Psychological traps of DVC

[PolyRob]

I always have FOMO about new DVC resorts being built and needing to buy them to get the full life of the contract with possibly the "best" incentive before they even open.

I always fight the urge and pass. The reality is there is no rush and the price for current members on day one isn't always the best deal

With that said, if Yacht Club ever gets DVC I will buy that sight unseen. Mark my works

 

[atthebeachclub]

if Yacht Club ever gets DVC I will buy that sight unseen. Mark my works

Co-signed.

 

[Joroc0801]

The perceived psychological traps may be dumbed down to feelings of joy, happiness, and fulfillment. I have never had a bad trip to Disney. It doesn't matter what the weather is, how moody my kids are, what I left behind at work. When we're there, we're having our best times. It brings me a great deal of fulfillment that my wife and I's hard work has allowed us the financial freedom to continue to invest more of our money into experiences and memories with our kids. I don't feel trapped psychologically at all.

 

[Moonspinner]

As others have mentioned… it is the forced vacation. We used to always put off vacation. It just seemed frivolous. Honestly, we were kind of tense and miserable. Now all we do is vacation. We go somewhere pretty much every two months. I don’t know what has happened to us, but wasting a lot of money on dvc has made us really happy. It’s made it so that we don’t have an option anymore. We have to vacation. It’s like now that the money is spent, yolo.

So for us dvc has relieved us of the psychological pressure of deciding to vacation.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Here is my post. https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...ffer-accepted-how-i-made-my-decision.3945274/

I thought 100 points was more than enough. I thought buying VDH was stupid. Now I have over 1000 points and own VDH

You always wanted that BW contract….

 

[VGCgroupie]

You always wanted that BW contract….

You caught that. I did, I knew I wanted it before even going there.... then I let others talk me out of it. It was meant to be!

 

[Brian Noble]

Has this happened to you? And what are the things you gain from buying DVC that I have yet to experience?

The biggest benefit of owning a timeshare is not saving money. I mean, you can save money (on lodging, anyway) but for me that is not the point.

The point for me is that the use-it-or-lose-it and advance planning nature of timeshares makes vacations a priority that I plan around, not something I fit in when I happen to have room. Secondarily, they also encourage me to take "nicer" vacations than I'd normally take, because it's affordable to do so. For exmaple, I would not pay cash for a week in a 2BR at the Grand Waikikian next summer, but I'm happy to use some timeshare points to do it---and I already have the week booked.

 

[DonkeyHoTay]

I used to not look down from the MK monorail because I didn’t want to be tempted by what was not possible. Those pretty resorts were for other people

Me 17 years ago: Looking down at those resorts from the MK monorail and thinking about all the money I was saving by staying at All Star Music. Fools! You can’t touch my $85 a night and I didn’t have to give anybody $30k up front for imaginary points at the BLT or whatever they call it. Not enough ice cream in the world to trick me into this scam!

Things change.

 

[sammeysue809]

The perceived psychological traps may be dumbed down to feelings of joy, happiness, and fulfillment. I have never had a bad trip to Disney. It doesn't matter what the weather is, how moody my kids are, what I left behind at work. When we're there, we're having our best times. It brings me a great deal of fulfillment that my wife and I's hard work has allowed us the financial freedom to continue to invest more of our money into experiences and memories with our kids. I don't feel trapped psychologically at all.

Beautifully written and completely agree with this sentiment. When we are there, we are on top of the world, everything in our lives is beneath us and we rise above it all to just be together and be a family, our little unit in this world. The fulfillment DVC brings me is invaluable and my hard work and my constant drive to support and reward my family comes in the form of DVC. We are well taken care of in all other aspects of life, because I bust my tail, but DVC is a reward. For me. And for them. It’s this vehicle for anticipation together, planning, family memories and special moments — DVC plays as the cherry on top of my decision to become a mom. This is why I wanted a family. For the moments of joy and laughter and that Disney Magic found nowhere else in the world with my loved ones.

 

[EPCOT Terran]

My wife and I just started in on DVC (a little over a year in) with what felt like a small starter number of points - 302 - split between two fixed weeks in February and September (times we like to go anyway) and a 50-pointer to get us to the 300-point incentive threshold. So far, that number of points is working but only because we aren't going with our grandkids yet (because my children haven't given us any! ). Once that happens and I start looking at 2-BR, I'll no doubt look for more points.

I don't think of DVC as a psychological trap. I went in with eyes wide open and knew about the dreaded add-on-itis up front. As others have said, DVC in a sense gives me the psychological freedom to visit one of my favorite places and stay in nice rooms close to the parks without worrying about the immediate cash outlay. As Brian mentioned, it almost forces me to vacation (don't want to lose those points). Some have mentioned the time cost of money when calculating when you'll break even. The thought is always "what is something else comes along" or "you could grow your money faster other ways", etc. I worry that mindset would actually force me to take fewer vacations and enjoy the ones I take less. I thought of DVC this way - I'll buy in now while I have the money available and it's not committed and, once I do so, it will be a lot harder to change my mind because now the desire to not lose money will work against getting rid of it. And my wife and I really enjoy our vacations at Disney 3-4 times/year. And a hidden benefit of going more often is that you feel relaxed enough to slow down and enjoy a lot of things more. If I'm spending days relaxing at the hotel, I guarantee you I'd rather be at Riviera or BCV than All-Star Sports.

I would advise anyone getting into DVC to check themselves and make sure they enjoy Disney, the Disney bubble, and will for a while. Then, consider if spending that kind of money (even resale adds up pretty quick, and annual dues are always there regardless of resale vs direct) is going to stress you out too much or whether your life/work schedule doesn't allow for a lot of planning 7-11 months in advance. If the boxes all check, then go for it and just enjoy the heck out of DVC. For me, DVC is a stress-reliever. It would absolutely not be worth it (or worth adding on) if it caused stress.

 

[CarolynFH]

I would advise anyone getting into DVC to check themselves and make sure they enjoy Disney, the Disney bubble, and will for a while.

Most definitely! As I detailed earlier in this thread, we bought on our 4th annual visit, having realized we wanted to continue annual visits but couldn’t afford the cash outlay for the home-away-from-home timeshare 2BR layout that we wanted.

 

[MICKIMINI]

Yep. One year ago, I had just returned from my first WDW trip with my family. We stayed offsite at an Airbnb. I remember telling coworkers at the time, you know, it wasn't terrible, but it was really hot. I can see us going back in a few years, but definitely at a different time of year. FFW to now, 2 more WDW trips since then, and I own 750 points . We got our Sorcerer's Passes in July, and have 3 trips planned for the next 10 months. If someone had told me this is where I'd be today last year, I would have laughed really, really hard.

And, every time one of those good resale contracts come along, it is so hard to resist thinking of all the ways you could make that work - well, maybe I'll bank and borrow it for this or that, well, if it ends up being a few too many points, I can just rent some of them out. Can I afford it? Well, I could probably make it work if I do this and this. Mental jumps I could never have imagined myself doing, even just a few months ago.

You have arrived!!

 

[MICKIMINI]

I'd say our membership has been wonderful, but my experience has been a little bit different.

Part of it is our location - we can (and do) go to the parks for a day.

When we bought initially, we thought we would buy for studios and for 1 or 2 night stays every month or two.

We have come to learn, at this point in life, that's too much a hassle with the kids. Instead, we have come to enjoy our yearly retreat to the Grand Floridian as a respite and true relaxation from the rest of the world - and we get to eat in some of our favorite restaurants, spend some times in the theme park, and best of all, not have to drive for an entire week.

Initially I thought we would pursue a path of never-ending addonitis - why not enjoy that one or two nights in a one bedroom, how many of those can we get... how many in a two bedroom etc.

We have enough points for our "week" in a 1 BR at VGF... This is the biggest thing we gained... The sense of a forced vacation, a respite from the world for that one week where we can connect as a family, know the hotel bill is already paid, and just enjoy each other's company. It is a really special feeling, and the more we do it, the more it really does feel like we are going "back home" in a way our day trips or S&D trips don't.

We were at the CCV room tour last week, we like the points chart, but will probably continue to use VGF as a home base.

When we bought initially, I imagined we would want at a minimum of 500 points some day... Since then, we have fallen in love with other kinds of trips - Cruises (DIS for now, but probably not as the kids get older), Extended Family Travel (they're not DIS folks so we go elsewhere). In this phase of life, I think we are likely to want to be around 250 points for the next 5 years or so, and down the road I could see us either building out our membership slightly, or could envision us offloading the thing entirely.

We've gone from 230 in 1996 to over 650 in 2022, selling a few contracts and are back down in the 200's. We thought we would spend 4-6 weeks a year, but after a "test drive" in 2022 (5 weeks) we realized it was just too much. I am now buying OTU points so we may need another, well, that is after we close on a resale next month!