Help! We've been bitten but unsure what to do next...

[jonpol]

Hi everyone, please excuse the newbie here but we've read so much in the past few days that we are confused. Something I'm sure you guys encounter a lot! We currently live in Ireland, and last year had a fantastic trip to WDW with our three kids. On our last day we bumped into a lovely lady who introduced us to DVC, and took us on a tour as it sounded interesting. Cue an overwhelming trip where we took on copious amounts of pixie dust before I got a bit panicked and we walked away from signing up.

On return we kicked ourselves a bit, but booked a trip to DLP in June, which has now been cancelled (boo hoo!) We've had a thought to book WDW for 2021 and have costed it out, however, we had this nagging feeling that although a huge investment, DVC might be best for us going forward. We have had a taste of DVC, and think any non-DVC trip to WDW would be selling ourselves short, and 'wasting' money that could be used better. Now, this is where the confusion comes in!

We've watched videos, read blogs, and become so overwhelmed at not having a clue what to do. We know the basics of the whole experience, but we wondered if others have taken the plunge, are further down the road, and could school us a bit! We are looking to take our family of 5, our three boys are between 7-12, every other year to WDW, and have no issue with any of the DVC resorts to be our home resort. We have a few key questions...

Is there anyone from Ireland who has done this?
Can you purchase from outside of the US?
I'm a bit weird about wanting to buy direct from Disney because I'm convinced it's better, is there a basis for this?
Does everyone feel like this when buying for the first time??!??!

Thanks so much for your help in advance!!

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I’m an American, so can’t help in that respect it o can speak to buying direct from Disney. We have a direct contract and a few resale ones. It’s definitely cheaper to buy resale obviously, but many of the discounts and benefits are for direct buyers only and it seems that in the future Disney will be making life more difficult for resale owners. So if cost wasn’t the biggest factor I’d go direct. Just crunch the numbers to make sure DVC makes sense for you. It’s mostly a way to pay for future trips at current prices. A long term investment.

 

[Lumpy1106]

The Disney direct offices are closed, but the resellers are not. I suggest you contact a reseller and ask them these questions. You might find this hard to believe, but they are actually really low-pressure and happy to answer questions. We used DVC Resale Market (highly recommend) - they are probably the largest but certainly not the only ones. As for Direct vs. Resale - if you are not buying AP's and aren't married to the thought of staying in Riviera, there really is no big benefit to buying direct.

It's a big purchase - you have every reason to be cautious. If you feel like you are being pressured to buy, then don't.

 

[meanwoodwhite]

I'm from the UK my resale contract is in rofr.

Its was easy so far, saw a contract contacted agents offer accepted and they sent contracts by email the next day, signed them and put deposit into escrow account. Literally all done in 48 hrs.

 

[GrumpyInPhilly]

 

[Minniesgal]

It depends what you are looking for. I firmly believe the value in DVC is in the 1 and 2 bedrooms and for us mainly the 2 bedrooms as we were a family of 5.

If we were happy with studios we would not have bought in as we would have just continued to stay at a moderate.

You cannot buy direct in the UK unless you are paying with 100% cash, loans can only be organised in person.

Personally with the way the world is at the moment I would wait 6 months or even a year and then buy resale.

 

[jonpol]

I think we looked online and they are offering Riviera at $195 per point, the only other option online is Hawaii, but are there not other options for home resort? I'm assuming that Disney aren't likely to drop the PPP right? I suppose the resale market will be affected, as will everything, in the short/medium term, but waiting is the killer! That pixie dust gets you buzzing quick doesn't it!

 

[RoseGold]

I'm a bit weird about wanting to buy direct from Disney because I'm convinced it's better, is there a basis for this?

I am not clear what exactly you are talking about. You can get TIW with a blue card, and the UK tickets (which maybe you have?) make the ticket discounts less persuasive. I guess if you play golf every day or go to the spa every day or do a mortgage worth of shopping the other white card benefits are cool?

DVC is a prepaid hotel room. If you plan to stay in a Finding Nemo suite anyway, this might not have any value at all. You need to run the math for how you travel and what this costs. If you do not even know the difference between direct and resale, then you haven't even started this math for your situation.

And it is not without risk. Owners have lots millions of points in all this mess, and similar things could happen in the future. A cash hotel room is much less risk to you. "Renting" a hotel room, which is the point of a hotel after all, is not "wasting" money. DVC is a consumption, luxury item, not an investment.

 

[Frederic Civish]

I suggest you contact a reseller and ask them these questions. You might find this hard to believe, but they are actually really low-pressure and happy to answer questions. We used DVC Resale Market (highly recommend) - they are probably the largest but certainly not the only ones.

As for Direct vs. Resale - if you are not buying AP's and aren't married to the thought of staying in Riviera, there really is no big benefit to buying direct.

I agree that most of the Resale people are very nice and helpful. Always glad to answer questions. And their job isn't to try to cram you into something you don't want. They will keep trying to get it right for you. If you DO happen to find a salesman (either at Resale or Direct through Disney) and you don't like how they work, then ask for another one. Or, in resale, try a different company.

