Poll: In making a purchase decision, which of the following are your top three considerations?

[CaptainAmerica]

Defensive? I think you misinterpreted my comment. I am not defensive at all. I didn’t think you were saying that other peoples opinions are not legitimate. My point was only that I don’t get surprised when there a large number of people who like something I don’t. Especially when it comes to DVC. Being on these boards, we see all sorts of comments and opinions on why people like and bought into certain resorts. Heck, if “color scheme” was an option it may have also gotten a lot of votes for all we know. That’s all I’m saying. Nothing defensive.

My bad, I think I misread your tone.

I guess my main point is that Animal Kingdom Lodge is 20 minutes from Magic Kingdom. It's not in Haines City.

Thematically, the difference between Jambo House and Beach Club is enormous. Location-wise, they're 5 miles of highway and one left turn. If you love Beach Club, buy Beach Club. But if you love AKV, buying Beach Club to shave 10 minutes off your commute time is a surprising decision.

 

[koncra]

I picked: price, deed expiration and other. The other being point chart. Location was a close 4th but we usually have a car so that doesn't matter as much.

Your "other" is a great point and probably should have been included in the poll. Point charts are really important. 100 points at Old Key West is on a whole different planet than 100 points at Grand Floridian.

 

[bwvBound]

I said Price, Deed Expiration and Resale Point Restrictions.

Seems the resort itself is of no consideration to me as a purchase consideration. But for booking? That is a different story: location is king.

I am ADDING/UPDATING my own thoughts. Indeed, LOCATION was my #1 reason for buying DVC. I needed a timeshare that was close to the Dolphin hotel's conference facilities. DVC remains the only option w/in walking distance, best I know. Phew, I feel better now ... glad I could zoom out on my purchase decision thinking ...

 

[BeachClub2014]

Your "other" is a great point and probably should have been included in the poll. Point charts are really important. 100 points at Old Key West is on a whole different planet than 100 points at Grand Floridian.

Good feedback. I'm glad that I did include the "Other" option to cover other variables that people found important. It's been fun reading all of the responses and seeing the poll numbers.

 

[koncra]

Good feedback. I'm glad that I did include the "Other" option to cover other variables that people found important. It's been fun reading all of the responses and seeing the poll numbers.

Definitely wasn't a shot at you, OP! Was just pointing out how important point charts are. I probably would have had them in my top 3 as "other" if I had of thought of it when choosing

 

[BeachClub2014]

Definitely wasn't a shot at you, OP! Was just pointing out how important point charts are. I probably would have had them in my top 3 as "other" if I had of thought of it when choosing

Didn't read it as a shot at me, and appreciate your thoughts and comments.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

My bad, I think I misread your tone.

I guess my main point is that Animal Kingdom Lodge is 20 minutes from Magic Kingdom. It's not in Haines City.

Thematically, the difference between Jambo House and Beach Club is enormous. Location-wise, they're 5 miles of highway and one left turn. If you love Beach Club, buy Beach Club. But if you love AKV, buying Beach Club to shave 10 minutes off your commute time is a surprising decision.

No worries. Tone sometimes doesn't come across when typing comments into a chat. LOL.

I 100% agree on your point regarding, in essence, buying at the resort you LOVE regardless of location. That is always the mantra I tell people on here who are thinking about buying into DVC: buy where you want to stay or, in other words, buy at the resort you love. That is how we feel about BCV. We love the theming, amenities, vibe, and location that come along with BCV. It's all one big package. Actually, when I read the option of "Location" I took it to mean both physical location within WDW as well as the resort itself (i.e. is it simply your favorite resort?). That's why location was high on my list. BCV is our favorite resort AND right in the middle of two parks. On the flip side, I really like AKL but I would never buy there because it is just too out far out of the way.

 

[Sandisw]

My bad, I think I misread your tone.

I guess my main point is that Animal Kingdom Lodge is 20 minutes from Magic Kingdom. It's not in Haines City.

Thematically, the difference between Jambo House and Beach Club is enormous. Location-wise, they're 5 miles of highway and one left turn. If you love Beach Club, buy Beach Club. But if you love AKV, buying Beach Club to shave 10 minutes off your commute time is a surprising decision.

For sure no one should not buy what they enjoy because of transportation. I don’t like the buses and so if I stay at SSR…doesn’t happen often..it’s when we won’t be doing parks, or if we are, its when we plan to use ride share to go to and from parks.

