When did you know you wanted DVC?

[CarolynFH]

Not buying in during that first trip ended up being a good thing because obviously you pretty much hit the jackpot in terms of location a few years later!

Yes, we were pretty fortunate!

 

[PolyRob]

its a never ending cycle... it feels cool... then you wonder are the cool kids the ones who stay CL? are the cool kids the ones who live at Golden Oak? or belong to club 33?

I just say enjoy what brings you joy... don't worry about being one of the cool kids...

I have thought about Club 33, but i could never justify that even if i had the $$ (Ok if i was rich, i wouldnt care ).

I would rather buy another contract or go on cruises or a different vacation.

Golden Oak i can get on board with

If I win the lottery, there will be signs! Golden Oak is #1 and Club 33 is #2 on my list

 

[PorcoSBC]

Did not grow up going to the parks. First time I was 19, and walk in straight into the Utilidors as a Cast Member. Magic got me almost immediately. Few years later, I started dating this girl who shared the same Disney vibe I had and we start going annually and this is the first time we researched but the upfront money seemed huge and the maintenance fees were more expensive them the hotels we were booking so it made no sense. Moved out of the USA and spent almost 10 years away from the parks in a time I travelled around the world, got married to that girl and had a kid. When the kid turned 5, we celebrated with her first trip to WDW. Eyes lit up. SOLD. Next week we were on research mode and 2 months later we got a piece of the Poly to call our own.
Going to Aulani next week....Life is good.

 

[PolyRob]

I purchased DVC after visiting WDW multiple times annually for years and paying to stay in deluxe resorts. I refused to pay rack rate and got tired of chasing bounceback, AP, Disney Visa, etc discounts. I was already planning 180+ days in advance at the time so booking in the 11-month window was no problem.

 

[Cfabar1]

First visit with DH and kids (DS and DD) was March 1994, FW Cabins. I was supposed to spend So we marched into the DVC sales center at BWV and told them we wanted 300 points at BWV, because that's what we'd need to stay Thanksgiving week in a 2BR.

Have you ever added on? do you still use the same amount of points/travel period? or has your travel pattern changed?

 

[DoubleBaconBLT]

We went to WDW once in 2021 after postponing the trip twice due to Covid. It was awesome, but we decided not to go back until Covid was "over." In 2024, we went back and it was even better. We immediately booked another trip for 5 months later...then another for 6 months after that. For that final trip, we rented DVC points directly from my traveI agent, and stayed at Poly. Well before we arrived, I started doing analysis on the points system, how much we were paying, and how much the room "should" have cost. It became immediately clear that if Disney trips were going to happen every year or even every 2-3 years, DVC would absolutely pay for itself quite quickly. Fast forward 4 months, and we now have both direct and resale contracts as well as annual passes. The next couple of years are going to be awesome.

 

[CarolynFH]

Have you ever added on? do you still use the same amount of points/travel period? or has your travel pattern changed?

Nope, never needed to add on - although every time a new resort opened, I’ve wanted to own a bit of it! We’ve made liberal use of borrowing, very seldom banking except when “saving up” for a big family trip. We also have access to other timeshares near WDW, which helps us stretch our DVC points.

Our travel pattern has changed a lot, though, as kids grew up and we became empty nesters. Thanksgiving 1998 was the last time we came for that week. We mostly came during early March for our kids’ Spring Break with occasional trips at other times for conferences or to suit our guests. After it became just the two of us, our usual time became mid-October into early March. And now there are grandchildren, so our pattern is changing again!

Edit - pesky typos!

 

[808blessing]

Very frugal back in the day. Family members gifted me funds to take a staycation as a thank you. Happened across a "fire sale" for 4 nights at the Aulani during the pandemic. I think it came out to $8 a point. I started googling and putting in offers by the first morning of the trip. We had been going to Disney Parks annually and staying off site, cheap at park or free on points. No Aulani stays except one 10 years before. Blessed with 4 Aulani stays (we live nearby) and 2 Disneyland trips this year.

