What are the benefits of RCI?

[strine56]

Wow! I am not a DVC owner and I can not believe how easy it currently is to get a great deal at Saratoga Springs for a 1 bedroom.

 

[Great3]

Wow! I am not a DVC owner and I can not believe how easy it currently is to get a great deal at Saratoga Springs for a 1 bedroom.

As long you are continuously happy to get a 1-bed at SSR, than there's no reason to buy DVC, if you are strictly looking at this from the financial aspect (the cheapest out of pocket per night based on MF dues + $239 Exchange Fee + $190 Disney fee for exchange fee).

I also own WorldMark, and calculate 9,000 credits + 1 HK Token to be about $750 more or less..

So, $750 + $239 + $190 = about $1200 for that 1 week stay at SSR one bedroom. Obviously, compare to cash / rack rates for the same rooms, you are saving tons.

However, most people that own DVC do so for non financial reasons, and don't mind paying more for flexibility of being at other resorts and not having to book exactly 7 days at a time. I am glad this is working out for you, for other families, it might not work so well.

Great3​

 

[strine56]

As long you are continuously happy to get a 1-bed at SSR, than there's no reason to buy DVC, if you are strictly looking at this from the financial aspect (the cheapest out of pocket per night based on MF dues + $239 Exchange Fee + $190 Disney fee for exchange fee).

I also own WorldMark, and calculate 9,000 credits + 1 HK Token to be about $750 more or less..

So, $750 + $239 + $190 = about $1200 for that 1 week stay at SSR one bedroom. Obviously, compare to cash / rack rates for the same rooms, you are saving tons.

However, most people that own DVC do so for non financial reasons, and don't mind paying more for flexibility of being at other resorts and not having to book exactly 7 days at a time. I am glad this is working out for you, for other families, it might not work so well.

Great3

I am not allowed to talk about another Timeshare. I may get suspended again. What I can say is the following. If I can find Saratoga Springs with in a 45 day window. It will only cost me 4000 credits. I have seen that happen in the recent past.

 

[bwvBound]

@strine56, Yes! Go for it! Enjoy it!

We've booked two RCI exchange weeks into SSR for this summer. Looking forward to both as "more time on our WDW APs" (which were purchased with a good DVC discount). We are playing 'Mix and Match' (timeshare) to our hearts content! Work every angle to get more bang for the buck. Hope you are doing the same.

We'll be visiting Disneyland next week over the holiday staying at, well, you-know-where-but-not-DVC.

 

[Cyberc1978]

As long you are continuously happy to get a 1-bed at SSR, than there's no reason to buy DVC, if you are strictly looking at this from the financial aspect (the cheapest out of pocket per night based on MF dues + $239 Exchange Fee + $190 Disney fee for exchange fee).

I also own WorldMark, and calculate 9,000 credits + 1 HK Token to be about $750 more or less..

So, $750 + $239 + $190 = about $1200 for that 1 week stay at SSR one bedroom. Obviously, compare to cash / rack rates for the same rooms, you are saving tons.

However, most people that own DVC do so for non financial reasons, and don't mind paying more for flexibility of being at other resorts and not having to book exactly 7 days at a time. I am glad this is working out for you, for other families, it might not work so well.

Great3

If you are fine with SSR then your cost for booking SSR through RCI can be a real cost saver. The booking fee in RCI is down to $209 for 7 days at SSR in a 1br plus the resort fee. We book SSR approx 1-2 times a year through RCI, when we book we use our RCI point timeshare and booking in the more "expensive" seasons pointwise will get us 2 weeks per year, 3 if we go during the less expensive times.

We bought DVC for the flexibility and because we liked the other resorts. SSR is great for what it is, but if you wish to visit other DVC resorts then dont expect to be able to book it through RCI on a regular basis.

Currently there are a lot of DVC deposits in RCI, more than we have seen in the past - if that will last only time will tell.

Another way of using DVC through RCI together with a membership with DVC is to extend your vacation with a DVC booking through RCI. That only works if you want to stay longer than 7 days in total.

OR

If you need a 2BR at DVC then you can actually book a 1br with RCI and then a studio through DVC. Linking the reservations and talking with the resort before checkin can get you the 2br instead of two separate rooms. We have done it once in the past and we didn't do the online checkin but spoke to the CM at checkin and even though they had us in two separate rooms for starters they accommodated our request for a 2br.
With this approach there is some risk involved not getting the two bed but if you put some work into it, it can work out.

 

[crisi]

Those days are gone, at least for now and likely permanently unless there's some reason people stop traveling to WDW. Now it's basically SSR 1 BR.

Yeah, at about that time my sister traded into a BCV two bedroom, then a VAKL two bedroom the following year - she had me seriously questioning why I bought DVC since she could stay at my timeshare for a lot less cost than I could. Since then she hasn't seen anything at Disney other than SSR - and only limited availability at odd times there - and they've chosen to use their timeshare other places.

It seems like buying DVC to stay at Disney is the best bet both directions - and if you have another timeshare and are lucky enough to get a trade in, congrats - but don't buy another timeshare to stay at Disney - any more than you should buy SSR to stay at an Epcot area resort every time. And buying DVC to stay anywhere other than DVC resorts is not a good use of a timeshare dollar.

