Really close to pulling the trigger, but one question...

[chandy]

My wife and I have 2 children, ages 6 and 3. We live in Californina and I think that realistically if we became a DVC member we may go to DW 6 or 7 times during the life of the membership. The issue that will decide if we join or not is the avalibility of the Interval Int. properties. We would like to take a ski vaction every other year. I am in education, so I know my schedule well in advance. Has anyone ever had a problem booking at a non-Disney property.

Thanks for any insight.

 

[Caskbill]

DVC works best for those who will be using the points to stay at DVC properties. Using points at non-DVC properties is quite high compared to using them at the DVC resorts. Also, historically, the 'cost' in points at the non-DVC properties increases year to year, while DVC property points is fixed.

Additionally, you often must pay other fees to use points outside of the DVC resorts.

IMHO, based on what you stated, DVC would be a poor choice.

 

[mattnday]

Chandy

I feel your pain

We own Hilton and love their resorts but when in Florida it is just not Disney. We will be under the same use restrictions as you and have been really torn about buying DVC for a long time. We are a family fo 3 with an almost 5 year old. We are timeshare diehards. Once you have stayed in timeshares, hotel rooms will just not do for family trips.

With that being said we placed an offer on a 250 point contract at OKW and got it accepted just last weekend. Wether it passes ROFR, that may be a totally seperate issue.

Here is our own personal reasoning that brought us to buying Disney:


1)There are perks staying on Disney Property that you will not get anywhere else. Access to Disney Dining, Early Entry, are the 2 key ones for us.

2)We own 4 Hilton weeks that have been real champs when we have wanted to rent them out. With that in mind their rentals will help offset the extremely high cost of buying in to Disney. This is key for us as our Hilton rental will be paying our Disney Maintenace Fees

3)We are praying that with Disney now owning a piece of property across the street from Disneyland that a rumored 3rd park and timeshare resort will be built

4)We can always stay at another timeshare really cheap if we want to go to DisneyWorld. However, as sledom as we can go we want to maximize our time at the parks and enjoyment. We feel DVC does that for us.

5)Financially, I could not justify this decision living in California if I thought it would be worth next to nothing in about 15 years when its use for us would be much more limited. With that in mind, Disney use of ROFR and increasing costs have kept the resale market climbing for the last 15 years. We realisticaly feel we will be able to recoup our upfront investment if and when we decide to sell it when it's use with our son will no longer be needed. As an example, when we first looked 6 years ago it was about $55 a point for OKW vs the $75 where it is today. We understand ththere is only 36 years left and will be monitoring the resale market closely over the 10-15 years of use that we intend to keep the timeshare.

6)You can always rent your points out if you can not go in a specific year. In your case renting every other year would pay your maintenace fees for both years and probably leave you a little bit left over.

7) I am a cheapskate - I know, I just agreed to a contract costing almost $19000. How can that be. We know that we have difficuly putting out large rental fees for accomidations. For me everything is about value. so with that in mind, I could never pay the $2500 + rental fee to stay at DVC when I can stay at Hilton or somewhere else for 1/3 of that. WIth that being said we know we have to have points to use if we ever are going to stay at the resort we want to stay at.

8)Biggest and Final Factor - We love Disney - My 5 year old has been to Disneyland 10-12 times already. Disney is a part of our life. For us it is about making memories. Is it a perfect financial decision, no. However, it is a decision that we can live with financially and we know without question that we will truly get great happiness in using it while our son grows up.

I hope in some way this help. If my wife or I can answer any more questions for you just let us know.

 

[chandy]

Great points!

 

[kimberh]

If you want to ski then get a timeshare in a ski area. We have 4 and we love the timeshare vs hotels. We finally broke down and bought Disney this year and now I have two. WE love Disney and when we are there we love Staying on property but I have great trading power with my other two timeshares. I have used them all over the country, even in my own city. You can always find a DVCer that will rent to you or stay in one of the delux hotels. They are wonderful.

 

[Ethan Baby]

I am a DVC owner that lives in San Diego. I am a major Disney lover and grew up going to Disneyland. The distance to Orlando does not bother me because if you look out for airefare sales for Orlando you can pay just about the same $ as if you were flying to San Francisco. I am going on a trip this month and I got the ding fares from Southwest for $86 bucks each way. I have annual passes to the parks so no expense there. My only expense is some groceries and spending money for fun. I am going to WDW for 10 days and I will probably spend less than $1000 bucks. I also reserved 3 days at the Disneyland hotel for New Years which was a good use of my points because it is more expensive if you pay rack rates. I love my DVC. I think it all depends on your own situation and what you think is a good bang for your buck. I would love to have a DVC in California...add on

 

[rinkwide]

Really close to pulling the trigger...

Don't, by the sound of your description it's a loaded gun pointed at your head. 6 or 7 trips isn't enough to justify a DVC purchase.

 

[littlestar]

Go read up on timesharing and exchanging through Interval and RCI over on the Tug site (timeshare users group). Here's a link to their boards:

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/

You can read about Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Starwood, Worldmark, Fairfield, etc. We own a Marriott week along with just enough DVC points for our Disney on site trips. The combination works wonderfully for us. I read the Dis boards for probably four months before we bought our DVC points. And I probably read the tug boards for 7 months before we bought our Marriott week. Don't get in a hurry. Take your time and find the best fit for your family and situation.

Good Luck!

 

[chandy]

I was in a rush to make a decision because the agent told me that the $8 per point that they'd give me if I bought by tomorrow, 8/3. I will take the advice to wait and think it thought a bit more.


Thanks for all the help!!