Your thoughts of DVC for my family...

[branfam]

I recently came in to a small windfall. It is enough to purchase a small (80-150 pts) re-sale DVC. We love WDW. We tend to travel to WDW every other year or so. On the in between years we do travel to other locations like the beach or mountains. We have grown children now who also love WDW and our first grandchild on the way. We have stayed at all levels of resorts. My favorite is probably POFQ. The only one I wouldn't want to stay at again is CBR because of its size.

So because of the windfall and honoring a bit where it came from...we are thinking of buying a re-sale DVC. I have some questions for anyone who has any insight.

1. Is it better to go for less points and an ideal resort or more points and a resort that you consider OK? I have seen AKL resales for 150 points that we could work out. We have stayed at AKL and liked it but really don't love the location. It also seems that the annual fees are higher there. I have seen a smaller BLT re-sale. We haven't stayed there ever but love the location and the fact that annual fees would be smaller.

2. If anyone was in our situation, did the annual fees ever make you regret purchasing your membership?

3. Did you miss staying at other resorts?

4. If our plan is to go every other year, do we need 150 points? My dream would be to have a place where all of us (6 now but growing) can visit at the same time.

Another thought was to purchase a small camper. Whatever I do with it, I want to be able to purchase something that lasts and something the whole family can enjoy long-term, not just one awesome trip.

TIA

 

[disneynutz]

Keep reading the purchase section here on the DIS, your questions are asked often. You need to become familiar on how a DVC ownership works and you need to decide on your favorite resort and buy there. Disney is a very expensive vacation and DVC will save you some money on your resort but it may also cause you to vacation at Disney more often.

Bill

 

[kniquy]

did the annual fees ever make you regret purchasing your membership?

I am an owner of AKL -- yes the MF are slightly higher at AKL than other resorts. SSR has one of the lowest but the different between AKL and SSR is .98 per point -- so for my 120 point contract it would be able $117 more in MF. We feel the uniqueness of AKL is worth the little extra. We stayed at SSR and were not wowed by the resort. You need to figure out what your finances are and factor in that every year in Feb you will have a bill for MF.

QUOTE="branfam, post: 56871967, member: 543656"]Did you miss staying at other resorts?[/QUOTE] You really do have the opportunity to use your points at all DVC resorts -- the time of year will really dictate whether or not you will get that chance. If you are planning on travelling between late Sept -Dec you should expect to stay at your home resort this is a very busy DVC time. Otherwise you should be able to get something else where other times of the year. People will often book their home resort at 11 months and then try to switch to another resort at 7 months. You also have the opportunity to do split stays to try a couple resorts within one trip -- this is a little more difficult with little ones.

If our plan is to go every other year, do we need 150 points? My dream would be to have a place where all of us (6 now but growing) can visit at the same time.

So with your family of 6+ you will need either a 2BR or 2 studios. To figure out if 150 points (300 to use every other year) is enough then you need to first look at point charts this may help you narrow down which resort based on the points cost for a 2BR -- VGF 2BR will cost more points than a 2BR at OKW.

For example - a week in Feb
VGF standard 2BR 468 points - so your contract would need to be 234 points
OKW 2BR 296 points -- so a 150 point contract would work.
BLT standard 2BR 354 points - you would need a 177 point contract
SSR standard 2BR 294 - so again your 150 pt contract would work.

Figure out the time of year you might typically travel and then see what a 2BR for a week will cost -- pick the highest point time you will travel so that you are not short points. then divide by 2 and you will get the points you need to buy to cover your rooming needs.

Definitely read as much as you can on this board. It is a very valuable tool.

You mentioned a small camper -- but when you are talking about 6+ people -- a small camper might not work either so that could be a big investment too.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

1. The general rule most people will espouse is buy where you are willing to stay. The chances of switching from home resort vary based on time of year, preferred unit type, willingness to play with the waitlist. DVC high season is mid-September through marathon. This can be about "your favorite resort," as suggested by @disneynutz or it can be "I am okay staying here if I can't switch at 7 months/I do not like the uncertainty of the wait list." In general, Saratoga has the lowest overall cost of ownership, followed by BLT. AKV actually lands about third in most calculations of ownership cost.

2. I think annual fees are a personal thing. You do have to account for the recurring expense of that fee, as well as the annual increases of those fees. If you have a bad year financially, you can take a year off from a big vacation easily enough, but you can't not pay the fees. It's about your personal financial position and priorities. It's worth noting that the DVC membership is but one expense of the Disney vacation, and you're still looking at significant $$ in food, travel, tickets, etc.

