One thing to note is that if you are a Colorado Resident and you are financing, Disney cannot mail the closing docs to you. You have to sign the closing docs in person at Disney World, Disneyland, or on a Disney cruise ship.
I have really been enjoying this series - we have rented DVD points for our last four trips, and now that we are no longer paying for daycare, we are considering making the investment in DVC. On a side note, I ADORE seeing Jackie so frequently lately! She rings so much enthusiasm to your discussions, and I really appreciate having her point of view on many of the topics that you cover. Thank you Jackie!
My grandparents are DVC members and they are taking our whole family to celebrate my grandpas 80th birthday this year. We’ve done this before, and it would not have run as smoothly without DVC.
Omg! I am totally in the impulse buy group and I bought! But I never regretted it. I have only been a member since February 2018, 100 point contract at CC. I essentially bought this for myself as an early 30th birthday present. I didn’t even know what it was, my mom and I thought it was like a travel agency that could help plan our first ever trip to WDW (for my bday). Well that’s when we found out it was a timeshare program, pitch was given, and mom and I decided it would be amazing for me since I love love love Disney. I paid it off in full later on that month and have never regretted. I am already going for my second trip in September and I can’t wait.
We usually go every 3 years by banking and borrowing. You can make it work as long as you're willing to go every 3 years, or more often. We like that there's usually something new and fresh in between trips and helps us avoid the stagnation and burnout. There aren't many "every 3 year" folks like us out there, but we do exist.
This why my mother, sister and I usually start planning our next vacation as soon as our Disney vacation ends since we only do studio rooms. We normally book in our home resort, BLT, at least 11 months out and we have also book at least 7 months out, WL and AKL for at least 9 or 10 days each trip. We normally travel during adventure or choice seasons. Depending on when we go we sometimes have to borrow from the upcoming year. If we don't have enough points for our usually amount stay of days we either decrease the amount of days we go or we do a cruise instead. Which we paid out of pocket of course and bank any remaining points for our next vacation.
Thank you so much! We have weighed our options and for us, we choose to rent DVC points. If we were going to purchase a contract, we should have done it long ago. It’s just myself and my teenager. Renting points works. We have SS ( yes Saratoga Springs 😐)in August $1600 for 7 nights! I feel it’s a great deal.
Love the DVC series, keep them coming! I do have a comment on the military not being a group that should buy into DVC because of the discounts. Being a military member, the ticket discounts are awesome, but the resort discounts are not always available. Disney only discounts a small amount of rooms and you have to be lucky to get them. As far as deploying, which is a common thing. You always have options like banking if you are only going to miss a year. Renting your points is another good option and then using that money for your dues. At the end of the day this is a long term commitment and it isn't for everyone. I have been reluctant to be able to go to Disney every other year since 2013 and we finally purchased DVC in 2017. My only regret is we didn't buy sooner. Thanks for everything you guys and gals do.
Please discuss in detail on a future show, how to put unused points up for rent so you can get cash out of them. Thanks Pete for expanding your TH-cam shows to include a dedicated show about DVC. Welcome home!
Misleading title. I thought they were going to name specific people. Josh Wippen, Sally Gooden, Roy Clatten, Susan Stomboli, Juan Fredrickson, and Ryan Teetz....you six should not buy DVC.
I think the biggest thing is you have to be enamored with Disney. I’ve been going to Orlando almost every year since 85’.. sometimes twice a year. And I remember doing a tour for DVC back in the late 90s with my moms..as she was deciding between this and an off-site timeshare and she ended up going with the offsite because she got a better value both price/point and size wise for our family. I’m grown now.. but still don’t see the value for what it would cost me. Being a hardcore Disney fan is definitely needed
im at beach club and yes i always book 11 month out for a studio for beach which is my home resort.Always sell out if you dont do what i do.Glad a bought beach club when i did back in 02.. :)
Very good points indeed! Everyone has different needs and wants based on their own family situation. The one thing I will differ on is the studio aspect of the discussion. Now - again, this is based solely on my experience and needs. I am a single person. When I purchased DVC 13 years ago - (wow - has it really been that long ago??) - I made my choice based on me being a single traveler, with the need for only a studio accommodation. So far, I have had a great experience in getting my availability to do approx 2 weeks a year using a studio. Most of the times I have booked have been for about 4 to 5 months out. Early on when I started, I only stayed at my home resort, Saratoga Springs one time, and was booking the other resorts more than my home resort. Now for the past few years, it has been tougher to get the other resorts 4 months out, but it does happen. Now I am traveling with a friend of mine and we still go around twice a year - for longer stays (about 9 nights each trip). I don't have enough points to last for two trips at 9 nights each, so we usually do 1 trip using DVC for 5 nights, then stay off site at a Holiday Inn (my friend works for Holiday Inn, so we use his employee rate - ends up being cheaper than staying at a Value onsite). Then the 2nd trip if the year, we usually do the whole stay using DVC. And since it is still just the 2 of us, the studio still works out great. On the financing side, i have heard the same comments of that if you have to finance, then it is not a good deal. Again, to me that is based solely on each individuals needs and situation. I looked into DVC a few years before I made purchase 13 years ago. At the time I had a small travel trailer and would stay at Disney's Fort Wilderness Campground. Back when I was camping at Disney, it didn't make much sense to me back then to buy into DVC when I could stay for much cheaper in the campground. At the time, my parents were still alive and I talked to DVC with them, but with them, DVC was a "Time Share", and they were very much against the idea of "Time Shares" due to the fact that to them they were a total waste of money and not flexible enough to use economically. (they also were RV'ers and even with the Camping "Time Shares" that were offered, it was never for them. Moving forward to my DVC purchase . 2 years before my purchase, my parents passed on, and I decided to take another look at DVC. I still had my travel trailer, but it was then 10 years old, and with the gas prices skyrocketing to over $4.00 a gallon back then, It was costing me a small fortune in gas just to pull the trailer! So, I decided to sell the trailer. Since I was used to traveling to Disney and staying at the Campground, the sticker shock hit when I started to price out staying on property for a week instead of camping! Since my parents were no longer with me, and that they knew of how much I enjoyed going to the "World", I decided to use some of the inheritance to put as a down payment for a DVC contract. I put half down, and decided to finance the other half for the 10 year limit. (A little side note here. When I had purchased the travel trailer, that was also on a 10 year loan.) The DVC 10 year loan payment came in at just a little less than what I was paying for the loan payment for the trailer that I sold. So with the DVC payment being just about the same as what i had been paying for the travel trailer before it was paid for, I decided to go ahead with the DVC purchase. So for me, financing the 2nd half of the purchase worked out perfectly for my budget. To end this - I have been very happy with my DVC purchase. The only thing I would do differently would be to have done it sooner. Back when I purchased, it was around $91 a point. Now - $188 a point and with the price going up to $210 a point in June, I am glade I got in when I did!
Thanks for doing this series. I have always been STRONGLY against a "Timeshare", but knowing what I do about Disney vacations, I have been more and more weighing the pros and cons for getting into the Disney Vacation Club. i am still doing the research, I still have plenty of questions, and am loving how some of the answers are put in your videos. Thanks again!
I’m active duty and have wrestled over whether to buy into the DVC for years. I go to Disney allllll the time, but I never plan ahead. I think three months out was the furthest ahead I could do with what I knew of my military schedule. I do enjoy Shades of Green though, and that is far cheaper even with DVC, but I do wish it had some Disney theming.
