Disney Vacation Club Buying Guide
If you travel to Walt Disney World or Disneyland and are able to see or hear, you probably are familiar with Disney’s “Best” Kept Secret: Disney Vacation Club (or “DVC” as the cool kids call it). Disney Vacation Club 2013 prices are higher than ever, making many wonder whether buying into Disney Vacation Club is actually a good idea for their families.
Like a lot of frequent Disney vacationers, at one time or another, you’ve probably wondered whether Disney Vacation Club is right for you. Maybe you’ve taken a tour, maybe you’ve done some research online on one of the great resources such as MouseOwners.com or DVCNews.com. Heck, maybe you’ve even crunched the numbers yourself!
If you’ve considered purchasing Disney Vacation Club, one of the biggest considerations, no doubt, is whether it makes good economic sense. Unfortunately, as with almost everything in life there is no definitive answer to this question that fits everyone. From a purely economic perspective, Disney Vacation Club will not make sense for a lot of people. However, it’s worth reading on to see if it makes financial sense for you, or if there are other compelling reasons for you to make the purchase.
As mentioned above, if your main reason for purchasing an interest in Disney Vacation Club is to save money, whether it’s a good deal for you depends of your party size and resort tier preference. Contrary to Disney’s claim that Disney Vacation Club will save you “70% off” of future resort stays, this is not actually the case. If this were true, do you really think Disney would actually be offering the program–and that it would be wildly profitable for the company? Sure, Disney might take a bit of a hit to guarantee that you will be a loyal customer for years to come, but 70% off?! As we all learned in grade school, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Disney’s 70% savings number assumes things that aren’t realistic to reality, such as paying rack rate in the most expensive Disney hotels and no return on investment for the (unfinanced) money invested in Disney Vacation Club. Even assuming these things, I’m still not quite sure how Disney arrives at its 70% off number, especially in 2013 when DVC direct prices are substantially more than they were just a few years ago. I think it might be equal parts magic and advertising puffery, but I’m not entirely sure.
It’s also worth noting that Disney Vacation Club is a pre-paid vacation plan, which differs slightly from the traditional definition of a timeshare. In the strictest sense, Disney Vacation Club can be viewed as an asset, but not a tangible one. This is an important distinction to some people, but it doesn’t matter to a lot of people.
Is Disney Vacation Club A Good Fit?
Accommodations Preferences – This is the threshold question, because if you’re (voluntarily) a Values and Moderates type person, Disney Vacation Club may never make financial sense for you. However, it can be a difficult question to answer, because it’s tough to anticipate your vacationing habits in the future. If you only roll Deluxe, and anticipate demanding posh accommodations in the future, Disney Vacation Club might be right for you. If you presently have kids or anticipate soon having kids, and are tired of sleeping in the same small quarters with them at a Moderate Resort Disney Vacation Club, and its wonderful one-bedroom units, may be right for you as it gives you the option to separate yourself from the kids at night! Similarly, if you have to book two or more rooms at a Value or Moderate, it might be for you…
Even if you enjoy Deluxe Resorts, Disney Vacation Club still might not be right for you if you can’t stand the idea of MouseKeeping not cleaning your room daily. Conversely, if you like the idea of being able to do your laundry, prepare a meal in your in-room kitchen, utilize free in-room internet, or enjoy a whole host of other “home-away-from-home” amenities, Disney Vacation Club may be right for you. To us, this isn’t a big deal at all, as we actually prefer MouseKeeping not coming into our room.
If you are a commando park tourer who primarily books All Star Movies, find the Value Resorts acceptable, and you stay up until all hours of the night and get up for rope drop daily, Disney Vacation Club may not be a good option for you. This is for two reasons. First, because the initial cost of Disney Vacation Club plus the cost of the annual maintenance fees will be higher than the sum of the yearly cost of a room at a Value Resort over the life of the Disney Vacation Club contract, assuming reasonable price increases of those rooms and factoring for the time value of money (not factoring in a reasonable discount off of rack rate for the Value Resort, which you will presumably receive; once you factor this in, the results are even more lopsided). Second, because you simply don’t need one of the vacation-home style rooms offered by Disney Vacation Club.
That said, even if you do presently stay at Value Resorts, after one stay at a Disney Vacation Club resort, you may be hooked. For many people, it’s one of those, “I didn’t realize what I was missing until I tried it” scenarios. Our first stay at the BoardWalk Villas definitely made it tough for us to stay in Value accommodations again! If you’re not sure whether Disney Vacation Club accommodations will be a good fit, rent Disney Vacation Club points! There are a number of sites from which you can rent points, and they offer a cheap way to ‘get your feet wet’ with DVC, so to speak. You can also book Deluxe Villas from Disney directly, although this isn’t as cost-effective.
Advance Planning – If you can’t regularly plan your vacations 7 months or more in advance, and Saratoga Springs Resort and Old Key West Resort, which are typically the two resorts that fill up last, aren’t acceptable resorts to you, then Disney Vacation Club may not be right for you. During various times of year, popular Disney Vacation Club resorts fill up quickly. In fact, during the Christmas season, it can be difficult to get even Saratoga and Old Key West inside of 7 months. If you can plan more than 7 months in advance, DVC is probably a good fit.
Disney Vacationing Frequency – Thanks to the banking and borrowing system, it isn’t necessary to take a Disney vacation every year. However, to make DVC a pragmatic option, you pretty much must visit WDW or DLR once every two or three years. Using DVC points for non-DVC vacations offers terrible value. Since many DVC contracts expire in 2054, you better hope the Mouse won’t break your heart anytime soon. Although if he does, selling your contract on the resale market is an option, and thanks to Disney’s Right of First Refusal, contracts retain a somewhat inflated value on the resale market.
Even this isn’t a hard rule. A lot of Disney Vacation Club owners who aren’t able to use their annual allotment of points safely rent them out through point-rental businesses, such as the DVC Rental Store. The amount owners can make through point rental is usually more than enough to pay for accommodations elsewhere!
DVC Resorts – Trading DVC points into the RCI system or using them for Disney Cruise Line or Adventures By Disney vacations is not a smart use of points. Using DVC points at non-DVC resorts is also a poor use of points. If you buy into Disney Vacation Club thinking that you might cash-in your Disney Vacation Club points for any of these options every once in a while, you are going to have a difficult time getting adequate value out of your membership. With Disney Vacation Club’s rapid growth in the past several years, and new DVC units as much as confirmed at the Grand Floridian Resort and one also probably on the way at Fort Wilderness, resort choices only look to improve in the coming years. That said, it’s important to like the resort choices that already exist as Disney Vacation Club resorts, and, as will be discussed below, it’s important to like your home resort.
Extraneous Benefits – Disney Vacation Club Members get discounts on Annual Passes and receive free D23 Memberships (as of 2013). There are several Members-Only DVC pins, events, a small magazine mailed to members, and other offerings throughout the year as well. It is important to note that none of these things are contractual rights, so Disney is free to terminate or reduce these perks at any time. In late 2012, Disney ran a special promotion for Premium Annual Passes priced at $399 (a savings of $300!) for Disney Vacation Club members. Many suspect that this promotion will return in some form for 2013, and that Disney will offer more perks to Disney Vacation Club members to entice them to visit the Disney parks, rather than making trips to Universal Orlando to see Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Disney Vacation Club members may also purchase a Tables in Wonderland card for $100, which is another new benefit offered to Disney Vacation Club members.
