Thinking of buying DVC

[neen]

My husband and I have been talking about buying DVC. We go to Disney about every other year and stay on-site. We have two daughters ages 9 & 4.

My question is this. If there are some years we do not want to use our DVC, is it a good "trade". I mean, can we bank it with II and trade out for a week someplace else?

I know trading out may not be the best use of my points. But I would like the flexibility - once in a while.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Hi and welcome to TUG!

First, I have to say that Disney would be my only choice for Orlando, so even though my mantra is "always buy resale," with Disney, you can buy during a sale like they have now, and resale is really not much cheaper, so if Disney is something you want to own, you should buy it. I plan to buy Disney myself, and I never buy from the developer's sales department anymore.

I have never experienced trading with Disney points, don't even own them yet, but perhaps you could rent your points on the Disney Boards: www.disboards.com and Mouse Owners (their website escapes me right now), and buy yourself a good week for exchange purposes.

The resorts on the list for Disney owners to exchange are all the high-end resorts, and if trading is what it is supposed to be, it would work, but you can pay the maintenance fees on a good trader with the profit on your points. If you don't have enough vacation, then certainly use the Disney points to trade.

 

[Steamboat Bill]

I really like www.mouseowners.com much better than the DISboared

 

[Ggatorgirl]

Since Disney operates on a points system and since you can bank and borrow your points from year to year, there is seldom a reason to think about trading out.

Further, trading with II also involves points. I believe it is currently about 270 Disney points for a 1 week 1-bedroom deposit into II. I think it trades very well. I got a 2 bdrm Westin resort in Phoenix during Spring Break for my last DVC deposit with II.

 

[FLYNZ4]

Since Disney operates on a points system and since you can bank and borrow your points from year to year, there is seldom a reason to think about trading out.

Further, trading with II also involves points. I believe it is currently about 270 Disney points for a 1 week 1-bedroom deposit into II. I think it trades very well. I got a 2 bdrm Westin resort in Phoenix during Spring Break for my last DVC deposit with II.

I believe the 270 pt figure is for a 2BR during high season. A 1BR is 160 pts if I remember right.

I personally think this is a very expensive II trade and I would need to be pretty desperate to do that. There are much less expensive ways to trade with II. I will trade into DVC... but I do not like to trade out of DVC.

As previously said... I think it is a great combination to have some DVC points to gaurantee your reservations... and also some traders to trade into DVC (for the same dates) and save those expensive points.

/Jim

 

[richardm]

Buy a smaller contracts and push points back and forth!

If you don't plan on going to Disney every year- consider purchasing a smaller contract and then simply push points back and forth with banking/borrowing.. You can do this and travel every second or third year!

You then purchase another program to use for your other travel needs.

We have many clients who purchase in this manner..

Disney is arguably the premier program in the timeshare industry, but you pay top dollar to acquire these!

If you need point charts or any other info, let me know in a pm..

Good luck!

 

[skidoc]

I wouldn't buy DVC only to use as a trader, but the ability to trade in II is one of the best reasons to own a timeshare (DVC or otherwise). We traded for a week in St. Maarten with our DVC for April 2009 school vacation week. The rack rate for the Ocean Front 2BR villa we are staying in is $650/night or $4550 for the week. We spent ~$15,500 for our 160 points good through 2054. Even factoring in the MFs over the life of the use period, you gotta believe that we'll easily get our money's worth out of DVC ownership. We are only planning to go every other year or so at this point, but would consider adding on more points, especially given the (so far) good trading performance of DVC.

 

[laxmom]

You can trade but we decided that we would just use our points for bigger rooms or different seasons and use our Marriotts to trade.

We just bought 1 50 pt resale contract in June and then bought another 50 pts direct from Disney in July. I called a couple of months ago and was able to book a 2 bedroom at VWL for Labor Day weekend for a precruise stay. Yesterday, we called and were able to book a Grand Villa at HHI for spring break. We decided to rent a couple of nights on cash so we would still have points left to take a getaway in a studio for the two of us at some point later next year or bank the points into the next year to use in a bigger unit/different time.

The flexibility is amazing when coming from using our Marriott. I know it will not always be sunshine and pixie dust but so far we couldn't be happier with our purchase. I really like the banking and borrowing for years we aren't able to go or plan to do something else. Maybe someday we will think about trading thru II but for now, we will stay DVC and use our Marriott to trade.

 

[RumpleMom]

When we bought 8 years ago, we thought we would be interested in trading.

We haven't used the points to trade yet, other than going to Disney's HHI and Disney's Vero Beach when we wanted a beach vacation.

We have now gone to WDW in all of the different seasons, the kids are twentysomethings and still want to go to WDW, and we have added on points to take extended family. We never thought that would happen, but we have found that Disney has something for everyone, so our three generation trips have been fun.