thinking of joining dvc

[chipndalefan]

ive visited wdw several times, and have always thought of going to see about dvc but never got round to it.

we usually go 2 wdw for 2 weeks end of sept/beggining of oct (this year were going 23/09/07-06/10/07)

theres only 2 of us, so we wouldnt need a large villa. how many points would i need for this? what costs would i be looking at, both initially and for the yearly fees?

do you find you can go to wdw more beause of dvc or does it just work out cheaper for the time you spend?

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

As there are only two of you, you'll probably need 200 points. A studio will hold up to 4.

A few questions:

What type of holiday do you normally take? ("I-Drive", "Villa", On-Site: Value, Moderate, De-luxe?)

How old are you? (not being personal - needs to be in the equation for how many trips you expect to make).

Are you paying out of savings or financing?

Purchasing direct through Disney or re-sale?

Assuming Disney on the last question; essentially, 200 points will cost you $19,200 ($96 per point) rising to $20,800 ($104 per point at the end of the present promo) equating (@ $1.90 "wet finger" exchange) to £10,105 or £10,947 + $126 closing fees.

Your annual dues will cost you at the moment $4.12 per point = $824 / £433.

At the moment we have a very good exchange rate making it attractive to buy.

We bought in February having considered it since 2001! I had a lump sum to put down so didn't take out finance - I personally would not have bought if I needed to finance it.

I drew up numerous spreadsheets to assess "real" cost to me etc. but essentially the equation I followed was:

(Upfront costs divided by expected number of trips) plus annual dues.

Added to this was cost of air tickets. I made an assumption that I would be flying BA or Virgin at normal rates, and anything cheaper would be a bonus.

Is it cheaper? That depends on your point of view. If you go I-Drive/Value then the answer will be no. If you normally go "De-Luxe" then the answer is yes. If you go moderate, there's not too much difference. However, the accomodation you are getting is in the Disney De-Luxe bracket so you have to take that into consideration as well.

Hope this helps as a starter.

 

[chipndalefan]

were saving at the moment, so would not be taking finance. we generally stay in a moderate resort, though we have stayed value before too. im 24, so have many a trip left in me!

 

[mark&sue]

I have found that flights during school summer holidays are really expensive but I would have thought it would be cheaper at other times.

We have 520 points which I think is too much. You can always add on if you really like it. Even if there is just two of you the one bed villas with the lovely tubs are so nice it would be good to be able to stay in these sometimes.

Let us know what you decide and good luck



Susan

 

[crux]

We've got 222 points (150 at VWL and 72 at BCV) which enables us to stay in a studio every year for two weeks (just me and DW). We paid approx £10,000 for the points in 2001/2002 (at current exchange rate you'd probably be looking at closer to £11,000 to buy now) and the annual dues were approx. £550 this year.

We go in October one year and September the next, therefore we can use one annual pass to cover two trips.

We do 'save' money on what we used to pay - two weeks package at a moderate resort - but not as much as we could. We now travel in Sunshine First with TCD on a fly-drive, which is still less than Virgin PE, but more/better than we used to paid to travel in Economy.

Ian (and Judith)

 

[paulh]

would say for the 2 of you a stuido would be big enougth,We stay in a studio most times ( 4 of us).We have 200 points and that is ok for two weeks think eack week would be around 112 poins at SSR outhers slightly more/less.Useing the borrowing system with 200 points you would have to borrow 24 1st year,48 second year then in year 3 96 points then unuse few points leaft bank into year 5 so you wouldent go in year 4.When we go fist 2 nights we stay at anouther disney resort on cash(weekend points)helps spread out,plus we sometimes stay cash for a week and dvc for a week.Would stongley surgest getting a nationwide CC as you get the bank rate ($1.99 at moment) as opposed to the tourist rate.Also better for the dues about $4.50 a point.If you had the mony use Nationwide CC then pay off when you get the bill,or there debit card to pay as you get the better rate as well.Using our nationwide CC for 3 rooms for a week at pop free ddp paid over weekend got $1.978 and $1.86.Plus we got $1.966 for our dues in Jan
Paulh

 

[jjpenguin]

Another point to take into account is that Resort fees will go up every year. DVC annual dues will also but not as much!

There are just the 2 of us and we have 220 points, till now have done one trip a year, mostly in studio's but with banking and borrowing we have also done stays in a 1br.

For me one of the great things is that it's paid for in advance, if I can afford the airfare, I can go!! And if you get AP's and spread them over 2 trips it's even better.

 

[scottishsue]

We are also thinking about DVC. Probably our youngest DS at 17, would also be travelling with us for the next year or two anyway.

What size accommodation would suit us best? How do the points work? I just can't work them out at all. We usually stay I-Drive but in what I would call "moderate" accommodation. We are mid-50's but love Disney and could still be going in 15-20 years time.

Any help would be greatly appreciated - thanks.

 

[jns]

we got 220 points @ SSR this will be enought for a studio for 2 weeks each year at most of the times except busy like xmas etc ( which we would not be able to go anyhow )

I just looked back at what we had spent so far on accommation since 97 and just wished we had bought then

 

[spm23]

We are all bias but I think the money spent is well worth it, the variety of resports, the exchange system if you don't want to go to the USA one year. We used points for 2 weeks in Spain.

You could think about resale, or if you buy from Disney this year, they may give you some offers on banking this years points so if you just get 200, then that will not mean you missing year 4 with clever banking of points.

Good luck and make the best of the dollar rate.

As other have said, holidays will only go up and dues hopefully not at the same rate. One thing I do know is that the the cost of purchasing always goes up, we purchased at $79 a few years ago, others below $59 4 years earlier, I think its now $100 without discounts.

Advantages are that you can always sell on (not sure what price you get), you can send others away with the points, you can will them to someone and its a huge extension of the parks, staff, condition, cleanliness and friendliness are what make it worth every penny.

Planning next years trip back home in the summer and starting to get excited already.

Good luck with the decision.

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

We are also thinking about DVC. Probably our youngest DS at 17, would also be travelling with us for the next year or two anyway.

What size accommodation would suit us best? How do the points work? I just can't work them out at all. We usually stay I-Drive but in what I would call "moderate" accommodation. We are mid-50's but love Disney and could still be going in 15-20 years time.

Any help would be greatly appreciated - thanks.

DW is in her early 50s (she'll probably thump me for that!). I haven't quite reached the 50s yet. DD is 14. We've just bought into SSR with 150 points. We're planning on visiting every 2 years and using a Studio. The in-between years we will either use the points to visit elsewhere (DLP is planned for Aug 2008) or possibly sell the points.


Please PM me if you want any more details from someone "similar" who's just joined.

 

[mikki.young]

We stayed in a one bed at OKW quite a few years back and all our plans for normally staying in a studio went out the window! The OKW one bed is awesome and we love staying there. We do stay in studios at the other DVC resorts but our 550 points give us about 6 weeks in WDW staying the kind of times of year you are looking at.

The bigger DVC gets the more difficult it will be to swap into certain resorts so if there is one you particularly love you may want to consider buying resale there. Downside is that the older resorts last 12 years less than SSR and AKLV.