Has DVC ruined any one else's vacations?

This happens a little even when you go from a studio to a 1BR. We had only stayed in studios up until the last day of our recent trip. We had tacked on a 1BR @ BWV (Boardwalk view) for just the last day and..... holy smokes. It’s gigantic. You have a full kitchen, big living area, your own laundry, a fridge with an actual freezer, did I mention a separate bedroom lol.

There was a point in the day where my wife and I were sitting on the couch having a coffee, while our daughter was taking a afternoon nap, where we looked at each other and said “man... how do we even go back to studios now...”
Ha! We bought points for 1brs and we’ve been staying in 2brs and ooooh boy is going to be hard to go back to a 1br. 😂
 
We've only been to FL (well, I was to DL in '72) and we've never stayed 'off campus'. New right from the start that spending half my time in transit was not my idea of a vacation.
 
And this makes sense. I don't know if we are as far as doing a 1-bedroom on a couple only trip (we usually bring people with us and so we end up with 2-bedrooms). But with having a toddler now, we are definitely going to get 1-bedrooms for our family. There is nothing worse than being stuck in a room, with the lights off at 8PM and about the only thing you can do is watch something on your phone. We like playing board games, and the having the separate room facilitates that at night and nap time in the day.
Had a co-worker who would put the baby in the walk-in closet of the 1Br in BC that was accessed by walking thru the bathroom. I thought that was amusing. My kid would've woken up every time some one used the facility.
 
My brother once slept in the bathroom because we could not stick each other snoring
 


Love your story.

in 2013 my adult DD broke her ankles, one month before we were due to fly to Florida and our DVC resort for 4 weeks. I cried. For both reasons. Up steps my eldest niece and her family. The could take her for 2 weeks so we moved flights, cancelled part of our DVC stay and kept the points. (The DVC fairies took pity on us and the photos of our DD's injuries) In 2014, we repaid our niece and family with an all expenses paid trip to WDW in a 2 bed villa with us.

She'd never really paid attention to our 'timeshare'. I took the trip planning book to show her and she cried. A lot. She had imagined it was 20 miles from WDW with a tiny pool miles from the 'room'. Boy was she in for a shock.
Her husband calls us 'crack dealers'. First one is free but you're hooked for life. They're saving for a 250 point contract.
 
Yes best decision we ever made for our vacations, but it does make it hard to stay at regular hotels now....lol
 
People say Disney is not 'real' luxury and you can get better elsewhere, but there is something about Disney that hits the spot for me. Not sure what it is. I stay in some nice places, many paid for in my employment. I have stayed in places like a suite at The Grove Chandlers Cross UK (where the NFL players stay when playing at Wembley and the English Soccer team- both have their own secure wifi networks there, and they just had the Nato summit there- reason I mention it is because it is stand out and is an exceptionally nice hotel) and many top London and Euro hotels and resorts as well as some very nice hotels around the US, Caribbean etc. But here is the crazy thing- Boardwalk is still my favourite hotel I have ever stayed in. Why? It doesn't have as nice rooms, it doesn't have the same level of platinum service and the food isn't as good. But Boardwalk is excellently managed and has attention to detail. This combined with the location, the architecture of it and the biggest thing for me- the atmosphere- make it better than the Grove and others like it. When I walk into my 1 bed at Disney, not just Boardwalk, I generally would not want to be anywhere else. And these fancy places- can they match the atmosphere on a night walking around Wilderness Lodge? Not for me.
Sad but true......
 
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DVC has definitely ruined us for any other type of hotel/resort on non-Disney vacations. We have 3 adult children, 2 are married, so we always get a 2 bedroom villa. I recommend DVC to all of my friends who love Disney.
 
7 years ago, the room would have been great, and we would have been happy just to be there. But once you have tasted the DVC koolaid, you just can't go back.

So true!! 🤣 My sister and I stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge last year and our flight home was cancelled due to weather (@ midnight that night) so we scrambled to find a room. We scored one at All Star Music and were happy to be going back to the Disney bubble... the room was something either of our families would be happy to stay at, but man- since we came directly over there from AKL- it was a pretty stark difference and we couldn’t stop laughing about how different life was when not using points!! We knew we’d been spoiled by the DVC!
 