It’s important to note from the outset that all of the monetary considerations below assume that you are purchasing Disney Vacation Club via the resale market. This is the ‘best case scenario’ and definitely the way to buy into DVC given the presently high prices direct from Disney. The incentives Disney offers for direct-from-Disney DVC purchases rarely make sense. If saving money is your paramount concern, you should always purchase from the resale market. Before making a purchase, you should crunch the numbers to determine what your vacation costs would be for the next 40 years if you do purchase DVC and if you don’t. Since these numbers will vary widely for everyone researching the matter (based on party size, at which type of resort you’d prefer to stay, etc.), it’s difficult for me to offer sample calculations here. Instead, I’ll offer a few important considerations to make sure you take into account when doing the math.
Before coming to any conclusion, though, make sure you read past the ‘Hard Economics’ section, as there are many compelling reasons to purchase DVC that go beyond the numbers!
Financing Disney Vacation Club – Once you get past the important threshold questions, it’s time to start crunching the numbers. Whether you have to finance Disney Vacation Club is an incredibly important question and definitely shouldn’t be glossed over. If you have to finance your Disney Vacation Club purchase, any potential savings are quickly wiped out by the interest you pay on the purchase. Interest will vary from purchaser to purchaser, but it’s a very important consideration. Unless the intangible reasons that will be discussed below strongly apply to you, I would highly advise anyone considering a purchase of Disney Vacation Club who would have to finance it not to make the purchase.
Time Value of Money – If you don’t have to finance your purchase, Disney Vacation Club should look a lot more appealing, but there still is a pitfall. Based on what I’ve read, this is the most frequently overlooked aspect of any equation when people are crunching the numbers on Disney Vacation Club. Even if you’re not financing, the time-value of money, which is the principle that money at the present time is worth more than the same amount in the future due to its earning capacity over the course of time, makes any claim by Disney that you’ll actually save 70% with Disney Vacation Club highly specious.
To illustrate this principle, imagine you have $1 today. If you invest that dollar today with in something with a 6% yearly rate of return, and let it sit for 20 years, at the end of that 20 year period, that dollar is worth $3.21. Since you’re paying for all of your future Disney Vacation Club vacations up front as opposed to when they occur, large portions of the initial investment in Disney Vacation Club could be invested in other ways (with a similar return on investment rate, if not better) if you were instead paying for your room each year as you vacationed. The calculations here can be pretty complex given that you can’t take that entire initial investment and perform a time value of money calculation on it to determine what it would be worth in 10, 20, or even 40 years, as you would be paying out portions of that initial investment each year for your hotel stays. That said, by even doing rough math here, you should get a pretty good idea of the “actual” cost of Disney Vacation Club. Now, if you have suitcases full of one-hundred dollar bills sitting under your bed that you wouldn’t invest anyway, maybe this is not a consideration for you.
Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa – No, this isn’t in the wrong area. If you’re interested in maximizing the economics of Disney Vacation Club, it’s almost a requirement that you be willing to purchase a contract that has Saratoga Springs as the home resort. The reasons here are three-fold. First, it frequently has the lowest per-point cost of any of the Walt Disney World-based resorts. Second, even when other resorts are lower in per-point costs, they’re higher in per-point maintenance costs, which is more important than the initial cost-difference. Saratoga Springs has the lowest per-point maintenance costs among the resorts with the cheapest initial contract per-point costs. Finally, the contract expires in 2054, which is 12 years later than many of the other cheaper contracts. Of course, if you buy at Saratoga, that means your 11-month window is at Saratoga (and not a more desirable resort), but we seldom have an issue with this (we’ve never been “stuck” at Saratoga since we’ve been DVC members).
Locking In Your Vacation Costs – One of the huge benefits of Disney Vacation Club is locking in prices for future vacations. In other words, you know up front what your vacations will cost for the next forty years or so (depending on the expiration date of your DVC contract). This is something you can’t accurately predict without DVC, but one thing you can predict is that room prices directly from Disney will increase. Depending on how dramatically these prices increase, you could realize significant savings by purchasing Disney Vacation Club. When performing your calculations, make sure to account for this yearly increase in room rates you’d be paying if booking a room from Disney each year rather than using your DVC membership.
Non-Economic Considerations
Okay, I wrote up a lot of “stuff” above, and it’s funny to think that one sentence can wipe away all of that, but it very well might. That sentence is, “will owning Disney Vacation Club increase my quality of life?” If the answer to this question is yes, all of the economic considerations in the world may very well be meaningless. It may be a good idea to purchase DVC anyway.
If things, such as the “Welcome Home” doormats, Disney Files Magazine showing up in your mailbox, going to bed at night knowing your vacations are partially paid in advance for the next 40-some years, the “forced vacation” aspect, owning a piece of the Magic, or being able to share trips with friends and family in awesome and unique accommodations are a big deal to you or will make you happier, then you might want to disregard everything I’ve written above. As with everything in life, “happiness” is that ace-up-the-sleeve trump card that can render everything else meaningless. Quite simply, you can’t put a price tag on happiness and peace of mind.
Try Before You Buy!
We highly recommend trying Disney Vacation Club before you buy to see if it’s right for you. You can either do this by booking a Deluxe Villa directly from Disney or by renting Disney Vacation Club points. We highly recommend renting Disney Vacation Club points, as you will save considerably over booking directly from Disney (typical savings over even a discounted Deluxe Villa price are around 50%) and you will get the true “Owner” experience. We have a separate guide to renting DVC points, so check it out if you want more information about the process!
For renting points, there are a few options. The most popular is renting points from the DVC Rental Store or David’s Vacation Club Rentals, both of which specialize in points rentals. Other reputable options are the Timeshare Store and DVC-Rental.
Alternatively, you can browse the forums on Mouseowners or the Disboards and find someone from whom you’d like to rent points. Rental companies are slightly more expensive (usually be $1-2 per point) than these forum options, which is the downside. The upside is that DVC Rental Store is an actual BBB accredited business who has a strong reputation. You won’t get ripped off by the DVC Rental Store or David’s, whereas the same isn’t necessarily true for random folks you’ll encounter on the forums. Now, I’ve only heard a couple of negative stories about forum transactions, but caveat emptor with that one. We recommend playing it safe and going with a professional rental site.
This is actually another place where you might want to stop and do the math. Not to see if renting is cheaper than booking through Disney (it unquestionably is), but to see if renting Disney Vacation Club points for all of your trips is a better option than buying Disney Vacation Club points. We know a lot of people who go this route year in and year out because it provides great savings without locking them into an actual contract. It is something to give serious thought, and you might be surprised just how attractive renting, rather than buying, can be!
I Think I Want To Purchase DVC, What’s Next?
Home Resort – If saving money is the impetus behind the purchase, and you’ve crunched the numbers and think it can be done, this is a no-brainer–you buy into Saratoga Springs via the resale market. If money is a concern, but you have a definite resort preference, you should buy where you want to stay. If you won’t be happy unless you are able to stay at the Beach Club Villas every trip, you should purchase points there. This is especially true with the popular and small resorts, such as the Beach Club Villas, which are difficult to book at the 7 months mark throughout much of the year. At the bare minimum, your home resort should be somewhere you wouldn’t mind staying–because you just might have to stay there during busier seasons where other resorts are booked at the 7 month mark. If you are not sure which resort might be the one you want to call “home,” read our article ranking the Disney Vacation Club resorts.
Start Watching The Resale Listings – We bought our contract through ResalesDVC.com and were incredibly satisfied with the experience. We also looked at listings on The Timeshare Store, and DVCByResale.com, and I’ve only heard positives about each. Figure out what you want, whether your contract needs to be ‘loaded’ and start making reasonable offers on contracts. There are also by-owner resale websites with Disney Vacation Club resales, like SellMyTimeshareNOW. Also, don’t forget to look on eBay and CraigsList to see what’s available.
