What is/was your long term DVC plan? Please add your thoughts!

[ray3127]

I was going to start a new thread called "Jumping back in," but thought my comments fit just as well with these great stories. Our long-term plan has continually evolved over the last 3 years. Here's our journey so far.

June 2018: Stayed at Disneyland Hotel with my wife, son (4 at the time), and daughter (6 months at the time). We always loved Disney, but this trip opened our eyes to all kinds of magic with our family. When we walked by the Grand Californian, I said "we're staying there next time." Then I came home, priced out GCH, and realized that probably wouldn't happen too regularly. I soon stumbled across DVC, and became intrigued. I had looked at DVC before, but could never justify it. Thinking about the future with our family, this time was different.

Several spreadsheets later...

ACCUMULATION PHASE
- Fall 2018: Bought 200 BCV & 160 BLT (resale)
- Early 2019: Bought 125 VGC (resale) & 75 BLT (direct for benefits)

First DVC stays were June 2019 (BCV), Sept. 2019 (Poly), and Dec. 2019 (VB, BLT, BCV).

ADDONITIS STRIKES
After the September stay we bought 100 more BLT resale. We couldn't get enough!

COVID - HOPEFUL
Then Covid…

• Disney Fantasy cruise on March 14, 2020 cancelled (not DVC, but Disney related… yep, first cruise cancelled).
• April 2020, sister's WDW wedding postponed.
• June 2020, road trip west to VGC cancelled.

In the meantime, we purchased 160 BWV points, hopeful that Covid would go away quickly and things would snap back. We planned to go to Aulani for our 10th anniversary in June 2021. Between that, wanting larger accommodations, and bringing family/friends, we needed more points! We were up to 820 total points.

COVID - LOSING HOPE
But as the reality set in that things wouldn't snap back quickly, we lost faith. We didn't like the feeling of having points we *needed* to use or lose. No fast passes, no fireworks, no characters, and wearing masks was not our idea of Disney. Concerned about how long this would last, and realizing we enjoyed more vacation flexibility, by Fall 2020 we listed some of our points for sale.

My sister's wedding finally happened in October 2020, and we had a nice stay at BWV. It was nice to finally return, though much was still missing.

We still sold all our WDW points except for our 75 direct BLT, and were dangerously close to selling our coveted VGC points (the whole reason this DVC plan was hatched in the first place) without ever getting to use them.

CALMING DOWN
We continued with a visit over Christmas & New Year's 2020 (which we booked in January 2020), again staying at VB, BCV, and BLT. Though it wasn’t perfect, there was enough Disney magic to bring back a spark for us. The trip gave us the courage to hold on to what we had a little longer.

We’ve sat tight on our 200 remaining points since returning home in January, but over the last few weeks we've been very encouraged. Seeing the masks finally go away, the return of fireworks, and the comments from many that "it's like pre-covid Disney" have brought an enormous amount of excitement to my family. We can't wait to get back.

We have a VGC trip lined up for October that looks great from here, and a Dolphin/BLT split stay over New Year's. Looking to the future, we are excited to get more Disney trips on our calendar.

EVALUATING OUR NEEDS (Finally, here’s the “Long-term plan”!)
Having owned and used DVC for over 2 years, we now know how we can use the program to maximize our benefits. This includes:

• Staying in studios. We’ve stayed in 1-BR & 2-BR, and while they are nice, they aren’t necessary. We love the DVC resorts, but just don’t need all the space. We bought (and used) a bunch of extra points thinking we needed larger rooms, but they just weren’t worth it to us.
• We prefer shorter trips to keep the magic alive. 4-5 nights is great for us.
• At WDW, 12 months on/off is our plan. 3 trips in a 12-month cycle with APs is our ideal. Flying from Omaha or Kansas City to Orlando is usually reasonable, too.

This plan can work with 75 points each at two resorts. However, our allotment was 75 BLT and 125 VGC. Those VGC points are ‘special use’ points, only to be used at Disneyland. So we are (roughly) 75 points short.

