Every time you go to Disney you have to pay to stay at a hotel. . If you stay at a Deluxe hotel, you may pay $300-$500 a night for a standard hotel room. So if you stay for 10 days, you are paying $3,000 to $5,000 for 10 nights stay. Even a moderate room for 10 nights will run you $1,800-$2,500 for 10 nights.
When you purchase DVC, you have to pay Disney (or in resale the original owner) a sum of money upfront to buy into the property. This is large chunk of money upfront. I'll use the example of my resale contract, because it's more reasonable than direct from Disney:
I am paying $12,000 for the right to a room for the next 42 years. Spread across 42 years, that's about $300 a year that it will cost me. I also have to pay Disney a maintenance fee for the property, which right now is about $900 a year. That means I am paying about $1,200 for 10 nights stay. (You can think of it other ways with the $12000 up front cost. You could say it will cost you $1,200 for the next 10 years, and 0 or the 32 years after that. Whatever, the point is there is a large up front cost.)
However, when you take into account inflation, by paying that $12,000 now for the lower "room rates" (i.e.my annual maintenance fees) I should be paying MUCH, MUCH less 10 years or more from now. If you figure the room rates go up by 4 %, as do my maintenance fees, 10 years from now the room rates will be in the $5000-$8000 range, and my maintenance fees will be $1600.
If you buy direct from Disney, the upfront cost is much higher (double or more) but the argument is the same.
You also have the option of spending MORE and getting 1 or 2 or 3 bedroom villas. While you can also do this direct with points.
Renting Points is still much cheaper than paying cash to Disney. However, it is also more expensive in the long run than owning DVC. (I won't run the numbers here, but again my points cost me about $8/ point whereas renting points go for $12-$15 a point.
Now, to answer the question of flexibility, does DVC give you more flexibility?
That answer in my view is clearly NO!
-It makes little sense (financially) to trade your DVC points for other forms of vacation, even internal to Disney. This limits you to the dozen or so resorts at WDW, Vero Beach, Hilton Head, Aulani, and the Grand Californian.
-In addition, to get into many of the resorts, you have to book right at the 7 month mark before your trip, and sometimes even then it is hard to get in if you want to travel at the most popular times for DVC - this is typically October - December, and any marathon weekend.
- With planning, you should be able to get into a variety of resorts. However, your own resort is the only one you can book at 11 months out, and generally should be able to get into when booking that far in advance.
- Another thing to note is that while DVC rooms are at Deluxe resorts, they aren't quite deluxe. You don't get daily housekeeping, and they aren't refurbed as often.
So, you see, the level of flexibility is not there. However, the cost savings can be huge. My calculations show that the cost to me of DVC including dues increasing 5 % a year will be $155,000 over the next 43 years. Staying in a Moderate hotel every year for the next 43 years would cost me $306,000, again assuming 5% rate increase every year. That's a $151,000. In addition, I would never be afford to stay deluxe. That would cost me $535,000 if I could afford it. Instead I pay $400,000 less.
Another way to think about it is like compound interest. The longer you "invest" in DVC, the more your savings compounds. BUT, you do have to be sure that this is how you are going to want to vacation a long time. (Else you can resell your DVC property some day, but I hesitate to tell people they should be relying on that.)
Hope that helps a little.
Bill
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