Ok I do not want to start a debate here but I was going to join the
DVC to save money since we have been going to Disney for the past 3 years and staying in a deluxe. I have been fortunate with the codes but don't know if they will still be offered in the future. I thought DVC was a way to save money! Now I am confused.
I'm sorry, forgetyourtroubles! and frankiemom, I'm afraid that I got caught up in frustration from seeing sooo many people say that DVC is a bad value because you're not saving a heck of a lot of money. I didn't mean to cause more confusion!
Monetarily, you can't count on the discounts being there in the future, and the room prices will continue to rise, that's just a fact of life. However, DVC points don't change significantly, so what you pay today will lock in your "room price" for the next however many years on your contract. The only cost that will go up is your maintenance fees, which are only allowed to go up a maximum of 15% a year and are currently on average $4/pp. If you purchase from Disney right now, points are $89/pp, with a minimum contract of 150 points, for 50 years at Saratoga Springs Resort. You can purchase a contract through resale, for varying points and a much lower cost, but Disney has the right to purchase the resale if they think that the cost is too low, thereby keeping prices above a certain level. (This is good business sense, they don't want people devaluing their properties by selling too low.) Keep in mind that I have NEVER paid for a room at WDW.
So, I think it was $15,130.00 for 160 points at Saratoga Springs, with an additional $600 a year for maintenance fees. SSR has 50 years of membership in DVC, so if you figure that I vacation there once a year for the next 50 years, that's $45,130 not including interest on what I financed, which I don't even have the capability of figuring out. That works out to $902.60 a year for accomodations.
I have enough points to stay at OKW in two bedroom for 5 weeknights in low season, at 22 points a night for Sunday through Thursday nights. That's 110 points, and I bank the remaining 50 for next year's vacation. (Next year I would be able to stay an extra night.) The same vacation would cost me $2,670.50, according to disneyworld.com. If looked at this way, then I saved $1,767.90 by buying into DVC.
Now, would I have stayed at a luxury resort like Old Key West normally? No way, I can't afford that! I would have stayed at the "Value" resorts, or I would have stayed offsite. But that's part of the value of DVC for me--we get luxury accomodations that we NEVER would have paid for normally, and our vacation quality goes through the roof.
When it comes to exchanging your points for other vacation options, the point cost gets much higher. We plan on staying at Paradise Pier hotel at
Disneyland in low season for 4 weeknights and 1 weekend night, for a total cost of 122 points. The same vacation will cost $1267.00 according to disneyland.com, but would also include our parkhoppers, plus it includes one free night's stay and two adult character breakfasts. If you figure that the PHs will cost us $486 for four of us, and the two meals I think are valued at $40 for both, then the cost of rooms alone are $741, not a good value at all, but remember that one night is free. If I were not getting that one night free, my cost would be $889, still not a great deal but much closer to what I'm paying yearly. If I save $1767.90 every time I go to WDW, and lose $13.60 every time I go to DL, I think it will even out somewhere. Also, I didn't include figures for the maintenance fees increasing, which they most certainly will, but you get the rough idea of what I'm trying to say. In the end, only you can decide if the cost is worth it versus what you would normally pay versus what you get versus what you need, etc.
