Psychological traps of DVC

[VGCgroupie]

Just using the website to view availability for fun or the feeling of swapping out resorts right at 8:00:01 am est at 7 months is worth the price of admission alone. The gamification of DVC might be the biggest psychological trap. It's like swapping cash for casino chips...they make you feel like it's not real money anymore....same with points.

And I love it...

Agree, agree, same

 

[cedricandsophie]

We bought in 1998. We now own at vero, aulani, old key west. Boardwalk and bay lake. Our old key west points we bought on secondary market. We have slightly under 1000 points. No regrets.
We usually go to aulani once a year for a minimum of 10 days and then to Disney world every March for about 2 weeks. My husband goes to vero in Feb and March for spring baseball. We rarely go to the parks. We just enjoy the resorts. We get a minimum of one bedroom and officially two bedrooms. We have an adult disabled daughter and always bring her best friend. For us Disney is a safe environment. They can go off on their own and we know they are safe and having fun.

Our fees run about $11000 a year which is a lot. But we figure we get way more than that value out of the rooms. 10 days in aulani in a one bedroom ocean view alone would cost between 1000 and 1500 a day if we were paying cash.

We have always been happy with our purchases. We were able to pay cash for all the points and I know we are very blessed to be able to do that. It was in no way a financial decision but solely based on the fact we love the Disney environment for our daughter, we can afford it and we love hanging at the resorts ourselves. We might go to parks every 2 or 3 times we are there.

 

[tidefan]

This changes over time, I think. We are now in our 17th year of ownership. We bought when our DD was 4 years old, but now she's out of college. Don't get me wrong, we still go and enjoy ourselves, but as you get older, sometimes tastes and priorities change.

We own at SSR, BLT, PVB, and VGF. I haven't used the 11 month priority at VGF or PVB since 2019. In fact, we've only stayed at PVB once and VGF twice (each for only a couple nights) in the past 6 years. What we have done is more Aulani stays. Also, at WDW, our last 4 stays have been at CFW, which allows us to bring our dog and do cool things like loop on the Golf Cart and do scavenger hunts at night, so that's now become our new favorite.

Quite honestly, I've thought about selling our VGF contract (the main issue there being that getting Deluxe Studios has become so much harder since they added BPK), but then I think about what I paid for the points back in 2013 ($145/pt) and I'm like, well, maybe I should just hold on to them. That said, we are banking hundreds of points each year, which probably isn't what you really want to do, and paying dues that I really don't need to pay.

All of that said, I keep thinking, "well, one year I'll take all of these points and do a blow-out and get a GV at Aulani", so maybe I'll consider selling after that

 

[CraigInPA]

Trust me. Addonitis is real. We've doubled the number of points we originally purchased.

 

[muppets3d]

One of the traps we recently fell into was, wanting to move up to 1 bedroom villas at Riviera. They're pretty reliably available at 7 months, so it would have probably never been an issue to book a studio at 11 months and modify to a 1 bedroom at 7 months so we can use some of our points from other contracts. But instead, we added on at Riviera so we can be sure to book 1 bedroom villas at 11 months.

We didn't have enough points to book 1 bedroom villas initially, because when we bought we figured we'd just stay in the tower studios. That lasted I think two trips! LOL.

 

[Chili327]

We bought in 1998. We now own at vero, aulani, old key west. Boardwalk and bay lake. Our old key west points we bought on secondary market. We have slightly under 1000 points. No regrets.
We usually go to aulani once a year for a minimum of 10 days and then to Disney world every March for about 2 weeks. My husband goes to vero in Feb and March for spring baseball. We rarely go to the parks. We just enjoy the resorts. We get a minimum of one bedroom and officially two bedrooms. We have an adult disabled daughter and always bring her best friend. For us Disney is a safe environment. They can go off on their own and we know they are safe and having fun.

Our fees run about $11000 a year which is a lot. But we figure we get way more than that value out of the rooms. 10 days in aulani in a one bedroom ocean view alone would cost between 1000 and 1500 a day if we were paying cash.

We have always been happy with our purchases. We were able to pay cash for all the points and I know we are very blessed to be able to do that. It was in no way a financial decision but solely based on the fact we love the Disney environment for our daughter, we can afford it and we love hanging at the resorts ourselves. We might go to parks every 2 or 3 times we are there.

So jealous!!
Do you buy like a 4 days ticket and just go whenever you feel like it, or how do you usually handle park tix?

All of that said, I keep thinking, "well, one year I'll take all of these points and do a blow-out and get a GV at Aulani", so maybe I'll consider selling after that

Please do that!!! (Or put some points up for rent)

 

[MicheyMouse]

Bought this year. We had day 1 all planned out to go to the water park. We had our first stay at the Poly Tower and by luck, our room was ready early. We didn’t make it to the water park. We just walked around our new world smiling.

Now the mindset is we need more points and how many shorter trips can we reasonably squeeze into a year.

 

[Chili327]

Bought this year. We had day 1 all planned out to go to the water park. We had our first stay at the Poly Tower and by luck, our room was ready early. We didn’t make it to the water park. We just walked around our new world home smiling.

Now the mindset is we need more points and how many shorter trips can we reasonably squeeze into a year.

Fixed that for you.

 

[Mouseforward]

That said, we are banking hundreds of points each year,

Agree, if I was consistently banking a contracts worth of points each year, I would sell some.

 

[DoubleBaconBLT]

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.

I thought this same thing when I stayed offsite for my first two WDW trips. I used credit card points to make the stay totally free. At the time, I never would have been able to justify the cost or commitment of DVC. Now, we do a LOT more traveling than we ever thought we would. Now it's hard to think about taking an entire year "off" from Disney, and I'm not sure we will in the foreseeable future. This obviously changed my perspective on DVC as well.

 

[DanCali]

Some psychological traps I've noticed:

1) Willingness to give up 60-90 minutes of your time for a piece of "swag" worth $5 (e.g., a plastic water bottle, fanny pack, or string backpack) when most of us would otherwise claim that our time is a lot more valuable when on vacation.

2) The desire to "future proof" the ownership (at a very high extra cost upfront, often compounded by borrowing at a high interest rate) by worrying about what things will look like 17-20 years down the road when 2042 resorts expire. It's highly likely that having those extra funds invested in the stock market for 20 years will be worth a lot more down the road than the act of "future proofing" upfront...

 

[Tumnus]

Some psychological traps I've noticed:

1) Willingness to give up 60-90 minutes of your time for a piece of "swag" worth $5 (e.g., a plastic water bottle, fanny pack, or string backpack) when most of us would otherwise claim that our time is a lot more valuable when on vacation.

2) The desire to "future proof" the ownership (at a very high extra cost upfront) by worrying about what things will look like 17-20 years down the road when 2042 resorts expire. It's highly likely that having those extra funds invested in the stock market for 20 years will be worth a lot more down the road than the act of "future proofing" upfront...

Hey now, it was a 60 minute meeting for two Mickey pins, one for me and one for my wife! Totally worth it, kids were pumped and I don't mind listening to DVC talk while having a fancy drink and the kids are at the kids club!

 

[Girlstar30]

We went to CBR during our Riv stay and couldnt run back to Riv fast enough There is no turning back. When I was younger I could care less what hotel I was staying at, the cheaper the better!

Then as I got older, I would do Hotwire random rooms where you dont know what room youre getting, but you know it will be 4 stars or above. If the room was nice, we hit the jackpot!

When our financial position improved and we got DVC, I dont want to stay anywhere else now. Even the things we complain about, "No bell service here, blasphemy!" Or being sad we dont have enough points for a one bedroom next trip is hilarious to me when a few years ago we were struggling

Holidays at Grand Cal have been amazing, I guess we got a taste of the good life and we're not looking to turn back

 

[Girlstar30]

Some psychological traps I've noticed:

1) Willingness to give up 60-90 minutes of your time for a piece of "swag" worth $5 (e.g., a plastic water bottle, fanny pack, or string backpack) when most of us would otherwise claim that our time is a lot more valuable when on vacation.

2) The desire to "future proof" the ownership (at a very high extra cost upfront, often compounded by borrowing at a high interest rate) by worrying about what things will look like 17-20 years down the road when 2042 resorts expire. It's highly likely that having those extra funds invested in the stock market for 20 years will be worth a lot more down the road than the act of "future proofing" upfront...

I see it as an opportunity to feed my obsession and talk about DVC and get something cute too

 

[RivGirl]

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.

Your post made me smile. “When we’re there, we’re having our best times.” I feel the same way.

 

[emchen]

if you read my "I bought my first DVC" post

Link please, I want to read it.

[nvm jumped the gun...link was just a few posts down].

 

[DisnEElove]

Some psychological traps I've noticed:

1) Willingness to give up 60-90 minutes of your time for a piece of "swag" worth $5 (e.g., a plastic water bottle, fanny pack, or string backpack) when most of us would otherwise claim that our time is a lot more valuable when on vacation.

2) The desire to "future proof" the ownership (at a very high extra cost upfront, often compounded by borrowing at a high interest rate) by worrying about what things will look like 17-20 years down the road when 2042 resorts expire. It's highly likely that having those extra funds invested in the stock market for 20 years will be worth a lot more down the road than the act of "future proofing" upfront...

I had the same thoughts as my drawstring bag had a hole in it after wearing it for the first time, but seemingly, I have no problem with attending another meeting each trip! lol

Someone tried to shame us by saying we should've invested the money instead, but I see plenty of people do that were miserable daily because they didn't have a way to reset. They wound up leaving this earth before they had the chance to enjoy that investment; their heirs then completely wasted the money at nightclubs and other vices. I'd rather enjoy the hard-earned money while I can.

I've never been so happy to be psychologically trapped; I'm sure it looks to someone on the outside like we're all part of a cult . But the reality is that my family was going to Disney often (staying mostly at deluxe resorts), and this was a way to stave off some of the inflationary costs and feel more confident that there would be more vacations to come for years.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I had the same thoughts as my drawstring bag had a hole in it after wearing it for the first time, but seemingly, I have no problem with attending another meeting each trip! lol

Someone tried to shame us by saying we should've invested the money instead, but I see plenty of people do that were miserable daily because they didn't have a way to reset. They wound up leaving this earth before they had the chance to enjoy that investment; their heirs then completely wasted the money at nightclubs and other vices. I'd rather enjoy the hard-earned money while I can.

I've never been so happy to be psychologically trapped; I'm sure it looks to someone on the outside like we're all part of a cult . But the reality is that my family was going to Disney often (staying mostly at deluxe resorts), and this was a way to stave off some of the inflationary costs and feel more confident that there would be more vacations to come for years.

My drawstring bags have survived many many trips and even have used them at home too. We also wash them after every trip. I *think* certain versions are better than others.

 

[DisnEElove]

My drawstring bags have survived many many trips and even have used them at home too. We also wash them after every trip. I *think* certain versions are better than others.

Because I've had multiple Disney drawstring bags, I know this can be true. I might have gotten a dud, but it was the bag you get when you join. I may ask my guide for another one since I just added on in the last couple of weeks.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Because I've had multiple Disney drawstring bags, I know this can be true. I might have gotten a dud, but it was the bag you get when you join. I may ask my guide for another one since I just added on in the last couple of weeks.

The ones that have held up well for me are the ones with mesh zippered pockets in the front.