Ready to sell DVC, not happy with it

[beccasmom]

I guess we have been fortunate in that any concern we've had at a DVC resort was promptly taken care of in general. We had bubbles coming out of our toilet at OKW (shades of Lawence Welk!) and the plumber arrived at our unit in record time (at 1:30 a.m.; I was impressed) to tell us that some tots throw soap in the bowls. She took care of it. And last year our sofa bed at OKW was in sorry shape; they replaced it the next morning. We've had niggling issues at other resorts, nothing awful, just annoying.

There's no point in continuing with something that makes you unhappy and that affects your bank account to boot. We love the extra space that the DVC units afford our family - there's always someplace to "hide" when the togetherness gets to be too much! And the deluxe resorts have become far too costly for us to go back to staying there again, although we love them dearly. Our membership has long been paid for. When we add up the pros and cons, we are basically pretty satisfied with DVC. There are some things we wish would change and we miss the "old days", but it is still working out very well for us. Good luck with your decision!

 

[CMOORE185]

I have been in DVC for 9 years and either things are getting worse or I am getting more picky. I seem to notice the little things more now and they seem to annoy me more and more as the years go by. There is no doubt that the older resorts are getting more run down and there is nothing worse than having to call maintenance when you just want to relax and be on vacation. And I just bought another 160 points in March! Hope I do not regret it.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I believe the room number was 2530. First floor, villa side, make a right after the gift shop, about 10 rooms on the right.

LATE ADDITION:

I forgot to add something important about our experience this trip. Two nights in a row, we personally witnessed very un-Disney like events on the actual boardwalk. Both times it was about 11pm, and a bunch of very intoxicated kids were doing breakdancing in front of the hotel asking guests for money. They were also soliciting women very loudly and offering to pay them money, etc. Like I said this happened two nights in a row! No Disney security, no Disney management to intervene. I asked the hotel manager about this and she apologized and said she knew about it. But nobody did anything about it as I watched the kids get into a cab after 10 minutes of this nonsense on their own. I know this doesn't have much to do with DVC, but I wonder if it is another sign of budget cutbacks and layoffs at WDW.

I think JellyRolls has alot to do with this kind of behavior. I think if they had this establishment closed earlier or actually changed into something else, we would see less of this.

 

[disneynutz]

We bought our initial contract in 2002. Ever since our first stay in September of that year, I have screamed from the rooftop- "Housekeeping is the weak link in DVC".
The villas are "surface clean", but take a gander under the toaster, or take a close look at the bed sheets (just examples). You will see my point.

They also wadded up the reservation procedure, but that's for another thread.

Is DVC perfect? No. Is it good enough? Yes
That said, more should be expected from a prime timeshare, especially when it carries the name Disney.

On a side note- When we check in my wife actually spends an hour cleaning the room. Sad but true.

MG

Disney used to be a place where "Good enough, isn't".

So let me understand this. You spent a good deal of money to buy your points. You pay increasing dues every year, and your wife cleans the room that should already be clean when you check in.

 

[toniosmom]

I will add my voice -- if you are truly very unhappy with your membership, then you should sell. Vacation is supposed to be a nice, relaxing time with family and/or friends. It doesn't do you any good if you are stressed out.

I wish you the best.

 

[ckdsnynt]

Okay, so this is disturbing. We have not signed our paperwork yet and now I am seriously reconsidering. We prefer 'higher' end vacationing and if the condition of the rooms is not going to live up to Disney standards AND complaints fall of deaf ears, sounds like we need to rethink.

Also, maybe there should be an organized letter / calling campagin to the President of DVCs office regarding this situation. DVC members are paying for upkeep in the maintenance dues. If enough people flood his office with calls about (1) the upkeep, (2) lack of service once it is brought to someones attendtion at the resort and (3) the lack of response from further complaints to Member Services, maybe he would feel compelled to act.

Certainly, the potential of loosing new contracts would also cause alarm.

Ready, set, call....

Yeah, we just purchased DVC at BLT and if we have troubkle making reservations when we want to go or don't get problems resolved or have such difficulties as reported on here, I'm afraid we will be very disappointed. We have waited many years until we could be financially at a point to purchase DVC only to have these issues?

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Disney used to be a place where "Good enough, isn't".

So let me understand this. You spent a good deal of money to buy your points. You pay increasing dues every year, and your wife cleans the room that should already be clean when you check in.

Yup... That's it in a nutshell.

Please don't get me wrong, I still love Disney. I just added points at VGC.
Even though I find fault with DVC and Disney in general, they are still the best game in town. They are good enough to remain my favorite vacation destination.
My biggest blow was the closing of my favorite place ever, The Adventurers Club.

MG

 

[jodifla]

In a 50 year arrangement there are going to be good things, and not so good things. It wouldn't be a constant climb up into bliss, with each year better than the last.