 

[Hjs33]

I have been a WorldMark owner for over 24 years. We paid off our timeshare around 20 years ago and have only 6000 credits per year. We borrowed some credits for the following year to get the 10,000 credits for the exchange. We pay $728.80 per year in Maintenance fees. Half of those fees is $364.40. Than there is the RCI membership fees $99.00 and the exchange fee. The exchange fee is now $230.00. I paid between $1422.20 and 1500.00 for a 2 bedroom Kidani with a savannah view at Animal Kingdom. Our stay was right before Easter. That is why I am willing to get on the 2 year wait list. LOL!

The $1,500 you paid in dues is similar to the dues someone who owned at Animal Kingdom would have paid in dues 5-6 years ago, when you said this occurred.

If you had owned at DVC you would have easily have been able to book this at a similar cost and not had to wait 3 years.

 

[Frederic Civish]

Yeah, at about that time my sister traded into a BCV two bedroom, then a VAKL two bedroom the following year - she had me seriously questioning why I bought DVC since she could stay at my timeshare for a lot less cost than I could. Since then she hasn't seen anything at Disney other than SSR - and only limited availability at odd times there - and they've chosen to use their timeshare other places.

It seems like buying DVC to stay at Disney is the best bet both directions - and if you have another timeshare and are lucky enough to get a trade in, congrats - but don't buy another timeshare to stay at Disney - any more than you should buy SSR to stay at an Epcot area resort every time. And buying DVC to stay anywhere other than DVC resorts is not a good use of a timeshare dollar.

I own another timeshare and once stayed for a week in AKL - Kidani. It was possibly the best Disney Vacation I have ever had. But that was over 4 years ago and Disney no longer lets ANYTHING fall to RCI, except some 1-Bedrooms at SSR. As DVC members, our membership in RCI is a corporate one through Disney, which means they control the exchanges, and they don't mind at all if you use your DVC points to go stay at another resort, somewhere. But then they take the points you exchange, toss in a 1-bedroom at SSR and run off with your points to rent them out.

Trying to exchange into Disney through RCI will pretty much only get you the 1-bedrooms at SSR, and they ARE available quite frequently. But then you need to pay an RCI exchange fee of nearly $300 and a Disney exchange fee of $200.

I paid RCI $250 about 3 years ago to go onto their waitlist to get ANY 2 bedroom (sleeps 8) units at Disney World at ANY resort at ANY time. It hasn't happened.

If you want a better unit, use your RCI to exchange into Wyndham Bonnet Creek. A lot of people don't know that it sits in the heart of Disney World, right next to Caribbean Beach, though it isn't a Disney property. It is a beautiful place with really nice units, and is frequently available. To me, the biggest downside with staying there is that you need to rent a car, or take Uber a lot. Otherwise it is hard to get around.

 

[Dean]

I have a contract I purchased through DVC 3 years ago, as excited as I was to realize my kids were all adults, my work schedule right now doesn't allow me the leisure time I was hoping for. How easy/hard would it for me to get out of it? I know I can sell through the Timeshare store, but I would need to ask for at least the payoff amount. Then DVC has ROFR. It seems it would be easier for Disney to just take the contract back.

Has anyone been through something like this? I am just thinking through some options. I probably won't get rid of it, but just in case......

Yeah, at about that time my sister traded into a BCV two bedroom, then a VAKL two bedroom the following year - she had me seriously questioning why I bought DVC since she could stay at my timeshare for a lot less cost than I could. Since then she hasn't seen anything at Disney other than SSR - and only limited availability at odd times there - and they've chosen to use their timeshare other places.

It seems like buying DVC to stay at Disney is the best bet both directions - and if you have another timeshare and are lucky enough to get a trade in, congrats - but don't buy another timeshare to stay at Disney - any more than you should buy SSR to stay at an Epcot area resort every time. And buying DVC to stay anywhere other than DVC resorts is not a good use of a timeshare dollar.

Even so most of my stays have been on exchanges even over the past few years though I own 433 points as well.

The $1,500 you paid in dues is similar to the dues someone who owned at Animal Kingdom would have paid in dues 5-6 years ago, when you said this occurred.

If you had owned at DVC you would have easily have been able to book this at a similar cost and not had to wait 3 years.

I think $1500 is high but even at break even for dues with a timeshare that was essentially free, it's still a good deal. My costs historically have averaged between $350 & $600 TOTAL per week. Going forward it will be in the range of $600-700 total including the exchange fee and junk fees DVC adds in because they can. I ignore the RCI membership because I'd have it anyway. And I ignore the up front costs for what I use because they were basically free. Still it's not the 2 BR AKV, BWV, BLT & BCV I've gotten in the past.

 

[strine56]

The $1,500 you paid in dues is similar to the dues someone who owned at Animal Kingdom would have paid in dues 5-6 years ago, when you said this occurred.

If you had owned at DVC you would have easily have been able to book this at a similar cost and not had to wait 3 years.

I waited 2 years. LOL! All I know is that I saved a lot of money. I am more than happy to get the great deals at Saratoga Springs. I just checked today. I can choose 2 separate dates for Saratoga Springs. It is a lot easier for me to get Saratoga Springs with out having to wait.