Purchasing vs Renting?

[Deb & Bill]

Kitchenette maybe?

Hotel rooms all have coffee pots and refrigerators. The studio has a microwave. That's the basic difference. And in most cases, one less real bed.

 

[Drrazorback]

It just seems like, by the time you pay the membership and the annual dues, then its really not much savings. Im just wondering if I am missing something.

And, you lose out on the free dining and other discounts...Right? (I understand "free" dining isnt really free, but humor me here)

 

[jodifla]

What you are missing is you are staying in a hotel room, we are staying in 2-bedroom, full kitchen, balcony accommodations. We are having nice meals in our room for a fraction of the cost of WDW dining, we are inviting friends and family to join us and making incredible memories with them, we are sleeping in because we know we will be going back year after year.

And our kids are sleeping in one room and us in another...which is a whole other level of vacation right there!

 

[Drrazorback]

I can understand the "making memories" taking family and friends!

But, everytime I look at say the 1 bedroom, it says "Sleeps up to 4". Would I be allowed to fit 5-6 in that room?

 

[Missyrose]

I can understand the "making memories" taking family and friends!

But, everytime I look at say the 1 bedroom, it says "Sleeps up to 4". Would I be allowed to fit 5-6 in that room?

1 bedrooms in BLT, AKV and OKW had sleeper chairs in the living room, so they have beds for 5. In the other resorts, you can add a fifth person to the reservation but you will have to provide an air mattress with bedding and additional towels for that fifth person.

Getting back to your other question, you're right, when comparing DVC to discounted rates at Disney's moderate hotels, you likely won't see any savings. But one of the nice things about DVC is you get off the Disney discount conveyor belt. You stop hoping and praying for a pin code and you stop having to compromise where you stay based on your given discount. I'm ensuring deluxe vacations for the next 30 years and my yearly output for DVC is approximately the same as a vacation at a value resort.

You have to look at your own numbers. Do you still go to Disney when you don't have a discount? What will you do if Disney scales back the discounts tremendously?

PPs have suggested you rent DVC points for a couple of trips to get the feel of the resorts and how the process works, this would be a great idea for you.

But the bottom line is that you're never going to see someone say that DVC saves them 40 percent over a regular Disney resort vacation, it just doesn't work out like that. The calculations are far more complicated.

 

[jodifla]

1 bedrooms sleep up to 5. 6 are not allowed.

I had a 2 bedroom for my last trip with the 3 of us (although we did have overnight visitors twice.)

 

[permavac]

It just seems like, by the time you pay the membership and the annual dues, then its really not much savings. Im just wondering if I am missing something.

And, you lose out on the free dining and other discounts...Right? (I understand "free" dining isnt really free, but humor me here)

It's not any savings initially. The savings come later. Depending on whether or not you buy direct versus resale, it could take anywhere from 5 to 10 years to break even on your initial purchase cost plus the yearly maintenance fees. AFTER that 5 to 10 year period, you are only paying the maintenance fees which one expects to be much cheaper than paying for the same accommodation directly through Disney. For those who bought DVC when it first started, they are definitely vacationing on their points for cheaper than the out of pocket cost of buying hotel rooms at Disney. Hopefully, that will still be true in another 10/20/30 years.

"Free" dining is not offered to those staying on DVC points. Of course, nothing is stopping DVC members from buying a free dining package - you just need to figure out what to do with your points since you can't use them for that trip. Maybe take 2 trips that year. I bought only enough points for one small trip per year, even though we go to Disney 2 to 3 times per year. That way I can take advantage of specials if I want to. Other members want all their trips to be DVC so buy as many points to use for every trip they want to take and they don't care about "specials". It's up to you to decide what is right for you and your family.

This is why buying into DVC can be a brain twister for some people. I agree with the other posters that 30+ years is a long commitment. If you don't want to be "tied down" to going to Disney every year (or using your points to exchange elsewhere) then it probably isn't for you. If you buy into DVC and watch with bitter, jealous eyes all the discounts that you can no longer take advantage of because you're "stuck" having to use your points instead then DVC is not for you...

Terri

 

[Drrazorback]

Thank you again SO much for all of your inputs!

Btw, the resort that I have been looking into, is the BLT! I LOVE LOVE LOVE that place (at least on pictures)! haha...Ive never been to DW, but we are going to start making it a regular trip since our twins are just about to turn 5 years old! I think IM more excited than THEY are!!!!

But, BLT is my fav from all of the studying that Ive done so far!

 

[jodifla]

Since you've not been before, renting points is probably the way to go. Stay in a 1 bedroom, and you'll see what we mean.

However, the tricky part for you is do you really want to commit to WDW vacations. We had been going for 25 years before we even joined DVC, so we knew Disney wouldn't get old for us.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Thank you again SO much for all of your inputs!

Btw, the resort that I have been looking into, is the BLT! I LOVE LOVE LOVE that place (at least on pictures)! haha...Ive never been to DW, but we are going to start making it a regular trip since our twins are just about to turn 5 years old! I think IM more excited than THEY are!!!!

But, BLT is my fav from all of the studying that Ive done so far!

Since you've not been before, renting points is probably the way to go. Stay in a 1 bedroom, and you'll see what we mean.

However, the tricky part for you is do you really want to commit to WDW vacations. We had been going for 25 years before we even joined DVC, so we knew Disney wouldn't get old for us.

Agree with the one bedroom. Do not bother with a studio even though it will sleep four (kind of sardine style in my opinion). BLT studio is the smallest of all the studios. Of course, once you stay in a one bedroom villa, you won't want to stay anywhere else. And if you have six, get the two bedroom and be happy about it.

 

[dwight16]

I bought mine SS 160 points in december 2010 for 8900 all in. so far i have used it for 12 nights (2 rooms 6 nights)in a studio at bwv in may 2011 and i booked 8 nights in a 2 bed room at bcv in Oct 2012. now my contract had points left in it from 2009 so i had a little of a head start. but if you would go to Disney's website and pay for this rooms it would be a ton. 8 nights in a 2 bed room at the bcv is almost 8,000 with taxes. that is one trip. i still have a few of 2012's points left also. so even with the dues i pay around 63 a month on mine i am already way in the green just on 2 trips. and lets no forget how amazing it is to not have ever go back to an all star resort again......