Value of DVC points - 2023 case example

[DonMacGregor]

This.

If you're going to account for the Time Value of Money, then you also need to account for drawing down your initial investment to cover yearly trips. Each of those draw downs reduces the principal and therefor the interest. Touring Plans has an article that shows that a BLT 2BR was $900 a night back in 2012, or $7112.70 with tax for a week. @wrigleyville 's (LOVE the name!) original investment was $29,000. If they spent $7100 in 2012 instead of their DVC points they would have a remaining investment of $21,900. Now, they can invest the 2012 dues back into the picture and that was $4.22 per point, so they paid $1240.68 in dues. Add that back into the TVM investment and now they're up to $23,140 as a basis for interest in the first year. Rinse and repeat. Even if you keep the deposits at $1240 and the withdrawals at $7100, you get a negative balance at about Year 9.

 

[crisi]

You all are missing the one main cost. Keeping my wife happy in a 1bdrm and not a hotel room with the kids. Priceless. And keeps everyone happy.

For me, its my husband and we call it the "nookie tax" ... its been very expensive nookie, but I got him to vacation with children for the entirety of the kids' childhoods.

 

[crisi]

DVC doesn't save me any money, it just allows me to stay in a nicer room for the same price.

We don't even come close to the same price. And here is the other problem with DVC....the rooms really are.....OK. When we talk about nice places I've stayed in my life DVC and Disney hotels in general wouldn't make the top ten list. Now, I've done a lot of traveling and have been fortunate to stay in some very nice places, often with someone else footing the bill (corporate travel, gifts, etc.)

What DVC did for us for twenty years is allowed us to stay at Disney, onsite, in an acceptable multiroom unit for a price point that made such a thing affordable for us. The units have always been clean enough (although never spotless), in good enough repair (although many of our rooms have had broken drawers, ripped curtains and have shown a lot of wear and tear), but "nicer....?" And in many ways, DVC is less nice than the hotel side - less frequent room refreshes, lack of daily housekeeping (I know a lot of members prefer it, but for me, at a nice hotel I get my bed made every day - in a really nice hotel, I get turndown service), etc.

 

[Jayunit09]

We did use cash rates, but with a discount that was common around the time we bought...it was an average of 35% at the time. We didn't consider rental rates because that was something we would have never done.

That’s fair, now that I think if it I’d hate to not have control over my vacation. So I think the 30-35% off comparison is better.

 

[DVCanadian]

As far as I can tell all the people that treat DVC like an investment and use accounting and investment calculations to prove DVC isn’t that great ALL still bought DVC

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

As far as I can tell all the people that treat DVC like an investment and use accounting and investment calculations to prove DVC isn’t that great ALL still bought DVC

No, it’s the opposite. All of the people who use investment and accounting tools know that DVC is not an investment. If you’re buying it to vacation, you are doing it correctly. If you’re buying it because you think it’s some phenomenal financial deal/investment, you are doing it wrong.

 

[Nabas]

We don't even come close to the same price. And here is the other problem with DVC....the rooms really are.....OK. When we talk about nice places I've stayed in my life DVC and Disney hotels in general wouldn't make the top ten list. Now, I've done a lot of traveling and have been fortunate to stay in some very nice places, often with someone else footing the bill (corporate travel, gifts, etc.)

What DVC did for us for twenty years is allowed us to stay at Disney, onsite, in an acceptable multiroom unit for a price point that made such a thing affordable for us. The units have always been clean enough (although never spotless), in good enough repair (although many of our rooms have had broken drawers, ripped curtains and have shown a lot of wear and tear), but "nicer....?" And in many ways, DVC is less nice than the hotel side - less frequent room refreshes, lack of daily housekeeping (I know a lot of members prefer it, but for me, at a nice hotel I get my bed made every day - in a really nice hotel, I get turndown service), etc.

Part of the appeal of any Disney hotel is staying within the Disney Bubble for an entire vacation. Even the Four Seasons, Swan, and Dolphin (all located on property) don't have that same "bubble" feel.

DVC gives us the opportunity to stay at the best "Bubble Hotels" for the lowest price.

The DVCs that we have purchased (BWV and AKV in particular) give us the opportunity to book some of the best value DVC rooms. For example, for our next trip in March, we are staying in an AKV Value Studio. Having kept close track of all expenses associated with our DVC purchases and MF, we are paying $143.40 per night to stay at Jambo House during a peak Spring Break week.