A great resource to use for searching Disney Vacation Club resale listings is DVCFinder.com. It’s basically a search engine of active listings on the main DVC resale sites.
Research, Research, Research! – This post is aimed at whether you should buy Disney Vacation Club. Once you’ve made the decision, you need to understand various aspects of ownership. With regard to those things, this post barely scratches the surface. You might have seen passing references to the “7 month window” above. Do you know what that is? Do you understand terms such as “banking,” “borrowing,” “ROFR,” or “use year,” just to name a few terms? Disney Vacation Club practically has its own lexicon, and it’s important to fully understand the product before you buy. I spent two years reading and posting on the MouseOwners.com forums before we made our purchase. It’s worth hanging around there or the other sites mentioned above before making a purchase. The members there can impart far more wisdom on you than I ever can. Many of them are true experts.
Our Story
We are DVC owners, and the economics work well for us even though we don’t have a larger party or a demand for always staying in Deluxe Resorts. We save money with DVC, but more importantly, owning makes us happy, which is the paramount consideration. We reviewed these same factors when contemplating a DVC purchase. Ultimately, we decided it was right for us. After doing the math every which way, we determined that buying a small Saratoga Springs Resort contract was what we needed.
Our circumstances were a bit different than the norm, though. For our honeymoon, we wanted to stay at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn, Disney’s Polynesian Resort, or Disney’s Beach Club Resort. Unfortunately, for the busy summer season, we couldn’t get much of a discount on any of these rooms. We found that if we purchased a small contract, we could bank & borrow enough points to use for our 10-day honeymoon. In comparison to paying out of pocket for a stay at the BoardWalk for our honeymoon, buying the small DVC contract outright on the resale market provided a very short break-even number of years. With the math working out well, it was an easy decision, as the hotel stay would have no residual value, whereas the DVC contract would be useful for years. Plus, as Annual Passholders, the DVC membership would save us over $250 per year total for our Disneyland and Walt Disney World APs, which is roughly the cost of our dues. Staying in DVC accommodations also offered us the ability to purchase the Disney Dining Plan without purchasing park tickets unnecessarily.
While our touring style of staying out late and getting up early doesn’t really necessitate DVC accommodations presently, but we won’t keep up this pace forever. When we slow down and have kids, I’m sure the amenities DVC offers will be vital. In the meantime, we still enjoy the nicer room and resort once every three or four trips, and on those trips, we do slow down the pace to enjoy our resort. The math worked for us, and so too did it increase our happiness. There are few pieces of mail I look forward to more than the Disney Files magazine, and hearing “Welcome Home” from the Cast Member at the front desk of our resort gives me an ear-to-ear grin every time. It may not work for everyone, but it certainly works for us. Hopefully this guide helped you determine whether it works for you!
Your Thoughts?
A lot of you reading this are probably either members who stumbled upon it while looking for Disney Vacation Club content, or prospective buyers weighing their purchase? What do you all think about Disney Vacation Club? Owners, are you happy with your purchase? Potential owners, how does this article impact your decision to buy? Share your thoughts in the comments!
96 Responses to “Disney Vacation Club Buying Guide”
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One of the better write-ups. Enjoyed it!! I signed a contract and later cancelled it. I have a great spreadsheet that I created with many variables (including the value of money over time). No matter how I modified the variables, there was no savings to be had. Now, we’re a family of 5 (soon to be 6!). The problem with DVC is the fold-out couch. It’s hard to pay that much money and only get one actual bed in the one bedroom. You have to jump to a two bedroom for it to make sense for my family. Just too much money. Resale is the way to go, if you don’t mine losing out on the ability to exchange points in the Disney Collection, Adventurer’s Collection, etc.
Excellent write up Tom! You hit on every point that has really ever crossed my mind. I think the hardest part for me is just making the economics work, which becomes even harder when a CM discount is still in play. When the norm right now is values for around $40-$75 per night, it practically washes out with just the annual dues, no purchase price taken into consideration. I think it ultimately comes down to the sense of happiness that you had pointed out combined with being able to stay at deluxe resorts. Now if they get one at the Polynesian, it might become a pretty quick decision!
Thanks for sharing from the experience you went through!
This is perfect. Thanks for the great post!
I am a DVC member. I didn’t do much investigation before investing… I didn’t even know about the resale market at the time, so I purchased straight from the Mouse. And I financed as much as I could.
That being said, I am a ‘number cruncher’ and liked what I was seeing when I did the math. I am staying in a savana view room at Animal Kingdom Lodge for seven nights later this year. Taking everything into consideration (including total lifetime interest on the loan and maintenance costs,) I am paying $850.55 for that room. That’s $121.51 a night.
I’m waking up to giraffes and zebras and Boma and resort epicness for less than the cost of the cheapest moderate resort room.
That is why I DVC. And I’m a ‘worst case scenario’… imagine how cheap that room would cost if I had gone through resale… or paid cash? Mind-boggling.
Thanks for all the great info!
Great article! While we’re huge Disney geeks, my family doesn’t make it Disney often enough to justify owning DVC. But its great to have someone demystify an incredibly complex process!
We also didn’t know about resale back when we bought. But, I tend to never buy used. I know it costs me more money, but I just don’t. I buy new and keep forever.
But even if I would consider buy resale now, I wouldn’t because the inability to book stays outside of an actual DVC resort would cramp our style. We go to Disneyland far more than WDW and I’ve been informed that the point-basis for the Disneyland hotels (Grand California, Disneyland Hotel, and Paradise Pier) are more economical than points used to stay at WDW resorts because of the fact there are only a few dozen DVC units at DL. So, we will stay for “free” at the Disneyland Hotel for 5 days and still have points left over.
We did hear the Time Value of Money argument before we purchased, but we don’t invest money in anything other than our company 401(k) and only at an amount that the company will 100% match. So, we aren’t losing money since the money wouldn’t be in anything making the kind of returns you talked about.
BUT…..Now that we are on the Dave Ramsey plan, we will be investing once we are out of debt and have our emergency fund filled. So, sometime in 2013
According to the calculations a CPA friend helped me derive to determine the value per point per year I broke even last year (not taking into account interest) but we are now paid off and don’t owe any money.
We are currently looking into buying more points, but we won’t EVER finance again
great write up. Happiness is paramount, but there are also some other factors besides how one tours. I’ll use myself as an example. I am a commando tourer right now. Likewise I probably will slow down at some point. But, one must also factor in discounts- AAA, gov, etc. I am a military member and either book a discount through Disney or wait till SOG fills and then they overbook. When SOG overbooks- they place you at a WDW resort- at higher rate than SOG but less than WDW rates. So I think if you know you have a long term discount- teachers, AAA, gov- that should also play a role.
Does SOG still overbook? My dad is retired N’tl Guard, and I remember way back in the day being pushed to Dixie Landings for a couple of trips when we were bumped from SOG. I figured once they expanded, that wouldn’t be such a problem.
Thanks so much for all the valuable information. we are currently looking into DVC ownership, even though my children are grown (19 and 22). DVC seems to make even more sense now…we always were able to get good discounts at the hotels and stayed mostly in deluxes but now at these ages even a deluxe is getting too small. It would be nice to have a 2 bedroom to stay in for the price of DVC. I know its considerably more points but to pay cash for those rooms would be far more expensive over the long haul. And having a kitchen is also such an added benefit and savings. Cant wait to own a piece of the mouse!!!!
Great write up Tom, I started to follow your website ever since you were on BetaMouse talking about photography!
