Some questions about purchase...

[BensWife]

We have been thinking about whether or not purchasing into DVC would be a good idea for us or not. We have a few questions, but do not want to contact anyone at Disney and know many people on here are wonderful resources. So...

#1. How important is your "home" resort? I think we would be interested in buying at VGC, but I know there are not many villas there, so I wasn't even sure if it was a possibility.

#2. If you are short points, say you own 120 and you need 129, can you buy 9 points for just one time or do you have to borrow from your next year? Can you "rent" those 9 points you need and add them to the ones you own?

#3. What is the "waiting list" everyone is talking about? Is that for buying more points - like you might already own 100 points but you'd like to up what you have to 150?

#4. We got the info packet from Disney, and there was a place where it looked like you could get park passes to go with your purchase. Do you know if that is like a one time deal, or is it something you get every year?

#5. Is there anything you wish you knew before you bought?

Thanks so much for taking the time to read these and answer them!

 

[k3chantal]

We have been thinking about whether or not purchasing into DVC would be a good idea for us or not. We have a few questions, but do not want to contact anyone at Disney and know many people on here are wonderful resources. So...

#1. How important is your "home" resort? I think we would be interested in buying at VGC, but I know there are not many villas there, so I wasn't even sure if it was a possibility.

#2. If you are short points, say you own 120 and you need 129, can you buy 9 points for just one time or do you have to borrow from your next year? Can you "rent" those 9 points you need and add them to the ones you own?

#3. What is the "waiting list" everyone is talking about? Is that for buying more points - like you might already own 100 points but you'd like to up what you have to 150?

#4. We got the info packet from Disney, and there was a place where it looked like you could get park passes to go with your purchase. Do you know if that is like a one time deal, or is it something you get every year?

#5. Is there anything you wish you knew before you bought?

Thanks so much for taking the time to read these and answer them!

Your home resort is important because you are able to book 11 months in advance of your trip. This is 4 months in advance than anyone else. At all other DVC resorts, you can book up to 7 months.

You can borrow points from the next year (a situation I am always in ) if you need more points. You can also purchase 1 time use points for 15 dollars a point up to 24 points. This is something to do when you are out of points to borrow and have additional restrictions. By the way, you can 'bank' your points if you have a year you are not traveling so that you have double the points the following year. But they must be used in the following year or you will lose them.

The wait list is when you want a specific time/resort and you are waiting for an opening to occur. But you can also wait for a contract to become available if you want to buy points from a resort that is currently not selling points (like VGC).

The park passes are probably a perk to go with your purchase. Important to know that perks go away and come. Do not buy DVC if you are 'counting' on them.

When we purchased direct, we received 'double' the points. Our use year is February and our contract was loaded with 560 to begin with that first February even though we have 280 coming each year to us.

I wish I had known before we sat down with our guide that timeshares have yearly maintenance dues. It was quite a shock to realize that after paying outright for the contract, we still get a yearly bill that will go slightly up every year. Thankfully we learned this before purchasing. I also wish I had realized how important long term planning is when owning a timeshare. DVC is not a great tool if you start your planning after 7 months. Flexibility is important too.

My husband and I are happy with our purchase. It has allowed us to on trips we never would have spoiled ourselves with since we are usually so conservative with our money.

 

[Deb & Bill]

... When we purchased direct, we received 'double' the points. Our use year is February and our contract was loaded with 560 to begin with that first February even though we have 280 coming each year to us....

What you actually got was what you were entitled to. If you purchase in November and get a February UY, you are entitled to the points from the February before. Then you get more the next February.

As for the home resort. If you book your home resort at 11 months out, if you can't change to another resort at seven months out (and it will be very difficult at times), you still have your home resort for your reservation. That's why most of the longer term members suggest you buy where you wouldn't mind staying if you could get anything else.

And occasionally, DVC will offer incentives to purchase directly, such as X many APs or a $X discount per point. But once that end date hits, those incentives are over.