My wife and I got into DVC with the idea that we would stay in studios because it’s just us and our son. Until we stayed at a 1 bedroom in both Boardwalk (remodeled) and Old Key West. Now we’re never going back to a studio! The larger units are amazing! And it’s especially handy having the full size kitchen so we don’t have to go out to dinner each night. We financed our purchase and it worked for us. If you decide to save then buy, you have to factor in the price increase for points. While the points offered for sale at a resort doesn’t change, the price per point goes up. We got into Aulani in April 2015 at $165 per point, with a 50 point bonus tacked on by Disney, which effectively got us down to $144 per point. Now at $188 per point, I’m glad we bought when we did.
Thank you for your show on who should not buy. I live in Florida and am a last minute planner because of my work, so I will continue to enjoy Disney when I can. Thanks for all you do!
We are military family for me love our contacts turn on 435 points. We did get stationed overseas for three years we just rented those points and used the money to travel Europe. Although we are stationed for the most part in FL when we are in the states.
We are a studio only family, and always have been. We bought 75 points at ssr many years ago. I’m a teacher and we don’t like to finance things, so we bought what we could afford. I can only travel in the summer, so our dates are not flexible. However, we have never had a problem getting a room, and we have never stayed at our home resort. We travel during the summer, and sometimes a long weekend trip at other times of the year. We go most years, occasionally taking a year off.
We became members in 1992. It was absolutely fantastic to get the free park tickets for 8 years. You will never see that again. We had to pay to get into Animal Kingdom when it originally opened because the free tickets only included the existing parks at the time we bought, but we loved it. We've enjoyed it for over 25 years now.
Pete, We have a 160 pt contract, since 2011 we have always stayed at studios, until. last year.. Our home resort is AKL, we traveled in July and stayed 8 nights at Beach Club, Boardwalk, Wilderness lodge, with no problems and AKL, kidani and Jambo concierge
Add to it the people who have relatives who live within a half-hour drive of the parks. Why would I even consider spending tens of thousands of dollars then try to navigate the nightmare that is the DVC system when I can always stay for free at my parents' house?
I am included in one of those six groups. Always knew DVC was not right, but now it is confirmed. I will be happy waiting for a discount rate to book a Disney hotel room.
Regarding the last minute DVC stay, my daughter and her husband were going to WDW and already had their reservations at a hotel. They asked us to join them about a month out. I told them that I'd look at DVC to see if there was anything available, thinking there was no way. We found a standard view studio at Kidani village for the five days we needed. It was the only studio available in the entire resort. (BTW, this was November 2019.) I decided it was a sign, and we went. Normally, we're making reservations at 11 months at our home resort, the Grand Californian.
I think a clarification should be made: if people don’t intend to travel in general for at least a week every year or every other year should not buy DVC. DVC partners with RCI for many locations worldwide. The RCI rentals tend to be a week commitment, so if you cannot take a week off or have the interest/money to travel to several places, DVC is not for you. The first vacation we took as DVC members was an RCI exchange and the place was great! Easily a $300-600 night kind of hangout. So I hope RCI is touched on in future episodes. That being said, we are using our points this round for a nearly two week stay at Walt Disney World in October. May the force be with us as we try to navigate Galaxy’s Edge crowds, ha!
Ahhhh holy sh**....I’m a 4 outta 5 ....no wonder I’m fed up with DVC !!! My family dynamics have changed ...and I have changed !! I still love Disney but have found other destinations and have a hard time affording both 🥵!!! You mentioned perks ....what perks ....give me a little perk and I might not feel like I’m being ripped off !!! I didn’t used to feel this way ....I think it’s time for a divorce !!!
So so extremely informative. Always was confused about the dvc. Thank you Pete and everyone! Hey that Murphy bed can sleep some teens and shorter smaller adults. It so comes in handy and saves us a bundle
My family and I have a small contract, but we have had great success with studio availability. We own at AKL, and have a value studio for 5 nights over Thanksgiving, and before that we have a one-week split stay at Beach Club and Saratoga Springs. If you are a great planner and wake up to book right when the window opens, you can get very lucky! It's all about the strategy.
A lot of great points. We've bought DVC in '02 from DVD and as family got bigger added on 2 contracts resale from Timeshare Store. We use 1 or 2 BR and the saving factor for us is full kitchen. So studio not really an issue. Biggest cost to Disney trip is your room. DVC lets you hedge that cost. All contracts are at BCV and all under 83 per point. Financed 1st using HECL @ low int and 3 yrs. If I would have waited 3 years cost per point would have exceeded interest (2.75%) and I wouldn't have gotten 3 years of points. With home equity I also had the albeit small tax deduction & didn't pay much higher DVD financing option. People should look for own financing especially if you have excellent or very good credit.
@@stanbstudio8251 Usually, in the hotel business, they overbook the hotel during busy season (take more reservations than they have rooms for) to account for all the people that make a reservation and don't show. They still fill the hotel that way. But when the hotel has 500 rooms and the 501st reservation actually shows up and expects a room, they get "walked" to another hotel. The hotel where they had the original reservation pays for that 1 night, since they couldn't accommodate the legit reservation.
To get the studio you want, for the time you want, you really need to "walk" the reservation. This is a loophole in the reservation that Disney has not closed, so take advantage of it
You make a reservation say you want to stay for a week starting December 1. Instead of booking the room at 11 months out on February 1, you book the room on January 1 for November 1. You can book the room for 7 days. You then, every day drop the first day off your reservation and add a day at the end. You do this till you get to your dates. No one will be able to stop you from doing this because the room is out of inventory. Basically you have dibs on it. Certain rooms at certain resorts this the only way you’ll get the room.
I was a cross between "last minute" (I will forever consider booking within a 180 ADR window last minute after my first adult trip) and occasional tourist. On the other hand not that last minute since I did A LOT of research on ADR & other things I wanted to do before making reservations. Either way I always suspected DVC isn't my thing and you just confirmed it
My wife and I bought 200 points back in 2013 and only book studios and have always gotten one at 11 months out, and twice have changed to different resorts at 7 months, no problem. Guess it depends on the time of year you go (mid October or December odd years, mid May even years, get two trips out of a annual pass and Tables in Wonderland).
I hope Disney is listening about studio availability... and build more studios in the resorts, I haven’t looked at Rivera’s room layouts but I hope there’s more studios than 1 n 2 BRs.
Riviera has 38 dedicated studios, 24 2-person tower studios (these don't exist at any other DVC resort) and 148 2-BR Lock-Offs. That gives us a total of 210 possible studios/tower studios, or 186 if you just count possible regular studios. It's in the middle of the pack of DVC resorts in terms of studio availability. The tower studios are about the size of a regular value resort room, but given that there are so few of them no one should buy Riviera (or any DVC resort) with a plan of regularly being able to stay in these. Likely you'll be lucky if you can snag one at 11 months, and especially so at 7 months.
Glad we helped you out Pete! Copper Creek has terrible availibility because they loaded too many points into cabins but people buy for studios. Millions of points chasing the 'normal' rooms. They were even walking 1 beds at 11 months for Xmas- unheared of.
I Have had DVC since 2008, stayed in almost exclusively in studios, never had a problem. If you own a timeshare with an 11 month booking window and you want to get the most for your dollar you have to plan vacations ahead of time.
I took a tour of DVC when I was at WDW last Halloween. While it was tempting, I learned on my trip that 5 days is too much for me anymore and the minimum number of points I would have to buy is still way too much for this solo traveller.