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I am laughing as I am reading this thread. I've been trying to convince my husband to buy DVC for years. For a long time it wasn't that big of a deal to him because we'd drag our 5 kids down with our trailer and camp at the Fort. Fast forward to the last few trips, most of the kids no longer live at home and only one still at home will vacation with us. So now we fly down. Our trip in September I finally convinced him to rent DVC points. We are at the age where a standard hotel room doesn't work for us. We are no longer park commandos and want a nice room and resort to relax in. The big thing for him is having a sofa to relax on and a balcony to sit and enjoy coffee in the morning. So in September we are staying at the Poly. I think it will be enough to push him over the edge.

We like vacationing at Disney. We like having entertainment right there, even if it's just shows, stores and restuarants. It's why we just keep coming back. So I'll update after our stay and see what he decides. He makes the money, I just get to enjoy it.
 
People say Disney is not 'real' luxury and you can get better elsewhere, but there is something about Disney that hits the spot for me. Not sure what it is. I stay in some nice places, many paid for in my employment. I have stayed in places like a suite at The Grove Chandlers Cross UK (where the NFL players stay when playing at Wembley and the English Soccer team- both have their own secure wifi networks there, and they just had the Nato summit there- reason I mention it is because it is stand out and is an exceptionally nice hotel) and many top London and Euro hotels and resorts as well as some very nice hotels around the US, Caribbean etc. But here is the crazy thing- Boardwalk is still my favourite hotel I have ever stayed in. Why? It doesn't have as nice rooms, it doesn't have the same level of platinum service and the food isn't as good. But Boardwalk is excellently managed and has attention to detail. This combined with the location, the architecture of it and the biggest thing for me- the atmosphere- make it better than the Grove and others like it. When I walk into my 1 bed at Disney, not just Boardwalk, I generally would not want to be anywhere else. And these fancy places- can they match the atmosphere on a night walking around Wilderness Lodge? Not for me.
Sad but true......
Perfectly put. I feel the exact same way about Boardwalk.
 
You definitely get spoiled and staying in a regular hotel room becomes somehow unacceptable!
 
I feel this thread so much! We used to travel cheap, and in other areas of life we're still quite value-conscious. But now when it comes to vacations... our DVC trips have made it an absolute minumum that our kids sleep in another room. So now when we travel other places and staying more than a night, a 1BR like configuration is a must have.
 
Yes definitely!! We will sometimes stay at a hotel near the airport to take advantage of cheaper airfare ...go down night before, take free shuttle to hotel, get free breakfast, take free shuttle back to airport and then take Magical express, or pick up rental car, depending on what we had planned. Check into DVC resort bright and early, leave bags in car or bell services and go to a park or the pool or whatever. Those hotel rooms....the worst is the noisy air conditioning unit under the window!!! It's fine for one night, but we are truly spoiled. And one-bedrooms 90% of the time too for the two of us.

I've been looking into doing last minute rentals at Bonnet Creek, right near Epcot. Good bargains to be had, and I think it will be a good way to stretch my vacation....one week there, one week DVC. I do hear good things about it.
I’m not a DVC owner, but I do rent from owners and LOVE the DVC resorts. Sometimes I’m not always able to get DVC rentals when we’re going to Disney though, so I’ve booked a 2 BR at Bonnet Creek 3 times via eBay. Bonnet Creek is very very nice as well. I just miss the transportation options to the parks that you get from staying at DVC.
 
I’m not a DVC owner, but I do rent from owners and LOVE the DVC resorts. Sometimes I’m not always able to get DVC rentals when we’re going to Disney though, so I’ve booked a 2 BR at Bonnet Creek 3 times via eBay. Bonnet Creek is very very nice as well. I just miss the transportation options to the parks that you get from staying at DVC, plus only booking FP 30 days out vs 60.
 
DVC ruined us for other vacations. We love to take an all-inclusive to the beach, but it never compares to DVC service.

First off, let me give you some history.

