You are the experts so tell me why I should *not* join DVC?

[WebmasterDoc]

....has the number of points required for a nights stay also increased?

This has happened only once. In 1996 at OKW some nights went up a few points- others went down a few points- most didn't change at all.

While the mechanism exists to rearrange the point requirements, as PKS44 explains, the result will be just that- if some dates require more points, other dates will require fewer.

Not something to lose much sleep over!

Enjoy!

 

[vernon]

Sltrod You misunderstood my post.

The reasons/points are not related to one another If staying in top quality accomodation isn't an important factor to anyone I wouldn't recommend DVC nor would I any of the many other high quality timeshares available ( and I know there are many) , the fact they are a lower cost ,in many cases, doesn't mean they are of an inferior quality in terms of furnishings.

You are paying a premium for being on site, if being on site isn't an over riding factor then the other timeshares PROBABLY offer better value. Doesn't mean they are lower quality as same quality at lower cost= better value IMHO. That is why they are mentioned under differing points.

If I had intended it to be interpreted as you have done I would have put them together. I hope that clears up any confusion

 

[stlrod]

Sorry Vernon. As I was typing my response, I was trying to think of a way of saying that you probably didn't mean to imply what I was thinking. Now I know you didn't imply it at all.

 

[mikesmom]

Even taking your figure of $1000 for a week - that comes out to less than $150/night. Even a moderate costs more than that. From experience, I can tell you offsite accomodations with enough room for 4 can come close to that (embassy Suites, etc are about $120/nite). I'm not talking about now - I know you can get rooms offiste for as low as $30 because the hotels and motels are in an economic panic. We all know it won't stay that way and general rule of thumb is they will increase over time.

With DVC that $150/nite is firm for the next 42 years. My hubby is also an accountant. When we ran the numbers and he factored in even low inflation for the rest of the area, it was a no-brainer.

By the way, you won't care now (we didn't ) but the non-park resort experience is fabulous. Vero is awesome, and even going to WDW and just touring the resorts and restaurants is a great experience.

 

[RJSimmons]

Thanks to you all for your input. I've still been doing a lot of research on the whole deal and I can't remember who said the numbers weren't right but here is the situation:

They were kicking around so many numbers and figures but here is the short version: $20k purchase price for enough points to stay in a two bedroom each year for a week (I figured a two bedroom in case the outlaws come with or if we want to do a one bedroom for longer stay). Based on that amount of points I'd be paying around $850 - $900 (some number in that range) per year in dues that will continue to go up. Ouch that is the part that hurts. I realize the point schedule does not change as far as what you need to stay where but the dues can and will and do go up (as the resorts prices go up I know). It all sounded good when they presented me with the $300 some figure per month for however many years 10 years I believe and I could pay it off sooner etc., and I'm thinking ok that is not a bad deal, but then when I've done some figuring I've came up with the following.

$20k purchase price - one week (or possibly longer) per year for the next 40 years. That comes to roughly $500 per week per year, now add the dues of just say $875 and you are at $1,375 per year for accommodations without ever leaving home and without ever buying your park passes and airfare (I'm still a little heated that they don't offer any park passes with this whole deal).

Again, I realize resort prices go up, I realize that the dues go up too, but I was just on mousesavers.com and saw you can book a 2 br at OKW for $289 per night. Now that is incredible! Even if I paid for that myself it's a little over $2k and you'd better bellive whoever went with us would be splitting that so I just am not yet totall convinced that this is all that good of a deal. I realize you can vacation elsewhere and believe me we all love Disney and I know we want to go back at least once a year if not every other year.

Feel free to tell me I'm crazy if you'd like, anything to convince me to buy so my wife will stop bugging me. I'm just being too narrow minded possibly, and money isn't that big of an issue, but I'm trying not to throw away $20k if I don't have to and still be able to provide my family with the best vacations possible.

Thanks.

 

[DisneyKidds]

You sound just like us. I could just quote your entire post. We just returned from VWL, took the tour, wife fell in love, I think perhaps we should wait for BCV, etc, etc.

I did some quick figuring as well. The way I figure, 8 nights a year at an average of $150 a night for the next 41 years would cost about $49k. That is the minimum we'd spend on WDW lodging without DVC, would represent staying mostly in moderates, and assumes 40 years from now you can still get a room for $150.

A 150 point DVC contract, with dues for the next 41 years (assuming a 2- 3% increase per year) would cost - about $49k. That is for 8 nights choice season in a studio, with points left over to bank for other trips.

For the same money you get more visits in nicer accomodations. A good deal.

Now for my fear - that once you own, you stay in a 1 bdr or larger, fall in love with it, end up going more ofter, etc, etc. Basically, what started out saving you money could end up costing you more beacuse it is sooooo nice! You get sucked in to more frequent trips in nicer and nicer accomodations - just what WDW wants from DVC members. That is a great thing - if you can afford it. I have a feeling DVC is addicting .