We are free to go to Disney anytime of the year ( we have not kids.) So, we're able to optimize our points. We try to go only during low season and only stay five nights, Sunday through Thursday. We always get a one bedroom, preferred view. Since the majority of our points are at Boardwalk, we've always had good luck getting what we want.
you almost had me sold on DVC with the previous episodes but i fall into a few of those categories and it probably isnt for us now that you point these things out
I have to disagree about the Financier from personal experience. For years, I kept hearing that I should wait until I could pay cash because with interest it would end up costing me double. So what did I do? instead of buying 15 years ago, I bought 5 years ago when I could afford to pay in cash. Problem is that during that period of time the cost of joining MORE THAN DOUBLED! To top it off, I still ended up paying for reservations in cash during that entire period of time, money that I could have put towards paying off the DVC if I would have financed it to begin with. Who knows, maybe this is the highest that DVC will ever sell for, somehow I doubt it. If you're like me, and go to Disney at least every other year, but can't afford to pay in cash, my advice would be to forego some of the perks and buy on the Secondary Market. Companies like Monera will finance just about anyone for Florida DVC's at decent rates. Obviously, if you fall into one of the six categories don't do it, but for most others like me who's kids have Spring Break, Birthdays, Anniversaries and other things that happen at the same time every year and that's when you take your vacations, I say go ahead and do it. I see people who say they can't plan ahead but what? You don't know when your anniversary is? You don't know when your kids birthday is? Sure you can plan ahead, you just need to think about it a bit.
The great deal on the Platinum Plus pass was you get the Platinum Plus pass for the price of the Gold pass. It was about $400 off and lots of members got them. We were able to get three trips out of them.
The Jackal Smith - same here. We’re on our third before they expire soon. Such a great price. I don’t think we plan on renewing our annual passes. We’ll just come once a year using DVC and not add on the 2nd (or 3rd) trip using retail rented points.
We financed our DVC but we are paying it off in less than a year. It made sense for us to enjoy it while we paid it off quickly. You have to crunch the numbers and decide what is best for you. Even though I am already a DVC member I am loving these shows! :)
We just looked for Tomorrow and there was availability for Old Key West for a studio. Now does that mean someone dropped a reservation? But it was only for a weekend trip, not the week you guys were talking about.
We bought 210 points direct, while on a Disney cruise, back when the Polynesian Bungalows were new. We've used them for 2-3 trips a year to WDW for 2-3 adults. We have resort hopped at WDW a few times and it isn't too bad, especially if you are prepared to do it. :) When we recently moved to the West Coast, trying to find more than 2 nights in a row at the Grand Californian 7 months out is ridiculous. We had to use them to reserve the regular hotel rooms they put in reserve for us DVC members (which cost about the same as the DVC rooms), but we couldn't even get 4 consecutive nights in a row at any hotel, so we have to hotel hop a little for our 4 night stay at DLR. And nothing in Paradise Pier was available. I really hope they build another DVC resort at Disneyland.
I have to disagree with you on the studio only people. My husband and I are new DVC (160 points at AKL) and we really only need a studio. We had no problem getting 2 ( separate) weeks at AKL this year. One of those stays is Savanna view but that was our choice. My in laws have been members for over 20 years (OKW & BW)and they mostly stay at studios as well. I do agree that last minute reservations are very difficult. Mine were made in November or December for May and September. Maybe I’m also very fortunate to own at AKL ( my favorite resort). I’d love to stay at other resorts some day, but I’m fine with AKL for now if needed.
Okay, this is something I have always wondered... If it is so hard to get the places you want, you have to book sooooo far in advance, it's more expensive (sometimes) than just paying cash for a room, and they can change the perks on you at any minute, then what is the point of DVC?? How is DVC better than just booking rooms when you want them? Especially when Disney runs their 25-40% off room specials (which is pretty often). Passholders also get great deals and Florida residents as well. I really don't get why it's better. What is the real benefit?? Is it more for the families that need the 1-3 bedroom units? We looked into it and did the math and we knew it was cheaper for us to just book rooms when we needed them so I'm truly curious why people get into DVC?? It also seems like people are trying to sell or rent their points. I just don't get it.
One of the benefits is that you buy in a property that the average night is at least $350 per night, so maybe you'll find good offers but in lower category hotels or still paying a lot of more money for same category hotels. Also, been DVC gives you the chance to buy Park Tickets as Florida Residents
ill say though that this team says the "buy where you want to stay and its sooo hard to stay other places on your points" but then they say they've stayed at all the resorts and only own at one of them. In the end it just depends how flexible you are i think thats the more concerning aspect. If you can go anytime any part of the year, you'll find something available. but if you only plan to use DVC on new years eve, well its just like booking a hotel here in las vegas, forget it. They;l charge you $600 a night for a crappy hotel in march for december 31st.
Interest is always a trade-off between what you would make on the money [after taxes] vs. what you pay in interest. If you’re making only the pittance that banks are paying today on savings, if you have credit card debt at high interest rates, then pay off the credit cards first then buy the DVC cash if you have the cash. However, if you’re in business for yourself, if you own rental real estate, you can take the money and make more than you would pay in interest since rates today are pretty low overall. The question is, where is the cheapest source of credit if you can’t pay cash?
We love our DVC & have now owned for 13 years but as we are from the UK we always book 11mths out & can get a studio no problems & we stay for 3 weeks at a time. We do own at SSR & thankfully for us we love it, we do sometimes do a week somewhere else & aim to book this at 7mths, this is the first year we have not managed to get anywhere ! I do think it’s getting more difficult to do a non home resort.
I think the financing can work depending on how you finance. We took out a HELOC and used some of those funds for DVC. I was able to pay it off after a year.
If you don't mind my asking how many points did you buy? My wife and I were considering doing this. Is the HELOC rate significantly better than the Disney financing rate?
My DH and I are value category travelers also. We are considering buying a 30-40 point contract for OKW on resale for under $5k. Not including the initial buy in, dues make the rooms cost close to Pop - dues for studios are actually sometimes less! Since we are not financing the initial buy in cost, I’m counting that as an investment to make deluxe resorts cost effective. We are planning to bank and borrow to get a deluxe every other or every third year, and pay cash at Pop for our other stays.
We love disney but we're a combo of last minute and studio ppl- family of 4 but we have no use for a 1 bedroom since we're very rarely in our room and max planning time for our trips is maybe 3-4 months out so we'd never be able to book a room and I don't want to stay at SSR.
My brother-in-law bought 400 points at Grand Flo, and found he could not get a room there unless he was planning 11 months out! They like to go on an annual week long family vacation in the Spring, but his business doesn't always allow him to plan 11 months in advance, then he and his wife would drop in for a weekend every now and again on a whim, and the Grand Flo isn't large enough to accommodate that! This angered him and he sold back to Disney! Then he came back to Disney 6 more times since selling, toured Copper Creek on a whim, and bought 600 points there! 😂 The way he sees it, with this many points he can get a 3 BR or a cabin for his annual family vacation, and he has figured out that he has a little more time to plan when staying in the Larger rooms. He will pay out of pocket for their weekend getaways and still get his DVC and Annual Pass perks.
The only point I disagree with is the studio only people. DW and I bought our 50 point BRV (formerly VWL) contract through the Timeshare Store in '07. We have only stayed in studios and have not had any problem getting a room even wait listing at the 7 month window. The only resorts I have tried to get into that have not gone through is VGF and HHI. Granted we do not go during high traffic time but we just stayed at BLT and got it at the 7 month window.
We are a retired military family and we own DVC. We typically stay in a 2 bedroom love the full kitchen. We do take advantage of the ticket discounts . I do agree active military not being a good value.
I disagree on the studio only set because it really depends... If you're like me that mostly goes during the off season in May and in September it's actually pretty easy to get a studio. Especially if you're doing it 3 to 6 months in advance. Obviously certain studios like the value over at animal Kingdom you'll have to reserve those 11 months in advance, but again not impossible to get depending on the time of year that you're going. If you're someone who only travels during spring break and Christmas then yeah, probably not going to get a studio unless you've got your finger on the button right at 11 months.