Again, to me, what the OP posted wouldn't nearly be enough to get me to sell my points and return to the fabulously overpriced Polynesian.

One thing about the DVC units: I bet people spend a LOT more time in them, and do a lot more "living" in them. They are MUCH harder clean than a regular hotel room.

Now, if DVC puts those crappy new OKW beds in every DVC unit, that might make me want to ditch my points after my son is older. But the other changes I can live with.

I'd still rather be ON-SITE, in my MULTI room DVC unit than offsite in a house or onsite in a deluxe.

 

[ToddyLu]

Will my heart has taken a couple of pains reading this thread. DH and I signed our paperwork two weeks ago for our first DVC purchase. I understand that other people who are used to staying in luxury resorts have certain expectations. But to us, coming from always staying value, we don't yet know what we have been missing...so I am thinking we will be tickled pink if we get to see one girraffe in October. Yes the OP room sounds horrible and I would have flipped out if I had had to remain there.

DH and I have had a horrible experience walking into the Poly Lobby on a busy night trying to find the Luau. Each time we ride buy it on the monorail he makes a comment about not ever wanting to stay there. I find it so interesting that everyone has an opinion about something.

We do Disney every year and plan on that being our "family vacation" spot forever. Even in value rooms and moderate rooms we have had our needs met time and time again for "little things". Just imagine the great pains they went to when a bus driver broke my FIL rental scooter. THe back of the scooter was held down then it slammed up against an area of expossed open tissue we had been treating. He had to call the Front Desk himself because the driver did not do anything about it. Needless to say when he hung up the phone he instantly got 3 managment personel to his room

So I guess it is the way that OP situation was handled that freaks me out, not so much that reapairs need to be made. We just feel lucky to finally own a piece of Disney. Now I feel like I will be looking for dust bunnies under the bed. Think Cinderella would come over and help me clean the room? She has experience...

 

[DeeCee735]

I think JellyRolls has alot to do with this kind of behavior. I think if they had this establishment closed earlier or actually changed into something else, we would see less of this.

NO NO NO, please don't change Jellyrolls! It's the only adult place left! I was thinking Atlantic Dance would be where they came from when "kids" and "break dancing" were mentioned. It is a dance club and does attract the younger (20 something) crowd. I'd bet they were coming out of there.....

 

[crisi]

So I guess it is the way that OP situation was handled that freaks me out, not so much that reapairs need to be made. We just feel lucky to finally own a piece of Disney. Now I feel like I will be looking for dust bunnies under the bed. Think Cinderella would come over and help me clean the room? She has experience...

If we got a room that was "just" dust bunnies, I'd be thrilled. While I've been content with all our rooms, broken drawers, burnt out lights, worn appliances, cracked tiles has been the norm - not the exception. I may be unlucky or picky.

I agree with MG - housekeeping and maintenance have been the weak link. I'm content given the dues I'm paying, but I'm not thrilled. I'm just reluctant to see the dues go up so I can be thrilled when I can be content.

 

[disneynutz]

Yup... That's it in a nutshell.

Please don't get me wrong, I still love Disney. I just added points at VGC.
Even though I find fault with DVC and Disney in general, they are still the best game in town. They are good enough to remain my favorite vacation destination.
My biggest blow was the closing of my favorite place ever, The Adventurers Club.

MG

Same with us... we aren't at the tipping point yet and continue to hope that Disney will see the light.

I do have to admit that we wash the dishes as soon as we get to the room. Had a experience once of pulling dirty dishes from the cupboard.

 

[Sammie]

For some reason most members seem to be like a frog in boiling water. Disney knows how to turn the heat up slowly so we don't seem to mind the temperature going up until the water boils. If they threw us into the boiling water, we would just jump out of the pot.

Their recent adjustments to the membership was met with little resistance and I don't see any of the changes benefiting the membership.

I have always been a strong advocate of letting Disney and the DVC know their strengths and their weaknesses. The majority of my contacts fall onto deaf ears. Disney is in the business of selling Time Shares, not maintaining them and they seem to do the minimum.

As I have said before, we still enjoy the cost savings and for families who visit WDW frequently and have the means to afford it, it's still a good deal.

I just wish that Disney would put some of the same effort into maintaining the resorts as they do selling memberships.

Please share your good and bad experiences and comments with the DVC Satisfaction Team.
dvcmembersatisfactionteam@disneyvacationclub.com

Completely and totally agree, if DVC had only the current resorts to sale and not the brand new shiny ones, they would be out of business, it is a shame the condition they have allowed some of these rooms to get in.

And it is not about having to raise maintenance fees to do it, it is poor management.

