Thoughts on DVC

[Mummycat]

Hi all I know there is a DVC forum (have had a look) but through reading this board I realise there are some DVC members on here and I really trust the opinions of you guys. We are giving the idea of buying DVC but could really do with some honest opinions on if it's worth it or are we just in love with Disney so much we want to own a slice and this is blurring out clarity of though the! Looking at figures adding on annual ground fees, park tickets, food it's a struggle to work out at what point we start to make a saving, any thought and I out would be gratefully received.
Thanks in advance

 

[Elise79]

We have had DVC since 2009 and we just break even this year (I tracked the cash price of all ours stays including discounts) and we didn't finance it.

A lot of whether Disney makes sense for you is what type of accommodation and resorts you are happy staying in. If you are happy in a value or moderate it's going to take a lot longer to break even. At the moment if you are happy using the free dining at OKW & SSR again not going to be worth it.

We use our DVC in December when there is no free dining and stay at BLT in a one bedroom villa (which is what we always stay in at WDW even if we pay cash) which makes it very cost effective.

DVC members staying on points do not get daily housekeeping, free upgrades or room changes (unless there is a problem with your room).

 

[wilma-bride]

I don't look at DVC as a way to save money, I look at it as a way to invest in future holidays. In all honesty, if you stay in value accommodation, use the free dining plan, want to book a package, etc. it is probably not for you. if you are the kind of person who can be reasonably flexible with your trips, like to book everything separately, usually stay in deluxe accommodation (or at least moderate) then you might find it works for you.

We bought in 2007 and I will be honest, we pretty much did it without thinking it through too much at the start. I know that sounds incredibly irresponsible but we didn't finance it so it was kind of a 'bonus' thing to have. If we had done more research, we might have bought a different home resort (we didn't realise until afterwards that we didn't have to buy just what DVC were selling at the time) and thought more carefully about our use year (we got a September UY because at that point we nearly always travelled in September but didn't forward think to when daniel would be older and we would have to mostly travel in August). having said that, we have never really had difficulty being able to stay where we want, we have never been in the position where we couldn't get a room at any resort and we have stayed in some wonderful accommodations which we wouldn't have been able to afford/justify the cost of had we not been DVC owners (like a Grand Villa at Bay Lake Tower and a lake view room at the new Poly villas).

The other thing to consider is that my husband was sold on the idea that you could use your points to stay in accommodations all over the world. Having looked a little bit further into it, it appears to be a poor use of points. The same can be said (generally) for using points to cruise or to stay in non-DVC Disney resorts.

To summarise, we have never regretted our decision to buy in but, if we were to have our time over, we would have given more thought to where we bought and our use year. And we may well have bought more points as we never seem to have enough.

 

[DVC Mike]

I'd recommend two posts:

• A Comprehensive Introduction to DVC - Perhaps you have wondered whether buying into Disney Vacation Club is actually a good idea for your family. We can't give a definitive answer to that question that fits everyone, but we can supply you with the information you'll need to make an informed decision.

• Does buying DVC make sense? - Since most people consider purchasing DVC a large investment, time should be spent before making such a big decision evaluating the pros and cons, the costs and benefits. The initial cost of joining DVC is significant. So, is it worth it?

 

[Minniesgal]

For us DVC was not about saving money it was about buying access to 2 bedroom villas onsite at a rate we felt we could afford.

I'm not sure I'd still consider it if i were looking at what they are offering today. Poly all studios and very high buy in cost.

Resale at older resorts however could be a very good deal.

We won't save money with our DVC simply because without it we would have gone less often. DVC drives our scheduling
We now go because we have to or the points will expire and we still love every trip.

 

[Mummycat]

We've stayed twice at old key west in a 1 bed villa and absolutely love it. DVC gave us a follow up call last night and said that they have availability at OKW as a home resort so that has def got our interest. We don't have the funds yet but hope to in the not so far future so all input is very thankfully received. We spoke with some lovely American families around the pool who raved about DVC but it's good to hear the opinions from other UK residants who have the expensive long flights etc to add on.
We do enjoy the dining plan and the price of the meals on a quick service meal alone in the parks is quite scary but could budget for more self catering. We like to go every couple of years if we can so would be disappointed if it worked out more economical with DVC to go less frequently (borrowing points, carrying over etc).
Keep the opinions coming and we'll keep thinking! Many thanks to everyone for their input

 

[Elise79]

TBH I think having DVC changes your trips - I used to love DDP and eating onsite but when staying DVC we only eat one or two TS meals onsite the rest are offsite and we enjoy them so much more. Even how we eat QS meals has changed. We don't buy a meal each as it doesn't all get eaten so we share and split meals. I have also been know to make lunches in the room and bring back take out. I have grilled steak and served it with jacket and salad too - sometimes it makes a nice change of pace!

