Tons of Qs from Prospective Buyer

[Sydnie]

We live in Northern CA and are thinking about buying into DVC. Our kids are quite young still so we think we can get a lot of use out of it. I have tons of questions though and I hope you can help us decide if DVC is right for us.

Home Base- Does it really matter where our home base is? We want GCH but it looks like they are sold out. Aulani would be fine for us because I can easily see us doing Hawaii every other year, but we do want to do Disneyland at least once a year. Since Disneyland is our default resort should we buy secondhand to get into DHC or does it not matter?

Points How many points should a family of 5 purchase? Again we plan to do either Disney once a year with another vacation elsewhere or twice in a year. We are happy to stay in a Studio.

Other destinations What is your experience using your DVC points at participating hotels around the world? As much as we love Disney we don't want it to be the only vacation option year after year.

Costs/Terms How much (approx) would it cost to buy and maintain our membership? How long do we own our share?

Thank you so much for your help. I am a newbie here and so far everyone has just be wonderful and so knowledgable

 

[DVC SSR Owner]

Don't plan on five in a studio. Once the youngest is older than 3, I do not think you are aloud 5 in a studio.

 

[nunzia]

In my opionion, it's very important for you to own at VGC. You can get on a waiting list to buy direct Disney, or buy resale which will be cheaper. the Villas at Grand Californian is the smallest DVC resort and at times is very difficult to get into at 7 months, so I think you'll want the 11 month home resort advantage. If you buy resale, just be aware that you can't use resale points for Disney Cruises, Adventures by Disney or stay outside DVC at a Disney park..soo..I don't know what DHC in your post above means, but if it means Disneyland Hotel, you can't use resale points to stay there, only points purchased by Disney. I think it will be easier to get into Aulani than VCG since it has a much larger DVC portion than VGC
Points...you cannot stay in a studio with 5 with DVC (unless 1 is under 3 years old..your signature shows 4 people, so I guess you are having another?), so you will eventually need a 1br. Point charts are located by a link at the top of this page, but looking at my 2010 points charts(2011 not handy), VGC 1 BR units run from 28-94 points a night depending on day of week and time of year (studios are 15-46). You don't mention how many nights you'd want to stay a year, but weekdays are much cheaper points wise than weekends. Your initial buy in depends on if you buy direct or through Disney, annual costs are maintenance fees, which vary depending on resort. I paid $856 last year on 225 VGC points.
As far as using DVC for other destinations, DVC has RCI trades available (some of them, not all) I've never tried to stay outside of DVC and just do bragain hunting and cash to go other places, but if you look around here you'll find various stories of success or not with this. Most people would not consider those options very viable or a good use of points.
It's a big decision..good luck!

 

[sean-1966]

I'll try to answer your questions...

The theory is buy where you want to stay. I'd look seriously at a GCV re-sale if I were you. Buying at WDW might be cheaper but there would be no guarantee you'd get a room at DL for the dates you want.

How many points?? Tough to say. You'll want to get a larger room as the kids get bigger.

I'm not sure what the end date is for GCV or what the dues are. I'm sure others will be able to answer that.

 

[RobDoc]

The current end date for GCV contracts is January 31, 2060. Annual maintenance fees for 2011 are $4.07 per point.

I agree that if you primarily want to stay at GCV you should purchase a contract there. Reservations within 7 months are possible, but not dependable and your family will quickly outgrow a studio so plan points for at least a 1BR villa if not a 2BR.

Good luck with your decision!

 

[chalee94]

Home Base- Does it really matter where our home base is? We want GCH but it looks like they are sold out. Aulani would be fine for us because I can easily see us doing Hawaii every other year, but we do want to do Disneyland at least once a year. Since Disneyland is our default resort should we buy secondhand to get into DHC or does it not matter?

DVC often picks up supposedly "sold out" contracts through ROFR or foreclosures and resells them. if you tell your DVC guide/salesperson that GCV is the only one you want, they will probably find a way to make it happen. or you can buy a resale.

IMO home resort matters...especially given the limited size of GCV.

Points How many points should a family of 5 purchase? Again we plan to do either Disney once a year with another vacation elsewhere or twice in a year. We are happy to stay in a Studio.

as others have said, occupancy limits will be an issue with 5. i would price 1BR stays...

Other destinations What is your experience using your DVC points at participating hotels around the world? As much as we love Disney we don't want it to be the only vacation option year after year.

IMO, you are probably not a good candidate for DVC and would be happier over the long run paying cash for what you like. you might save money compared to cash stays onsite but DVC is an expensive trader.

Costs/Terms How much (approx) would it cost to buy and maintain our membership? How long do we own our share?

resale contracts are linked in the top righthand corner. DVCnews has current direct pricing ($120 per pt for GCV).

doc gave you the annual dues per pt and expiration date.

currently DVC contracts return a solid percentage of their sales prices if you need to get out before 2060 but that could change and DVC could change the terms and further damage your resale value...just something to be aware of.