 

[La2kw]

This entire thread makes me want to rethink my add-on possiblities...because it is very true they should put as much work into maintainence as they do into selling their product

I'll never do another addon with DVC. The 2010 point charts made up my mind about that. I was already on the fence due to the lack of upkeep evident at the resorts. The current changes have been a bit insulting, from the OKW contract "extension", to the lousy housekeeping, to the point charts for 2010. I'm pretty sure I'll be selling off my points in a few years.

 

[Modeltrf]

In a 50 year arrangement there are going to be good things, and not so good things. It wouldn't be a constant climb up into bliss, with each year better than the last.

Again, to me, what the OP posted wouldn't nearly be enough to get me to sell my points and return to the fabulously overpriced Polynesian.

One thing about the DVC units: I bet people spend a LOT more time in them, and do a lot more "living" in them. They are MUCH harder clean than a regular hotel room.

Now, if DVC puts those crappy new OKW beds in every DVC unit, that might make me want to ditch my points after my son is older. But the other changes I can live with.

I'd still rather be ON-SITE, in my MULTI room DVC unit than offsite in a house or onsite in a deluxe.

I completely agree with all your statements except the OKW beds...and that is probably because I haven't stayed there yet. But I will in Jan 2010!

 

[Disney Doll]

OP, if you are unhappy, then of course you should sell. Why keep something that you are spending money on and not enjoying????

FTR, I have owned at OKW since 1997. I have stayed at OKW, SSR, BWV & BCV in the time that I have owned. I have never found any major problems anywhere. There was one stay at OKW where I thought the room wasn't up to par, they fixed what they could while I was there, and about 2 weeks after my return home, I got a call from a Housekeeping Supervisor thanking me for bringing the room to their attention and to follow-up to tell me that it had been taken out of service for renovation. Was she feeding me a line of baloney? Well, perhaps, but I like to try and think the best of people, not the worst.

When did they change the OKW beds? I was there in January 2009 in a GV and the beds were fine. I will be back at OKW in July in a 2BR.

 

[wulfekamp]

Stayed at BCV june 11th to 19th. Had a few mantainance issues. Made one call to the front desk everything was fixed in about and hour. A friend of mine had a bad room and complained. Disney sent them free 5 day park hoppers.
You might try a differnt resort. I have found some resorts are better than others.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

we've been members for 15 years. If you asked me a few days ago, I would have said it was the best thing I ever bought/did (see my log in name). We always stay at OKW and have always loved it. 4 days into my stay right now - live at OKW - I am seriously reconsidering my ownership. I can't really list specific examples nor could I pin it on DVC entirely. It's more WDW. There has been a consistent change in the 'face' of cast members here and it is seriously affecting CUSTOMER service along with an outrageous stripping of our pathetic 'benefits'; a colossal degradation of quality and an outrageous increase in prices.
Just one example: Last night late in HS - we were at the board that lists the wait times. THREE Disney MANAGERS were standing there. We asked about the accuracy of the time for Toy Story Mania. We were told that it is 'the hottest thing in Orlando right now' followed by one of the MANAGERS saying until "(blah blah) opens in Universal. He then asked if we'd been to that park. I said, no, we always just go to Disney. His response...."oh you should, it's much better than here" A DISNEY MANAGER WITH TWO OTHER DISNEY MANAGERS. When I looked at him oddly, he said, "my partner works there so my mortgage gets paid either way". Good for him. Maybe Disney should open an institute and run business seminars on arrogant customer service. Reminds me of the airlines.

 

[Lenc324]

I have stayed at Comfort Inn's and Motel 6's that have had better housekeeping then DVC. My last stay at BWV was bad. The room was dirty with bulbs missing, broken clock dirty carpet. Doesn't seem to be getting better either.

 

[Golden Rose]

When we stayed at BWV last month, we checked in and were taken to our room... which had open, half drunk drinks on the side table, a broken Mickey ball headband on the coffee table, and an unmade bed with clearly dirty sheets on it. The bellman and I were both appalled. (DS was not appalled. DS (age 4) ran straight for the headband with the broken off Mickey ball, shoved it back together and put it on his head in the 20 seconds while I was pointing in horror at the mussed bed. <sigh>)

The bellman called a manager. They moved us to a different room immediately. The manager came up to meet us at the new room with the new keys, apologized profusely, and gave us a $50 credit for the hassle.

It was not a pleasant start to our vacation, but I thought everyone was both nice and professional about how they handled it.

OK, I have to say, if I had been in a room that didn't have working AC, I would have turned into a raving witch. DS and I are both super heat sensitive. I'm usually super nice and polite initially when things go wrong, but I calmly and sweetly expect them to fix it. I find that usually people will live up to your expections. But if they won't do the right thing, I admit that I become the squeaky wheel. Seriously, if I'd been given a room without ac, I'd have camped out in the (air-conditioned) lobby and gone up the chain of command. Loudly. I am so sorry to hear about your experience!