Tips for new owners?

[Psymonds]

Just got a new contract, this is a miscellaneous topic, but what are your best tips for new owners (home resort is VDH because we're on west coast):

1. What's something you've learned the hard way that you can share?
2. What's something you didn't realize until much later?
3. What did you wish you knew starting out?

y'all are a wealth of knowledge and I'm counting on you to bring me up to speed here

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

I'm also new and following!

 

[Sandisw]

Keep asking questions! But understanding the holding rules was something I didn’t get at first.

The other thing that helps me when I want to book is to forget the calendar year, and just think about your UY.

Start with the UY your trip will happen and then you know you can book it with banked points from the UY prior to the trip, UY of the trip, and then borrow from the UY after the trip.

It just makes it easier to know what points can be used!

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

1) What's something you've learned the hard way that you can share?

If you’re going to buy more than 150, split it into multiple contracts.

2) What's something you didn't realize until much later?

That I’m going to really want a 1+ bedroom in the winter trips especially so I can do laundry in my room. Got SOOO drenched at World of Color and only brought one pair of shoes. Haha.

3) What did you wish you knew starting out?

Nothing other than #1 above. Between DVC Show and Disboards I felt otherwise pretty informed. Amazing communities.

Welcome Home!

 

[davidhr]

Just got a new contract, this is a miscellaneous topic, but what are your best tips for new owners (home resort is VDH because we're on west coast):

1. What's something you've learned the hard way that you can share?
2. What's something you didn't realize until much later?
3. What did you wish you knew starting out?

y'all are a wealth of knowledge and I'm counting on you to bring me up to speed here

1) calculating how many points I needed using the cheapest rooms was a big mistake.

2) How much my way of doing Disney would change. Before it was parks all day and maximizing the time there. Now I even do trips with no parks. And I enjoy when I go to the parks much more as I do them at a relaxing pace because I know I’m coming back soon.

3) How much more money I’d be spending in general. Not in DVC (well, with addonitis, also DVC), but in food, flights, merchandise, etc. now that I’m traveling more frequently. Absolutely saving in rooms, but spending way (way) more in general.

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

1) What's something you've learned the hard way that you can share?

If you’re going to buy more than 150, split it into multiple contracts.

2) What's something you didn't realize until much later?

That I’m going to really want a 1+ bedroom in the winter trips especially so I can do laundry in my room. Got SOOO drenched at World of Color and only brought one pair of shoes. Haha.

3) What did you wish you knew starting out?

Nothing other than #1 above. Between DVC Show and Disboards I felt otherwise pretty informed. Amazing communities.

Welcome Home!

Why do you like having multiple contracts?

 

[eticketplease]

What's something you've learned the hard way that you can share?

Make absolutely sure you are not going on any trips before banking so check with your SO.

This was an expensive mistake that would have been easy to avoid as we ended up adding on to make the trip happen that we no longer could take since the points were banked and did not want to borrow as we were taking a large group the next year.

 

[eticketplease]

Why do you like having multiple contracts?

In case you have to sell it is a lot easier to sell 4 100 point contracts than 1 400 point contract. You also may want to continue being a DVC owner but no longer need the same number of points so you can downsize from GV to 2BR to 1BR to eventually studios.

 

[Psymonds]

Make absolutely sure you are not going on any trips before banking so check with your SO.

This was an expensive mistake that would have been easy to avoid as we ended up adding on to make the trip happen that we no longer could take since the points were banked and did not want to borrow as we were taking a large group the next year.

this seems like something I should set an annual reminder for at the beginning of my banking month...

 

[Psymonds]

1) calculating how many points I needed using the cheapest rooms was a big mistake.

2) How much my way of doing Disney would change. Before it was parks all day and maximizing the time there. Now I even do trips with no parks. And I enjoy when I go to the parks much more as I do them at a relaxing pace because I know I’m coming back soon.

3) How much more money I’d be spending in general. Not in DVC (well, with addonitis, also DVC), but in food, flights, merchandise, etc. now that I’m traveling more frequently. Absolutely saving in rooms, but spending way (way) more in general.

