Peak season- worth the points?

[suebeelin]

My brother is considering selling his DVC (or renting) bc his kids are now starting school and he doesn’t want to pull them out for Disney vacations. He seems to think the number of points during these school vacation (oftentimes peak seasons) is not worth it. So now he wants to sell his DVC.

We have thus far only vacationed during non peak season (October- early December, and January). Things may start changing as kids get older.

As a result he’s strongly encouraging me to sell my DVC as well, particularly due to the current high resale prices. I would prefer not to rent out points forever.

Any thoughts?

 

[keaster]

Peronally I would not sell (unless you are in need of the money). If you sell and decide you want to get back into DVC later, it will cost you more than when you originally purchased. (resale or direct).

Do you have enough points to cover the higher peak times? As kids get into higher grades it is a challenge. Our daughter is finishing grade 9 so we go during her march break (which is in magic season) and/or end of August before school starts (dream season). We never go at Christmas or Easter so we've never paid for the huge point seasons.

 

[Chuck S]

Ioften travel in June immediately after school let’s out for the summer. It isn’t peak season. It is pretty nice, but expect rain in the afternoons. I have never been during peak season in December. But there are plenty of times to travel with kids that are not peak season.

 

[Deb & Bill]

When our son was in school, we'd leave the day after school let out (or right after school let out on that day), and stay until about June 10 when the points go up. We were lucky that his schools let out in late May.

 

[drusba]

Real peak point seasons like Easter weeks and Christmas are crowded to a complete extreme but we did them a number of times when confined to school schedules. But we also learned that you may be able to get non-peak times and still not take them out of school except maybe at most a day or two. A lot depends on your applicable school schedules. Ours always started mid-Aug but ended late May or first couple days of June giving us time in June before Jun 11 to go for a week and thus pay Dream season points, higher than your two lowest seasons but not Magic or Premier season. Others have a flip of that schedule in that they start early Sep but go until mid-June so they can book time in the last two weeks of August (also Dream Season). There were then a number of years where the Christmas vacation period did not really end until January 7 or 8 and thus we could book the week of Jan 1-8, lose at most a day or two of school, pay the lowest possible points, and see Christmas decorations for the first few days. In other words, you may not necessarily be confined to magic or premier point seasons.

 

[tjkraz]

Similar to others, we've found summer months to be quite manageable from a crowd standpoint. We were there for a week last summer which included July 4th. 7/4 itself was actually one of our most pleasant days in recent memory. We bucked the crowds by avoiding Magic Kingdom at night and going to Animal Kingdom. Pandora attractions were still quite busy but everything else had 5-10 minute waits. It was quite amazing.

If you're willing to pre-plan with FastPass+, it takes most of the sting out of it. Before FP+, you could only get one ride ticket at a time and never really knew what that return time would be until you arrive at the park. One could realistically walk into the Magic Kingdom at noon and discover the the next Splash Mountain FPs being distributed were not valid until 7pm. Now you can pre-plan for any arrival of your choosing and make the most of your time in the park.

When we go to the Magic Kingdom, we already know the exact times we can ride Space Mountain, Mine Train and Splash Mountain. If we fill in the rest of the evening with low demand/high capacity things like TTA, Laugh Floor, Philharmagic and Tiki Room, it's still a very worthwhile visit. Heck, if it's really busy and we have to wait 30 minutes for Small World or Haunted Mansion, it's not exactly the end of the world.

After the first 3 FPs are gone, the mobile app or kiosks can be used to secure even more passes. We've been very successful doing that, further minimizing wait times.

Planning around the summer heat is wise. Arriving at rope drop and planning to stay until closing is not an approach I would recommend. At the very least, split up the day: early morning visit / break / evening visit. Or stick more to the evenings, enjoying the pool or waterparks when its hottest.

 

[bumbershoot]

My thoughts are...you aren’t your brother. Why would he bother to strongly encourage you to do something just because he is?

