comes out at £2150
poits would be rougthly 200 for the duration(havent done a trial booking to see but around the ball park)
so if you did work on the £5 per point thats £1,000 leaving you with £1150 for tickets and DDP
OK you get the free ddp but if your staying on points you wouldent have to buy any tickets(we have tickets from previous years so buying stupid)
If on ponts DDP cost for 4 $120 per day 14 nights =$1680 around £1182,
You will have to use points sooner or later
Paulh

 

[catherine]

ok i just did a sample booking and for 2 weeks in a studio for 2 adults and 2 teens for 2 weeks in aug comes out at £2150
poits would be rougthly 200 for the duration(havent done a trial booking to see but around the ball park)
so if you did work on the £5 per point thats £1,000 leaving you with £1150 for tickets and DDP
OK you get the free ddp but if your staying on points you wouldent have to buy any tickets(we have tickets from previous years so buying stupid)
If on ponts DDP cost for 4 $120 per day 14 nights =$1680 around £1182,
You will have to use points sooner or later
Paulh

That's if you get the QSDP. The regular DDP costs $160 per day giving you a total of $2240 for a 14 night stay, which I guess would be arounf £1500 depending on the exchange rate at the time.

 

[wilma-bride]

So you're saying it's cost you £1200 for a studio at OKW for 14 nights, including the base ticket and the dining plan? That's not a bad price at all.

 

[ScottishDisMam]

Yes Joh correct not paying £5/point but take into account annual dues ( I believe approx £800/year OKW x 248) and lost interest over the years on your initial investment if you had invested rather than buying DVC it works out at more than £5/point.
Even not taking into account the inital investment just the £800 dues is not a great deal with the current general public offer of 42% disc and free DDP.
I agree if you only want to stay onsite and Disney don't give these offers then DVC might be a good option. if I owned DVC I would be spitting feathers with the current offer. why give a great offer to someone like me that would prefer to be offsite when a loyal DVC member pays top money and no free DDP.

Actually Wayne, your right in my case. We just bought in a couple of years ago and have only had one holiday out of our points and I was really upset when I saw the great offers with 42% discount etc. It took us 6 years to finally decide to buy and then suddenly all these great offers come on, and TBH we could use the money we paid now in the current financial climate, but will have to ride it out now and will feel better once we've got a few trips under our belts and recouped our costs so to speak.

Lisa

 

[Frances999]

IMHO the current offers make DVC membership absolutely not worth it for those who travel during the summer months. The free dining and 42% off offers are exceptional value-for-money and with the exchange rate as it stands, and the inevitable rises in annual dues, it isn't worthwhile investing in DVC at the moment.

 

[paulh]

IMHO the current offers make DVC membership absolutely not worth it for those who travel during the summer months. The free dining and 42% off offers are exceptional value-for-money and with the exchange rate as it stands, and the inevitable rises in annual dues, it isn't worthwhile investing in DVC at the moment.

We have looked at dvc as a long tearm,bougth 10 years ago and its paid for itself.OK there are offers around now but when things pick up they will dry up and rack rate increse.make my $64 a point buy in look cheap.i have had at least my 7 trips to break even so now were on dues for stays
now if disney did daily dinning like universal they would make a killing
Paulh

 

[natalielongstaff]

now if disney did daily dinning like universal they would make a killing
Paulh

im surprised they havn't done that before now !