Psychological traps of DVC

[Girlstar30]

I’ve been a little worried about having FOMO if we go resale and aren’t “real” DVC members. I’d have to explain to my kids why we can’t go to the lounge. I’m making that a bigger deal that it would ever be.

I watched a couple videos about the EPCOT and MK lounges, and they really seem underwhelming. I also wouldn’t be happy about having to wait to enter. Other than that, my family has no clue about any of the other perks, so it really only comes down to the AP savings with direct. How long can you really count on that discount, though?

You will def have FOMO and feel left out, I can tell you that. If I was only buying one contract and that met my needs I would go direct.

If not I think its worth it to be patient, but I also dont have kids to answer to

If you're not financing, direct makes sense to me and then resale after. You'll have access to at least two years of points, possibly three if you time your vacation and purchase right, which is more than enough to have an awesome vacation and then buy resale.

The resale savings aren't enough to wait just for that aspect of it imo.

 

[Takeitforgranite]

No i havent calculated and I dont want to, let me live in my dream points world

I’m doing all my calculations before buying. There won’t be any looking back.

Just addonitis.

 

[Girlstar30]

I’m doing all my calculations before buying. There won’t be any looking back.

Just addonitis.

You cant calculate that magical feeling ️

 

[Takeitforgranite]

You will def have FOMO and feel left out, I can tell you that. If I was only buying one contract and that met my needs I would go direct.

If not I think its worth it to be patient, but I also dont have kids to answer to

If you're not financing, direct makes sense to me and then resale after. You'll have access to at least two years of points, possibly three if you time your vacation and purchase right, which is more than enough to have an awesome vacation and then buy resale.

The resale savings aren't enough to wait just for that aspect of it imo.

I plan on paying cash. We will be buying Poly, and the incentives haven’t been great.

Our summer 2026 trip is booked, so that gives us some flexibility with DVC options. I could buy 200 pts direct and take advantage of the magical beginnings to lower up-front costs or buy 150 pts without MB and bank/borrow for several years before I needed to add on.

It’s just too much to think about.

 

[Girlstar30]

The FOMO for me is for the MM events and pictures with characters in cute new outfits etc.

I also buy OTUP all the time and would like the BOGO perk. I was there in September when they were giving free ice cream and 40% off some restaurants and none of that for me. A lounge would have been nice on a hot September day. We went with family and it would have been nice to show that off

Im really active on this board and I cant be excited about all this stuff with everyone else. I do participate and comment for info for the future, but it is a little sad I bought myself a better ice cream in the park on free ice cream day as a treat so I wouldnt feel butthurt

I also want to do a Member cruise soon! Direct would be worth it to me and im 5 months away! Thank God I have a disboard fairy Godmother who blessed us with MM or i would probably have bought already and said screw it

 

[DoubleBaconBLT]

My theory is the good old days with DVC passed....

I actually completely disagree. I just bought resale at BLT and direct at Poly, and it ends up being a STEAL compared to the cash trips I've done just in the last year.

1. People love to sigh over the free tickets to the parks between 1992 and 1999, which I get, because that's an incredible perk. BUT, from my perspective, what I got with my purchase is just as good.

No, seriously - stay with me. The original ticket perk was one park ticket per day for every two people of room capacity you had on your DVC stay. So if you stayed in a 4 person 1 BR for 4 nights, you would get 4 x 4 / 2 = 8 total park tickets. So you really get 50% free tickets.

My direct DVC purchase allowed me to buy the Sorcerer's pass. That saves about one third of the cost of an Incredipass. BUT, I can buy one for every member of my family AND I can use that any time I go, not just when I stay with DVC direct. So when I use my resale points, when I stay offsite, and when I do cash stays, I have unlimited access - all at 33% off. I would rather have 33% off an unlimited number of stays than 50% off, but only on the days I stay DVC direct. We have five trips currently planned with our new annual passes, and that discount is driving a ton of value for us.

2. Buyers at OKW or BWV in the 90s could only stay at a handful of resorts. For the first 9 years, there were only two options at WDW, and it wasn't until the late 2000s that members had more than five WDW resorts to choose from. I get to pick from 17 total resorts and by going on multiple trips per year, I can usually find some availability even at harder to book places. In the next year, I have bookings at BWV, PIT, BLT, and VGF. I may end up adding RIV or BCV once those 7 month windows roll around. No one prior to about the last 8 years or so had that cornucopia of options.

3. Back in the day, there were rather strict restrictions on banking and borrowing. I don't recall when it changed, but my understanding is that you originally could only bank or borrow a percentage of your total points.