Is he still planning on going to Disney? If so, how will he pay for it? If peak is the only time he can go he’ll be paying peak prices somehow or another.

How about you? Your kids are getting older...so you know what schools they’ll go to and what the schedules will be year after year? I have a friend who had her kids in totally separate schools until they both hit high school; she did charters and magnets and worked to get each kid in the perfect school for that kid each year. She couldn’t have made plans like this. Can you?


What if you wanted an adult trip? Send the kids to hang out with their uncle while you go off and have fun? Wouldn’t it be nice to have your Dvc? And your brother could do the same.


If everyone is done with Disney, then ok. If not, I’d hang onto it, personally.

 

[quandrea]

My thoughts are...you aren’t your brother. Why would he bother to strongly encourage you to do something just because he is?

Is he still planning on going to Disney? If so, how will he pay for it? If peak is the only time he can go he’ll be paying peak prices somehow or another.

How about you? Your kids are getting older...so you know what schools they’ll go to and what the schedules will be year after year? I have a friend who had her kids in totally separate schools until they both hit high school; she did charters and magnets and worked to get each kid in the perfect school for that kid each year. She couldn’t have made plans like this. Can you?


What if you wanted an adult trip? Send the kids to hang out with their uncle while you go off and have fun? Wouldn’t it be nice to have your Dvc? And your brother could do the same.


If everyone is done with Disney, then ok. If not, I’d hang onto it, personally.

Well put. Seasons of life change often. We are at a crossroads this year. Up until now we have homeschooled. We’ve been able to travel whenever we wish. Well come September, my eldest will enter a regular high school. We will now be tied to the school calendar. So we adapt and go in August this year. We’ve rented out points for 2019 since we won’t have APs anyway.

The thing is, this season of life is short compared to the life of my contract. Once all the kids are grown, things will change again. I plan on having my contracts until their expiration. It would take something catastrophic to change that.

 

[mister morrow]

i completely agree with bumbershoot.
sell your dvc if YOU want to.

my siblings and i are all in high school and college-- we go to disney during dream season (aug 16-31 to be exact), and we have a great time despite the heat.

if you and your family/whoever you regularly travel with is not inclined to going to disney then i think you should sell your timeshare.

btw, if you don't mind me asking, where's your dvc located?

 

[kboo]

We went over President's Week (touring plans estimate around 8-10 each day) and are going over Thanksgiving (currently estimated to be 9-10 at every park each day), pulling my ODD for 1 day. We will be going over Easter 2019 as well. So after several years when the kids were younger and we weren't held to a school schedule, we now are mostly "stuck" with peak seasons. We originally bought DVC for a late summer (late August trip) just before school started up again, but since buying DVC, we decided we wanted to try other seasons as well - so here we are booking trips in peak season and then adding on more points to pay for it.

It is breaking my heart to spend almost the same # of points for a studio over Easter as would get us a 1BR in late August, but the weather is nicer. Crowds will be worse, but we'll see how it goes this time before deciding whether we go back to summers-only or some combination of peak/summer in alternate years or something.

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

I teach HS so I am restricted to the school calendar so I usually go during school vacations or the summer. When we bought in, we knew that was the times that we were limited to and knew the points associated with those times. If you manage your points well, I think you can still get the value out of DVC. I'm always jealous of people who can go during low point season but in the end, I'm just glad to be able to go to Disney every year without hunting for discounts etc. for deluxe level hotels.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

The thing is, this season of life is short compared to the life of my contract. Once all the kids are grown, things will change again. I plan on having my contracts until their expiration. It would take something catastrophic to change that.

Exactly. We've made lots of changes over the years. You have to just roll with it.

In addition to what's already been mentioned....

We found there are many a 3 or 4 day weekend throughout the school year. If you can pull them for just 1 or 2 more, you may end up with a shorter trip, but still a vacation.

We used to drive, but that added to the need for time off. So, we started flying to help accommodate shorter trips.

