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Should we buy DVC?

C

Christinern

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2005
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Location
PA
What should we buy?

We own Worldmark & love it, but we now want more of an upscale timeshare.

We previewed Disney VC & loved it! We live on the west coast in CA & would only use their DVC resorts every 4 or 5 yrs. We were very impressed with their concierge collection & their world passport. I was impressed that we could use our points to stay at places like the Grand Wailea in Maui, the Fairmont in S.F., ....

Money is not that much of an issue. We travel about two months per year & take partial weeks every other month or so. Any comments our suggestions?

Are there other clubs that one can own that allow you book at places like the concierge collection allows?

Thanks for your help,-------------Christine
 
DVC is not a wise decision unless you are going to a DVC resort at least every other year.

you might be better off with a Marriott, Hilton or Hyatt.

Marriott is you buy through them allows you to use your their hotel system.

I think so do the Hilton and Hyatt - not sure but I think they do... :)
 
R U aware that Disney is a Right to Use purchase?

Christinern said:
We previewed Disney VC & loved it! We live on the west coast in CA & would only use their DVC resorts every 4 or 5 yrs. We were very impressed with their concierge collection & their world passport. I was impressed that we could use our points to stay at places like the Grand Wailea in Maui, the Fairmont in S.F., ....Money is not that much of an issue.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it makes not difference to you, but I wrote off Disney for that reason even though I had the opportunity to buy Disney at at 25% discount.

Charles
 
Well, you have WorldMark already, so you've got a great trader with virtually any exchange company.

My recommendation would be to buy where you want to go most of the time. If it's a high end place, buy a week that you can rent when you don't use it. You can certainly do that with Disney. It may be a good choice for you if and only if you LOVE Disney.
 
I'm with CMF...we scrapped the idea because it is a right to use...

We wanted something we could have forever (deede)...we ended up buying a 2BR @ Sheraton Vistana Resort...we were there last October and loved it...it is VERY convenient to Disney and other places in Orlando...today we just booked February 2007 at Sheraton Vistana...
 
spiceycat said:
DVC is not a wise decision unless you are going to a DVC resort at least every other year.

you might be better off with a Marriott, Hilton or Hyatt.

Marriott is you buy through them allows you to use your their hotel system.

I think so do the Hilton and Hyatt - not sure but I think they do... :)
Click to expand...


I think Hilton/HGVC is the only hotel timeshare that you can buy resale and still convert into hotel points.

Starwood (Sheraton/Westin) is another hotel chain that has more upscale timeshares.
 
we looked at dvc and ended up buying starwood (sheraton mountain vista) instead. We bought from the developer (before we discovered tug), we like thte fact that we can reserve through svn without having to use an exterenal exchange comapany. Also we liked the hotel points option (although not a great value monetarily, but still nice for the occasional convenience). Starwood has 2 great timeshares near disney, and if you must have the "disney magic" you could convert to hotel points and stay onsite at the swan or dolphin. The ability to meet our disney needs with these 2 options, plus the other desirable resorts in the svn system (atlantis-bahamas, maui, st jon, vail valley, scottsdale palm springs, myrtle beach,.....plus new resorts coming in cancun, and kuai) plus the 200,000 incentive points we ended up getting compared to dvc giving nothing like that, we opted to go with starwood. As said earlier dvc is a rtu, expiting in 35 to 46 years, but in the short term they have been holding their value better than other timeshares, primarily because if disneys strict rofr policies.
 
I agree that DVC does not seem like a good choice for you and I own there. It's only a good choice for those that value being on property and will use the points at DVC resorts. There are far better trade situations out there. I'd agree with the one's listed already including Marriott, Four Seasons & Hyatt. IF you really want luxury at any cost consider Ritz.
 
Hilton is a good choice but I'd look at Club Intrawest too. They have several very upscale resort locations. Have a special relationship with HGVC and DVC, so you can use your CI points to book vactions directly with HGVC & DVC. A Marriott will also get you into most top end resorts. The four seasons is the best hi end TS company out there. But, they currently have only two resorts. They are both rated in the ten best and held #1 for several years.

