Disney Vacation Club: Welcome Home!

Disney Vacation Club: Welcome Home!

Until recently, I had never heard of the Disney Vacation Club.  It was only when friends of ours, the Ryders, explained what the program was all about and how great it was.  From that point forward, my husband and I were totally intrigued.  Every time we walked passed a DVC sales person at one of the theme parks or hotels, we joked that we were total “marks,” and would be easily convinced to do it.  Finally in January of 2014, my husband went to a sales meeting at Animal Kingdom Lodge (I stayed behind with a napping toddler).  When he got back to our room a few hours later, I could tell he was already “sold.”  We calculated our expenses and budget, and determined that for our family, it would be a good deal.  We figured as many times as we had traveled to Disney and stayed on-property, we would actually end up saving money by purchasing “points” with Disney Vacation Club.  We purchased directly from Disney, but it was a “resale” (i.e. much cheaper!).  I’ve heard so many negative things about timeshares in the past (including my own family’s troubles with owning a timeshare in Mexico that no one has used in 20 years and just continues to pay enormous maintenance fees every year), that I was initially hesitant to purchase within DVC.  One of the biggest troubles with timeshares (IMO) is that you have to purchase a set week and it can often be difficult or unavailable to switch it out.  For example, my family owns a week in May.  Well with a family filled with teachers and students, which is a completely unrealistic time of the year for us to travel for a week out of the country.  The beauty of DVC is that you own points instead of a set location/time.  So you have a ton of flexibility to decide when to travel, for how long, and which resort (or even cruise).  I don’t want to sound like a salesperson, but for our family it really has been an amazingly positive experience and we don’t regret for a second that we decided to join.  I would say the only downside of DVC is the cost.  If you typically stay at the value or moderate Disney resorts, then it might not be as good of a deal.  For us, we got completely spoiled by the convenience and amenities of the deluxe resorts (Beach Club, Boardwalk, Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge, etc.) and when you consider that a villa (i.e. a regular hotel room with a small kitchen efficiency and pull-out couch) can run $500+ for one night, it ends up being a good value.  You do have the option of getting a loan (basically a mortgage), so you can pay a monthly amount instead of all up-front.  So there are some nice options.  To give you an idea of what our points “got us,” here’s a list of the days/locations we’ve used our DVC points in the past year (July 2014-July 2015):

-          July 2014, 3 nights at Beach Club (studio)

-          August 2014, 1 night at Bay Lake Tower (studio)

-          November 2014, 1 night at Saratoga Springs (studio)

-          December 2014, 2 nights at Wilderness Lodge (studio)

-          January 2015, 2 nights at Wilderness Lodge (studio)

-          March 2015, 2 night at BoardWalk Villas (studio)

-          March 2015, 1 night at Old Key West Resort (studio)

-          July 2015, 2 nights at Wilderness Lodge (1 bedroom suite)

For us, living less than two hours away, it’s most convenient to do 1-2 night trips (as much as I would like to stay for weeks at a time!).  If you add up how much all those rooms would be at cost it would total over $7500, whereas we pay roughly $2000 a year.  Please let us know if you have any questions about our DVC experience.  It isn’t for every family, but it has been one of the best purchases we have ever made and we are so happy to be DVC members.