should we do it?

[torian]

hi all,

We're about to leave WDW and yesterday my H and i took an open house tour of the DVC.

We are really tempted to go ahead ...but need to know from current owners what potential downsides/pitfalls/negatives there are to going DVC. We think we know the plusses!!

thanks!

 

[SSRFred]

Some of this may be a plus for some but, it's a forced vacation.

You will be spending money and time every year (Transportation, tickets, food, dues etc.). If you defer (Bank) your points, the time will be less but you still have to pay dues.
Also, the system is first come first served. You wont have the same last minute (or even many months) availability that you do when paying cash.

All that said, I think the system works very well. Good luck on your decision.

 

[JimMIA]

The most important thing you should know is that buying direct from Disney is not the only option for getting into DVC. There is a very active resale marketplace, and this happens to be a real buyer's market at the moment.

Buying resale involves going to school a bit to learn the process, further research to decide where to buy and what price to pay, and it will take a couple of months to complete the process and be eligible to actually make reservations. But once you are in, your membership is absolutely no different than anyone else's.

The upside of resale is obviously price. SSR contracts, for example, are currently selling at more than a 30% discount from buying direct. Savings vary from resort to resort, but if you click on the DVC resale link at the top of this page, you'll go to the Timeshare Store listing of available contracts.

TTS is a longtime sponsor of the DIS and these DVC pages, and they are a great company to do business with.

 

[bookwormde]

If you have time visit each DVC (Animal Kingdom villas, Kidani and Jambo, Beach club villas and the associated Beach Club facilities, Board Walk Villas, Old Key West, Saratoga Springs, and Villas at Wilderness lodge and the associated Wilderness lodge facilities) at WDW. I assume you have already seen as much of Bay Lake Towers as if available. With a little patience all of these are available from both DVC and resale.

If you have not done this or at least looked at them in the virtual world, I would wait since you do not have to purchase while you are on site.

Picking a use year is important also, the general rule is picking a use year (month) that you do not typically travel the 3 month before will help of you ever have to cancel a reservation on short notice since you will still be able to bank your points.

bookwormde

 

[DVC Mike]

To us, the plusses far outweight the negatives and we highly recommend DVC. DVC isn't for everyone. It's a luxury purchase. But for those that visit WDW or DL regularly and enjoy staying in deluxe accomodations, it's worth it.

 

[sneadae]

We just bought DVC (Bay Lake, purchased over the phone with our guide we met last August) early this week. My advice to you is to THINK ABOUT IT for an amount of time. Don't buy with hesitation. Take time, crunch your numbers, explore all options. DVC will be there for you when you are ready. Yes, there are incentives, and they are great right now. But there will be more incentives, and as someone said, it is a buyers market.

I was hesitant for about a year, but finally found myself ready to go for it. Don't rush into it, despite what your guide might say. TAKE YOUR TIME.

Good luck!

 

[lah3hh]

I would say the only negative I can think of is if you are a person who does not want to vacation every year or every other year type person...then it is probably not for you.

I love DVC and truly LOVE the fact it makes me vacation (in a very good kind of way) several times a year. This way I can always convince DH that we have to go on vacation not to lose our points....

I agree with DVC Mike...the plusses FAR outweight the negatives for us and have I said I LOVE my DVC points!!!

 

[christa112]

Do lots and lots of research.

We took the tour in Sept knew we wanted to purchase, but didn't jump the gun. Lets face it DVC is always going to be here and building or adding new resorts.

I took my time and really started researching in Jan. I joined the Time Share Store mailing list and got resale listings on a daily basis. And of course I read the Disboards all the time asking questions to make sure I knew what I was getting into.

Needless to say, I am now a DVC Member purchased AKV last month
I ended up purchasing directly through Disney with the current incentives going on I couldn't turn them down.

Good luck in your decision.

 

[Caren]

hi all,

We're about to leave WDW and yesterday my H and i took an open house tour of the DVC.

We are really tempted to go ahead ...but need to know from current owners what potential downsides/pitfalls/negatives there are to going DVC. We think we know the plusses!!

thanks!

We just bought at BLT after doing a lot of research. DVC will work for you if you vacation at Disney regularly, can start planning a year or so before your actual trip, and like more room than you get in a hotel room. We bought enough points for one big trip a year or every other year, but plan to pay for our habit of last-minute weekends in cash.

 

[conciergekelly]

My advice: I wish that I would have broken our 300 contract up into 2, 150 points. Now I have teen age kids who can't come with us as much. Someday it would be nice to sell 1/2 or even split it up so each one gets a contract. Just something to think about.

 

[Mtnman44]

I'll just second the comment that the resale market is extremely attractive for buyers right now. Depending on the size of contract you are looking for, that could mean a significant savings (or more points!).

The direct from DVC route is great, that is what I did. It is amazingly simple and quick. If you want to finance that certainly is the "easiest". However, when I bought, the direct price was $86 which was much closer to resale rates than it is now.

 

[backyardponder]

biggest disadvantage, in my opinion, is cost. Please don't do this if you can't afford it. In addition to initial cost, there's annual fees (figure about $4 to $6 per point), cost of WDW tickets, transportation, meals, etc.

If you can afford this, it is GREAT!

 

[rkwier]

We just bought DVC (Bay Lake, purchased over the phone with our guide we met last August) early this week. My advice to you is to THINK ABOUT IT for an amount of time. Don't buy with hesitation. Take time, crunch your numbers, explore all options. DVC will be there for you when you are ready. Yes, there are incentives, and they are great right now. But there will be more incentives, and as someone said, it is a buyers market.

I was hesitant for about a year, but finally found myself ready to go for it. Don't rush into it, despite what your guide might say. TAKE YOUR TIME.

Good luck!

This is excellent advice. We orginally toured the model at BWV basically for grins because we had determined long ago that we were not timeshare people. We were actually very impressed and decided to take the tour at SSR. We were intrigued and took the information home to look at. Then I began the research, mainly looking for reasons NOT to do it. I even googled things like "Disney Vacation Club Nightmare" just looked for something negative. Truthfully, we could not find even one reason and we are now very happy owners at BLT. The biggest questions to ask is, does DVC make sense for you and your family?