What makes DVC worth investing in?

[LadyNia]

My husband and I have recently begun looking into buying into DVC. We are having a baby soon and are looking forward to future WDW family trips. However, the yearly annual dues seem high and as though they may change unpredictably. To us, it seems more cost effective to pay for vacations as we take them rather than invest in DVC. My question is, does DVC save you any money in vacationing at WDW? Also, what are the advantages to buying into DVC?
To give some background information: I am a teacher which means we can only travel during peak vacation times. The amount of points we would buy would reflect peak season point values which would in turn reflect how much we pay in yearly maintenance fees. We would also prefer to vacation at WDW around every other year. We do love Disney, but we also like to vacation other places.

 

[kboo]

There's a lot of info on these boards, especially the sticky posts in this section ... Prices have gotten a lot higher in the last 2 years, and it seems like it's taking a lot longer to "break even" whether you compare it to rack rate, discounted hotel rooms, or renting points. And traveling during peak times can be tough - although one season you might look into is late summer, before school starts. It's hotter than Hades, but you can usually get decent room discounts and it's not so much as a rush to book rooms super far in advance (like 11 mo). Also keep in mind that "peak vacation times" in terms of higher point costs doesn't always line up with "hardest times to book a DVC room".

FWIW, we didn't buy into DVC until our older kid was almost 6, in kindergarten. While I say on here often that I wish we'd bought sooner, and more points, that is said with the benefit of 20-2- hindsight. We bought in only when we were ready, we felt that we could handle it financially, and we didn't buy a gigantic contract to start. Unsolicited advice: traveling with a baby is still pretty easy considering what it's like to travel with them when they start to have all sort of opinions of their own and actually express them. Having a baby is a HUGE life change that may change a lot of things in your life, so there is no hurry to buy DVC now. It's pretty easy to travel with a baby in a hotel room, less so once they start getting bigger. WDW and DVC will always be there, so you might want to wait and see how (if) your travel preferences change after baby gets here. And congratulations!

 

[stewart715]

It's a really complex question and there is a long never ending answer. Ultimately, if DVC didn't save you money, it wouldn't have such a great reputation nor would it maintain or even increase in value as it has over the many years of its existence. Ultimately, DVC will save you money on deluxe accommodations. For this to work out in your favor, you need to commit to going to WDW every 1-3 years, for many, many years.

If you travel to WDW every other year, at the same time in the same deluxe accommodations, DVC is a no brainer. Buy half the number of points needed for the room type you like during the season you stay (plus a little more as a buffer). And you'll have many years of vacations at a tremendously reduced rate.

As kboo pointed out, there are many comparisons that can be made to say how much DVC actually saves you. Do you compare to cost of renting points? Do you compare to hotel rack rates? Disney does discount deluxe accommodations throughout the year. Then there is the even more complicated thing to consider: how much money could you be making on the stock market or other investment vehicle with the money used to buy points?

The bottom line is DVC is a luxury purchase. It should not be considered an investment. You should not expect to make money on your points during a future sale of your points. You're prepaying for WDW vacations and protecting yourself from rising hotel costs. It's a tremendous commitment to Disney.

Finally, if you know for a fact, that you will be going to WDW every other year, for many years and you need/want/require deluxe accommodations, DVC is certainly a fantastic choice. If you are okay with moderate or even value hotels on property or want to wait out deluxe hotel discounts, you probably won't save money in the long run. Some disagree and think that even those who stay at moderates can save money with DVC. I suppose it's possible, but I just don't see the commitment worth it at that point.

Also, keep in mind that DVC requires a lot of foresight. Rooms must be booked basically at 11 months for the most part, depending on the resort and time of year. Again, it's a huge commitment to Disney.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

In addition: It's a timeshare. All "club" nomenclature is marketing.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

My husband and I have recently begun looking into buying into DVC. We are having a baby soon and are looking forward to future WDW family trips. However, the yearly annual dues seem high and as though they may change unpredictably. To us, it seems more cost effective to pay for vacations as we take them rather than invest in DVC. My question is, does DVC save you any money in vacationing at WDW? Also, what are the advantages to buying into DVC?
To give some background information: I am a teacher which means we can only travel during peak vacation times. The amount of points we would buy would reflect peak season point values which would in turn reflect how much we pay in yearly maintenance fees. We would also prefer to vacation at WDW around every other year. We do love Disney, but we also like to vacation other places.

There are cheaper ways to vacation at WDW if you're not always staying at Disneys deluxe hotels. DVC can compare to getting a room at a deluxe resort for the price of a moderate. Values should be less and moderates similar but without the up front purchase commitment. I don't know if the savings are quite as much for the high point times as it maybe once was but that's just something I started noticing on the past year and haven't really investigated.

