What made you take the DVC tour?

[JonHM]

First of all, I *can't* understand how I didn't hear about DVC until this year. DW and I went on our honeymoon to PO, now POFQ, in 1995, and through that entire week, never heard one peep about DVC. Unfortunately, we weren't able to afford (or so we thought... ) to come back to WDW until this June, so we decided to splurge. We stayed at the Grand Floridian, in a Lagoon View room with a Magic Kingdom view.

Now, while the *resort* was very beautiful, and the *view* was absolutely delightful, the *room* was... well... just a room. For all the money that we were paying, I think I expected something more. From our first day in GF, out back of the main building by the restaurant and the backdoors out to the pool, they had a movie poster sized sign talking about owning a piece of the magic. (Now, how we spent a week in PO in 95 and didn't hear a peep about it, and then come to GF and hear about it within our first few hours there, I have no idea)

From there I got curious and found the DVC channel - we watched it a lot, and it sounded great, but we still figured that the sales pitch was going to be unpleasant - typical timeshare. But on our last day, with only a few hours left, we decided to take the plunge, and had a dvc rep at a booth in MGM call the DVC van to come pick us up and take us to Boardwalk for the tour. After being so disappointed with our room at GF (though not with GF itself), my only reaction to the VWL villas they had mocked up at BW was... WOW!!! Now THIS is what I was looking for!

We pretty much decided that we wanted to join right there with our guide, but took the paperwork home and took a few days to go over all of it before committing. Our DS is 16 mo., and I had thought we wouldn't be able to afford to go back until he was about 4; I am just *ecstatic* that we will be able to take him pretty much every year, sometimes more than once!!! His first trip to WDW is scheduled for January... I am SO excited. He just went NUTS for Halloween last week, he is going to LOVE WDW.

 

[Wislodgers]

dianeschlicht- We will be there Jan 24- Feb 1! Studio for a couple nights, then the rest of the family is meeting us and we will be staying in a 2 br!

 

[we3luvdisney]

The free trivia cards. Still have them, unopened.

 

[kel3420]

I always research when travelling and became intriqued when reading about DVC. I then started reading this board for info. It was VERY intimidating in the beginning (still is sometimes, lol), some of the acronyms and jargon I just did not understand. I tried explaining it all the my hubbie on the way to Disney last December, and he was very interested, and he HATES timeshares. We went on a tour and joined right then and there.

 

[MaryJ]

We stayed at VWL last March, and on my last night (my DH and DD's stayed one more night--I left early because I had another commitment) we were waiting for a table at Artist's Point. The DVC table was near there, so my DH said "Let's go hear what this guy has to say." I must say this really surprised me, but after watching the DVC channel all week, I was definitely in favor of hearing his sales pitch. One of the first things he pointed out to us was that we could buy 150 points for just about what we had spent on our Spring Break vacation. This got our attention really fast! My DH took the tour without me the next day and brought home the paperwork for me to look at. About two weeks later, (after I'd done a lot of research on these boards) we mailed it all back. We're going home for the first time in July! I can't wait!!

 

[Olaf]

Wislodgers, I've wondered just how many DVC members are in the military. I mean SOG is a wonderful benie, and as you can see we've taken advantage of it. Both sets of our parents live near Tampa, so we're down there at least once a year.

DH brought up a funny incident when we were signing our papers. Years ago we test drove a Ford Windstar because they had a great deal where we got a years worth of Blockbuster coupons (one per month). We ended up buying the car. We went to DVC for lunch and ended up as members. Ummm, does that make us easy targets?

 

[RAD]

DW and I have been to WDW (or Disneyland) at least once a year since 1979. We've always seen the DVD booths but knowing it was a timeshare we didn't want the hassle of the sales pitch to find out what it was all about. Finally on a 12/99 trip we were staying at the Swan and had a few hours to kill so we walked around the Boardwalk. We I decided to just look into the rooms at the DVC office and decided to hear the pitch. Glad that we did, 2 and 1/2 hours later we owned 200 points and have done two more add on's for a total of 300. Since then we've been back 5/00 at a 2BR in OKW, 9/00 in a 1 BR at OKW, 12/00 in a 2 BR at BWV, 10/01 in a 2BR at OKW and next week I make reservations for three studios and two 2BR's at BWV for a family get together in 10/02 (I'll have 1 point left after banking/borrowing). Glad we have the time to spend else we've never taken the tour

 

[Fenceman]

Staying at HH we took the tour for the free dolphin discovery tickets not expecting to join. Two days later while still at the resort we loved it so much we signed on the dotted line. The rest is history.