JUMPING BACK IN
We’ve also learned that our absolute favorite WDW resort is Beach Club. When we stayed at Boardwalk in October, I walked through/by Beach Club and missed home. When we left Beach Club in December, I longingly wondered when we would return. In planning our trip for December 2021, not being able to book Beach Club bothered me. A lot.

We knew we needed 75 more points for our long-term plan, and we weren't getting Beach Club studios with other points… so, we (gasp) just added on 75 direct Beach Club points. October UY, so we get 2020 points as well. I know it’s overpriced, but compared to the stripped small-point resale contract prices, it’s closer than you might think.

Of course, Beach Club expires in 2042. Our kids are currently 7 & 3. The time between now and then, especially the next 10 years, is extraordinarily precious. By 2042, my family will be 55, 54, 28, and 24. If all we get is 4-5 nights in Beach Club studios for the next 21 years, then it's worth it to me.

We toured Riviera in December, and it was lovely. The rooms and pool look incredible. It is a really nice resort, and I hope we get to stay there someday.

For us, after staying at 4 DVC resorts across 5 WDW stays, nothing beats the Crescent Lake area, Stormalong Bay, walkability to two parks, and simply the vibe of Beach Club. It was our first DVC stay, and it is home. If we wanted 125+ points, we’d scour the resale market. But for 75 in a specific UY, I’m not sure we could do much better via resale.

CLOSING
So we are back up to 275 points, which seems like a very reasonable number after ballooning up to over 800. And most importantly, we are happy.

The 150 between BLT & BCV will be used for 3 stays (4-5 nights each) in studios every other year, during which we will leverage the Gold APs. Likely a fall/spring/fall pattern, as we do not like the summer heat!

The 125 VGC will be used during the summer and/or to fill in long weekends when we don’t go to WDW.

In 3 years we went through several phases (accumulation, addonitis, downsizing, and now right-sizing). I’m not naive enough to think our needs won’t change again as time moves on. But we are making decisions now with years of using DVC under our belt, and I think we’ve thought them through a fair bit. Hopefully they stick a little longer this time.

 

[SherylLC]

These stories are so much fun to read!

We bought our points when the kids were getting ready to either go to or graduate from college. All three grew up on Disney and loved it so DVC makes sense, right? Well, as it turns out they are a lot less interested in Disney now that they've gotten older. International travel is calling them and with careers and spouses there's a lot less discretionary vacation time available. The Hubster and I will keep the points a bit longer but we'll probably start selling our contracts bit by bit. I guess we just need to decide when retirement will be and how much time WE want to spend with Disney!

 

[TheEpcotForEver]

I was going to start a new thread called "Jumping back in," but thought my comments fit just as well with these great stories. Our long-term plan has continually evolved over the last 3 years. Here's our journey so far.

June 2018: Stayed at Disneyland Hotel with my wife, son (4 at the time), and daughter (6 months at the time). We always loved Disney, but this trip opened our eyes to all kinds of magic with our family. When we walked by the Grand Californian, I said "we're staying there next time." Then I came home, priced out GCH, and realized that probably wouldn't happen too regularly. I soon stumbled across DVC, and became intrigued. I had looked at DVC before, but could never justify it. Thinking about the future with our family, this time was different.

Several spreadsheets later...

ACCUMULATION PHASE
- Fall 2018: Bought 200 BCV & 160 BLT (resale)
- Early 2019: Bought 125 VGC (resale) & 75 BLT (direct for benefits)

First DVC stays were June 2019 (BCV), Sept. 2019 (Poly), and Dec. 2019 (VB, BLT, BCV).

ADDONITIS STRIKES
After the September stay we bought 100 more BLT resale. We couldn't get enough!

COVID - HOPEFUL
Then Covid…

• Disney Fantasy cruise on March 14, 2020 cancelled (not DVC, but Disney related… yep, first cruise cancelled).
• April 2020, sister's WDW wedding postponed.
• June 2020, road trip west to VGC cancelled.

In the meantime, we purchased 160 BWV points, hopeful that Covid would go away quickly and things would snap back. We planned to go to Aulani for our 10th anniversary in June 2021. Between that, wanting larger accommodations, and bringing family/friends, we needed more points! We were up to 820 total points.

