Is Disney Vacation Club worth it?

[materialgirl8558]

I was thinking of joining the Disney Vacation Club and i was wondering if it is worth it and why or why not??

Thanks
-Kristen

 

[slimplaw]

The biggest advantage with the Disney Club we had was a good price on renting a car at National for a week. This was last year and I think we paid about $150 saving about $45. I just got a club member letter today. Some of the offerings they have now are 20% off rooms at Vero Beach, 1 free weekend day when renting for 3 days at National, 20% off moderate resorts this fall and $50 Disney dollars upon check in, 20% off dining at Swan and Dolphin, and 10% off weekly and weekend National rates. I also use the 10% off the Disney Store items(internet too).

 

[CONNOR8]

I think the original poster ment the Disney VACATION club... not the disney club.I think they are 2 different things I too am curios about the vacation club..cost etc.

 

[wdwnut]

hi to all: here's a link to the dvc frequently asked questions page from the dvc board on this site: http://64.225.125.24/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1571
i think most of your questions regarding the basics will be answered there. if not, just post your question on the dvc board there.

 

[benny2bunny]

Of course it is, if you are a biggggggg disney fan and spend alot of time there then it represents huge savings, but if you want to buy if for exchanging etc, then I would say well possibiliy not. We purchased 300 point and love it although we have used our first two years points on one big holiday but it opens the doors to vast savings. On the down side the annual dues are alittle high, but I suppose it's a small price to pay. If you are considering it think carfully and I would recommend buy a resale if you can get hold of one, you save about $10 per point and are treated exactly the same, and Disney will still supply you with all of the goodies you get when purchasing.
Good Luck.

 

[OKW91]

Hi we are DVC members, and when we joined in December 91 the DVC was a great bargain. One thing were free park passes to the 3 parks at that time till the year 2000! We figured that if we went down twice a year it would pay for itself in a short time, which it has! As said in the previous posts if you are a great Disney fan it's still a great deal, for staying at a deluxe resort each time. The dues at OKW resort are not as bad as I had thought they might become when we first signed the papers. I understand that some of the other resorts are higher, this is something that you may want to check out before purchasing. I still think that if you are going to come to WDW every year, it will save you money, and give you many happy years of vacations at WDW.

 

[slimplaw]

Oops! That's what I get for going on the boards late at night. So sorry. We did join DVC in Dec 2000 at VWL. So far, we have used it to stay at Vero Beach and VWL. I believe it is a great option for us now and in the future. We also plan on using points at other vacation areas too.

 

[Lisa P.]

If you would normally expect to pay to stay onproperty at WDW at a deluxe (or perhaps, moderate) resort at least every other year, then YES, it's something you should definitely consider!

As mentioned above, it's a lesser value for someone who wants to buy it for exchanging or use outside DVC resorts. If you would be happy staying at a room or two at the All Stars, or a discounted room at the Swan/Dolphin or a beautiful offsite timeshare villa or seeking bargain rates for less frequent WDW trips or you are not confident that your interest in returning to WDW will continue, DVC may be a rather expensive way to go, IMHO. As flexibile as it is, nothing beats the flexibility of renting when and where you want. ...Unless of course, you fall in love with a particular resort and you just want to return there and own there and enjoy it as a "second home." Then the money is well spent, IMHO.

We are a family of five who discovered after buying DVC, that it was too expensive for US. So we sold it. The DVC resorts are fantastic and the program is great! But it was just too much $ for us. We'd need a 2-BR villa, ~300 points for a week every year. The purchase cost for our annual DVC 2-BR week, even on a resale is about $17,000-$22,000, plus $900-$1,200 per year in maint fees. By contrast, we have enjoyed some wonderful vacations offsite and spent $2,000 purchase, plus $350 in annual costs by trading via RCI from other areas. Since we've enjoyed the offsite resorts as much as we have, the difference in cost was not worth the convenience of onsite. And we still take advantage of great discounts when they are available to extend our trips with a couple of days at an onsite Disney hotel. Further, we have gotten discounted rental rates and traded into DVC Hilton Head Island (our favorite DVC resort) via II in a quieter season and had a wonderful time there despite not being members any longer.

It all depends on your situation. See if you fit the profile of the happy DVC'ers who would benefit financially and enjoy a DVC membership. There are plenty of them.

 

[PamOKW]

LisaP,

What an excellent well balanced pro and con presentation!! I have been very happy with my DVC purchase but you pose all those questions that need to be answered before jumping in. There's no sense in a family spending money needlessly whether it be for Concierge or DVC. There are lots of ways to enjoy WDW.

