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View Full Version : Anyone a Disney vacation club member?



stinkytinky14
07-24-2005, 04:39 PM
Thinking about joining the disney vacation club. Any opinions or actual members that can tell me the pros and cons and if it is worth it???

stan4d_steph
07-24-2005, 05:05 PM
There's a lot of information in the WDW forum on the DVC, but it's a relatively new arrival to the West Coast. :)

Lanmon
07-24-2005, 05:32 PM
Thinking about joining the disney vacation club. Any opinions or actual members that can tell me the pros and cons and if it is worth it???

We have been DVC members for 7 years and wish would would have done it sooner! We live in San Diego, PAP members and travel to WDW about 1-2 times a year. We would spend about $6-7K each visit to WDW and decided in 1998 to become members. We use our points at WDW every year around Christmas time and used our points visiting Scotland, taking the Disney Magic 7 day cruise and staying the the DLR. So, it has been an overall saving to us.
It is great to save, use and borrow points. The DVC staff have been so helpful every time we all. The only bummer is the time difference to call to make reservations...we are in California (PST) and DVC is in Florida (EST).

Check out the website and if you have further questions just email me.

Mrs. Newseditor44
07-24-2005, 05:42 PM
My sister in law and I were talking about DVC and the points and cost. For those that are members, what are the reasons you wouldn't recommend joining. For example, at what point doesn't it pay off?

GrimGrinnin
07-24-2005, 06:59 PM
I've been a member since 2002 (BCV). It's been wonderful. As with most DVC members, my only regret is that we didn't buy sooner.

I would NOT join if you don't plan on going to WDW every year, or every other year (with banking/borrowing points). You would be wasting your money buying into DVC with the intention of staying at a DL Resort. For example, you can spend up to 64 points a night staying at a GC room with a view - not even concierge. That will get you 2 nights a year with the minimum buy-in of 150 points. To put that into context, you can rent those points out for others to use for $10 to $12 a point - That's the equivilant of paying $768/night for the GC.

Of course, you can get a room at DLR on points for less (value season/Paradise Pier), but I think this is a good illustration of how points are not a good value outside of a DVC resort.

Now compare that with what you would get at SSR - 12 consecutive nights in a studio in value season, or 9 consecutive nights in a studio during 'magic' season (peak, but not christmas/easter break). They have recently lowered the points requirements for the DLH, but it's still not a wise use of points.

I would also not recommend it if you plan on 'trading' it, or using the other options. If you want to trade into other timeshares, there are much cheaper ways to do that.

Now... there have been very strong rumors of lately that they will be building a DVC property at DLR. A bunch of the DVC Guides (sales people) picked up and moved from FL to CA - one of them was quoted as saying something like 'Do you really think I would move from Orlando to LA to try to sell SSR to Californians?'. Many of the DVC 'cart people' have come right out and said they are going to build one, while others have said 'I can't say anything about that'. Of course this is all 3rd-hand info gleamed off of the innerweb, so take it for what it's worth.

If they do build a DVC property in CA, I would jump on it. As a matter of fact, I WILL jump on it by adding on there (I live in Phoenix - 5 hour drive from DL).

So, I would buy if you love Disney and plan on going to WDW at least every other year. If not, it's not worth it. I would wait to see if there will be a DVC built at DLR. If they do, I would buy quickly. I imagine the new resort would be small like BCV/VWL and would completely sell out in no time, even at $100 a point.

grim

Mark Goldhaber
07-24-2005, 08:43 PM
We've been members since 1995. We love it. Rather than repeat everything I've posted in the past, I'll recommend that you just do a search on "dvc" in all forums, or just the WDW forum. I'll give you a couple of threads to start with. thread 1 (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=43010) | thread 2 (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=22104)

Dom262
07-25-2005, 08:08 AM
My wife and I have been members for 3 years now. Each year we have gone back, we have purchased more points. We now have 570 total points. If they build a resort here in CA, we will probably buy more points again.

It is the most flexible timeshare that I have heard of. It is a points based timeshare. I do believe the minimum buy in is 150 points. With your points you schedule your stays. The most points required are during the busy seasons, summer, spring break, Thanksgiving break, Christmas and new years.

You can use your points at your home resort or any of the resorts/ hotels that Dinsey has. the only benefit for your home resort is that you can book that stay up to 9 mos in advance. For the other resorts, it is 6 mos in advance. You can also use your points for the Disney Cruise.

When purchasing your DVC Membership, unless things have changed, you only have an inquiry on your credit report. It never shows has an actual debt if you decide to finance it. If for some reason you can't make the payments, you can either sell the timeshare, Disney has the first right or refusal, or you can default back to Disney and they will not report it as a default. Double check this with you DVC Agent, as this may have changed.

This year we are using our point to take the Disney Cruise the week of Nov 12th. We will stay the night before at Beach Club Villas and depart the next day for the Cruise. We are taking my brother-in-law and his wife with us. We will have two delux famliy staterooms on board. When we return, we will star at SSR for one night and then spend the next two nights at the Grand Floridian on the Concierge Level.

We did all this with out points from '04, '05, & '06. We knew that next year we wouldn't be ablt to go anywhere big, plus last year we couldn't either. What a better way to play.

We would recommend this to anyone. In fact we have to several friends and family, who have also purchased DVC.

Email me if you would like more info.

Dom

GrimGrinnin
07-25-2005, 04:56 PM
the only benefit for your home resort is that you can book that stay up to 9 mos in advance. For the other resorts, it is 6 mos in advance.

Actually, it's 11 months at your home resort, 7 months everywhere else.



grim