Thinking of Buying DVC

[Laurafoster]

Im looking into buying into DVC - as soon as i can afford it

Just wondered realistically how many point most UK people buy - the people i have spoken with in the US only tend to go for a few days and i like to go for atleast 2 weeks of a year!!

Im not so bothered where i stay although i love the boardwalk area - can anyone advise me what sort of points i would need to buy?

How many did you buy?

Also my other question is how much are the annual dues etc? how much can i expect to pay each year?

Thanks guys!

 

[Bexx]

The number of points you would need depends on what time of year you most like to visit, and how big a villa you want to stay in.

 

[Kevin Stringer]

Laura

We have 180 points and that allows us to stay in a studio for 2 weeks at the quiet time of the year. (January, September and early December)

If you are prepared to miss Friday and Saturday nights when the points are much higher you can get even more for your points.

That being said, we haven't actually stayed for 2 weeks for a long time and tend to use our points for shorter on site stays in 1 bedroom or 2 bedroom units.

Our home resort is the Boardwalk and we pay in the region of £500 a year in annual dues. Of course, this depends entirely on the exchange rate.

Kev

 

[Pootle]

I had the minimum (from Disney that is) of 150 points for a few years and then started to add-on. I now have 330, which is more than enough for a few visits a year and often we take friends and family and stay in a 2 bedroom villa.

I don't think I've ever stayed in one place for 2 weeks though! My dues last year were £864.

If you love the Boardwalk area then perhaps you should consider the Boardwalk Villas or Beach Club Villas. These are sold out resorts (Disney is only actively selling Saratoga Springs Resort at this time) and you can either buy resale or from Disney telling them what you want and that you are prepared to go on a wait-list if necessary.

I would recommend that you take a look at the US DVC boards to get the 'feel' of some of the issues surrounding ownership as well as looking at the FAQs link on this board.

Lots of information is the key to deciding if it's right for you. I love my DVC but can see that it's not a good fit for everyone.

Good luck with it.

 

[Young Pooh]

We have the minimum 150 points and worked out that we could go every other year for 2 weeks in a 1 bed, usually in September.

 

[mikki.young]

We started out with 300 thinking we could do a week in a studio and a week in a one bed. We soon moved on to one bed only and now have 550 points which is enough for two 2 week trips a year (or one longer one this year). Annual dues around the $2000 mark.

 

[saratogagirl]

Hi Laura

We have 230 points, which gives us 17 nights during October in a studio. Our annual dues were between 500 and 600 pounds I dont remember the exact figure. We banked three points last year, this year as we have made some changes we dont need so many points enabling me to bank 72 points, this means that we can have a good long stay at Christmas next year. As Kev points out with the Sat / Sun comment, it is about managing your points effectively.

We love it and have no regrets whatsoever, we figure it will save us a fortune over the years.

 

[gilld]

We bought 270 points at BCV which seemed to be the most flexible number for us as we lwould normally use a one bed but will sometimes want a Studio or 2 bed for other family members. Last year we paid a little over £700 in annual dues.

We only go every couple of years or so, but have rented out some points when our children can't use them and we don't want to go. That way it pays for itself out of points we would have wasted.

 

[minnie29uk]

Hi!
So you would pay irrespective of whether you use the points that year?
Do you find it easy to rent out your points?

I am going to spend some time reading all the threads in this section

Thanks,
Lynn

 

[Halo]

We bought 230 points at OKW. We didn't want to commit to going to WDW every year for the rest of our lives, no matter how much we love it now we want it to stay special, so we bought enough for a 2-bed every third year on the basis of bank yr 1, use yr 2 (borrowing yr 3's), yr 3 (already used), yr 4 start again as yr 1. We have to pay the maintenance every year but really this is just spreading the yr 2 cost over 3 years. If we go more often than every 3rd year, we will just rent points, or a villa, or en-site hotel. We will still be DVC mbrs! Although you can use your points elsewhere it isn't IMHO cost effective to do so - use your DVC points for WDW, for anything else there are other options which are more cost effective.

 

[mickg7dyd]

Hi,
As with all "timeshares" DVC is only good value if you intend to use it regularly. That doesn't necessarily mean going every year and that's what makes DVC so good imho. You decide how many points you are likely to need and that's what you buy and you can always add on later if you need too. This seems a lot more flexible to me than the fixed week type of timeshare.
I tend to disagree with the point of view that trading out to other locations is a bad use of points. I had a great week in Palm Springs California in a Marriott one bed unit and I only used 124 points. Even if I manged to rent out those points I would have struggled to have got better value. I think our guide summed up DVC when he said "You can do Florida cheaper but you can't do Disney cheaper"
Hope this helps.

Mick.

 

[paulh]

we have 200 points which gives us 2 weeks may/june every year. i expect it would be about 8 years after borowing points that we would have to give it a rest.But we have staed cash elseware so ok for a few years yet.We normaly stay in a studio
Paulh

 

[jjpenguin]

We bought 220 points at Old Key West as this was the size of the resale contract. We reckoned this would give us enough flexibility to stay at different times & different locations. We pay about $800 - 900 in dues.

Our biggest mistake was to stay in a 1 br (there are only 2 of us)... now we want to stay in one all the time!!

We didn't plan on using it every year but up till now we have, some years we have even got 2 trips out of our points. It depends what you want to do. We like exchanging and have used points to go to DL California, Cruise and DLP. If you just want to go to WDW, calculate on the basis of say 2 weeks every other year in the timeframe you want and buy accordingly.

 

[gilld]

Hi!
So you would pay irrespective of whether you use the points that year?
Do you find it easy to rent out your points?

I am going to spend some time reading all the threads in this section

Thanks,
Lynn

Yes, your annual dues are just that - annual.

I found it VERY easy to rent out the points. There is an element of trust, but so far I have had 3 families go with one more person booked next year. I haven't had any problem - yet

 

[Dizneemad]

We purchased 324 points at the BWV. This gives us 2 weeks at the costliest time of year in a one bedroom so effetively I can get 2 weeks anytime of the year.Any points not used get banked and used the following year and so on.
Taking my parents this year and got a 2 bedroom for 2 weeks and still banking some points over to next year. Hopefully will start getting 2 trips a year at some point.
Annual dues are around £850.

 

[cathydisneynut]

We have 500 points. It is a lot but there are 5 of us and we go at Christmas when the rates are at their highest. For 2 studios at SSR it cost us 424 points for a 15 night stay. This is ideal for us.