[karliebug]

I am considering buying into DVC. Once the initial investment is paid off, you still have to pay yearly maintenance fees, is that correct?? If I need to pay $1500 per year for maintence fees on my points, I might as well put that money toward a hotel room. So what is the advantage in joining DVC?? I don't see how I would be saving much money by joining DVC.

[queensmama]

That is a great question, because I have alway wondered the same thing. I also hope to see this answer.

[mickey]

Yes, there are two fees. The first is the initial payment for the points you purchase, the second being the annual fees. Both depend upon how many points you purchase. Let's just walk through an example. The figures probably are not accurate, but should be pretty close:

You purchase 200 points at Saratoga Springs for $80 per point for a total cost of $16,000. You will get 200 points per year for the next 50 years, for a total of 10,000 points over the life of the contract, or a cost of about $1.60 per point.

Your annual fees will be somewhere around $4 per point for 2005, so your cost per point for 2005 is going to be roughly $5.60.

So, with your 200 points, you can get roughly 14 nights in a studio at Saratoga Springs. If you travel during Christmas, etc, you will get less nights per year. For an example, let's look at October. A week in a studio in October is 97 points, or you can stay 5 nights (Sunday through Thursday) for 55 points total. We will use both of these below:

97 points = $543.20
55 points = $308.00

So, the nightly cost if you stay a week is $77.60, and if you stay the 5 weekdays, the nightly cost is $61.60. There are no taxes or any other fees to add on. So, you get a deluxe type hotel for the same price as a value resort. By the way, the standard price for a value in October is $99 per night plus tax, or about $110.88. Assuming you can get a 35% discount, then your cost at one of the value resorts is $72.07. So, if all goes well, it will cost you $35 less per week to stay in a value resort compared to Saratoga Springs. Plus, you have to figure in that room rates will rise faster than the annual fess will, so as time goes by, your room gets less and less expensive compared to the resort rooms.

With DVC, you do not always have to stay at your home resort, so if you own at SS, you can stay at Beach Club Villas, Wilderness Lodge Villas, Boardwalk Villas or OKW for just about the same price. There is also Vero Beach and Hilton Head as well.

To make DVC work, you have to answer yes to the following two questions:

1. Do I plan on going to Disney on a regular basis in the forseeable future?

2. Can I plan my Disney vacation 11 months ahead of time?

One other thing to remember is that you can always sell your membership. Most people, as long as they stay a member for 5 years or so, can get back their initial membership fee they paid (maintenance fees are not recoupable).

[pbharris4]

Hi! First let me say I gre up in Tamaqua, PA (near Jim Thorpe). It's always nice to talk to another Pennsylvanian! (I live in VA now). We bought 175 pts @ Beach Club in 2002 and we don't regret it at all. Yes, you still have to pay the maint. fees. Ours is about $700/year (I think, DH does the bills). We weighed that too when buying, but..if you ask me, it's worth it. How many points are you buying? One thing that's great about DVC is that it's a points system not a week system (otherwise we wouldn't have done it) and you can tailor it to suit your needs. At first, I thought we'd need more points, but to be honest..175 works great for us. With the banking, borrowing, etc we can go different times and stay at different places for different amounts of time.

You'd save $$ in the long run over the course of 40-50 years depending if you buy from a broker or Disney themselves. It allows you stay on the Disney property like the Boardwalk or Beach Club or even the Grand Floridian (these places are very expensive). You can even go on a cruise! The fees (IMO) are there for upkeep of the property..cleaning, refurbishing, etc.

After this years trip, it's half paid for itself already.

We went in Jan. 2003 for 5 days in a 1 bedroom villa @ Beach Club (around $1500)
Spent 3 days at The Plaza in NYC in November (around $1,000)
ANd in a few days we're going and staying at a 2 bedroom villa at the boardwalk..the in-laws are coming too! (around $3300-3600)

We paid $12,000 something for ours. So a few more trips and it'll be paid for! As far as the maint. fees.....we would spend much more than that per year on a hotel room somewhere and it might not even be a nice hotel. The Disney points never change, but some of the getaway may change some.