Hope that helped.
 
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Club Intrawest is the first that came to mind when I read your initial post. For the same reasons as outlined by bill (DVC & HGVC access), plus they do have the select Hotels to choose from (can't remember the CI name for that part of the program), plus they have a few resorts in the West you can utilize.

If you are interested, you can drop me an email and I will point you in the right resale direction. I have a great contact in Whistler I can recomend.
 
You can trade into DVC and Marriot pretty easily with Worldmark if you are a bit flexible. Both trade through II
 
CMF said:
I wrote off Disney ... even though I had the opportunity to buy Disney at at 25% discount.
Click to expand...

Charles, how did you get such a great discount offer on the DVC???

Christine, I also own at the DVC and was not bothered by its being RTU. However, I agree with Dean that using points for the Concierge Collection and trading is usually a poor value. I always either use my points or rent them out.
 
JudyS said:
Charles, how did you get such a great discount offer on the DVC???

Christine, I also own at the DVC and was not bothered by its being RTU. However, I agree with Dean that using points for the Concierge Collection and trading is usually a poor value. I always either use my points or rent them out.
Click to expand...
I'm not aware of a 25% discount. Cast Members could get a 15% discount and resale could have gotten up to about a 15-20% discount depending on specifics. I know HH and VB had $15 off which one could have looked at as such a discount but in reality was all they were worth.
 
Agree with everyone else's advice...we're DVC-ers and love it, but if you won't go at least every two (or possibly three) years it doesn't make sense. Now if DVC ever were to open a CA property, then you might want to reconsider.
 
We just bought at DVC

We live in California also and took our first trip with our kids to WDW over Thanksgiving. We rented points at Beach Club Villas and despite a few hiccups with the villas, we loved it so much that we came home and bought 170 BCV resale points. We plan to go every other year so will bank our points and use them to stay in a two-bedroom villa during some major school holiday.

Now, if money isn't an issue and you are looking for really upscale, I wouldn't personally choose Disney. Not that we don't love Disney (we did just buy there!) but the units are smaller in size than we prefer and not as high class(Four Seasons Aviara villas are HUGE and super luxurious, IMO). But the Disney resorts locations are A+ and with our small children, they will be perfect for the next 10 years or so. We saw the HGVC International Drive in Orlando and it was really nice, much bigger and better equipped than the Disney properties.

However, if you like the DVC point system and think that you can easily book the places that you want, then why not, especially if you aren't on a tight budget. DVCs so far haven't depreciated in value so you *might* get a good chunk of your money back (and then some) if you sold with enough RTU years left for the next family. Nothing is guaranteed though. Everyone says to buy there if you will stay there, but if you think you will get real value out of the Concierge Collection with your annual dues, then it should be fine. I guess it depends on what you hope to accomplish by buying the points. Will it save you money in the long run on your bookings?

As far as the Grand Wailea, I think you can actually pay a lifetime membership fee there and get pretty good discounts on stays. When you decide to stop your membership, I think your fee is refunded. I have friends who love it there, although they recently purchased an EOY interval at Starwood's Westin Ka'anapali North.

We love our Starwood, wish we could afford a Four Seasons, like the Marriotts and are trying to figure out how to pay for our DVC! If I had the money, I'd own at all four, plus a Hyatt and maybe a Ritz too.

Have fun figuring it all out!
 
deniselew said:
As far as the Grand Wailea, I think you can actually pay a lifetime membership fee there and get pretty good discounts on stays. When you decide to stop your membership, I think your fee is refunded. I have friends who love it there, although they recently purchased an EOY interval at Starwood's Westin Ka'anapali North.
Click to expand...


The Grand Wailea was just purchased by Hilton as part of their new Waldorf-Astoria line.

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16285

Although not the best use of HGVC points, you would be able to convert them into HHonors points for hotel resv. I understand that the Grand Wailea will start accepting awards stays beginning this summer.
 