Another consideration with DVC is the size of family. My family size is 6 in all, and that forces us to rent 2 rooms a night in order for us to be comfortable- or try to find a suite in the WDW resort (not a cheap proposition). If you vacation to WDW regularly with a large family I could argue that DVC may present a cost value if done correctly. Great website!
Another excellent point! A family of 6 is definitely well-served by DVC!
We purchased Saratoga Springs before it opened. With incentives, our final price was 67 per point + annual member fees. When I do the math, I think we have great value.
For our most recent trip, I thought about adding a pre-stay night at Pop, the best summer weekend price I could find was $160/night. When I consider that and the current pricing of the moderates, I feel very comfortable with our purchase and we’ve had seven great years of vacations with stays at Saratoga Springs, Boardwalk Villas, Animal Kingdom Villas and Old Key West.
One Thanksgiving we took extended family and stayed in the Tree House Villas — the rack rate for that time was nearly $900 per night — something we would not have paid without being members!
Would I pay $150 a point for DVC? No, but there are some great re-sale options that make a DVC vacation viable for a Walt Disney World enthusiast.
People limited to summer travel have a great incentive for DVC because discounts are rarer. Since my wife is a teacher, we’re limited to travel times that have few if any discounts.
Excellent price all around. If you’re vacationing in a period that typically offers no discounts, DVC definitely looks a lot more appealing!
We are DVC – we bought Saratoga before it opened as well and it was a bit less for points as stated above. We LOVE DVC. We didn’t finance as much. Ours is paid off and we use it often. Sometimes we go 3 to 4 times a year. Honestly when they say “welcome home” we feel it. I love my condo, love the washer and dryer and I’m fine with not having someone in and out of my room daily. I’m a clean person so I can take care of my room – hang a towel to dry and/or make a bed. It just me, I make my bed in a hotel room too. (not everyone does) Our fold outs have always been very comfy. (not like most hotels). The kids LOVED the beds at Bay Lake Towers. My nieces thought they were fun. We also enjoy the discounts and we do take advantage of them!
We have owned since 2000. Have I enjoyed it, Yes. Would I buy now. No. 50 years is a long time to pay dues and they continue to rise. While we love Disney, we have gotten tired lately of going there year after year and even though with DVC you have your accommodation, just getting there and doing everything is very expensive.
I would recommend for anyone buying that you start small until you see how it fits. As to resale, with the recent limitations I am leery of going that route, as I feel more limitations will be forth coming.
All of the new limitations applied to new purchases (so they didn’t apply retroactively) and prevented people from using their points in a terrible way, anyway. Resale prices are often HALF what you pay direct from Disney, too.
Plus, Disney can only do so much. Most of the “rights” of DVC owners are contractual, and Disney can’t take those away without breaching the contract. I have little concern about new limitations being imposed for this very reason.
As for dues, yes, they do continue to increase. I figure that if we ever get sick of Disney, we’ll just sell our contract. I don’t anticipate that happening since we’re still young, but it’s not as if there’s no way out. I do agree with your “start small” sentiment, though.
Just found your blog and thought I would add my $.02.
We have been members since 2004, Saratoga is home base. Our two kids were post college age at the time and we all love Disney going back to the ’80s when we were in so. CA.
We made a conscious decision to buy 200 points based upon the desire of all of us (now 6 adults + one grandchild) to go to WDW every year. We go the last week in January when we can get three rooms Sun-Thurs nights for low points and the lines are short. We arrive mid day Sunday and don’t leave until late Friday, six solid days of fun.
There have been a few glitches, yes, but for the most part I don’t regret it for a minute. As you know they played around with the points charts but have them back to a livable level for those of us who go Sun-Thurs. Perhaps my ‘words of encouragement’ had something to do with their rethinking that whole idea.
We bot from Disney (didn’t know about resale in 2004). Their prices rose several times over the years. I follow the resale market by emails so I am aware of the current pricing. Right now I would say that Saratoga and OKW with the extension to 2057 offer the best price per years remaining. My original price is was $1.48 per point per year for the 50 years. In today’s resale market you get about that same price per point per remaining years for the two resorts I mentioned.
Is it for everyone? No. Should one consider any stay other than Disney with the points? I think not. I can’t see it working at all. But if you love Disney you can make something work for you. The kids will inherit some day and hopefully go on forever.
Great article Tom, and your images are , of course, stunning. I just love that Bay Lake Tower image.
As you mentioned, renting DVC points is a perfect way to “try before you buy”. I thought I’d throw in a personal plug for David’s Vacation Club Rentals (dvcRequest.com). He’s been renting points since 2005 and has an exemplary reputation. I highly recommend using his service, whether you are a renter looking to stay at a DVC resort or an owner who wants to rent out some extra points.
Tom, an update to this … Free In-room internet is now available to all WDW guests. Also, Renting DVC points for $10 (from a group of trusted DVC owners I have built up) comes with some risks, but it is a great way to experience DVC at our pace without any of the obligation of a timeshare.
renting for $10/point that is.
Great article and write up, Tom! I’ve been contemplating becoming a DVC member for years, and your blog made some very salient and interesting points. It was nice to read it all in one place. Unfortunately, I have a non-Disney fan wife, so it is difficult to convince her (don’t suppose you have advice for that!). Anyway, thanks for a great informative article.
Really great write up. We’ve been looking into getting a disney vacation club membership as we love some of the places they offer.
Terrible experience with them. We have a DVC (disney vacation club) account with them and we banked points. Problem is they expire in one year.
Ok so I tried to book a cruise, home resort and other disney properties for my vacation week for the past 3 months and nothing is available.
Although there is availability at the resorts and on the cruise ship there is no more vacation transfers during the time period ( first week of november) available.
SO at the end of the day I lose about $1000 in points which will expire and they will not let me use them in 2013 EVEN if I book a vacation for 2013 now.
Spoke with supervisors but no help.
I’m pretty disgusted with the whole experience. Bottom line is be careful or you will lose if your vacation gets messed up.
Not the Disney I grew up with
“Although there is availability at the resorts and on the cruise ship there is no more vacation transfers during the time period ( first week of november) available.”
What the heck does “vacation transfers” mean? Been a member since 2004 and have never had a problem with borrowed and/or banked points.
I’ve never heard that term either. I’m betting he just means no room availability.
There are certainly a lot of potential traps for the unwary in Disney Vacation Club, but I think all of the rules are by necessity. It’s a complicated program, and as such, has a lot of rules to follow. No different than a FF program where the miles expire if you don’t pay close attention.
Great pictures! For us, it made sense to purchase. We have pretty much always gone deluxe. We also know that we will be going for some time to come, our youngest is 8.
Would love to know more about any downside of buying used and about what I should pay
curious to know if you ever ended up buying resale or not…if you did what downfalls have you come across…if you didn’t, what stopped you? we are looking into the resale market now but trying to gather enough info to make a sound decision…
Very informative article. We were just on a cruise and decided to buy into the DVC. I have been doing a little research now that we are home, and am questioning if we made the right decision. The maintenance fees seem high for the next 45 years, And I think we may have purchased too many points. We bought 330 points, but now that I am looking at the points charts, it seems like a lot. We are a family of 5 and take atleast 1 week vacation per year. I don’t think we would stay at Disney for more than a week per year. We also like to cruise with Disney, but it doesn’t seem like this is a good value for the points used. We have 7 days to cancel if we decide that we didnt make the right decision. Also, is it better to just rent points if you want to stay at Disney? And what are your thoughts on the buying points in the resale market? Any advise you could give would be great!
1) You don’t need 330 points. Way too many.
2) Using points for cruises is terrible value.
3) I would not buy directly from Disney. The resale market is the only way to go if you’re concerned with value.
