What are the benefits of being a DVC member

[highlander4]

What are the benefits??? I was pricing a stay at the same place as you could get with your points and it would cost me $3,400. If I use the points it cost $10,800. What am I not seeing???

 

[WMorganS]

What are the benefits??? I was pricing a stay at the same place as you could get with your points and it would cost me $3,400. If I use the points it cost $10,800. What am I not seeing???

You probably used the price to purchase a DVC contract, which is part 30-50 years worth of trips.

 

[Chuck S]

What are the benefits??? I was pricing a stay at the same place as you could get with your points and it would cost me $3,400. If I use the points it cost $10,800. What am I not seeing???

You are mistaken. The initial purchase may be $10,000+ but that purchase is good for a set number of years.

For instance, when I purchased OKW in 1992, it cost roughly $53 per point, and those point were renewed annually for 49 years. Though I do need to pay maintenance fees annually.

My 2013 dues/fees were $5.31 per point.

So my cost ($53/49) = 1.08+5.31 = $6.39 per point for my recent trip. That trip was 88 points for 8 nights, a cost of $562.32. Rack rate would've been $350 per night, or $2800.00 A savings of $2237.68

 

[DisneyRegulars]

What are the benefits??? I was pricing a stay at the same place as you could get with your points and it would cost me $3,400. If I use the points it cost $10,800. What am I not seeing???

I'm not sure where you are getting your $10,800 from, but you could look at things this way ( ignoring time value of money to make things easier)

Rack rate BLT studio for 2/7-2/13, 6 nights, $3172

Point required for same stay: 122

Cost to purchase 122 points at $110 per point resale: $13,420

Now let's assume you plan to keep your dVC for 10 years, and after 10 years you can sell it for $0.00. (Worst case scenario here )

So each six night trip will cost you 13,420/10 = $1,342

Plus you have annual dues at $4.50/pt (2013 rates) * 122 = $549

Total cost of each DVC trip= 1342+549= $1891, a savings of over 1200 on rack rate.


There are a million ways to slice and dice the cost of ownership, this is a just a rough way to maybe shed some light on the basics for you.

Rack rate is also not the best comparison point because there are always discounts available.

 

[highlander4]

I didn't know it was for future years. I thought it was just for one year. Now it makes more sense.
Thanks!!

 

[Chuck S]

I didn't know it was for future years. I thought it was just for one year. Now it makes more sense.
Thanks!!

Yes, the $10K+ is a timeshare purchase. DVC is basically Disney's version of a timeshare. Only our timeshare ownership interest expires on a set date, unlike some others that are deeded forever.

 

[gray52]

I didn't know it was for future years. I thought it was just for one year. Now it makes more sense. Thanks!!

And let's not forget that owning DVC currently qualifies you for certain discounts... Discount off the annual pass and a certain percent off at select restaurants and merchandise stores. I say "currently" because these discounts aren't guaranteed in the future.

This also reduces the cost of ownership (or increases your cost if you're like my wife and spend more to save more!).

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[DebbieB]

In addition to the original cost, there are annual maintenance fees.

 

[disneynutz]

Owning a DVC interest might reduce the cost of your room but generally it increases the amount of money that you spend with Disney.

Bill

 

[WMorganS]

Owning a DVC interest might reduce the cost of your room but generally it increases the amount of money that you spend with Disney. Bill

Agreed. My example:

I calculated that (even on a BCV contract) we could make 8% annually by renting, if we had to. That seemed like a no-brainer, so we bought enough points to cover our maintenance fees via rentals and still take vacations.

But then time for our next vacation arrived and we saw how we could save by buying annual passes. And as bonus - we could stay somewhere truly awesome! We planned to only buy AP's every OTHER year. But then summer came, and suddenly we noticed that going to Disney for their water parks (even from Mass) was FAR cheaper and way awesummer than going anywhere else... 2 water parks + 4 theme parks + pools etc, for the (apparent) cost of travel + food? Done deal.

In hindsight, we'll probably never rent any points out. And though it's nice to know we can if we need to, for us, their value in family vacation time far exceeds what we could get by renting them out.