My older DD never wanted to miss a day of school, but my younger one doesn't mind (lol). The older one is in college now and has 6-7 weeks off from early Dec to end of Jan. So, we will be pulling the high-schooler this December (since she is agreeable) and we'll just hope it's not too terrible. We wouldn't do it every year, but once.....we'll give it a try. We would not have dreamed of doing that with the 1st one! Then, for 2019, my college girl has agreed to miss a few days (gasp). After that we will have one college grad and one in college. Many college kids are out early May but who knows what the grad will be doing... Again, things change all the time!!!

You may find that you need to use more points and therefore space your trips a little further apart, but it's likely only temporary. Or if you do skip a few years entirely and rent...well...it goes by quicker than you think!

What did you plan on doing once the kids were grown or if they didn't want to or couldn't go anymore?

 

[SandyinMonterey]

My brother is considering selling his DVC (or renting) bc his kids are now starting school and he doesn’t want to pull them out for Disney vacations. He seems to think the number of points during these school vacation (oftentimes peak seasons) is not worth it. So now he wants to sell his DVC.

We have thus far only vacationed during non peak season (October- early December, and January). Things may start changing as kids get older.

As a result he’s strongly encouraging me to sell my DVC as well, particularly due to the current high resale prices. I would prefer not to rent out points forever.

Any thoughts?
We only travel when our daughter is out of school. Most of our vacations have been during Easter. We’ve been to WDW Christmas week with my parents before my daughter was born. It’s something my parents always wanted to do. My Dad just retired, mom too. I’m grateful that we were able to take that trip because he passed away 8 months later. It was his last Christmas. Yes, holidays are crowded but it’s manageable. We have points to use up so we’re doing a long weekend in March & it’s not peak season. We’ve used points toward a Disney cruise too. My daughter is only entering 7th grade but I can see a time when she goes to college & me & my husband go to Disney.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

I’ve owned for 19 years. In the beginning we traveled whenever, my son was 2. Then it was travel strictly adhering to the school schedule. We never traveled peak time, Easter & Christmas Break is/was just too busy. We always booked Disney/DVC the first week of June before the 10th, cheaper points and before the big heat of Jul/Aug & Sep, always adding a waterpark day. I never took him out of school to vacation, he agreed that trying to catch up is to hard, schooling is too fast paced for these kids. Now, he’s almost 22, our usage has evolved, more long weekends or 4 day weekends, Food and Wine, Flower & Garden Show. And now instead of the 1st week of June, it’s 3-4 days before he heads back to college around Aug 9-13th +/- . I’ve also given him use of DVC with his friends, and I go for weekends to Food & Wine with my fiends. My advice, sell if you want to sell, but until you know for sure that it’s what you want or need to do, then rent your points out. Or maybe bank your points and come every other year, for a longer, more convenient vacation. It doesn’t always have to be Disney, there is Hilton Head, Vero Beach or even Hawaii. DVC ownership is an exercise in flexibility, and thus far I’ve been able to assimilate it seamlessly in my family life, through financial difficulties and even cancer. I’m happy I could hang on to it and I see it even evolving further, bringing future grand children to share my love of Disney. You sell because it no longer works for you, whatever the reason, but not because it doesn’t work for someone else.

 

[kniquy]

If you have every intention of continuing to vacation at WDW then do not sell, even if you want to take some time off then bank the points and then you can afford to go at peak time. Just because kids are in school is really no reason to sell. You can still go. Taking kids out of school for a week really isn't ideal but if you can plan a long weekend by them missing only a day or two then not a big deal. Or plan for right when school gets out. Certainly it will be hotter in may/june compared to what you are used to but not unbearable.

If you are on the fence and unsure then commit to renting for a couple years -- see how you feel when you are not able to go. If you are going through withdrawal then keep the contract. If you have found other vacations that suit your family better, then sell. At least with renting you still own it, the contract will be paying for itself and if you have a regret you just start using it yourself again. You also have to figure that this is just a phase because at some point the kids will be older in high school and may not want to go -- so there is adult only trips, then they will be off in college -- again adult only trips, but then at some point they will want to go again when they are older or they will want to use the contract for their own trips. This is just a phase and not a permanent situation.

