Why Dont you do DVC??

[sharadoc]

I also think that if you're within a day's drive or less from WDW, then it makes a lot of sense, since you can do a couple short trips a year and not have transportation costs as a major part of your overall trip cost. Once you factor in airfare or a couple of days drive, then you might feel the need to stay longer and therefore need more points.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

You are wrong. Staying at deluxe and moderate resorts is way more expensive than DVC.

At rack rate, maybe. But nobody on the DIS pays rack rate.

At the end of this year, we will have stayed at three Deluxe resorts, one of which at Club Level. All told, including flights, we're going to come out just under $5k. We could take 8 to 10 more yearly trips like this before even approaching the purchase price of DVC, forgetting the dues/flights/tickets for DVC trips.

 

[nytimez]

I'm not wrong.

My perspective is if you have to wait decades to see any savings, that's not savings.

Nope. Just plain wrong. Aggressively wrong, even.

I always try to book my DVC room and a similar deluxe room, even with discount rates, at cash rates so I can compare my DVC costs to the "going rate" at any given time.

It's not even close, and I haven't had to wait decades to realize savings. After six trips, I've already matched my initial buy-in price. After my next trip, each vacation will basically cost what my maintenance fees are -- which means I'll be paying as little as $70 a night for a Savannah View at AKL.

So, to summarize: You're wrong.

 

[ReneeA]

You are wrong. Staying at deluxe and moderate resorts is way more expensive than DVC.

How do you figure that?

I stayed 9 nights, 10 days at CBR this year (8/28/-9/6) with the regular DDP and 10 day park tickets for a total of $2,250.00. This is for a family of 4 - 2 adults, 2 children (7 & 8).

Dues alone for the amount of points we would need is $700. Add in the cost of the tickets and DDP...we are talking more money. That's not even the initial buy in price (14,000+). With the economy the way it is, the contracts are losing money - resale is in the toilet...which is why we would by a resale contract if we bought in right now.

It's not for us at this point. I'm not ruling it out in the future, we take a tour every single year, we sit down and crunch the number a couple times a year and it doesn't make sense. We stay moderate, and we have saved money over DVC every year since 2005.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

Nope. Just plain wrong. Aggressively wrong, even.

I always try to book my DVC room and a similar deluxe room, even with discount rates, at cash rates so I can compare my DVC costs to the "going rate" at any given time.

It's not even close, and I haven't had to wait decades to realize savings. After six trips, I've already matched my initial buy-in price. After my next trip, each vacation will basically cost what my maintenance fees are -- which means I'll be paying as little as $70 a night for a Savannah View at AKL.

So, to summarize: You're wrong.

Hey, it's your money.

 

[PolynesianAlex]

WOW i never thought i would get 7 pages out of this

 

[KellyNY]

At rack rate, maybe. But nobody on the DIS pays rack rate.

At the end of this year, we will have stayed at three Deluxe resorts, one of which at Club Level. All told, including flights, we're going to come out just under $5k. We could take 8 to 10 more yearly trips like this before even approaching the purchase price of DVC, forgetting the dues/flights/tickets for DVC trips.

How many trips/nights/people? Seriously what kind of discounts you use. 3 of us spend around $2500 (tickets, room, flight) 8 nights at CBR.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

How many trips/nights/people? Seriously what kind of discounts you use. 3 of us spend around $2500 (tickets, room, flight) 8 nights at CBR.

There are only two of us. We've always used 40% off Deluxes. No dining plan. 4 or 5 day trips. We have no need to be there for two weeks at a time.

 

[KellyNY]

There are only two of us. We've always used 40% off Deluxes. No dining plan. 4 or 5 day trips. We have no need to be there for two weeks at a time.

That makes sence. You probably have AP as well. The biggest hit for us is airfare, $600 last trip and it was actually cheap.

 

[poohj80]

Exactly. It's an absurd price, even divided out over 45 years.

Absurd to you, but not to a lot of us. We have all done the math and found that it does make sense for our sitiuations. You will never be a DVC member - we get that! That doesn't mean the rest of us can't add, just that our situations are different. We calculated that we were breaking even by year 5 so now we are only paying maintenance fees for our weeks on Disney property each year which even a 40% off offer can't touch.

Remember, many of us have been using DVC long before there were such offers as free dining or buy 4 get 3 free or 40% deluxe were available. Those offers didn't get so good until after the economy tanked.

 

[livie1205]

$14,000 Where the heck did you get that figure from?
My DVC dues are $900 a year, my tickets are around $1200 a year, airfare for the 2 trips is $1400 and food is aprox. $1000. So a total of $4,500 for 2 Disney trips per year.

