i have friends who go to WDW very often and i’ve always wondered how they do it … they often reply “time share!”. i always thought that was something to avoid. in my mind, i imagine people stepping away from their vacation to be forced to listen to a sales pitch or something … excuse my ignorance, i just know nothing about it … but i’m curious. do times shares exist within the World, or only outside of it?
Disney vacation club is a timeshare basically. THere are TONS of time shares in the area around WDW. I got hit up at disney springs last night by the disney vacation club people. And I a staying at the hilton parc soleil for work this week which is about 10 minutes from disney springs at thats a time share.
Do you friends already have time shares? I can’t imagine going to WDW just to hear time share pitches.
it sounds like entrapment to me … i do have some DVC friends ~ i guess that’s what they’re talking about. i hate a sales pitch of ANY kind … i feel like this would ruin my vacation!
Yeah, I personally don’t like it but at least the disney people aren’t too hard charging at least in the parks.
If you own DVC or rent points, you wouldn’t be going to the sales pitches. You’d only go if you were looking to buy. Lots of people do it to get free FPs and sometimes a gift card.
3 Likes
We ran into a CM doing the DVC sales at Epcot our last trip in May. I just happened to be walking past like everyone else and she stopped me. She was nice, but very pushy about setting up a tour. I told her nicely several times no as we had plans. I finally got myself loose from her, but it was annoying. I’m there to enjoy myself, not to receive a sales pitch.
1 Like
if they already have the time-share they are not getting a sales pitch on vacation.
If they have a time-share or are renting a time-share off property you don’t go to a sales pitch.
The sales pitch is if you want something they offer - Disney will give you fast-passes, other places give different ‘freebies’ if you agree to go to the tour.
There are companies that will give you free nights if you will go to a tour - but all of that you have to agree to before hand.
also if you actually WANT to buy a time-share, then you would go to the tour and get the pitch.
3 Likes
Maybe this will help explain. We own a time share condo at the beach. You buy it & pay yearly maintenance fees for it. If we decide not use our week at the beach, we get points that can be exchanged for a unit at another location. For my one week at the beach, I can usually stay in a resort near Disney about 3 times depending on the unit size & time of year. The only thing I pay is an exchange fee (& my points)which is about $250 for a week.
4 Likes
Well Explained.
I too own a timeshare, and do exchange it for a condo near the World.
Also, the exchange service you belong to often offers “extra inventory” at member level pricing for a week. Depending on location an inventory levels, this can be a big win against “regular” hotel pricing.
2 Likes
I LOVE Time shares. (We don’t own one.)
Why?
Because thanks to Time Shares, for which the market pretty much collapsed, it has made it possible for my family to secure relatively inexpensive condo rentals. Many of the 2- and 3-bedroom rentals we’ve stayed at are former Time-share locations that have since opened up to non time-share folks to rent like hotels. (We usually rent using vrbo.com, aka homeaway.com).
We have friends who own 3 time shares. But because of this, they end up unable to use their weeks/points sometimes. As a result, on two occasions, we were able to pay them the maintenance fee (around $250) and get a week at a 2-bedroom timeshare condo. Orange Lake was particularly nice at the time, because not only was it close to Disney, but it had a Lazy River right outside our door! It was great.
It is a shame for those who invested in the time shares to begin with, of course. We briefly looked into getting into Timeshare points ourselves, but we just couldn’t make it make sense financially to do so. It would always end up costing us more than we would usually spend on vacations because it essentially required us to vacation WAY MORE OFTEN to make it worth it.
3 Likes
Do you mind if I ask which exchange service you use? I use RCI. I think it is fine, but their fees keep going up. It is the only one I’ve ever heard of, so I was just curious. My time share belonged to my parents so once they passed it along to me, I’ve kept everything the same.
Sure!
Mine is on the Interval International (II) system. II is the second largest timeshare exchange service in the world - RCI being the largest. I think the statistic is that if you have access to both systems, you could stay at something like 85% of the timeshare resorts in the world.
RCI, on the other hand, has access to the DVC resorts, while Interval doesn’t. Makes me sad. 
1 Like
I am a DVC member and sometimes the CMs are still pushy, for a while saying I already had a home resort was enough to get them to step off, lately I had to start saying I owned two interests. I wonder how long before I have to start saying I own a few hundred points in every property to get t hem to leave me alone.
I get they have a job to do, but I already bought the kool-aid, and we’re here at least once, sometimes twice a year, that’s plenty of my income they are getting.
3 Likes
I own several time shares mostly in Hawaii. Knowing what I know now I would never buy directly. There are several resale websites. Redweek.com is very good. There are generally two ways to buy. One is buying “weeks” directly at a specific resort. You should only do this if that resort is someplace you can see yourself going to on a regular basis. Never buy a week’s timeshare if your thinking you can trade in to other properties. There is always a fee involved and you rarely get what you want. The new trend is points. Points is when you buy a specific amount of points that can be used at any of the company’s properties. Depending on how many points you but will determine what type of accomodation you can reserve. Disney uses the points system. Points can also be bought on the resale market.
1 Like
Ugh, we own and use RCI too, and the fees make me crazy. It’s still way cheaper (not to mention getting a 3-bedroom place for cheaper than just a hotel room) for our family to use the timeshare than to use anything else, though, so we keep at it. We’re up for renewal at the end of this year, though, and I keep wondering if there’s something better to try out…
Yes. I was very happy to grab a last minute SSR for only 13 points a couple summers ago. That was an awesome stay!
1 Like
I agree. To get a 2 or 3 bedroom unit, it is hard to beat the price. And the extra vacation weeks or last minute deals can also be helpful. I did not realize other services don’t offer DVC access.
Is it cheaper to own a timeshare and pay the maintenance fees than to rent someone else’s timeshare week? Seems a lot of these owners are renting out the units on homeaway or Airbnb or vrbo for about the price of the maintenance fees. Have you found it to be beneficial to own for other reasons?
No, not really. When you factor in the cost of the timeshare plus maintenance fees, you can do just as well (sometimes better) if you rent through homeaway (which is what we do).
Of course, if you actually USE your timeshare for 20+ years, it probably eventually evens out.
Granted, this advantage is only possible due to the number of people who DID buy into timeshares a long time ago, so you might argue that I’m riding on the backs of others. 
But mostly, I’m helping those timeshare owners by giving them an opportunity to earn back some of their investment.
1 Like
It also can have to do with what an owner paid as the buy-in price. If you buy new today… whew. Good luck.
If you buy a “returned” unit or on the resale market, you can do reasonably well.
Always go in with your eyes wide open.