Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

Is it a timeshare? Who can tell me all about Disney Vacation club and how it works? Can anyone go or just whomever you register in the family? KWIM?

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

Great post. We are seriously contemplating this.

I would love all info as well!

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

*takes a deep breath*

Lots to explain. I'll try to hit the high points.

Yes it is a timeshare!

It differs from other timeshares though in that 1) it has an end. Each resort has a 50 year contract, and when the contract expires for your home resort, no matter when you bought, it's over unless the offer an extension, which they have already done for the oldest resort. You CAN pass it on to children, but it is not yours forever like some other timeshares.
2) You don't have a specific week like you would at more traditional timeshares. You buy a certain number of vacation points at a chosen home resort.You then use those points to make reservations. Weekends cost more than weekdays, and there are seasons dictating how much each night in a room is worth. Each resort has its own points chart. You can use points to book at your home resort 11 months in advance, or at ANY DVC resort (subject to availability) 7 months in advance.
3) you're not limited to a certain unit size. I can use my points for 2 weeks in a studio this year for me and DH, or I can use it for one week in a one bedroom if we're bringing friends. I can also bank/borrow points from the previous/next year to save up for a longer vacation or a larger accommodation.

If you're buying direct, I think you'll pay $110-160 per point before any incentives. That's for your entire contract. The prices keep going up even though the time you can use it grows shorter. For example, when bay lake Tower went on sale, it cost i think $110 per point and you had 50 years of use. Now it's $160 per point and you are getting 47 years of use. This is why people generally say they wish they had signed up sooner.

You will pay dues between $3-5 per point. Newer resorts have lower dues, older resorts and places like Animal Kingdom Lodge and HHI have higher dues because of maintenance. All of the dues go up every year. There are rules governing how much it can go up.

As for family- basically anyone can stay using your points. The member has to be the one to make the reservation, but you can make it anyone's name. This is how it would work if you would let a friend stay on your points, or if you were to rent out your points.

Added benefits: $100 off Annual Pass (but no other ticket discount), some merchandise and food discounts (no better than AP discounts) and you can buy tables in wonderland without being an AP holder ot FL resident. there are some good deals on the member cruises

you do not get: free or cheap regular tickets, free or cheap food (aside from TiW), you do not get to take advantage of any promotions like kids stay and play free or free dining. Your points are your discount.

Another thing to note is that the accommodations are different, they are "home away from home" villas. Studios are a lotlike hotel rooms but include kitchenettes. 1BR and above are like condos and have full kitchens and washer/dryer in the room. Daily mousekeeping is NOT included. You generally get trash and towel service on day 4 and a full clean on day 8. There's a vacuum in the room so you can take care of your own mess as well as paper towels, sponges, and dish soap to do your own dishes. it's not for everyone.

The thing is these are Deluxe accommodations at Value or Moderate Prices,and you're pre-paying your nexy 30-47 years of vacations today.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

if you're going to buy direct, please get the name of a member (me! me!) to give as a referral. Sometimes you get bonuses and the member always gets something for the referral.

There is also a huge resale market. Resales are a LOT cheaper.They do have some restrictions, which are not really that big a deal, but DH and I decided to buy direct from the source.

I can tell you I was very nervous about the decision, but I'm really happy with it. I seriously never thought I'd get to stay at Beach Club like we did in march, and a stay on the monorail seemed like a pipe dream, but we WILL we staying at Bay Lake Tower (contemporary resort) in October.

it's absolutely NOT for everyone and it's a big decision but for DH and me, who will be getting 3 trips off of our annual passes this time, it made a lot of sense.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

I would make sure you do a lot of research before you decide if it is right or not. Jennifer did an excellent job describing it. Disboards has a whole area reserved for DVC questions. There are also some other websites that offer a lot of detailed information about the DVC. Disney does a great job marketing it - but doesn't give a lot of information or answer questions very well in some ways - so it pays to really research before you decide to move forward. Also there is a DVC store in Roosevelt field. I haven't done it but I heard that they sometimes have a special where if you go and listen to their presentation they give you a $50 gift card - not sure if this is an all the time deal or only certain times - maybe someone else could shed some light on that.

I know that I have many times said that it would be nice to do but in really looking into it I'm not so sure it is for us even though we love to go to WDW, I guess I felt like it was a huge commitment. I can tell you that resale is MUCH cheaper than buying direct - but recently (and Jennifer I'm sure can correct me on this) - they took away some of the perks if you buy resale. In that I believe you can no longer use them for other resorts OR cruises - but can only use the points for DVC resorts only. So buying direct gives you many more options of how you can use your points - but you pay in return for that more money.

If you go through disney you have 2 options - pay in full or fiance. If you do resale you must have all the money upfront.

The big downsides to me - which is why it isn't for everyone. I don't like that you don't get regular mousekeeping (I believe you get something like trash and towels on day 4 and a clean on day 7) so you do a lot on your own which on vacation I like having housekeeping. You pay this amount and THEN a annual MF for the next 40-50 years. In return you basically get a room (I have seen some incentives direct through disney to buy - like 20 free points, or free cruise, etc) and only a room. You STILL have to pay to get to disney or HI etc, you STILL have to pay for tickets and food. Those things really add up quickly at WDW. You are tied into going to WDW frequently for the next few years. If you think that when you children get older you will want to do other kinds of trips - it might be harder to do etc.