You guys talk like staying at Saratoga is a bad thing. I love the Saratoga because of it's proximity to Disney Springs. Every night, I walk over to get dinner and/or drinks. The resort is relaxed. I purposely bought here just for Disney Springs.
I financed. But at $80 a point. Payed off now. Even my 10 years of payments still was less then grand villas, 2 bedrooms and many 1 bedrooms. Totally worth it. Definitely saved money. I would have been paying a lot more for the rack rate
Yeh, I'm the last minute tourist. Fortunately, we live near an airport where you can get kind of a last minute flight still reasonably priced (you might be the first flight out or the last flight out) that DVC-and the thought of making a reservation as far as like 7 months ahead for me is just impossible. Who knows my schedule? So I'm hearing all this to try to understand DVC, but for me I already know it's just not for me.
This video really makes me realise how lucky my family were, over Christmas a couple years ago we got a 1 bed at Bay Lake for 5 nights and we booked just shy of 30 days out. We aren't members and didn't use points my mum was just calling up trying to find somewhere to stay (we always do things last minute), it wasn't cheap but apparently didn't work out too much more expensive than places like swan and dolphin they were trying to get us to stay at! We must've got so lucky to get that room, somebody must've just cancelled.
My sister and I are both 5'8/5'9 and we fit on the murphy bed at the Poly just fine. My mom is 5'4 and she also has plenty of room. Since we were 3 adults in the studio, we would rotate on the 3 beds so we each had the queen/pullout/murphy to sleep on during out trip.
I just book Jan 2nd-11th at the poly with no issues in a studio. The issue must be just by resort because half of that is during kids winter break, peek time.
I still had some questions about the DVC costs. How much does it actually cost (points) per stay and for how long? Do the points renew every year without payment? How much (points) is a typical stay during non-holiday, non-peak hour stays? How about during peak times?
I visited Disneyworld back in February 2005 - not the most fun trip for one reason - we stayed off-site. I had hoped that the transportation system would be like it was around Disneyland from the hotels to the parks. Was quite disappointed that it was not. But loved the parks totally. We have discussed going back and staying on-site but the cost was prohibitive for the most part unless we stayed at one of the value hotels. When we were there we were asked if we wanted to check out DVC - but we declined. After running across these videos about DVC, I am regretting that decision. I'm in the Seattle/Tacoma area. We actually visit Disneyland more due to the ease of getting there and the transportation around the park. Have always wanted to visit the Grand Californian - but $600 per night is too much. Now I find out that I can rent points and get it for maybe $300 per night. Keep the good information coming.
I'm a person who likes to visit two to three times a year for long weekends, but I usually book 4 months out. Are there rooms available in the 20 points per night or below range 4 months out? Obviously not at Christmas time, but in February, August, or November?
Thank you for addressing the military community. In order to find the best discounts for military members, should we use to the Disney website or travel agent? Great video.
Very helpful. We’re from the UK and joined DVC in March when we were last in Orlando pre lockdown - we bought a 200 point contract from Disney at Riviera Resort. Are we allowed to buy more points on resale contracts? But if we do how does that affect DVC membership discounts etc? Regards David
My husband and I bought 200 points at AKL in 2012. We get 3 studios (yep, we bring friends!) but I book it at 11 months out and get savannah view rooms. (What's the point of staying in AKL unless you have a savannah view?!?!) I love studios! Each couple has their own room, with their own door and just enough room to visit, but not stay long term - like more than a few hours!
If studios are that hard to get then I guess this wouldn't be for us. That is all we ever get. We usually stay at POR but have been thinking of trying a deluxe resort. We want/need the 2 real beds so renting points and staying only gives us the option of OKW or Riviera. Nobody wants to sleep on the sofa pull-outs. I like OKW and we may do that with renting points, but not sure it makes sense to buy into DVC if studios are so hard to get normally even though we go every year.
I have found the reservation process so confusing that I purchase confirmed reservations from a third party, basically DVC members that resell their confirmed reservation.
We were annual pass holders that went at least a half a dozen times per year for just three or four days at a time. We also go at the last minute depending on weather. And now Disney Disappoints with all the closures and price increases and reservatioms. It would piss me off to spend so much money and not have availability. So I'm SO glad I did not buy into DVC.
Love this and love the idea of DVC but I don’t like to be locked in I like the flexibility of doing what I want to do I my own terms. Fascinated about this topic though.
I truly enjoyed this video!! I got a great perspective!! I have 450 points between Boardwalk, Wilderness Lodge, Saratoga Springs and Animal Kingdom Lodge. I've been a Member since 00 and am truly blessed to have made many memories. I hope to meet you at Moonlight Magic at Animal Kingdom this August. God bless the three of you and your families 🤗
Might want to do something about the windows behind you when you're recording in sunlight, it's really blowing you out Pete.....but still love everything y'all do
Brilliant this really hit the point about studios. Well done for this Pete this was a really good video explains the problems that us dvc members are suffering from. This problem with studios has only just started we have been going 2 times a year 2 weeks at a time from UK and only in the last year has studios been a problem. We now have to book at our home resort then cancel at the 7 month point if we can get a studio at non home resorts.There is no hard sell from DVC at no time was we ever pressured to buy at ant stage. Pete I'm really sorry Tables in wonder land is not worth it for a couple if its a large group of you its defiantly worth it 20% off but you pay the 18% gratuities so thats only a 2% discount no matter how you look at it.When it was only $25 dollars but now its $175 you really have to do the maths on it. Brilliant info well done to the team.
Hey guys, thank you for all the time you guys work on this videos. My husband and I we are planing to join DVC this year and we are so confuse in what is the best option between the two they offering to us right know, which is cooper creek and riviera. It would be amazing if you guys make a video about this two, to help families like us to decide what’s the best option. Thank you guys in advance. Rogelio and Herschel
One thing to note is that if you are a Colorado Resident and you are financing, Disney cannot mail the closing docs to you. You have to sign the closing docs in person at Disney World, Disneyland, or on a Disney cruise ship.
BIG RED FLAG !!!!!!!!!!!........It's a SCAM
I have really been enjoying this series - we have rented DVD points for our last four trips, and now that we are no longer paying for daycare, we are considering making the investment in DVC.
On a side note, I ADORE seeing Jackie so frequently lately! She rings so much enthusiasm to your discussions, and I really appreciate having her point of view on many of the topics that you cover. Thank you Jackie!
Jackie really is amazing! Absolutely adore her
My grandparents are DVC members and they are taking our whole family to celebrate my grandpas 80th birthday this year. We’ve done this before, and it would not have run as smoothly without DVC.
Omg! I am totally in the impulse buy group and I bought! But I never regretted it. I have only been a member since February 2018, 100 point contract at CC. I essentially bought this for myself as an early 30th birthday present. I didn’t even know what it was, my mom and I thought it was like a travel agency that could help plan our first ever trip to WDW (for my bday). Well that’s when we found out it was a timeshare program, pitch was given, and mom and I decided it would be amazing for me since I love love love Disney. I paid it off in full later on that month and have never regretted. I am already going for my second trip in September and I can’t wait.
Finally made the push for DVC after taking tours and talking to DVC reps since 2009.
We usually go every 3 years by banking and borrowing. You can make it work as long as you're willing to go every 3 years, or more often. We like that there's usually something new and fresh in between trips and helps us avoid the stagnation and burnout. There aren't many "every 3 year" folks like us out there, but we do exist.
This why my mother, sister and I usually start planning our next vacation as soon as our Disney vacation ends since we only do studio rooms. We normally book in our home resort, BLT, at least 11 months out and we have also book at least 7 months out, WL and AKL for at least 9 or 10 days each trip. We normally travel during adventure or choice seasons. Depending on when we go we sometimes have to borrow from the upcoming year. If we don't have enough points for our usually amount stay of days we either decrease the amount of days we go or we do a cruise instead. Which we paid out of pocket of course and bank any remaining points for our next vacation.
