Parents considering DVC - a few questions on their behalf

[J. Galt]

We have been coming to WDW every other year with my whole family (my parents, my family and my sister's family). My parents are now contemplating buying into DVC. They would like enough points to cover all our rooms (or maybe for a Grand Villa for all of us). At this point in their lives, their DVC contract will most likely outlive them (or God-willing, if they are still with us, I don't think they will want to be hitting WDW ). What happens to your DVC membership after you die? Can you will it down? Would my parents be better off just putting my sister and my names on the membership right off the bat?

I hate talking about my parents potential death , but they are viewing this as a gift to the entire family so unfortunately, this needs to be addressed.

 

[tomandrobin]

We have been coming to WDW every other year with my whole family (my parents, my family and my sister's family). My parents are now contemplating buying into DVC. They would like enough points to cover all our rooms (or maybe for a Grand Villa for all of us). At this point in their lives, their DVC contract will most likely outlive them (or God-willing, if they are still with us, I don't think they will want to be hitting WDW ). What happens to your DVC membership after you die? Can you will it down? Would my parents be better off just putting my sister and my names on the membership right off the bat?

I hate talking about my parents potential death , but they are viewing this as a gift to the entire family so unfortunately, this needs to be addressed.

Yes you can will the DVC membership. You can also add "other" family members to the contract so a will would become unnecessary.

To make things really easy, your parents can buy two contracts. Half the points in each contract. Then have you on one of the contracts, and your sister on the other. Simple and no fighting!

 

[Amgman]

We have been coming to WDW every other year with my whole family (my parents, my family and my sister's family). My parents are now contemplating buying into DVC. They would like enough points to cover all our rooms (or maybe for a Grand Villa for all of us). At this point in their lives, their DVC contract will most likely outlive them (or God-willing, if they are still with us, I don't think they will want to be hitting WDW ). What happens to your DVC membership after you die? Can you will it down? Would my parents be better off just putting my sister and my names on the membership right off the bat?

I hate talking about my parents potential death , but they are viewing this as a gift to the entire family so unfortunately, this needs to be addressed.

The DVC membership is like any other deeded property, it can be willed to anyone. So yes, your parents can leave the membership to you and your sister. You should seek tax advice as to whether it's better for your parents to will it versus having you listed on the deed from the get go. Hope this helps.

 

[Buckeye Fan]

Also, if you're looking at GVs, you can purchase points through Dis (2057 expiration date) or resale (2042 expiration date, but cheaper) and the GVs are a great value compared to the other resorts! Just something to think about as you're doing your research!

Best of luck!

 

[Mtnman44]

don't forget, purchase the points in smaller increments. For example, if 400 points are desired, consider 4x100 or some other combination that makes sense. There are numerous advantages to this and almost zero downside (the only one really is that you have to sign multiple sets of contract papers).

In the event that later not all the points are needed or the family would like to spilt up the points, this becomes possible whereas one large contract you are stuck with all or nothing.

 

[crisi]

If you want GVs buy a resort with GVs and be prepared to plan 11 months out.

Personally, I love my family. But we are putting them in seperate rooms - if I had to spend an entire week sharing space with my brother in law, I might dump him in the middle of Bay Lake wearing concrete shoes.

Also, while my kids get along great - if I had any intention of them inherieting the contract (don't think so - I'm likely to outlive mine - not by much), and I wanted enough points to justify it, I'd buy two contracts. Contracts cannot be split, and the fights over who got the most frosting on their peice of cake leads me to believe that the fights over who gets to use how many points when might not be pleasant.

 

[DVCRob]

We recently stayed in the GV at OKW. They vastly exceeded our expectations. We had the full capacity of 12 there and never once felt like we were stepping on top of each other. My ownership is through SSR, but if I ever buy more points it will be at OKW due to the less expensive nature of the points.

 

[tomandrobin]

We recently stayed in the GV at OKW. They vastly exceeded our expectations. We had the full capacity of 12 there and never once felt like we were stepping on top of each other. My ownership is through SSR, but if I ever buy more points it will be at OKW due to the less expensive nature of the points.

OKW is the best bang for your buck, point wise! But I do believe you should buy where you would want to stay the most.

But like Crisi said, not all DVC resorts have Grand Villas, BCV and VWL.

