Does owning DVC really save money?

[rigsby25]

The whole point is...the magic of Disney is...you don't seem to care about spending money. You kind of look the other way. All our lives we've been of the stay at a cheapy motel because you don't spend a lot of time in your room mindset. We stayed at the Contemporary once, with 5 people, and it cost like 6,000.00 for a week (but that of course was with tickets - which is another story). We previewed SSR on that vacation, and even the studio looked so open and spacious compared to our room. In our room at the Contemporary, we had a cooler with ice and milk and hot dogs, etc. When we wanted something to eat, we would send the kids (teens) down to the main hotel to microwave it. It was really a trek. And we knew that we would never want a cheapy hotel after staying at the contemporary. We scrimp and save 50 weeks out of the year. For two weeks, we stay in the best of accomodations. We are numero uno. It is part of what makes vacationing a vacation. I used to want a day off to rest up after a vacation. Here you have the washer/dryer, fridge, oven and microwave, and a jacuzzi. If you want, you can even come home with clean laundry! How much is that worth to you? You can't put a price on this! I have the dues taken out of my bank account monthly, and I don't look. We are borrowing into 2007, and are very happy that we can do this for the rest of our lives. Prices at the Contemporary will keep going up, but we will have our 210 points until 2042. We'll be somewhere in our 80's. We are able to take and WOW our relatives. And DVC just keeps getting better and better. I would say - go for it if you can afford it.

 

[drakethib]

Nope.

Not in our case anyway.

We now go to WDW more often which in turn has cost me more $$$ then before.

But they are $$$ well spent.

 

[CarolA]

Nope.

Not in our case anyway.

We now go to WDW more often which in turn has cost me more $$$ then before.

But they are $$$ well spent.

That's me.. And then there is the "extras" I treat myself too since "the lodging is free"

 

[Deb & Bill]

DVC saved my life. Without it, I would have had a terrible experience with an MRI. I hated the feeling of being closed in and started to get extremely nervous, so much that I wanted to get out of the tube. And they hadn't even started the process yet and I still had at least 30 minutes to go.

So I started visiting WDW in my mind. I started at TL, moved over the OKW into my villa, rode the bus over to the MK, went through all my favorite attractions at the MK, took the monorail over to Epcot and started going on my favorite attractions there. I was just on Spaceship Earth when they started moving me out of the tube.

Without my DVC, I wouldn't have had all the memories to do this. My visual imagery was so good, that I got through this horrid experience. It literally saved my life.

So, yes, this is a great experience. But it really doesn't save me money. We spend more, we go on more vacations, we buy more souveniers. Especially for the marathons - my husband loves those shadowboxes, jackets, shirts, etc. We used to go to the beach or a national park every couple of years. No, every five years or so. Not since DVC. We went to WDW in Jan, we went out west (including DL) in June. Back to DL in Sept. Coming up? WDW in Nov and June 07.

But I have great memories of my family and our friends who have stayed with us.

 

[drakethib]

That's me.. And then there is the "extras" I treat myself too since "the lodging is free"

Lodging is free is a quote of ours as well.

 

[Dean]

I doubt DVC saves many people money. I suspect the ONLY people who truly save money with DVC are those that would go yearly, stay on site and still buy tickets and the like. It encourages more trips to Disney and all the other charges associated. But it does give one a quality vacation for a controlled price, you just have to decide what that's worth to you.

 

[Lisa P.]

Our last Disney World vacation, we stayed at the Animal Kingdom. I thought the room was too small for our family (5) in the end, so maybe we need a 1 BR or bigger, but we would have needed 2 rooms to stay at the other resorts according to the booking agent we used. It cost us about $4000 to stay there for the week (7 days), not including food and other stuff, so it wasn't cheap.

A family of 5 needs a 2BR w/DVC. ~300-350 points will get you 7 nights in a 2BR when the kids are not in school. Your price for your room came to ~$570/nt w/tax. That's pricy (Easter or Christmas holiday season?) so it would cover connecting rooms or a suite at a moderate.

Given this as a pattern that continues and there's no financing cost, you'd probably break even in about a decade's time, maybe longer if you use DVC at Easter/Christmas and need more points or if you must add interest payments. Are you interested in committing to annual vacations at WDW or at least at DVC resorts for the next decade? Can you afford the upfront purchase and are you okay with it? If so, then the numbers may work for you.

If you think you'd want to take several non-DVC vacations, or stay at non-DVC properties, or if you will have to finance much of the purchase, I'd hesitate to recommend it. DVC is especially hard to justify, strictly by the numbers, for a family of 5. At least, that's what we found with our family of 5. YMMV.