 

[stlrod]

RJ, the mosuesavers rate is a great one (I think I might have even been the one to supply the DVC resort figures to Mary W.) Obviously, you can not always count on those rates being available. However, even if you could, it seems to me that by your own numbers, you'd be saving money. You indicated a yearly DVC expense of $1375. The mousesavers rate when you include tax would be over $2200 per year. You need to keep in mind that a timeshare is not an investment, it is a prepaid expense (like a Christmas Club account for vacations.) Also, you might want to try to crunch the numbers the way I did when I was considering my HH purchase. My wife and I were trying to decide between DVC and another Marriott. We knew we would only be likely to stay at HH during the summer. So, we compared the cost of Barony Bay for the summer (lowest was roughly $20,000) with the cost of a S-Th stay at DVC HH (roughly $10,000.) While I understand that I cannot count on DVC keeping its low point allocation for S-Th the same for the next 40 years, it was a risk I assumed in my calculations. When I considered that I could get a 5 night stay for less than half what a full week was going to cost me, it seemd that it was more sensible to go with DVC (I may also be in the minority of people who actually like DVC HH better than Barony Beach.) Accordingly, that's how I ended up buying 165 points (exactly what is required for a 2BR during the summer S-TH). You've already established by your numbers that you could save when comparing the cost a rate which is at a 45% discount. Now try it using only a S-Th stay and see how much more you can save.

 

[CaptainMidnight]

Another piece that should probably be factored in there somewhere is the option to be able to stretch your vacaion out a little further with the option of a one bedroom or studio. We have not tried it before, but we are planning to try our arrival night in a studio since we will not get in until fairly late at night and then switching to a one bedroom the next day to stretch our points a little further. We could always stay in just a studio for however many nights we would like, options that may not be available in other timeshares where there is only a two bedroom option. Also, the flexibility of arrival and departure dates may not be available in week based timeshare systems.

Just some consideration thoughts that helped contribute to our decision. While it may not be the best use of pointws, we also liked the alternatives that DVC points could be used toward. We hope to go to Hawaii and Europe some day, possibly spending only a few days in a hotel (not a week long) and the option available through the DVC seemed ver good to us.

I can't speak to the availabilty of hotels in other hotel chain affiliated timeshare systems for trading. Those may be good options as well. Perhaps others could comtrubute more information along these lines.

 

[Dean]

We are Timeshare people. I own DVC as well as several other timeshares. While it's true that timeshares have a bad reputation to many, that reputation was largely earned 20 or more years ago and things have changed somewhat. While there are bad apples out there, most timeshare CAN be a good option if they meet your needs and expectations. The trouble is that most people buy a timeshare that doesn’t meet their needs and do so in a very high pressure situation with a lot of lies and misleading information. They go home and it never works for them because they bought a bad product or one that’s not right for them, for too high of a price AND THEY NEVER LEARN HOW TO USE IT AND THE SYSTEMS ASSOCIATED CORRECTLY. I’m going to HI next year for 2 weeks with 2 concurrent One BR units on the Beach in Maui (Embassy at Kaanapali) and a 2 BR unit at the Embassy on Kauai. Total out of pockets costs including exchange fees, maint fees, exchange company dues and lost earnings for a year on the original costs are around $2500 for the 2 weeks. For that we get privacy, space, great resorts, kitchens, and reduced meal costs at great resorts that would be that much for one resort for one week. We trade 2 one BR Aruba weeks and 6 days in an OKW DVC 1 BR (for the 2 BR). The person I traded the DVC unit to decided he’d accept a cash payment which was advantageous to me so I took that option and used that cost for the comparison.

Timeshare can be great for families. WE enjoy the space, amenities and options available with them. We love each one we own for various reasons but DVC is our favorite because it was our first, is a quality system, is very flexible and is well, Disney.

I’ve skimmed the replies so if I am too repetitive, please forgive me.

DVC is great for those that love to go to WDW or a Disney resort, I’d say every 2 years or more and would pay more to stay on WDW property. It is not the cheapest option but it is price competitive compared to the moderates and similar options.
It is not for weekend usage due to the higher points costs.
The other points options (concierge collection, DCL, other Disney hotels) should not be a major planned usage.
Other timeshare exchanges are rarely a good deal through DVC though there are exceptions.
It is expensive and one should be able to afford it both the initial cost and the yearly fees. Though I know a lot of people feel otherwise as exhibited on this board, I feel in a purchase such as this the person should generally be able to afford it without financing. There are exceptions to this such as those with good income that pay their bills but can’t save money and those with a significant improvement in their financial situation in the near future.

There are some options here though. Say you only want to go every 2 or 3 years, simply buy less points or rent a portion of them out when not needed.