If you want to continue staying in One ned villas then DVC probably is a good fit. However look at resale for buying points you will save quite a bit that way!

 

[cheryl.UK]

We bought back in 2006 and broke even a few years ago. I too tracked very carefully for the first few years but then stopped because it became so obvious that we would break even quite quickly. Dining plan don't really appeal to us as we like to eat off site quite a lot and don't like to plan too far ahead. My DH is a veggie so he only ever eats the cheapest thing on the menu and we don't eat deserts very often. We usually stay in studios as usually it's just us 2 but DVC has enabled us to take our niece's family for 2 weeks, in a separate studio, my younger niece, in a BLT 1 bed and couple of weekend stays in BLT 1 beds when our friends from Miami drove up. We would never have been able to afford it without DVC. We used to stay in the Buena Vista Palace and the Poly a lot but now we stay in DVC and it's way better. Oh, and when we got married in 2012, our DVC stay counted as all of the hotel nights we had to guarantee.

Also we thought of it like this: as we work for ourselves there might be a time when, having bought our plane tickets 8-11 months in advance, we might fall on lean times and not be able to afford the hotels closer to the time. This happened this year. If it weren't for DVC our month long trip to WDW would have been cancelled and we would have lost our money on the plane tickets. BUT thanks to 2 years of saving £2 coins, putting any spare $$ at the end of the last few hotels in our US bank account, here we are!

 

[cheryl.UK]

Also staying in hotels cost us a minimum of $25 for breakfast every day, usually more but now we eat pancakes, cereal and fruit in our room, works out at about $35 per week and when we are staying for 4 weeks thats a big saving thanks to the kitchen or kitchenette and we have a quicker start to the day too

 

[Jawolf]

We bought into DVC in 2013 and 2014 was our first use, but was a special as we had already booked a trip to Caribbean Beach Resort. So we added a 2 bed villa at Vero beach and treated my father for his 70th birthday!
This year was our first full use of our DVC and we had a fantastic time and the move to deluxe accommodation was fantastic. We felt like we wanted to stay in our rooms and relax at points during our trip.

This is about the most relaxed I have been with our hotels for a while.

Now, if you regularly stay on Disney property and use Disney's magical express, saving money on car hire, it can be a great way to save money, especially if you are wanting the extra comfort level.

I calculated that 160 points at Animal Kingdom Villas, with purchase cost averaged per year and cost of annual dues was about half the cost compared to 2 weeks in a moderate resort. I was surprised that the cost of food for the three of us was approx £300 per person for 14 nights! As stated in another response, it was nice to not be on the dining plan and feeling that you must eat. We shared meals if we were not hungry or even skipped if we fancied a snack instead. It was far more flexible and also I included a couple of table service meals!! It was very pleasant to not be worrying that we had to eat again when we were full!

So for basically the same cost as I would spend on the moderate, I now get a deluxe studio. The studio felt more homely and was a far more usable space having a foldaway bed settee, rather than two double beds! It gave us a living space during the day, or on those very rainy evenings you can get in Florida.

Then the final and important question.......Will you want to keep coming to WDW???? Personally we have been doing it for 20 years, with Disney featuring at least once per year. Also other holidays were not meeting up with our expectations, so we joined DVC.

Another thing you can do, is to bank points for a year, so if you wanted to visit every other year, you could buy half the required points and then visit using the points needed for your stay, but cost is spread over a longer 2 year period.

Other thoughts that the free Dining offers can come and go, so no guarantee they will be available. Also, DVC offers discounts on annual passes, so if you can do a late trip one year followed by another slightly earlier, you may be able to cut the cost of your tickets. At the moment, Annual pass renewals are costing not much extra than a standard 14 day ticket! Then you also have other discounts through DVC or Annual Pass such as 10% off at many of the Disney shops and deals at certain time for discounts on food, especially around Disney Springs!

