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JenniferEver
The Disney Lady
Member since 5/05 18163 total posts
Name:
Jennifer
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
Posted by saraH
Posted by BargainMama
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.
See, we see it the exact opposite of that.
We got it because we would never stay in the deluxe resorts. Too much $$$ for our family. Now we can bring family with us when we go
This exactly.
The break even point is MUCH less if you normally stay Deluxe, but for us this allows us to stay Deluxe for what we were paying for Value and moderate before. Like I said I only DREAMED of Staying Beach Club and Bay lake before joining.
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Posted 6/6/12 12:51 PM  |
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Long Island Weddings
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Mouse Tales Travel
LIFamilies Business
Member since 7/08 417 total posts
Name:
Melissa Salinas
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
We bought just a few points on the resale market to try it out, figuring we'd use the points for a single-night stay before a large package or Deluxe stay because we drive to WDW.
It's fabulous for some, like Jennifer and my BFF who gets the Grand Villa at Bay Lake Tower every Thanksgiving with her brother's family, but it's not for us. We'll probably sell our points soon.
- Kimberly Hill
Mouse Tales® Travel
LIFamilies Vendor
Creating Magical Vacations for LIFamilies since 2008
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| Posted 6/7/12 7:08 AM |
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staceyc324
LIF Infant
Member since 7/08 161 total posts
Name:
Stacey
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
We love it - It has been explained nicely above - but we (as a family of 5) have taken advantage of many resorts we would not have stayed iin oterwise, the cruise (doing our 2nd next year) and venturing to CA this summer. We have traded to RCI, and have had really good experiences. We have made fantastic family memories...
FM me if you have questions -
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| Posted 6/7/12 11:49 AM |
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Mouse Tales Travel
LIFamilies Business
Member since 7/08 417 total posts
Name:
Melissa Salinas
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
There are very few instances where using DVC points for a Disney cruise is a good value or use of the points, unless you have too many points and can't bank more. ;)
- Kimberly Hill
Mouse Tales® Travel
LIFamilies Vendor
Creating Magical Vacations for LIFamilies since 2008
Did you book your vacation through Disney and now you’re overwhelmed? We can help!
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| Posted 6/7/12 4:30 PM |
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Lillykat
going along for the ride...
Member since 5/05 16253 total posts
Name:
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
Posted by Mouse Tales Travel
We bought just a few points on the resale market to try it out, figuring we'd use the points for a single-night stay before a large package or Deluxe stay because we drive to WDW.
It's fabulous for some, like Jennifer and my BFF who gets the Grand Villa at Bay Lake Tower every Thanksgiving with her brother's family, but it's not for us. We'll probably sell our points soon.
- Kimberly Hill
Mouse Tales® Travel
LIFamilies Vendor
Creating Magical Vacations for LIFamilies since 2008
Hmm never knew this was an option! Can I ask what the minimum amount of points you can buy is? So you could say bank them and take a shorter regular trip every 2 years or so? I have only heard of people buying an amount so that they go for 1 week etc. I could see doing enough for say 3 days or so being much more attractive because you could bank and do a long trip or as you put it one or two nights before a full trip.
Do you then still get annual passes?
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| Posted 6/7/12 7:53 PM |
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Mill188
LIF Adult
Member since 3/09 3073 total posts
Name:
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
I believe Disney will sell a minimum contract of 100 points although I've heard rumors that they will go as low as 50 points. On the resale market you can find ver small contracts. However because smaller contracts are generally more desirable thru resale the prices are higher than Ina larger contract.
The timeshare store and fidelity are some well known resellers.
You could absolutely bank your points and do a bigger trip every couple of years. As far as annual passes if you're only going every other year or so it wouldn't make sense. I haven't yet done the analysis on the break even point for APs with the new prices. If you are referring to the DVC discount, as of now you would still get that perk. However the discount is a perk and Disney can decide at any time to stop offering it to members
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| Posted 6/7/12 9:39 PM |
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Mouse Tales Travel
LIFamilies Business
Member since 7/08 417 total posts
Name:
Melissa Salinas
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
Posted by Lillykat
Hmm never knew this was an option! Can I ask what the minimum amount of points you can buy is? So you could say bank them and take a shorter regular trip every 2 years or so? I have only heard of people buying an amount so that they go for 1 week etc. I could see doing enough for say 3 days or so being much more attractive because you could bank and do a long trip or as you put it one or two nights before a full trip.
