What would YOU do if buying first-time into DVC today?

[Stevep2002]

My wife and I are looking into DVC ownership. On our recent trip to WDW we attended a DVC meeting and enjoyed the information and atmosphere. My wife, being a CPA is skeptical of the entire deal. With that said, what would you do as of today if you were purchasing DVC or “on the fence”? Is it “worth it” considering the info below? What, when, where, how would you buy?

Here is some background info to consider:
* just returned from our FIRST trip as a family to WDW. Stayed at Swan using Marriot points. Got the deluxe feel with little cost.

* Two kids, 6 and 4
* travel from coastal NC (10 hr drive), so “going to the beach” is not a priority.

* purchase year probably 2020 or 2021
* cash purchase, finance charges too astronomical for my CPA (and me)

* Possible travel time to WDW: late September/early October, spring/early summer, occasionally Nov/Dec holidays.

* Travel frequency: probably every 18 months

* prefer studio or 1-bedroom.

Any and all opinions will be appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read and help.

Steve

 

[The Jackal]

Your going to need to buy where you would like to stay, fall and holiday trips book up fast, really fast for studios. 1 bedrooms not as fast but you might have limited choices at 7 months. The amount of points needed depends on length of stay and how many stays a year you do. I would guess if you are doing 2 stays a year you would need around 250-300 points if you go every year. If you go once every 2 years 150 points will do with banking or borrowing. The Polynesian Resort does not have any one bedroom units, only studios and Bungalows. Resale would be way cheaper than direct. Good luck with the decision. There is a lot of great info on this site and the members here have lots of experience and are willing to help out.

 

[chalee94]

With that said, what would you do as of today if you were purchasing DVC or “on the fence”? Is it “worth it” considering the info below? What, when, where, how would you buy?

* Possible travel time to WDW: late September/early October, spring/early summer, occasionally Nov/Dec holidays.

* prefer studio or 1-bedroom.

* Travel frequency: probably every 18 months

1) September through December is peak season for DVC bookings. Studios tend to book up first. If you buy, you should plan to buy where you want to stay.

2) Based on your travel plans, you don't sound like you would need Annual Passes, so I would immediately point you to resales.

The biggest other issues are 1) how committed are you to onsite stays and 2) how comfortable are you with booking 10-11 months in advance?

If you are OK with staying offsite, there are several Marriotts and Sheratons with 2BR accommodations near WDW that you might consider (which tend to be much cheaper than DVC, whether rented or owned).

If you liked the Swan, those stays can give you some relatively good deals with most of the onsite benefits with no commitment.

Back when I purchased, resale points cost less than $100 per pt and Disney didn't get as adversarial with the resale process. I got a small contract and have been very happy with it.

At current prices and with current Disney policies, it's a tougher call. (But hotel prices have also increased.) If you are committed to regular onsite stays at WDW and can plan vacations well in advance, DVC can still be a good deal. (If the economy cools off a bit, prices may even dip a bit for you.)

I purchased OKW - on the bright side, the studios there are the only ones with 2 real queen beds. The 1BRs are large with around 1000 sq ft and also relatively cheap in point costs. But part of the ownership is likely to drop out in 2042 which may result in some issues for the 2057 owners. (Contracts that expire in 2057 are also tougher to find on the resale market.)

I will think more on it.

 

[aoconnor]

* cash purchase, finance charges too astronomical for my CPA (and me)

* Possible travel time to WDW: late September/early October, spring/early summer, occasionally Nov/Dec holidays.

* Travel frequency: probably every 18 months

My wife and I are looking into DVC ownership. On our recent trip to WDW we attended a DVC meeting and enjoyed the information and atmosphere. My wife, being a CPA is skeptical of the entire deal. With that said, what would you do as of today if you were purchasing DVC or “on the fence”? Is it “worth it” considering the info below? What, when, where, how would you buy?

Here is some background info to consider:
* just returned from our FIRST trip as a family to WDW. Stayed at Swan using Marriot points. Got the deluxe feel with little cost.

* Two kids, 6 and 4
* travel from coastal NC (10 hr drive), so “going to the beach” is not a priority.

* purchase year probably 2020 or 2021
* cash purchase, finance charges too astronomical for my CPA (and me)

* Possible travel time to WDW: late September/early October, spring/early summer, occasionally Nov/Dec holidays.

* Travel frequency: probably every 18 months

* prefer studio or 1-bedroom.

Any and all opinions will be appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read and help.

Steve

If you plan on going at least every other year for 10+ years, I'd say DVC is definitely worth it. If you buy resale and stay in studios the math will generally work out that you're "paying" moderate prices for deluxe rooms. One bedrooms cost roughly double what studios cost so any "savings" goes out the window. But of course it's not apples to apples- you're seriously upgrading your accommodations.

For your spring/ early summer trips you should have pretty good availability to jump around resorts. Fall/ holidays are peak DVC season and it will be hard to move around in studios, one bedrooms you have a shot. So do buy where you don't mind staying if you have to.

 

[katandmouse]

Welcome!
You’re in the right place; keep reading around on these forums and you’ll learn a lot.