All I can say, think about your circumstances and if you know you want to keep going back to WDW, if you want the Deluxe rooms, will you want options of 1 bedroom or even 2? Then it can be a fantastic purchase.

Another bonus I have found, is that when staying in DVC only properties, you are staying with other DVC members who in general are all mad on Disney and are really happy to talk and pread their knowledge.

We initially bought from Disney, but have added some extra via resale. This now gives me capacity for us to have a 1 bedroom villa, which is great with my son now being a teenager.

Remember that costs for Annual fees will go up each year. But then, so do hotel costs.

 

[Tash87]

Sorry to jump in mid-post but I am intrigued to know more.

I have looked on the dvc forum but I cannot get my head around it

So you pay a one off price at the beginning? ( can anyone give a rough price )

You pay annual fees ( I have found these prices on the dvc forum )

What is it with points? Do you have to buy points to enable to stay somewhere? Or when you pay the upfront price does that include Points?

We are paying to stay at the gf and have been told to look into dvc as we are obviously paying a fortune just for one holiday.

Can anyone dumb it down lol. I don't understand the points part.

 

[cliveywolves]

We have looked at this a few times and I'm not sure if we are just keen to secure a little bit of Disney more than actually buying into what is a timeshare but dressed up slightly differently. Spoke to a few people while out in Florida last week and even the Disney DVC guy who was pretty honest with us he said unless you spend around $1850 (£1200) on your Disney Resort accommodation per year it may not be for you, as after your initial outlay that is the break even point he claims?.

Considering we are happy with certain Value and Moderate resorts we also don't use the free dining plans as we like to have choice where and when we eat but we have never spent £1200 on resort costs even when we stated in a Moderate. We've been to DW 6 times in the past 8 years and always stayed on site but still not sure this would work for us. ???

I can see us going to Disney as many times in the next 8 years so any advise on whether or not this may work for us would be great thanks..

 

[Elise79]

Sorry to jump in mid-post but I am intrigued to know more.

I have looked on the dvc forum but I cannot get my head around it

So you pay a one off price at the beginning? ( can anyone give a rough price )

You pay annual fees ( I have found these prices on the dvc forum )

What is it with points? Do you have to buy points to enable to stay somewhere? Or when you pay the upfront price does that include Points?

We are paying to stay at the gf and have been told to look into dvc as we are obviously paying a fortune just for one holiday.

Can anyone dumb it down lol. I don't understand the points part.

DVC is Disneys timeshare and it runs using a points system. Each room has a points cost associated with it.

You buy a number of points with an upfront cost of around $160 per point direct from Disney (lower if you buy resale). Annual dues are also paid on a per point basis.

You then use your points to book your accommodatation.

Your points have a home reaps which you can book at 11 months and then you can book other resorts at 7 months.

It's flexible as you can go anytime of year and stay in any size room.

They are selling a limited number of fixed weeks at GFV and Poly.

As a general rule if you want to stay deluxe it will save you money after about 7 years. If you are staying moderate about 10-12 years and values well personally I don't think the break even point is there until well into your contract.

 

[Jawolf]

Considering we are happy with certain Value and Moderate resorts we also don't use the free dining plans as we like to have choice where and when we eat but we have never spent £1200 on resort costs even when we stated in a Moderate. We've been to DW 6 times in the past 8 years and always stayed on site but still not sure this would work for us. ???

I can see us going to Disney as many times in the next 8 years so any advise on whether or not this may work for us would be great thanks..

Firstly, the fact that you do not use any free dining means that you are not losing out on those savings and adding to your cost. But....as a DVC member you can find discounts of approx 10% at many restaurants, although some are only available at certain times!

I think a lot of this depends on a few factors...

1. How many nights you want to stay at WDW?

2. How many in the family?

3. Do you have spare capital to buy into DVC?

1 and 2 almost tie together as they impact on number of points you require to get accommodation at a DVC resort. The more nights and then especially if travelling with children, room and bed sharing is not as easy. This is where DVC brings you many options. Some studios have a queen sized bed, queen size sleeper sofa and a pull out bed, so 3 separate beds!

Remember as well, that you can buy a lower number of points, but my main thought is What do you intend to do for holidays after 8 years?? If you will never return to disney, then do not buy into DVC.
A better option would be to rent points for a stay and see what you think.

