DVC Members, we need your advice!

[Mumof4mice]

The only reason to buy a DVC contract is to save money on your room. The only way to guarantee which resort will be available for your stays is to buy where you love to stay and book at 11 months out. Take some time to project what DVC will cost compared to your current WDW stays. IMO based on your situation, I would pass on buying but consider renting a DVC stay from an existing owner if that saves you some money.

Bill

Bill, I think that ship has sailed...

Yes, even with "sensible resale buys", we are still committing a fair bit of cash on unproductive, depreciating toys, that don't yield compelling room discounts!

We bought resales+75 direct because we value immersion in the bubble in our limited vacation time. But if we were less Disney crazy, a large family could probably "save" more on the total cost of the trip by purchasing a minimum point contract direct for the AP discount, Swolffin it for quick trips, and renting large offsite houses for family trips + Lyft straight to park gate.

Confession: My Disney logic also tells me that Club 33 membership, with and without DVC, would have enhanced our Disney trips the most - therefore Club 33 is the best value option? Don't look to fellow addicts in the crack house for sensible advice, OP!

On a side note, it's certainly possible for direct benefits to be removed. But Gold AP eligibility, the only benefit with real monetary value, is the LEAST likely to be removed. This is a benefit that's offered free to all Florida residents to even out park attendance. Why would Disney decide to withhold it from a client group that's demonstrated the ability and willingness to pay? Even Disneyland, which by many sources has a "problem" of too many local AP holders (who don't buy churros and merchandise), only periodically suspends new local AP purchases to cull numbers.

 

[Spark65]

Bill, I think that ship has sailed...

Very inaccurate statement don't you think.

Lets run some quick numbers. We will assume you buy a resort and stay for the entire fifty year period. Now since Riviera is the best example since it's the newest lets run the numbers. Also, lets assume nothing in costs ever change room costs, maintenance costs, taxes never increase.

Ok, so you stay in a deluxe studio standard view for 5 days the third week of January every year it will cost with tax $3,116.25 so after 50 years it will be $155,812.50 all told just to stay there 5 days.

Instead you buy say 160 points at the resort for $188.00 per point with $556.00 closing costs for a total of $30,636.00. Now I am paying cash for both so no financing is involved. Now my maintenance fees every year would be a total of $1329.60. So total cost over 50 years would be $97,116.00.

Now the numbers to stay for a week on points it would be 75 points for that room which means you can stay for 10 days a year for what others pay for 5 days and have points to bank. In reality the total cost for non-DVC to stay for the same time frame a DVC member would it will cost them $311,625.00

So unless you feel you should get everything for free I see a pretty good discount and that's buying direct.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Very inaccurate statement don't you think.

Lets run some quick numbers. We will assume you buy a resort and stay for the entire fifty year period. Now since Riviera is the best example since it's the newest lets run the numbers. Also, lets assume nothing in costs ever change room costs, maintenance costs, taxes never increase.

Ok, so you stay in a deluxe studio standard view for 5 days the third week of January every year it will cost with tax $3,116.25 so after 50 years it will be $155,812.50 all told just to stay there 5 days.

Instead you buy say 160 points at the resort for $188.00 per point with $556.00 closing costs for a total of $30,636.00. Now I am paying cash for both so no financing is involved. Now my maintenance fees every year would be a total of $1329.60. So total cost over 50 years would be $97,116.00.

Now the numbers to stay for a week on points it would be 75 points for that room which means you can stay for 10 days a year for what others pay for 5 days and have points to bank. In reality the total cost for non-DVC to stay for the same time frame a DVC member would it will cost them $311,625.00

So unless you feel you should get everything for free I see a pretty good discount and that's buying direct.

But maintenance fees are what get you in the end. In 50 years they will double, triple, quadruple. Disney will always offer bargains on booking hotel stays for cash. In 50 years Riviera won't be the finest Disney will offer for sure.

 

[disneynutz]

Any cost savings is dependent on your vacation style, likes, dislikes, and if you want to stay at a "deluxe" resort. The only way to tell is to do a cost forecast and look at your own real numbers.

Bill

 

[eMoneyBug]

What a dream Disney couple you are! Thank you for sharing. Us older folks especially my family have the Disney Worldwide Parks goals like you have already accomplished at a young age! AWESOME.

I maybe in the minority, but you both obviously have good $ careers and at your young age and love for Disney, I recommend a 100pt direct contract at Riviera. It's good for 50 years! Rent/buy transfer points from existing DVC Members if you feel like you need more in any given year ~$17 p/point. After exploring all the DVC locations if 1 or 2 really love bite yall as your favorite, then buy some resale there. You'll have direct with Riviera plus whatever you add on later! No need to rush into anything. From your reading, many go from 0 to 4 contracts in 8.3 months, lol.

 

[TheCars16]

This is a perfect thread, my wife and i (28) are in the same boat now so all of the info has been really helpful.