 

[J. Galt]

Thank you all for your replies. I wasn't even thinking along the lines of two (or more) contracts. That is a very interesting idea that I will share with my parents. I'm assuming you would just get two (or more) contracts with the same UY to make things simple for booking... is this right? I will have them check out the tax benefits as well. It would seem to me that having us listed on the deed would be the best route because then my sister and I could then take advantage of other DVC perks (reduced rates for AP, etc.), is this also a correct assumption?

We keep tellling my parents that they will want their own room. Our first trip we all stayed in a two bedroom villa together. That was pretty tight! My daughter had an ear infection while we were down there and kept everyone up for a couple of nights. It was pretty ugly. My parents have since moved into a studio. My sister and I have each added a child to our families now, so we have outgrown the two bedrooms at most resorts (apparently, we could all still fit in an AKL one, with the pull out chair). I think my parents miss having all the grandkids around them on our trips, though. It is kind of fun with all the cousins charging around full of sugar and excitement. I think they like being in the middle of that (for short periods of time, at least). Although, on our last trip I remember coming out of our bedroom with the kids toothbrushes trying to get them ready for bed (at a very late for our family 9:30 pm) and seeing my 1 1/2 year old sitting on the couch with a bag of potato chips and a diet coke watching God only knows what on the television with her older boy cousins . Oh well.... I guess that is what vacation is all about... the memories my kids will carry with them.

 

[tomandrobin]

I'm assuming you would just get two (or more) contracts with the same UY to make things simple for booking... is this right? I will have them check out the tax benefits as well. It would seem to me that having us listed on the deed would be the best route because then my sister and I could then take advantage of other DVC perks (reduced rates for AP, etc.), is this also a correct assumption?

You will get a Master contract and each additional purchase will become a sub-contract to the master. But essentially it will work as one contract. I wasn't even thinking about the other perks for being a DVC member, but that just makes it better all around.

We keep tellling my parents that they will want their own room. Our first trip we all stayed in a two bedroom villa together. That was pretty tight! My daughter had an ear infection while we were down there and kept everyone up for a couple of nights. It was pretty ugly. My parents have since moved into a studio. My sister and I have each added a child to our families now, so we have outgrown the two bedrooms at most resorts (apparently, we could all still fit in an AKL one, with the pull out chair). I think my parents miss having all the grandkids around them on our trips, though. It is kind of fun with all the cousins charging around full of sugar and excitement. I think they like being in the middle of that (for short periods of time, at least). Although, on our last trip I remember coming out of our bedroom with the kids toothbrushes trying to get them ready for bed (at a very late for our family 9:30 pm) and seeing my 1 1/2 year old sitting on the couch with a bag of potato chips and a diet coke watching God only knows what on the television with her older boy cousins . Oh well.... I guess that is what vacation is all about... the memories my kids will carry with them.

If traveling with ours, we rather break it down into seperate rooms too. But, you got to love those memories too....make them while you can!

 

[J. Galt]

My parents still aren't sure if they would buy directly from Disney or do resale from another source. From looking at these boards it would seem that if they wanted to split their points into two contracts (one for my sister and one for me) they would then buy a contract with 1/2 the points and then do an "add-on" (which I assume means just adding more points for your home resort) for the other half of the points to make it one master contract with sub-contract underneath (the alternative being just buying two unrelated contracts each for 1/2 the points with potential different use years). Am I correct, or have I muddled things? Can you buy at a sold out resort through resale and then do "add-ons" through Disney or is there a different way of going about this?

 

[tomandrobin]

My parents still aren't sure if they would buy directly from Disney or do resale from another source. From looking at these boards it would seem that if they wanted to split their points into two contracts (one for my sister and one for me) they would then buy a contract with 1/2 the points and then do an "add-on" (which I assume means just adding more points for your home resort) for the other half of the points to make it one master contract with sub-contract underneath (the alternative being just buying two unrelated contracts each for 1/2 the points with potential different use years). Am I correct, or have I muddled things? Can you buy at a sold out resort through resale and then do "add-ons" through Disney or is there a different way of going about this?

Buying direct from Disney or resale depends on several factors. First is what resort do you want to own. Second, length of contract. If you want anything but SSR or AKV, then resale is the way to go. If you want AKV or SSr then buy from Disney.

The only problem with buying to seperate contracts, with different use years, is losing the ability to combine points for larger rooms. But if you are using them together, even that may not be a problem, just link the ressies.