COVID - LOSING HOPE
But as the reality set in that things wouldn't snap back quickly, we lost faith. We didn't like the feeling of having points we *needed* to use or lose. No fast passes, no fireworks, no characters, and wearing masks was not our idea of Disney. Concerned about how long this would last, and realizing we enjoyed more vacation flexibility, by Fall 2020 we listed some of our points for sale.

My sister's wedding finally happened in October 2020, and we had a nice stay at BWV. It was nice to finally return, though much was still missing.

We still sold all our WDW points except for our 75 direct BLT, and were dangerously close to selling our coveted VGC points (the whole reason this DVC plan was hatched in the first place) without ever getting to use them.

CALMING DOWN
We continued with a visit over Christmas & New Year's 2020 (which we booked in January 2020), again staying at VB, BCV, and BLT. Though it wasn’t perfect, there was enough Disney magic to bring back a spark for us. The trip gave us the courage to hold on to what we had a little longer.

We’ve sat tight on our 200 remaining points since returning home in January, but over the last few weeks we've been very encouraged. Seeing the masks finally go away, the return of fireworks, and the comments from many that "it's like pre-covid Disney" have brought an enormous amount of excitement to my family. We can't wait to get back.

We have a VGC trip lined up for October that looks great from here, and a Dolphin/BLT split stay over New Year's. Looking to the future, we are excited to get more Disney trips on our calendar.

EVALUATING OUR NEEDS (Finally, here’s the “Long-term plan”!)
Having owned and used DVC for over 2 years, we now know how we can use the program to maximize our benefits. This includes:

• Staying in studios. We’ve stayed in 1-BR & 2-BR, and while they are nice, they aren’t necessary. We love the DVC resorts, but just don’t need all the space. We bought (and used) a bunch of extra points thinking we needed larger rooms, but they just weren’t worth it to us.
• We prefer shorter trips to keep the magic alive. 4-5 nights is great for us.
• At WDW, 12 months on/off is our plan. 3 trips in a 12-month cycle with APs is our ideal. Flying from Omaha or Kansas City to Orlando is usually reasonable, too.

This plan can work with 75 points each at two resorts. However, our allotment was 75 BLT and 125 VGC. Those VGC points are ‘special use’ points, only to be used at Disneyland. So we are (roughly) 75 points short.

JUMPING BACK IN
We’ve also learned that our absolute favorite WDW resort is Beach Club. When we stayed at Boardwalk in October, I walked through/by Beach Club and missed home. When we left Beach Club in December, I longingly wondered when we would return. In planning our trip for December 2021, not being able to book Beach Club bothered me. A lot.

We knew we needed 75 more points for our long-term plan, and we weren't getting Beach Club studios with other points… so, we (gasp) just added on 75 direct Beach Club points. October UY, so we get 2020 points as well. I know it’s overpriced, but compared to the stripped small-point resale contract prices, it’s closer than you might think.

Of course, Beach Club expires in 2042. Our kids are currently 7 & 3. The time between now and then, especially the next 10 years, is extraordinarily precious. By 2042, my family will be 55, 54, 28, and 24. If all we get is 4-5 nights in Beach Club studios for the next 21 years, then it's worth it to me.

We toured Riviera in December, and it was lovely. The rooms and pool look incredible. It is a really nice resort, and I hope we get to stay there someday.

For us, after staying at 4 DVC resorts across 5 WDW stays, nothing beats the Crescent Lake area, Stormalong Bay, walkability to two parks, and simply the vibe of Beach Club. It was our first DVC stay, and it is home. If we wanted 125+ points, we’d scour the resale market. But for 75 in a specific UY, I’m not sure we could do much better via resale.

CLOSING
So we are back up to 275 points, which seems like a very reasonable number after ballooning up to over 800. And most importantly, we are happy.

The 150 between BLT & BCV will be used for 3 stays (4-5 nights each) in studios every other year, during which we will leverage the Gold APs. Likely a fall/spring/fall pattern, as we do not like the summer heat!

The 125 VGC will be used during the summer and/or to fill in long weekends when we don’t go to WDW.