4) I would cancel, take some time to do some research, and go from there.
Hope that helps! Best of luck with your decision!
Tom- you read my mind !! My favorite disney site has now just posted a comprehensive guide on the prime disney related topic in my life right now. Excellent!
Mitch, hope you enjoy it! We didn’t “just” post it…it’s actually from 2011. I just went back and refreshed it for 2013. I’m in the process of doing this with all of our “big” posts that people continue to read. Keeps them relevant and prevents me from giving stale advice that might negatively impact trips, and also brings them to the attention of newer readers of the blog who might not have seen them when they were originally posted. Win-win-win!
Great post Tom. We have been DVC members since 1995. Our home resort is Old Key West…which we love. The larger villas and parking near your door are wonderful. Having the ability to do laundry when we want…not having to bring clothes for the entire stay is great. We bought in when we were a family of 3 and now are a family of 5. It’s great having us all in one villa and having multiple bathrooms (2 if we have a 2 BR villa). So much better than having us all share a bathroom or splitting up the family between 2 rooms. Frankly, not having “mousekeeping” everyday is relaxing…it’s like being “at home”
DVC is also great for when we go to Disneyland….I don’t have to worry about paying for a hotel….the 3 Disney hotels are available as are the villas at the Grand Californian…if you can get in.
One additional comment about “running the numbers”….we only did a quick crunching of the numbers…more of whether we could afford it, no so much if we’d save money. Its something we wanted to do and figured it was a “value” to us.
If it’s something you want to do, more power to you! I know I don’t crunch the numbers every time I buy something. There are some things that you simply KNOW you want, and you buy them!
If you look at any timeshare simply from a financial POV, you can never justify it UNLESS you get it very cheap via resale. Even then, in my experience (DVC, Marriott Vacation Club), you typically can rent someone else’s for an amount equal to its annual maintenance fee.
Don’t forget the maintenance fee when calculating savings!
Also note that Disney has first right of refusal for resales. Marriott has started buying up cheap resales to keep them off the market, indirectly coercing potential buyers to buy from them at full retail. I still can’t believe Iger & Co. haven’t started doing this yet.
Orlando is the worst place on the planet to own a timeshare. I realize DVC isn’t just Orlando, but it should be noted. For example, we once traded a Marriott Vacation Club 1 week 1BR in Maui (their top destination based on demand) for a 3-BR suite in Orlando. Another thing to note is that Marriott (and most other major timeshare players) timeshares are perpetual, meaning they last FOREVER and can be passed on for generations. DVC is not perpetual, and you’ll likely exhaust it before being able to pass it down.
The single best reason to buy a timeshare is if it guarantees you your preferred accommodations, at your preferred resort, when you prefer it. For some this is worth the money, for others it isn’t. While we use timeshares at other locations, we will never buy DVC.
Interesting stuff. A couple of notes:
Per point rental prices for DVC are typically 2-3 times annual maintenance fees.
Disney does exercise ROFR, but it’s increasingly uncommon. I think it all is dependent upon inventory now…the Company doesn’t want to end up buying back hundreds of SSR contracts that it can’t sell for full price.
I’d be curious to know if you have any insight as to how easy it is to get reservations without planning far in advance. We live in Tampa, so a lot of our resort stays are planned weeks or sometimes even just a few days in advance – is it still possible to book DVC rooms that close, vs. the regular 7- and 11-month reservation windows?
If not, I could still see us possibly buying and just using DVC for longer vacations every couple of years, but it would be more appealing if there was actually a chance of booking a weekend stay if we decide on the Tuesday or Wednesday before that we need a little break!
It’s possible, but you’re likely to be stuck with Saratoga Springs or Old Key West 95% of the time…that’s assuming anything is available.
If you do buy, I’d plan on using it for longer vacations, not impromptu weekend trips.
Tom’s right it is possible and we have done it. It’s best at your home resort. They try really hard to make it happen, depending on how busy they are. They will even put together an itinerary if you are willing to move during the stay.
Nice write up! I have no illusions that DVC has actually saved us money, because if we hadn’t bought in we probably wouldn’t be going. However since we did become owners, and financed through Disney at that. I can say without a doubt that being members has GREATLY improved the quality of our lives. We’ve spent more time together as a family, I’ve gone places I would have never tried without it, DH and I have done some childless getaway trips, and being able to get down to WDW more often has even given me an edge professionally. I owe that all to joining DVC. DVC isn’t for everyone, for all the reasons that you stated above, but for us the lifestyle benefits outweigh any money.
“for us the lifestyle benefits outweigh any money.”
That, right there, is reason enough for you to purchase, and the rest of my article should be irrelevant. For many people, those “x factors” of happiness and quality of like that DVC brings are more justification than anything else!
We’re AKV members since Feb 2008 & LOVE it! The best advice I read was to buy where you want to stay–I saw so many people on various Disney boards who would buy SSR because it was cheaper, & then complain when they couldn’t get into the resort they really wanted at the 7 month mark. We bought from Disney and got the smallest number of points possible to get in, & it’s worked well for us so far. I would add that people should be careful about buying the # of points they need for specific stays (i.e. 5 nights Sun-Fri first week of Feb), for the simple reason that your touring plans will probably change. When we bought, both our sons were in elementary school & we could take them out for a week at any time without problems. Once our oldest started middle school that changed & we now have to travel during the summer–had we bought only enough points to cover our preferred travel time we would have been out of luck. I also remember the uproar when Disney re-adjusted the points charts–many people who had bought with very specific vacations in mind found themselves SOL.
I don’t know if we’ll ever add more points–the boys are getting older & I’m not sure how many more regular family trips there are in our future. But we are very happy with our purchase and foresee getting a lot more use out of it for the life of the contract
Glad to hear that you’re happy members!
I don’t necessarily agree with either of these points. With the first point, you’re right that people who love one resort–and only one resort–should buy there. However, people who prefer a certain resort but don’t necessarily NEED to stay there should be fine buying into SSR. Since we became owners, we’ve NEVER stayed at SSR. Even when we haven’t gotten our first choice, we’ve always been able to get a great resort at the 7 month mark…and that includes traveling during popular times of the year for DVC. You just have to have reasonable expectations and be willing to go with the flow. You may not get Beach Club Villas during Food & Wine at the 7 month mark, but you won’t be stuck with OKW, either. Of course people on the forums are going to complain, though…that’s what they do!
As for the second point, I wouldn’t say that anyone is “SOL” if they buy for specific vacations in mind…you can always add-on points. You can’t, however, sell a portion of your contract if you buy too many points and finding that you have more than you need. Buying more points than you need is a good way to “future-proof,” but if you’re approaching this from an economic perspective, it’s wasteful.
Right, there are options if they buy for specific vacations, but a lot of people don’t want to add on points
. I suppose I should say that back when we bought, the advice from Disney (and some others around the internet) was to figure out when you wanted to vacation, what your room preference would be, & to buy enough points to do that vacation. People who followed that advice quite often found themselves lacking points when they discovered they had to change their touring plans. When I told people we just bought enough points to get our foot in the door (didn’t know about resale at the time)they quite often told me that I’d under-bought. As you say, I’d rather under-buy than over-buy–you can add more salt to the soup, but you can’t take it out 
Love your photos, btw–my husband has been doing photography for a couple of years now. He had just started when we took our last Disney trip a year & a half ago & said there really wasn’t anything “new” to take pictures of–I quite often post your pictures for him so he can see just how wrong he is
I saw where you stated 330 points for a family of 5 was too many.
I know a lot of variables come into play, but generally speaking, how many points would you recommend for a family of 4? After doing some research, my preference would be to routinely stay in one bedroom villas.