 

[Sydnie]

Hmm, so if I buy a resale I can't use it for cruises? That would be a downer for sure because I know we want to do a couple Disney Cruises. And yes, we want to have one more child so I am planning for a family of five

This is what our travel schedule would look like hypothetically, so not sure if the DVC is right for us. Thanks again for all the help.

2011- Disneyland Christmas, 5 nights. (We already went this summer)

2012-Aulani, 5 nights, May. Disneyland, 4 nights, September.

2013- Disneyland, 4 nights, April. Alaska cruise, August.

2014- Disneyland 4 nights, March. Aulani, 5 nights, Sept.

2015-WDW- June, 10 nights.

So on, so forth. When the kids are all older we'd be adding in the occasional non-Disney destination as well.

 

[JimMIA]

Other destinations What is your experience using your DVC points at participating hotels around the world? As much as we love Disney we don't want it to be the only vacation option year after year.

The general rule of thumb for virtually ALL timeshares is that exchanging to outside options usually doesn't provide comparable value to what you would get within that timeshare company's internal system. With DVC, the problem is compounded by two facts:

1. DVC is more expensive to buy and use than most timeshares, especially if you are buying resale. You can buy some very good timeshares on eBay for $1 plus closing which have larger internal systems and 10X the exchange options.
2. DVC currently exchanges through RCI. RCI has 6,500+ affiliated resorts, but DVC owners only have access to slightly fewer than 600 of those. Exchanging is another world altogether, and when you combine that with only 10% of the options, DVC becomes a pretty poor choice to use routinely for exchanges.

 

[Sydnie]

I spoke to a CM and they are heavily pushing Aulani (which makes sense since it's their new property.) Their reasoning is that when you are booking something geographically further away (Hawaii vs just driving down south) you are going to want to book more in advance.

Hmmm, decisions decisions.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Hmm, so if I buy a resale I can't use it for cruises? That would be a downer for sure because I know we want to do a couple Disney Cruises. And yes, we want to have one more child so I am planning for a family of five

This is what our travel schedule would look like hypothetically, so not sure if the DVC is right for us. Thanks again for all the help.

2011- Disneyland Christmas, 5 nights. (We already went this summer)

2012-Aulani, 5 nights, May. Disneyland, 4 nights, September.

2013- Disneyland, 4 nights, April. Alaska cruise, August.

2014- Disneyland 4 nights, March. Aulani, 5 nights, Sept.

2015-WDW- June, 10 nights.

So on, so forth. When the kids are all older we'd be adding in the occasional non-Disney destination as well.

If you buy a resale, you can't use those points for cruising or any Disney non-DVC lodging. Cruises are really point expensive. They are negotiated each year and they have continued to go up each year. Plus the number of cruise spots available seem to go down each year. There was a large upcry earlier this year when several members tried to book a cruise about a year out and were told no cruises until late 2012.

But if you want to stay DVC at Disneyland, you'll need those GCV points to book those stays. They go fast and you'll need the 11 month home resort advantage to book them.

 

[moepanz]

Just a friendly FYI, Resales can still be used to transfer in to RCI.... BUT it is very difficult and that is why we backed out of DVC.

 

[JimMIA]

I spoke to a CM and they are heavily pushing Aulani (which makes sense since it's their new property.) Their reasoning is that when you are booking something geographically further away (Hawaii vs just driving down south) you are going to want to book more in advance.

Hmmm, decisions decisions.

That's just weasel-speak. They said that because they don't have any Grand California points to sell you.

Physical distance from your home has nothing to do with availability -- absolutely nothing. And anyone who tells you it does is lying.

Supply and demand determine availability, and obviously the smaller the resort the less supply is available. Grand California is the smallest DVC at only 60 units, I believe. As several other posters have correctly said, if you want to be able to pick your dates and accommodations at Grand California, you need to own there.

(In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm not normally a "buy where you want to stay" guy. But in your case, I think it makes perfect sense even though it will mean a larger outlay to buy in.)

 

[JimMIA]

If you buy a resale, you can't use those points for cruising or any Disney non-DVC lodging. Cruises are really point expensive.

I agree with both of Deb's statements. But even if you buy direct, for cruising, most experienced DVC hands will tell you to rent your points and use the proceeds from the rental to pay cash for your cruises. You'll end up with some spending money in addition to paying for your cruise.

I don't have the cruise point costs with me, but it would be helpful if someone could post typical costs for this year for a couple of cruises. If they do, you'll see just how many points might be needed and I think you'll see that buying enough points to cruise may be cost-prohibitive.