3. You aren't restricted to your home resort owning DVC, although, as mentioned, ease of switching at 7 months varies on time of year and points available and preferred room type. Most DVC owners have stayed at multiple DVC resorts over time.

4. Learn everything you can about the following:

• 11/7 month booking
• Banking/Borrowing
• Use Year
• Home resort
• Wait list

How many points you need really depends on the type of unit you need to book most regularly, and when you will need to book it.

 

[gharter]

Lots of good advice already given.
I would agree - do your research. Read all the documents about DVC that you can.
Figure out what type of room you want to stay in. We expected to use studios. We stayed in the 1 bedroom and my wife doesn't want to go back and I agree.
Where to stay. Lots of thoughts on this. I am in the buy where you want to stay, rather than where you don't mind staying. While I love going to the parks, I can see ina few years, we may spend more time hanging around the resort and less time in the parks when they are crowded.
It depends on the time of year that you plan to stay as to how hard it is to get a 7 month reservation at a non home resort.

Do your research and decide if its correct for you. If it is, I would suggest looking at resale as the pricing is much better (even though you lose some of the perks now).
good luck wiht your decision.

 

[zavandor]

Buying a contract that is slightly bigger than what you need is better than buying something smaller (given that you don't finance, financing can kill any saving). Smaller contracts sell for a premium and if you have some extra points, it's not difficult to rent the extras to cover some of the MF. This is what I did, I found a good contract that matched my UY and was reasonably priced, but was a bit bigger than I wanted. I bought it anyway and now I have sometime some extra points that I rent out on the rental board.
There are two risks with this strategy: 1) rental market is very good at the moment and it's easy to rent points for a good amount. This is not guaranteed in the future, when the next recession will hit, people will vacation less and rental may became more difficult. 2) You'll probably end up like most of us taking extra vacations and so spending more money!

 

[WDWNY]

3. Did you miss staying at other resorts?

We're newer members, bought at the Poly in Feb. We want to stay at every DVC resort though to give it a try. So what we've been doing and plan on doing until we stay at them all is booking using the 11 months and switching over at 7 months if there is a resort available that we haven't stayed at. For example, for thanksgiving we stayed at BWV's, our trip in Feb we originally booked the polynesian and moved our reservation to BLT at 7 months. For september we're staying at the Polynesian no matter what is open at 7 months because it falls in the cheapest time of year points wise. So you definitely will have opportunities to stay at other resorts!

 

[Dean]

I recently came in to a small windfall. It is enough to purchase a small (80-150 pts) re-sale DVC. We love WDW. We tend to travel to WDW every other year or so. On the in between years we do travel to other locations like the beach or mountains. We have grown children now who also love WDW and our first grandchild on the way. We have stayed at all levels of resorts. My favorite is probably POFQ. The only one I wouldn't want to stay at again is CBR because of its size.

So because of the windfall and honoring a bit where it came from...we are thinking of buying a re-sale DVC. I have some questions for anyone who has any insight.

1. Is it better to go for less points and an ideal resort or more points and a resort that you consider OK? I have seen AKL resales for 150 points that we could work out. We have stayed at AKL and liked it but really don't love the location. It also seems that the annual fees are higher there. I have seen a smaller BLT re-sale. We haven't stayed there ever but love the location and the fact that annual fees would be smaller.

2. If anyone was in our situation, did the annual fees ever make you regret purchasing your membership?

3. Did you miss staying at other resorts?

4. If our plan is to go every other year, do we need 150 points? My dream would be to have a place where all of us (6 now but growing) can visit at the same time.

Another thought was to purchase a small camper. Whatever I do with it, I want to be able to purchase something that lasts and something the whole family can enjoy long-term, not just one awesome trip.

TIA

If you're debt free otherwise, this could be a good choice for use at DVC resorts. You need enough info and experience to answer most of this for yourself but you'll get there by asking questions, reading and spending TIME. It usually takes about 6 months of active investigation and sufficient on property experience to make an informed decision. As to which is best, a higher level resort or lower price, it really depends. For most I tend to favor the lower cost option mostly because FEW people really know what they want even though many who buy resale think they do. SSR is the cheapest, BLT next for general use. Anything that has a cheaper option and one will use ALMOST all the time can be a good value $$$ wise. AKV value, or standard at BWV/SSR/BLT esp. I'd suggest a 10% or so cushion on a 2 BR over what you think you need in this situation, 20% if you target SSR or any of the cheaper room options and are looking at Adventure or Choice season.

 

[a742246]

If this is possible, I would suggest you rent someone's points and go on a mini trip to WDW without the theme parks and tour all the DVC timeshares. This way you will have a better understanding what you are getting into.