Profile of a DVCer ...

[lsutigger2]

I think we're the first from the deep south (sorry if I missed someone). DH is an off-shore driller (gone 2 to 3 weeks at a time, and then home 1 to 2 weeks - it's not as bad as it sounds!! ) I am an early care and development trainer and work for a non-profit agency. Childless, but we do have a dog!
Both between 45 - 50.

We bought DVC almost two years ago. We'd been to WDW several years in a row. DH likes to golf and staying in nice places. DVC fit the bill for us. No regrets. I work extra doing trainings to pay for our trips. Also have family who "don't get it". Maybe one day they'll be invited on a trip.

Thanks to all for sharing. It's nice to know your neighbors!

 

[wordzylady]

We are looking forward to our first trip home at the end of September and then again in February. I am a court reporter and my husband is a laborer at a lumber yard. We have a son who is 13. We have been taking disney vacations since our son was 8 years old and finally took the dvc tour our last time in WDW. We had friends that are members, so we had heard about it. We considered it a great investment in good memories and family time. We could not believe we would be staying in those kind of accomodations. We usually stayed at the All Stars and one time at the Carribean Beach. Yes, it was a big financial commitment but I have no doubt we will gain much more valuable family time.

When we're not at WDW we spend family time at hockey games and college football games and a lot of time at the little league park.

 

[sandieb]

What an interesting thread! We are new DVCers - in our 50's, kids grown, and have 4 grandkids and one in the oven. I am a recovery room nurse and my DH is a railroad engineer supervisor. We took our kids to Disneyworld only once as kids, then several times since. We love it there. We bought into BCV to provide vacations for us, the kids, and grandkids. We (finally) have a little extra - so we are able to do for them now what was so difficult to provide years ago. We settled one month ago, and I am already saving for an add on at Hilton Head. We sure have been bit by the Disney Bug.
Sandie - Freeland, Maryland

 

[MBailey]

What a great group of people to be associated with in DVC membership. No wonder there are 60, 000 members.

As for our family we are 4, DH 40, DM 39 DS 10 and DD our own little Cinderella is 4. We bought an OKW resale with 200 points and have no regrets. My wife is an office associate with an investment firm and I am an automated controls mechanic (definitely middle income). We have been going to WDW for about the past 6 years regularly, so setting it up so it would be there every year makes sense.

The fact that we will always have a family vacation and the memories that go with it is priceless. One of my favorite memories are the moments just before Tinkerbell leaves from the castle. It makes us all feel that magic that is talked about so much.

 

[Peggy Sue]

One thing that struck me as I was reading this thread is how the dynamics of this board has changed over the years. Names that I once know, I do not see on this thread, but I see a lot of new faces who have recently become DVC members.

There are several members on this board who purchased when DVC first opened. Sadly, we're not one of them. We joined in 1997, best decision we ever made.

When you look at the average DVC member, we are not in the majority. We are married without kids. We are middle-aged, and enjoy spending quality time together at disney and sharing the magic with family members...although, we like the guilty pleasure of going alone most of the time!

We are both in management, and live in a suburb north of Boston.

What drew us to DVC was the program itself. We toured several typical time shares and always walked away. When we sat down and talked with DVC we were amazed at the flexibility and the quality of the resorts.

What keeps us coming back to Disney? Stress! Our jobs come with lots of stress..and we find there is no better cure than driving through the gates of WDW....altough we do bring our laptop to stay connected, and our respective offices know how to reach us, there is something about the magic of disney that just melts all our cares away. We enjoy the resorts, parks and being with other happy families.

Initially, we thought we would use DVC to trade out to other places. Since 1997 we have only done this once..for a trade to Hawaii. We have enjoyed our DVC vacations so much, we find ourselves returning to WDW several times a year now. Prior to DVC we had only made three trips to WDW between 1985 and 1997. Since 1997 we have return 8 times, with another vacation coming up in early December. We've also gone to Vero and Hilton Head.

All of us have made the statement that others just don't understand why we keep returning several times a year to WDW. At least those of you with kids have some form of an "excuse"...but as two adults, we just shrug our shoulders and walk away smiling..because we know we've got years of wonderful vacations ahead of us..and there's not use trying to explain it to anyone......

 

[Lesley]

I guess we're pretty average...family of 4, with kids who are 7yo and 2yo. We've both recently hit our 30's. Dh is a systems engineer and manager for an engineering firm. I'm a SAHM with a background in Early Childhood and Elementary Education, and I have my own business as a scrapbook consultant. We homeschool. Own a Geo Metro and a Dodge Caravan, but not a house. We rent the first floor of a very large, very old house.....mainly because we haven't decided where we want to settle!