Now, this last trip, I didn’t split stay and took a bus to MK and it confirmed why I do what I do!

 

[Lorana]

I chose Theming & Decor (because our choices were driven by resorts we love, and we love them for that), Other (because point charts were definitely a factor), and Room Type (because we wanted resorts where there were 5 sleeping surfaces in either the studios or 1BRs, and we wanted a mix of room types). This is why BRV and AKV were our first 2.

Deed Expiration was also a factor though, which is why we picked up CCV, and why when we decided to get an Epcot-area resort, we picked up Riviera. While we dislike the whole concept of resale restrictions, it obviously wasn't a deciding factor for us -- especially after 2042 when BWV and BCV are gone, we figure that people that want to stay near Epcot will not care about the resale restriction, as they'll be purchasing to have points with that access to Epcot. But also, at present, we don't intend to sell. The future could be different, though!

 

[BamaGuy44]

My bad, I think I misread your tone.

I guess my main point is that Animal Kingdom Lodge is 20 minutes from Magic Kingdom. It's not in Haines City.

Thematically, the difference between Jambo House and Beach Club is enormous. Location-wise, they're 5 miles of highway and one left turn. If you love Beach Club, buy Beach Club. But if you love AKV, buying Beach Club to shave 10 minutes off your commute time is a surprising decision.

That's the thing, loving a resort means different things to different people. I absolutely love BWV, and the #1 reason I love it is the location. Theming is cool but doesn't move the needle that much for me.

For us there's no substitute for being able to walk to and from the 2 parks. Does it save a ton of time? Sometimes no, but sometimes yes, quite a bit. At closing time from either park I can be in my room before most of that crowd is even on a bus. Plus we just like being in control vs relying on transport. And for us the only way to do HS these days is rope drop, it's absolutely brutal otherwise. And no transport gets you to the gate as early as walking. There's a lot more to location than measuring the distance on a map.

I do agree with you that how bad the busses are from AKL is greatly exaggerated. We own at AKL and love it because, come on, savanna.

 

[davidl81]

Would never buy a timeshare even if Disney's version is likely more reputable since they are subject to more public scrutiny. Paying $40,000-$50,000 as a pre-paid vacation expense doesn't make a lot of sense to us. We like to go to a variety of places on vacation. Rather invest that money and go various places on vacation not being tied to specific timeshare locations.

No offense, but why on earth are you replying to a Purchase DVC board then? Heck why are you even looking at this board?

 

[BamaGuy44]

No offense, but why on earth are you replying to a Purchase DVC board then? Heck why are you even looking at this board?

I always wonder if people like that seek out message boards on all the things things they have no interest in, just to let the people there know they're not interested in it. Seems like a weird use of time but whatever floats your boat I guess?

 

[davidl81]

I buy based on price and deed length. We never really plan 11 months out and honestly 7 months is about the best we can do. So we generally use SAP. Anything 2042 basically gets eliminated in our cases. Now that Run Disney events are back I’m debating buying some direct VGF points just to use for RD events. Honestly I would rather buy 100 direct BWV points if I could find them cheap enough. That would be enough for two 3 day weekends in a studio I think. For that small of a contract the 2042 would bother me so much.

 

[Flynn's Gal]

I chose Price, Location, and Other for Annual Dues.

My thoughts on some of the opinions that were different than my own as I read through the comments are that not only does importance of different things on the list vary by preference, but also by circumstances. For example, location is important to me because I have a handicapped daughter that I'm almost always traveling alone with so if we're staying at SSR or OKW and using Disney transportation to the parks, the only option are busses. I take a motorized wheelchair, but it's still a pain to get on and off the bus. Whereas, a monorail or Epcot resort offers more transportation options. One other circumstance that I thought of was what stage in life you're in might influence your decision. A young family is probably going to weigh other factors than I did when I was 53 with a 16 year old handicapped child and initially bought. So yeah, preference, but also life situations.

Annual Dues were a huge factor in my decision on where to buy. I looked at resorts with lower dues and ruled out some with higher dues. I also found a chart on a website that showed the trends of dues increase over time. They all trended upward, but the lower dues mostly stayed lower and higher stayed higher.

 

[Flynn's Gal]

No offense, but why on earth are you replying to a Purchase DVC board then? Heck why are you even looking at this board?

