I’ve heard a lot from people that love DVC. But I’m curious if there are people out there that tried it and regretted it. Are you one of them? Please share your experience.
I’m curious too.
I don’t own a DVC, but came darn close 2 years ago when we went thru a sales presentation. My wake up call came from our adult kids who love Disney when we talked about it with them before deciding. When they realized what we were seriously thinking about, it was what I refer to as a “get honest moment.” It was the implications of the long term commitment that scared the family off. WDW is great, “but seriously Dad, EVERY year from here to infinity?” was basically the family reaction. So we passed. Given the cost increases Disney announced in the short 2 years since then (tickets, food, DVC maintenance fees, etc.) I’m glad I passed on DVC and retained more decision making and cost control with respect to vacations at WDW.
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For the record here, Disney contracts DO have end dates, but I definitely hear what you are saying!
Yeah… had the same “come to Jesus” talk with my DW. That’s what we call it in “The South”.
At the end of the day, it’s a timeshare. I grew up being warned by family & friends what a mess / poor investment they are.
If it works for you…Great! However, I did the math for my family and it just didn’t add up to any savings or benefits for us.
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I can see where the lack of a ROI comes into play, but I’m not getting the “locked in” aspect of the argument. It’s a very common point brought up too, but I don’t understand how people are suddenly locked into only going to Disney if they buy into DVC?
Am I missing something? Or is it just the fear of getting a lack of ROI that plays into it, so it’s a self-imposed restriction?
I agree. If you don’t want to go to Disney for a given year, rent your points and put that money towards a different vacation. Or bank the points. There is no rule saying you have to go every single year. Yes you have to pay the maintenance every year, but again, you can cover that and more by renting your points.
I’m still not sold on whether or not it makes financial sense for my family, but lack of flexibility is not on the list of cons for me.
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I can understand the concern.
If you have X amount of dollars each year available for vacations, and you are tying up a large percentage of X into DVC, it means vacationing elsewhere becomes more difficult.
Today, I can choose to go to Disney in 2021… Tomorrow, I can say, “Nah. Instead, I’ll spend that money on a trip to here and there instead.”
But if you have money tied up into DVC, you have to go, “Well, I don’t want to do Disney. But we can only afford to do here or there, but not both.”
In the end, each person will make the decision that best serves their family.
If you’re independently wealthy (or at least quite rich), then there’s no problem. But for many (including me), the cost of paying for the DVC would pretty much wipe out any “vacation budget” that you might have, so you’re left with little choice but to go to WDW to “get your money’s worth”.
So, right, it’s self-imposed. Which is fine, just everyone seems to indicate it’s a contractual obligation to go to Disney.
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Definitely self-imposed as a function of budget.
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Serious question.
If you do intend to go every year, does it actually work out to be less expense per night than just paying out of pocket?
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Depends on where you were planning to stay.
Last year we rented points and stayed at Kidani. We needed 317 points for 7 nights. Based on current rates, 7 nights in a 2 bedroom savannah view is $8,765. Current annual maintenance fee is $2,360/year. Current direct purchase price is $54,207. Based on those numbers, I would start “making money” on my purchase in the 9th year.
So, if you plan to stay at a deluxe anyway, then yes, it can be less expensive. If you plan to stay value or offsite, no, it will not save you any money.
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Thank you for that example. It helps.
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Based on my family size (me, DH, 3 kids, and grandma) we will pretty much always need either 2 rooms or a 2 bedroom villa. We plan to have more kids too. I don’t see us ever staying offsite. We are trying out a moderate on our upcoming trip (Coronado Springs) to see how we like it. If we’re ok with it, we might try a value. But in the end, I see us leaning towards deluxe because of the extras like washer and dryer and full kitchen. So it will probably work out for us to buy some points. We’ll see in the next year or two 
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We are off-siters because we like are a large group that likes to spread out. I bet we could make the largest DVC units work, but I’m also Very Cheap. 
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As mentioned on a different thread, I’m not good at being cheap!!
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Me neither. We bought a ski condo outright and traded points to go to Disney so I’d be the last person to cast stones.
On the other hand, we had points coming out of our ears. Once we hosted three families at the Kona Coast Resort on the Big Island, it was great.
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And now I’m off to price out ski condos…
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