Vacations are a priority for us, over pretty much everything except being home with the kids....luckily, and with DVC, we can manage both. We went to WDW for July 4th because it was cheaper than the beach!

 

[greekboy32]

Hey Dreamfinder...
I have been reading all the profiles and I must say that I am a little out of the average here...I am 22 years old...I am graduating college in a week and a half. I am a cast member at the Disney Store near where I go to school. When I graduate I will be leaving the store :-( But Before I left I used the CM discount and MB to get an incredible price on the vacation club. I am not married, and I start my new job on Aug 12th (school teacher)so thats me! Having a blast too!!
Eddie

 

[scott.campbell]

I'm 31 and my dw is 29, my ds is 5yrs old. We bought into DVC also on the 10 year financing option.

We are both supervisors for BP here in the UK, so I guess we are middle income. Although the same positions pays more in the States.

We all love our trips home to the DVC, and look forward to many years of happy holidays.

My only complaint is that Florida and the states could do with moving a bit closer to the UK. lol.

 

[ghp918]

I am 24 years old and work as a Labor and Delivery RN. I am a college grad (Go Syracuse University) and do not have any children. I am the Disney nut in my family and I joined DVC (BCV Owner as of 02/02) because of the flexibility. I live with my Boyfriend and we both work very hard to maintain what we have and save for the future 42 years of vacations, the first DVC vacation comming up in 1 Week!

I do hesitate to tell people I am a member, because they think it is frivilous at my age and I am not responsible enough, can't afford it, or I instantly make "new friends" who look to me for a free vacation because they can stay at "my place"

Overall, I am so excited to be a new member and to meet my neightbors, you seem like a great bunch!

 

[Bexx]

Another UK member here. We bought 210 points at OKW in March and I would dearly love to buy 40 points at BCV just to round it up nicely!! DH was very amenable about the original purchase, but is taking a lot of persuading about this next (hopefully) one. DH is 39 and is now doing something in computing?! having left events managment last year. I am 33 and a stay at home mum to our 2 year old DD. Nice house, elderly car and not too shaky financially, we are very lucky. Joining the DVC seemed ideal - we can now stay in beautiful self catering villas (I'm a big fan of self catering, especially with little ones) in such a wonderful place. Looking forward to taking our friends with us. I haven't actually told my Mum yet as she can't understand why anyone would want to go on holiday to Disney!?! It really does take all sorts!!! At least here I'm among friends.

 

[Richyams]

You guys use such odd and cool phrases sometimes.

"self catering villas"

At first blush it sounds like you are saying DVC units come with a cook.....wonder what the dues for that would be.

I am assuming that it actually means 'with a kitchen'

Do you use that term to describe a house? Do all houses have kitchens? Does 'self catering' actually mean 'kitchen'?


Are you surprised that the term 'self catering' is not one many Americans are familiar with?

 

[dianeschlicht]

We are a middle aged, middle class family. Our two children were already grown when we purchased, but one was stil at home. We just had a love of Disney, and knew that if we purchased a timeshare, it would be in WDW! We waited (sorry about that now) until we could pay for DVC in full so we wouldn't have finance charges. We realized that we were spending about $5000 per trip for 5-6 days in WDW every other year. It didn't take rocket science to figure out the cost effectivness of DVC. Now we stay 10-12 nights a year for our maintainance fees! We originally bought 230 points at OKW just before it sold out. We later added on 150 points when they replaced Comodore House with the new buildings.

I would say we are very middle class. DH is an electronics engineer (working in telecommunications) for Honeywell Inc. I have been in direct selling and also have BS in music, so I teach in a studio and groom dogs part time.

 

[disney6]

We joined DVC after a good year of debate. Decision made when DH figured out we would always need 2 hotel rooms! Definately middle class folks here and happy. My DH is 43 (BS, Mech Engineering and MBA), I am 42 (retired engineer/stay at home mom), we have 4 kids (10 yr old boy, 6 yr old girl, 4 yr old girl and 3 yr old girl). Live in Canada but are US citizens (except the youngest- she's dual US/Canadian).
Going on 2nd cruise in October. Have never seen BWalk or Vero beach where we own (next year FOR SURE!) Bought 270 pts at BWalk site unseen (by phone) 2 years ago, went on cruise because of the special and bought 230 points at VB (couldn't pass up MB program-surprise and Merry Xmas to me!!). I am the vacation planner, hubby comes along for the ride! Have given up alot for me to stay home because we both want me to stay home and it has paid off tremendously (not $$ wise) for us. DVC is my "pay" if you want to call it that.