 

[tx911]

I dont even see dvc as a timeshare, it just feels different, im part of the cool kids club

Cool kids club today, Comma club tomorrow!

 

[Disney Spaz]

We took the oldest kids in 1997 and 1999 and loved it. We stayed at ASMu and saw a DVC desk and asked some questions. I think the cost was around $13,000 and it was beyond what we could afford so it went no farther. Ah to have those prices back. A half a dozen trips later DH promised if DVC ever came to The Grand we would find a way to buy. We both loved the resort and it became our dream home away from home. Well 2013 it happened and we got 150pts. Fast forward to 2025 and we have 600pts spread across VGF 425pts, Poly 100pts and CCV 75pts. I am glad we waited for VGF as that is our true home away from home.

Our trips have definitely gotten better with the addition of 1bdrms into our lives and now we are down to 1 child that comes with us and stays in our room, 19yrs old, and the 1 bdrm is best for this. Our DS bought in at AKV for 100 pts so he goes with us sometimes and stays on his points. I know most people say they wish we bought sooner but we are glad we got VGF so ours would be a we wish we had bought more points earlier.

 

[RuntheMouse]

Former Disney Store CM here….so long ago! Couldn’t afford it when I had access to the discount . Met my DH who had only been to EPCOT and only once. He proposed to me at the Boardwalk, and then we got married there! He fell in love with WDW so we started going regularly.

We were doing great staying at deluxe with discounts so the numbers didn’t make sense to get into DVC. But then the discounts weren’t cutting it and I found us staying more at the moderate resorts. So we bought a few resale contracts and then I fell in love with RIV so we added on direct there.

Disney has been such a big part of our story that DVC is a perfect fit for us.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

We decided to take the kids in Feb 2010 when they were 4yo and 20mths. It was during the 2008-09 recession fallout that Disney offered something like "buy 4 nights, get 3 nights free" in a deluxe villa. We stayed at SSR in a 1BR and we were immediately hooked. We bought BLT points sight unseen on that trip. I have attempted to abandon Disney once or twice and do other travels, and I always come back. It is the best trip for our family because DH and I are busy bees and aren't interested in sitting around on vacations. I love getting 30k steps a day

 

[CraigInPA]

After years of amazing discounts (up to 35% off, stacked with free dining), Disney stopped offering more than 20-25% off and stacking free dining on top was gone. It was one or the other. We knew we wanted to go back, and knew DVC was coming to the Poly. But, after we found out where the DVC rooms were going to be over by the T&TC (after years of discussions about a DVC tower near the marina), we decided to look at other DVC choices. We're very happy at BLT, even though it broke our streak of 10 years of trips to the Poly, and the history we have going back to staying in the Poly in 1973/1974.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Well, the quick answer would be after our first stay at Wilderness Lodge in 1994, we said "If they ever built a DVC at this resort, then we'd buy". We found out in 2001 that they did build a DVC at Wilderness Lodge, so we did. But a few other things happened in 2001, one big one causing POR (then, Dixie Landings) to close down for an extended period, including the dates I was booked for a solo trip in January of 2002. I kept joking "we should have joined DVC-I bet they wouldn't close a hotel that was DVC!" Staying at the All Star Music, I booked a solo tour of DVC. Yes, DH didn't even go on the tour. He rarely vacationed- the joke (actually, not funny) was "how many days of your vacation are you giving back this year?" because there was no financial advantage to not taking all your vacation days and you couldn't carry over. It was definitely a "use 'em or lose 'em" So for me, DVC was about getting DH to take vacation, and for DH it was about making me happy and finally getting me to go to Hilton Head Island since he believed that we could go to HHI if (and only if) we joined DVC-gee, how did he get that idea?

 

[hhisc16]

2021: just had our first kid and the covid money allowed us to buy a small resale to start.

 

[808blessing]

2021: just had our first kid and the covid money allowed us to buy a small resale to start.