As far as it being worth the extra points - you have to figure that the cost of hotel rooms is more expensive at those peak times, so despite being more points it is still a savings compared to what they are charging for rooms.

I would not let my brothers decision influence my own decision for my family, so let him know that you intend on keeping yours for the time being. He may want that cash that the contract will bring in. It is enticing to think you can probably sell and to bring in a good amount of cash, BUT if WDW vacations are still on your radar it would be a mistake to sell.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

"The thing is, this season of life is short compared to the life of my contract. Once all the kids are grown, things will change again."
Completely agree with this, quandrea statement.

You may not want to rent because you are thinking of doing it yourself and a big hassle, but renting through David's is really easy.
kniquy's post above puts it very well.

 

[Dean]

My brother is considering selling his DVC (or renting) bc his kids are now starting school and he doesn’t want to pull them out for Disney vacations. He seems to think the number of points during these school vacation (oftentimes peak seasons) is not worth it. So now he wants to sell his DVC.

We have thus far only vacationed during non peak season (October- early December, and January). Things may start changing as kids get older.

As a result he’s strongly encouraging me to sell my DVC as well, particularly due to the current high resale prices. I would prefer not to rent out points forever.

Any thoughts?

I would encourage him to keep it for a couple of years and see how it goes, esp if there isn't a financial need. There may be times he can travel that are not Magic or above. No doubt the higher seasons, esp premier, are a challenge financially and tend to provide less value. But he can back off a couple of years, rent then decide. If he sells, he can't get back to the same place and same options for the same price. He'll either lose the perks or have to pay a lot more for them.

 

[hakepb]

We’ve been in the peak time (summer and Christmas week) the past few years, and I can’t imagine not using DVC, even if it means smaller rooms and some supplementing with cash rooms.

After trying a surprise Christmas Day trip, the boys loved it so much they asked us to do it 2 more years and counting..yes they want to go with us to WDW knowing it means fewer gifts under the tree

 

[lovin'fl]

Wow! We used our DVC and even added on more and more (for 8 contracts) while our kids went through school. Even did multiple trips per year many times. Our kids are all in college now and we still go. DH and I do sans kid trips (started those when our kids were in HS) and the kids join us at times (when they can, they love to). While they were in school, it was even harder for us as my 2 DDs also played competitive softball that went from Sept through right before Thanksgiving and then started winter workouts in Jan and Feb and then practices and tourneys again March through July.

So we did Aug trips for many years. Also did occasional Xmas trips and late January when the schools had a winter break. Aug wasn't too high in points and late Jan was low. Then what we did for Xmas was to book the days leading up to Xmas and then check out on Dec 25th. So really the 24th has the only high points night. We'd go around Dec 19 or 20 and they'd have to miss a day or 2 of school maybe, depending how it fell. It would be a 5 or 6 nighter but that was fine. It's easy to use them points. If not, you can rent and then get back to using them down the line.

Also, we did some Hilton Head trips mixed in and one Vero trip. We added a visit to Universal to the Vero trip. That was an Aug trip. We did New Years with friends at HHI not too long ago. That was fun. I took my mom and DDs on a couple trips, Aug or May trips. May when DDs graduated so that they were done school mid May. And then this May after their first year of college.

 

[crisi]

Ioften travel in June immediately after school let’s out for the summer. It isn’t peak season. It is pretty nice, but expect rain in the afternoons. I have never been during peak season in December. But there are plenty of times to travel with kids that are not peak season.

We started going in late August (our kids didn't get out of school until mid-June, but didn't go back until September). It was hot, but not peak season and crowds were reasonable. It was a little more in terms of points than our previous October, but we also discovered that - especially as the kids hit middle and high school - we needed fewer days.