I agree with those who say that very few people actually save money with DVC. Add more trips, bigger accommodations, higher park pass costs... and overall, you just spend more. It's fun. It's a choice. But it's not likely to actually SAVE most people any money.

 

[6mouskateers]

We bought in April, had our first trip 2 weeks ago ( 5 days), and are going back in December (5 more days), have stripped out 2006 points ( we have Oct use year)and have borrowed well into 2007. I am feeling a horrible case of addonitis coming on.

We ARE NOT saving any money!!!!

All kidding aside, you got some very good input here. We find that we are making more time for family things and trips and see us doing this well into our old age, with and without our kids and (future) grandkids. That's when we knew DVC was for us.

 

[toesmom]

We bought 2 years ago and have taken 2 trips in one year from Canada, 1 for 1 week and the other at VB for 5 nights.

For years we have been going to Mexico all-inclusives 4-5 star hotels which is about $2,800 Cdn for 2 adults only, when you add in 2 kids, price is close to $6,000.

Well, we are no longer taking those trips to Mexico, this year alone the rest of the family is going to Mayan Riviera and spending that $6,000 per family. Had we not bought DVC, we would be dishing out that much for 1 week alone.

So there is no question, that it has saved us money.

And we'd never normally take 2 holidays in one year, so it's been worthwhile for us.

 

[jade1]

Another consideration is - if 5, 10... years down the road you decide you don't want your DVC anymore you can sell it and get most of your purchase price back.

I agree. You are only talking about accomodations and our purchase has increased in value over the 5 or so years we have owned "MORE" than the dues. In other words I can get my entire purchase price and all of my dues combined back today and still have money left over. Would have gone as much as we did without DVC? Maybe-we were going a lot at the time so I guess we would have still bought all of our tickets and airfare anyway but all of the accomodations money would be gone with no way to recover it-and it would have been a lot.

 

[Dean]

I agree. You are only talking about accomodations and our purchase has increased in value over the 5 or so years we have owned "MORE" than the dues. In other words I can get my entire purchase price and all of my dues combined back today and still have money left over. Would have gone as much as we did without DVC? Maybe-we were going a lot at the time so I guess we would have still bought all of our tickets and airfare anyway but all of the accomodations money would be gone with no way to recover it-and it would have been a lot.

While that has been true in the past, I sincerely doubt that in 10 years the 2042 DVC resorts will be worth more than they are today, esp if you consider the value of a dollar at the time. Even with no changes in other market forces, the value will level off and start to decline at some point. For most RTU properties, that time has been just under 30 years. DVC might be protected somewhat but it will happen. Those that think DVC will be truly worth as much or more per point with only 10-20 years to go compared to today are VERY likely in for a rude awakening. But if you buy and keep it till the end, it doesn't matter.

 

[simzac]

If your goal is to save money, then never go on vacation, never purchase anything you absolutely need, just stay home and work. And when you are old, you will look back on your life and say, why? You only live once, why not take advantage of it while your young, purchase DVC and enjoy many, many years of Disney vacations to come. You can probably guess, I have lived my entire life day to day, week to week; but I try to enjoy it as much as possible even without a huge income. Is my philosophy wrong, could be, but I cringe every time people mention savings and Disney. They just don't go together, and that includes DVC. A Disney vacation is a big expense, no matter how you go about it, but it is worth every penny. This is of course JMO, and I will get down off my soap box now. Sorry if I offended anyone.

 

[mmmcq]

We didn't purchase to save money, but because we LOVE WDW. Also factored into our decision was the relative ease of vacation planning at WDW, the size of the accomodations, the locations of and amenities at the resorts and the fact that we are not good at saving money....in that order.

We had previous experience with another timeshare owned by FIL/MIL in Key West and in 1998 they had given us a week offsite. On that particular vacation we stayed twice as long as we usually did at WDW and relaxed like we never had before. We had an "ah ha" moment and realized that we were going to coming back more often - not less often like we had originally planned. So before buying offsite we looked at DVC. The benefits of being onsite far outweighed being offsite.

The year after we purchased our first bunch of DVC points we had a 3rd child and it became clear we had made the right decision. When we vacation anywhere else we have to have two rooms - it's more expensive and the logistics are sometimes tough (adjacent but not adjoining rooms).

We have stayed at POP and CBR in double rooms with a fridge since buying into DVC - but it's just to extend a trip and we consider it a "layover".