In 3 years we went through several phases (accumulation, addonitis, downsizing, and now right-sizing). I’m not naive enough to think our needs won’t change again as time moves on. But we are making decisions now with years of using DVC under our belt, and I think we’ve thought them through a fair bit. Hopefully they stick a little longer this time.

Wow, if you don’t mind me asking, how much did you gain\lose cash wise after this huge point swing? Commissions must have been killer! I hope you guys found the right amount of points for your family now

 

[ray3127]

Wow, if you don’t mind me asking, how much did you gain\lose cash wise after this huge point swing? Commissions must have been killer! I hope you guys found the right amount of points for your family now

There's a spreadsheet for that, of course! It was 620 points that we bought and sold, all resale. We had some excess points that we rented out before selling them all off, and when factoring those in we came out with a little over a $2,000 gain, even net of commissions. Plus we had several awesome vacations out of it all!

One of the reasons we jumped in so hard was knowing there was a robust resale market if we changed our minds. Now we are holding 150 direct points at sold-out resorts that we would certainly lose money on if we sold... But our thinking has changed. We aren't buying thinking "we can always sell." Instead, our philosophy is "we want X for this specific purpose/use."

 

[TheEpcotForEver]

There's a spreadsheet for that, of course! It was 620 points that we bought and sold, all resale. We had some excess points that we rented out before selling them all off, and when factoring those in we came out with a little over a $2,000 gain, even net of commissions. Plus we had several awesome vacations out of it all!

One of the reasons we jumped in so hard was knowing there was a robust resale market if we changed our minds. Now we are holding 150 direct points at sold-out resorts that we would certainly lose money on if we sold... But our thinking has changed. We aren't buying thinking "we can always sell." Instead, our philosophy is "we want X for this specific purpose/use."

That’s awesome! I’m glad it worked out. I am kicking myself for not getting in a few years earlier when my kids were just born. We spent way to much on deluxes before finally buying in summer of 2020. I assumed DVC was not very flexible when I first heard of it, but once I learned the ropes and about the resale market I bought in. My kids are still only 7 and 5, so luckily it didn’t take us THAT long I guess.

I also try not to give to much weight to the idea that the resale market will always be there in the state it’s in now. I have 350 points and are sometimes tempted to add more but I don’t see us using that much more long term, and like you I prefer to keep the points with the idea that I will likely just use it until the end. With international travel pretty much shut down for so long our usual trips abroad have turned into Disney trips, so I need to keep in mind there are only so many vacation days to go around. I’ve been back and forth on whether it’s worth 2X the cost to stay in a 1 bedroom vs a studio. We have been fine in most studios and I can think of much better uses for that money than having a little extra space. I’m not coming to Disney to hang out in a hotel room! We do live in a downtown condo though, so maybe people who live in the huge suburban houses are more bothered by the smaller spaces. Also, with our kids being so young maybe it will be more of an issue when they’re older. We are still new, so we will have to see how DVC plays out it on life plans as COVID eventually fades away.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

I was going to start a new thread called "Jumping back in," but thought my comments fit just as well with these great stories. Our long-term plan has continually evolved over the last 3 years. Here's our journey so far.

June 2018: Stayed at Disneyland Hotel with my wife, son (4 at the time), and daughter (6 months at the time). We always loved Disney, but this trip opened our eyes to all kinds of magic with our family. When we walked by the Grand Californian, I said "we're staying there next time." Then I came home, priced out GCH, and realized that probably wouldn't happen too regularly. I soon stumbled across DVC, and became intrigued. I had looked at DVC before, but could never justify it. Thinking about the future with our family, this time was different.

Several spreadsheets later...

ACCUMULATION PHASE
- Fall 2018: Bought 200 BCV & 160 BLT (resale)
- Early 2019: Bought 125 VGC (resale) & 75 BLT (direct for benefits)

First DVC stays were June 2019 (BCV), Sept. 2019 (Poly), and Dec. 2019 (VB, BLT, BCV).

ADDONITIS STRIKES
After the September stay we bought 100 more BLT resale. We couldn't get enough!