We just bought a resale contract - family of 5, looking for 1 or 2 brs, trips every other year or so. We happily bought 150 points at BCV - but I don’t think your CPA DW would agree we made a great financial choice! So I think DVC can be good for some families, but not for everyone.

I think your DW is right to be skeptical of today’s prices, especially direct. Look around at resales, but understand those points are more restricted these days (can’t stay at Riviera or future resorts).

Fall through early January is DVC busy season, so it’s important to buy where you’d be happy staying then. Especially studios can be hard to switch at 7 months during that period.

The Swan with Marriott points may work out to be a better deal for you if you liked it there. Love the location!

Have you thought about which home resort you’d like? DVC is actively selling Riviera, Aulani, and Copper Creek now, but you can buy at any DVC resort, and all except RIV are available on the resale market. They all have different expirations, price per point, pros and cons (locations, rooms, bed configurations, amenities, etc).

 

[paults]

At the current direct prices, no way would I buy direct. Be careful if your looking at DRR. Restrictions

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I would buy resale, and for fall dates, I would buy where I would be happy to stay, and book at 11 months with limited expectation to switch. I would not buy to use points anywhere but DVC resorts.

 

[skippytx]

I would do the same thing today that I did about 2 years ago. Buy resale at where I wanted to stay (BLT). Very happy with the decision. I did add on 25 direct points for member benefits, but I would NOT buy 75 direct points today for the member benefits. So that part I would do differently I guess.

 

[craigkerstiens]

Given all of your various input, there are a few things I would recommend.

1. If you stayed at Swan, did you find the convenience of walking key or was that not something you really enjoyed vs. hoping on the bus for other parks.
2. If you expect to go regularly every 18 months, or say even every 2 years then DVC isn't necessarily a way to save money. It is a way to stay at a nicer level hotel for less money. If you were planning to stay at one of the Disney Deluxe hotels no matter what then yes you'd be saving, but that isn't the trade-off for most people.
3. If you're not planning to make multiple trips in a year, which sounds like the case I'd recommend buying resale. Direct has a few more perks now such as discounts on annual passes, but that really only matters if you consider making multiple trips within a year.

A lot of folks debate over use year, I've honestly not found it to make much of a difference.

The down side I'd say is less the cost and more of the planning. Planning tends to need to happen > 7 months out, even if you're booking right at the 7 month window you need to be quick. If you enjoy the planning and knowing what you have coming up it can be a great forcing function. If you don't plan until last minute that can be quite a shift.

One other small perk, 1 bedrooms have a decent kitchen, studios more manageable than most hotel rooms. This makes things like gardengrocer to have things for breakfast or snacks delivered at the start of your trip much more beneficial and can often help offset some of the DVC costs themselves.

 

[skippytx]

2. If you expect to go regularly every 18 months, or say even every 2 years then DVC isn't necessarily a way to save money. It is a way to stay at a nicer level hotel for less money. If you were planning to stay at one of the Disney Deluxe hotels no matter what then yes you'd be saving, but that isn't the trade-off for most people.

This is true. If you're fine staying at a Value or even a Moderate (on sale), DVC won't really save you money. 2 years of my annual dues covers 7 nights at All Stars pretty easily, and even a moderate during lower cost times. Where my DVC shines though is comparing it to the costs of staying at the Contemporary or the cash rate at Bay Lake. That's where the "value" is. (There is no value, Disney is crazy expensive, but DVC can make it less expensive in certain scenarios).

 

[rg35]

If you decide to buy, I would 100% buy resale.

 

[kboo]

Our situation is similar, have stayed at the BW area on Marriott/SPG points for years at the Swan/Dolphin. We have 2 kids (3 and 7) and have gone from thinking we would go for about a week once a year, to multiple trips, etc.

* just returned from our FIRST trip as a family to WDW. Stayed at Swan using Marriot points. Got the deluxe feel with little cost.

Yes! We loved it there.

Given your circumstances, resale would definitely be the way to go, and think about how strongly you would feel (if you'd even care) about where you stayed in the harder-to-book times like the fall and winter holidays. If you would be happy at any resort, then look into SSR, OKW or AKV resale.

Also, since you just returned from your very first trip, take some time to explore and see whether staying at the Swan/Dolphin is something that you could see yourselves doing longer term. Rent some points, or, while your kids are still young and not tied into a particular school schedule, look for deals at the DVC resorts (those often come up in the summer) and try some out. There's a chance we could be in for a recession in the next year or so, in which case resale prices would likely go down, so you wouldn't necessarily lose anything by waiting and staying in some other DVC resorts and/or comparing them to Swan/Dolphin or moderate and value hotel rooms on site.

As you can see from my signature, we stayed 5x at WDW in a combination of DVC (cash and rented points), and hotel deals before taking the plunge. Were prices lower in 2013/2014 when we first started going (back) to WDW with kids? Yes, but I'm glad I did the "research."

