What do you wish you'd known?

[Master Gracie]

My wife and I have been discussing the DVC and think it's really going to be a good option for us. We aren't ready to take the final plunge yet, but it's looking good.

My question is pretty much summed up in the subject of the post.

What is the one thing (or two things) you wish you had known before commiting. Not talking deal breakers (unless you think it would have been), not necessarily even anything bad. Just the fact that you weren't given or didn't discover that you wish you had known before.

Thanks in advance. You all are so helpful.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I wish I had known in advance how many points I would REALLY need. We thought we could "make do" with the minimum of 230, but it didn't take more than one trip to discover that there was NO WAY we were paying this much for a "hotel room" like a studio. That meant, we would need at least 150 more points, so decided to bite the bullet and buy another conrtract. We could not be happier now! Well, maybe that is not QUITE true! The only thing that would make us happier is if we had double our current number of points so we could stay all of January and most of February at OKW!

 

[WDWMom]

That we would always want more points.

We were not quite like Diane, but we always want more points. Started with 220 which could get us a 2 bdrm the time of year we went. But then we wanted to go more often to WDW so we bought another 100, then bought another 51 (it was resale and 51 is what was offered).

So now we have 371 and still desire more. Now if we could only buy a timeshare with an airline and not have to pay lots of $$$ for ticket.

 

[HookdonWDW]

I wish I'd known how good a fit DVC was for our family a few years earlier. I remember talking with dh when they first opened OKW. We never checked out DVC because we just knew we'd never be able to afford it. I wish we had bought back then! Of course, we really like our home resorts, so there are good points about buying when we did...

 

[Granny]

Since I browsed these boards and asked questions here, as you are doing, I was pretty well informed about most DVC things.

I guess if there was one thing I didn't realize at the time was that the trade out to other WDW resorts (non-DVC) could fluctuate pretty wildly. About a year after we joined, they really jumped up the point requirements to stay at places like the Polynesian or GF. Not a big deal, since we prefer to stay at DVC, but it was one thing I didn't know.

 

[DrTomorrow]

One thing that I 'knew' but didn't really grasp is how far into the future 11 months can be. DW and I are planner-types, so we always had WDW vacations booked 6-8 months in advance anyway, but it takes a while to start thinking almost a year ahead.

Not a problem - actually a benefit once you get used to it - but just an FYI.

 

[CarolMN]

Wish I'd known how easy it was going to be to convince my DH - thought he'd be a tough, tough sell. So I didn't even bring it up for quite a long while after I was "dreaming" about it.

In fact, after we took the tour, I was thinking I'd investigate the resale market so wasn't quite ready to commit. DH said do it now. I was in a bit of a shock, especially when he said to get 200 points as I was just hoping to do the minimum of 150.

Needless to say, I immediately asked for a ride back to the BC to get the check book and the rest is HISTORY! Still very happy with the decision. Added on 50 points before we even made our first trip home.

 

[westjones]

I wish I had known about resales. I would have liked to be at VWL, but they were all sold out so we bought at BCV. We love BCV (this would be our second choice, and our kids first choice), but I wish I had known that I could have gotten VWL if I had just looked!

I also wish I had known about this board, we found it AFTER we bought, so you are already ahead of us.

DJ

 

[gopherit]

We wish we had known:

(a) that having a third child would mean needing more points.

(b) that our trip timing would change (value points season and kid's school and sports calendars often conflict with each other!)

(c) that family would ALWAYS want to go with us!

(d) that you can rent (we lost a few pts our second year, due to our 3rd child's birth, then 9/11, then a series of cancellations... I still mourn for those pts! It was our pre-DIS days, though, and we didn't know renting was even an option...)

(e) that the DVC points are not nearly as expensive as the trips those points facilitate (we are "moderate" spenders, but we budget about $6K for our 2 week trips for our party of five, and that's driving our own car down, not flying and/or renting a car...)

(f) that we would want more points even when we know we haven't the vacation time nor slush money to use them! It's a weird sort of points=power struggle! I known in my heart that our 30 pt add-on was perfect, according to all the math... but right after it was complete, I wanted another. I think Disney talked to the folks at Phillip Morris when they set up DVC -- it's a strange addiction. Wodner if they make a DVC "points-patch" that would curb the urge?

(g) that we could have bought a smaller contract with an add-on initially so that the points were in small bundles. Would make it easier to either sell-off later (yeah, right, like that's gonna happen, but if it ever did....) or perhaps split up between our kids.

(h) that not all guides are created equal, and that we have the right to get a different guide. Ours was not so very helpful.

(i) that we could have bought resale. This is right up there with the renting issue for us. For our add-on last year, it didn't make sense, but man, had we knwon we could have gotten a resale, well, we would probably have never needed that add-on -- we could have gotten what we wanted and more -- for less.

(j) that we could have some choice over use year. We were offered June and took it, which has, thankfully, worked out for us, but I think if we had been given the choice, Dec would have been more to our liking.

(k) that we would want big long trips, instead of weekly annual trips. We now go every other year, which reduces our travel time / expenses (it's a 15 hr drive), and then we stay for 2 weeks. In our initial planning, we had thought we would go for 5 days (Sun-Fri) in January, every year. Doing 2 weeks (that includes weekends) in the summer (higher points) is more pts-costly, obviously, so we compromise by going every other year.

