WOW! My DVC Membership is a VALUE!

[kristenrice]

I've seen so many people calculate their actual and perceived savings with their DVC memberships. I thought I would throw out the numbers that I've calculated for our next trip.

We are going April 30-May 5 and staying in a standard studio at AKV-Jambo. The rack rate for this room is $2373.75. There is currently a 30% discount available which would drop it down to $1870.31 (tax included). This stay is costing us 72 of our 2015 UY points.

We bought 100 points at AKV, resale, in 2008 with all 2008 points available. Those points were banked and used by a co-worker who paid me $1000 for them. I do not have the exact numbers in front of me, but when I calculate the total number of points received for the life of the contract and figure in closing costs and subtract the $1K, the actual per point buy-in cost was just under $2/point. I will assume it is $2/point for my upcoming example.

So, our initial cost was $144 for those 72 points. The annual dues are $6.2989 per point, but since I paid them with gift cards that I bought at a 5% discount, my actual dues were $5.9840 per point. That makes the maintenance fees on those 72 points come out to a cost of $430.85. Added together, the money that we "spent" on this trip comes out to $574.85. That is about a 60% savings off of the DISCOUNTED price...75% off the rack rate.

Now, I know there are financial and math wizards out there who will point out calculations that I failed to account for, but I'm fairly certain that there is not a way to spin this that would show that we did not save at least 50%. This will be the first trip for us in a studio, as we usually stay in 1BR's which aren't nearly as cost-effective, so I was amazed at the actual savings with a studio.

Just for funsies...here's the numbers on a 1BR standard view..

Disney rate: $2514.40 (30% off spring room-only offer)
Points needed: 148 (*let's pretend I'd banked 48 from 2014)
Buy-In cost of points: $296
2014 Maintenance Fees on 48 points: $272.45 (*used gift cards last year too and saved 5%)
2015 Maintenance Fees on 100 points: $598.40
TOTAL point cost: $1166.85

The savings aren't quite as dramatic, but it is still more than 50% off the Disney DISCOUNTED rate.

 

[graychef]

Aside from all the numbers, the most important factor is your happiness. Judging from your post, you are very happy. No matter what anybody says, it's a great deal for you.

 

[Lorilais_mommie]

Aside from all the numbers, the most important factor is your happiness. Judging from your post, you are very happy. No matter what anybody says, it's a great deal for you.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ this was the exact reason we bought in at the vgf

We knew we would not be happy with anything else.
Hence why we hadn't bought in before that.

My exact words when we were 1st shown DVC in 2012 (animal kingdom) were
"If that was the GF I would be the 1st in line!"

When I heard they were building the VGF my husband knew there would be no living with me until we owned a piece of it!

All in all.. This think the math works out for most people who like to stay at the deluxe resorts.. Or need rooms big enough for 6+ people..

 

[luckyman_apd]

Value is in the eye of the beholder, and everyone has their own "way" of crunching numbers. Me? i've taken every point I own and divided my purchase price so I paid upfront $2.10 for every point, then I add my dues. From there each stay I calculate my point cost times the point total. I compare that to what it would cost to book a room from Disney. Typically my stays end up being a little less than what I would pay for a moderate. In December, it was slightly more than a value.....And let me tell you, I would take a BLT studio over a value resort any day of the week....for many reasons.

In general....I have yet to see a moderate resort that I like better than ANY DVC studio we've stayed in.

Just for example....Our next trip is a weekend in June. We are staying at AKV at 43 points for the weekend. Even if I paid rental costs of $13 per point, that's $559 for the points.....a room for the same time at Coronado springs (the least expensive moderate) is $558.75. Now my dues + $2.10 points cost is not $13...more like $7.25 (and I might be a few cents high on that one). So, even at $7.25 a points....It's a value of $311.75 for the weekend....Pop century would cost me $395.19 for that weekend. So this trip.....Even less than a Value Resort! Now AKV with a standard view is one of the lowest points rooms I can get for that weekend....but I could use 55 points for the weekend and it still would be equal to the value resort.

There are a ton of factors like Opportunity costs, and would you have taken those trips without DVC... Would I have be going on these trips without DVC? No, because I'd rather NOT stay at a value....but DVC allowed us TO travel more at these prices. So for us...it's a huge value....and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Of course, Buying in when the resale market hit rock bottom didn't hurt either

 

[Dean]

I've seen so many people calculate their actual and perceived savings with their DVC memberships. I thought I would throw out the numbers that I've calculated for our next trip.

We are going April 30-May 5 and staying in a standard studio at AKV-Jambo. The rack rate for this room is $2373.75. There is currently a 30% discount available which would drop it down to $1870.31 (tax included). This stay is costing us 72 of our 2015 UY points.

We bought 100 points at AKV, resale, in 2008 with all 2008 points available. Those points were banked and used by a co-worker who paid me $1000 for them. I do not have the exact numbers in front of me, but when I calculate the total number of points received for the life of the contract and figure in closing costs and subtract the $1K, the actual per point buy-in cost was just under $2/point. I will assume it is $2/point for my upcoming example.