Depends on your length of stay, time of visit, and preferred resort. For a week, you’re looking at about 200-300 points, depending upon the other factors.
Check out the point charts: http://dvcnews.com/index.php/dvc-program/points-charts/dvc-resorts
Note that while daily point amounts CAN change, weekly amounts cannot. That means that if weekend ‘rates’ go up, weekday ‘rates’ must go down (or vice-a-versa).
Do you mean that DVC has a policy that states that weekly amount of points can never change? I’ve been considering buying DVC but am concerned that they will increase the points needed to go on vacation. If I have a guarantee that the total amount of points needed for a week will never change it makes me much more comfortable to buy and gives me a better idea of how many points I should buy to start with.
Seasons can adjust slightly, but total yearly allocation can never change (pursuant to the contract). Weekly allocations can change, but to my knowledge, never have. The only thing I’ve *ever* seen change is weekend v. weeknight point rates.
In other words, while a single week might shift from one season to another causing a slight increase (or decrease) in points that week costs, another week MUST shift the other direction to offset that week. The more common change is weekend v. weeknight points, and even that isn’t common.
Your membership cannot be devalued by point changes.
I think your assessment is spot on. We are a family of four who purchased awhile (10 years?) ago when BCV was just being sold. I think we got in at the right time. That said, I don’t think we have gotten a huge financial benefit out of our purchase, but there has been some. It has been more about the happiness factor for us. When paying cash for a room at Disney, we would choose a moderate resort. DVC offers us an automatic upgrade.
We also have not ever had a problem with being in another resort. We just book for our home resort and go on a wait list right at the 7 month mark. I’m sure that there may be a time in the future when when we get denied, but that just puts us at our home resort, which is just fine with us (and would be fine with us if our home resort were ANY of the DVC properties).
As to how much to purchase, here was what we asked ourselves when we made our decision: What’s the smallest room our family can possibly handle (Studio for us)? What’s the minimum time we would be able to handle going to Disney every year (a week for us)? How many points would it cost for that small room at our home resort for that amount of days during the busiest time of year (at the time, 220)? That’s what we settled on. It has offered us a great amount of flexibility without feeling like we had overdone. We’ve rarely stayed during the “premiere” times, so each time we visit, we stay longer and in a bigger room. We also don’t go every year, so we’ve banked points and been able to bring friends and family along. THAT has been the greatest benefit for us: The ability to say to our guests “we’ll cover your room,” and to have them appreciate the quality of their accommodations. It’s worked out well for us, but more for the “Magic” factor than the economic. I can definitely say that we have gotten our money’s worth, and for that, not the savings, it’s a good value.
We purchased the minimum 150 points at BWV in 2000. The only financial considerations were that we could afford it, and that it wasn’t a huge rip off. Our reasoning was that after many years of working with minimal vacations, buying in to DVC would force us to take a nice vacation at least every three years.
Over the past 13 years, we’ve used the points at WDW, Disneyland Resort, and Aulani. We’ve been able to take friends and family along with us. These are now our two daughter’s favorite destinations, and even though they are now 16 and 21, they both look forward to many more years of visits to these wonderful resorts.
We’ve bought additional points at VGC and Aulani and now do take vacations regularly. The main benefits of DVC have been an improvement in the quality of our lives, and unforgetable times together as a family.
So many different reasons to buy at DVC. We thought about it for many years and the reason we finally purchased hasn’t been mentioned here so I thought I’d add it. Before purchasing, for the last 10 years or so we stayed at Yacht Club, 2 rooms on the Concierge floor Christmas week. We wanted the convenience. We’ve been coming to Disney since the early 80′s when my daughter was young and then it was March school vacation week. Both periods don’t discount much but we got the discounts we could. Then we retired and had grandkids and the cost of Disney Deluxe vacations for all of us during prime time was very high. We started renting a one bedroom at Boardwalk for my daughter’s family and continued at our room at Yacht Club, as the kitchen became very useful for babies and young kids. We started thinking of DVC again as we had the cash to pay for the purchase and didn’t think we could continue to go as often with the high room rates. Now here is where we differ from the other thinking. We factored in the cost of getting a second home in a place like Celebration, but my husband didn’t want to be bothered with the upkeep. We like to travel but we travel all over and Disney (and Maui) are the only places that we return regularly. So we looked at the principal cost of DVC and compared it to the cost of a second home. We decided that we liked BoardWalk better. It is in the middle of everything and it’s where we want to be when in Florida. We bought a lot of points on the resale market at BoardWalk and Beach Club (for the pool when the grandkids are with us). As we go school holidays with the family we book at 11 months then but we also take spur of the moment trips by ourselves. This only may make sense in the current real estate market and lack of interest rates on savings but it works for us now. We’re enjoying it now but have a strategy of renting out the points if we ever tire of it or reselling.
Looking for assistance with one thing – what is the precise advantage of booking at one’s home resort? I can’t seem to find this spelled out anywhere.
The advantage of buying at a home resort you like is that you are able to make a booking 11 months in advance, whereas you can only book 7 months in advance at a non-home resort. In some cases, 7 months out, there is no availability at certain resorts.
ah ha! So you have a 4 month window when you’re only competing with other ‘owners’ at the home resort? That might be worthwhile for us.
Correct.
Tom I really liked all that you had to say. My wife and I have a timeshare with same other place and are looking to get out and come over to DVC. Do you know if Disney would help us out of the other place so that we could become DVC owners?
Sorry, I do not know. I’ve never heard of them doing that, but it doesn’t hurt to ask!
Really like this article. And you’re definitely right about the happiness thing being the trump card. My boyfriend and I recently went to WDW this month and met with a DVC salesman. He broke it down well and while we aren’t ready to buy yet – I’m still in college – we’re really working on crunching numbers and hoping to manage it by next year.
I just have a question though. I read somewhere about resale policies changing. Something about if you buy resale at, say OKW as your home resort, you’re locked in there and can’t stay anywhere else. I know you’re much more of a Disney detective than I am, and you’re also a member, so maybe you’d know if that’s just a rumor? I certainly hope so, as buying resale had been looking like a fantastic option prior to that rumor.
It IS possible that Disney could, in the future restrict resale members (or really any members) to their home resort. In our contract it’s explicitly stated what is guaranteed and very few things are guaranteed. As I understand it, we are actually only guaranteed that we can book at our home resort, and that if it is open to others, we will have a booking advantage there. As far as I know, Disney could theoretically ban members from ANY trading, and restrict us to booking our home resorts at any time. They seem to be pulling back benefits on resales. You can argue that the trading for cruises and Disney Collection aren’t a good use of points anyway, but it’s possible they could take more off the table for re-sales.
If you’re still in college I would really wait and think about buying DVC. It’s a HUGE commitment, not just to the initial investment but to paying dues every single year and then either taking vacations you may or may not be able to afford or having to rent points out. DVC becomes a responsibility. Also, a LOT can change in a short time. We’re VERY happy DVC members (we bought direct at the most expensive resort, and financed..essentially breaking all the “rules” but it was what we wanted), but things do change. Since I joined DVC I became a travel agent and now I’m eligible for special rates that approach my DVC savings. You could god forbid lose a job or have a medical condition. Like i said, DH and I are very happy. We’ve been able to stay in resorts and take trips we only dreamed of before DVC, but I still always advise everyone to examine it all VERY carefully, take two steps back, sleep on it, examine it all again, crunch and re-crunch the numbers because it’s a 40+ year commitment. Hope that helped!
Totally agree with your second paragraph. That’s sound advice.