4. The whole world has changed, but my goodness have the parks improved since the late 90s. I looked up an old park map and it just felt sad how small MGM Studios used to be, how much less Magic Kingdom had, how Animal Kingdom didn't even exist until 1999, etc. Even the Skyliner was only added in 2019. People love to gripe about rising costs, but IMO, the available attractions are just worlds better. Put another way, given the option to inflation-adjust my money back to 1996 levels and buy a BWV contract BUT also be stuck with the parks as they were back then vs keeping what I have today at the price I paid for it, I'd go with what I have now. It's like the question people often ask when touring the Biltmore - would you be willing to go back in time and live here if it meant living in the 1890s? I wouldn't.

Those who bought contracts at the Boardwalk struck gold!

Oh, the original Boardwalk purchasers definitely did. I console myself by remembering that I was not old enough to buy DVC back then and that I would have ABSOLUTELY ZERO interest in that original nightmare fuel slide.

 

[Brian Noble]

I’d have to explain to my kids why we can’t go to the lounge.

Only if they know it is there. And if they do, it is a good opportuity to talk to them about cost vs. value, the importance of long-term thinking*, etc.

The AP discount is easy to talk yourself into as the reason to buy direct. But, if you aren't going twice a year (at least) anyway, it is not saving you money. You might be able to get two annual trips in one year, but (a) that means you are only saving the difference between APs every other year and (b) that doesn't work if your annual trip is based on the school calendar, because those tend to fall exactly a year apart, give or take a day, so the two-trips-per-year trick does not work.

The Mouse is very very good at leveraging FOMO, and it is worth going into any interaction with him with clear eyes. That doesn't mean you can't buy direct, of course! If you have the money and it is truly discretionary---meaning, you are not taking away from retirement or college savings, have an emergency fund set up, etc.---then the only question is whether or not this is what you want to spend it on. After all, money is for spending.

--------------------
*: My Mom told me the following story a few years ago: When we were little, she wondered why all of her friends had nicer cars, bigger houses, and went on nicer vacations than we did. After all, all of them were also single-income families, they all worked at the same place, and got paid essentially the same salaries, etc. Then, when all of those friends were taking out second mortgages on ther homes to put their kids through college, but she and Dad already had the cash set aside, she got it.

We did something similar, and it was awfully nice to just have the cash in the 529s to put our kids through their (much more expensive in inflation-adjusted terms) degrees. They each had enough left over that they could convert some to spendable cash while they were graduate students, and can roll the rest over into an IRA.

 

[Brian Noble]

Addendum: I bought my first contract direct, even though I know it was not a good idea on purely dollars-and-cents terms. I had the cash, I wanted RIV as my home resort, and it was my "the divorce agreement is finally signed" gift to myself.

It was that or a Mustang convertible, and the latter is too cliche even for me.

 

[airjay75]

I plan on paying cash. We will be buying Poly, and the incentives haven’t been great.

Our summer 2026 trip is booked, so that gives us some flexibility with DVC options. I could buy 200 pts direct and take advantage of the magical beginnings to lower up-front costs or buy 150 pts without MB and bank/borrow for several years before I needed to add on.

It’s just too much to think about.

If you are looking at Poly, I'd buy direct and not think twice about it. With current incentives, you get a bit of a jump going from 150 to 200 ($5/point to $9/point). Use magical beginnings, get $20/point. Pay with a credit card and get at least 2% cash back (something you can't do with resale). So, before you even talking about closing costs, you're down to about a $201/point cost.

Resale Poly is currently going for $160-$165/point. And, to get to 200 points, you might have to piece together more than one contract which means an extra set of closing costs. Or, you're going to end up waiting for the perfect contract and pay a premium for it. So, let's say you end up saving $20/point going resale - that's $4,000. Spread over the life of the contract, you're talking about $97/year (that's in today's dollars).

There is no way I would go Poly resale with those numbers. And the beautiful thing about Poly, being that it will likely be the last sale of direct points without resale restrictions, is that you can change you're mind tomorrow, and recoup most of the money you spent.

Now, if you'd be happy with resale CCV/BLT/SSR, then it might be a different discussion. And, I say this as someone who really wanted to love Poly, but I just did not, and so I ended up buying a lot of direct RIV points (and I don't regret that either). That said, had I loved Poly, it would have been an easy choice.

Edit: My first post was wrong - used RIV numbers. Revised with Poly incentives (which are much less).

 

[Takeitforgranite]

Addendum: I bought my first contract direct, even though I know it was not a good idea on purely dollars-and-cents terms. I had the cash, I wanted RIV as my home resort, and it was my "the divorce agreement is finally signed" gift to myself.

It was that or a Mustang convertible, and the latter is too cliche even for me.

I already have two mustangs, so I guess it’s a no-brainer now.