Make sure you take a look at the resale market before you purchase directly from Disney. You can save money on your points.

 

[k3chantal]

What you actually got was what you were entitled to. If you purchase in November and get a February UY, you are entitled to the points from the February before. Then you get more the next February.

As for the home resort. If you book your home resort at 11 months out, if you can't change to another resort at seven months out (and it will be very difficult at times), you still have your home resort for your reservation. That's why most of the longer term members suggest you buy where you wouldn't mind staying if you could get anything else.

And occasionally, DVC will offer incentives to purchase directly, such as X many APs or a $X discount per point. But once that end date hits, those incentives are over.

Make sure you take a look at the resale market before you purchase directly from Disney. You can save money on your points.

We didn't purchase in November though. Just checked and we bought in March. I have a credit card receipt of escrow dated 3/15/08. I am confident about our purchase date since the moment we received it, we wanted to make a reservation in May and because we were very close to our travel date, we struggled and had to make a split stay (taught us about the 11/7 month window advantage pretty quick though). And not to quibble about it any more than I am, but my overall 'point' (interesting play on words) is that perks come and go and I was using my personal experience as an example of perks not presently available. You would have to agree (even if you don't agree about my purchase date) that one should not buy into DVC if they are doing so because of the perks because all we are promised is the ability to make a reservation at our home resorts.

 

[disneynutz]

We didn't purchase in November though. Just checked and we bought in March. I have a credit card receipt of escrow dated 3/15/08. I am confident about our purchase date since the moment we received it, we wanted to make a reservation in May and because we were very close to our travel date, we struggled and had to make a split stay (taught us about the 11/7 month window advantage pretty quick though). And not to quibble about it any more than I am, but my overall 'point' (interesting play on words) is that perks come and go and I was using my personal experience as an example of perks not presently available. You would have to agree (even if you don't agree about my purchase date) that one should not buy into DVC if they are doing so because of the perks because all we are promised is the ability to make a reservation at our home resorts.

You may have received developer points as an incentive, some receive a free cruise, it all depends how sales are going, DVD has a sales quota to make so when the sales are slower than projected they will come up with all sorts of deals to get people to buy.

A common sales tactic is to tell new buyers that they are getting 2 years worth of points as if it's a gift when in actuality they are getting what they paid for based on their UY.

Perks do come and go and if it wasn't for new sales, I get the feeling that DVC wouldn't give us any.

Bill

 

[chalee94]

#1. How important is your "home" resort? I think we would be interested in buying at VGC, but I know there are not many villas there, so I wasn't even sure if it was a possibility.

if you want to stay at VGC on a regular basis, you should buy there and book at least 8-10 months out IMO.

if you mostly wanted to stay at SSR, booking early is less of an issue since it is much, much larger (but due to low prices, low dues and long-term till expiration, it's a good option to buy there.)

a lot depends on what you are trying to accomplish - for some people, home resort is very important...if you are extremely flexible and don't travel during DVC's busiest periods (oct through new years' is super busy), then it is less of an issue.

#2. If you are short points, say you own 120 and you need 129, can you buy 9 points for just one time or do you have to borrow from your next year? Can you "rent" those 9 points you need and add them to the ones you own?

you have several options

1) borrow the pts from the next UY (best option)

2) buy the pts from DVC directly (downside - expensive at $15 per pt and only valid at 7 months out...which means it often won't help at all for booking VGC.)

3) transfer the pts from another DVC owner - if you transfer 9 pts from a VGC owner, those pts can be used to book VGC at 11 months out. (downside: might be tough to find the right kind of owner - and due to transfer limitations, many owners won't transfer a small amount of pts)

4) rent a reservation from a DVC owner (not ideal - you cannot really "rent points" so you'd have to rent an entire extra night from a DVC owner -you would not control that part of the reservation - likely have to check out and back in...might be in a different room, although it can be noted on the reservation that you want to "link" it with yours.)