I am so against time shares. When my sister joined and was talking about it tome, I was like "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah." She tends to impulse buy, but once I looked into it..I really liked the flexibility of it and Disney is the ONLY place I would buy into a timeshare. Since this year we're taking others and staying in a 2 bedroom..next year we'll get a studio @ OKW, the following year, we'll get a studio at Vero Beach or Hilton Head, and then the next year we're staying at the GF. The next year or two after that we plan on going on a 7 day eastern Carribean Cruise with our 2 girls. Who knows..maybe after that we'll head to California or Hawaii!

We would never be able to afford these vacations otherwise. If you aren't happy with it after awhile..you can sell it, too!

Staying on Disney Property is great. I've stayed off before and don't really like it. With Disney you know what you are getting and you are closer to it all. The only thing I don't like about it is that they only give you 10% discount on some things. I think it should be higher. Hopefully, that will change. $1500 a year IS a lot of $$$ for fees..do you really need all those points? We were originally going to get 250, but we realized we didn't really need that much...175 works fine for us. Well, sorry for the long post, just wanted to throw in my 2 cents! :0)

[soxmets]

The other gentlemen have done a great job breaking down the costs. So I will keep mine simple:

I have purchased 40-years worth of vacations in advance. While the costs of staying at hotels will continue to go up via inflation, my initial investment holds steady. Granted maintenance fee's & real estate taxes can go up, it is a relatively insignificant cost to my personal budget.

If you are spending $1,500 on a vacation...what are your room accomodations like? I get a two-bedroom villa each year...with a full kitchen, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, a king bed, a couple of queens, a nice living room, a giant walk-in shower, and a jacuzzi to boot.

It's all a matter of the lifestyle you would like. While you may be sitting on top of each other in your hotel room, my family has a ton of room. Also, when you see those hotel prices on the net, don't forget to add in the tax, which I think runs 11% to 13%. A tax I am not paying. Further more, when you check out they charge your credit card for the stay. I don't pay anything except a few meals I charged back to my room.

Again, it's a matter of personal choice. Good luck!

[BDavis932]

IMO, it's hard to compare DVC studios and villas to a hotel room. The DVC rooms are wonderful! We have 150 points per year at Old Key West. Our maint/taxes run $480/year and That averages $40/month. We have stayed at OKW twice and WL once (can't wait to stay there again!!). Next two trips we'll be staying at SSR and BWV. Wow...never thought we'd ever be able to stay at places like this before.

For around $150 month for 10 years, you can purchase a membership with 150 points at Saratoga Springs with DVC. For another 40+ years after you've paid for this off, your vacation accomodations are paid for!!!! (50 years total!)

Let say you go to WDW every other year and stay at All Stars until the year 2054. That is 25 trips between now and then. Lets say it costs you $100 per night and you typically stay 7 nights. The total cost for that would be $17,500. And that is for a VALUE resort....DVC accomidations are top notch deluxe!!

But, the great thing about DVC is that it is NOT just Disney!! You can go to Colorado, New York City, California, Michigan, Utah, etc..etc...etc...

So lets say you go to Keystone resort and stay in a 2 bedroom condo during the years you don't go to Disney. For 25 years, staying 7 nights each trip at $150+/night. That works out around $26,250.

Instead of $43,750 out of pocket for Disney trips and Keystone trips (not considering inflation) With DVC you will pay approx $12,000-$13,000 for accomodations that you will be able to use for 50 years.

[queensmama]

OK I once again am looking at DVC with dreamy eyes and this thread while helpful, still leaves me looking like this
I want to buy 150-175 point for WL. I pay the initial cost then the maitence fees are...........$$$$. Do I only pay fee on the points that I have allotted for that year or do I pay on the whole lump sum(till 2042) of these points every year.
I need to find/talk to someone at DVC ....... a good sit down with numbers in front of me.

[pumouse]

I am also interested in this. Okay, say you want a 2 bdrm villa every year for 7 days. how many points would you need for that? How much would the initial investment be? Do you get a discount on Disney tickets? Restaurants?