Same here. Started with COVID money on a small resale.

 

[Sandisw]

We bought when BLT was a thing. We loved the CR so said we’d buy if DVC ever came to that location.

We knew we’d continue to go every year so it made sense!

 

[MeridaMonkey]

My husband and I had brought our daughter to Walt Disney World when she was three and I took a really cute picture of her on his shoulders in front of Cinderella castle….we enjoyed that trip so much we came back a year later and I happened to take that same picture again, and a tradition was born . We now get a photo every year of our daughter on daddy’s shoulders in front of the castle; the goal is to make it to high school graduation, with the last photo in the series being our daughter on daddy’s shoulders in her cap and gown.

For the first few years we were staying off-site (in-law’s timeshare, Good Neighbor hotels, etc.) but had started low-key discussing the idea of DVC when we stayed at the Grand Floridian with a wonderful aunt of mine who takes all of her grand-niblings on a trip to Disney. When I say that trip was absolutely transformative in how we do Disney I’m not even remotely exaggerating; we finally got to do the night-time stuff (going back to an off-site hotel for a break and then going back to the parks just never seemed to work out), my husband was able to monorail back to the hotel for work calls when necessary and it just generally made our trip so much more enjoyable. Off-site was no longer an option, so we did a sales visit on our third night of our Grand Floridian trip and bought into Copper Creek on the spot.

We’re now almost 8 years into our DVC ownership (and bought a BLT resale contract last year) and 10 years into what has probably become the most expensive photo series EVER , and my only regret is that we didn’t buy in sooner.

 

[Girlstar30]

You know the other thing too with the CM discount is you don't necessarily get to book the resorts you want at a discount where as with DVC I can at least book the resorts I own in the room category I want most of the time. I found often the rooms that had CM discounts were like Coronado or OKW you know which are fine but you're generally not going to find a deluxe studio at RIV available or anything like that.

And yeah, I mean we're very upfront with our friends that we own a timeshare but also recognize that the points we use you know aren't free and it at least helps us recover our dues.

I am upfront about that too because its true we are sacrificing a lot to make this happen, pretty much dont do much except our Disney trips so we can have money to pay for this.

I didnt know that about the CM discount, never bothered looking cuz I knew I wasnt going to be able to go, they worked us to the bone

 

[Girlstar30]

I've told our story before, but here goes again:

First visit with DH and kids (DS and DD) was March 1994, FW Cabins. I was supposed to spend the last 3 days of our week at a conference, but I never made it there - we were having too much fun. My avatar is our photo from our visit to the Disney Vacation Club during that trip. We were interested, but financially it wasn't a good time.

Next visit was November 1995, stayed offsite with my parents in their Marriott timeshare, spent only one day at MK but had a blast.

Then sometime in early 1996 during the 10-hour drive home from my parents’ house, we stopped at McDonald's for lunch. They were giving Disney glasses with purchases, and that made DH and me realize we were "a Disney family," so we booked a week at the brand-new Boardwalk in a Deluxe Studio over Thanksgiving.

In January 1997 DH and I spent a week in a lagoon-view room at the Poly, just the two of us.

And for Thanksgiving week 1997, DH and the two kids and I crammed into a standard room at the Poly. We had a blast that week too, but there was only one bathroom, and our daughter barely fit in the little daybed, so we knew the days of putting all four of us in one room were over. Also, over the same years we had been spending vacations with my parents in their timeshares, enjoying 2BR condos with full kitchens and laundry. We knew we wanted that same type of accommodations, and we also knew we couldn't afford to keep paying Disney Deluxe prices. So we marched into the DVC sales center at BWV and told them we wanted 300 points at BWV, because that's what we'd need to stay Thanksgiving week in a 2BR.

We have never regretted that decision!

Edited to fix typos.

Thanks for sharing again, ive never heard your story! Im glad you finally bought, seems like you were overdue with all the fun Disney trips you had before purchasing, and im glad to hear after all these years you dont regret it either!