 

[Deb & Bill]

If I hadn't bought in 1997, I would pass on DVC now. I might consider renting points or booking value resorts or Disney Springs hotels for an occasional trip to WDW. We wouldn't go nearly as much as we do now. Might even be a one and done. We paid $50 a point for our first 175 points at OKW direct from Disney in 1997. We were able to use our nine night stay at the Polynesian as the down payment. The price they charge per point is astronomical now.

 

[clm10308]

Want would I do?
I would buy more points than we did at our first purchase.

Also, think about the space you will want when the kids are teenagers. A studio may work well for you know, but do you really want to share a studio with two teenagers?

 

[chicagoshannon]

Honestly? You've never stayed at a Deluxe Disney resort and this was your first trip so I wouldn't buy into DVC at all. I think you should plan another trip and stay on site at one of the deluxe resorts to see if you'd even like them. The rooms at the Swan/Dolphin are bigger than the Disney Deluxe/Studio rooms that I have been in (I have not toured the Riviera rooms)

Also, are your kids both girls?boy? one of each? If you have one of each you're gonna want a room that sleeps 5. My kids are 12 and almost 9 and the sharing a bed just doesn't work anymore. I really like Riviera for the room set up because of this issue. But if you read more on here there are some issues with Riviera (resale issues) that your CPA wife will not like.

Overall as a time share property Disney holds its value much more than a typical time share so you *should* be able to get your money back out of it if you ever decide to sell but of course that's not guaranteed.

We bought into DVC a few years ago. I had grown up going to Disney and had 25+ trips under my belt before we bought in. We still only bought 25 points to make sure it was right for us. We just recently bought more points. If I had it to do all over again we would have bought more points at the get go (mostly because they were a lot cheaper 4 years ago than they are now). In your situation I'd just wait until you've gone at least one more time.

 

[clutter]

I can't tell you what to do. But this is how I worked it (and I'm also a CPA).

I bought points resale back when we got benefits. 130 of them, enough for a summer week in a studio. Then I bought 35 points direct when AKV came out. (My MFs those days were maybe $600/year? I'm sorry, I don't remember.) It was just me and my dd, although we did bring a friend for her sometimes. We would book a vacation in late August, maybe 10 days, and buy APs with the discount. We would book another 10 days or so the next August. And often we would do a short trip in between. (One year, we actually used our APs for 28 days!) Then we'd skip a year, and do it again. This was done not just by banking/borrowing, but also by supplementing with AP room discounts. For us, at her ages, we found Disney to be the best place for us to vacation. We both relaxed there, and it was so easy. With the APs, it wasn't that expensive. We created a lot of family traditions over the 6-8 years that we did this.

Then I had a teenager! Disney didn't work as well for us then. I ended up selling the primary contract (for pretty much exactly what I paid for it), but kept the AKV points. (I could have kept it and rented out the points for a profit, but I opted for the cash to do some home repairs.)

While other people have a beach or lake house, I actually found, as an empty nester, that I enjoy Disney as a getaway more than as a vacation. Last year, I ended up doing a weekend to use some use-or-lose points, then used my bank and borrowed points to do a week with dd and her friend. Then I had to go down for a conference. (Rough life, and bonus as its usually in FL!) I actually enjoyed Disney more as a weekend than trying to do everything. But we had so many memories of all of the trips we took there together.

So I bought another small contract. My goal is maybe two 3-4 day weekends a year. With Southwest points and DVC, for me it can't get any cheaper. It costs me transportation to my local airport and maybe $125 for the park ticket for a day. The non-park days are easily filled. And until I bought this new contract, my MFs were covered by my Disney Visa rewards, so even those aren't that much.

So like I said, I can't tell you what to do. But I don't follow the conventional wisdom of who 'should' buy DVC.

 

[CanadaDisney05]

If I hadn't bought in 1997, I would pass on DVC now. I might consider renting points or booking value resorts or Disney Springs hotels for an occasional trip to WDW. We wouldn't go nearly as much as we do now. Might even be a one and done. We paid $50 a point for our first 175 points at OKW direct from Disney in 1997. We were able to use our nine night stay at the Polynesian as the down payment. The price they charge per point is astronomical now.

To be fair, $50 in 1997 = $80 today. OKW for 175 points seems to be going around $100ish per point. So while it is more expensive, your only talking about 20% of real appreciation.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Overall as a time share property Disney holds its value much more than a typical time share so you *should* be able to get your money back out of it if you ever decide to sell

unless you buy Riviera then all bets are off.

 

[chalee94]

To be fair, $50 in 1997 = $80 today. OKW for 175 points seems to be going around $100ish per point. So while it is more expensive, your only talking about 20% of real appreciation.

OTOH, $50 per point in 1997 was for a 45 year contract purchased directly from Disney. Now Disney direct for OKW is $156 per point with 38 years remaining (and while the buildings are well-maintained, they are over 20 years old). Disney also offered free passes the first few years - not so much any more.

 

[CanadaDisney05]

OTOH, $50 per point in 1997 was for a 45 year contract purchased directly from Disney. Now Disney direct for OKW is $156 per point with 38 years remaining (and while the buildings are well-maintained, they are over 20 years old). Disney also offered free passes the first few years - not so much any more.

Fair points. Just means don't buy direct today.