[pbharris4]

You pay maint. fees on the amount of points you buy. If you purchase 175 points per year that is what you pay for maint. fees per year. We have 175 pts @ BC and we pay around $50/month for maint. fees. A good place to find answers if you can't get them here is www.disboards.com and scroll down to the Disney Vacation Club forum. It's a pretty crowded site because it gets a lot of traffic, BUT a lot of people will answer your questions. Also, call DVC. They aren't high pressure at all. It pretty much sells itself. My sister helped answer our questions and we bought into it sight unseen.

As far as how many pts you'd need for a 2 bdrm villa every year for 7 days...it would depend on what time of year you go and which resort. OKW costs the least amount of points where as BCV and VWL are the most. Fridays and Sats. cost the most amount of pts. Here's some examples:

If you go somewhere between June 11- Aug 15th:

2 bdr villa at OKW: 296 pts for 7 days
2 bdr villa at BC: 350 pts for 7 days

1 bdr @ OKW: 218 pts for 7 days
1 bdr @ BC: 270 pts for 7 days

studio @ OKW: 109
studio @ BC: 134


If you went anytime in Jan:

2 bdr villa @ OKW: 218 pts
2 bdr @ BC:270 pts

1 bdr @ OKW: 160
1 bdr @ BC: 200

studio @ OKW: 80
studio @ BC: 104

It really depends on your wants/needs. We've gone down in late Jan. and early Feb and July. My sister (who has the same amt of pts that we do) sometimes goes 2x a year. Sometimes they stay in studios and other 1 bdr or 2 bdrm villas. At first I thought we'd need a 2 bdrm villa, but we can actually do a studio, but I prefer a 1 bdr villa. Last year we took the inlaws and got a 2 bdrm villa. A 1 bdrm is actually pretty spacious. The rooms are pretty nice. I am VERY, VERY picky.

You can also borrow pts or bank pts. That's how we did the 2 bdr villa and how we are doinf the 4 nts at SSR and 3 night cruise. You get discounts on Annual Passes (which we never buy-we only do 1 0r 2 parks per year) and anywhere from 10-20% discount off of food at some of the different restaurants around WDW. It's actually better than it was 2 years ago. Back then it was maybe 8 places to get a discount. The pts for the DVC resorts will never go up either. Also, you'll own it for 40-50 years and if you die before then you can will it to your kids or whoever else.

You can always buy more pts later as well. Check out that site I mentioned. It should answer a lot of your questions. ANd don't forget to subscribe to the post at the bottom because you might lose your post in all the other ones. HTH

[pumouse]

Okay I am going to be really annoying now, how much would it be to buy 175 points a year initially? oh nevermind, I see what you mean now.

[A Goofy Family]

Originally Posted by pumouse

I am also interested in this. Okay, say you want a 2 bdrm villa every year for 7 days. how many points would you need for that? How much would the initial investment be? Do you get a discount on Disney tickets? Restaurants?

You get a GREAT discount on AP's & PAP's. Next month we're staying 8 nights at SSR in a studio and giving 2 nights at Vero Beach to my parents and STILL banked points to use next December. It's an awesome deal!
We only bought 150, and we can really stretch them out! All of our planned trips you see in our countdowns are using points and our shortest trip is 5 nights. My inlaws are using 150 points next month at SSR for 9 nights.
You gotta look into it, it's more affordable than you think. We pay about $45 in maintenence fees per month. That's a family dinner out at Chili's, I can give up 1 dinner out a month to pay my dues...not a bad swap for cool vacations!!

[pbharris4]

Originally Posted by pumouse

Okay I am going to be really annoying now, how much would it be to buy 175 points a year initially? oh nevermind, I see what you mean now.

When we bought in Oct. 2002 we paid around $12,500 or something like that. It may have been $14,500 and we put $2500 down on it. Actually, I think it was $14,500 because it was about $81/per point. We were going to finance for 10 yrs, but the whole plan was to get a home equity line of credit to pay for it and finished basement, screened porch, etc. which we did. It may be $89/pt now, but they are also giving you 50 years instead of 40 and an incentive or two. My cheapo DH even says it's one of the best things he's done (next to building this house before the huge housing market boom in this area). We'd never be able to afford those kind of hotel rooms every year if we had to pay cash.