How much are annual passes with DVC?

[fourfoxesinpa]

So, is it true that you get a discount on APs if you are DVC owner? What kind of $ are we talking about? Do you get any discount on MYW tix? Any other discounts (meals, merchandise?)

Thanks!

[disney_girl]

Yes, you do get a discount on the AP rates! It's a $100 discount over the normal rate. Currently, Adult AP is $389 and Child is $344. Renewals are $344/304. I don't believe that there is a discount on other tickets though.

They sometimes offer discounts for the special parties on certain dates- but not always. I believe there are some discounts on some of the tours offered. There are also some dining discounts, but I don't have the information in front of me right now.

[fourfoxesinpa]

Thanks very much. We were playing around with numbers and just can't figure out how it's a good deal for us, when you take the buy-in cost, settlement fee, annual maintenance fees and consider the "cost of money." I must be missing something. :confused:

[jnorth1007]

Here is how it was explained to me. It will never be a better deal to pay for DVC than to just pay to stay in a resort property. However, if you consider the amount spent on vacations and see how many years it would take to add those up and pay for a DVC contract it works out to having better accomadations for a longer period at a better cost. For us we spend somewhere around $4000 for a trip for accomodations, food and tickets. Lets say that $2000 of that is room and we want to buy 200 points it would cost us around 20,000. It would take only 10 trips for our contract to pay for itself. However, take in to account that the $2000 is paying for 2 POP century rooms and the contract is a 1 or 2 bedroom with washer/dryer and kitchen and lots more space. Also take in to account that once that break even point occurs we are only paying the mainenence fees and at some point our trips become a much better deal. The initial buy in phase is the point where it is truly the most expensive and it really does at some point become a better a deal. We are seriously considering it but I just can't decide where and when to buy. I think out best deal is going to be OKW because of the size of the rooms and the number of points we can get for the buck. Good luck with the decision...it IS a big one.

[PSL1013]

and you have to remember that the discounts that they give us now can be taken away at anytime...discounts are not a guarantee but a perk that can be changed and perks are always added and changed. Hopefully they never take the $100 discount away, I love that perk. :D Just information for you so that you are not counting on it staying "forever".

[kristenrice]

Wr bought a 100 point contract at AKV in August of 2008. We bought resale and paid cash and our total cost was $9625. The contract had 100 banked points which I rented to a co-worker and recouped $1000.

Our annual dues are just a tickle under $500 right now, and they do go up every year. I have $20 deducted from our paycheck every 2 weeks which is deposited into an online bank account. Then I pay the dues in a lump sum when they are due in January.

So far, we have taken two trips on our own points. The first trip was just our family of 4. The second trip, we brought along my parents. Here are the rack rates for those two trips, both at AKV:

June 2009: Saturday night in a value studio and the next 4 nights in a value 1BR (5 night trip, rack rate approximately $2300)

April 2010: Sunday and Monday nights in (2) standard studios at Jambo House, followed by 3 nights in a standard 2BR at Kidani Village (5 nights, rack rate of $4700)

Now, there may have been discounts available for the June 2009 trip, but the April 2010 trip was an Easter trip and there were only a handful of rooms available at a slightly discounted price.

Let me get "mathematical" for a minute to show you our *actual* cost for the 2010 trip...

DVC contract buy-in: 4900 points for $9625 (49 years at 100 points per year) = $1.96/point
206 points used for April 2010 trip...
...6 banked from 2009 (MF's were $4.85/pt) = $29.10
...100 points from 2010 (MF's were $4.93/pt) = $493.00
...100 points from 2011 (Estimate a 3% increase on MF's) = $508.00

So, the LODGING portion of the 5-night trip over Easter 2910 ACTUALLY cost us about $1435. The rack-rate for (2) standard rooms at Pop Century for the same trip would have cost us sbout $1600.

The "value" of DVC is not always monetary. For our family, it "forces" us to take a vacation. It should not be thought of as a "money-saver", but rather as a "pre-paid" resort stay. It is nice to know that we can use our points to stay at AKV (or hopefully HHI next spring) and know that we are going to have a nice, big villa with the comforts of home, without having to stress over whether or not there will be a discount available. Even with a discount, the lodging portion of our stay would cost us about the same amount as a moderate resort. It is hard to do a direct comparison because if we did NOT own DVC, we would NOT be staying in the deluxe villas. We would probably be cramming ourselves into a room at Pop Century. (*NOT knocking Pop Century! It is my favorite value resort and my BFF and I are planning on staying there again when we go down for F&W festival in 2011!)

If you are a family that wants to go to WDW at least every other year and you don't want to fret over "getting a code", then DVC might be a good fit for you. Even though we are relatively new members, I have already noticed a change in our vacation habits. In April, even though we had AP's, we found ourselves hanging out at the resort a lot more than in the past. The kids and DH had a blast playing in the pool area. The CM's were out playing games almost all day long and my kids really enjoyed the actual resort almost as much as the parks. We played bingo, foosball and the Wii! With DVC, I know that we could take a trip to Kidani Village, stay in a 1BR and have a great time, without setting foot into a theme park. Since the room is paid for, it could be a very affordable trip.