PLUS the 14,000 min you paid upfront...THAT is where the heck I got that from....so you are out a min of 14,000 right from the start,then the 900.00 in dues plus all that other stuff you have to get like tix,food and airfare....does not sound that great to me...I like to go other places to vacation other then JUST wdw and unless you just have money to burn buying dvc when you like to go other places is just throwing money away on dues every year...I dont see why there are so many people that came on here to defend their choice to buy dvc when the quistion was " why DONT you dvc?" The OP was not asking why do you or why dont you it was simply why DONT you..which means she was not looking for a debate.

 

[going/again]

$14,000 Where the heck did you get that figure from?
My DVC dues are $900 a year, my tickets are around $1200 a year, airfare for the 2 trips is $1400 and food is aprox. $1000. So a total of $4,500 for 2 Disney trips per year.

plus your original buy in of $14.000 I think is what he means

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

PLUS the 14,000 min you paid upfront...THAT is where the heck I got that from....so you are out a min of 14,000 right from the start,then the 900.00 in dues plus all that other stuff you have to get like tix,food and airfare....does not sound that great to me...I like to go other places to vacation other then JUST wdw and unless you just have money to burn buying dvc when you like to go other places is just throwing money away on dues every year...I dont see why there are so many people that came on here to defend their choice to buy dvc when the quistion was " why DONT you dvc?" The OP was not asking why do you or why dont you it was simply why DONT you..which means she was not looking for a debate.

That's exactly my point, and the buy in is a HECK of a lot more than $14k.

Let's say it's $17k, for some of the cheaper DVC properites right now. That immediately puts you $17k in the whole, and then another $1k a year in dues, hundreds of dollars in flights, thousands of dollars in tickets for a family of 4 and then food prices. That could be, easily, $60k-$75k before you start seeing savings. I could take 30 trips for that price.

 

[TinkBride]

This thread could not have came at a better time.....DH and I are right in the thick of discussions to determine if DVC makes sense for us or not....so thank you OP - this thread has added questions to our process we had not thought of.

Like so many have said - our sticking point is maintenance fees....we just are trying to figure out if it is worth the commitment or not......

Loving the discussion!

 

[going/again]

Wrong.

depends where you live

 

[poohj80]

That's exactly my point, and the buy in is a HECK of a lot more than $14k.

Let's say it's $17k, for some of the cheaper DVC properites right now. That immediately puts you $17k in the whole, and then another $1k a year in dues, hundreds of dollars in flights, thousands of dollars in tickets for a family of 4 and then food prices. That could be, easily, $60k-$75k before you start seeing savings. I could take 30 trips for that price.

But you are going to buy tickets and plane tickets and food whether you are staying at DVC or not as there are not always package deals available. AP holders typically can't take advantage of a lot of the packages either since they don't need tickets - does that mean APs don't make any sense? You've got to compare apples to apples.

 

[TinkBride]

We actually WANT to, but the timing isn't right. For now, we RENT points. The best of both worlds. We get ALL the amenities as if we were the DVC Owners and we do NOT have to buy. This is our 2nd year renting points and BOTH times, we were able to rent at a DELUXE resort at MODERATE to VALUE prices....no joke. Last summer, we stayed at the WLV for LESS than a moderate! I've ruined my DP as now she will never stay on property unless it IS a deluxe!

This is EXACTLY what DH and I currently do......and we are trying to determine if we are better off continuing to rent or just buying in......

 

[livie1205]

How many trips/nights/people? Seriously what kind of discounts you use. 3 of us spend around $2500 (tickets, room, flight) 8 nights at CBR.

we spent 1200 last year at AKL CL for 6 nights w ddp for our christmas trip...we are a family of 5...(one of the kids stayed with my parents in there room so we had 4 people with ddp and AP discount of 40%..we never pay rack rate and never spent over 2000 on a family vacation and we stay deluxe...sometimes we do values and that saves us even more money..we have no airfare because we drive...we spend under 50.00 in fuel.DVC would cost us more then we would ever spend...

 

[livie1205]

But you are going to buy tickets and plane tickets and food whether you are staying at DVC or not as there are not always package deals available. AP holders typically can't take advantage of a lot of the packages either since they don't need tickets - does that mean APs don't make any sense? You've got to compare apples to apples.

not everyone needs airfare...we drive (4 hours) and we have fl res seasonal APs ....

 

[SSR]

Towel animals? Seriously, people?

It never even occurred to me that people factor cotton origami into their DVc purchase decision.

Anyway, as someone pointed out above, there's a Dvc sweetspot, and we were fortunate enough to be in it: mid 30's with one child under 5; paid cash up front for 200 SSR points on the resale market at well well well below retail. We can easily afford the maintenance fees. We spend enough on our souhwest visa each year to earn our free flights

We should break even after trip 8 We are also fortunate to absolutely love SSR. Win-win for us.