COVID - HOPEFUL
Then Covid…

• Disney Fantasy cruise on March 14, 2020 cancelled (not DVC, but Disney related… yep, first cruise cancelled).
• April 2020, sister's WDW wedding postponed.
• June 2020, road trip west to VGC cancelled.

In the meantime, we purchased 160 BWV points, hopeful that Covid would go away quickly and things would snap back. We planned to go to Aulani for our 10th anniversary in June 2021. Between that, wanting larger accommodations, and bringing family/friends, we needed more points! We were up to 820 total points.

COVID - LOSING HOPE
But as the reality set in that things wouldn't snap back quickly, we lost faith. We didn't like the feeling of having points we *needed* to use or lose. No fast passes, no fireworks, no characters, and wearing masks was not our idea of Disney. Concerned about how long this would last, and realizing we enjoyed more vacation flexibility, by Fall 2020 we listed some of our points for sale.

My sister's wedding finally happened in October 2020, and we had a nice stay at BWV. It was nice to finally return, though much was still missing.

We still sold all our WDW points except for our 75 direct BLT, and were dangerously close to selling our coveted VGC points (the whole reason this DVC plan was hatched in the first place) without ever getting to use them.

CALMING DOWN
We continued with a visit over Christmas & New Year's 2020 (which we booked in January 2020), again staying at VB, BCV, and BLT. Though it wasn’t perfect, there was enough Disney magic to bring back a spark for us. The trip gave us the courage to hold on to what we had a little longer.

We’ve sat tight on our 200 remaining points since returning home in January, but over the last few weeks we've been very encouraged. Seeing the masks finally go away, the return of fireworks, and the comments from many that "it's like pre-covid Disney" have brought an enormous amount of excitement to my family. We can't wait to get back.

We have a VGC trip lined up for October that looks great from here, and a Dolphin/BLT split stay over New Year's. Looking to the future, we are excited to get more Disney trips on our calendar.

EVALUATING OUR NEEDS (Finally, here’s the “Long-term plan”!)
Having owned and used DVC for over 2 years, we now know how we can use the program to maximize our benefits. This includes:

• Staying in studios. We’ve stayed in 1-BR & 2-BR, and while they are nice, they aren’t necessary. We love the DVC resorts, but just don’t need all the space. We bought (and used) a bunch of extra points thinking we needed larger rooms, but they just weren’t worth it to us.
• We prefer shorter trips to keep the magic alive. 4-5 nights is great for us.
• At WDW, 12 months on/off is our plan. 3 trips in a 12-month cycle with APs is our ideal. Flying from Omaha or Kansas City to Orlando is usually reasonable, too.

This plan can work with 75 points each at two resorts. However, our allotment was 75 BLT and 125 VGC. Those VGC points are ‘special use’ points, only to be used at Disneyland. So we are (roughly) 75 points short.

JUMPING BACK IN
We’ve also learned that our absolute favorite WDW resort is Beach Club. When we stayed at Boardwalk in October, I walked through/by Beach Club and missed home. When we left Beach Club in December, I longingly wondered when we would return. In planning our trip for December 2021, not being able to book Beach Club bothered me. A lot.

We knew we needed 75 more points for our long-term plan, and we weren't getting Beach Club studios with other points… so, we (gasp) just added on 75 direct Beach Club points. October UY, so we get 2020 points as well. I know it’s overpriced, but compared to the stripped small-point resale contract prices, it’s closer than you might think.

Of course, Beach Club expires in 2042. Our kids are currently 7 & 3. The time between now and then, especially the next 10 years, is extraordinarily precious. By 2042, my family will be 55, 54, 28, and 24. If all we get is 4-5 nights in Beach Club studios for the next 21 years, then it's worth it to me.

We toured Riviera in December, and it was lovely. The rooms and pool look incredible. It is a really nice resort, and I hope we get to stay there someday.

For us, after staying at 4 DVC resorts across 5 WDW stays, nothing beats the Crescent Lake area, Stormalong Bay, walkability to two parks, and simply the vibe of Beach Club. It was our first DVC stay, and it is home. If we wanted 125+ points, we’d scour the resale market. But for 75 in a specific UY, I’m not sure we could do much better via resale.