Disagree with the first paragraph. This is something I see discussed a lot on message boards, but the likelihood of Disney ever implementing any such meaningful restrictions on existing members is slim to nil. The express terms of a contract aren’t the only terms of a contract (despite boilerplate language possibly suggesting otherwise). Disney’s agents make representations to potential customers about the resorts at which they’ll be able to use their points. Limiting usage after these representations–which induced execution of the contract–would expose Disney to litigation for fraud, among other things. This is why the changes are made prospectively, rather than retroactively.
In addition to writing this blog, I’m an attorney with a decent amount of contract law practice (not specifically in timeshares), and litigation like this is fairly common, and plaintiffs quite often prevail.
BTW, the above should not be construed as legal advice…it’s just my opinion of what changes Disney is unlikely to make with regard to Disney Vacation Club. Use this advice at your own risk.
When Disney made the change to DVC resales that said that you couldn’t use resales for cruses, etc. it only applied to resales after a future date. I think that if they do make changes in the future they won’t apply to current resale owners (i.e. they will only apply to the person you sell it to if you sell after the change date)
Exactly.
Excellent post! My wife and I have been considering buying into DVC for quite sometime, but with my parents already members (Saratoga, surprise) we’ll most like add to their points. One thing I haven’t seen in responses is people taking multiple trips throughout the year with their points. I know my parents bought 160 points and they use these to take 3-4 trips per year at 4 nights each, but at Disneyland and the Grand Californian. Hopefully people keep that in mind, you don’t have to use all of your points up in one week. It’s great to have the use of the DVC program and access to more Deluxe resorts, for less.
Absolutely! This is one of the great things about the point system. We’ve done single nights with our DVC points several times when we couldn’t get cheap rooms elsewhere.
What a great read! I needed this. My husband and I just started looking into this. We found the resale market extremely enticing, but we’re afraid we’ll be missing out on a lot. I keep hearing different things regarding booking non Disney Resorts…how it does not make sense to use points for anything other than DVC resorts…so of course it brings us back to thinking the resale is a better value. I’m one of those types that’s afraid to not buy from the source and thinks she’ll miss out on goodies and specials or something. Of course I would love to save a ton of money though…Other than the locations you can book at, are there really any other differences in how you would be treated? Would you still receive a dvcmember.com account and be able to do everything else? Just curious….THANKS!!!
Tom, definitely the best article on the web on DVC! We are currently in process of purchasing. We are the type who is buying from Disney instead of resale mainly due to the concerns on the limits Disney could impose on resales. Again, not sure what they could do but better to be safe than sorry I guess. My hesitation now as I’ve read things here is the comment on Disney restructuring the point system and folks being hurt due to the structure change. If they can keep changing the system then it potentially affects your investment negatively. Ex: you buy 271 for a weeklong yearly vacation and their structure change would thn require 293 for the same timeframe, requiring you to buy even more points at more cost etc.
How often do they redo the point structure?
Also, any one know the average resort price increases over the last 10 years or so for folks who rent and not DVC? Has it been on avg, 3%, 5% etc. I’m asking this cause their fees have gone up 2-3% each year and for comparison I just wanted to compare costs. Etc.
Thanks again for your work on this blog. For us, a consistent Deluxe resort user every year since 2002, our purchase will largely be the happiness factor. Probably would’ve joined sooner but couldn’t financially. We are now a family of 6 and the DVC guy said that we fit their profile for sure! Ha! He did peg us cause we are definitely Disney people.
Their structure cannot change in the way you’re describing. If a week costs 271 now, it costs 271 forever. Specific DAYS within a week can change, but those are offset by other days. This has affected people who only traveled on weekdays (as weekend rates were once waaaaaay more expensive).
As for supposed “limits” on resale, I wouldn’t be too concerned. Most of those concerns are fostered by Disney’s sales reps, who have a vested interest in you buying through them. Right now, the only limitation is not being able to use DVC points at non-DVC Disney hotels or cruises (you can still exchange in the RCI system). Using your points in the prohibited way is a TERRIBLE idea anyway, so most resale buyers don’t care. I know it wouldn’t give me any hesitation. As for what might happen in the future…so long as you’ve already made your resale purchase, you’re grandfathered in.
Thank you for the wonderful article. We are in the process of buying 220 points at the BWV. One of the advantages we like is the option to use our DVC pints at non-Disney resorts. We’d like to travel to Europe, Mexico, etc. The idea of not being locked in to Disney-only properties is enticing. WE love Disney, but we would love the opportunity to show our kids the world as well. Question: Have you heard of anyone having trouble trading their DVC points to RCI and booking rooms at the non-disney properties in Europe and the other various other locations? That would be a deal breaker for us. We’ve been told by our DVC sales rep that RCI offers a 1 bedroom suite at their properties for a week for flat rate of 160 points. That sounds too good to be true; which worries me. I would appreciate any thoughts you have on this. Thanks!
I should explain – our boys are 6 & 8 and we are all about Disney. We have annual
passes, etc. My husband and I just think that over time our travel needs and interests will continue to evolve and change as our kids get older. That is why we like the idea of traveling to other properties. AS much as we love Disney – we’d like to travel to other locations as well.
I have never heard of any troubles, but I’ve never tried this personally. From what I understand, DVC points are heavily sought-after in the RCI system, so I doubt there would be any issue. But again, I don’t have personal knowledge or experience on this.
Wonderful article! We just returned from a 4 night cruise on the Dream, as well as 3 nights at the Polynesian. For our family of 4, it was quite expensive, and we ended our trip by signing up for the DVC. Just received the paperwork in the mail and haven’t gone over all of it yet with a fine tooth comb, but I do have a question I hope you can answer.
We bought 250 points (effective September 2013), and as an incentive were given 250 additional points, effective as of September 2012. The Disney rep did not explain this, but I get the feeling that our 250 incentive points better be used pretty quickly? Can we bank these for next year? When do we need to either bank or use these points so we don’t lose them?
Thanks for all the useful information–I still think we made the right decision for our family, but I’m just scared we’re going to lose points by not paying close enough attention.
Thanks!
Sorry, I’m not familiar with the exact terms of the incentive. Have you logged into the member site to view them? Do you have any paperwork relating to the points? I would start by checking there.
We recently went through a presentation and were offered the same incentive and from my understanding the pionts being effective in 2012 means they have to be used by 2013. Since you can only use the previous year’s in the current year, but I would definitely clarify that.
Thanks for all the info. One thing you didn’t touch on was the pros/cons to “sharing” a membership. My husband and I were considering investing with his mother and father in points and was wondering if you have heard anything from others who have done this. Also, could you please clarify what “non-DVC Disney hotels” are? Part of the allure for me was that we wouldn’t have to use our points at DLR or WDW for every vacation and the fact that they had “partners” all over the world sounded good. Are you saying that staying in one of those places using your points is not a good value?
I too am still kind of confused on the restrictions on resale. We are very close to signing with DVC directly, but obviously the price difference for resale is worth considering. What exactly is the restriction – something to do with non-DVC Disney hotels? What does that mean. This article and all of the comments have been extremely helpful and this is by far the best article on this subject, but hoping for a little more clarification. We definitely will visit Disney, but likely not every year as we too would like to travel to other places (internationally mostly as our kids are getting of a better age for long plane flights). Can we still do that? Is the experience better if we buy direct? Am I correct that you cannot use DVC points from resale purchase for cruises? Can I use them for their new Hawaii resort? So many questions that obviously by DVC sales person didn’t want to answer about resale properties. Thanks in advance for answering all of my questions – I know there are a lot!
If you go to one of the resale sites like the timeshare store they will tell you the differences.I too have talked with Disney and decided to go with resale. The savings vs. what you’re losing might make the difference.
