What are DVC presentations like?

[deedeetoo]

We will be heading to WDW in a month and are thinking about looking into DVC ownership. Does DVC do high pressure presentations like other times share resorts? Do you get anything (tickets, dinner) if you go? How long does the presentation take?

 

[Granny]

I have never gone on a formal DVC tour, since we bought sight unseen.

However, I do know that DVC is not like other high pressure timeshares who browbeat you, take your keys and won't let you leave, etc. DVC pretty much sells itself, and most of the sales personnel (Guides) are pretty low key and willing to spend as much time as you'd like with them.

One tip....read these boards, learn about DVC here, and ask lots of questions before you go to WDW. I advise this for two reasons:

1. You'll have a much less overwhelming experience if you already know 90% about how DVC works, etc. Without that knowledge, you will get a ton of information that will be difficult to digest. If you already know most of the information, you can concentrate your tour time on getting an impression of the accommodations and asking a few key questions instead of a deluge.

2. Disney often has incentives which you only have 72 hours to exercise after taking the tour. They are very firm with the 72 hour timetable so you want to have a pretty good idea if DVC is for you or not before you go. The sales experience will be much better for it.


Like many people here, I learned about DVC rules and such via these boards. By the time I called my Guide, I pretty much had a handle on things and was ready to purchase over the phone. I don't think I would have ever done that without the pre-work I did here.

Good luck and enjoy your trip!

 

[byoung]

Go on the tour, they will not push you at all, no need to.

 

[Plutofan]

Like someone else said if you go on the tour be prepared to buy with 72 hours to get the reduced price. If you are not prepared then just get the DVD and take a tour of the room and skip the presentation.

 

[nucpharm29]

We almost didn't take the tour b/c of previous bad experiences with time-share tours. The DVC one was completely different. It was completely relaxed and nobody was pressuring us to do anything. We were already staying at SSR on rented points so we knew what the resort was like. And we had already done our research on the DIS boards. Disney doesn't give the "perks" that many other companies do. We did get special Fastpasses to compensate for our time (you put your card in the fast pass machine and it spits out a ticket with a time to ride immediately--instead of having to come back later) You also can hit the ice cream parlour after the presentation if you want--there is also childcare available. We didn't do either b/c we had grandparents watching the kids and we were headed to dinner. It probably took 2 hours total with taking the tour, talking with our guide, and filling out the paperwork to purchase.

My advice-if you are at all serious about DVC take the tour when you're there IF you have the extra vacation time. Do your research before you get there, and it will cut out a lot of unnecessary explanations by your guide. Also, come prepared with questions. Good luck!

 

[bigsmooth]

We took the tour and told them we could not buy that day because we were flying out, no problem. Did not phase our guide a bit. She was very helpful, never applied the high pressure pitch. She told us to give her a call when we were back. We knew then I had a trade show coming up at the Swan & Dolphin 3 months later, so 3 months later we called her up and bought.

She even encouraged us to go online and check things out, which is how we found out about this board- which only reinforced our decision to buy.

 

[bonzarella]

They must be doing a great job, we bought No pressure at all for us, a completely pleasant experience.

 

[Debbie Jean]

As others have said, absolutely no pressure whatsoever.

Having already done a ton of homework on DVC, I went with fairly specific questions. I had actually made contact with my guide initially the year before but decided to wait on the purchase. She was great! We talked a bit in the sales center then toured the preview units and wrapped up back at the center. I think we were done in less than 2 hours.

I think you'll find you get more out of your visit if you prepare before you go by reading the DisBoards and getting an idea of how DVC is organized, etc.

Good luck!

 

[Granny]

I can't stress enough to do your homework before you do the tour. It's important to have a lot of knowledge (and opinions) before you go.

Why? Well, as nice as they are, the Guides are still sales people. So they sometimes gloss over things, overgeneralize, or sometimes downright mislead. For instance, if you hear a Guide say "If you buy at DVC Resort "X", you can stay at DVC Resorts "Y" and "Z" any time and never have a problem, even on short notice"....well, I think many here would tend to disagree with that. But that sort of statement has occasionally been attributed to DVC Guides.

