From UK Point of View IS DVC Worth It

[angel659]

Hi

Its me again. Sorry.

From Uk point of view is DVC worth it. Do you save anything or is it more expensive? This is the other gripe we have. I.e is it actuallly going to cost us more than booking a villa or hotel each time we come. we would be going every other year.

Thanks again.

 

[Chris and Pooh]

Hello,

We went through the same thoughts as yourselves when we decided to buy in 2003. We bought 250 points which allows us a studio for two weeks in May/ October every year at SS. Other than the initial expense the annual maintenance fees are $82 a month this would easily pay for accommodation in a villa or hotel in the Orlando area but it depends on the standard of accommodation you are used to or expect.
We agreed that the effective extra cost of the maintenance each year was worth it because of thefollowing:

Location - If you love Disney you cannot get any closer

Quality - Second to none. The attention to detail,the service, the standard of accommodation is superb.

The perks- Discounted Annual passes, Discounted dining and shopping at Disney Stores in UK and USA.

Flexibility- Ability to borrow or bank points to suit your holiday needs and accommodation size, Different locations throughout Disney and the rest of the world

There are many other advantages which I am sure other members could tell you.

Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Definitely.
When you next go out at least have a tour I am sure you will feel the same as us.

 

[Jets fan]

There's no denying that it is initially expensive but I think it's worth it. Due to school holidays we have to travel either August, December or Easter so we go every other year for two weeks in a two bedroom villa in OKW, usually over Christmas as we find August just too hot. This enables us to bring our parents with us so it's nice for them. We need 530 points for this.

If we could use our points out of school holidays then we'd be laughing as we could do two weeks for 270ish points!

 

[mark&sue]

We think it is worth it compared to the price we paid to stay two weeks at Grand Floridian and just got a normal sized hotel room. With DVC you get a villa.

I find the flights during the school holidays really expensive. But this is for life (well another 47 years) and we won't need to go during the school holidays all the time.

We have used points for Disneyland Paris, an exchange through II in Devon and are using points for the Disney cruise next year. Oh and of course in 11 days we take two other families with us to SSR and BCV.

I love it and am really pleased, but if you do not usually stay on site maybe not for everyone.



Susan

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Hi Michelle,

We have been thinking along the same lines as you.

To be honest at the moment we are not considering buying into DVC.

There are a few reasons why:
Having been to Florida 14 times now and finding Joshua struggles more and more with the flights we are not sure how many more times we will be going.
Bearing that in mind if we were going to consider DVC we should probably have already taken the plunge by now , we have probably waited too long.

The cost - yes there is no doubt staying at the resorts is great, however it doesn't (in my opinion) save you money, not sure whether DVC owners would agree but personally I do not see it as a money saving thing, possibly in the long term but definitely not short term.
Like you say for the price of the maintainence fee you could stay in a private villa for a week.

We were slightly dissapointed with the quality of the room we stayed at last month at the Boardwalk, it wasn't as nice as we thought it would be.
Although I have to say the service was excellent, very friendly.

In addition our holiday has never been just about disney, we travel all over Florida and certainly whenever we next go it is more likely we will do a 2 centre type - I do realise there are DVC resorts all over and not just in Orlando.

Given Joshua's Autism, a private villa has to be our 1st choice, the privacy/extra room and your own pool are major factors for us - not that we couldn't stay at a DVC resort for part of the holiday.

We WOULD definitely consider staying at a DVC resort again, but we would buy points off an owner.
Had a look around SSR & BCV and really liked both resorts.

 

[Jets fan]

For us the big selling point was space. Our home resort is OKW which is very spacious and has a brilliant kitchen. Although we won't be doing much cooking, it is there should one of us become ill or be unable to get out for any reason.

 

[Pootle]

Hi again Michelle

...... it depends ..... It was for us because a) by the time we bought 10 years ago, we'd already been to Florida more than 10 times and wanted nicer accommodation in lovely surroundings b) we had always been folk who travelled around when in Florida so the flexibility to book a few days at a time suited us and c) travelling offsite to a villa - and the time it can take - never appealed to me (we did it once; villa great, the journey to and from Lindfields, not so great and soon lost its novelty value for us).

It *is* expensive, and unless you really want to be on site, I'd proceed with caution. Renting points, as you are thinking of doing, is a good way to go if you have any doubts at all.

Another disadvantage can be flights if you need to travel at peak times. Easter was 'our' time when our son was young and often I'd get a package including cheap accommodation (eg Comfort Inn at Lake Buena Vista) for the same price - or less - than flights only! Quite often we'd leave the cheapo hotel for days at a time and see other parts of Florida.