Do you then still get annual passes?
Christine, I'm not sure what the minimum is because I didn't do the research on this (hubby did) and they've made changes since we bought. Disney controls the resell market by having right of first refusal on any contract.
I would NOT get an annual pass unless it's part of your strategy, as in you're going more often and only using your point stay every few years when you've banked enough or you're visiting often anyway.
- Kimberly Hill
Mouse Tales® Travel
LIFamilies Vendor
Creating Magical Vacations for LIFamilies since 2008
Did you book your vacation through Disney and now you’re overwhelmed? We can help!
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| Posted 6/8/12 9:45 AM |
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JenniferEver
The Disney Lady
Member since 5/05 18163 total posts
Name:
Jennifer
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
Disney will try to sell you 160 points, which used to be the minimum. They seem to advertise 100 as the minimum but they were willing to sell us 50.
You could get 50 r 100 points and then take a week-long trip every 2nd or 3rd year (depending on where you stay, what time of year, what size unit, etc).
I would NOT get annual passes in that case. Annual passes are only worthwhile if you're going to go twice in one year. In fact the break-even point for Annual Passes keeps getting higher and higher. When I first got AP, it was 8 days, now it's probably closer to 16.
You do get a $100 discount with DVC, but I don't think that's a compelling reason because you're not using the AP room discounts and most of the AP discounts are the same as you get with DVC anyway. If you're not going every year, and you're not willing to book WELL in advance, and you like deals like free dining, etc, DVC is really not for you.
I would say it's really not for most people I talk to, including "Disney people"
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| Posted 6/8/12 10:59 AM |
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LINewbie
Tigger the the Rescue!
Member since 8/08 5647 total posts
Name:
LB
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
They say the one of "Checks" to see if DVC is right for you is if you take a trip at least every 3 years. You can def. get contracts for less than 100 - we bought GCV for 80 points.
Every year I do the math what we spend for DVC that year vs. what we would have paid if we stayed on site and every year we've come out ahead using DVC. And without DVC we wouldn't be going on a big family trip in a few months 
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| Posted 6/15/12 11:56 AM |
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saraH
happy birthday sweet kate!
Member since 5/05 16555 total posts
Name:
I know that God exsists, I held her in my arms...
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
And on the same token, it costs us at least 5k to go to Disney. So 2 trips our DVC payed for itself. And again, we never ever stay deluxe.
And buying the park tickets I'd cheaper then buying the annual pass, for,us. We don't plan on taking more then one trip,thismyear so the annual,pass would be a waste.
Message edited 6/15/2012 1:27:56 PM.
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| Posted 6/15/12 1:26 PM |
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BargainMama
LIF Adult
Member since 5/09 15657 total posts
Name:
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
Posted by saraH
And on the same token, it costs us at least 5k to go to Disney. So 2 trips our DVC payed for itself. And again, we never ever stay deluxe.
And buying the park tickets I'd cheaper then buying the annual pass, for,us. We don't plan on taking more then one trip,thismyear so the annual,pass would be a waste.
It cost you 5k just for your room or for everything? DVC is JUST a room. No park tickets, no plane tickets, no food, etc. So unless your room was soley 5K, it didn't really pay for itself in 2 visits. Plus you need to add in the annual maintenance fees.
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| Posted 6/15/12 2:17 PM |
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saraH
happy birthday sweet kate!
Member since 5/05 16555 total posts
Name:
I know that God exsists, I held her in my arms...
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
Posted by BargainMama
Posted by saraH
And on the same token, it costs us at least 5k to go to Disney. So 2 trips our DVC payed for itself. And again, we never ever stay deluxe.
And buying the park tickets I'd cheaper then buying the annual pass, for,us. We don't plan on taking more then one trip,thismyear so the annual,pass would be a waste.
It cost you 5k just for your room or for everything? DVC is JUST a room. No park tickets, no plane tickets, no food, etc. So unless your room was soley 5K, it didn't really pay for itself in 2 visits. Plus you need to add in the annual maintenance fees.
For everything, staying value or moderate. Plus airfare. We priced out Saratoga springs and it was 6k for 3 adults, 2 kids, one under 3.
The way we see it, it does pay for itself.
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| Posted 6/15/12 2:37 PM |
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BargainMama
LIF Adult
Member since 5/09 15657 total posts
Name:
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
Posted by saraH
Posted by BargainMama
Posted by saraH
And on the same token, it costs us at least 5k to go to Disney. So 2 trips our DVC payed for itself. And again, we never ever stay deluxe.