I thought the same thing. Like, Dude did you lose your way from a different forum and stumble across this one?

 

[DVCSunDevil]

That's the thing, loving a resort means different things to different people. I absolutely love BWV, and the #1 reason I love it is the location. Theming is cool but doesn't move the needle that much for me.

For us there's no substitute for being able to walk to and from the 2 parks. Does it save a ton of time? Sometimes no, but sometimes yes, quite a bit. At closing time from either park I can be in my room before most of that crowd is even on a bus. Plus we just like being in control vs relying on transport. And for us the only way to do HS these days is rope drop, it's absolutely brutal otherwise. And no transport gets you to the gate as early as walking. There's a lot more to location than measuring the distance on a map.

I do agree with you that how bad the busses are from AKL is greatly exaggerated. We own at AKL and love it because, come on, savanna.

Very well said. One of the reasons we love the location of BCV so much is because we really enjoy heading to Epcot at night for a couple drinks. We always get park hoppers, so after a day at another park we will head to our room and then take the short 4 minute walk to Works Showcase for a couple drinks. Then we take the short walk back to the resort. Like you said “There's a lot more to location than measuring the distance on a map.” The ease of just popping over to Epcot for a quick drink or two and strolling through WS, to us, is unbeatable and a major benefit. We would never do that if we were at another resort, it would be too much of a hassle.

 

[_19disnA]

No offense, but why on earth are you replying to a Purchase DVC board then? Heck why are you even looking at this board?

I always wonder if people like that seek out message boards on all the things things they have no interest in, just to let the people there know they're not interested in it. Seems like a weird use of time but whatever floats your boat I guess?

Not sure why you would be offended. Messages board are a place to share information. You may/may not agree with someone else's point of view, but that doesn't mean they aren't entitled to express them. I didn't interpret the OP's poll as being limited to only those who think timeshares are wonderful or amazing. For those who are new to the whole timeshare/vacation club/fractional ownership industry, probably good to see there are two sides to ownership. I think it is good if they investigate it a bit more and see if it really is right for them.

 

[Pens Fan]

The poll limited us to 3 choices, but for me I really needed 4:

1. Location will always be key. We want easy access to our favorite parks. Disney buses kind of suck. So avoiding that as much as possible is important to us.

2. Price is obviously important and if it isn't - lucky you !!

3. For us, the length of contract does matter as we bought after our son was an adult and he is on the deed. We want him to be able to use our points for many, many years. We are also buying additional contracts to escape northern winters in retirement, yet we don't want to saddle our son with those contracts and maintenance fees. We are looking at properties that will have at least some resale value left once we no longer want them, so looking for ones with longer contracts. On the flip side of that, we did buy a resale HHI contract a year ago as we absolutely love that resort and want to be able to get into it at 11 months no matter what, so I can totally understand someone buying a 2042 property if it's where they want to stay at a hard to get time.

4. The one I didn't check on your poll (but honestly is equally as important as all the others) is type of room. We have no interest in studios. To us, they are just hotel rooms and we bought into DVC to have access to larger accommodations. Having a nice balance of room types is key for us. We always book 1 or 2 BR's depending on who's coming. So while VGF2 was tempting due to pricing, we passed due to it mainly being a studio resort with a small number of actual villas from VGF1 thrown in to make the marketing look good.

All that being said, this thread is interesting. We are all different and have varying wants and needs. It's great that DVC offers a variety of options.

 

[BamaGuy44]

Not sure why you would be offended. Messages board are a place to share information. You may/may not agree with someone else's point of view, but that doesn't mean they aren't entitled to express them. I didn't interpret the OP's poll as being limited to only those who think timeshares are wonderful or amazing. For those who are new to the whole timeshare/vacation club/fractional ownership industry, probably good to see there are two sides to ownership. I think it is good if they investigate it a bit more and see if it really is right for them.

Has nothing to with whether I agree or disagree, i just wonder why anyone would bother popping into a thread about DVC and let us know they don't like timeshares and would never buy one. I don't like pickup trucks but it wouldn't occur to me to go to pickup truck forums and let them know I prefer sedans. But I agree they have every right to post whatever they want. Like I said whatever floats your boat.

 

[DougEMG]

I voted for price and location, hence why I bought own at OKW and SSR for their cheap price and BLT and BWV for their location.