DVC Membership - when it evens out?

[linanglab]

Okay....I keep reading the "other" board about DVC. I am so intrigued about it since I have decided to rent from someone next year. I have been trying to do my homework on it.

In the process, I keep thinking...hmmm...maybe we should look into it. Maybe not buy "new", but resale. Maybe not now....mabye later? Maybe??? Reality is that I don't have the money to do it. I don't want to finance it either.

But my question is, is it worth it? How many times do you have to go to "even out" with the buying DVC versus not? What is the breaking point? Does anyone know these answers? I am just curious. I know that there are yearly fees. How much are those? I was told they are about $900 a year. That is ALOT. Not sure with those fees that DVC would ever pay for itself - at least for us.

I am just trying to figure out a way for us to go more. Looks like we will be stuck with the every other year thing. But prices at WDW keep going up, so I keep thinking if we bought into DVC, that it would be worth it in several years when Disney hotels are getting higher and higher.

Anyway....any thoughts, remarks, knowledge that you would like to share? I guess I am in a dreaming mode....Where is that Fed Ex man with my DVC winnings? LOL

[Hedy]

when my brother and DSIl bought last year at AKL, I think they said they figured it would be about 8 years for them-but they go every year and stay deluxe.

[missymouse]

We figured the break even point is after our 3rd DVC vacation or 7 years of ownership. We bought at Hilton Head because DH is not a huge Amusement park fan. We figured we would use the HHI more consisitently and it is very hard to get the summer months there without the 8-11 month window. We only bought 100 points through resale. Our maintainence fees this year were about $500. There is alot that goes into it like how long you want to go, and what level you typically stay at now. If you are happy doing Value or Mod resorts it isn't as good of deal. We are not happy doing the Moderates because of having to get 2 rooms for our family of 5 and DH would not do the values at all. Also we are only planning on going every other or every 3rd year right now. That may change as the kids get older and out on their own, but we think our 100 point contract will serve us very nicely.

But hypothetically speaking say you want to go every other year to AKV (using AKV because it is the only one that will let you definitely have 5 people in a 1 bedroom) for 10 days in a 1 bedroom and you are willing to move for the weekends to a value. Which would be 8 nights DVC and 2 nights at a value

You would need to have 200 points in July to do this trip. So you could buy a 100 point contract and go every other year. That would also allow you to stay 6 DVC nights at Boardwalk, Beach Club, Wilderness Lodge, Hilton Head (S-F), 7 nights at Saratoga Springs, or 9 nights at Vero (this is assuming DVC Member services will let you book 5 in a 1-bedroom at the other resorts)

If you decided to splurge and do a 2 bedroom each trip you could use any resort as your reference so lets say SSR 8 DVC nights S-Th, Value F-S, Back to DVC M-W you would need 288 points or 144 points to go every other year, or 100 points to go every 3 years. For the sake of argument lets use the 144 point contract. You could also spend 7 nights at AKV, Boardwalk, Beach Club, or Wilderness, 8 nights at HHI, 9 nights at OKW or Vero.

OKW would be the lowest point cost, but it is also the oldest resort.

But lets look then at what it would cost to buy in

AKV current resales for 100 point contracts are listed at $93 per point or $9,300

SSR and OKW are listing at $78-$80 per point or $7,800 - $8,000

Annual fees this year for a 100 point contract would be

AKV 4.71/pt. or $471.00
SSR $4.21/pt. or $421.00
OKW $4.56 or $456.00

Annual fees can and usually do go up each year.

So say you buy 100 points at AKV resale for $9,500
Year 1 would cost you 10K
Year 2 would cost you roughly $480
Year 3 would cost you roughly $489
Year 4 would cost you roughly $496
etc.

This is a very simplistic way to look at it and the one we chose to use since it is very hard to compare apples to oranges. It only looks this good if you would actually pay the CRO fees to stay in the same accomodations. If you normally stay at Values or Moderates and would continue to do so it would take you much longer to break even but you would eventually because the average is that the rates go up 10-15% per year for the Disney resorts, and annual DVC fees average about 4-6% I think. None of these numbers are exact nor do I claim they are accurate, just me best approximations. This also in no way takes into account the weekend stay if you choose to stay over the weekend in a value or mod resort. This is only figuring for the 8 nights of DVC accomodations.

First trip July 2009 if booked through CRO with no special codes would cost for the 8 DVC nights $515/night or $4120(2008 rates) assuming rates don't go up it would take you 3 trips to recoup the initial $10K, but the CRO rates usually go up every year by at least 10% so if you figure that into the equation and annual fees.

That first trip 2009 would most likely cost $557/night or $4560 You have $10K invested so you are in the hole $5440

Year 2 of ownership you would pay $480 annual fee so now you are in the hole for $5920

Year 3 you pay $490 roughly in so you are in the hole in Jan. for $6410 take a trip to AKV now the cost is around $674/night or $5392 so after your trip you are in the hole by $528

Year 4 you pay $500 roughly in fees so you are in the hole by $1, 028

Year 5 you pay $520 roughly in fees you are now in the hole by $1,548 take your vacation and pay theoretically $816 per night or $6528 so you are out of the hole and from now on you vacation on your yearly fees.