#4. We got the info packet from Disney, and there was a place where it looked like you could get park passes to go with your purchase. Do you know if that is like a one time deal, or is it something you get every year?

one time deal if it's available. better to buy tickets through undercovertourist or mapleleaftickets, in general.

#5. Is there anything you wish you knew before you bought?

i'm glad i spent several months doing a lot of research before i bought in to get a sense of what could change during my ownership of this timeshare. some changes have been disappointing but they were not completely unexpected (point reallocations, for one thing). also, i had a good idea of what to expect as far as busy seasons and booking non-home resorts...i've been locked out a few times when my 7 month waitlist never came through, but i bought OKW because i'm happy to stay there, regardless...

 

[k3chantal]

You may have received developer points as an incentive, some receive a free cruise, it all depends how sales are going, DVD has a sales quota to make so when the sales are slower than projected they will come up with all sorts of deals to get people to buy.

A common sales tactic is to tell new buyers that they are getting 2 years worth of points as if it's a gift when in actuality they are getting what they paid for based on their UY.

Perks do come and go and if it wasn't for new sales, I get the feeling that DVC wouldn't give us any.

Bill

I think if you look at the year of our sale (08'), DVC may have been nervous about getting many future large direct sales since the word 'recession' were being thrown about and they were opening a very large resort (AKL).

My husband is a Director of Sales at a Silicon Valley Tech company. We had waited a year after hearing the sales pitch so we probably looked like we needed a nudge and he has a pretty good poker face. Who knows what motivated them? It could have been that between our first call to purchase, they pitched the two years of points and by the time we decided to pull the trigger my husband reminded them of this 'perk' which then became a perk because of when we bought.

It was nice to have 560 points to start out with. The only other perk I would have rather had was the free admission to the parks for x amount of years. That must have been awesome!

 

[DisneyTravelers2008]

#1. How important is your "home" resort? I think we would be interested in buying at VGC, but I know there are not many villas there, so I wasn't even sure if it was a possibility.

For us, home resort priority has not been very important. We have always been lucky to get the room we wanted at non-home resorts. Sometimes we have to wait list to get it, but it has always worked out. It helps that you can have 2 wait lists at one time. In my opinion, teh "buy where you wnat to stay" theory is over-rated...

#2. If you are short points, say you own 120 and you need 129, can you buy 9 points for just one time or do you have to borrow from your next year? Can you "rent" those 9 points you need and add them to the ones you own?

Yes, you can "rent" points from DVC once a year. They are $15 each. I think you can "rent " up to 25...but I MAY be wrong..? You can also "bank" points that you dont use or borrow from the next use year. We are ALWAYS on the borrowing side

#3. What is the "waiting list" everyone is talking about? Is that for buying more points - like you might already own 100 points but you'd like to up what you have to 150?

You use a wait list to try to get a room you wnat if its not available when you call. Lets say you REALLY want a 1 BR Savannah view at Animal Kingdom for December 1-6. You can wait list it at the Jambo house sections and also at the Kidani section. If it become available, DVC will fill it for you and email you and send you a letter to confirm. We LOVE wait lists and use them successfully A LOT! You can basically have 2 waitlists at any time for any dates within your booking window that you have enough points to cover...they can even be borrowed points...

#4. We got the info packet from Disney, and there was a place where it looked like you could get park passes to go with your purchase. Do you know if that is like a one time deal, or is it something you get every year?

u I think thats a promotional deal. DVC members do get discounts on Annual Passes though.


#5. Is there anything you wish you knew before you bought?

I wish I had understood the wait list better at first. And, the FIRST time we got the membership /maintenance fee it was kind of a sticker shock. Also, beware, if yuo think you are addicted to Disney now....just wait till you beceome and owner

 

[Deb & Bill]

... In my opinion, teh "buy where you wnat to stay" theory is over-rated......

