What made you decide to join the DVC?

[Goofynut]

I am thinking of joining the DVC but not sure if it is the right thing for me. What helped you decide? How did you know how many points to pick? Anything you can tell me would be great. I love going to Disney. We love the Disney meal plan and we do not say at the motel much. We hit the parks early and come back to the room to take a nap and then head right back to the parks. That is why I not sure if DCV is for us. I need your help!

Thanks

Hope this is where it should be I am very new at this.

[MichaelColey]

I'm not a DVC member yet, but I am currently looking for a small resale contract (25-50 points) primarily for the AP discount.

What kind of unit would you be staying in? That makes a huge difference. Points required vary considerably depending on the size, resort, view and season:

Studio: 54-217
1BR: 103-462
2BR: 141-646
3BR: 218-1358

If you figure points somewhere closer to the median point value (about 100, 225, 350 and 600) and a weighted cost of about $8 per point (factoring in financing and/or opportunity cost of the upfront costs), that puts your net cost per week at about $800 (Studio), $1800 (1BR), $2800 (2BR) or $4800 (3BR). (And it'll just go up from there, as maintenance fees rise.)

To me, the Studios are a decent deal but the others are all pretty outrageous. You can rent nice 2BR or 3BR timeshares off-site for $500-$1000 per week (or own for less than that if you make some good choices, but do your homework first).

[Brandie]

My husband finished his degree in So Florida. We were poor students, so we didn't make it to Disney World much and when we did, we did it as cheaply as we could. Our last trip before finishing school and moving out here was a "no park" trip where we purchased a one day water park ticket and then found other stuff to do that was cheap or free. At the time, DVC was giving a free meal for sitting through the presentation. Seemed like a fine way to spend time (since the parks weren't an option) and a free meal fit nicely in our budget. We toured SSR. We loved it. Not neccessarily because of the theming, but because of the luxuriousness about it. Up to this point ASMo was our only experience with Disney lodging, and we had considered that a splurge.

The voucher for the meal was for our choice of many restaurants that were in parks. I believed the DVC guide suggested Beaches & Cream for our free meal because it wasn't in a park. He may have also considered that they don't take ADRs so we wouldn't get turned away because we didn't have any. More likely, however, was that he knew we'd have to pass SAB. Wow.

There was no way we could have afforded DVC at that point, but it had impressed us. We knew that we'd want to come back and experience Disney the way all the people we'd seen at SSR and SAB were enjoying their Disney experience. We also considered that our family was growing (up to five at that point) and that when we wanted to stay at Disney we'd need more spacious accommodations. In a few years, DVC would not be out of our reach financially.

Fast forward to just over a year later. We're on our second trip to Disneyland since the move. We go through the presentation again. We are pretty curious about the plans for a DVC in California. They tell us that if there is going to be a DVC in California, the first people to have the option to buy will be current DVC members. That's about all we needed to hear to sign up. That's why we own at SSR. The THVs became associated with SSR a few years later. We couldn't be happier with how that turned out.

When VGC became available for purchase I called our guide to exercise my rights to buy as a current DVC member. We'd imagined that we'd be at Disneyland more often than WDW, but the point cost is pretty steep and we've become a family of six that can only travel at peak times. WDW is where we're spending most of our vacations.

We've already outgrown our two contracts. I think I'm in the market for another 150 points at SSR. And then, I'll only have 3 contracts to pass on to my children. So, maybe I should throw in another 100 or so points at VGC?

[lisapennie]

DH and I bought at SSR in 2006 - we both loved Disney, and we were familiar with timeshare-style vacationing and prefer it to hotel-style vacationing. A consideration for us that makes DVC a great option over other timeshares in the area is the Disney transportation - we don't drive down, and we have only rented a car once. The on-site transportation saves us money in that respect. A bigger issue is that we prefer staying on-property in general - it's part of the vacation experience for us. We've stayed elsewhere and didn't enjoy it as much.

We don't really do studio vacations very often, as we typically bring others with us to the parks. The other issue is that we prefer having a king-sized bed (I'm a bed hog), which isn't an option in the studios. We don't have kids and we aren't planning to ever have any, so our decision was in no way based upon a "we vacation this way now, but might want to do other things in the future" type of mentality. For a lot of people with children, that is a concern. Will your kids still want to go in a few years? If they don't want to go - will you still want to go?

I think the point thing is personal - you really do have to evaluate how often you intend to go and what type of accommodations you'll be staying in. You should also consider - when do you make your plans? If you make it a year or so in advance, then home resort matters a lot. If you make them seven months or so in advance, home resort matters not at all. However, you should then consider that you likely won't have your first choice of accommodations unless your first choice is OKW, AKV, or SSR, as the other resorts all book up faster.

[Goofynut]

I want to say Thank you all for your info. I know I will never not want to go to Disney World and I am sure that make kids will want to go too. I also can not picture staying off site. We love on site along with the Disney transportion. You have all giving me lots to think about.

Again Thank You~

[texhanddoc]

There is a lot that goes into the decision. The number one important thing to consider is are you really going to go do DW at least every other year for the LONG term. If not, dont do it. If you have to finance a large amount of the buy-in, its probably a bad deal for you.

[MichaelColey]

In general, it's never a good idea to finance any timeshare. If you can't afford to pay cash, you can't afford it.

[texhanddoc]

In general, it's never a good idea to finance any timeshare. If you can't afford to pay cash, you can't afford it.

Amen brother.

[Goofynut]

Thanks for the info.