Question:
Not sue if this is even a possibility, but lets says your 11 months out and go to book at your home resort. Regardless of season, is there ever a chance your home resort can be fully booked at that time? if so what happens? do you have to try you luck at the next booking?

 

[chalee94]

lets says your 11 months out and go to book at your home resort. Regardless of season, is there ever a chance your home resort can be fully booked at that time? if so what happens? do you have to try you luck at the next booking?

Rarely. Mostly AKV club/value rooms and such at peak times of year.

You might want to waitlist or try other dates for your first choice of villa type but the whole resort won't be booked up at 8:10 am at 11 months out.

You should also check out the thread on walking a reservation.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Also GFV studios and CCV studios around holidays.

 

[Soap_1984]

Very inaccurate statement don't you think.

Lets run some quick numbers. We will assume you buy a resort and stay for the entire fifty year period. Now since Riviera is the best example since it's the newest lets run the numbers. Also, lets assume nothing in costs ever change room costs, maintenance costs, taxes never increase.

Ok, so you stay in a deluxe studio standard view for 5 days the third week of January every year it will cost with tax $3,116.25 so after 50 years it will be $155,812.50 all told just to stay there 5 days.

Instead you buy say 160 points at the resort for $188.00 per point with $556.00 closing costs for a total of $30,636.00. Now I am paying cash for both so no financing is involved. Now my maintenance fees every year would be a total of $1329.60. So total cost over 50 years would be $97,116.00.

Now the numbers to stay for a week on points it would be 75 points for that room which means you can stay for 10 days a year for what others pay for 5 days and have points to bank. In reality the total cost for non-DVC to stay for the same time frame a DVC member would it will cost them $311,625.00

So unless you feel you should get everything for free I see a pretty good discount and that's buying direct.

Um what about the part where you put up $30k on day 1? If you have that much cash sitting around I would guess you have a portfolio that yields enough that your $30k returns enough annually to almost cover your rack rates for several years in the beginning. You also ignore paying another $1,350 x (1.04)^49 in MF. Sure hotel rooms go up as well, but there is never a discount on points, while discounts abound and every time you go you get bounce back of 30%. Buying direct will not save you money, perhaps if you go twice every year with 3 kids and somehow stay in a studio, you save money on gold passes you could justify a payback in less than 20 years.

For the OP I agree with most others that it doesn't sound like dvc is an obvious choice. I am just one of many, but in your particular situation, the member "perks" are the only reason to buy direct and they will not save you anything meaningful. you can peruse other threads for analyses on why current dvc direct pricing renders the "saving money" bullet point on the dvc sale presentation a compete lie. If you really wanted to buy, I would go resale and live without the discounts.

I will also say that, in my experience, if you are on the ball and somewhat flexible with dates, first few weeks of September, you can get studio nights at vgf and poly at the 7 month window. I can't recall whether Pete's chart bore that out or not, but I have had repeated success (this September we did 6 nights at vgf and 4 at poly).

 

[gharter]

Question:
Not sue if this is even a possibility, but lets says your 11 months out and go to book at your home resort. Regardless of season, is there ever a chance your home resort can be fully booked at that time? if so what happens? do you have to try you luck at the next booking?

Would be very rare to happen at 11 months unless you are looking for a very highly allocated type of room such as the value studios. At 11 months out during F&W, very heavy use by DVC, we have never had trouble getting the type of room we wanted. The only time we had issues was our first year and we were booking just before the 7 month window.

 

[chainkid]

The best value is if you have career flexibility in that you can vacation when you see an opening rather than having an opening meet your vacation timeframe. I can go when I want so it was pretty easy for me to book just about anywhere I wanted. It sounds like you have the resources and the love of Disney that DVC could make sense. I would not fixate on the end years of a contract as who knows if you will be in same place at that time. I like the finiteness of this timeshare in that my family will not be burdened by maintenance fees that they could not afford down the road. Best advice has always been buy where you want to stay the most and for the least amount of points requirements. I bought in 1999 when points were running the high 60's. It has been a wonderful experience . I have added on several times all resale at BWV with same use year . BW has it all for me including cheaper point stays, Food and wine Festivals etc. I don't go every year but tend to bring lots of family or friends when I do go and that alone has been priceless to me. You are on the right track by doing your research first as it is a complicated system if you want to get the most out of it and never leave points behind. You can never have too many points lol

 

[bakerworld]

We joined DVC when we were older and just wanted to walk to a park, enjoy it for a couple hours, walk back to the pool to enjoy that for a couple hours and hop on a bus for some evening entertainment time. No adventures needed and if we saw something new, then yea It makes a nice break from sitting at a desk, getting PC red-eye.

 

[AtomicFrog]

There are a lot of good points here, so I'll just add that maybe you think about just renting points when you want to go to WDW. Put the money you would spend on purchasing DVC in a good investment account and rent points for $14-17 per point and stay where you want with the gains. Yes you lose a few perks, but I can count the number of times I've been in a DVC lounge or gone to a DVC event on one hand.... I do like a little discount on my AP and the Memory Maker and discounts that come with it.