I think there are definitely pluses and minuses. But I would say do some extensive research before you decide to go with it. Their speels are VERY appealing - as I said I have been tempted before, but after doing a lot of research it isn't for us. Now if I had a friend that bought in I would LOVE to take advantage of renting points from them because renting points is such a good deal BUT there are risks involved so we haven't been brave enough to do that yet.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

Yup it's a timeshare with a slightly different take in that you are buying points not a set week. A lot of people buy into it because they get all excited about buying a piece of the magic. You have to do your due diligence. It's a big commitment and isn't an investment. You're basically pre-paying for vacations. I have owned points since 2003. My sister and I bought it together. When we bought we were both young and single. We made sure to buy enough points so we could each vacation in a one bedroom unit during peak season. I've never regretted it. However to get your money's worth you have to use it. DH and I were there for a week in January. We are going back for food and wine festival in October. My sister and I did a girls trip last month. Oh and we're doing a sisters/mom long weekend at Hilton head in September.

If your vacation habits are to go to a value or moderate resort the "break even" point will be a lot longer, but for our initial buy in and the yearly dues we are way ahead of the game.

As far as mouse doing goes I don't like to clean on vacation either. We don't ever cook in the room (we like to dine out) so its really just making the bed every day. For a fee you can request a full room clean at any time during your stay. If we're there for more than 5 days or so that's what we do.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

The upside for us is that we'd never normally stay at a deluxe resort. The resort we own now, Saratoga springs is normally $600 a night. That's not something we would do.

And for us, a family of 4 trip costs us roughly 5k. 2 trips covers our cost for DVC. We got a good deal.

Def look into it. We are so happy we signed up.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

The perks they took away from resales have to do with trading. You CAN still trade into RCI as far as I know on a resale but you cannot trade into Disney Cruise Line or any other Disney hotels. Most people don't mind that because cruises are a terrible use of your points. In fact, you're better off renting out your points that year, taking the cash, and using the cash for a cruise, so most resale members don't feel they're missing out on anything.

My Dh felt very strongly about buying direct and we wanted to finance it, so direct was best for us. I also didn't like the idea of not buying direct, but you can save thousands buying resale. It's just a hassle waiting for right of first refusal to go through, etc.

It's not so much an investment as a commitment, and SO much can change. We bought it thinking "we go every year now and we don't even have kids yet", thinking it would work well and then within in 2 months of buying DVC I became a travel agent, so now I can get travel agent rates, so the DVC deal isn't QUITE as sweet as it looked back then. So I was thinking nothing would change and something changed almost immediately. Still, overall I'm happy with the decision. DH and I have done 7 trips in 9 years, and that includes no trips at all in 05-06 and 09-'10 when we were saving for the wedding,so we know even without kids, we'll be going a lot. We'll also use the points for Aulani and Disneyland, probably Vero and HHI too.

PP is right it's pre-paying for your vacations but ALL you get is lodging. You still have to pay to fly down there, you still have to pay for tickets and food.

We figured out that over the life of the contract, each point we use, in today's dollars with today's points (As our monhtly fees go up, we figure so will room costs so it will even out), is worth $7. We're staying a week at Bay Lake Tower in a LAgoon view for 123 point. That's 7 nights for $861. That's about $200 or so dollars more than I would pay to stay at Pop Century on a Passholder discount. So $200 to go from a Value with no bell services, no on site restaurants, TINY bathrooms, to a studio in a deluxe resort on the monorail, a short walk from Magic Kingdom is amazing. I can't look up the rack rate for my dates since it's already sold out, but let's conservatively say it's $300 a night (I think it's really well over), for 7 nights would be $2100. Even with a 30% discount, it would still be $1400, so we're saving quite a bit.

The only thing is you're paying those MF whether you use the points or not, so you have to use them and using them comes with other expenses. You CAn sell your contract, and there is a healthy retail market, but you won't get nearly what you paid for the contract.

ETA:
Another downside or thing to be aware of is that if you have to book really early. We paid the extra money for Bay lake (not all resorts cost the same to buy into.Bay lake costs more to buy points at, AND costs more points to stay there, so we get double hit), because it's a hot resort and we get priority in staying there, but in order to make sure we got our room we had to book at 11 months ahead, or at the very least more than 7 months ahead. if we want to get in to Animal Kingdom Lodge, or let's say Boardwalk, we've got to book it right at the 7 month mark. If you wait too long,you're stuck with what's left. So DVC is ideal for people who book their vacations WELL in advance.

You also have to juggle banking and borrowing points based on when your use year falls. We have a perfect use year for us. We're August and we love to travel in fall. No matter when your use year is, you have to be on top of baking and borrowing (unused points do not automatically roll over). If you don't use them, you will quite literally lose them if you forget to bank by the deadline.