With number 3, it makes more sense if you can buy with out having to finance. Basically you are pre purchasing a large chunk of your accommodation costs up front.
I have seen from my previous trips, that Disney hotels go up a certain percentage every year. this is an increase on the total cost of your hotel. With DVC, I divided my purchase cost by number of years left in the contract and that is my cost of purchase spread over each year. Very simply, no increase on this part at any time in the future.

Now you do have to pay Annual Dues and these are likely to increase by a similar percentage as hotels, every year. The cost of your average year and Dues is cost of your stay.
For my 160 points bought direct from Disney in 2013 and Annual dues at last price (these are based on a cost per point owned) my cost is a little less than £1000. Purchasing resale points is a cheaper way to get the same points and would cut this cost by roughly £100 per year.

You can also skip years to save up your points and get say a 1 bedroom apartment for your stay and visit every 2 years! Basically banking points can be done for 1 year and you can borrow from the next year, so this would provide 3 times your yearly points if needed for a special trip.

Final point, if you purchase direct from Disney, you can use your points to book Disney Hotels, Disney Cruise line and Adventures by Disney. These are not best use of points and also are lost if you purchase points via resale. However, you can still access the RCI catalogue that allows points to be used away from Disney.

Hope this is useful information and remember that the figures for your purchase will be different.

 

[zavandor]

DVC can be a blessing or a curse: knowledge will make the difference. It takes 4-6 months of active investigation (ie: read every post on the DVC boards) to fully understand the system and decide if it's for you.
Do not rush the decision and read, read, read.

 

[finchy3]

We did about 6 months research mostly on this amazing site, then bought 3 resale contracts at GCV.
We love it.

 

[Elise79]

DVC can be a blessing or a curse: knowledge will make the difference. It takes 4-6 months of active investigation (ie: read every post on the DVC boards) to fully understand the system and decide if it's for you.
Do not rush the decision and read, read, read.

This is great advice

Another good source of information is DVC news - they have a great article DVC for Beginners which breaks it down and gives you the basic information you need to learn more.

 

[Minniesgal]

I don't want to Start a massive debate on payback but for me when I hear people say I reached payback really quickly I'm still unsure how to evaluate that

I don't compare my DVC outlay to the cost of staying in deluxe hotel rooms or DVC villas for cash as I might have wanted to do that but I would never have paid out the cash to do that.

At the moment I am comparing to the cost of renting the same number of DVC points but in reality I probably wouldn't have paid that either

Once we had three kids we moved offsite to get separate bedrooms. We bought DVC so we could move back onsite in 2 bedroom units. Without DVC we would have just continues offsite so we don't save money but we get to stay where we want to stay

 

[Mummycat]

Thank you for some brilliant advice.
The main points I've gathered that we need to consider if we do choose to go with it are use year and home location and to make sure we buy enough points. At the moment we're going to be stuck with the summer holidays for a good few years so along with borrowing points and carrying forward we need to make sure we have enough.
We love the relaxed vibe of old key west and also love the space and facilities of 1 bed villas so would probably aim for there as our home resort. In fact we've never stayed in 1 room with our 2 kids at Disney so we've been really spoilt by OKW! When the kids were little we used to stay off site so are used to space and self catering.
I think we're slightly concerned over the general price increases and also in restaurants so this will have to be considered-I'm very impressed with the £300 pp for 2 weeks that Jawolf achieves!
I can see us returning to Disney until we're physically unable so it would def get used.
The info arrived from DVC yesterday and we shall look at all the websites and forums. As Zavandor says 'don't rush and read, read, read' I think that's exactly what we'll be doing. Only back in the country from WDW for 2 weeks so just need to let the dust settle, make sure we're not doing it to just 'own a bit of Disney'.
Finance won't be available for another year so at which point we'll either book our next trip (our countdown is wrong!!)or take the plunge with DVC-no chance of a rash decision!!
Just pleased to read that the majority of DVC owners on here are happy people. Thank you

 

[Minniesgal]

The thing about owning DVC is if you really had a hard year and could only afford to fly and had low spends you could actually cook and take packed lunches. Not idea I know but if your circumstances needed it having the one bedroom gives you that choice to save money. We did do one trip like that when kids were little and cooked most nights and had a great trip