Thank you so much! We have weighed our options and for us, we choose to rent DVC points. If we were going to purchase a contract, we should have done it long ago. It’s just myself and my teenager. Renting points works. We have SS ( yes Saratoga Springs 😐)in August $1600 for 7 nights! I feel it’s a great deal.
Love the DVC series, keep them coming! I do have a comment on the military not being a group that should buy into DVC because of the discounts. Being a military member, the ticket discounts are awesome, but the resort discounts are not always available. Disney only discounts a small amount of rooms and you have to be lucky to get them. As far as deploying, which is a common thing. You always have options like banking if you are only going to miss a year. Renting your points is another good option and then using that money for your dues. At the end of the day this is a long term commitment and it isn't for everyone. I have been reluctant to be able to go to Disney every other year since 2013 and we finally purchased DVC in 2017. My only regret is we didn't buy sooner. Thanks for everything you guys and gals do.
Please discuss in detail on a future show, how to put unused points up for rent so you can get cash out of them. Thanks Pete for expanding your TH-cam shows to include a dedicated show about DVC. Welcome home!
Misleading title. I thought they were going to name specific people. Josh Wippen, Sally Gooden, Roy Clatten, Susan Stomboli, Juan Fredrickson, and Ryan Teetz....you six should not buy DVC.
I think the biggest thing is you have to be enamored with Disney. I’ve been going to Orlando almost every year since 85’.. sometimes twice a year. And I remember doing a tour for DVC back in the late 90s with my moms..as she was deciding between this and an off-site timeshare and she ended up going with the offsite because she got a better value both price/point and size wise for our family. I’m grown now.. but still don’t see the value for what it would cost me. Being a hardcore Disney fan is definitely needed
I'm really liking this series. Will you discuss RENTING DVC points? I've been looking into that and it seems like an interesting option.
Yes, please!!
Jonathan Rice I agree !! I’m very interested
I’ve had excellent success renting points. I’ve used dvcrequest twice and thesvcshop once. All were excellent, dvcshop has better prices!
I used DVCRentalStore.com for my parent’s 65th anniversary trip. They were awesome and took care of us all the way through the process.
@@WalterRiggs , we've used them 3 times. Aulani, Boulder Ridge and Beach club. All 1bd.
im at beach club and yes i always book 11 month out for a studio for beach which is my home resort.Always sell out if you dont do what i do.Glad a bought beach club when i did back in 02.. :)
Very good points indeed!
Everyone has different needs and wants based on their own family situation. The one thing I will differ on is the studio aspect of the discussion. Now - again, this is based solely on my experience and needs. I am a single person. When I purchased DVC 13 years ago - (wow - has it really been that long ago??) - I made my choice based on me being a single traveler, with the need for only a studio accommodation. So far, I have had a great experience in getting my availability to do approx 2 weeks a year using a studio. Most of the times I have booked have been for about 4 to 5 months out. Early on when I started, I only stayed at my home resort, Saratoga Springs one time, and was booking the other resorts more than my home resort. Now for the past few years, it has been tougher to get the other resorts 4 months out, but it does happen. Now I am traveling with a friend of mine and we still go around twice a year - for longer stays (about 9 nights each trip). I don't have enough points to last for two trips at 9 nights each, so we usually do 1 trip using DVC for 5 nights, then stay off site at a Holiday Inn (my friend works for Holiday Inn, so we use his employee rate - ends up being cheaper than staying at a Value onsite). Then the 2nd trip if the year, we usually do the whole stay using DVC. And since it is still just the 2 of us, the studio still works out great.
On the financing side, i have heard the same comments of that if you have to finance, then it is not a good deal. Again, to me that is based solely on each individuals needs and situation.
I looked into DVC a few years before I made purchase 13 years ago. At the time I had a small travel trailer and would stay at Disney's Fort Wilderness Campground. Back when I was camping at Disney, it didn't make much sense to me back then to buy into DVC when I could stay for much cheaper in the campground. At the time, my parents were still alive and I talked to DVC with them, but with them, DVC was a "Time Share", and they were very much against the idea of "Time Shares" due to the fact that to them they were a total waste of money and not flexible enough to use economically. (they also were RV'ers and even with the Camping "Time Shares" that were offered, it was never for them.
Moving forward to my DVC purchase . 2 years before my purchase, my parents passed on, and I decided to take another look at DVC. I still had my travel trailer, but it was then 10 years old, and with the gas prices skyrocketing to over $4.00 a gallon back then, It was costing me a small fortune in gas just to pull the trailer! So, I decided to sell the trailer. Since I was used to traveling to Disney and staying at the Campground, the sticker shock hit when I started to price out staying on property for a week instead of camping! Since my parents were no longer with me, and that they knew of how much I enjoyed going to the "World", I decided to use some of the inheritance to put as a down payment for a DVC contract.
I put half down, and decided to finance the other half for the 10 year limit. (A little side note here. When I had purchased the travel trailer, that was also on a 10 year loan.) The DVC 10 year loan payment came in at just a little less than what I was paying for the loan payment for the trailer that I sold. So with the DVC payment being just about the same as what i had been paying for the travel trailer before it was paid for, I decided to go ahead with the DVC purchase. So for me, financing the 2nd half of the purchase worked out perfectly for my budget.
To end this - I have been very happy with my DVC purchase. The only thing I would do differently would be to have done it sooner. Back when I purchased, it was around $91 a point. Now - $188 a point and with the price going up to $210 a point in June, I am glade I got in when I did!
Every time I get the DVC bug, I watch this video to remind me why it's not for me, lol :D
Thanks for doing this series. I have always been STRONGLY against a "Timeshare", but knowing what I do about Disney vacations, I have been more and more weighing the pros and cons for getting into the Disney Vacation Club. i am still doing the research, I still have plenty of questions, and am loving how some of the answers are put in your videos. Thanks again!
I’m active duty and have wrestled over whether to buy into the DVC for years. I go to Disney allllll the time, but I never plan ahead. I think three months out was the furthest ahead I could do with what I knew of my military schedule. I do enjoy Shades of Green though, and that is far cheaper even with DVC, but I do wish it had some Disney theming.
lol ‘little Italian ladies’ on murphy bed- yep- we’ve got them too!
My wife and I got into DVC with the idea that we would stay in studios because it’s just us and our son. Until we stayed at a 1 bedroom in both Boardwalk (remodeled) and Old Key West. Now we’re never going back to a studio! The larger units are amazing! And it’s especially handy having the full size kitchen so we don’t have to go out to dinner each night.
We financed our purchase and it worked for us. If you decide to save then buy, you have to factor in the price increase for points. While the points offered for sale at a resort doesn’t change, the price per point goes up. We got into Aulani in April 2015 at $165 per point, with a 50 point bonus tacked on by Disney, which effectively got us down to $144 per point. Now at $188 per point, I’m glad we bought when we did.
I got a great discount on annual passes last year and they were Platinum passes.
Thank you for your show on who should not buy. I live in Florida and am a last minute planner because of my work, so I will continue to enjoy Disney when I can. Thanks for all you do!
We are military family for me love our contacts turn on 435 points. We did get stationed overseas for three years we just rented those points and used the money to travel Europe. Although we are stationed for the most part in FL when we are in the states.
We are a studio only family, and always have been. We bought 75 points at ssr many years ago. I’m a teacher and we don’t like to finance things, so we bought what we could afford. I can only travel in the summer, so our dates are not flexible. However, we have never had a problem getting a room, and we have never stayed at our home resort. We travel during the summer, and sometimes a long weekend trip at other times of the year. We go most years, occasionally taking a year off.