For every other year vacations you would purchase approx 1/2 the required points for the stay and use banking or borrowing to access 2 years of points for your stay. Resale will offer savings on purchase. Renting points is an option too that might provide some savings without the long term financial commitment.

 

[Wakey]

Forget the word ‘invest’ as it should never be seen as an investment. 3 years ago buying resale was a great deal, you would have seen the value rise 25%, could perhaps have had a couple of stays and / or made some rentals with a 10% return, grandfathered into new resorts etc. Price has shot up, and DVD themselves have eroded the value of the product a bit now with these latest restrictions which may affect your return if you now come to sell, particularly at resorts going forward.
3+ years ago if you attended WDW once a year, and liked to stay deluxe it was a pretty easy decision, particularly if you could pay cash. Indeed it was a good buy if you intend to go every now and again and rent unused points, but that’s in the current rental market. I used to think to myself- just why are these people spending $500 a night+ on rooms?
Now, not so easy.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Annual fees are high. A young family just starting out probably has a lot of other expenses to worry about. Just rent from an owner until you are financially stable.

You won't really save money, but you will spend a lot more than you ever expected. Especially once your child can giggle and coo at every Mickey or Minnie toy. We never expected to purchase DVC 23 years ago on our first trip. If we added up all the money we have spent at Disney since then, we could have paid cash for our newest home.

 

[ClosetDisMom]

My husband and I have recently begun looking into buying into DVC. We are having a baby soon and are looking forward to future WDW family trips. However, the yearly annual dues seem high and as though they may change unpredictably. To us, it seems more cost effective to pay for vacations as we take them rather than invest in DVC. My question is, does DVC save you any money in vacationing at WDW? Also, what are the advantages to buying into DVC?
To give some background information: I am a teacher which means we can only travel during peak vacation times. The amount of points we would buy would reflect peak season point values which would in turn reflect how much we pay in yearly maintenance fees. We would also prefer to vacation at WDW around every other year. We do love Disney, but we also like to vacation other places.

My husband and I are both teachers. We travel in July for big vacations. We bought in and, yes, we believe we are saving money. My husband - the math teacher - was very skeptical at first. However, he set up a formula that he felt good about and I - the English teacher - researched the appropriate numbers to plug into the formula. We decided that we would be traveling during July for 6 nights every other year. We compared the prices (at the time in 2017) between the family suites at AoA, the one bedroom villas for DVC, and the suites available at the deluxes. After staying on property in 2016 in Pop, we knew 2 things: we were never staying off property again and we needed more than a single regular hotel room for long trips. When we ran the math, we were going to "break even" - in our definition "surpass what we paid to buy in" - after 4 trips if we compared Deluxe to DVC and after 6 trips when compared to the AoA suites (in years, that meant after 8 to 12 years we were going to surpass the initial cost for points with savings with every other year trips). Was our formula good? Sure. Was it perfect? No - if you research here on the boards, our formula did not account for the time value of money (very hot topic here). We also didn't factor in large jumps in dues (like those last year), but we did factor in dues and the inflation of hotel room cost. We were also using resale pricing for DVC from 2017 - right now the resale costs are more expensive.

So, to directly answer your questions: Yes, we believe we are saving money - sort of. Since doing Deluxe accommodations, we won't go back to value EVER. We also found the points system so flexible that we squeezed in a long weekend trip in January (MLK break) and plan to go this Sept for another long weekend. So, that every other year plan went out of the window... So, it is costing us more. But, I see this as a benefit - which takes me to your second question. I like the option of going when we can afford to plan it, not just locked into one week every other year. I love the accommodations; I would never have splurged for Deluxe Resorts if not for DVC. We think the space in the rooms is great for staying with our family of 4, which you will understand when you travel with your kid (or future kids). I like that going to Disney isn't as far as a reach as it once was because I locked in a part of the price. I like the option to share DVC with extended family, too (we took my mother in January and plan to take my MIL next January). These are benefits.

 

[CarolMN]

..........(snip)........ So, it is costing us more. But, I see this as a benefit - which take me to your second question. I like the option of going when we can afford to plan it, not just locked into one week every other year. I love the accommodations; I would never have splurged for Deluxe Resorts if not for DVC. We think the space in the rooms is great for staying with our family of 4, which you will understand when you travel with your kid (or future kids). I like that going to Disney isn't as far as a reach as it once was because I locked in a part of the price. I like the option to share DVC with extended family, too (we took my mother in January and plan to take my MIL next January). These are benefits.

This is very typical and part of the genius of Disney with DVC. A very large number of Members end up spending more after buying DVC. They go more often, stay longer, stay in larger rooms, try more expensive resorts than their home, treat friends and family, etc. It's a rare buyer that keeps to the same travel pattern after buying than they originally planned /used to analyze the purchase.