These days, we're more likely to have spent a week somewhere else, eg New Orleans, Savannah or even on the west coast and then fly to Orlando for a final week of chillin' . The point I am making (in a very long-winded way ) is that it is easy to avoid using high weekend points nights and actually enjoy doing it. For some people - and I suspect most people in fact, (especially with young children) - my way would be awful, and they'd want to get into their accommodation straight away for the full 14 nights. This as you've discovered, is an expensive way to use DVC.

I've seen you've been given some good advice on the US boards about not buying more points than you need with the aim of renting them out and I think you've decided against that? The other thing I'm pleased to see you consider is where you want to buy. I'm one of the believers in 'buy where you want to stay' most of the time - why would anyone belong to something so expensive only to risk being disappointed?

The bulk of my points cost in the $60+ region and if they were worthless tomorrow, I've have had my pleasure (and money's worth) out of them - I just love my DVC. I find the current prices very high though.

In answer to your specific question, I'm pretty sure DVC would cost you more than booking a villa for 2 weeks every other year. Where you would save, as you already discovered when you priced it yourself, is on staying at the high-end Disney resorts for 2 weeks - depends on whether you want apples or pears. You are wise to ask lots of questions and do the research.

 

[jools]

We have found it to be definitely worth it and one of our better investments.

Although we bought into it back in 98 when initial purchase was much cheaper, this is the way we looked at it.

Divided the initial purchase cost by the number of years it runs for, ours worked out at £150 per year.

Add on the annual dues, ours approx £550 to £600 per year.

Top Total £750 per year.

With careful planning that allows us a 2 week stay every year in a studio at our home resort the Boardwalk. There is no other way you could book and stay at a Luxury Disney Resort for 2 weeks for £750.

Adding to this is the flexibility it offers, over the years we have banked and borrowed to stay in 2 bedroom accommodation when taking along the grandparents, and have stayed at many of the other DVC resorts. No holiday would be complete now without a few days at Vero Beach.


It’s definitely worth it.

 

[Pootle]

..... No holiday would be complete now without a few days at Vero Beach.......

ITA

 

[Hilary]

From Uk point of view is DVC worth it. Do you save anything or is it more expensive?

That's two different questions and I'd have to answer "yes" to the first one and "it depends..." to the second one!

I think DVC is good value for on-site accommodation in more than a standard hotel room. However, it is more expensive than a standard on-site hotel room in a value or moderate resort. It's also more expensive than an off-site villa.

We bought into DVC because, when DDs were in their teenage years, we wanted the space of a villa with the advantages of being on-site. Now that the parks play less of a central role in our Florida trips (and didn't feature at all on our last trip), the on-site perk is less important, but I still love it for a Disney buzz without setting foot inside a park!

It suits us, but I don't believe it's saving us money when it's just for DH and me as we would be very unlikely to stay in the deluxe resorts and would be content with a value or moderate resort. If DDs come with us, we'd be looking at two standard hotel rooms now, so DVC would be saving us money.

That's the other big thing in its favour for us - the flexibility!

 

[angel659]

Hi

Thanks for all your help. Bruce and I have decided SSR is not the right area for us. We love Epcot and would want to buy into BCV or BWV. We will buy some points from someone from dvc and stay for the first 3-4 nights there before going onto POR. This way we get the feel of the complex as well as popping over to okw and ssr just in case. Bruce feels its such a large amount of money for us we want to make sure its the best option. My mum and dad popped over yesterday and said they are thinking of buying a villa in florida and do we want to come in on it. Very tempting this sounds the villa idea, but we love staying on site so its a big decision we do not want to take lightly due to us rushing into many decisions quickly and it comes and bites us on the bum. We are trying ti be responsible this time. When we get back from NYC we will be looking to buy some points for a two bed bcv or bwv.

Thanks for your help it has really helped us out in making this decision.

 

[jools]

I don't want to put a dampner on it for your Mum and Dad, but just a word of warning on buying a villa in Florida.

The short term rental market is taking quite a hit at the moment many villa owners are selling because they cannot get enough bookings to make the villa pay for it's self.

If they can afford to buy and support a second home without the income from rentals then go ahead it is a good time to buy, lots of villas on the market at great prices. However if they were hoping the villa would support it's self, they may need to think again because it more than likely won't.

 

[BevS97]

We have just completed our purchase on DVC today. We decided to buy because having tried villas, off-site hotels and on-site hotels, we had come to the conclusion that we were really much happier in an on-site hotel and we liked the idea of combining that with a bit of extra space/facilities which the DVC properties can offer.

For what we will pay in annual dues, we could stay in a cheaper offsite hotel, but we don't want too. We couldnt' stay in a deluxe hotel for anywhere near that. Our points (171) will get us 2 weeks in a studio most times of the year, but we can change things around with banking and borrowing and maybe going elsewhere for one weekend, so we will be able to stay in larger properties as well when we choose too.

I am really looking forward to our first stay!