We became members in 1992. It was absolutely fantastic to get the free park tickets for 8 years. You will never see that again. We had to pay to get into Animal Kingdom when it originally opened because the free tickets only included the existing parks at the time we bought, but we loved it. We've enjoyed it for over 25 years now.
It’s worth mentioning that you can stay for a week at most if not all Disney DVC properties using your RCI membership even if you’re not a DVC member.
Wow! I had no idea. We really want to use RCI, so we just bought 100 pts at Disney to get discounted cash prices through RCI.
Pete,
We have a 160 pt contract, since 2011 we have always stayed at studios, until. last year.. Our home resort is AKL, we traveled in July and stayed 8 nights at Beach Club, Boardwalk, Wilderness lodge, with no problems and AKL, kidani and Jambo concierge
Add to it the people who have relatives who live within a half-hour drive of the parks. Why would I even consider spending tens of thousands of dollars then try to navigate the nightmare that is the DVC system when I can always stay for free at my parents' house?
I am included in one of those six groups. Always knew DVC was not right, but now it is confirmed. I will be happy waiting for a discount rate to book a Disney hotel room.
Regarding the last minute DVC stay, my daughter and her husband were going to WDW and already had their reservations at a hotel. They asked us to join them about a month out. I told them that I'd look at DVC to see if there was anything available, thinking there was no way. We found a standard view studio at Kidani village for the five days we needed. It was the only studio available in the entire resort. (BTW, this was November 2019.) I decided it was a sign, and we went. Normally, we're making reservations at 11 months at our home resort, the Grand Californian.
I think a clarification should be made: if people don’t intend to travel in general for at least a week every year or every other year should not buy DVC. DVC partners with RCI for many locations worldwide. The RCI rentals tend to be a week commitment, so if you cannot take a week off or have the interest/money to travel to several places, DVC is not for you. The first vacation we took as DVC members was an RCI exchange and the place was great! Easily a $300-600 night kind of hangout. So I hope RCI is touched on in future episodes. That being said, we are using our points this round for a nearly two week stay at Walt Disney World in October. May the force be with us as we try to navigate Galaxy’s Edge crowds, ha!
FYI, I have BLT and SSR and never have a problem getting a studio booking at 11 months out. We go March, October and December.
Ahhhh holy sh**....I’m a 4 outta 5 ....no wonder I’m fed up with DVC !!! My family dynamics have changed ...and I have changed !! I still love Disney but have found other destinations and have a hard time affording both 🥵!!! You mentioned perks ....what perks ....give me a little perk and I might not feel like I’m being ripped off !!! I didn’t used to feel this way ....I think it’s time for a divorce !!!
So so extremely informative. Always was confused about the dvc. Thank you Pete and everyone! Hey that Murphy bed can sleep some teens and shorter smaller adults. It so comes in handy and saves us a bundle
My family and I have a small contract, but we have had great success with studio availability. We own at AKL, and have a value studio for 5 nights over Thanksgiving, and before that we have a one-week split stay at Beach Club and Saratoga Springs. If you are a great planner and wake up to book right when the window opens, you can get very lucky! It's all about the strategy.
A lot of great points. We've bought DVC in '02 from DVD and as family got bigger added on 2 contracts resale from Timeshare Store.
We use 1 or 2 BR and the saving factor for us is full kitchen. So studio not really an issue. Biggest cost to Disney trip is your room. DVC lets you hedge that cost.
All contracts are at BCV and all under 83 per point. Financed 1st using HECL @ low int and 3 yrs. If I would have waited 3 years cost per point would have exceeded interest (2.75%) and I wouldn't have gotten 3 years of points. With home equity I also had the albeit small tax deduction & didn't pay much higher DVD financing option. People should look for own financing especially if you have excellent or very good credit.
What does “walking the reservation “ mean?
@@stanbstudio8251 Usually, in the hotel business, they overbook the hotel during busy season (take more reservations than they have rooms for) to account for all the people that make a reservation and don't show. They still fill the hotel that way. But when the hotel has 500 rooms and the 501st reservation actually shows up and expects a room, they get "walked" to another hotel. The hotel where they had the original reservation pays for that 1 night, since they couldn't accommodate the legit reservation.
You can use the points for the cruise and other places around the globe, love DVC ! Joined in 1997 now have 300 points!!!!
To get the studio you want, for the time you want, you really need to "walk" the reservation. This is a loophole in the reservation that Disney has not closed, so take advantage of it
Nicholas Scott explain?
You make a reservation say you want to stay for a week starting December 1. Instead of booking the room at 11 months out on February 1, you book the room on January 1 for November 1. You can book the room for 7 days. You then, every day drop the first day off your reservation and add a day at the end. You do this till you get to your dates. No one will be able to stop you from doing this because the room is out of inventory. Basically you have dibs on it. Certain rooms at certain resorts this the only way you’ll get the room.
Thanks
@@thejackalsmith7329 Wow..we just purchased, so this is a valuable tip. Thanks!😊
I was a cross between "last minute" (I will forever consider booking within a 180 ADR window last minute after my first adult trip) and occasional tourist.
On the other hand not that last minute since I did A LOT of research on ADR & other things I wanted to do before making reservations. Either way I always suspected DVC isn't my thing and you just confirmed it
My wife and I bought 200 points back in 2013 and only book studios and have always gotten one at 11 months out, and twice have changed to different resorts at 7 months, no problem. Guess it depends on the time of year you go (mid October or December odd years, mid May even years, get two trips out of a annual pass and Tables in Wonderland).
I hope Disney is listening about studio availability... and build more studios in the resorts, I haven’t looked at Rivera’s room layouts but I hope there’s more studios than 1 n 2 BRs.
Riviera has 38 dedicated studios, 24 2-person tower studios (these don't exist at any other DVC resort) and 148 2-BR Lock-Offs. That gives us a total of 210 possible studios/tower studios, or 186 if you just count possible regular studios. It's in the middle of the pack of DVC resorts in terms of studio availability.
The tower studios are about the size of a regular value resort room, but given that there are so few of them no one should buy Riviera (or any DVC resort) with a plan of regularly being able to stay in these. Likely you'll be lucky if you can snag one at 11 months, and especially so at 7 months.
@@triedandchew Thanks for the info!💕
Glad we helped you out Pete!
Copper Creek has terrible availibility because they loaded too many points into cabins but people buy for studios. Millions of points chasing the 'normal' rooms. They were even walking 1 beds at 11 months for Xmas- unheared of.
The DVC sales guy is dying inside as Pete says 'No impulse buying'. Bless him, he regrets agreeing to this topic. 😂
I Have had DVC since 2008, stayed in almost exclusively in studios, never had a problem. If you own a timeshare with an 11 month booking window and you want to get the most for your dollar you have to plan vacations ahead of time.
I suggest getting 300 points. 3 have 125 now and are going to add 175 next. But we got a week at saratoga springs it was great.
I really like staying at Saratoga Springs. It's lovely, quiet, and has it's own transportation. I don't know why people hate on it as much as they do.
I’m an interested buyer. These shows are the best! I can’t stop watching them. Thank you!
I took a tour of DVC when I was at WDW last Halloween. While it was tempting, I learned on my trip that 5 days is too much for me anymore and the minimum number of points I would have to buy is still way too much for this solo traveller.
