Where did you stay before DVC ownership?

[casper]

I was curious where DVC owners stayed during their Disney trips before they purchased DVC, not specific resort but resort classification.

I stayed in the moderates.

 

[TisBit]

I stayed at Moderates (once) and off property timeshare rentals several times. I have also stayed at local hotel once.

 

[magicaldisney]

This is an interesting thread. I can't wait to see how it turns out.
By the way, moderates for us.

 

[kikiq]

We stayed at the villas where the Disney Institute used to be and where SSR is today, the first 3 trips. We "splurged" one trip on the Poly Concierage and were totally spoiled, ended up at the Poly on all our trips except for the days following our cruise where we ended up at POR. I thought it was nice, my dad, DH and DB were not impressed....spoiled by Poly.

 

[Barb]

As a family of 5, we had to stay in a Deluxe. So I voted deluxe. If I traveled solo or with my friends, it was typically a value resort.

 

[podsnel]

After college, before kids, we stayed off site at the Orlando vacation resort, which I don't think exists anymore. After the kids, years later( I HATED that break!) we were told by our whole neighborhood to stay at the Beach Club- and we were so glad they did!

 

[liznboys]

Mostly Moderate.

 

[hematite153]

We'd stayed offsite and at a value before our purchase.

Since buying into DVC we've stayed at a moderate once and had a sense that we didn't want to go lower than that.

But, we ended up spending a night at a value resort as part of a short notice trip and we have a value stay booked for the free dining bounceback for next year--the moderates went up too much from 2007 to 2008 (around 40%!).

I doubt we'd have ever gotten to the point of staying in the deluxes without DVC.

 

[ITGirl50]

Always deluxe for us. We've stayed off-site in a rental house and at Carib Royale once (and never again).

 

[DebbieB]

Mostly deluxe, GF, Poly, BC. My stay at the Beach Club in 1998 is when I fell in love with the Boardwalk area. A few months later, I stayed with a friend at OKW in a 2 bedroom, that's when I got hooked on DVC. A few months later, I was signing by the mickey ears.....

 

[yitbos96bb]

Values... the regular rooms are WAY WAY too much. As much as I wanted to, the $100 a night was more feasible than the $400 or more at the nicer resorts. And I didn't really have an issue with them... after all, we don't spend all that much time in our room and don't use the pool. What convinced me to do DVC, BESIDES the nicer rooms, was the cattle call bus rides back to the values. Sometimes, the waits were so long that after waiting for an hour and not really moving in line, I'd just get a cab.

So if it wasn't for the terrible bus service to the values, I might not be a DVC owner.

 

[llmurphy17]

We only were able to stay deluxe with value season. But once we tried it we loved it.

 

[Claire L]

We stayed in deluxe for three visits (WL, AKL and YC) but moderate (POFQ) once when we did an additional vacation in 2006, couldn't afford deluxe as it was over New Year. I think the New Year trip was what persauded us to go for DVC as we much preferred the deluxe rooms as they have a balcony and a bit more room, so for price DVC worked out much better in the long run! Although we did love the theming of POFQ and its size from now on we will be DVC

Claire

 

[WDWLVR]

We've pretty much stayed at them all. We honeymooned at the Grand Floridian, stayed at All Star Movies on the trip where we bought DVC and just about everything else in between.

The All Star trip was a quick weekend down to see The Main Street Electrical Parade before it left and to look at DVC before purchasing (we already had done all our research). I will say that after staying at All Stars and then seeing the King sized bed and jacuzzi I was more than ready to sign on the dotted line.

 

[justjudy]

We stayed offsite once, moderate once (CSR) and deluxe twice (Poly, WL).

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

Now how do I answer this?:

2006 Moderate - POFQ
2003 Off-site - Holiday Inn I-Drive
2001 Value - Allstar Movies

 

[CDNmouse]

First trip, we stayed off site on International Drive.

Second trip we stayed at Port Orleans. (beautiful property, loved it there)

Third trip was at the pop Century. (Our kids loved this place)

I guess a little of everything.

This March we will stay at BCV (first time using our DVC points) and in 2009 we are going on the Disney Cruise and probably will stay a few nights at the BCV again.

 

[alldiz]

2 visits to the WL was all it took to sign the papers

I still want to....and will try every WDW resort.
Kerri

 

[TiffanyW1]

We've only ever stayed at the Deluxe resorts. Poly, Contemporary, and Wilderness lodge

 

[starbox]

We've done all sorts of things. In its early days, Priceline ruined me. Growing up, we had very little money - so we always stayed in economy hotels on vacation and that was fine. Then, right around when I got married, Priceline started and it was the first of its kind - the deals were crazy. I'd bid 30$ for four-star or better and get it! We used to stay at the five-star Westin Peachtree Plaza just for fun because it was so cheap. I Priceliened whenever we traveled and got used to deluxe accomodations.

So, our first trip was Priceline - I think I did anything in the DTD area 4-star or better and we ended up in the Grovesenor when it was new for 35$ a night. (Now there are so many travel sites and so many people use them - the deals are not quite that sweet anymore).

Then, we had done a trial 1-year membership/Discovery program w/Fairfield and stayed in one of their 2-bedroom condos for a week.

ON-site, we stayed in moderates. (POFQ and CSR). Very nice - I actually think the mods have better dining options and more fun/clever pools than many deluxes (and DVCs) .

Then, made the mistake of staying in POP and was miserable at the resort (of course, Disney was still fun). Teeny room, teeny and hard-as-rocks beds, no coffee maker!!!, no pool towels!!.

We joined DVC after that trip!