It's not "buy where you want to stay", but "buy where you wouldn't mind staying if you couldn't get anything else at seven months out".

 

[Breyean]

It's not "buy where you want to stay", but "buy where you wouldn't mind staying if you couldn't get anything else at seven months out".

And, if the OP is really considering VGC, that's one resort where the adage is even more important than with the WDW DVC resorts.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I think if you look at the year of our sale (08'), DVC may have been nervous about getting many future large direct sales since the word 'recession' were being thrown about and they were opening a very large resort (AKL).

My husband is a Director of Sales at a Silicon Valley Tech company. We had waited a year after hearing the sales pitch so we probably looked like we needed a nudge and he has a pretty good poker face. Who knows what motivated them? It could have been that between our first call to purchase, they pitched the two years of points and by the time we decided to pull the trigger my husband reminded them of this 'perk' which then became a perk because of when we bought.

It was nice to have 560 points to start out with. The only other perk I would have rather had was the free admission to the parks for x amount of years. That must have been awesome!

At that time there weren't hardly any incentives that didn't include developer points plus discount and sometimes something else. Many of them were DP's at SSR but we had a purchase that included DP points that were valid for any resort.

Those were the days.....

 

[ImagineerTHAT]

It's not "buy where you want to stay", but "buy where you wouldn't mind staying if you couldn't get anything else at seven months out".

If I want to stay at BLT (2 bedroom) in Nov/Dec for a week every year, I would assume that I have to own BLT and book at the 12 month mark right?

I hope so, otherwise I would have saved about $35 PP and bought SSR.

 

[k3chantal]

If I want to stay at BLT (2 bedroom) in Nov/Dec for a week every year, I would assume that I have to own BLT and book at the 12 month mark right?

I hope so, otherwise I would have saved about $35 PP and bought SSR.

At the 11 month window.

 

[k3chantal]

It's not "buy where you want to stay", but "buy where you wouldn't mind staying if you couldn't get anything else at seven months out".

This modification on the 'old' saying better reflects the truth for me.

I am beginning to see two camps of DVC owners.
1. People who purchased with the intent to stay at the same time of year at the same resort.

2 People who use the system to stay at different resorts/vacations and many different times of the year.

Of course, there are people who fall somewhere in between.

 

[jerseyduke]

1. How important is your home resort?

Simplified answer is "How important is it as to where you stay"?

VGC - VERY IMPORTANT.

WDW - If you just want to be there, and do not care where you are staying, then its not important at all.


but to answer #5....

I wish I had known more about fixed weeks. (This is only relevant if you are buying at a resort that offers them). I probably would still not have done it, but if they build a DVC POLY, i will probably do a fixed week there.

I wish I had known more about the resale of the contracts, and how smaller contracts are better. I Have 1 150 point contracts, I would have broken it up.

I wish I had known about how use years were divided up at other resorts, percentage wise. Since I see myself buying more contracts, at other resorts, I could have had my direct purchase match up to one of the most popular use years and my next targeted resort.

I wish I had THOUGHT more about UYs and when I tend to vacation.

I made some mistakes, but thanks to this board, none of them were very big ones. They were all small ones that really don't cause me any regret.

 

[ImagineerTHAT]

At the 11 month window.

Yeah, typo. Meant 11 month.

 

[Goofy DVC]

Answer #5

I wish I would've understood how UY works and how it relates to your vacation habits. You don't want a UY that that is right after when you usually vacation. For example, if you go to Food & Wine each year (Sept-Nov) then December is not the best UY in the event that you must cancel less then 30 days out and your points go into holding and you have little time to use them before they expire. Then again, the longer you own the more likely your vacation habits may change resulting in a different UY that would be appropriate for planning than before. For example, now that the kids are grown, we will visit the Mouse House more in the winter. Now a December UY works well with that vacation habit.