Get to know the program, and enjoy the tour. If DVC is right for you, it's an awesome purchase.

 

[mello]

It's different than other presentations - there is no pressure. They picked us up in their van - they'll pick you up wherever you want - and took us to the sales center. We got our kids ensconced in the childcare area, and then they offered us tea, lemonade, cookies, etc. while we waited for our guide. She took us around the resort, and to look at the rooms. We already knew we were going to buy - it was just a matter of when, and what the terms would be, and dh asked her some very pointed questions. She seemed surprised that we knew much about it, and answered everything very nicely. We went back to the office and talked about the numbers, she left us alone for awhile to decide (which was a no brainer for us) and it took about a half hour after that to sign papers. We got our bag of perks and our reading material, then we picked up the kids, and our guide took us back to show them the tour units, pool area, etc., before taking us to the ice cream parlor. (The only bad thing is that now the kids think they get free ice cream any time we stay there ). Then they called a van to take us wherever we wanted to go. That was that. By the time we got home from our trip, our points were already showing up online.

 

[rinkwide]

...For instance, if you hear a Guide say "If you buy at DVC Resort "X", you can stay at DVC Resorts "Y" and "Z" any time and never have a problem, even on short notice"...

You might hear that but it's likely to be a little more subtle. Maybe something like my guide's favorite line; "Many of our members have never stayed at their home resort."

 

[SLM]

We toured in 2003-at that time they offered free nights at the AKL if you took the DVC tour (two free nights if you booked three?). As someone mentioned they picked us up in the van (WE made the appointment at our convenience) and took us to the sale center for a tour and presentation. The guide was very low-key and we explained right away our daughter was still in college and since we would never finance a timeshare we were there only to get information. He was still very pleasant and answered all our questions. When we decided to buy a year later I still had his name and called him to purchase 200 points. He remembered us and made sure we had two years of points available to us. If you are at all interested, take the tour, you won't feel pressured. You will be VERY tempted, however, so promise each other yoiu will not decide anything while you are there unless you have decided to buy. Again, we are adamant that our DVC was a luxury purchase and would not purchase until we felt we could easily pay cash (a good thing, we still had a year of graduate school tuition for our daughter and then a wedding!).

 

[6mouskateers]

We are different ( but gosh we always are ) in that we went into the sales pitch cold-didn't even discover the DIS boards until AFTER we bought. Our guide was great, he gave us the pitch, asked us a few questions, showed us around SSR, answered my many many questions, then turned us loose to look around. After we took our time wandering around we met back up with our guide,asked a ton more questions, took our $50 gift card and my pretty "Dreams" book (DH calls it my bedtime story because I look at it every night before I go to sleep!) collected our kids and went home. Our guide actually tried to talk us out of buying so many points( we only bought 250) when we were there. He thought 150 for us. TOO FEW!!!! Maybe he thought we weren't serious as we didn't sign right then and there. I don't know but we called him back a few days later and bought.

He was very helpful, and truthful. I don't think he glossed anything over at all. It's my own fault for not knowing about resale market, but truthfully, we would have bought exactly what we did even knowing everyting I know now. This was sort of an impulse purchase, but not really. We were actually going to do something else with the $$ but decided to DVC instead.

We wound up buying after I spoke for a while with a family friend who has owned for about 15 years now. She was the best salesperson of all!

 

[2giddy4wdw]

DH and I had thought about going and listening to their presentation, but never found the time. Well in 2003 we were at WDW for our anniversary trip alone and decided to listen. They are in no way High Pressure. We listened to our guide, looked at the rooms (back when it was at the Boardwalk), went back to the office we were in. He left us so that we could play around on the computer with how many points we wanted, how much is would cost. After about a half hour, he came back. We had a few more questions...then decided this was what we wanted. We ended up financing (I know dirty word ) but that's what was best for us. When we were done, they gave us our backpack filled with our reading material. They also gave us a certificate to get lunch in Epcot. It was one of the best decisions that we've ever made!!!!!!!