Should we join DVC or not? Need advice!

[HusbandAlwaysWorking]

I know your children are young but if they continue to go with you to WDW after age 17 you'll be glad you joined.

You're scaring me!

 

[missyndda]

I have created Disney envy in my family... DF, DM, and DS all own timeshares in HGVC (home resort: Hilton Hawaiian Village). DM is considering selling her timeshare to buy DVC to be able to vacation with her grandkids.

I have no regrets buying DVC except I just wish we could have afforded to buy in back in 1999 when we originally looked at it. We have taken 3 trips to WDW since then that would have constituted a nice down payment.

I think 300 points is a great number. We purchased 350 so that we would be able to rent a 2 BDR for a week during the Magic timeframe, even though we do not have school age kids now. But we felt that vacationing during school breaks would be a consideration for the future. We also felt that a 2BDR would be good now to be able invite along DGPs or when kids are older for more room and privacy.

Another thing I really love about DVC is being forced??? to vacation and not having to budget for the money needed. My husband and I get so wrapped up in work sometimes, that this forces us to plan ahead some time for ourselves and our family.

 

[JonHM]

that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet. First, when you join DVC, sometimes what you think are totally ingrained and etched in stone vacation habits start to change. For instance, before we joined, I don't think that I ever planned a vacation in my life for more than 6 weeks or so in advance. Since we have joined, I have been consistently planning several trips a year at the 11 month window. The only reason I bring this up is *right now* you sound pretty set that your vacation habits are one full week per year. If you decide to join, once you experience the full "WOW!" effect of a DVC vacation, you may start staring at point charts trying to figure out how to make your points go further. One of the most popular ways (I think), is instead of staying for a traditional 7 day week, is to arrive on a Sunday and to leave the following Friday. This way, you only pay the lower Sunday through Thursday points rates, and don't pay the incredibly exorbitant (IMHO) Friday night and Saturday night rates. If you do this, all of a sudden you will find that your points will go considerably further. It is all about personal experience, but in my experience, Sunday through Friday *feels like* a week to me, *especially* if I know that I'll be back later that year!!!

Regarding annual passes, two points. When we bought annual passes this year, we actually scheduled our trips so we would get *three* trips in on the passes, rather than two. October 2002, May/June 2003, October 2003 - again, Sunday through Friday trips. And now we just added an 'impulse' trip for Jan/Feb 2003...

The other point regarding annual passes is what you mentioned about the discount hotel rates that you currently get with APs. It is very, very true that if the AP rates that have been available over the past two years were going to stay the same *for the next 40 years*, then yes, DVC might not be as good a deal as it is. But think about how much even All Stars resorts are going to cost per night in 2013? How about 2023? For a frame of reference, do a little research and try to find out how much a lagoon view at the Poly went for in 1982... DVC is all about the long term, big picture. The AP rates will continue to go up and up and up as the years go on. And that doesn't even *touch* one of DVC's strongest selling points - the 1BR and 2BR villas!!! Believe me, the full kitchen, master bedroom, jacuzzi and VCR in the living room go a long, LONG way towards making you think that even rooms in the Grand Floridian aren't anything special by comparison... at least they did *for us*...

Good luck with your decision. I do have to agree with the earlier poster - if there was one thing that I wish I had known before signing (and it's the *only* thing I can think of that I wish I had known), it is to choose the proper use year. We just took what they gave us, which was a February use year. Only problem is that we like to sometimes go in January, which makes it risky if we need to cancel for some reason. Oh well. But everything else about DVC has been *fantastic* so far!!!