1. that's good I already calculated with 10-20% extra... because we have several different use cases and they're all fuzzy

(3 days in Anaheim, a more occasional 5-7 days in Orlando, and a more occasional 4-5 days at Aulani)

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

In case you have to sell it is a lot easier to sell 4 100 point contracts than 1 400 point contract. You also may want to continue being a DVC owner but no longer need the same number of points so you can downsize from GV to 2BR to 1BR to eventually studios.

Yes exactly what @eticketplease said. Our first contract was a single 400 point contract. If we ever wanted to reduce how many points at that resort, we'd have to sell it ALL and buy a new contract rather than just shedding one contract. Plus not everyone is in the market for 400 points at once while many more people are interested in 50-150 point contracts. Smaller contracts sell for more per point usually via resale than larger ones. Some people who have multiple kids like to split points into chunks they can give to each kid. But.. it does cost a little more to do the multiple closing costs when buying.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

Knowing what dates you want to go so you can plan 11 months out. Waitlists vary on coming through so keep checking on your own. I’ve gotten dates I wanted on my own than waiting for waitlists to come through.

 

[muppets3d]

The best thing you can do as an owner of any timeshare program is to plan your vacations a year+ in advance. If you can do that, your success with the product greatly increases. DVC can have some last-minute availability (and last minute with DVC means less than 7 months away) if you're flexible with view, room type, resort, and dates, but you really need to plan 11+ months out at your home resort(s) for the best success.

And always book your home resort during the priority window, don't assume the room at a different resort will be available at the 7 month window - book your home resort when you can, and try to swap at 7 months if availability exists.

Finally - in general, DVC is much easier and fun with 1 bedroom and larger villas. With the explosion of renting, the brokers are snapping up the studios to rent - leaving plenty of 1 bedroom and larger villas for actual owners to book without stress, generally speaking.

 

[tidefan]

1. What's something you've learned the hard way that you can share?

For us, the biggest thing is that you may have a "plan" on how you are going to use points when you initially purchase, but you will later realize that as time goes along, your plans and situations will change and your point usage will change as well. You may purchase having a family with perhaps small kids. Well, your ownership is for up to 50 years, and your kids will not be young for a large portion of that time.

2. What's something you didn't realize until much later?

How much Aulani would change our perspective on ownership. After our first "once in a lifetime" visit in 2012, we quickly realized that, in our opinion, Aulani was by far the best DVC experience. Since then, we've had 5 more "once in a lifetime" visits that we would NEVER have done if we didn't own DVC. So, in our case, we didn't realize just how much we'd use the non-park options (including VB and HHI) until we had actually tried them and found how amazing those places are on their own.

One other thing is that the well-trodden "Buy where you want to stay" advice really only has legs if you are dead set on always staying at one particular place. For us, we prefer to switch things up from trip to trip and we don't necessarily tend to go over peak times (such as NYE) as much as we did in the past, so the home resort period really just hasn't meant near as much to us as it has to others. We've had great trips at all of the DVC properties and are happy to stay at any of them. For instance, we haven't stayed at two of our home resorts (Poly and VGF) in over 5 years...

3. What did you wish you knew starting out?

I wish that I knew just how much power DVC holds to change what you think your purchase is. For us, it was when they decided to convert hotel rooms at Big Pine Key at GF into the GF DVC association. We are original GF1 owners and we bought because we loved the new building and the Deluxe Studios at the original GF building. When they added BPK many years later to the association, only by adding hotel rooms, what they did was make Deluxe Studios in the main building much harder to book. We have zero interest in the hotel rooms, mainly as the two bed setup doesn't fit for us (I really wish they had done some with King beds, but I digress) and we don't want just a hotel room.

 

[Psymonds]

The best thing you can do as an owner of any timeshare program is to plan your vacations a year+ in advance. If you can do that, your success with the product greatly increases. DVC can have some last-minute availability (and last minute with DVC means less than 7 months away) if you're flexible with view, room type, resort, and dates, but you really need to plan 11+ months out at your home resort(s) for the best success.

this is generally good for us, we need to schedule our vacations around kids time off, I'm getting dates on teh calendar for summer 2026 right now, so I've been adding the 11 month booking windows (and a 7 month since we want to go back to aulani)

And always book your home resort during the priority window, don't assume the room at a different resort will be available at the 7 month window - book your home resort when you can, and try to swap at 7 months if availability exists.

