Point question/Advice

[krystyana]

Hi everyone! Ok here's the details...we are a family of three possibly four someday. We love Disney and love to travel. We are considering buying DVC and thought we'd seek advice about what is a comfortable amount of points to buy and your experiences. We are thinking between 240-270. Is this too little, too much? Any advice welcome! Also are yearly dues fixed or can they increase? Thanks All! All advice appreciated!

 

[Caskbill]

The number of points that comfortable for you will be very dependent on your personal preferences, your financial status, etc. No one here can really tell you what's the 'right' amount. It's different for everybody.

Your best bet would be to look at the point charts and compare them to your typical vacations and see how they match up. You can compare between resorts, between different dates.

Feel free to download my DVC-Planner program. One of it's features is you can put in the dates for a vacation, and with one click see how many points it would take for that vacation in every combination of DVC-Resort and Room Type there is, being shown in a table display. (See link in signature below. The table display screen shows in the animated gif image as the one with the mostly yellow background)

Dues do go up annually, based on actual expenses. The DVC executive board has a fiduciary responsibility, so any increases in dues can only be for actual increases in expenses. You'll see that in the past dues have been pretty consistent with inflation. In the early days of OKW, on a couple of years dues actually went down.

Keep in mind that an increase in dues is still better than paying an increase on a hotel room. For example, mid season, a Studio at OKW weekdays is 10 points, and if dues were about $4/point, that's equivalent to $40. If dues went up 3% the next year, that's an increase of 12-cents/point, or an increase of $1.20 per night for that same room. Compare that to a hotel room of $150/night. If it goes up 3% the next year, along with inflation, it goes up $4.50/night to $154.50/night. That's an increase of 375% more than the DVC increase. This is where membership really pays off in the long run.

At 3% annual inflation, after 20 years DVC dues would be about $7.22/point, so that 10 point/night room requires $72.22 worth of 'dues'.

The $150/night hotel, after 20 years of 3% inflation, increases to $271/night.

DVC net increase = $32.22
Hotel net increase = $121.00

If you figure the difference between the DVC dues payments and equivalent hotel prices, multiply by how many nights you stay each year, and basically apply that ever increasing difference toward your initial purchase costs, you'll find that after about 5-8 years it's all even. After that date, you're staying for the cost of the dues along.

Of course, the beauty is that you don't have to stay in a DVC-Studio. In that case you don't compare costs as much as you compare lifestyle. What's the 'value' of staying in a 2-B/R DVC unit, compared to paying the same amount for a regular hotel room.

 

[sleepydog25]

Caskbill is spot on, especially on two points, about which I'll reiterate. First, it is a lifestyle choice and the amount of points for one family of four might not work for another. One thing you don't mention is how frequently you travel to WDW. If it's an every other year thing, you may need fewer points since you can bank and/or borrow points. As Caskbill mentions, figure how you like to travel and what would work best for you in terms of arrangements. We are a family of three, but DW and I enjoy having our own bed while letting DD have hers in a separate room. And we like having a kitchen since we can eat breakfast and the occasional odd dinner there. Thus, a 1BR or 2BR works for us--we prefer the 2BR. . .but those use more points.

Second, though some would try to argue that DVC isn't really that great of a way to prepay your accomodations the next 40-50 years, the last point mentioned by Caskbill is very appropriate: what is the true value to you of staying in a 1, 2, or 3BR suite during the next few decades compared to staying in a hotel room? For us, it was a comparative lifestyle decision since we like to sprawl out and relax on vacation vice being cooped up in a single or deluxe room. Sure, we're not in the room for large portions of each day, but when we come back "home" to our 2BR, we can let our daughter watch Disney on her TV while we catch up on the news on ours; or we can soak in the jetted spa in the master bath; or we can cook up a quick snack in the kitchen, sit on the large balcony and read a book, or just spread out and do nothing without bumping into each other. Only you can decide if DVC is worth the cost based on how you plan to vacation in the coming years. But, this board is a good place to help you make the right decision. Good luck! aw:

 

[krystyana]

Thanks so much for the advice so far. We generally go to disney once a year staying at the beach club or other deluxe. We love to travel so would probably take advantage of the other travel opportunities also. We generally travel to disney off season but would take other vacations through the DVC during the summer and/or holidays. Our dilemma is deciding our comfortable number and guess I have some research to do! Thanks so much!

 

[ccw]

I'm a DVC member who only bought a small number of points (80 OKW). My brother bought lots of BW points (350) at the same time, so I occasionally do tap into his points (and reimburse him, of course) but for the most part my number of points is perfect for me. I avail myself of the banking and borrowing privileges, don't necessarily go to WDW every year,try to travel at non-peak times and usually not on weekends, and can make studios work if needed. For the past five years, I have used my points at OKW, BW, Vero, and HH and in 2 months will be staying for three nights in a Grand Villa at OKW... over the weekend! I like my small allotment of points because I am not saddled with a big annual dues bill...but WDW is close enough (9 hours by car or 1 1/2 hours by air) that I am happy with shorter stays and, as I said before, I do not have to go every year either. I realize this would not be the case for most people but just wanted to share my experience with smaller allotments (Besides, you can ALWAYS add on!)