And buying the park tickets I'd cheaper then buying the annual pass, for,us. We don't plan on taking more then one trip,thismyear so the annual,pass would be a waste.
It cost you 5k just for your room or for everything? DVC is JUST a room. No park tickets, no plane tickets, no food, etc. So unless your room was soley 5K, it didn't really pay for itself in 2 visits. Plus you need to add in the annual maintenance fees.
For everything, staying value or moderate. Plus airfare. We priced out Saratoga springs and it was 6k for 3 adults, 2 kids, one under 3.
The way we see it, it does pay for itself.
Okay, well that isn't really an accurate depiction then, since it included everything.
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| Posted 6/15/12 2:45 PM |
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Mill188
LIF Adult
Member since 3/09 3073 total posts
Name:
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
Posted by BargainMama
Posted by saraH
Posted by BargainMama
Posted by saraH
And on the same token, it costs us at least 5k to go to Disney. So 2 trips our DVC payed for itself. And again, we never ever stay deluxe.
And buying the park tickets I'd cheaper then buying the annual pass, for,us. We don't plan on taking more then one trip,thismyear so the annual,pass would be a waste.
It cost you 5k just for your room or for everything? DVC is JUST a room. No park tickets, no plane tickets, no food, etc. So unless your room was soley 5K, it didn't really pay for itself in 2 visits. Plus you need to add in the annual maintenance fees.
For everything, staying value or moderate. Plus airfare. We priced out Saratoga springs and it was 6k for 3 adults, 2 kids, one under 3.
The way we see it, it does pay for itself.
Okay, well that isn't really an accurate depiction then, since it included everything.
True. However, there's this: DH and I are going down the first week in October and staying on points at Bay Lake Tower. We have invited another couple to join us, and we are using points to get them a studio also at Bay Lake Tower. Another set of friends has decided to join us for the last couple of nights. They will be paying for their own room. They booked a ROOM only at the Poly. For two nights, garden view room it's $1,237. I know because I priced it out for them. This doesn't include meal plan, tickets, airfare, etc - it's room only. That was the cheapest room on the monorail for the dates they wanted.
I've said it before, you are basically pre-paying your Disney hotel stays. You are also "locked" into a certain price (point value) so that as the cost of Disney Deluxe hotels climbs, the amount of points neeed to stay there will remain the same. Yes, there will be variances in seasons, but the basic number of points for the total resort cannot change.
DVC will save you money IF you routinely stay in Deluxe Resorts but most important if you are smart and use your points wisely. There are ways to get more bang for your buck down there (like scheduling vacations so that you can use one AP that covers 2 years worth of vacations, the Tables in Wonderland discount or the meal plan depending on your eating style, going off-peak, etc.
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| Posted 6/15/12 3:29 PM |
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JenniferEver
The Disney Lady
Member since 5/05 18163 total posts
Name:
Jennifer
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Re: Can anyone tell me how Disney Vacation club works?
You really have to think about it as paying for your vacations in advance. If you would have stayed Deluxe every time then it's a no brainer that it will save you money in short order. My october trip alone is about $3K less than it would be rack rate. Of course we didn't stay Deluxe prior to being DVC. it basically allows us to stay Deluxe for the price of a Value, plus we get a lot more space.
it's definitely not for everyone and PP is right, you really only should count your hotel stays in terms of the break even point.
We save money as a PP said by using Tables in Wonderland (instead of the dining plan, but it can be used in conjunction with the dining plan. We also make sure we fit in 2 trips on one Annual Pass, and we let it expire and then buy it again so we essentially only have it every other year.
I do think that honestly a big draw for DVC for many people is the emotional pull. It may sound stupid, but I think above and beyond the finances, people really have an emotional attachment. They want to be part of the club, they want to hear "Welcome Home".
I'm not going to lie I LOVE hearing "Welcome Home" any time I call DVC or check in to the hotel. I loved all of the fun gifts we got on the cruise, I loved the private member party at the Garden City hotel. my DH was really attracted to the fact that we can add or bank/borrow points to stay in a Grand VIlla with the whole family. In the end HE pushed for DVC and for him he was envisioning the big family trips he took as a child and that his father wanted to take before he passed away.
Even though we do get some good offers, and we get some fun prizes and gifts, it really would not be worth it. it's still just a timeshare.
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| Posted 6/15/12 5:17 PM |
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