With tax and the current 10% rack rate discount offered by Disney, the All Stars are $200.11 for those same nights.

If you are long-term WDW vacationers like us, DVC is simply the best way to stay at the best Bubble Hotels for the best price.

 

[crisi]

Part of the appeal of any Disney hotel is staying within the Disney Bubble for an entire vacation. Even the Four Seasons, Swan, and Dolphin (all located on property) don't have that same "bubble" feel.

DVC gives us the opportunity to stay at the best "Bubble Hotels" for the lowest price.

The DVCs that we have purchased (BWV and AKV in particular) give us the opportunity to book some of the best value DVC rooms. For example, for our next trip in March, we are staying in an AKV Value Studio. Having kept close track of all expenses associated with our DVC purchases and MF, we are paying $143.40 per night to stay at Jambo House during a peak Spring Break week.

With tax and the current 10% rack rate discount offered by Disney, the All Stars are $200.11 for those same nights.

If you are long-term WDW vacationers like us, DVC is simply the best way to stay at the best Bubble Hotels for the best price.

That is certainly how I used to feel about it. But the Disney bubble isn't really the awesome place it used to be. Its nice when your kids are independent age - or you have a group - to be able to get to and from the hotel on Disney transportation. But then, for us, Disney itself isn't the awesome place it used to be.

 

[TeamRiley]

No, it’s the opposite. All of the people who use investment and accounting tools know that DVC is not an investment. If you’re buying it to vacation, you are doing it correctly. If you’re buying it because you think it’s some phenomenal financial deal/investment, you are doing it wrong.

Even though I would never consider it an investment, we did both. I could sell out right now and pay for all of our fees and trips plus make a decent profit.

 

[Lorana]

I'm one of those people who keep a spreadsheet carefully tracking all my expenses and value related to my DVC, carefully calculating "break even" -- and using real world values for the stays (ie, if discounts were available, the discounted rate). I recognize that I gave up some long term savings that I likely would have kept in investments and not drawn down for Disney vacations, particularly because I also recognize that we both would have done fewer Disney trips without owning DVC and we certainly wouldn't stay in the accommodations we have.

That said... I am also someone who puts a high value on experiences, and one thing my DVC has allowed me to do is create experiences, for my family and loved ones, that I wouldn't have been able to do without owning DVC.

Last year, I took my family and my inlaws and a number of our friends to Disney, and we used DVC to cover the rooms. As much as I'd love to say I'd have done this anyway, the reality is I wouldn't have done it if I had to pay out of pocket - I would never have spent that much money on a single trip. But it wasn't a single trip. It was just one of many trips, and I have future points to spoil family and friends (and myself, of course) with in the future.

For me, it is the value of all the past trips, and all the future trips, and those times spent together as a family, enjoying time together, that is the true value of owning DVC... and that is difficult to quantify, because you can't put a real dollar value on that.

Maybe I'll get to retirement age, and wished I had spent less on DVC and more on future savings, but I'll also get to retirement age and have decades of memories of what I did with those DVC points.

Not to mention I'd never pay Disney prices for a 2-bedroom villa or a Grand Villa, but owning DVC has allowed me to experience those, and they add tremendously to our enjoyment and comfort during our vacations.

 

[undchefreak]

Slight disrepair, a few small things broken? Sounds like home to me

 

[undchefreak]

...
What DVC did for us for twenty years is allowed us to stay at Disney, onsite, in an acceptable multiroom unit for a price point that made such a thing affordable for us. The units have always been clean enough (although never spotless), in good enough repair (although many of our rooms have had broken drawers, ripped curtains and have shown a lot of wear and tear), but "nicer....?" And in many ways, DVC is less nice than the hotel side - less frequent room refreshes, lack of daily housekeeping (I know a lot of members prefer it, but for me, at a nice hotel I get my bed made every day - in a really nice hotel, I get turndown service), etc.

Slight disrepair, a few small things broken? Sounds like home to me

 

[crisi]

Slight disrepair, a few small things broken? Sounds like home to me

Yep, but it sure doesn't sound like where I normally stay when I vacation - and it really isn't the quality that I thought I would get from Disney when I first started looking.