 

[dianeschlicht]

The number of points needed for any family is a very personal decision. We thought we could get by with 230 on our original purchase, but in less than a year, we learned we really needed more, so we added on 150 more same resort, same use year to make bookeeping easy. The 380 seems to be just about right for us. We often go to WDW 2-3 times and occationally use points for an exchange to Hawaii (thinking about doing that again soon).

 

[Disney Doll]

krystyana, let me tell you about our DVC experience, and perhaps that will help you a bit.

DH & I are in our mid 40's, no kids. We bought a 200 point contract at OKW in 1997. We figured we'd be staying in studios, since they were nicer than a hotel room & had a little kitchenette. What more do you need on vacation, right?

Well, one year we went with another couple, so we got a 2BR. Hello!!!!!!! Huge, beautiful unit with a full kitchen, full laundry in the unit, master BR with jacuzzi, 2nd BR with another full bath and 2 queen size beds. We were hooked. We always wanted to stay in a 1 or 2BR after that, to get all that room, the kitchen, the laundry...OMG!!!! So, for a few years we did some "creative" point spending. We'd get there on a Friday, stay the weekend in a "regular" hotel, then move to the DVC property for the cheaper weeknight point cost. We did this for quite a few years, and were pretty much able to go twice a year for about a week or so each time. In 2001, DH's parents died within 9 months of each other and we inherited money, some of which we used to purchase more points so that we wouldn't have to do the "creative" point spending if we didn't want to...we'd have enough points to "blow" them on the weekend nights.Don't get me wrong, there are times when I liek to stay at one of the regular hotels and then move...I like to try the different places and it almost feels like 2 different vacations when you do that. But then there are other times when moving might be a pain or whatever. Now we have some flexibiltiy.

Hopefully my story was helpful. Good luck with your decision.

PS-Consider buying 2 smaller contracts as opposed to one larger one...easier to get rid of a smaller point amount should the awful day come where you'd have to sell your points for some reason.

 

[btrim]

I agree with Disney Doll in that after you decide how many points you need (want?) you should try to buy in smaller contracts. If you go through Disney, you can always get the same use year. Sometimes if you are buying resale, you can find the same use year. Anyway, we are in our 50's and our children are out of the house, have one grandchild with another coming in April. We love Disney and so do our kids and grandchild. After only one year, I knew we didn't have enough points (175 original contract + 25 small add-on). I convinced DH that we needed to add-on when you got the extra one-time 100 points when you purchased an add-on of 120 points. I rented the extra points and that will help make the payments for the first year. Now we have 320 points in three contacts all same use year. I wish we had more, but this should work for us because we do have another time share if we want to trade or go to Orlando and not stay on property.

Good luck with your decision. You will never be sorry when you do decide to buy.

 

[cyiland]

Ok here's the details...we are a family of three possibly four someday. We love Disney and love to travel. We are considering buying DVC and thought we'd seek advice about what is a comfortable amount of points to buy and your experiences. We are thinking between 240-270. Is this too little, too much? Any advice welcome!

The comments you've seen that this is all a personal decision certainly apply. On the other hand, you aksed for advice and comments, so hopefully these will be of value to you or someone else.

We're a family of four (I'm 40, DW is a few years younger, and daughters 7 and 4). We love to travel too, but our girls both have their own bedrooms at home, so between being tired, being in different surroundings and sharing a room, it's a little tougher for them to sleep well. That said, we find ourselves drawn to the 2 bdrm units when we visit WDW with just our family. This way, we can put the two girls in one room (on 2 beds, so the young one doesn't keep the older one awake), and still enjoy the living/kitchen area before we retire to the master bedroom for the night. If we were in a 1 bedroom unit, I think the kids would be dictating OUR bedtime somewhat.

That said, we started with a 200 point BCV contract, and about 6 months later (before we made our first visit "home"), we decided to add another 100 points. 300 points works pretty well for us, I think. It gives us nearly enough points that we could spend 7 nights in a 2bdrm BCV unit during "Magic Season" (requires 350 points) each year. Or we can get creative (as others suggested earlier, and as we often do), and make the points go further. In fact, this year, we are borrowing from next year, paying for the first (Sat) night at Pop Century, then transferring to BCV, where we'll have *2* 2bdrm units (traveling with family) for 3 nights. Then we'll heading to a Grand Villa (first time for us!) at BWV for another 3 nights before returning. Yes, that means we'll have to wait a bit before we travel again, but for US, 300 points hit that "sweet spot".

Best wishes if you decide to make the jump and join DVC!