So, our initial cost was $144 for those 72 points. The annual dues are $6.2989 per point, but since I paid them with gift cards that I bought at a 5% discount, my actual dues were $5.9840 per point. That makes the maintenance fees on those 72 points come out to a cost of $430.85. Added together, the money that we "spent" on this trip comes out to $574.85. That is about a 60% savings off of the DISCOUNTED price...75% off the rack rate.

Now, I know there are financial and math wizards out there who will point out calculations that I failed to account for, but I'm fairly certain that there is not a way to spin this that would show that we did not save at least 50%. This will be the first trip for us in a studio, as we usually stay in 1BR's which aren't nearly as cost-effective, so I was amazed at the actual savings with a studio.

Just for funsies...here's the numbers on a 1BR standard view..

Disney rate: $2514.40 (30% off spring room-only offer)
Points needed: 148 (*let's pretend I'd banked 48 from 2014)
Buy-In cost of points: $296
2014 Maintenance Fees on 48 points: $272.45 (*used gift cards last year too and saved 5%)
2015 Maintenance Fees on 100 points: $598.40
TOTAL point cost: $1166.85

The savings aren't quite as dramatic, but it is still more than 50% off the Disney DISCOUNTED rate.

There are many facets to this but in general those who get the most dollar return are going to be those who use studios followed by those who use 2 BR and would need to hotel rooms. Personally I would never use rack rates or even discounted rack rates to determine cost or savings. I think the only reasonable components are what one would spend in cash and what the DVC rate would be on a private rental.

 

[luckyman_apd]

There are many facets to this but in general those who get the most dollar return are going to be those who use studios followed by those who use 2 BR and would need to hotel rooms. Personally I would never use rack rates or even discounted rack rates to determine cost or savings. I think the only reasonable components are what one would spend in cash and what the DVC rate would be on a private rental.

No doubt....Like I said, everyone crunches numbers and calculates value differently as to what is the value.....But we are Studio users.....and while we HAVE gotten a 2br on 2 separate occasions (one was a rental before buying DVC....and one was our first stay using the banked points we received in our initial purchase) Studios are what we use...and probably will only use. So anyone with a larger family than ours, or larger room preference than ours cleary won't the the "value" we get (or perceive).....but prior to DVC, we would have only stayed in a regular room. We never would have booked a deluxe resort. Now, we'll never (or rarely) book a value room. Did it once to fly in late at night instead of the morning as airfare was significantly cheaper. Got the value for $80 for the night and hated it. Tiny bathroom....and the food courts filled with cheerleaders or football teams or high school seniors....ugh.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Value really is subjective. Most of my purchases were resale so my monetary value was huge with those purchases, especially my 150 pointer purchased at $52/pt. however, my VGF contract just purchased at $165/pt is as muchvue because I get the much needed 11 mos booking timeframe. As hard as it is to book a studio at VGF that price paid is worth as much as my super cheap resales purchase.

 

[Anal Annie]

Math and finance, heck, numbers in general are not my thing. I am more of a ballpark number person. I don't go into fancy calculations with dues and such but I do sort of keep track of what the rack rates might be when we go. I know, most people don't pay that much if they can book a package deal or find a discount promo but some do. I still feel like COMPARED TO rack rates we've got a good deal going with our DVC. Including what we have booked for this coming summer and just looking back over the past 3 years to spring break of 2012 of our ownership our accommodations COULD HAVE cost approx. $25,000 at rack rates - which is several thousand more than what we paid for our points when we bought in. I'm not completely forgetting that we pay annual dues - but knowing this much I feel like if I would go back to look at the cost of ALL of our trips back to when we first bought that we have more than recouped our buy-in costs. I feel like we're definitely on the plus side now of our "investment" after almost 9 years of ownership. I am satisfied that we've gotten our money out of it now. The rest is all gravy.

 

[kristenrice]

To me, the biggest benefit that DVC has provided us is the ability to take nice vacations every year (i.e. staying in 1BR/2BR villas) without having to pay the astronomical fees that Disney charges. DH and I were discussing it last week that our upcoming trip will be the first time EVER that our family of 4 has stayed more than 2 nights in a single room! We've done split stays, which never resulted in more than 2 nights in a hotel room (Pop Century) or a studio. In 2008, I stayed for 6 nights with my 2 kids (ages 3 and 5 at the time) and my friend in a savanna view studio at AKV. We survived just fine, but now that the girls are almost 12 and 9, we are glad that we can have 2-room villas.

 

[momof3poohlovers]

For us, the biggest value has been able to have my family of 6 plus my mom (before she passed away) all able to stay in the same room and spend time in the living room together, relaxing together, rather than having to get 2 rooms and split my family apart.

 

[disneynutz]

DVC can end up costing you more money compared to your Disney vacations prior to buying.

Most members end up going more often than prior to buying DVC and they stay longer. They buy a discounted AP's but often only use them once.

They may stop vacationing elsewhere and focus only on Disney.

Bill

 

[momof3poohlovers]

I agree with this. We definitely vacation at Disney much more now than we would have if we didn't own DVC. My daughter lives and works for Disney now so it works out great but before that, I know we would not have traveled to WDW as much as we did if it weren't for DVC.