We are free to go to Disney anytime of the year ( we have not kids.) So, we're able to optimize our points. We try to go only during low season and only stay five nights, Sunday through Thursday. We always get a one bedroom, preferred view. Since the majority of our points are at Boardwalk, we've always had good luck getting what we want.
you almost had me sold on DVC with the previous episodes but i fall into a few of those categories and it probably isnt for us now that you point these things out
My favorite perk has always been staying in deluxe resorts for $100 a night for 12 nights a year (i.e. using points)
My daughter is 19 and 5'4" and LOVES the Murphy bed in our Poly DVC!
I have to disagree about the Financier from personal experience. For years, I kept hearing that I should wait until I could pay cash because with interest it would end up costing me double. So what did I do? instead of buying 15 years ago, I bought 5 years ago when I could afford to pay in cash. Problem is that during that period of time the cost of joining MORE THAN DOUBLED! To top it off, I still ended up paying for reservations in cash during that entire period of time, money that I could have put towards paying off the DVC if I would have financed it to begin with. Who knows, maybe this is the highest that DVC will ever sell for, somehow I doubt it. If you're like me, and go to Disney at least every other year, but can't afford to pay in cash, my advice would be to forego some of the perks and buy on the Secondary Market. Companies like Monera will finance just about anyone for Florida DVC's at decent rates. Obviously, if you fall into one of the six categories don't do it, but for most others like me who's kids have Spring Break, Birthdays, Anniversaries and other things that happen at the same time every year and that's when you take your vacations, I say go ahead and do it. I see people who say they can't plan ahead but what? You don't know when your anniversary is? You don't know when your kids birthday is? Sure you can plan ahead, you just need to think about it a bit.
The great deal on the Platinum Plus pass was you get the Platinum Plus pass for the price of the Gold pass. It was about $400 off and lots of members got them. We were able to get three trips out of them.
The Jackal Smith - same here. We’re on our third before they expire soon. Such a great price. I don’t think we plan on renewing our annual passes. We’ll just come once a year using DVC and not add on the 2nd (or 3rd) trip using retail rented points.
We financed our DVC but we are paying it off in less than a year. It made sense for us to enjoy it while we paid it off quickly. You have to crunch the numbers and decide what is best for you.
Even though I am already a DVC member I am loving these shows! :)
We just looked for Tomorrow and there was availability for Old Key West for a studio. Now does that mean someone dropped a reservation? But it was only for a weekend trip, not the week you guys were talking about.
3. Active Duty Military. Agreed!
We bought 210 points direct, while on a Disney cruise, back when the Polynesian Bungalows were new. We've used them for 2-3 trips a year to WDW for 2-3 adults. We have resort hopped at WDW a few times and it isn't too bad, especially if you are prepared to do it. :) When we recently moved to the West Coast, trying to find more than 2 nights in a row at the Grand Californian 7 months out is ridiculous. We had to use them to reserve the regular hotel rooms they put in reserve for us DVC members (which cost about the same as the DVC rooms), but we couldn't even get 4 consecutive nights in a row at any hotel, so we have to hotel hop a little for our 4 night stay at DLR. And nothing in Paradise Pier was available. I really hope they build another DVC resort at Disneyland.
I have to disagree with you on the studio only people. My husband and I are new DVC (160 points at AKL) and we really only need a studio. We had no problem getting 2 ( separate) weeks at AKL this year. One of those stays is Savanna view but that was our choice. My in laws have been members for over 20 years (OKW & BW)and they mostly stay at studios as well. I do agree that last minute reservations are very difficult. Mine were made in November or December for May and September. Maybe I’m also very fortunate to own at AKL ( my favorite resort). I’d love to stay at other resorts some day, but I’m fine with AKL for now if needed.
If after paying all the bucks for points you need to ask how much the maintenance fee will be it's not for you😯
Okay, this is something I have always wondered...
If it is so hard to get the places you want, you have to book sooooo far in advance, it's more expensive (sometimes) than just paying cash for a room, and they can change the perks on you at any minute, then what is the point of DVC?? How is DVC better than just booking rooms when you want them? Especially when Disney runs their 25-40% off room specials (which is pretty often). Passholders also get great deals and Florida residents as well. I really don't get why it's better. What is the real benefit?? Is it more for the families that need the 1-3 bedroom units? We looked into it and did the math and we knew it was cheaper for us to just book rooms when we needed them so I'm truly curious why people get into DVC?? It also seems like people are trying to sell or rent their points. I just don't get it.
I've had this same question as well.
One of the benefits is that you buy in a property that the average night is at least $350 per night, so maybe you'll find good offers but in lower category hotels or still paying a lot of more money for same category hotels. Also, been DVC gives you the chance to buy Park Tickets as Florida Residents
ill say though that this team says the "buy where you want to stay and its sooo hard to stay other places on your points" but then they say they've stayed at all the resorts and only own at one of them. In the end it just depends how flexible you are i think thats the more concerning aspect. If you can go anytime any part of the year, you'll find something available. but if you only plan to use DVC on new years eve, well its just like booking a hotel here in las vegas, forget it. They;l charge you $600 a night for a crappy hotel in march for december 31st.
DVC currently gets a discount on both Platinum and gold annual passes, just not the silver pass. That is the one they removed.
Interest is always a trade-off between what you would make on the money [after taxes] vs. what you pay in interest. If you’re making only the pittance that banks are paying today on savings, if you have credit card debt at high interest rates, then pay off the credit cards first then buy the DVC cash if you have the cash. However, if you’re in business for yourself, if you own rental real estate, you can take the money and make more than you would pay in interest since rates today are pretty low overall. The question is, where is the cheapest source of credit if you can’t pay cash?
We love our DVC & have now owned for 13 years but as we are from the UK we always book 11mths out & can get a studio no problems & we stay for 3 weeks at a time. We do own at SSR & thankfully for us we love it, we do sometimes do a week somewhere else & aim to book this at 7mths, this is the first year we have not managed to get anywhere ! I do think it’s getting more difficult to do a non home resort.
I think the financing can work depending on how you finance. We took out a HELOC and used some of those funds for DVC. I was able to pay it off after a year.
If you don't mind my asking how many points did you buy? My wife and I were considering doing this. Is the HELOC rate significantly better than the Disney financing rate?
Thanks for this! It's just DH and I and we would always stay at Pop Century so we probably fit into the shouldn't buy in category.
Hippy Dippy 4 ever
That’s real smart... at that price it’s just a tad more than owning! 👍
My DH and I are value category travelers also. We are considering buying a 30-40 point contract for OKW on resale for under $5k. Not including the initial buy in, dues make the rooms cost close to Pop - dues for studios are actually sometimes less! Since we are not financing the initial buy in cost, I’m counting that as an investment to make deluxe resorts cost effective. We are planning to bank and borrow to get a deluxe every other or every third year, and pay cash at Pop for our other stays.
You should buy DVC if you can’t afford it! 😅
My wife and I almost bought but I’m waiting until I finish paying off her wedding ring.
We love disney but we're a combo of last minute and studio ppl- family of 4 but we have no use for a 1 bedroom since we're very rarely in our room and max planning time for our trips is maybe 3-4 months out so we'd never be able to book a room and I don't want to stay at SSR.
My brother-in-law bought 400 points at Grand Flo, and found he could not get a room there unless he was planning 11 months out! They like to go on an annual week long family vacation in the Spring, but his business doesn't always allow him to plan 11 months in advance, then he and his wife would drop in for a weekend every now and again on a whim, and the Grand Flo isn't large enough to accommodate that! This angered him and he sold back to Disney! Then he came back to Disney 6 more times since selling, toured Copper Creek on a whim, and bought 600 points there! 😂 The way he sees it, with this many points he can get a 3 BR or a cabin for his annual family vacation, and he has figured out that he has a little more time to plan when staying in the Larger rooms. He will pay out of pocket for their weekend getaways and still get his DVC and Annual Pass perks.