I think this is going to be especially true for us on the west coast

Finally - in general, DVC is much easier and fun with 1 bedroom and larger villas. With the explosion of renting, the brokers are snapping up the studios to rent - leaving plenty of 1 bedroom and larger villas for actual owners to book without stress, generally speaking.

we need the 1BR anyway for our 5 at most resorts

 

[Psymonds]

For us, the biggest thing is that you may have a "plan" on how you are going to use points when you initially purchase, but you will later realize that as time goes along, your plans and situations will change and your point usage will change as well. You may purchase having a family with perhaps small kids. Well, your ownership is for up to 50 years, and your kids will not be young for a large portion of that time.

honestly our oldest is 16, part of why I bought was to keep having an excuse to invite the kids when they're 23 and when we have grandkids. we may need a few more points if we're bringing all the daughter and son in laws and grandkids but we'll cross that bridge over the next few decades.

 

[MICKIMINI]

1. Don't be too quick to invite family and friends. The only people we love after 30 years DVC members are our son and DIL and her Mom. People don't understand the cost and restrictions involved and tend to take your generosity for granted. Think it through before you even tell anyone you are members!

2. Small contracts in the same UY are the way to go. We bought 230 points in 1996 (didn't have a clue) and subsequently bought several dozen contracts over 25 years. We bought cheap, loaded contracts periodically and got mega trips out of them. Since we are not loving DVC so much these days, we've sold most of our contracts but got a premium for 95% of them.

3. It is addictive as chocolate. Be ready. Once you stay in a 1, 2 or 3 BR villa it is all over! W/D is mandatory IMO!

Enjoy!

 

[Psymonds]

1. Don't be too quick to invite family and friends. The only people we love after 30 years DVC members are our son and DIL and her Mom. People don't understand the cost and restrictions involved and tend to take your generosity for granted. Think it through before you even tell anyone you are members!

2. Small contracts in the same UY are the way to go. We bought 230 points in 1996 (didn't have a clue) and subsequently bought several dozen contracts over 25 years. We bought cheap, loaded contracts periodically and got mega trips out of them. Since we are not loving DVC so much these days, we've sold most of our contracts but got a premium for 95% of them.

3. It is addictive as chocolate. Be ready. Once you stay in a 1, 2 or 3 BR villa it is all over! W/D is mandatory IMO!

Enjoy!

on point 3 we are aware, we stayed in a 2BR villa at Aulani (paid cash) 6 or 7 years ago we had an infant at the time and I remember thinking, heck we can just wash all his messy stuff every day...

 

[Brian Noble]

What's something you've learned the hard way that you can share?

I think @tidefan already made this point well, but: It is important to have plans, and it is also important to be flexible when those plans inevitably change. I bought my first (non-DVC) timeshare almost 20 years ago, when my kids were 5 and 7. I thought I knew what our vacation needs would be at least through middle school, and my "long-range" plan did not last even half that long.

Over the years, I've had an unexpected sea change in vacation expectations about once every 3-5 years or so. They include: unexpected changes in school vacation schedules, changes in my work flexibility, prioritizing sports/band/etc. when the kids were of an age, a separation, a reconciliation, and a divorce.

 

[Psymonds]

(of note, I googled this as well and it brought up some older threads, (this board is the first hit )

Thread 'Top 20 DVC Tips from a 20 year member'

Jun 26, 2020

I have been a DVC member 20 years and here is my Top-20 Tips for Disney Vacation Club.

1. Buy the location you love most - if you plan 7 to 11 months in advance
2. Buy the cheapest option (combination of price and annual dues) - if you plan 7 months or less
3. Do not stress over the use year as your travel plans will change in the future
4. Cheapest does not mean lowest price per point, as the annual dues is usually the largest factor
5. Pay cash – but if you finance, then get the lowest rate, shortest term, and pay it off quickly
6. Pay annual dues on credit card and get reward points
7...

• DVC Doctor
• dvc buying dvc membership dvc tips
• Replies: 83
• Forum: Purchasing DVC

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