Question on DVC costs

CrimsonRave

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 10, 2017
So my question is less about the actual DVC purchase, and more about the cost associated with a visit. If... I buy DVC... we are happy and ready to book! What cost are we looking at for the stay? I am talking about tickets, dining, etc. We usually buy the dining plan, we prefer to not worry about needing to save the money, an rather pay in advance and eat whatever we want.

So with that said, we are looking at a trip for 4 next year, and for 9 days with dining we are looking at 16k. If we owned DVC, what would tickets and food cost us? What is the best way to get tickets?
 
No DVC discount on the dining plan, or regular ticket costs. There is a discount available on an Annual Pass for DVC Members eligible for Membership Extras, but at 9 days I'm not sure it makes sense to buy them. It might be worth buying 1 person in your party an AP for Memory Maker and AP discounts.
 
if you own direct, you can save on AP and plan two trips 11 months apart, you can also purchase Tables in Wonderland, which if you like to drink would save you over buying dining plan. Research/google TIW, 20% off most sit down restaurants and some bar areas, including alcohol. with AP you can get 20% off merchandise, also with direct benefits, ie blue membership card buy purchasing 100 points direct from disney. there’s all sorts of ways to save verse rack room rate/disney sales.
 


DVC is mainly about saving on room costs, they have some other discounts if you buy direct, but they are not worth that much based on the current discounts they are offering.

Other than the purchase price (which runs roughly between 85-200+ per point depending on resort and whether or not you buy direct) the other expense for rooms is the annual maintenance fees (which run about 7-9 bucks per point depending on resort).

If you bought DVC with cash, your expenses per year for a trip would be the maintenance fees, plus whatever tickets or food you normally get. I bought Animal Kingdom Lodge points at resale and did extremely detailed math based on my room choices and typical vacations. DVC saves me considerably on the cost of the rooms. Because I bought resale I saved a ton on points, but do not get the ticket discount. This mathematically worked out better for me anyway. Even if I buy tickets at full price it still saved me more money over time buying resale vs. buying direct.

If you have good credit, low interest financing may also be a good thing, if you finance at high interest the interest expense would eat into your savings and would likely negate much of the cost benefit of DVC. I would not buy DVC points with high interest financing like you would typically see on a credit card or other high interest loan unless you could pay it all off within a year. The interest on financing can be a mathematical deal breaker.
 
I haven't stayed DVC yet... .still waiting for my points to load, but one big benefit to me is having the kitchen. We can bring/buy groceries and make 2-3 meals (plus snacks) in our room each day and that will save a bundle, I'm sure. The other reason I bought is that I am getting the top of the line rooms that I would never actually pay rack rate for otherwise. One thing I plan to do is get a 3br in a year or two (when it is safe) and invite my family to come. That one stay will be more than half the cost of my contract.
 


So then it would basically be the same costs as a regular visit - the room cost?
Pretty much. There are some discounts on dining and merchandise. Theoretically, those are supposed to be “blue card” benefits but resale buyers have reported being able to get them. Every once in a blue moon, DVC will offer some kind of ticket deal. Again, those are “blue card” benefits. Resale buyers who bought after a certain date are not entitled.

There are discounts on tours, MNSSHP, MVMCP and probably a couple of other up sells. Again,“blue card” only.

Basically, DVC is a way to pay for tomorrow’s vacations with today’s dollars. Anything else is just pixie dust that can disappear on the whims of the current management team.
 
:D:D Are they not nice and the most expensive? Certainly better than motel 6. :earsboy:
I've stayed at AK and WL in regular hotel rooms on my mom's dime. I loved them, but would have a hard time justifying the expense. And to me, this is even better with bedrooms and kitchens, etc.
A presidential suite is the nicest and most expensive. And I could have probably vacationed in one a few times for the amount of money Ive poured into DVC.

DVC villas are timeshare units. They take a lot of pounding from constant use and they are not refreshed as often as hotel rooms, so they can begin to look worn. Yes, they’re better than a Motel 6 in a lot of cases, but are we really comparing the two when the discussion is about costs?
 
:D:D Are they not nice and the most expensive? Certainly better than motel 6. :earsboy:
I've stayed at AK and WL in regular hotel rooms on my mom's dime. I loved them, but would have a hard time justifying the expense. And to me, this is even better with bedrooms and kitchens, etc.

It's a timeshare. It runs at 95%+ occupancy, a lesser refurb schedule than the hotel side, and has an abundance of pull out sofas rather than beds. Furniture is often dinged up, walls in need of paint, cabinets with doors in disrepair.

The cash price is jacked up to make the points cost look like a deal.
 
Yah I had never seen the rooms in any of the DVC sites yet. I looked at pictures of the boardwalk and was surprised at the difference in looks between the actual boardwalk rooms, and DVC rooms. Very very different.

So my last question has to do with occupancy. We are also looking at this direction cause we prefer the convenience of the location around epcot more than having to book a suite at animal kingdom. Things are in walking distance, and buses don't have to travel as far.

My question has to do with others coming on the trip. I know that we will want to get tickets and dining, but we may bring my wifes parents. They don't have as much of an interest in the parks, or dining with us for the most part, but it would be nice if they stayed with us. Do we have to include them when we book? or is it like they get to come along and we don't have to buy their tickets or dining?