 

[kniquy]

However, the yearly annual dues seem high and as though they may change unpredictably. To us, it seems more cost effective to pay for vacations as we take them rather than invest in DVC. My question is, does DVC save you any money in vacationing at WDW? Also, what are the advantages to buying into DVC?

If you look through the purchasing forum here you will see how many people value their DVC. Some people will take their financial evaluation further with looking at what that same money would do if put in investments vs put aside for vacations. I prefer to take a simpler approach and realize that i will take vacations and that money will never make it into an investment.

If you buy in resale then your breakeven point is around 5-7 years, if you bought direct it would be more.

The MF are not high compared to what the cost of direct rooms from disney are.

For example -- I could take my contract that i bought in 2015 for $9600 (AK 120 points) you can divide that by the remaining time on the contract for a yearly amount of $229/yr. Add in the yearly MF of ~$850 -- we used almost 3 years of points to book 2 Poly studios for 3 nights and a 2BR at AK for 4 nights = Approximate total cost for me based on my buy in and MF was around $3200. If I were to book those same rooms through disney it would have been over $8000. So there is definite savings to be had. Plus if I wanted to I could sell that contract and actually make a profit.

We would also prefer to vacation at WDW around every other year.

If you want to vacation every other year then buy 1/2 the amount of points that you would need, so with banking or borrowing you will have enough points. I'd check out the Davids DVC rental site to use their cost calculator. It is a great at a glance view of all resorts and all points cost. This may help in your decision making process to know the different in points cost for the same room at different resorts. It does vary considerably. I would caution that at times there are points re-allocations. This is where they may increase or decrease the points cost for rooms. With knowing that could happen I would give yourself a cushion and buy 10% more points. So for example if you wanted Polynesian - a week in a studio is 169 points, going every other year you really need to buy 85 points, but to be save i would buy a 100 point contract to have a cushion of points.

 

[ClosetDisMom]

This is very typical and part of the genius of Disney with DVC. A very large number of Members end up spending more after buying DVC. They go more often, stay longer, stay in larger rooms, try more expensive resorts than their home, treat friends and family, etc. It's a rare buyer that keeps to the same travel pattern after buying than they originally planned /used to analyze the purchase.

I was warned about the "up spending" after buying into DVC - on this very board, by some really veteran members. And they were right. But, for now, I am ok with it. I realize that the Mouse's marketing team is a pretty savvy bunch and that most "pixie dust" is really just very shiny, very polished marketing. But, I like it. I can go back to the pattern I planned to follow if I want to later... or not... the latter is probably more true though.

 

[skippytx]

I don't think "investing" or "saving money" should be terms used when thinking about buying into DVC.

Can you save money buying into DVC... in certain scenarios, given certain variables, you can spend less money than you otherwise would... so in a roundabout way yeah.

DVC is expensive, using DVC is expensive, and everything about WDW trips costs a relative fortune. I've spent so much MORE money on WDW trips since buying DVC than I otherwise would have.

If you're happy staying in value accommodations or offsite, DVC makes no sense. If you can't plan your trips 8 or more months out, DVC probably doesn't make a lot of sense. If you're going to visit every 2 years or more, and need larger rooms or like nicer accommodations, DVC can help reduce those costs.

I'm happy with the product, we enjoy it, but it's not for everyone and I've actually steered family away from buying into DVC because I know it's not right for them.

My wife and I own 185 BLT points. We paid roughly 26K for the points total. Annual Dues are a little under 1200 dollars a year right now, and will just keep going up. 7 days of tickets for my family of 4 and airfare just to get to the parks runs at least 3 to 3.5 thousand. That doesn't count any food, souvenirs, or any other costs. The memories I get to make with my family, and the enjoyment we get out of our WDW trips makes it worth it though.

 

[katandmouse]

OP, this is all such great advice and if you continue reading on these boards you will continue to get great advice! I cannot agree more with everything that’s been said.

DVC is not for everyone. There are many great ways to vacation at WDW, and DVC is an expensive option. DVC can be appealing if you go every year or 2, want the on-site benefits (FPs, ME, transportation, etc), and want the larger villas or deluxe resorts. Oh, and if you can afford it comfortably now, and not worry about scrambling to pay rising dues or if you need to sell (you may not get any of your money back). You’re also smart to consider the rising dues, as over time they will cost you more than the initial purchase price.

We just bought BCV resale, so I’ll share our rationale: We have 3 young children and found ourselves planning ahead for trips over the next 15+ years, as they hit different stages and going with/without extended family. With 3 kids we need more space, and also prefer a kitchen (the washer/dryer is a bonus too). We value staying on-site and really prefer walking to parks whenever possible, or at least using public transportation vs driving ourselves (even the Disney busses lol). At first I thought we could stay at the AOA or ASMu family suites, until I realized they only have a kitchenette. Then I planned on the Ft Wilderness Cabins, but the bed layout is not ideal and I don’t like that they cut the kitchen features in half with the convection/microwave oven. (For some reason it seems like Disney doesn’t want you cooking while you’re there, like they want you eating out all the time. Go figure!) Anyway, that all led us to the DVC Villas - those are the intangibles that make DVC worth it for us.

