Potential new member questions - help please!

[WDWguru]

After going to WDW for the fifth time in a year, we finally sat in on the DVC open house this trip. We're seriously thinking about it but have a few questions for you vets out there.

We get the concept and it sounds great, but the way we travel may be prohibitive. We do go to WDW quite a lot, but do it on semi-short notice. We'd like some real-life feedback if you'd be so kind:

1. We tend to travel with short notice (a few weeks, or even a few days) and realize that this may depend on what season we're in (we tend NOT to travel at peak times), but what are your experiences with late booking? Is it at all possible to get the resort you want? We don't mind moving around, but there are a few favorites we'd like to be in for sure. If we know we want to go at a peak time or for a long trip (our usual stay is 4-5 nights), we definitely plan in advance.

2. They mentioned that the point levels change from time to time for cruises, other resorts, etc. How often and how much? Do they change every year? Every 3 years? And when they do, about how much do they change?

3. They keep pushing the fact that this is a physical asset. How many of you have had luck financing through a regular bank? How about buying/selling? Is it really viewed as property in the "real world" or is it like a travel club to everyone outside Disney with regards to the financials?

4. A volume question. How tough is it to book a "regular" resort? Is it like frequent flyer seats, where there are only a few in each resort? Or is it pretty easy to get in if we want to stay at, say, AKL? I realize this isn't the best use for our points, but we like to check out different places and may want to do a few days from time to time.

I think that's all we have for now. I'm literally in the Orlando airport waiting for my flight home! We're going to read over the book on the plane and do some more figuring. To us, the cruise option seems like a great deal (the HAL to Alaska) as we do that every few years, but it sure makes for a lot of points we need to get when we sign up.

If I think of more, I'll post again. Thanks so much everyone!

 

[Granny]

First of all, WOW!....5 trips to WDW from Utah is pretty impressive!

I'll take a stab at some of your questions, though I am not a seasoned veteran and I'm sure others will add.

1. Short notice ressies. Good that you say that you don't travel at peak times. As for whether you can get the resort of your choice, that's always a toss of the dice. Much better if you are flexible to any DVC "home".

2. Point changes for exchanges. The Disney collection (other WDW resorts) just had a sharp increase in points for 2002. To my knowledge, this was the first big increase in several years. For cruises and other trade-outs, I don't know.

3. You should be able to finance in a variety of ways if not through Disney. Home equity loan would seem to be a popular one. The membership points are assets that could be claimed upon forfeiture of a loan, so yes, they are a physical asset.

4. I'm not familiar enough with Disney Collection reservations to answer the booking of WDW resorts, but I've seen a lot of folks on this board posting about trips to AKL and GF.

Do you think you would mostly be trading out your points for DCL, WDW resorts or other non-Disney resorts? From what I've heard here, that might not be a very economically attractive use of DVC points.

Good luck with the decision....keep the questions coming.

 

[PamOKW]

Granny is correct that 2002 had a dramatic change in the points needed for WDW resorts. In the past, there were points for each resort and DVC members were generally given the best non-concierge room. For 2002, they insitituted different levels of points for the different views and made it possible to book concierge on points. They also changed the seasons to match the regular WDW resort schedule rather than following DVC seasons. The result is that some resorts saw increases of 50%-100% to book the best view room. The only other changes in the history of DVC had been adjustments of 1 or 2 points here and there. Hopefully, this will stabilize the points for another 10 years.

The non-WDW resorts have only had mild changes of a few points. Nothing dramatic. The Disney Cruise sometimes offers specials where the points needed actually decrease.

The thing to keep in mind is that the points at DVC resorts will not change. The pool is set and you won't see inflation in points needed. Non-DVC, they can and do make adjustments.

For someone who travels to WDW so often, you should give it serious consideration. DVC will probably work quite well for you.

 

[WDWguru]

Thanks for taking time to respond - it's helped quite a bit with our decision. DH and I were on the computer and phone ALL DAY yesterday running numbers, scenarios, coming up with questions, and just generally analyzing the whole thing. I think we've decided to do it!

The plan now is to buy in at 150 points at VWL with Disney direct, then buy an additional 250 at BWV resale. We've already charted out our vacations for the next three years and figured out what most likely we'll use, roll and borrow. (Yes, DH was an accounting major - lol!)

We do have a few little questions to pose to our DVC rep, but thought I'd post one of them here as well to get your opinions:

If you bank your full year automatically at 6 months every time, then borrow against it for all your trips that year, will it work? Seems like the safest bet if you aren't sure you'll use them all, but are there limits to the number of points or times you can borrow? I know you can only borrow back what you've banked (ie. that year's points) if you do that and it's actually more likely we wouldn't, but just as a hypothetical.

Most likely, unless we've already used them or we know for sure we're going to be using them, we'd go ahead and bank half at 6 mos, a quarter at 9 and the rest at 11 just to keep as many free as long as possible. But it seems to me if you really didn't know, you could just bank it all and borrow it back as often as you needed.

Thanks again all!

 

[one_cat]

WDWGuru - If you bank all your points at the 6 month point you do not have them available to use for the following 6 months. IE if your use year is July so you bank all your points in December 2001 you cannot use any of those points until July 2002. But you must use them all by July 2003 or you will lose them. If you decided to make a trip in March 2002 but all your points were banked you could borrow from your 2002/2003 use year to use for your March trip. I hope that makes sense. Simply put - you cannot borrow banked points.

Typically DVC works better for people who can plan their trips well in advance. If you make ressies on the spur of the moment you will need to be flexible as far as time and location. Of course if you've already charted your vacations for the next 3 years you are planning in advance