 

[Disney Doll]

DH and I bought into the DVC in Sept 1997, and have never regretted our decision! DH figured it out, and if you think you would be going at least every other year, then it is a worthwhile purchase, provided you can afford the monthly payments. Essentially what you are doing is having a vacation property, with a mortgage. I find it easier to come up with a smaller amount of money each month than to have to come up with that big chunk of change to pay for my resorts every time we go. In general, the DVC accomodations compare to a deluxe. The studio is like a deluxe hotel room, and they add a microwave, small fridge, coffeepot, and toaster oven. Again, I think it depends on your travel habits, and what type of accomodations you like to stay in.

 

[LSchrow]

just a few more notes:
biggest savings are when points are used in off-season (not holiday or summer) & sun thru thurs nights (fri & sat pts are SUBSTANTIALLY higher). to figure out your cost per point for annual usage: divide purchase price per point by the *use years* remaining. add annual dues per point. for *cost* of stay: take that figure & multiply by the amt of points needed for the resort/time of your choice.
my parents (& DB, SIL, etc) used to stay at a BW 2bd villa in sept's off-season for 8 nights, paying $500+ night. using DVC points, it essentially costs less than $250 avg per night. AND since BW 2-bd villas are so difficult to book using cash, they are thrilled to have 1st dibs using their points.
personally, we've used ALL our points in the past 2 years for 2 cruises , but definately will use them at WDW in the future, as we enjoy the MUCH larger DVC accomendations, & we only stay on-site. (btw, our BWV dues have been reduced almost 1/3 since our purchase).
it's a personal decision, depending upon finances, whether you only stay on-site, use/need larger accomendations, can get the most out of your points by going off-season and/or week-days.
hope that helped,
laurie s

 

[Disney World Mommy]

I love reading all the pros and cons on the whole DVC thing. I'd love to join, and maybe someday we will, but for right now, we love the ASMovies and just can't justify the purchase price and the dues. But that might change as the kids grow up and they want to explore and stay at all the places "mommy and daddy" stayed at before we had kids!! So only time will tell!!!!

 

[benny2bunny]

If you already vacation at WDW, then it's got to be a must, we decided to buy, after we sat down and worked out all the WD holidays we planned to take and how much the rack rate would cost us, well after looking at those figures we would have been fool's not to buy, we have "saved" at least half of what we paid for our points already and we have only been a member since Nov 2000, so it can't be bad, we used there magical points thing where you get a % off your purchase points if you allow Disney the use of them for the remaining portion of the year, since we had already taken our vacation that worked well for us, as we had been in the States for three weeks at that stage and still had one remaining. If I were to do it again, know I have looked into it alittle further, oh yes I would still do it but I would have gone for resales and gained afew points for my $$$$$, but we live and learn as they say, we have 300 points but I would like another 150, which is what I am on the look out for right now, but most people are soooooo happy with there purchase resales are so hard to find, unless you want hugh amounts of points, and they are snapped up fairly quickly=*=
Anyway we have been happy with our purchase and to be honest I can't see how you could lose, after all tell me a child that doesn't like disney.

 

[Trekker]

In an effort to keep the resort board on the topic of resorts, this post was moved to the Disney Vacation Club board.

 

[princess angel]

Definately - WORTH IT!!!!

dh and I bought into DVC in 1997, before we were even married!!! it was our first trip to wdw together,(we were engaged), we looked into dvc on our last night of the trip, and the next morning before we headed to the airport we were rwriting a check!!!
It was pretty spontaneous, but that was 4 years ago, and we agree that it was the BEST thing we ever did!!! never regret it for a second!!! we use dvc points for our longer stays, we previously used points for our stays at the GF, but that was when we went once a year, now going more often it makes sense to use the points at BWV, which we love! it is a deluxe resort!
and for our shorter trips we pay $$ at a deluxe resort of our choice, YC, Poly, GF... with an AP discount!!!! works out great, and enables us to get to wdw much more frequently then if we had to Pay $$$ for every trip!!!
dvc is awesome!!!!
go check out the dvc board!!!

Laura

 

[JonHM]

Just make sure you don't go on a DVC tour and walk through the DVC 1 or 2 bedroom villas, it will suddenly make the AS rooms seem incredibly small... We went to the presentation and tour on our last trip, and just fell in love with DVC!

 

[Rock'n Robin]

Well, we have 160 points at BWV and just added 100 at VWL. We stayed one week at BWV in a 1BR this summer--would have been around $3000. Next year it's 4 nights in a VWL 1BR and then 5 nights in a 2BR at VWL--about $1700 and $3000 rack rates.
The cool thing is that next year we will go 2nd week of July and get APs--then in 2003 we'll go first week of July. So in 2003 we will have no ticket cost and no room cost!
I have been pricing out cruises too--using some points for a cruise would take a big chunk out of it--one week in the western carribean with air would cost my family of 5 almost $10,000! No way we'd do that. Getting DH to cruise may take a few years, but in the meantime we have the points for WDW every year, even in summer since I teach and can't go other times.
Robin M.