Never booked through DVC so I don't really know how it works.
 
Everyone staying in a unit must be on the reservation for that unit.

DVC doesn't do packages like you do on the hotel side. But either everyone in a unit gets dining plan, or no one.
Tickets can be pick and choose.
 
for numbers 4 tickets from high quality resellers would be around $2500 (with PH)

Dining plan varies depending on which one you choose but for 4 between $2800 and 4200
 
Yah I had never seen the rooms in any of the DVC sites yet. I looked at pictures of the boardwalk and was surprised at the difference in looks between the actual boardwalk rooms, and DVC rooms. Very very different.

So my last question has to do with occupancy. We are also looking at this direction cause we prefer the convenience of the location around epcot more than having to book a suite at animal kingdom. Things are in walking distance, and buses don't have to travel as far.

My question has to do with others coming on the trip. I know that we will want to get tickets and dining, but we may bring my wifes parents. They don't have as much of an interest in the parks, or dining with us for the most part, but it would be nice if they stayed with us. Do we have to include them when we book? or is it like they get to come along and we don't have to buy their tickets or dining?

Never booked through DVC so I don't really know how it works.
while they track adult and child dining plans separately.. the adult credits would be a pool so if you usually use the premium plan you could drop back to dining plan plus. You would get 72 credits with your parents (basically it would be equivalent to 4 TS credits per day if you parents did not use a any) VS 54 for just 2 adults on deluxe . There are some other differences so you would need to look closely if it works for you

If you are not a foodie then having a villa with a kitchen can save a lot of $$$$

Epcot resorts are some of the most challenging to book so if neither is your home resort then booking right at 7 months and having some flexibility is important
 
So what our thinking is (cause it seems like their are some resale deals to be had out there) is does DVC make sense for us. We would love to stay boardwalk any chance we get. It's our preferred resort.

We have taken several trips in the last 4 years:
-5 for 9 days/w Dining at Art was around 16k
-4 for 8 days/w dining at Boardwalk as around 14k with a bounce back offer

We would love to stay at boardwalk and know that we will return for the most part every other year. We just wonder if it make sense for us. For the most part it will just be us 3, and we usually like to stay for 8-9 days, and dining is a must. Not sure we would cook our own meals, it's kind of our getaway and eat what we want.

So with that said, a DVC resale at boardwalk at around 150-200 points a year sounds like it would cover it for sure. And we are thinking after a couple of years of trips it would totally cover what we would have paid in 2 trips anyways.

It just really comes down to the end price each trip. Excluding the room, cause when we go we have been paying close to 600-800 a night, DVC seems like it's worth it for the room, thus we would have a better deal.

Thats kind of our thinking right now.
 
Another thing you have to consider is booking. With DVC, you have to be prepared to book your home resort at 11 months out; you can book any other DVC at 7 months pending availability When do you normally travel? DVC high season (Fall-January) is not the same as Disney's high season.
 
So what our thinking is (cause it seems like their are some resale deals to be had out there) is does DVC make sense for us. We would love to stay boardwalk any chance we get. It's our preferred resort.

We have taken several trips in the last 4 years:
-5 for 9 days/w Dining at Art was around 16k
-4 for 8 days/w dining at Boardwalk as around 14k with a bounce back offer

We would love to stay at boardwalk and know that we will return for the most part every other year. We just wonder if it make sense for us. For the most part it will just be us 3, and we usually like to stay for 8-9 days, and dining is a must. Not sure we would cook our own meals, it's kind of our getaway and eat what we want.

So with that said, a DVC resale at boardwalk at around 150-200 points a year sounds like it would cover it for sure. And we are thinking after a couple of years of trips it would totally cover what we would have paid in 2 trips anyways.

It just really comes down to the end price each trip. Excluding the room, cause when we go we have been paying close to 600-800 a night, DVC seems like it's worth it for the room, thus we would have a better deal.

Thats kind of our thinking right now.
WOW - $30K for 2 trips :eek:
That's more than I spent on DVC in 9 years.
Bought in 2011, have had 9 trips, Buy in was $20K, to-date-MFs are right around $10K
Granted, it's 2 of us, but we've gotten 1BRs alot, and brought our adult children & grandkids a couple times.
We never do the dining plan, and we get the GOLD APs.
I think you could save serious money buying DVC. How much of those trips costs were allocated to the rooms??
 
@E2ME2 - so the last trip we took the room cost in the package made up around 5-6k of it ($550ish for 9 days). But we added park hoppers and deluxe dining. So for us it's not necessarily about saving for the trip as much as saving on the specific hotel. Why stay at Caribbean if we can stay at Boardwalk! Granted were not loaded or anything, we just like our trips, we don't really go anywhere else. It's Disney or bust!

@aokeefe - we like to book as early as possible, so for next year we were going to be ready to book on June 18th or whatever the date would be. So if we book 11 months out on day 1 how hard will it be for us to book the studio at Boardwalk? We could do the 1BR, but the cost difference during the holidays is just insane.... We tend to visit thanksgiving week or Christmas. My wife is in education, so her days off are few and far between without costing her sick days.
 

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