 

[gilld]

We simply looked at it as a way to pre-pay for some of our holidays - we only go every few years. It means we get to stay at De Luxe resorts - though unlike most on here I don't actually feel the units themselves are De luxe, rather a decent standard - certainly not luxurious. There are many other timeshares with far nicer furnishings, but they're not on property.

I don't think we save money, but for us it is worth it as we are able to help friends and family have a nice holiday as well.

 

[UKDEB]

Thanks for all your help. Bruce and I have decided SSR is not the right area for us. We love Epcot and would want to buy into BCV or BWV

I'm a bit late to this discussion, but you could consider a resale. As Epcot is also our favourite park, we did consider that option, but plumped for SSR as we get a 47 year membership rather than the 35 (ish) left to run on the earlier DVC resorts.

We've just returned from WDW and only did the tour out of curiosity. We had no intention of buying in to DVC. Whilst we often stay onsite for a few days during a trip, purely for convenience, I'm not a fan of the WDW hotels so had assumed DVC was not for us.

The more we thought about it, though, the more it made sound investment sense. There were several factors in making the decision to sign up:

Existing members can take advantage of a $15 per point discount on the current price of $101 per point. This offer is also available to friends and family. Needless to say, it wouldn't be difficult to find a DVC 'friend' via these boards;

The current exchange rate is in our favour. Combined with the discounted price, we paid a similar amount, for the same number of points, to that paid by our friends 6 years ago. Whenever we'd flirted with the idea previously, we'd assumed we'd missed the boat;

In the short term we'll probably carry on with our recent pattern of just staying onsite for a few days for the convenience of being near the parks. On the face of it, a resale might have been a better option, but a 47 year membership makes better sense financially. Because we tend to travel at quieter times and we're unlikely to be trying to book more than a few days at a time, we shouldn't find it difficult to secure BWV or BCV at the 7 month window. In any event, we loved the 'newness' of SSR and, with the recent addition of the Turf Club, could happily stay there for a few days without venturing to the parks.

By far the biggest consideration, though (and this has only been touched on in this thread) is the fact that we will get inflation-proof accommodation for the next 47 years. It really isn't about what we can gain, or how we will use it, in the coming few years. Our daughters (who are now 21 and 19) and their families will be able to stay at Disney 10, 20 and 30 years from now, for the same 'price' that we can today. The points value for any given resort can not increase - they can be re-allocated between accommodation types or dates (for example, to take account of the fact that Easter doesn't fall at the same time each year) - but the overall points for a resort will never change. The annual dues are not fixed, but the industry is highly regulated, so these costs will never become out of control. Every cent has to be accounted for and reported to the members. Thanks to the flexibility offered by the ability to bank, borrow, transfer and rent points, we feel that we really can't lose, but it'll be in years to come that we're really congratulating ourselves.

 

[castanea1985]

Hi,
We looked at DVC back in 1990, when our eldest was 3.
We opted not to join, purely for the fact that we like to travel round. I think you have to think about the long term. Our kids are now 19 and 15, and although they do enjoy the Disney waterparks, they both say they are 'growing' out of Disney. They certainly don't want to visit the parks every year. I know we are talking 16 years.. but in that time they have visited places like, Toronto, New York, Niagara, Williamsburg, and too many other beautiful places far beyond Florida!
I'm glad we didn't 'buy in to' the DVC programme now, as I think we would have felt guilty about going anywhere else.
Obviously, everyone has different needs, and some lucky people can afford to go to other places as well as WDW. We chose not to join DVC.
T.

 

[wideeyes]

I would be interested in buying DVC in the next 2 years, maybe by end of 2008, to use maybe once every two years. once my brother and sister have familys they could have an affordable way of going to Orlando as well.

 

[paulh]

Hi,
We looked at DVC back in 1990, .
T.

DVC first oppened in 1991 hench all the 15 years stuff at moment.We bought in 1999 first saw dvc in 1997 took us a while to buy.But was our best diession yet.We have 200 points this gets us a studio in may each ear (just have to borrow points from next use year)
is it worth it for us yes as we love disney and we love staying there.We only stay in a studio as that suits us best,think it works out expencive for the bigger rooms
Is it value for money,when we bought we worked out that it would pay for itself after staying 5-6 times.Done that now so we stay in a delux for our dues aprox £500 a year
Paulh

 

[jns]

Existing members can take advantage of a $15 per point discount on the current price of $101 per point. This offer is also available to friends and family. Needless to say, it wouldn't be difficult to find a DVC 'friend' via these boards;

How dose this offer work for family and friends

 

[paulh]

How dose this offer work for family and friends

you kneed to be refered by an exsiting dvc member to three guide.Just PM will give you name and phone number to our guide to contact you and you get the discount.If you are frfered by a usa meber they recive $200 i think, we in the uk just get the thought that someone has got dvc
Paulh