The only point I disagree with is the studio only people. DW and I bought our 50 point BRV (formerly VWL) contract through the Timeshare Store in '07. We have only stayed in studios and have not had any problem getting a room even wait listing at the 7 month window. The only resorts I have tried to get into that have not gone through is VGF and HHI. Granted we do not go during high traffic time but we just stayed at BLT and got it at the 7 month window.
1 bedrooms are the best , always available and have all the goodies😀
Bob Baker ok thanks🥴
We are a retired military family and we own DVC. We typically stay in a 2 bedroom love the full kitchen. We do take advantage of the ticket discounts . I do agree active military not being a good value.
I disagree on the studio only set because it really depends... If you're like me that mostly goes during the off season in May and in September it's actually pretty easy to get a studio. Especially if you're doing it 3 to 6 months in advance. Obviously certain studios like the value over at animal Kingdom you'll have to reserve those 11 months in advance, but again not impossible to get depending on the time of year that you're going. If you're someone who only travels during spring break and Christmas then yeah, probably not going to get a studio unless you've got your finger on the button right at 11 months.
You guys talk like staying at Saratoga is a bad thing. I love the Saratoga because of it's proximity to Disney Springs. Every night, I walk over to get dinner and/or drinks. The resort is relaxed. I purposely bought here just for Disney Springs.
I financed. But at $80 a point. Payed off now. Even my 10 years of payments still was less then grand villas, 2 bedrooms and many 1 bedrooms. Totally worth it. Definitely saved money. I would have been paying a lot more for the rack rate
Yeh, I'm the last minute tourist. Fortunately, we live near an airport where you can get kind of a last minute flight still reasonably priced (you might be the first flight out or the last flight out) that DVC-and the thought of making a reservation as far as like 7 months ahead for me is just impossible. Who knows my schedule? So I'm hearing all this to try to understand DVC, but for me I already know it's just not for me.
i am group 2 : As often as I travel ( or don't travel) i find it cheaper to pay as I go vs a buy a time share
This video really makes me realise how lucky my family were, over Christmas a couple years ago we got a 1 bed at Bay Lake for 5 nights and we booked just shy of 30 days out. We aren't members and didn't use points my mum was just calling up trying to find somewhere to stay (we always do things last minute), it wasn't cheap but apparently didn't work out too much more expensive than places like swan and dolphin they were trying to get us to stay at! We must've got so lucky to get that room, somebody must've just cancelled.
My sister and I are both 5'8/5'9 and we fit on the murphy bed at the Poly just fine. My mom is 5'4 and she also has plenty of room. Since we were 3 adults in the studio, we would rotate on the 3 beds so we each had the queen/pullout/murphy to sleep on during out trip.
Hello ...thanks for your great videos..Can you buy points. And how much are the points?..
I just book Jan 2nd-11th at the poly with no issues in a studio. The issue must be just by resort because half of that is during kids winter break, peek time.
I still had some questions about the DVC costs. How much does it actually cost (points) per stay and for how long? Do the points renew every year without payment? How much (points) is a typical stay during non-holiday, non-peak hour stays? How about during peak times?
Love Jackie’s truth rant.
We have 115 and we get any resort we want every time at 7 months
I visited Disneyworld back in February 2005 - not the most fun trip for one reason - we stayed off-site. I had hoped that the transportation system would be like it was around Disneyland from the hotels to the parks. Was quite disappointed that it was not. But loved the parks totally. We have discussed going back and staying on-site but the cost was prohibitive for the most part unless we stayed at one of the value hotels. When we were there we were asked if we wanted to check out DVC - but we declined. After running across these videos about DVC, I am regretting that decision. I'm in the Seattle/Tacoma area. We actually visit Disneyland more due to the ease of getting there and the transportation around the park. Have always wanted to visit the Grand Californian - but $600 per night is too much. Now I find out that I can rent points and get it for maybe $300 per night.
Keep the good information coming.
I'm a person who likes to visit two to three times a year for long weekends, but I usually book 4 months out. Are there rooms available in the 20 points per night or below range 4 months out? Obviously not at Christmas time, but in February, August, or November?
What's wrong with Saratoga springs? You make it sound like it's a bad resort
I'm 6'3" and 225 and have slept on the Murphy bed because my daughters wanted the bed with my wife haha
I'm a bit taller and weigh a bit more and I've done the same! It's not bad at all!!!
Thank you for addressing the military community. In order to find the best discounts for military members, should we use to the Disney website or travel agent? Great video.
Military member here.😊 They don't offer military pricing on the website, so you should book directly with Disney by phone.
Very helpful. We’re from the UK and joined DVC in March when we were last in Orlando pre lockdown - we bought a 200 point contract from Disney at Riviera Resort. Are we allowed to buy more points on resale contracts? But if we do how does that affect DVC membership discounts etc? Regards David
My husband and I bought 200 points at AKL in 2012. We get 3 studios (yep, we bring friends!) but I book it at 11 months out and get savannah view rooms. (What's the point of staying in AKL unless you have a savannah view?!?!) I love studios! Each couple has their own room, with their own door and just enough room to visit, but not stay long term - like more than a few hours!
If studios are that hard to get then I guess this wouldn't be for us. That is all we ever get. We usually stay at POR but have been thinking of trying a deluxe resort. We want/need the 2 real beds so renting points and staying only gives us the option of OKW or Riviera. Nobody wants to sleep on the sofa pull-outs. I like OKW and we may do that with renting points, but not sure it makes sense to buy into DVC if studios are so hard to get normally even though we go every year.
I have found the reservation process so confusing that I purchase confirmed reservations from a third party, basically DVC members that resell their confirmed reservation.
Interesting! What site do you use for this? Have you had any bad experiences with it? Thanks!😊
2. Timeshares are not for people who plan last minute!
We were annual pass holders that went at least a half a dozen times per year for just three or four days at a time. We also go at the last minute depending on weather. And now Disney Disappoints with all the closures and price increases and reservatioms. It would piss me off to spend so much money and not have availability. So I'm SO glad I did not buy into DVC.
Love this and love the idea of DVC but I don’t like to be locked in I like the flexibility of doing what I want to do I my own terms. Fascinated about this topic though.
I truly enjoyed this video!! I got a great perspective!! I have 450 points between Boardwalk, Wilderness Lodge, Saratoga Springs and Animal Kingdom Lodge. I've been a Member since 00 and am truly blessed to have made many memories. I hope to meet you at Moonlight Magic at Animal Kingdom this August. God bless the three of you and your families 🤗
I love your shows. New to me but im hoooked
Might want to do something about the windows behind you when you're recording in sunlight, it's really blowing you out Pete.....but still love everything y'all do
WickstarRunner yes
Brilliant this really hit the point about studios. Well done for this Pete this was a really good video explains the problems that us dvc members are suffering from. This problem with studios has only just started we have been going 2 times a year 2 weeks at a time from UK and only in the last year has studios been a problem. We now have to book at our home resort then cancel at the 7 month point if we can get a studio at non home resorts.There is no hard sell from DVC at no time was we ever pressured to buy at ant stage. Pete I'm really sorry Tables in wonder land is not worth it for a couple if its a large group of you its defiantly worth it 20% off but you pay the 18% gratuities so thats only a 2% discount no matter how you look at it.When it was only $25 dollars but now its $175 you really have to do the maths on it. Brilliant info well done to the team.
Hey guys, thank you for all the time you guys work on this videos. My husband and I we are planing to join DVC this year and we are so confuse in what is the best option between the two they offering to us right know, which is cooper creek and riviera. It would be amazing if you guys make a video about this two, to help families like us to decide what’s the best option. Thank you guys in advance. Rogelio and Herschel