 

[BigLou]

We never took the tour - I saw the DVC table on the Magic while waiting to pick up DD6 from the kids club - next day I saw that there was a get-together, and I could tell from the comments from the other owners that this was something I needed to be involved in. Made a "one-on-one" appointment and bought 350 points at VWL the next day on the boat.

We have only been to WDW once with the kids (98), and we have never even seen any of the DVC properties in person. We are using our points to cruise again next year, and are looking forward to going home some time!

 

[sgtpet]

My girlfriend (now wife) and I went on first vacation to WDW back in 1995. It had been the first time I had been there since 1988. I had spent many numerous trips there as a child but lost interest during my teen/early adult years. When we went I saw a booth describing a timeshare for the Disney Vacation Club, better known as OKW. I thought long and hard about joining but I wasn't sure how often I would or wanted to return at that time. What an idiot I was. Anyway we finally took a tour in October and joined onsite. Looking forward to the many wonderful trips in the future.

 

[AnnaS]

We have gone quite a few times to WDW (mostly stayed off-site) and they are so low key that no one had ever approached us and in turn we never had any deisire to stop and ask, never knew too much about timeshares and thought they might be pushy once we stopped. When we were down in Aug. 2000 and heading to MK, the rain was coming down so hard that we decided to get back on monorail and have dinner at Chef Mickey at the Contemporary (which was great). Since we had to wait to get beeped, we decided to approach the rep in the lobby. We were leaving the next day, we said what the heck, let's not waste the day. It was obviously very interesting. Very low key, no pressure. We did not buy til we got homework and I did some homework and faxed a ton of questions. Now wishing I had toured during earlier visit.

 

[PatOKW92]

It was the summer of 1992,... we were staying at Dixie Landings. There was a little card atop the television advertising the tour at OKW. I thought "what the heck,... can't hurt." At the time it was our seventh year in a row visiting the Mouse House. Of course,... it was love at first sight. Anyway, at that time, DVC wasn't "legal" to be solicited in Delaware so in December of that year when it finally was, we bought. It's been Disney Magic ever since!!

 

[gometros]

It was the free sundaes

I first heard about DVC on the old Prodigy Theme Park bulletin boards. In '93, we stayed at the Beach Club for 6 days at the Yacht Club for the last two. There was one day when my two older kids were taking the Wonders of Disney Class. We had received the invitation earlier and since we were left with my then 5-year old daughter, we decided it would be a nice, relaxing way to kill the day. My favorite part of the tour was the ride in the vintage yellow bus. At the time we were only occassional Disney travelers, having been once in '90 and once to Disneyland and couldn't see going that often, so we passed on it.

In the meantime, my parents became snowbirds, buying a home in Boca Raton. We went to visit them for the first time Christmas of '95. Since we were driving down, we decided to see if we could get a room on site and stop in Orlando for two nights on the way. Since it was last minute, the best I could do was the Contemporary Inn at $251 a night. While walking around the concourse, we started talking about how we'd be coming to Florida more often at this time of year and maybe we ought to revisit OKW. We called James Thomas, our sales rep, and he still had us on file. By the time we got home, the paper work was waiting for us. We joined that April and haven't looked back since.

 

[mareka]

Never took the tour - Just got tired of small rooms. Made enough trips to know "That's where we want to be" - Send for book and bought. "Celeste" - our representative - was wonderful.
Now we want more points. HAve 200 - buying 50 more - FAmily wants to come - Need 2BR all the time ??????????
No problem. We want them to love it as much as us.

PS - We're over 50.

