How much are annual passes with DVC?

[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.

If you have questions, be sure to ask!