Great story, thank you for mentioning the rental option. We are annual renters, we usually rent a studio for an average of $139-$189 a night. We love it. We go once a year, but really don’t want the big commitment of buying. Next year we’ll be in a 2 bedroom from a friend for $240 a night. Well under rack rates.
Those are really great prices for Deluxe (Villa) rooms!
Have enjoyed reading all the posts. I am thinking about the DVC thing but I don’t know if it is too late in the game as I am 62 and have 2 daughters- 30 and 33yrs. One is married with two children (6 & 9) and we have stayed at the deluxe resorts for 2 trips in the past 3 years. I would be interested in a two bedroom. Love the boardwalk location as home because I have stayed there but haven’t been to OKW or SAratoga Springs area. I could see us visiting DW every year or two and as the boys get older having to go during some higher peak times . Any suggestions would be helpful
The most important point of this article is how DVC improves your quality of life. We were guilty of getting caught up in life and often postponing or skipping vacations. We purchased a DVC resale in 2011 with the guidance of our DVC owner son. Our first vacation with him, his wife, our granddaughter,our daughter and her husband was a dream come true. We feel that after our upcoming 2013 vacation with our other son and his family, the purchase will almost have paid for itself economically, and more than paid for itself in quality of life. Disney is a carefree vacation from the time you check your bags at the airport till you pick them up again on return. It gives us opportunity to spend quality time with our children and grandchildren. No regrets at all.
I am looking into buying property right now. I’ve looked at going through Disney directly, but have found much better deals through resale. What benefits would I be losing if I went resale rather than going through Disney directly? I did bring up resale when speaking with Disney’s rep, but the answers were obviously vague.
been wondering the same thing, did you get any answers to your question?
I pulled this quote from http://disneydvcresale.com/Why-Purchase-Disney-DVC but couldn’t find any more details
“However, you also need to know that buying a Disney DVC through a reseller will disqualify you from joining the incentive program of Disney. Also, there are certain privileges that you and your family may not be eligible to receive if you opt to buy DVC through Disney time share resale.”
So it seems to me that buying at Vero Beach via resale would be more economical than buying Saratoga Springs. I’m considering buying in the next year and those are always the cheapest points and considering the author’s point about “never being stuck with Saratoga” when he books, I’m not worried about not being able to make a reservation 6 months out and getting something good, or at least Saratoga Springs. Am I missing something about buying Vero Beach points? Does booking at the parks work differently with Vero Beach points than if I was an “on property” owner?
You’re missing maintenance fees. Vero Beach maintenance fees are $2+ more per point than Saratoga Springs. You’re also overlooking expiration. Vero Beach expires in 2042, whereas Saratoga Springs expires in 2054.
Vero Beach is appealing because of front end low prices, but you’re worse off buying there in the long run.
Ah…the big picture. Thanks for the answer I’ve been pondering this for some time and I just couldn’t figure out what the detail was.
We are considering going through the resale market. We live in Orlando and like to spend about 2-3 long weekends a year at the resorts. We like to stay in nicer resorts when we go. We are also annual pass holders. We don’t “need” to stay at any one particular place, but we would probably not “want” to stay at Saratoga or OKW, at least not often. We also like the idea of going to Hawaii at some point in the next 3-5 years. I am wondering how difficult it is to get a room at the Hawaii resort and others without the 11 month window. I hear and see both, “never had a problem” and “it is very difficult” from my investigations.
I also wonder about the trade off between higher/lower up front costs and the yearly maint. fees. For example, it seems as if Bay Lakes has fairly low annual fees. that would eventually even out the overall costs over the years vs. a resort like Animal Kingdom. Am I correct?
Thanks for the help and info.
Just starting my research on DVC so excuse my ignorance but was wondering what is wrong with staying at Saratoga or OKW?
We just want to be able to get the parks easier with the kids. Want a place with easy access.
ahh, I see, I haven’t looked at a map yet to see where all the properties are located in relation to the parks…Thanks!
Just came back from our 3rd trip to WDW in 3 years (our 6th overall in the last 10 years) it was our first time staying onsite and think this is now the only way to stay going forward …so we are now considering DVC…we have 2 younger children and can definitely see us coming back for many more years…we are looking into the resale market but have one question, if points are trade-able to use at different resorts, what does it matter where your home base is? I am a little confused.
OK, after my initial post (above) I went back and read all the previous comments and did a little more research on buying resale on other sites (and still researching)…so it looks like there was some concern back in Dec 2012 that Disney sales reps were starting to tell people that DVC resales were going to start being restricted to their “home base” only…so buying DVC resale points in Vero Beach wouldn’t help you get a room at SSR…many posts/pages and months later, nothing ever materialized but there was still an overall concern that it still would be possible that it could happen, so people were pretty much recommending to buy were you would like to stay…
A few more questions that I have that hopefully someone can chime in on, is it just me or is the general consensus here that given the choice, most people would rather not stay at SSR or OKW? Why is that?
Also, how hard is it to get a room in the 7 month time period vs the 11 month (if you are booking where you own)?
Has anyone heard of or had any experience/trouble booking a room in less than 7 months advance?
Lastly, if there is a forum that I should be going to for these questions, please point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance.
MouseOwners is a great forum to try, but you’re basically going to get the same answer there as the one here on the 7 month window–it depends. If you’re trying to get an Epcot resort for Food & Wine, you’re not going to have much luck. Same goes with popular resorts at Christmas.
As for people not liking SSR and OKW, SSR is unpopular because of size, location, and theme. It’s rather bland. OKW is a mixed bag. Some people love it (I do) for the large rooms, lush vegetation, and relaxed themes. Others (like my wife) think it’s “just like the rest of Florida,” and too spread out.
As for rumors from DVC reps…well, they have a vested interest in selling units. I highly doubt anything will ever change with booking at non-home resorts. There would be an incredible backlash. The only thing they’ve ever restricted have been pretty pointless perks (and terrible uses of points) for sales after a certain point.
Thanks for the followup, my continued research has turned up the same conclusions about SSR and OKW…location
and as far as resale restrictions the only stuff I have found so far was not being able to trade for a cruise or to trade for non-DVC stays, which from my understanding was/is a bad use of points anyway, so it wouldn’t concern us…
so the resale market looks like the way we will be going…now where to call “home” is the next question…
We stayed 2 weeks in Saratoga Springs in April 2013 — with several sets of our grandchildren and children each week. Since this was our very first time at WDW, we didn’t know that SSR was “not as desirable”. We haven’t bought a DVC….yet — so we paid rack rate, and it was a lot. But we thought SSR was just fine! we had a 2-bedroom unit, and a 1-bedroom unit, both very nice although somewhat dated. The pools were great! Restaurants were so-so.
Great post! I know its been there for awhile but just found it. We have been proud DVC owners since 2005, would do it again in a heartbeat! Own at SSR (never stayed there once…)and VGC in California which is very special. We have had only one issue booking at 7 months, using our Saratoga points but staying somewhere more fun for the kids…(AKV,BLT, etc.), and that was trying to book Alumni this past winter for this June. Hoping it was just the newness of the resort and we’ll get another opportunity next summer. You have brought up so many good points concerning ownership and its cost effectiveness, but we like others who have posted feel its worth every cent for the excitement, happiness and quality it brings for every vacation. Being able to return to your room for naps, prepare meals in your full kitchen, shower all three of our kids at once in the evenings (3 full bathrooms in the 2 bedroom unit…!) not to mention bringing friends and other family members with us on vacation and putting them up in first class accommodations is priceless!! Thanks again for the info and allowing us to share!