I also very much agree that unless you are planning to buy Annual Passes every year, or you MUST stay at the Riviera (been there, done that, it was meh) then you should strongly consider RESALES.

 

[Minniesgal]

I think we looked online and they are offering Riviera at $195 per point, the only other option online is Hawaii, but are there not other options for home resort? I'm assuming that Disney aren't likely to drop the PPP right? I suppose the resale market will be affected, as will everything, in the short/medium term, but waiting is the killer! That pixie dust gets you buzzing quick doesn't it!

Slow down, research, think and think again $195 PP is a crazy price.

 

[jonpol]

Slow down, research, think and think again $195 PP is a crazy price.

I agree - it seemed mad to us. When we sat in DVC last year, the lady frightened us off of resale (we didn't expect any different from someone invested in us going direct) but it has left a nagging doubt in our heads...

 

[jonpol]

I am not clear what exactly you are talking about. You can get TIW with a blue card, and the UK tickets (which maybe you have?) make the ticket discounts less persuasive. I guess if you play golf every day or go to the spa every day or do a mortgage worth of shopping the other white card benefits are cool?

DVC is a prepaid hotel room. If you plan to stay in a Finding Nemo suite anyway, this might not have any value at all. You need to run the math for how you travel and what this costs. If you do not even know the difference between direct and resale, then you haven't even started this math for your situation.

And it is not without risk. Owners have lots millions of points in all this mess, and similar things could happen in the future. A cash hotel room is much less risk to you. "Renting" a hotel room, which is the point of a hotel after all, is not "wasting" money. DVC is a consumption, luxury item, not an investment.

I suppose we thought that buying direct made it more 'official' - I know that sounds a bit crazy - but I thought of it like buying tickets off ticket touts at a concert. I'm realising now that I could be way off in my analogy!

 

[Minniesgal]

I agree - it seemed mad to us. When we sat in DVC last year, the lady frightened us off of resale (we didn't expect any different from someone invested in us going direct) but it has left a nagging doubt in our heads...

Doubt based on which facts? Exactly what of value to you do you lose by going resale?

 

[RoseGold]

I suppose we thought that buying direct made it more 'official' - I know that sounds a bit crazy - but I thought of it like buying tickets off ticket touts at a concert.

I'm not clear exactly what point you are trying to make. I guess, like with anything, it's possible to get scammed? But you aren't buying a timeshare from a guy in a folding chair by the road. These are real title companies and escrow accounts and so on and plenty of them are great.

If anything, buying direct cripples the ticket concerts -- because if you sell them they are stuck in that section, as opposed to the resale ones which can move freely in any other section, except the RIV one. This is a timeshare, not a used car.

This is a math discussion, and the math might work for your family, it did for mine. But you won't know until you do the math for your own behavior, which none of us know.

 

[Jaguar Skills]

We are from the UK and have been on these boards for a few months doing our research etc. We have put in a few offers but not had one accepted yet. We would be in a similar boat, going every other year.

 

[meanwoodwhite]

I really don't think buying direct from UK/Ire is worth the much higher cost.

Your never going make up the thousands you would save with resale through 20% merch discount if your going to go once or twice a year. and with our 14 day ticket deals the AP discount is not a deal breaker either imo.

Depending on location and points you can get contracts at around $100 a point compared to disney if you buy 150 points that's a saving of over $14k. It's a no brainer to me.

 

[jonpol]

We are from the UK and have been on these boards for a few months doing our research etc. We have put in a few offers but not had one accepted yet. We would be in a similar boat, going every other year.

I think the distance, flights etc. do mean the need for the longer stay, and a bit more thought around the holiday for us on this side of the world. We're realising now that there's a high level of research needed!

 

[Jaguar Skills]

We would probably look to do 2.5-3 weeks every other year.
We’ve looked at what appears to be the most economical resort Saratoga Springs. Plus we like the idea of walking to disney springs and it’s on the golf course which is good for me!

we would only buy resale And would never buy direct

 

[TandemShoehorns]

I suppose we thought that buying direct made it more 'official' - I know that sounds a bit crazy - but I thought of it like buying tickets off ticket touts at a concert. I'm realising now that I could be way off in my analogy!

Buying direct is a quicker process at a great deal of extra expense. The "discounts" from a blue card would probably not make up for that added cost. I don't know if there are any extra complications when buying from outside the U.S. We have purchased direct and resale. Resale took a few months to finish the transaction but was a substantially lower cost.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

How long of a stay would you have on your trip? You would use some combo of banking/borrowing for a trip every other year.

I'm a bit weird about wanting to buy direct from Disney because I'm convinced it's better, is there a basis for this?

That's because they are "magical". aka - that's the way they want you to feel and Disney is very good at marketing to emotions.

Does everyone feel like this when buying for the first time??!??!

It really depends on your focus. If it really is about not tossing money away then resale is the way to save money on DVC.

Direct sales isn't currently an option as they've been closed down for weeks. And a good resale broker uses a title company and is a very safe way to purchase. AND - all points originally came from Disney.