Message edited 6/4/2012 10:39:56 PM.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

Everyone really explained DVC well. You really need to sit down and figure out what is best for your family. If you only want to go down to Disney once every few years, it may not be worth it. We go down at least once a year if not more and always stay deluxe. After DD was born we needed to stay in a place with a kitchen due to food issues and paying for a villa was just crazy. DVC for us was financially beneficial.

With the points you have the flexibility to use them any way you want, stay where you want and split the points how you want. Next year we have a 1 bedroom and 2 studios booked for a family vacation. This August we are staying in a 2 bedroom.

You can also get housekeeping every day if you wish. They charge a nominal fee for it. If you don't want to pay, they do a trash and towel service on day 4 and then a full cleaning after 7 days. I never found cleaning to be an issue. There is a vacuum in the room if needed and I don't mind making the beds.

Good luck on your decision.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

Yeah, I would doa lot of your own research. Your guide will tell you it's worth it if you go there every 3 years, and I can see how that works out, like if I want to do a big trip in 2013, i'll save my 2012 points and borrow my 2014 points for it and do a grand villa or something, but I honestly feel like if it's less than once a year, it's not worth it. Even if the finances still work out, you're paying all the time for somethng you're not using every year. I just wouldn't do it.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

I don't really like Disboards, because I think people are too opinionated and will put you down for your choices BUT one thing they point out which is a good thing to keep in mind is that everyone will say you ONLY hear about people saying they loved it and wishes they'd bought sooner, but if that were the case, there wouldn't be so much on the resale market (including bay lake which only went for sale in '09 so some people are taking a HUGE hit selling something they barely would have gotten use out of). It's just that the people who still love their DVC and use it are the ones more likely to be frequenting message boards and talking Disney and DVC. The people who have had to sell are probably not going to sit around chatting about it

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

EH maybe its not for me. I have no use for a kitchen. When we go the LAST thing I want to do is cook or even prepare anything food related.

Also I have pets and if somehow no one could not watch my dogs, I probably could not go. So I guess I should not buy into something I am then committed to.

But I will read about it, thanks.

Message edited 6/5/2012 12:20:25 AM.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

We are DVC members at Animal Kingdom since Jan '08 and in fact, just recently took advantage of an awesome deal that gave us additional 20 points for adding on 100. So now, for the price of 100 add on points, we get 120 every year! We LOVE it, and actually purchased it 2 months before we got married, and have been going twice a year since! It made sense for us, but is certainly different for each family. We wanted to purchase additional points at Bay Lake, but simply couldn't pass up the 20 point bonus extra that was only good at Animal Kingdom!
I think Jennifer pretty much gave you all the basic and important info, if there is anything else, FM me and I'll be happy to help! Good luck :)

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

So my question is can you ONLY use it for villa type lodging. BC a full size kitchen to me isnt something I ever need on a vacation. I like a small area for microwave fridge etc but I dont really need a WHOLE kitchen.

SO would that be my only option.
Does the price still come out better than if we booked a vacation at the polynesian in a standard room yearly or every other year?

For instance last year whenw e went to dutch and stayed at eden we got a villa but truthfully there was no need for it as I never once used the kitchen and we were there 4 nights.

Message edited 6/5/2012 9:20:03 AM.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

Message edited 6/5/2012 12:58:32 PM.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

and you can use it at the "Disney Collection Resorts" (the Poly, Grand Floridian, etc.) but this will eat up more points.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

I'm most likely never going to cook on vacation, but it's nice to have a full size fridge and oven.

Just for snacks. And cold drinks.

Eta: read disboards for info only. They will rip you to shreds if you say you want to finance it direct,y from Disney. Yes they are worse then LIF on a good day.

Message edited 6/5/2012 12:48:09 PM.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

I didn't include the intial buy in because quite frankly, I have no idea how many trips or nights I've spent on Disney properties or used the points elsewhere since I've purchased. We've used our points for exchanges through Interval International and RCI in addition to just staying at DVC properties.

The easiest way to calculate right now would be just figuring out the yearly cost. My initial buy in was $10,000. Over the 7 years we've owned that works out to $1,428 per year.

In addition the yearly membership fees right now are just under $1200. Of that amount, I pay half (my sister pays the other half). So that's another $600 a year. Total just for the room for this year of ownership is $2,000. You then have to add the other costs (tickets, food, travel expenses, etc.)

Like I said, you're prepaying for your Disney vacations and locking into a "rate" that won't change. You're not saving any money and you're not making an investment. I would never finance a timeshare purchase of any type. Honestly, if I didn't have the $10,000 in cash when we purchased, I wouldn't have bought it.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

The Studios only have kitchenettes, which are perfect for me and DH. I don't cook on vacation AT ALL., but I never finish food, so i love having a fridge and a microwave to enjoy my leftovers later.

I don't EVER anticipate wanting to cook on vacation, but when we have kids we'll probably go for one of the larger units just for the space.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

We went to the store in RF and met with them. It's everything everyone above described. We decided it wasn't for us. We didn't think it was a good deal.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

I don't think it's a very good deal at all, but we don't usually stay at deluxe resorts, unless I rent someone else's DVC points.

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?

Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?