Unlike many other more organized and frugal DVC'rs we don't do the math every year because we doubt that we're saving much money. But our vacations are longer, more relaxing and all I have to budget for is airfare, park tickets and food. It's a much more manageable number for us. We consider our DVC payments (on our add-on) and our maintenance fees like part of our mortgage. It's a luxury for sure. But it's how we choose to spend our hard earned $$$ to enjoy our family time together.

My husband and I have planned a secret trip to WDW at Thanksgiving and we can barely restrain ourselves from telling the kids. We just cherish these vacations together. This year we are trying HH in April as well.

Best of luck on the decision.

 

[bpmorley]

DVC has "kind of" forced us to take vacations. And more often. Personally we think it's money well spent. The 5 DVC in WDW are great. Haven't had a bad stay yet. We only stay in studios so it may take a little longer to break even. But we'll get there.

 

[mmmcq]

Ironically just like bpmorley we found that after buying DVC points we now take more vacations in general.

I don't think it's just because our kids are older. I found that once I had to plan what to do with my DVC points (because if you don't use them you lose them) .....it forced us to plan out a whole year and where we want to be and with whom. It's painful for my DH because he doesn't like looking ahead more than two weeks.....but it's right up "I'm addicted to my palm" alley.

Our non-DVC vacations have become more interesting as well.

Okay, so I guess we definitely fall in the category of "buying into DVC has made us spend more $$$$".

 

[bpmorley]

Okay, so I guess we definitely fall in the category of "buying into DVC has made us spend more $$$$".

I think all DVC members are in that category, whether they want to admit it or not.

 

[Dean]

If your goal is to save money, then never go on vacation, never purchase anything you absolutely need, just stay home and work. And when you are old, you will look back on your life and say, why? You only live once, why not take advantage of it while your young, purchase DVC and enjoy many, many years of Disney vacations to come. You can probably guess, I have lived my entire life day to day, week to week; but I try to enjoy it as much as possible even without a huge income. Is my philosophy wrong, could be, but I cringe every time people mention savings and Disney. They just don't go together, and that includes DVC. A Disney vacation is a big expense, no matter how you go about it, but it is worth every penny. This is of course JMO, and I will get down off my soap box now. Sorry if I offended anyone.

You are correct of course but I don't think it really applies. Any time someone asks is it worth it, I assume they are talking in relative terms. Of course the comparison is the question. The answer will be different if you are comparing to Disney Deluxe vs Disney Value. And it will be different for on site vs off site. But anyone who doesn't at least consider the cost is either very rich or a fool. As for DVC being worth every penny, that is a personal observation and the answer varies from one to another. Many people actually prefer staying off site and many Disney enthusiasts prefer non DVC options. Plus, one can stay at DVC easily without owning DVC and many times do so for less than the cost of ownership, sometimes far less.

 

[jade1]

While that has been true in the past, I sincerely doubt that in 10 years the 2042 DVC resorts will be worth more than they are today, esp if you consider the value of a dollar at the time. Even with no changes in other market forces, the value will level off and start to decline at some point. For most RTU properties, that time has been just under 30 years. DVC might be protected somewhat but it will happen. Those that think DVC will be truly worth as much or more per point with only 10-20 years to go compared to today are VERY likely in for a rude awakening. But if you buy and keep it till the end, it doesn't matter.

10 years from now-yea maybe. But what about 5? Can anyone say for sure if I bought BCV for $95 today (or OKW for $72) that it wont go up $5 a point the next 5 years. If AKV levels out around $110 and CRV comes in closer to $120-I would not doubt the BCV will not be that far behind in 5 years.

 

[Dean]

10 years from now-yea maybe. But what about 5? Can anyone say for sure if I bought BCV for $95 today (or OKW for $72) that it wont go up $5 a point the next 5 years. If AKV levels out around $110 and CRV comes in closer to $120-I would not doubt the BCV will not be that far behind in 5 years.

No one can say for certain one way or another. The only thing I could say for certain is than come 31 Jan, 2042, it would be worth nothing. DVC does not have a habit of jacking the prices up immediately prior to opening sales a new resort. They usually offer it to current owners then announce a price increase fairly quickly for a few months later. I think it's very unrealistic to buy with the idea the price will increase, what will actually happens will only be known in retrospect. In part it depends on future sales, continued new resorts and ROFR. Also don't forget to factor in the costs of selling such as broker fees. I think the most one could hope for with a purchase now and a five year window, would be break even. Buying in to sell later at a profit would be very foolish IMO.

 

[bpmorley]

What do you think they will really do with OKW once the DVC contract runs out? Does anyone really think they will knock it down and build something new?