One more thing I’ll add: we chose BCV because it’s our favorite resort (and despite the high cost now). The fact that the lease expires in 2042 wasn’t a deterrent and actually was a positive for us - I can envision vacations up until then, so I feel comfortable committing to 23 years of dues. But by then our youngest will have been out of the house for a few years and we don’t know if we’ll want to continue going to WDW. If we do, we’ll add on points (I already have plans ) or maybe help our children set up their own memberships.

 

[Jason@dvcstore]

My husband and I have recently begun looking into buying into DVC. We are having a baby soon and are looking forward to future WDW family trips. However, the yearly annual dues seem high and as though they may change unpredictably. To us, it seems more cost effective to pay for vacations as we take them rather than invest in DVC. My question is, does DVC save you any money in vacationing at WDW? Also, what are the advantages to buying into DVC?
To give some background information: I am a teacher which means we can only travel during peak vacation times. The amount of points we would buy would reflect peak season point values which would in turn reflect how much we pay in yearly maintenance fees. We would also prefer to vacation at WDW around every other year. We do love Disney, but we also like to vacation other places.

If you are a teacher and can plan 11 months out then I would recommend buying at the resort you want to stay at and make those reservations 7 to 11 months in advance. If you need 300 points every other year then you could purchase 150 points and use them every other year.

 

[crisi]

My two cents - if you have to save money in order for DVC to work for you - it won't work for you. EVEN if you manage to keep your travel patterns the same - stay in studios, don't take extra trips, don't bring guests, don't end up with souvenirs on every vacation - the risk involved - more restrictive cancellation policies, point expirations, banking and borrowing rules, plus the risks of having capital tied up - means it isn't a good choice.

We bought when our kids were three and four (about then). They are now both young adults. We are frugal people with two very high incomes (mine is smaller now that I semi retired) and a sizable investment portfolio - and raising two kids (college tuition! car insurance! activities! - oh, and medical bills - turns out my daughter has a cardiac irregularity that set us back $8k out of pocket this year - while she was doing her Freshman year at college 1500 miles away! Ambulance rides and stress tests are expensive. She's "fine" - she'll likely need medication sometime in middle age, but at 19, she's fine) has been more expensive than I could have imagined when they were little. You will have so many other financial priorities with children - do not make the mistake of giving them Disney every year or every other year and burdening them with excessive student loans in exchange, or not being able to afford the baseball camp that everyone else is going to for a week - that isn't a good trade. And don't plan on their childhoods going smoothly - life has a way of throwing curveballs - and kids add to the number coming over the plate - curveballs are sometimes expensive.

 

[kniquy]

We are having a baby soon

With this in the equation I would consider waiting to purchase until after the baby is born and you have a good handle on your financial situation after baby. You will be surprised how much that little bundle drains your bank account - from diapers to daycare and everything else in between-- they are pretty pricey. So if you are looking at the MF now and saying they look expensive then it might be something to really write out the expected expenses from the baby -daycare (that is unless you are staying home, is crazy expensive) I know for me in my area (western MA) full time per month was around $1000. My girlfriend just outside of Boston was around $1500 per month and then she had a second child so then $3000 per month just for daycare.

Just make sure you can afford both baby and DVC. At least with DVC you can choose to sell it if you buy and realize it doesn't make sense for you.

If you are looking to purchase cash and are not financing then the purchase with having the MF can be manageable. You can have MF taken out of your bank account monthly so you don't have to pay the full amount at once, but you can if you want to. If you are financing then you should really factor and look at all your finances. If you finance you don't really want to take the full 10 years to pay off because any savings you had because of DVC will be eaten up by interest.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

-daycare (that is unless you are staying home, is crazy expensive)

And, of course, if you're staying home, your entire revenue stream and budget changes immensely, often in ways you didn't predict.

 

[stewart715]

It is true, DVC can save you money but it generally doesn't. You end up going more often than you would (there are years you would skip if you didn't have DVC), you end up going more frequently than you would (you may never go more than once a year without DVC). You end up wanting to buy more apparel, gear, etc. than you would without DVC. You end up going to WDW for many years longer than you would without DVC.

Again, DVC can definitely save you money, but it probably will end up costing you more than if you didn't have it and just rented points or booked discounted on property hotel rooms on an as needed basis.

 

[LadyNia]

Thanks for all of the input and replies. We will take this into account as we make a decision.

 

[DougEMG]

With owning DVC our daily costs works out to be cheaper, but our total spending has gone up because we stay for way longer than we use to. Now I love staying longer and I like having a lower per day costs, so I don't mind my total costs going up as I figure it is still a good deal.