[linanglab]

Thanks Pam! You are a wealth of information! I was wondering how it worked. I thought it might eventually be a good thing because of the quickly increasing rates of rooms from year to year. IMO they are getting quite pricey. I would love to own. Not sure it will ever happen, but I am at least thinking hard about it. Of course if DH said lets do it, I wouldn't argue a bit!

[missymouse]

Something more to think about lets compare to a moderate. We will use POR Standard view just because that is where you normally stay


That first trip 2009 would most likely cost $197/night or $1576 (1 room) or $3152 (2 rooms) if you would have stayed at POR instead. You have $10K invested so you are in the hole $8424/ if you would have stayed in 1 room or $6848 if you would have stayed in 2 rooms.

Year 2 of ownership you would pay $480 annual fee so now you are in the hole for $8904 or $7338

Year 3 you pay $490 roughly in so you are in the hole in Jan. for $9394 or $ 7828 take a trip to AKV but had you not had DVC would have stayed at POR in one room the cost is around $239/night or $1912 or in 2 rooms $3824 so after your trip you are in the hole by $7482 or $3514

Year 4 you pay $515 roughly in fees so you are in the hole by $7997 or $4029 depending on if you would have been doing one or two rooms at POR

Year 5 you pay $535 roughly in fees you are now in the hole by $8532 or $4564 take your vacation and would have paid theoretically $289 per night or $2312for one room at POR or $4624 for 2 rooms. So now you would be in the hole either $6300 or you would be breaking even if you were renting 2 rooms at POR.

Year 6 you pay $562 dues so you are in the hole either $6862

Year 7 you pay $590 dues so you are in the hole either $7452 Go on a vacation to AKV for 8 nights but had you gone to POR you would have theoretically paid $350/night or $2800 for 1 room so now you are in the hole $4652.

Year 8 you would pay $620 dues you are in the hole if you would have been staying in 1 room at POR for $5272

Year 9 you would pay $651 dues so now you are in the hole $5923. Take you trip for 6-8 DVC nights at any resort but had you gone to POR you would have theoretically paid $424/night or $3392 so now you are in the hole $2531

Year 10 you would pay $684 dues so now you are in the hole $3215

Year 11 you would pay $718 dues so you are in the hole $3933 . Staying at POR for those 8 nights this year would hypothetically be $512/night or $4096 so that would be your break even year. Now it is just the cost of annual fees.

[SunshineGirl]

Something else to think about is that you save money on other things as well. For example, in Hilton Head this week we saved 10% on almost all of our meals plus our Dolphin tour. That was probably another $100 on this trip alone that we saved.

I have to say that after being at DVC this past week, I am convinced that I need to save my pennies to buy even MORE points!!

[disney_girl]

To go off of what Tricia mentioned... there are additional "perks" for DVC members. I just ordered Pirate and Princess Party tickets for our upcoming trip and with the DVC discount, they were $10 off each ticket! There are also discounts at some of the dining places as well as other perks.

For us, we have always stayed Deluxe (DH can thank himself for that for taking me to the Grand Floridian on our first trip ) and go at least twice a year so DVC is the way to go for us!

I'm with you Tricia... trying to save my pennies to buy MORE DVC points!

[linanglab]

I really wish that I had the money to pay for DVC outright. We would do it now if we had the money in our banking account. But it would not be worth it to finance it.....I am going to have to start saving....hard!

[disney_girl]

I completely understand! While it is a purchase I have never regretted, it's not a small expense! You can at least do a tour and get information on your next trip.

[~Kathie]

I completely understand! While it is a purchase I have never regretted, it's not a small expense! You can at least do a tour and get information on your next trip.

That's a great idea. At least you can talk to them and see what financing they offer. There is no hard sell either. When we took the tour, we came home and talked about it before we called our guide to tell him we decided to do it.

We bought in 1993. In 1992 & 1992 we had taken trips to WDW and stayed offsite. Those trips with airfare cost us $5000 each. No Southwest then.

One of our perks for buying in 1993 was free park passes until 1999. They were good for ½ the amount of total people in the room or the people in the room, which ever was less. We used to go with the 2 kids, get a 2 bedroom (sleeps 8) and get passes for all of us (4) for the amount of time we were there....free. Those were parkhopper passes too......and after 1998 AK was added and we could go there too.

We financed through Disney.


Good luck with your decision. It's good you are doing your homework.

Having the DVC allowed us to go to WDW every year and sometimes twice a year while the kids were in school........and not break us. Now the kids have moved out.....and DH and I go several times a year. We don't need as big a room so our points go further.

Another perk is $100 discount on an Annual Pass.