Two things
1. If you are a "friend" of a member, like me, I can be your friend, you can get a 15% discount right now by giving my name. I live in NJ so there is no real monetary reward for me by state rules.

2. My husband and I used to use the CC all the time. We went to the best resorts in the world using this collection. I am positive that if I didn't have my DVC points I would never have thought of going to these places. The Concierge Collection was a way for us peons to go to the resorts of the "rich and famous" and we loved that. Now I rent my points out so no more CC for us,only Disney World a couple of times a year and the rest we rent.

The OP has no problems with money and the CC is an easy way to get to very high end properties. No it is not a good use of points but in this case, where money is not a problem, and she wants diversity, I say go for it!
 
Dean said:
I'm not aware of a 25% discount. Cast Members could get a 15% discount and resale could have gotten up to about a 15-20% discount depending on specifics. I know HH and VB had $15 off which one could have looked at as such a discount but in reality was all they were worth.
Click to expand...

I believe it was the fall of 2004 Disney offered 25% off of DVC for CM's of TWDC. It was right after Disney sold TDS to Childrens Place. I remember because I left TDS right before it was sold, and then they offered the discount. ;)
 
temerson said:
The Grand Wailea was just purchased by Hilton as part of their new Waldorf-Astoria line.

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16285

Although not the best use of HGVC points, you would be able to convert them into HHonors points for hotel resv. I understand that the Grand Wailea will start accepting awards stays beginning this summer.
Click to expand...

I think Hilton is the way to go for sure if you want to stay at Grand Wailea.. You can convert to Hilton Honors points and Grand Wailea is a bargain.
You will use about 7600 HGVC points which convert to 175K Hilton honors points. Which will be used to book 6 nights at Grand Wailea.
I picked a random summer date of July 14th thru 20th.
The cheapest rate is $396/night plus tax will be $2,647 for the 6 nights.

Maints fees on 7600 HGVC points will be approx $700 .. (assuming you own 2bd Platinum)

I plan on staying 10 nights, which will cost me 300K honors points or approx $1,200 in MF's. $120 a night during prime time at one of the finest hotels in the world.. How can you beat that? If I booked the best rate through the website, it would cost me $4.400.00 and I would never pay that kind of money to vacation.

Dave
 
Last edited:
Christinern said:
What should we buy?

We own Worldmark & love it, but we now want more of an upscale timeshare.

We previewed Disney VC & loved it! We live on the west coast in CA & would only use their DVC resorts every 4 or 5 yrs. We were very impressed with their concierge collection & their world passport. I was impressed that we could use our points to stay at places like the Grand Wailea in Maui, the Fairmont in S.F., ....

Money is not that much of an issue. We travel about two months per year & take partial weeks every other month or so. Any comments our suggestions?

Are there other clubs that one can own that allow you book at places like the concierge collection allows?

Thanks for your help,-------------Christine
Click to expand...
Christine,

I belive that I answered your question on the WM forum. I own a lot of Worldmark points and we use it all the time. For us... it is a good value.

We also own a few DVC points, and we use it because we like to stay on Disney property when we go there. Not everyone feels this way... but for us, stayin on-site is worth the premium.

I personally do not think that DVC makes sense unless you plan to use it at WDW. I have no desire to use their concierge collection... or any other trades. WM is much better for trading.

/Jim
 
spiceycat said:
i though the 15% offer expired last week.

It is only for SSR.
Click to expand...

Yes, Spicy you are right again. When I posted about the discount it was still on the member website, but alas, now it's gone. Yes, you were also right that it only pertained to a new membership, which of course could only mean SSR. :rolleyes:
 
Thanks to everyone that has responded to my original question. Your input has made me reconcider. I don't think I will purchase DVC because I mainly wanted it for the conceirge collection, but I can see that the value of using it mainly for that is not good.

You saved me $30000.00, I was going to purchase about 300 pts.
--------------------Christine
 
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