We just returned from WDW and I think I have convinced my husband to at least consider purchasing DVC when he was completely against it previously. Just wondering if any of you liners who are also members have found any regrets? What do you love the most or don’t like about your membership. Just exploring the possibility. Any thoughts would be appreciated. TIA.
We love dvc. Bought resale, added points twice. Our home is AKV which is fantastic. We have stayed at almost all the wdw resorts and Aulani. We get our moneys worth.
We used The Timeshare store. Had very good experiences all 3 times. If you are on facebook, they have a page.
http://www.dvc-resales.com is their website.
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None in the slightest, in fact I wish I had bought into it years sooner during our honeymoon rather than waiting four years.
thanks!! I will check that out 
We bought AKV on our honeymoon and then added a small amount at BLT. What we’ve really loved with our points is being able to take friends and family with us who wouldn’t necessarily be comfortable shelling out all the money for the trip, but we can tell them the room is already paid for (and it is an impressive room). It also has allowed us to upgrade to Club Level a couple times when we’d feel a little weird about spending cash for that.
@Trampslady_18966 I’m trying to figure out how many points we should start with. We’ve rented DVC points before, if you’re a DVC owner would you use the same points calculator that say “The DVC Rental Store” or “Davids Rental” uses?
No regrets…except that we wish we had taken the leap 3 disney trips earlier! But it was Bay Lake’s location that pushed us over the edge. Wish I could have bought Boardwalk or Beach Club as well, but love my Bay Lake. We use it to take family members and it has changed the way we travel. We are a family of 5 and always needed two hotel rooms anyway, so honestly, we were always forking out extra money on every trip anyway. The kids see Disney resorts as their ‘second home’ and love to resort as well as do the parks. They are older on each trip and therefore, each trip is still different. Just this morning (as we are preparing for our next trip) I asked my 12 year old son if he was tired of Disney and he said, “Mom, are you kidding? It just gets better and better each time we go!” I asked him what he is looking forward to and he said, “Everything!” Our three kids get more involved with our vacation planning each year, so we vary the time of year, resort, etc. It is like pre-paying for vacations we would have taken anyway…Love it!
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If you want to estimate what amount of points you might want based on the kind of accomadations you would book I believe any current points listing would work. The Disney site has them of course. But the number of points needed should be the same no matter whos you look at We started with 125 thinking we wouldnt go more than every other year. Well that didnt last long. Added 160, then another hundred in order to accomodate family gatherings in a 3 bedroom villa. Its a nice bonus to get a contract with banked points.
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I realized I didn’t answer the points part of your question. Think carefully about how you want to vacation with the time share and if you have the $ available, try to buy all your points upfront as your ‘bonus’ years of vacation take longer to happen if you add points on later (which are likely to be at a different cost…and might be for a different home resort if yours is sold out). Pretend you are booking your first DVC trip with your new points and see how many you’d need. We bought enough to go for a week in a two bedroom at a peak time…of course, after we bought it, we realized we could make those same points go much farther by vacationing at less popular times of year…but we like the fact that we COULD go at a peak week as a family if we want. So, imagine your first vacation using points and see if that is the kind of vacation you’d take every year or every other year. Hope this helps!
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We own 480 points. We did 3 contracts since we have three kids. Some years we bank or we borrow from the next year. It all seems to work out nicely for us. First year was fun because we got a contract that had some banked points as a bonus for signing up…so we we went 3 times that year! We have stayed in a 3 bdrm grand villa, 2 bdrm, 1 bdrm and a studio. We have used the points in a variety of different ways each year. Sure - the first year was a large outlay of cash, but we love knowing that other than the annual maintenance fee, our lodging is paid for until we are in our 80’s.
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How many points depends on a lot of things. How big your family is, how often you go, what type of room you want, when you want to go, etc. Our 100 pt resale contract gets our family of 5 a 1br at BLT (standard or lake view) for a week in late May/early June every 3 years, with a few points leftover for a short visit for my husband and I during F&W once every few years.
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So you love your DVC. I get it. But can you use your points for tickets and meal plans?
I don’t mind putting away a little money per month for a great vacation every year, but I’d want to use some of the points for the other expenses.
Possible? I’m sure you pros know.
Nope. Points are for your room only.
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Thanks.