 

[Mousefanz]

We've been going to Disney for YEARS and always saw the kiosks but were too "chicken" to approach it for fear of the timeshare schmooz.
This spring we were in Daytona and relented to our first timeshare presentation. It was everything you've heard of and then some. I mean, this guy pulled out all the tricks, sweet at first, then insulting and then the old bring over the "manager" for a special deal. I finally had to stand up and say, NO thank you, where is the door, we are leaving (they actually had the door disgused so you couldn't find it!).
Anyway, after that we went to Disney for a few days, saw the kiosk again and said to each other, if we lived through that we can live through anything!! Boy, what a pleasure. It's really a no brainer - we sooo regret not doing it sooner.
So, I guess I have those nasty creeps in Daytona to thank for making me go to the presentation. I'd like to go back and tell them who ended up with my money!! lol

 

[Momof2]

We were meeting friends on the Boardwalk for dinner - we were staying outside the park. Walked through the lobby of the Boardwalk, out onto the balcony, overlooking the Boardwalk. I knew in an instant I was "home". I think we must have been sprinkled with pixie dust, because this feeling had never happened before - this was not our first Boardwalk visit. We toured, we bought, we've been home twice, and can't wait to go back again!

 

[nickglover]

We stayed at VB several times and went to several morning intro meetings but never took the tour. We then received a special offer to stay at HH, which required a tour.
We took the tour but waited a few weeks to decide. What finally sold us was the ability to lock in the points per night for 42 years at Vero Beach, our new home.

gometros - don't you miss the old Prodigy, before the internet? I used to use their bulleting boards all the time, especially stock and travel bbs. I went online with Prodigy in July, 1991. We planned our honeymoon cruise on Prodigy!

 

[NJmouse]

In May of 99 DH and I decided to take a cheap trip to Disney in conjunction with our nephew's graduation at "Full Sail". We decided to make reservations at ASmusic or sports do not remember which one it was now. We were driving to WDW so we figured it would be saving us money to stay at the "Family Resorts". Big mistake!! When walked in the lobby to check in we looked at each other and said "no way" The place had a weird odor, like body odor(unclean like). I don't want to offend anyone but, I felt like we were with how can I say this politely hmmm...not going to say.
We immediately went to guest services and asked if there were any openings at the Boardwalk. We had stayed there when the first opened and didn't bother looking at the DVC at the time. The tipical Timeshares were big then and we were not interested. Boy was that a mistake. So anyway we were able to get in the BW. The Inn side this time. Kept going past the DVC desk all week and didn't bother. Finally my DH got this big idea that he wanted to check it out we had exactly 30 mins to spare before we had to go to the graduation and we barely got the tour 10 mins worth. Check out the next morning (SAT.) and Monday morning I was calling for the paperwork. Glad we did!

 

[CaptainMidnight]

We actually took our first vacation in 6 years after our honey moon at Hilton Head. I searched the internet and found an inexpensive one bedroom condo right on the beach. It was OK, but no frills. During my internet searches of Hilton Head, I heard about the Disney resort there, but backed off the great tour rates when I heard the resort and villas were separate from the beach. While at our modest one-bedroom rental, we took the DVC tour and really liked what we saw. In a couple of months, we decided that vacations were very important, and that in order to vaction during the winter and have beach access as well as the option of staying at WDW, Vero Beach was the way to go. So we bought there and have been very pleased with our decision. We really were undecided about HH versus Vero for a while, because we didn't think we would go to WDW every year, but that when we did want to go, the 7 month window would give us great options, and if we were really stuck, we could even use our points at one of the non-DVC WDW hotels. We later bought an add-on at BW to capitalize on the 11 month window during peak seasons.

 

[ReneeQ]

I was on a solo Disney trip (my third). Every solo trip I do something I can't or don't do when I'm at Disney with my husband or other family (because they're not interested). My first solo trip I took a Behind the Scenes tour. The second solo trip I went to Cirque. I was looking for something fun to do on my third solo trip, so decided to take the tour.

The day I took the tour at the Boardwalk I called home, talked to husband, and bought the next day.