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 An Owners view of Disney Vacation Club (DVC)

What is Disney Vacation Club (DVC)?

Many of you have asked me what the heck is Disney Vacation Club, and why are you a member? I won't try to sell anyone on DVC, because that is not the point. I will try to give you the basics of it, and tell you why we became members. To put it in layman's terms, DVC is Disney's version of a timeshare. The difference is that with a traditional timeshare you are limited to when and where you can vacation. Many people might have a choice of a week here or there but in general, they are tied to a specific time and place. DVC learned from those timeshares and tried to offer a different option. Basically with DVC you are pre-paying for your future vacations. You are buying "points" to use for future vacations each year. You pay a certain amount of money each month for anywhere from 1-10 years- based on your loan. After you have paid off the loan, you then only have to pay annual dues each year. The present contracts run until 2057.

Each DVC resort has a point chart, which places point values on rooms, days of the week, and seasons. Each DVC resort offers different room types, and different point values for their rooms. To give a quick example, say someone purchases 150-point contract. They would then have 150 points to use each year however and whenever they wanted. They even have the opportunity to "bank" those points into the next year giving them 300 points to use. So let's say someone wants to vacation at Disney over the summer of 2008 from July 13- July 17. Using DVC point charts here are some options for them for a studio size room:

 Old Key West- 55 Points

 Animal Kingdom Villas- 60 Points

 Saratoga Springs Resort- 65 Points

 Beach Club, Boardwalk, Wilderness Lodge- 70 Points

Right there you can see that would give the DVC member a nice choice of resorts and options to use. For comparison if I entered the same dates and wanted to just reserve a room and pay cash here is the cost:

 Pop Century- $829

 Coronado Springs- $1,220

 Beach Club- $2,498

 Animal Kingdom Lodge- $2,498

When we first started going to Walt Disney World in 2004, we could find Pop Century for $49 during the peak seasons. Now that same room costs us $159 a night. We decided that DVC offered a much cheaper alternative in the long run for us, as once you purchase the points are locked in and will never go up. The cash costs of rooms though will always rise. So for us DVC presented a better alternative for our family.

Many people say, "won't you get sick of Disney". Well, DVC also has offerings at over 500 other hotels worldwide that you can use your points at. So families are not "stuck" with only an Orlando offering for 50 years. That is what is nice, the flexibility of it.

Is DVC for everyone...ot at all. If you are only making one trip every 10 years, then sure it is not for you. But those who vacation to Walt Disney World frequently it is an option worth at least looking into. In the long run it can save you thousands of dollars. Regardless, it is another one of Disney's unique offerings as they try to cater more and more to families.

 Thank you Scot Donohue for an "Owners" view of Disney Vacation Club (DVC).

Yesterday, 12:53 PM
DvcKinn Trying for More Ears       Join Date: Dec 06 Location: Winter Garden, Florida	In response to Bill. I understand your concerns. This article was written by a DVC owner , Scott Donahue, not by Kinn or Jaki. We do not necessarily agree with, or have contributed any information for, this article. But it is interesting to get view points from all sides. Perhaps this DVC owner is biased because he owns only a DVC and maybe has not had as much success with other ownerships. Who knows? An ownership with DVC or other timeshares, or both, is a personal thing. Different strokes for different folks as they say. And some folks like you, own both for diversification. My Mom, Jaki owns three timeshares outside of the DVC program and uses them frequently, both trading and using the resorts themselves and enjoys them very much. Mr. Donahue is merely expressing an opinion and may be basing some of what he says on hearsay rather than experience as he is not in timeshare sales. Bill, you could respond with some of your knowledge of how the other plans work and your success in using both DVC and regular timeshares and the value of each for you. That would be great for this article entitled "DVC-an owner's view". You would have great information for everyone reading these posts. Have you ever traded your non-DVC ownership into a Disney resort? Thanks. Kinn  __________________ DvcKinn and Grandma Jaki Click on Mickey to see how we are  Working Hard for You, Everyday.