Poll: For those of you who have owned DVC greater than 5 years, do you plan to stay long term or sell?

[Cyberc1978]

We bought in 2009 so now 13 year owners and no plan to sell at all. We own 900 points...475 owned with my three adult children and 425 just DH and I.

Out of curiosity since your contracts are titled differently do you then need two logins to manage your points or can they still be managed under 1 login?

 

[Sandisw]

Out of curiosity since your contracts are titled differently do you then need two logins to manage your points or can they still be managed under 1 login?

All under one log in. I see all my memberships and just use the drop down to toggle between them when booking trips on each one.

My adult kids only see the two contracts in the Aug UY.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

At the same time, I want to make sure we aren’t thinking about joining something that many are thinking of jumping ship from.

Devil's advocate... If you buy resale instead of direct from Disney, you mitigate a TON of the financial risk. If you try it and it's not for you, it's very easy to sell.

 

[janischa]

Even though I think all the changes are horrible, we'll definitely be keeping our points. We were lucky that we managed to buy the points resale at a great value, but the original reasoning still stands: as BWV owners, we'd be able to get a standard studio for as little 15 points, which translated into maintenance costs is cheap for any 'ordinary' hotel room. Worst come to worst, we'd simply do a resort holiday without going into the parks and enjoy the pool, the community centre, the lovely surroundings with the beach of BCV a free boat ride away, the (evening) entertainment, etc...
What I'm just trying to say is that for us DVC has merit by itself, even loose from what Disney does....
(and if we desperately need a 'rides' fix, Universal isn't that far away)

 

[CarolynFH]

Members since 1997, haven't added on or sold anything, plan to hang in there although it's definitely possible that we'll expire before our contracts do. A couple of weeks ago we had our first serious conversation about maybe selling one of our contracts - but we're booked for next January, had to borrow some points to do it, have a tentative trip with DD and DSiL (and hopefully a Dear Grandbaby) for January 2024 that would take all our available points, so, at this time we're not selling anything. But DH has stopped singing the praises of DVC to families we meet in standby lines, and we talk about DVC only if someone asks us.

 

[stlrod]

After 26 years, we haven't decided.

 

[koncra]

Haha I’ve heard “addonitis” is very real! If we do end up purchasing and love it, I’m already bracing myself that I might be tempted by some Poly2 points in a couple years!

Thanks so much to everyone for the thorough responses. Reading all of this has been incredibly helpful. We still have a lot to think about and discuss, but this helps us to see the big picture from varying perspectives.

You got that right. Started with 120 AKL points, added 50 OKW and then sold those to buy 75 at Poly

 

[gatordoc]

We’re in long term. We currently live in Florida, but for a variety of reasons are looking forward to retiring elsewhere. That said, we have lots of friends and family in the Orlando area, and our DVC points will allow us comfortable accommodations for a month or so each year to come and visit them. We’ll be done with theme parks by that time, but will still enjoy the theming and amenities of the DVC resorts.

 

[Her Dotness]

Haha I’ve heard “addonitis” is very real! If we do end up purchasing and love it, I’m already bracing myself that I might be tempted by some Poly2 points in a couple years!

It may be "forced to buy more points" rather than merely tempted to, which is what happened to us.

If you haven't already, click on DVC on the toolbar at top of this screen. When a second window for DVCFan opens, click again on "DVC Points Charts" on that toolbar and look at points charts for the resorts you are thinking of buying into.

Those charts are crucial in determining how many points you'll need to buy for the length of stay you want at the resort(s) you're considering and, most importantly, time of year you'll go most often.

We didn't fully understand how important it is to buy more points than you absolutely must have for a studio. Because the next year, point costs to stay may get rearranged, and suddenly, you haven't enough for the stay you want without banking, borrowing and ending up going only every 2-3 years.

It may be much sooner than you expected that you'll need to add more points, the ugly surprise we got after only two years.

Compare points needed for a stay in 2022 and then 2023, and you'll soon understand what I mean.

 

[BekCG45]

Devil's advocate... If you buy resale instead of direct from Disney, you mitigate a TON of the financial risk. If you try it and it's not for you, it's very easy to sell.

Yes, this is something we are definitely considering. I am eyeing a couple of SSR resale contracts currently.

I am having a very hard time with the direct vs resale decision. The incentives on Riviera seem pretty good and then we would have zero restrictions on where we could stay. We could use our Disney visa to have spending money for our next trip. Maintenance fees are high but looking at charts, they have not increased much at all since opening. Other resorts have increased quite a bit in the last 4 years in comparison. I’m wondering if that will even out over time? We stayed at Caribbean beach a few months ago and loved that whole Epcot resort area and the skyliner. We like all the different room options and the 2070 expiration is nice.

Then we think about paying significantly less upfront for Saratoga and that is also very tempting. We could bank money we saved not buying Riviera direct for our next trip and still come out with more points. We still have the O14 resorts to choose from and we like the Disney Springs area.

So, we are in a bit of limbo deciding what to do and which route to take. I know there are a lot of different opinions on here as to which is best and there are such good points on both sides of the debate.

 

[BekCG45]

It may be "forced to buy more points" rather than merely tempted to, which is what happened to us.