CLOSING
So we are back up to 275 points, which seems like a very reasonable number after ballooning up to over 800. And most importantly, we are happy.

The 150 between BLT & BCV will be used for 3 stays (4-5 nights each) in studios every other year, during which we will leverage the Gold APs. Likely a fall/spring/fall pattern, as we do not like the summer heat!

The 125 VGC will be used during the summer and/or to fill in long weekends when we don’t go to WDW.

In 3 years we went through several phases (accumulation, addonitis, downsizing, and now right-sizing). I’m not naive enough to think our needs won’t change again as time moves on. But we are making decisions now with years of using DVC under our belt, and I think we’ve thought them through a fair bit. Hopefully they stick a little longer this time.

Your family story resonates for me because we also finally joined in 2018 and rapidly bought several contracts. However, in contrast to your experience, when Covid hit, we bought more. We found that dvc saved us during Covid. We cruise a lot, or did cruise a lot, and dvc has filled the large cruise hole. We do not see ourselves cruising again for a long time with all of the restrictions. It is a bit irrational, but we are also annoyed with the cruise industry for leaving us. We feel like in contrast DVC was there when it mattered. The week everything shut down in March 2020 we were scheduled on a princess cruise that was in the group of first princess Cruises to cancel— and we got the news as we were taking off in the car to Miami. We decided to switch our destination to Orlando and stayed a week at wdw at AKV. The resorts were all wide open as so many people had cancelled. We were there the night they closed the parks. Cast members lined the streets to say goodbye on the last night, many of them crying. As soon as dvc hh opened in late June we hoped in the car and road tripped to the Smokey mountains and ended up at hh for a few days. Our summer ccl cruise out of Long Beach and the Disneyland add on got cancelled (would have been our first time staying at GCV). And then our thanksgiving ccl cruise out of Miami got cancelled. Then all rescheduled cruises subsequently got cancelled, one by one, again and again. We just stayed at Disney properties instead throughout the year (August 2020, nov 2020, Jan 2020, March 2020)— without park passes after COVID closing. We found the dvc points really came through for us, even though we did not visit the parks. We have been to Dvc HH 3 times in the last year. We are very disappointed in a lot of things Disney has done—really big for us is the dismissal of the GF orchestra and similar cuts- so who knows where we will end up with them. Your more targeted plan sounds appealing and there is a chance we could go that route if Disney continues down its current path. We are hoping they change course because we our plan is to use it in retirement and then give it to our kids. We are in our late 40s, so a lot could change in the meanwhile. We are hoping dvc expands to other places, and they did have a survey going around before COVID about preferred locations, but now that all seems less likely. Since Disney scrapped the AP, we have gone Universal for the year for the first time and have been blown away by them. Disney has a lot to learn from universal.

 

[ray3127]

Your family story resonates for me because we also finally joined in 2018 and rapidly bought several contracts. However, in contrast to your experience, when Covid hit, we bought more. We found that dvc saved us during Covid. We cruise a lot, or did cruise a lot, and dvc has filled the large cruise hole. We do not see ourselves cruising again for a long time with all of the restrictions. It is a bit irrational, but we are also annoyed with the cruise industry for leaving us. We feel like in contrast DVC was there when it mattered. The week everything shut down in March 2020 we were scheduled on a princess cruise that was in the group of first princess Cruises to cancel— and we got the news as we were taking off in the car to Miami. We decided to switch our destination to Orlando and stayed a week at wdw at AKV. The resorts were all wide open as so many people had cancelled. We were there the night they closed the parks. Cast members lined the streets to say goodbye on the last night, many of them crying. As soon as dvc hh opened in late June we hoped in the car and road tripped to the Smokey mountains and ended up at hh for a few days. Our summer ccl cruise out of Long Beach and the Disneyland add on got cancelled (would have been our first time staying at GCV). And then our thanksgiving ccl cruise out of Miami got cancelled. Then all rescheduled cruises subsequently got cancelled, one by one, again and again. We just stayed at Disney properties instead throughout the year (August 2020, nov 2020, Jan 2020, March 2020)— without park passes after COVID closing. We found the dvc points really came through for us, even though we did not visit the parks. We have been to Dvc HH 3 times in the last year. We are very disappointed in a lot of things Disney has done—really big for us is the dismissal of the GF orchestra and similar cuts- so who knows where we will end up with them. Your more targeted plan sounds appealing and there is a chance we could go that route if Disney continues down its current path. We are hoping they change course because we our plan is to use it in retirement and then give it to our kids. We are in our late 40s, so a lot could change in the meanwhile. We are hoping dvc expands to other places, and they did have a survey going around before COVID about preferred locations, but now that all seems less likely. Since Disney scrapped the AP, we have gone Universal for the year for the first time and have been blown away by them. Disney has a lot to learn from universal.

The cruises are such a bummer! We've only been on two, but they were the best vacations we've ever had. Can't wait to get back, but we are also with you and not dealing with any restrictions. Our fingers are crossed for our Feb/Mar 2022 cruise, but who knows at this point.

That is awesome how you've been able to enjoy DVC over the last year. Between that and all the cruises, it sounds like you are within driving distance?

We are disappointed in a lot of what Disney has done as well, which it easier to say goodbye to a lot of our points. We've been waiting for 'normal', and finally feel like we may have turned a corner.

I could definitely see adding more points down the road if our needs warranted it. For now the targeted approach works. My wife is a middle school teacher and I teach at a local university, so we know our schedules pretty far in advance. We are planners, which is another reason we enjoy Disney and DVC. Mapping everything out, from the big picture trips to the individual days, really works for us.

Universal is a great time! My wife and I have loved it the couple times we've been. Waiting for our kids to get a little older before bringing them there, though.

 

[ray3127]

That’s awesome! I’m glad it worked out. I am kicking myself for not getting in a few years earlier when my kids were just born. We spent way to much on deluxes before finally buying in summer of 2020. I assumed DVC was not very flexible when I first heard of it, but once I learned the ropes and about the resale market I bought in. My kids are still only 7 and 5, so luckily it didn’t take us THAT long I guess.

I also try not to give to much weight to the idea that the resale market will always be there in the state it’s in now. I have 350 points and are sometimes tempted to add more but I don’t see us using that much more long term, and like you I prefer to keep the points with the idea that I will likely just use it until the end. With international travel pretty much shut down for so long our usual trips abroad have turned into Disney trips, so I need to keep in mind there are only so many vacation days to go around. I’ve been back and forth on whether it’s worth 2X the cost to stay in a 1 bedroom vs a studio. We have been fine in most studios and I can think of much better uses for that money than having a little extra space. I’m not coming to Disney to hang out in a hotel room! We do live in a downtown condo though, so maybe people who live in the huge suburban houses are more bothered by the smaller spaces. Also, with our kids being so young maybe it will be more of an issue when they’re older. We are still new, so we will have to see how DVC plays out it on life plans as COVID eventually fades away.

Many on here will tell you once you go 1-BR you don't go back... But that just hasn't been my experience. My thoughts echo yours.

• It is literally double the cost, and there are better ways to spend that money.
• We don't come to hang in the hotel room.
• We prefer shorter trips, typically 5 nights max, so doing laundry isn't needed.
• We don't cook on vacation; the full kitchen is overkill.
• We like the feeling of 'togetherness' on vacation. The 1-BR's we stayed in were nice, but it felt like we were too far apart from our kids.
• Our favorite vacations are cruises, and we make do with much less space on those. Studios are quite spacious compared to staterooms!

I totally understand the people that want more space, cook, do laundry, etc... You just have to know yourself. BTW, we live in a good-sized suburban house, but still prefer the studios for the money!

One of the best features of DVC is it can evolve as needed. I'm happy that our contracts are all relatively small, which makes shifting in/out a bit easier IMO.

Lastly, your comment about 'only so many vacation days to go around' rings true as well! At our stage in life, IDK what I was thinking running around with 820 points... Sure, it would be great to use them, but it was a lot of work to manage all those points! Even with a lot of time off as teachers, there's only so many days we can really spend away from home each year. Plus we want to keep the magic alive, and our 4-5 night trips do that better than the 2-week marathons we had the last couple years.