 

[DaveInCali]

We have been thinking about whether or not purchasing into DVC would be a good idea for us or not. We have a few questions, but do not want to contact anyone at Disney and know many people on here are wonderful resources. So...

#1. How important is your "home" resort? I think we would be interested in buying at VGC, but I know there are not many villas there, so I wasn't even sure if it was a possibility.

#2. If you are short points, say you own 120 and you need 129, can you buy 9 points for just one time or do you have to borrow from your next year? Can you "rent" those 9 points you need and add them to the ones you own?

#3. What is the "waiting list" everyone is talking about? Is that for buying more points - like you might already own 100 points but you'd like to up what you have to 150?

#4. We got the info packet from Disney, and there was a place where it looked like you could get park passes to go with your purchase. Do you know if that is like a one time deal, or is it something you get every year?

#5. Is there anything you wish you knew before you bought?

Thanks so much for taking the time to read these and answer them!

This question may be odd, but are you on the west coast or close to VGC? I ask because as a DVC owner living in California, we don't get the same kind of discounts that Florida DVC members get to take advantage of. Most notable, we only get $20 off Disneyland Resort annual passes, compared to the bigger discount for WDW annual passes.

If VGC is where you want to stay, try to purchase VGC as your home resort. It is VERY difficult to book VGF at the seven month window. This is due to the fact that it the ONLY DVC resort at the Disneyland resort and it's the smallest DVC property (or one of the smallest - someone will quote me just to correct me if I don't put that caveat in). With that said since VGC is considered "sold-out", you'll have to waitlist through DVC directly or resale through brokers. NOTE: you can't use resale points purchased through a broker to book Collection properties, like the Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier for a last minute weekend trip or if you wanted to plan something at the last minute.

Just keep in mind that IMO, a lot of feedback on these boards has the prospective of the Florida resident or members close to WDW. I've read a lot of comments on here that don't apply to or are not practical for me on the west coast.

As for what I wish I knew... I wish I bought all my contracts in smaller chunks so they could be offloaded or resold later. Also, if you travel a certain time every year, make sure that your use year is greater than four months after that time.

Good luck.

 

[CarolMN]

.....(snip).......Just keep in mind that IMO, a lot of feedback on these boards has the prospective of the Florida resident or members close to WDW. I've read a lot of comments on here that don't apply to or are not practical for me on the west coast. ......

Very true. Thanks for posting!

 

[hjgaus]

This question may be odd, but are you on the west coast or close to VGC? I ask because as a DVC owner living in California, we don't get the same kind of discounts that Florida DVC members get to take advantage of. Most notable, we only get $20 off Disneyland Resort annual passes, compared to the bigger discount for WDW annual passes.

If VGC is where you want to stay, try to purchase VGC as your home resort. It is VERY difficult to book VGF at the seven month window. This is due to the fact that it the ONLY DVC resort at the Disneyland resort and it's the smallest DVC property (or one of the smallest - someone will quote me just to correct me if I don't put that caveat in). With that said since VGC is considered "sold-out", you'll have to waitlist through DVC directly or resale through brokers. NOTE: you can't use resale points purchased through a broker to book Collection properties, like the Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier for a last minute weekend trip or if you wanted to plan something at the last minute.

Just keep in mind that IMO, a lot of feedback on these boards has the prospective of the Florida resident or members close to WDW. I've read a lot of comments on here that don't apply to or are not practical for me on the west coast.



As for what I wish I knew... I wish I bought all my contracts in smaller chunks so they could be offloaded or resold later. Also, if you travel a certain time every year, make sure that your use year is greater than four months after that time.

Good luck.

West Coast So Cal DVCer here !!! YES to colored sections!!!
BUY where you want to stay is GREAT advice too!!
Although if you live close by like me (20 minutes away) sometimes 7 or less months out reservations isn't too hard to get OR getting a hotel room on points if you REALLY need to! THUS BUY DIRECT to get the advantage!!!