Good luck as you make your own decisions -- hope to give you a Welcome Home in the near future!

 

[tvwalsh]

I wish I had known that I would want to stay in Grand Villas and Beach Houses.

It is getting very difficult to reserve them unless you have the 11 month window.

So buy points at a resort with grand villas or beach houses that you like.

 

[pumpkinboy]

Well, echoing the sentiments of many here, I wish we had bought more points initially, or bought an add-on earlier, while points at our home resort (BWV) were still available from DVC directly. I also wish we had bought years earlier, bcs we have discovered how much our severly handicapped 6 yr old DS loves going to WDW (hey it's warm, wheelchair accessible and he is treated like royalty, what could be better?); if we had bought earlier, we'd have gone more often.

I also wish we hadn't sold back the first year's points to get the discount. It seemed like a good deal at the time, but I can now think of lots of uses for those sold points.

But mainly, I wish we had a different Use-Year. We have a February UY, and we like to travel over Columbus Day, Veteran's Day and MLK Day; the last one gets way too close to the end of the UY. We also like April vacation, as in Mass & Maine it is later than in the rest of the country, so the crowds are less crazy. So while April uses the most points and the Feb UY works well for those, we pray for good flying weather over MLK weekend for our jaunts to VB, cuz we know it would be hard to put those pts to use if we weren't able to go then (since room availability after January is tight and we are waaay past our banking deadlines at that point). An October UY would have been ideal, but we bought February, so...

 

[OneMoreTry]

Importance of use year. I would probably have tried to get earlier in year rather than October. Although I got such a great deal on resale, I don't think I'd have found another contract like it.

Popularity of resorts. We toured all the resorts and OKW was by far our favorite. It was surprising to me that BCV and BWV were so popular. I guess not everyone likes the true home-away-from-home feel at OKW as much as the park access. I don't think we would do anything different, but it would have been nice to know ahead of time. I suspect the popularity will change as DVCers get older. We've not used a Grand Villa but I know that will be a factor for us in the future, too.

In retrospect I would have like 50 more points. But then if I had 50 more I'd want another 50...and so on.

 

[Beth]

- I wish we would have known about the resale market. Not because our desired resort wasn't available, but for the cost savings.

- Our initial purchase was a 300-point contract. I had no CLUE about the resale market and add-ons. I wish we had bought two or more smaller contracts.

- Use-Year. When we purchased (4/97) - they gave us our choice of use-year's. We had no opinion, so our guide asked us, "What month do you like to vacation?" We said, "October." So October is what we got. We've now found that we enjoy making a week out of Labor Day every year - and last minute changes can be risky wih an October-use-year.

But, even with those "regrets," we still manage just fine...

 

[shelbyjosh]

I wish I had known that we would need more points!!! How nice it would be to get a 2br right now. I relish the thought of the kids on the sofa bed. It would be nice to put them to bed and them be able to sit in the living room and watch tv. We are alwys on the prowl for a good OKW resale, but nothing has tickled our fancy yet. Oh well, I will get my fix in less than 24 hours!!

 

[wdwstar]

I think alot of us will say "how many points we really need"

buying into dvc you tend to purchase the minimal amount, but as you go home for the first time and didnt have to pay for the room for staying in a deluxe resort, can be very addicting

now you can afford to go a couple of times a year

and the points do add up fast

 

[Laurabearz]

I wish I had known from the get go how important the 11 month window is at certain resorts... Our intial purchase would have been one resale contract for OKW and an add on from Disney for VWL, which is what they were selling at the time.

Also, I wish I had visited VWL in person instead of poo pooing it because of the theme... We felt like we didnt want a wilderness mountian theme coming from the North... but if I had seen the pool.... we would have bought there.

 

[momsully]

I definately wish we had understood use year better. We bought a great resale for VWL which is exactly what we wanted. It was a February use year and looking back we like to go early December so October might have been a better choice for us.

 

[dcfromva]

Two things:
I wish we had known how many points we really needed. I picked 260 points to start with because they were giving out a 7 day plus a 3 day stay good for most of the non-DVC WDW propeties with a minimum purchase of 260 points (because BCV was not open yet)...
(I had no idea that my family of 3 would only want to stay in a 2BR unit...)

Use Year... I did not totally understand the impact of our UY until we actually started taking vacations at the end of our UY...

Since then, we done a couple of add ons and I think we have enough points (and we have UYs to cover all vacations for whatever time of the year we decide to go )

-DC

 

[jmminarik]

I wish I'd known about this forum first and foremost. Then:

1) We'd not have bought Vero first.
2a) We'd have probably bought BW (since it was still available)
2b) Or we'd have gone resale and gotten OKW...our preferred onsite property.
3) We'd not have sold back our first year's points...we've been in a deficit ever since.


-Joe

 

[LIFERBABE]

3 months after purchasing DVC LOL!

Well I kinda had a feeling (Karma and all) so I held money in reserve for all the inevitables that go wrong after you make a luxury purchase for yourself. (or does this only happen to me?)

I also wish I had been aware of the Handicap Accessible units and their floorplans, in case we ever received one. This would have also been factored in our purchasing decision, not a deal breaker, but definitely a consideration.