 

[carone0318]

Great thread!

I would say that we are middle class also, but struggling just like most. Our entire family are disney fanatics.... I am (32) and dh will be (33) on 8/12. We have 2 children, dd will be (6) in 9/17 and my little man will be 18 months on 8/14 - my Valentine's baby.... We bought DVC 3 yrs ago. Our best friends also own DVC as does my brother and his family. We talk freely about DVC with my family, but my dh's family still has no idea because he doesn't want the "cheap advice" from his mom - how expensive it is blah, blah, blah... I told my dh that I want to vacation every yr because it is important to me. Growing up my family rarely went on vacation and I will do whatever it takes to take a family vacation every yr. Both of us are college grads, dh is an accountant with a sporting goods co and I am an inventory planner for a great co (GE). We make decent salaries, but sacrifices are still necessary. We live in a modest home, with no intentions to upgrade to a bigger house (rather vacation more.) I enjoy scrapbooking and being with my family. We usually go to DW once a yr, but this yr we got smart and purchased APs, which will allow us to be able to go in Dec and again next June, but we have to pay cash, not enough points for our Dec trip. We own 250 pts total - 150 pts at BWV and 100 pts at HH. It is great to be able to get to know everyone, I've enjoyed all of the bios

 

[Alice Sr.]

Single mom of 2 DD's (soon to be 15 & 12) I bought originally because I wanted to make sure I would be able to take my girls on nice vacations every year and to a place I could feel somewhat secure as they got older and more indepentant. They have been given more freedom at the parks the older they get and I get a little time to myself. We pretty much always take one or two of their friends with us, and it makes for a wonderful time.


Alice

 

[mickeys#1fan]

We're both from middle class families. Both consider DVC extravagant, especially after having celebrate DD's birthday at BWV last year. DW's best friend is a cast member and just doesn't understand our fanatacism.

I'm a pharmaceutical rep and DW is an executive assistant. We used to live in the Orlando area, and Disney is just a part of life for us. We still go at least twice a year, with side trips to HHI from time to time.

DVC made sense from the moment we saw it. We just couldn't afford it until 2000. It's a great way to vacation. Now we can go to WDW w/o being park commandos. In fact, by next Monday we'll be lounging around SAB - no parks this time. We did that last year for the first time and found that that can be just as magical a vacation!

 

[Lhargus]

DW and I are in our early fifties. We have four grown children and four wonderful grandchildren. We have been in love with WDW since taking our honeymoon there.

DW is a retired (early) telephone operator and I am a corporate pilot who flies a demanding schedule worldwide. We love our DVC trips and almost always share them with family and friends.

 

[tiffany123]

What an interesting thread! We are middle class empty nesters. We joined in October, 2001 and recently returned from a wonderful 19 night stay at HH, WDW, and VB. DH is a high school math teacher and cross country/track and field coach. He has been teaching for 32 years and is not ready to retire yet. I'm an RN but for the past 3 years I babysat our grandsons while our daughter taught part-time kindergarten. We have 3 beautiful grandchildren with another granddaughter due in about 4 weeks.
We considered DVC when the program first started but with 2 daughters nearing college age and knowing that weddings would be in the offing, we didn't buy until recently. We have 2 daughters, 2 wonderful sons-in-law and the beautiful grandchildren to share DVC with. Having made just one DVC trip so far, we can honestly say that we are very pleased with our purchase and our our subsequent add-on and can't wait until the grandkids are a little older so we can "share the magic" with them. (The oldest just turned 3)

 

[MnParrothead]

We have owned for two years at VB. Yes, VB was our first choice with DVC. We planned on buying in 1996, but didn't feel like we could afford it yet so my husband went to school and then started a second career as a massage therapist. That's how we pay our payments and dues. I am 35, DH 36, DS's 15 and 10. We are middle class and have lived in the same starter home for 11 years. I have put off buying a bigger home because I love travelling so much that I don't think I could sleep at night if I couldn't afford vacationing a few times a year. I take the bus to work and my husband drives a 1996 Toyota with 200,000 miles on it. We also don't tell people we are DVC members, although we did bring our parents to VB last year and they loved it!

 

[pwwhitehead]

i first went to Disney with my DW in March 2000.Ok i'm from the UK but it still cost me $3500.to stay at the All Star.Now im not a snob,but we loved the lpace so much we decidded to invest in DVC>This forces us to use our points and get a grerat vacation.

Home BWV,adore the place and the atmosphers.PS I'm a police officer and DW manages three sports shops.We valus our happy vacations.Even the 9 hour flight is great on the way Home