If you haven't already, click on DVC on the toolbar at top of this screen. When a second window for DVCFan opens, click again on "DVC Points Charts" on that toolbar and look at points charts for the resorts you are thinking of buying into.

Those charts are crucial in determining how many points you'll need to buy for the length of stay you want at the resort(s) you're considering and, most importantly, time of year you'll go most often.

We didn't fully understand how important it is to buy more points than you absolutely must have for a studio. Because the next year, point costs to stay may get rearranged, and suddenly, you haven't enough for the stay you want without banking, borrowing and ending up going only every 2-3 years.

It may be much sooner than you expected that you'll need to add more points, the ugly surprise we got after only two years.

Compare points needed for a stay in 2022 and then 2023, and you'll soon understand what I mean.

Thank you, yes this is definitely so important! I have the points charts pulled up in different browser windows for the resorts we are considering and have been going back and forth between them a lot. I feel like I have the SSR and RIV charts almost memorized. I know that probably sounds odd as they could not be more different.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Yes, this is something we are definitely considering. I am eyeing a couple of SSR resale contracts currently.

I am having a very hard time with the direct vs resale decision. The incentives on Riviera seem pretty good and then we would have zero restrictions on where we could stay. We could use our Disney visa to have spending money for our next trip. Maintenance fees are high but looking at charts, they have not increased much at all since opening. Other resorts have increased quite a bit in the last 4 years in comparison. I’m wondering if that will even out over time? We stayed at Caribbean beach a few months ago and loved that whole Epcot resort area and the skyliner. We like all the different room options and the 2070 expiration is nice.

Then we think about paying significantly less upfront for Saratoga and that is also very tempting. We could bank money we saved not buying Riviera direct for our next trip and still come out with more points. We still have the O14 resorts to choose from and we like the Disney Springs area.

So, we are in a bit of limbo deciding what to do and which route to take. I know there are a lot of different opinions on here as to which is best and there are such good points on both sides of the debate.

I was lucky because I don't like Riviera to begin with, so my direct-vs-resale decision was extremely easy.

 

[BekCG45]

I was lucky because I don't like Riviera to begin with, so my direct-vs-resale decision was extremely easy.

Haha yes that would help tremendously!!

 

[Her Dotness]

Then, please forgive my preaching to the choir.

Sounds like you're much better prepared than we were--and we didn't even realize how much more we needed to know despite having asked lots of questions.

 

[BekCG45]

Then, please forgive my preaching to the choir.

Sounds like you're much better prepared than we were--and we didn't even realize how much more we needed to know despite having asked lots of questions.

No apologies needed! I really appreciate all the time you have taken to share such good information with me. We definitely still have a lot to learn. I really appreciate you and the members of this board!

 

[DougEMG]

The reason I am asking, is because I have seen comments lately, (especially since the Poly2 announcement), that some don’t feel good about the direction DVC is going and have their exit strategy in place. I have seen this with discussion of annual passes as well. Obviously there is also a TON of excitement regarding Poly2 and many on here seem to be perfectly happy with their DVC membership, so there are many differing views.

My husband and I have been looking into DVC for a few months- podcasts, blogs, youtube videos, message boards, Disney guide, etc. I’m sure we still have a lot to learn, but we feel that it makes financial sense for our family and travel habits. At the same time, I want to make sure we aren’t thinking about joining something that many are thinking of jumping ship from. Maybe there is something about the direction DVC is going that I don’t fully understand because I am new to learning about it. Thanks for your votes and feedback!

I'm in a holding pattern until I see if I like or don't like all the changes that have happened at WDW since our last visit in 2019 (pre-covid). For us, the only point in owning DVC is because we like to go to the parks and want to be onsite when doing that. I have no interest in using DVC as a base for doing other things in Florida. Coming from the west coast, there aren't enough reasons for us to travel all the way to Florida if WDW ends up being a horrible experience. So right now I have my fingers crossed for our Oct/Nov trip.

 

[RoseGold]

IMO, buying DVC is a big commitment right now because of how Disney in general is acting. Many of the headline decisions for several years have been against the interests of DVC owners, even pre-Covid. To me, the RIV restrictions show exactly who DVC serves.

You don’t have to own a five figure asset to go to Disney or even stay DVC. Renting points even has upside as you can use any home resort.

 

[upritbass]

In it to win it. Until life events say otherwise.

Because no one can predict the future...

 

[limace]

We are primarily DL lovers-our larger contract is at VGC and we have a small AKV contract to qualify for. Blue card (back when you only needed 25 direct points to do that). We don’t anticipate selling either, but at this point have dropped plans to buy a larger WDW contract. We had anticipated alternating trips there with DL trips but did not enjoy our last trip-May 2021-nearly as much as we like our DL trips and our Universal stay on that trip-and the changes I’m seeing at the world don’t increase my excitement to go back.

And even with DVC-it’s so expensive. We are in the midst of a 10 day trip to Florence and Siena Italy with our kids as I write this. The total cost for this trip for us-lovely 2 bedroom apartments, air fare from West Coast US-is less than our trip to WDW was.

 

[McCrae]

These boards are great for gaining information, but I wouldn’t say the views expressed represent the majority of DVC owners. They tend to be from people with strong views. If you just look at the resale prices and how strong they are, it gives a better indication of how people feel about DVC. The vast majority are very happy.