 

[JimMIA]

2011- Disneyland Christmas, 5 nights. (We already went this summer)

2012-Aulani, 5 nights, May. Disneyland, 4 nights, September.

2013- Disneyland, 4 nights, April. Alaska cruise, August.

2014- Disneyland 4 nights, March. Aulani, 5 nights, Sept.

2015-WDW- June, 10 nights.

With this travel pattern, I think I'd buy two contracts -- both resale, and registered exactly the same, with the same Use Year so they'll be in the same DVC account.

I'd buy one at Grand California large enough to meet your needs for that resort only. There's no sense paying a high price for points you're going to use elsewhere at 7 months.

For everything else, I'd buy something at WDW. Personally, I'd buy either SSR or OKW because of the low resale prices and low annual dues. That will give you a home resort at WDW, so you'll have an 11-month booking window if you want to take a trip there during the busiest seasons. And you'll have 7-month booking with cheap points at Aulani or any other DVC resort.

I would also consider other alternatives. As you know, there's really not such an advantage to being "onsite" at Disneyland. And in Hawaii, there are probably numerous better places to stay than Ko Olina on Oahu.

You can probably find a different timeshare or two which would give you many more alternatives in CA and HI and also give you great resorts in the WDW area. Some of those very fine companies can be purchased for pennies on the dollar in the resale market.

 

[tinibee]

We are West Coasters too and just recently bought into Aulani. Our preference would be to own at VGC, but we were on a DCL cruise and they had some incredible incentive deals that we felt the risk was worth the reward. Nothing says we can't buy into VGC someday in the future (direct or resale) and you have to start somewhere. The way the cost per point has increased over the years, it definately wasn't going to get any cheaper. And because we purchased directly from Disney, we can also use our pts for the Disneyland hotel or Paradise Pier, which gives us some flexiblity when we want to go to DL.

We plan to alternate between DL and Aulani as well.

We were on the fence forever, but I'm glad we did it. It is a lot of money upfront and the HOA dues seem daunting, but when I think about the comfort and ease we'll have for Disney/Aulani vacations (and we do try to go annually), I'm pretty jazzed

Good luck with your decision!

 

[Sandisw]

I agree with both of Deb's statements. But even if you buy direct, for cruising, most experienced DVC hands will tell you to rent your points and use the proceeds from the rental to pay cash for your cruises. You'll end up with some spending money in addition to paying for your cruise.

I don't have the cruise point costs with me, but it would be helpful if someone could post typical costs for this year for a couple of cruises. If they do, you'll see just how many points might be needed and I think you'll see that buying enough points to cruise may be cost-prohibitive.

And not to mention that even for people who purchase direct, those options, like cruises, can be removed at any time. They are not part of what we purchase.

 

[nunzia]

And not to mention that even for people who purchase direct, those options, like cruises, can be removed at any time. They are not part of what we purchase.

That is very true. As far as VGC goes, there is a waiting list of 20+ people at this time. Resale can be a great deal as long as you realize the limitations. I would not believe the Aulani hype..I'm sure they are saying all kinds of things since they are pushing Aulani right now. I'm sure Aulani will be beautiful and I'd love to visit, but it is a bigger resort with more DVC units, so I think it will be easier to book at 7 months than VGC. It is actually a very good idea (if you don't mind the resale restrictions) to buy a resale at VGC for the 11 month advantage and then a cheaper WDW resale for other trips or to combine with your VGC points at 7 months.
It's very confusing isn't it? It took me forever to get it all straight in my head and occasionally I still feel lost.

 

[Sydnie]

Oo I like the idea of doing a bare bones purchase through Disney and then a WDW resale. I could go on the waiting list for Grand California and buy only 50 points there, and that would let me book 11 months out, right? If I buy 100 pts at WDW let's say could I then use 25 of my Grand California points to book the first day and then 50 of my WDW pts for the rest of the trip at the 11 month point?

 

[Sandisw]

Oo I like the idea of doing a bare bones WDW purchase through Disney and then a Grand Californian resale. So if I buy 50 pts at WDW and 100 through resale at Grand CA can I use all 150 pts toward a cruise or stays at the CG?

No, only the direct purchase points can be used for those options so you would only have whatever is purchased via Disney.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Oo I like the idea of doing a bare bones purchase through Disney and then a WDW resale. I could go on the waiting list for Grand California and buy only 50 points there, and that would let me book 11 months out, right? If I buy 100 pts at WDW let's say could I then use 25 of my Grand California points to book the first day and then 50 of my WDW pts for the rest of the trip at the 11 month point?

No, non-home resort points can only be used at 7 months out. You can only use GCV points from 7-11 months out and any points 7 months or less.

And if you really plan to spend a lot of time at DL, I'd buy GCV and nothing else. It will be hard to get at anything less than 7-11 months out and it could be hard at 9-7 months. It is a very small resort.