Here's another thing to think about....a new owner can buy in right now for a mere 50 points. That amounts to about $65/month on a 10-year loan from Disney. Add in another $10/month for dues and you are looking at about $75/month. Hmmmmm.....here on SR, you can earn that just by doing the available surveys each month:sunshine:.

If you have questions, be sure to ask! :sunshine:

[fourfoxesinpa]

Thanks very much for the explanations. We are a family of 4 who only needs 1 room and are very fortunate to get to WDW every 6-9 months. We're more than comfortable staying in a regular resort and we don't think it necessary to have a washer/dryer, larger space or kitchen on vacation (I like to leave all that at home. :p) We travel in the off season, have never paid rack rates and do not spend big bucks on a room that we hardly visit except to sleep in.. We are theme park commandos. We are a moderate room style family so we've never spent thousands of dollars on our room. Right now, DH travels a lot for work and we recently found out we are able to use his hotel points at WDW resorts, although at a premium cost.

Janet, you're right...when I add it all up, it would be more expensive for us to have DVC (even without financing costs) than for us to stick with the status quo. Hard to beat free. I guess if we had a larger family and had to get more than 1 room in a resort, it would make sense to me. Dollarwise, it doesn't add up to me. I was thinking if there were big discounts, they would offset the cost and make it logical for us.

For the bigger families or when discounts run dry, it's a no-brainer and seems like a great deal.

[kristenrice]

Thanks very much for the explanations. We are a family of 4 who only needs 1 room and are very fortunate to get to WDW every 6-9 months. We're more than comfortable staying in a regular resort and we don't think it necessary to have a washer/dryer, larger space or kitchen on vacation (I like to leave all that at home. :p) We travel in the off season, have never paid rack rates and do not spend big bucks on a room that we hardly visit except to sleep in.. We are theme park commandos. We are a moderate room style family so we've never spent thousands of dollars on our room. Right now, DH travels a lot for work and we recently found out we are able to use his hotel points at WDW resorts, although at a premium cost.

Janet, you're right...when I add it all up, it would be more expensive for us to have DVC (even without financing costs) than for us to stick with the status quo. Hard to beat free. I guess if we had a larger family and had to get more than 1 room in a resort, it would make sense to me. Dollarwise, it doesn't add up to me. I was thinking if there were big discounts, they would offset the cost and make it logical for us.

For the bigger families or when discounts run dry, it's a no-brainer and seems like a great deal.

I agree....given your vacation habits, you are going to save money sticking with your plan. If we used all 100 of our points every year, our lodging would still "cost" us about $750. That is more than a value or moderate would cost, even at rack rate, for 5 nights. Since we are a family of 4, we can save our points and go less frequently and stay in a 1BR, or go more often and stay in a studio. For our family, we like the larger rooms and "deluxe" accommodations. Since we take fewer trips, we want to feel spoiled when we go on vacation. As much as I like Pop Century, I just don't feel as pampered there as I do when I am at AKV:love:.

If you haven't already done so, you might want to look into renting DVC points to try it out. That way, you can experience a DVC villa at a nice discount, without making a 40-50 year committment:).

[PSL1013]

I agree....given your vacation habits, you are going to save money sticking with your plan. If we used all 100 of our points every year, our lodging would still "cost" us about $750. That is more than a value or moderate would cost, even at rack rate, for 5 nights. Since we are a family of 4, we can save our points and go less frequently and stay in a 1BR, or go more often and stay in a studio. For our family, we like the larger rooms and "deluxe" accommodations. Since we take fewer trips, we want to feel spoiled when we go on vacation. As much as I like Pop Century, I just don't feel as pampered there as I do when I am at AKV:love:.

If you haven't already done so, you might want to look into renting DVC points to try it out. That way, you can experience a DVC villa at a nice discount, without making a 40-50 year committment:).

I totally agree with you 100%, I wouldn't give up my DVC for all the tea in China! I don't care to stay in a value or moderate resort anymore but that's jut me, we did that when my child was young...I want to experience deluxe vacations now and I admit, I'm totally spoiled and I love!! :rotfl:

[MKCP84]

I totally agree with you 100%, I wouldn't give up my DVC for all the tea in China! I don't care to stay in a value or moderate resort anymore but that's jut me, we did that when my child was young...I want to experience deluxe vacations now and I admit, I'm totally spoiled and I love!! :rotfl:

Count me in as I would not give up our DVC either. Now that our DDs are teenagers our vacationing habits have changed greatly since we bought in 10 years ago. There are some nights we like to just go pick up a pizza from the Boardwalk, get a movie from Community Hall, and relax for the evening. I'm spoiled by all the space. We stayed at POP Century a few years back and boy did we miss the Boardwalk. We felt like we were on top of each other trying to get ready in the morning which will happen with teenagers. Paying the annual dues isn't a joy but well worth it for our family.

[3dog2kidmom]

Brand new DVC owner here :)

While I'm sure we could go to Disney and stay at mods or values for cheaper in the long run, I much prefer to stay deluxe and DVC allows us to do that. We like to travel over Christmas break and as the kids get older we'll be able to stay in a one-bedroom villa and take advantage of all the amenities at the gorgeous resorts. I'm also looking out into the future, and DVC guarantees that we'll continue to be able to travel throughout retirement.

AND looking forward to a week at Aulani someday :love: