When luxury is worth it: Glad I bought DVC 15 years ago!

[fbb]

Lol at the 'saving money by cooking yourself' crowd.

The main reason I go on vacation is so I can get a week's break from my wife's cooking.

 

[toesmom]

We are DVC members, and I certainly don't think there is anything "budget" about it. Expensive yes. Worth it? We think so. But still expensive. Most families would struggle with the costs.

 

[DT83097]

Congratulations on being happy with your purchase and the opportunity to enjoy many family vacations for years to come - I think that is awesome!!

We first went to the World on our honeymoon 14 years ago, and actually went to the DVC presentation (mostly to get the freebies)! While I wish now that we would've purchased it then we don't plan to purchase now simply based on our situation / finances. We love, love, love WDW and will be making our 8th trip in 14 years this fall!!

The memories are worth the price (DVC, rack rate, or discount) every time!!

 

[hipchickie]

Totally agree with the jealousy thing!

I will admit I haven't read the whole thread, but it is possible for people to disagree about a major expenditure without being seething with jealousy

 

[aclov]

I haven't read the entire thread either but as a previous posted stated it's not always about crunching numbers but having a prepaid vacation and making those unforgetable memories. I like not having to look for deals and going back to a place that I'm familiar with. I also would not have taken alot of vacations if it wasn't for DVC and I have been able to share it with family and friends that also would have never went. For me that's worth it!

 

[cseca]

Good for you!
I purchased my first contract 11 years ago and broke even awhile back. And then addonitis hit, many contracts later we're still using our points happily.
Took my whole extended family on a christmas vacation at VGC for 6 nights in a 2br+1studio+1regular room at PP.
Wouldn't have been able to do it if not for DVC (banking and borrowing of course). The estimated cost for the whole trip was upwards for $13-$14k... for 1 vacation!
Of course we could've stayed at Fairfield inn or Carousel Inn. But the look in my mom's eyes when she realized where she'll be staying for 6 nights was priceless.
My dad later told me that she had dreamed of staying in a place like VGC all her life... that made my year...

So good for you OP!
And yes, it's painful to pay the MF every year. But we've been blessed with being able to afford it. If our financial situation were to change or DVC management decides to bungle our future ownership with their decisions then I'll be the first to try to resell my contracts...

Everyone has their vices, mine is Disney...

 

[jodifla]

Good for you!
I purchased my first contract 11 years ago and broke even awhile back. And then addonitis hit, many contracts later we're still using our points happily.
Took my whole extended family on a christmas vacation at VGC for 6 nights in a 2br+1studio+1regular room at PP.
Wouldn't have been able to do it if not for DVC (banking and borrowing of course). The estimated cost for the whole trip was upwards for $13-$14k... for 1 vacation!
Of course we could've stayed at Fairfield inn or Carousel Inn. But the look in my mom's eyes when she realized where she'll be staying for 6 nights was priceless.
My dad later told me that she had dreamed of staying in a place like VGC all her life... that made my year...

So good for you OP!
And yes, it's painful to pay the MF every year. But we've been blessed with being able to afford it. If our financial situation were to change or DVC management decides to bungle our future ownership with their decisions then I'll be the first to try to resell my contracts...

Everyone has their vices, mine is Disney... ;)

Great comments! How wonderful to be able to do that for your mom.

I also get a lot of joy in taking people to DVC. They are always bowled over by the accommodations.

 

[bunnymkc]

The best thing we ever did in 1997..We have enjoyed it so much with our grandsons. one was 2 when we started and now he is 16!!!!!!!!

 

[MommaSnowwhite]

We purchased in the fall of 2009. We looked at DVC several times before we purchased. We always said if thye built by the MK we would buy - we are proud owners at BLT.

Last fall we spent 7 wonderful nights in a Ded. 2BR lakeview at BLT. We had my DSis & DNiece as guests for that trip - it was their first trip to WDW. She is currently losing her fight against cancer and that trip will forever a special time I was able to spend with her. The last time I saw her she told me how much that trip ment to her because she never thought she would be able to being her DD to WDW. It was a trip of a lifetime for them and special memories for me.

For us DVC is about intangebles - the ability to make dreams come true. Not only for my children, but for my extended family and our close friends.

 

[crisi]

I don't regret mine....but I'm much less thrilled and rather neutral on it.

We've only been "every other year'ers" at Disney - and its too much. While the kids were little, it was a good way to vacation, but for a few years now, there have been trips we'd rather take - but we have these points..... And I've been way less thrilled with Disney itself since we purchased. When we purchase there was still decent food (IMHO) on property - now its difficult and expensive to get anything better than merely edible (again IMHO). Food is a big part of our vacations.

We'd have done as well financially - probably better - renting points from someone. While I don't like the idea of the risk, it turns out we've never cancelled a trip, and we could have insured it pretty cheaply. And honestly, if I knew then what I know now - we'd have rented an offsite condo and a car.

It isn't poorly spent money, but it isn't all that. There are a ton of better spent dollars in our house - and a ton of more appreciated vacation dollars spent.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

We bought several years ago as well...didn't use a single spreadsheet, didn't rely on Dave Ramsey for advice, blah...blah...blah... We bought because we wanted to and were financially able to pay cash for it, have never felt the need to justify why we did it. It was a good fit for us and between renting points on the years we couldn't use them ourselves, and having a second contract we also rented out that paid for the maintenance fees and sold a few years later for the same price we paid, we got back our original investment pretty fast. I'm just trying to show that you can use the membership to your advantage with some careful planning. I don't know that it would be the same with other timeshares, but definitely can be with DVC. (At least in our case, it was.)

 

[talulabelle]

The math is so fuzzy with this. Basically, people who feel it has "saved" them so much money are comparing to if they actually would stay the same places and pay rack rate for the same vacations. Does anyone with half a brain ever actually pay rack rate? I rather save my maintenance fees and plan one of my dirt cheap vacations I like to plan (like buying a week at bonnet creek off ebay) I'm sure a DVCer will say, but this way we CAN afford onsite deluxe. But whenever I price it out, it still comes out way more than my super dooper deluxe bonnet creek stay -comes with much more responsibility and not that many more perks. (OK, so I don't get EMH - but I have stayed on site and never used them at times, so I don't mind going without.) I can plan a great full week vacation in a beautiful 2 bedroom condo with 7 day tickets for my family of 7 for $1700 without airfare. (add cost of gas to drive or airfare (which I only get if also dirt cheap ) but I would have to add this cost with DVC anyway.) Sorry, I just don't see how I could do better. No, I'm not looking over BayLake for the week, but even if I stayed at baylake I would n't be looking at it either - I would be in the same place I go anyway when I'm there - THE PARKS. And then when I get home, I have lots of luxuries that I can enjoy the whole year (not just one week) that I was able to afford, because I didn't splurge on a vacation plan or one week of vacation. Also, I really don't want to be tied down to always going to Disney.

Whatever makes you happy people - but those maintenance fees and my money not doing anything to work for me would make me very unhappy.

ETA - I just read more of the thread and FWIW - I am not jealous of anyone at all. I LOVE my vacations and wouldn't change them. Like I said, whatever makes you all happy...and good for you if DVC does. I'm not jealous, just frugal and realistic.

 

[cseca]

The math is so fuzzy with this. Basically, people who feel it has "saved" them so much money are comparing to if they actually would stay the same places and pay rack rate for the same vacations. Does anyone with half a brain ever actually pay rack rate? I rather save my maintenance fees and plan one of my dirt cheap vacations I like to plan (like buying a week at bonnet creek off ebay) I'm sure a DVCer will say, but this way we CAN afford onsite deluxe. But whenever I price it out, it still comes out way more than my super dooper deluxe bonnet creek stay -comes with much more responsibility and not that many more perks. (OK, so I don't get EMH - but I have stayed on site and never used them at times, so I don't mind going without.) I can plan a great full week vacation in a beautiful 2 bedroom condo with 7 day tickets for my family of 7 for $1700 without airfare. (add cost of gas to drive or airfare (which I only get if also dirt cheap ) but I would have to add this cost with DVC anyway.) Sorry, I just don't see how I could do better. No, I'm not looking over BayLake for the week, but even if I stayed at baylake I would n't be looking at it either - I would be in the same place I go anyway when I'm there - THE PARKS. And then when I get home, I have lots of luxuries that I can enjoy the whole year (not just one week) that I was able to afford, because I didn't splurge on a vacation plan or one week of vacation.

Whatever makes you happy people - but those maintenance fees and my money not doing anything to work for me would make me very unhappy.

ETA - I just read more of the thread and FWIW - I am not jealous of anyone at all. I LOVE my vacations and wouldn't change them. Like I said, whatever makes you all happy...and good for you if DVC does. I'm not jealous, just frugal and realistic.

Wow... such hostility...
No, I never compared my trips with rack rates and still came up ahead.

Again, to each their own. But you don't have to put down people who are happy/content with their decisions.

You're happy with Bonnet Creek, that's great.
We won't. But I don't say you might have half a brain by preferring to stay there instead of a DVC resort.

And no, the math is not fuzzy for us because I know for sure what numbers to punch in. It might be fuzzy for some people who are not familiar with the program or with Disney.
Just FYI, there are still some parts of the year when no discounted rate is available.

 

[Marionnette]

The math is so fuzzy with this. Basically, people who feel it has "saved" them so much money are comparing to if they actually would stay the same places and pay rack rate for the same vacations. Does anyone with half a brain ever actually pay rack rate? I rather save my maintenance fees and plan one of my dirt cheap vacations I like to plan (like buying a week at bonnet creek off ebay) I'm sure a DVCer will say, but this way we CAN afford onsite deluxe. But whenever I price it out, it still comes out way more than my super dooper deluxe bonnet creek stay -comes with much more responsibility and not that many more perks. (OK, so I don't get EMH - but I have stayed on site and never used them at times, so I don't mind going without.) I can plan a great full week vacation in a beautiful 2 bedroom condo with 7 day tickets for my family of 7 for $1700 without airfare. (add cost of gas to drive or airfare (which I only get if also dirt cheap ) but I would have to add this cost with DVC anyway.) Sorry, I just don't see how I could do better. No, I'm not looking over BayLake for the week, but even if I stayed at baylake I would n't be looking at it either - I would be in the same place I go anyway when I'm there - THE PARKS. And then when I get home, I have lots of luxuries that I can enjoy the whole year (not just one week) that I was able to afford, because I didn't splurge on a vacation plan or one week of vacation. Also, I really don't want to be tied down to always going to Disney.

Whatever makes you happy people - but those maintenance fees and my money not doing anything to work for me would make me very unhappy.

ETA - I just read more of the thread and FWIW - I am not jealous of anyone at all. I LOVE my vacations and wouldn't change them. Like I said, whatever makes you all happy...and good for you if DVC does. I'm not jealous, just frugal and realistic.

Wow... such hostility...
No, I never compared my trips with rack rates and still came up ahead.

Again, to each their own. But you don't have to put down people who are happy/content with their decisions.

You're happy with Bonnet Creek, that's great.
We won't. But I don't say you might have half a brain by preferring to stay there instead of a DVC resort.

And no, the math is not fuzzy for us because I know for sure what numbers to punch in. It might be fuzzy for some people who are not familiar with the program or with Disney.

I don't read any "hostility" in her post. Maybe a little too much honesty?

We parsed the numbers back in 1996 when we took the kids for the first time. It just didn't work for us. We moved on. Every once in a while, we would re-visit the idea but it never made financial sense to us.

A lot of DVCers point to the emotional side of ownership...the "magic", the security in knowing that your vacation is already paid for, being able to share their good fortune with friends and family. All very good reasons in some sense. But not from a finance POV.

Saying that you could sell your contract for what you paid for it doesn't mean much to me. There aren't many pieces of real estate that are only worth what the owners paid for them in 1996. Heck, my house has doubled in value! DVC basically treads water while other timeshares lose resale value. That doesn't make DVC a good investment.

Now for those who think that my "negativity" is rooted in jealousy, chew on this:

Since 1996, we have vacationed at Disney World 12 times. Four of those times were in deluxe resorts, of which three of those deluxe stays were in concierge rooms. I have only stayed offsite once (1987) and in a value resort once.
We have also taken 7 cruises, 3 of them with DCL.
I've been to Europe 3 times, Mexico 8 times, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and various other parts of the Caribbean.
We have vacationed in Vegas, NYC, DC, Charleston, Nashville, Nantucket and a really nice family resort in the panhandle of WV that I can't recall the name of.

We did this all without having to invest in DVC or even touch the money that we would have used to pay for DVC back in '96. We made plenty of memories along the way. Many of them were magical without the help of Disney pixie dust. I have no reason to be jealous of someone who chose to spend their money differently than I did.​

Bottom line:

DVC + cseca = good fit
DVC + marionnette = not so good a fit

Different strokes, different folks.

 

[DVCconvert]

Why not just support each other in knowing we know ourselves and our finances enough to know what is best for us and none of us go into anything blindly, the people who it worked for were smart to do what they did, and the people who it doesn't work for are smart not to buy in. Each person and circumstances comes with its own set of uniqueness that makes having one blanket rule about something shortsighted. ...

simple,
because that would exclude all those who are self-righteous, egocentric, omnipotent, biased, jealous, uninformed, confused, frustrated and holier than thou from posting.

It would be the shortest thread in the history of the internet!!

 

[cseca]

I don't read any "hostility" in her post. Maybe a little too much honesty?

I agree with both yours and talulabelle's posts essentially.
I just don't agree with her generalization that people who "thinks they saved $ by DVC" are essentially math impaired (by doing DVC math comparison with rack rates)... or financially irresponsible (half a brain for paying rack rates?)
That's why I feel like the post was hostile.
If the poster didn't mean it that way I guess I must've misunderstood the post.

Btw, it's very cool you've taken all those vacations!
Hopefully we'll be able to do all that when both kids are older...

 

[nunzia]

Wow... such hostility...
No, I never compared my trips with rack rates and still came up ahead.

Again, to each their own. But you don't have to put down people who are happy/content with their decisions.

You're happy with Bonnet Creek, that's great.
We won't. But I don't say you might have half a brain by preferring to stay there instead of a DVC resort.

And no, the math is not fuzzy for us because I know for sure what numbers to punch in. It might be fuzzy for some people who are not familiar with the program or with Disney.
Just FYI, there are still some parts of the year when no discounted rate is available.

I don't really see it as hostile, but maybe with a bit of that "I'm wiser because..." thought.
Yes, people do pay rack rates. I don't..and hardly ever have, but I have gotten stuck at full rate at the Grand Californian and it wasn't pretty. Yes, I could stay off site and as I have said have many times happily. Now I choose to only stay on site. My choice..the other poster chose to stay at Bonnet Creek..fine and no judging from me, but for me..onsite wins. Now..as for fuzzy math..yes it can be seen that way, but also, as I said, for VGC they are TOTALLY reserved by owners or renters and have NOT YET been available to reserve through Disney on a cash basis, so the only way to determine room rate is using the amount quoted. They have NOT gone on sale so there is no deal to chase. Yes, you can rent points if you want to go that route, but that isn't comparing apples to apples.
I say whatever makes people happy and whatever they feel is a wise use of their money should not be back handedly or front handedly judged. Being supportive won't hurt anyone.

 

[disneyofcourse]

simple,
because that would exclude all those who are self-righteous, egocentric, omnipotent, biased, jealous, uninformed, confused, frustrated and holier than thou from posting.

It would be the shortest thread in the history of the internet!!

Yup!!!! Sooooo very true

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

That is a small amount of points for $600/yr. We have 360/yr and our dues are $1700/yr.

Just wanted to put these figures out there for basis of comparison. Say you need to bank 3 years worth of points for a vacation - at $600/yr x 3 = $1800.00 as the dues cost for that vacation, plus you need to add your buy-in total to that amount. Even if points are banked and not used, we still pay dues on them.

Hope these figures help, Tiger

Well I did say over-- didn't dig up my budget...

But here you go:

160 points, AKL: $790 whoa--a little off there, sorry about that. I was just recalling a ballpark and thus said "over" and not "around'. I was not intending to deceive anyone.

 

[Tiger926]

Well I did say over-- didn't dig up my budget...

But here you go:

160 points, AKL: $790 whoa--a little off there, sorry about that. I was just recalling a ballpark and thus said "over" and not "around'. I was not intending to deceive anyone.

Oh, I didn't say you were trying to deceive anyone at all. You didn't mention point total though, and so I didn't want people to think that dues are only $600.00/yr. They are with only a small amount of points, such as the 160 points you have.

With the amount of points we have, dues are 3x as much as yours, so that's why I mentioned that, as basis for comparison. I find people get really confused about the whole dues thing, as they don't realize that it's based on amount of points in our contracts.

Sorry for the confusion, as not sure how that happened, Tiger