Value

[darkendwood]

Hello all. I have been wondering if a DVC ownership is worthwhile? I really love disney but does it make economic sence? I mean spending 20,000 then I heard the maintance fees are like 700 a year? Any help would be greatly appreciated. My email is darkendwood@yahoo.com


Cliff

 

[jaysue]

Welcome to the DIS

It all depends on key things in my mind:

1) Do you like to WDW at least every 2 years?
2) Would you like to stay on-site?
3) Can you afford it?
4) Would you like to have the choice of up to a 3 Bedroom (Grand Villa) accomodations as opposed to a single hotel room...

Thanks
jaysue

 

[ncligs]

Originally posted by darkendwood
I really love disney but does it make economic sence? I mean spending 20,000 then I heard the maintance fees are like 700 a year? [/email]Cliff

I see you are from California, so you would have the added expense of cross country airline tx also.It also depends how often you would travel to any of the DVC resorts(all on the east coast).

You get most bang for your money if you stay at the DVC resorts.If you plan on trading out, DVC might not be a wise investment for you considering the distance.
Hopefully some west coast DVC'ers will respond to your question also.

 

[darkendwood]

jaysue:

I have to answer yes to the first three, but as for the 3 bedroom villa no. One bedroom is enough for me!

 

[Dean]

DVC is only a reasonable value for one who will travel to WDW most years and would pay to stay on site. It will not make economic sense to use for long weekends or to use the other exchange options routinely. Will ou fly from CA most every year to FL?

 

[DJGifford]

I will add my .02 here...I just bought into the Boardwalk (my first choice and Disney opened up some more areas, due to moving their offices, woohoo for me) Anyway...For me to go April 2004, our school vacation week is at the better rate time...only 11 points per night from Sun-thurs. I only want the standard view as we aren't int he room all that much anyway. I booked 2 studios for the 5 nights...on anverage those rooms rack rate are $500/night (I believe) that is $2,500 per room for the 5 nights!! So $5,000 total...Cool! Anyway...we wouldn't be going to Disney World with high costs like that...and we love Disney...for us this is very economical. Also, we are a family of 5...the 2 older children are planning on staying in one studio and mh, dh and baby will be in the other. (It is cheaper than a two bedroom) for the same time frame. Anyway, my parents may come with us...so my son will sleep in their room (he is 10) and the other 4 of us will stay in my room! So that is a pretty good way for us to stay in a "delux" resort!!

It may not be a great choice for everyone, but by my example, you can see it is good...esp. since we just bought in...oh yeah...we will have 50 points left over, for a weekend trip or bank for next year and stay the full week!
Sorry so long!

 

[bcvillastwo]

Jaysue made three real good points.

1) Do you like to go to WDW at least every 2 years?
2) Would you like to stay on-site?
3) Can you afford it?

Someone else mentioned the cost of transportation from California--another good point.

For me, personnally once those and similar questions have been addressed and if the answer is yes then you need to do some kind of an economic analysis. I find that breaking DVC cost down to a per point basis is the best way to go.

Our cost per point is roughly $6.00. This is made up as follows, about $2 per point to purchase DVC (we did not finance) and a little less than $4 per point to pay for dues each year. I rounded these numbers for this particular exercise.

I've seen others use $6.00 per point as their basis for making comparisons between DVC and renting as well. I've also seen that the per point cost decreases some if you were to buy into Saratoga Springs because the amount of time you spread the cost is 50 years rather than 38/39 for the other DVC resorts.

So if you were wanted to spend 5 nights (Sunday through Thursday) in a Beach Club Villas studio during Easter you would expend 19 points per night for a total of going to spend one night at a DVC resort and it would cost 20 points then your cost would be 95 points @ $6.00 per point for a total cost of $570.00. Now the question becomes can you do better any place else on site and can you do it consistently.

If my analysis is correct and my math is right (and I will be corrected if it's wrong) this provided you with a method of comparing costs between DVC and any other place you choose.

I hope this helps.

 

[Tiggery]

I live in the UK but for the past 5 years I have visited WDW 5 Times for 2 weeks per time. I did a comparison of prices using moderate resorts (which we would normally stay at ) and included not only dues but international flights too. I found that even with factoring in the dues I would save money in the long run and would hit Break Even at year 17. Even if this wasnt the case the thought of being able to stay regulaly in a 1 bdrm villa as apposed to a single room is well worth it.

 

[Zurg]

What Dean said. It is a great value if you are a WDW regular.

 

[darkendwood]

Thanks all!

 

[darkendwood]

oooooh one more quick question! Can you use your points at disneryland and Disneyworld or just disneyworld? Again thank you so much for your help.

 

[keenercam]

Just had to chime in -- by the end of this Thanksgiving weekend, we will have made 5 DVC trips in one year (we joined 7/02 and have 350 points at BCV). The rack rates for all of the accomodations we will have used, plus the discount on a backstage tour we took (15% off about $400), all our 10% discounts at the disney store, and the savings on park/valet parking for our WDW trip will add up to about $9500 by December 1 of this year -- only the first 1 1/2 years. Considering our investment was $28,000, you can see we are well on our way to recouping our investment and then will just have the dues amount each year, which will surely be a lot less than the cost of those accomodations would have been!
YIPPEE!!!! Love this whole "CLUB" thing!!

 

[DISNEYWORLDBORN2SHOP]

Don't forget that we can stay in a 1 bedroom villa for 7 nights anywhere in the World Passport Collection for 160 points.

 

[JimC]

The Disney Collection includes other resorts at Disney World, Disneyland Paris and Disneyland California. But staying at DVC reosrts is the best deal on using the points. THe others are not bad deals, but they are fixed in points. The charts can change each year.