My wife and I are fairly frugal. When we were first married, we would find the cheapest hotel, order the cheaper items on menus etc. We would both laugh at how expensive some resorts were at Disneyland and Disney World. "Look at this dear. They want $500 bucks a night for a studio. Who pays this kind of money for a bed?" Long story short, we were gifted a 2 day vacation to Disney World in 2012. While there we learned about the Disney Vacation Club. When the person at the booth learned that we were staying in All-Stars Movies, they were noticeable less interested in talking to us but they pitched DVC as "listen to this presentation for free fastpasses". Free fastpasses to any ride? Done. We'll get an early presentation and get them in time to hit the parks in the morning. We meet up for the presentation and talk to the guide. We walk through the rooms... (AKV was selling at the time) and we both were like...Wow. These are really nice. Then they give us the pitch about points and the price and we were pretty close to signing, but wanted to take some time to think about it.

Enter the DIS Boards. Really invaluable resource here. Long story short, we ended up buying resale at SSR. And we have loved it! We have been able to stay at OKW, SSR, and VGC in the last 6 years. Later we added on another resale contract at VGC because we love the resort and it is a drive for us rather than a flight.

Enter family reunion... So my wife's family wanted to do a Disneyland trip for their first ever family reunion. Okay, cool. My wife and I both love Disney. They want everyone staying at the same hotel so we have a sense of togetherness. Awesome! It is a family reunion after all! My wife works with her mom to find a place close that seems decent. It is basically across the street from the gate. Cool! Looks like a great location!

The vacation arrives and we are excited! Disneyland! Fresh Sourdough (my favorite)! Star Wars Land! Halloween theme! We are super pumped! We have stayed at the VGC a couple times by this point.

We arrive at the hotel, get to the room and... huh. Is this it? ...What is that smell? How much did we pay for this? We were both super disappointed. Knowing that we could have stayed at the VGC instead for less money (but didn't because of family)... Being at the parks was almost depressing knowing what we would have to go back to. Staying off property was not something my wife and I enjoyed.

We noticed many things that we never would have thought of as reason to stay on Disney property. For example, as soon as you leave Disney property, you no longer have the rules and restrictions. There are no designated smoking areas. So as soon as people leave the property, they lite up. You are walking through cigarette smoke almost every time you leave the property to go to your hotel. With a toddler in tow, I was very not happy about it. The rooms that we stayed in had no magic. Zero, zilch, nada. They were substandard, overpriced and disappointing. The pool was a joke and cold. The room came with free breakfast though. So I guess that was nice. But the room and location caused us to go in and out of the magic for the entire vacation. It was hard to feel the full Disney experience when we were so dramatically pulled out of the magic during the middle of the day for naps, and at the end of every day when we went to sleep.

7 years ago, the room would have been great, and we would have been happy just to be there. But once you have tasted the DVC koolaid, you just can't go back.

My wife and I agreed that never again, would we stay off property. DVC has made it so that we can't vacation at Disney any other way. Thank you DVC for ruining my family reunion and helping me realize how much better it could have been.
 
I realized recently that while I'm still incredibly appreciative of my luck in life, including the travel opportunities, that my 8 year old only knows the life we have now. We've owned DVC since he was baby and he's only stayed in one bedrooms. On our off years we go other places, but usually try to rent Airbnb/VRBO homes for extended stays in places. In short, he's a well traveled kid who is used to having his own space on vacation.

So when I told him we were staying next to the airport in a regular hotel room the night before our very early flight to Florida he said "what's a regular hotel room?"

And now I know we've got dial back on the fancy trips with this kid.
 
I realized recently that while I'm still incredibly appreciative of my luck in life, including the travel opportunities, that my 8 year old only knows the life we have now. We've owned DVC since he was baby and he's only stayed in one bedrooms. On our off years we go other places, but usually try to rent Airbnb/VRBO homes for extended stays in places. In short, he's a well traveled kid who is used to having his own space on vacation.

So when I told him we were staying next to the airport in a regular hotel room the night before our very early flight to Florida he said "what's a regular hotel room?"

And now I know we've got dial back on the fancy trips with this kid.

I worry that our kid will be in the same boat. Well, maybe worry isn’t right word. But he certainly is having a different experience from my childhood.
 

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