Do you truly like your DVC membership??

[Dsnygirl]

Okay, I hope this thread is okay to start -- I didn't want to post it in the middle of the stickys about why DVC is or isn't right... I just want honest opinions from current DVC owners b/c honestly, after some of the threads I've read lately, I'm a little confused!

It seems like a lot of people have recently bought in -- like in the last 2 years -- and some even w/ the expectation of the problems they're now experiencing.

Others have been members for quite awhile -- and seem to be having new concerns that are serious enough that they are considering selling.

So -- my question to all you folks who are hanging in there, whether a new or older buyer -- do you truly enjoy your DVC membership, regardless of the problems that have been listed recently, or some that you have experienced that haven't even been posted about?

Would you do it again, with all you know now about the in's and out's of the system, the waitlisting, the "lack of service" at times... do you still think it's worth it for you and your family?

Just curious... we're still at least a year and a half away from buying, so we'll see if things get better or worse with the new spots opening... but I'd like to hear what people think about the whole thing overall, even beyond the problems.

Thanks!!

[dlpmikki]

I like my membership

I have had some great holidays/vacations in lovely locations. It has been good value.

I have had niggles because when they get it wrong they really get it wrong. I don't seem to have had nearly as many problems as some others!

Would I buy now? Probably not. I'm older, no longer working and the cost has more than doubled. It was a great bargain when I joined but it takes more hard headed thinking about now.

[Guapo]

I LOVE our membership!

We own points in 2 different DVC properties, and have been members now for 11.5 years.

Without a doubt, it was the best move we've ever made. I have no complaints, no regrets, no kidding.

[Raye3201]

We love our membership too. I love staying at the Beach Club and it's such a great value with DVC compared to paying cash.
One thing to watch out for: make sure you buy at the resort where you wish to stay. With the increase in membership that's sooo important to have the 11 month window for flexibility.
I wouldn't change our DVC for the world - and I'm planning on adding on in the future!

[DizneyRox]

For us, we still do take great advantage of our membership. I'm really not all that picky about DVC specifically. Basically, it's a place to stay, and that's all I really consider it. In three years, we spent more on vacations that just geting DVC would have been, so we finally made the plunge and have been pretty happy. It is exactly what we expected, which is why we originally bought at the Boardwalk.

My problem has more to do with the Disney Company. Sadly most of the experience has nothing to do with the resort I'm staying at. That is really what bothers me. The parks have gone way downhill in recent years. I don't refer to CM as CMs anymore, they are just employees. Merchandise is laughable. That portion of the vacation experience is bad. Good thing I don't rely on much of that to enjoy myself. I just make my own magic now.

[Ian]

Absolutely. I would do it again (and just did, actually) without question. And here's why ...

1. I had my eyes pretty well open when I went in. Even though I've had some disappointing interactions with DVC, I kind of expected it. Disney's service has declined all over the resort and I honestly didn't expect much different from them just because I joined DVC.

2. It saves me money. Not as much now as it will in the future, but it definitely saves me money. And why settle for the lousy customer service you get all over WDW and pay more for the priviledge?

3. I love the DVC accomodations. I'm telling you, once you get used to all that extra space, the laundry facilities, two bathrooms ... you can't go back to a regular hotel room.

4. As corny as it sounds, and as frustrated as I am with Disney sometimes, I really like the idea that I own a small piece of WDW. And I like the idea that, some day, I'll be able to pass that ownership on to my children so they can enjoy it with their families.

5. DVC membership does come with some perks ... saving that $100 a year on all our AP's is a pretty big deal. Even though I know that's not guaranteed to continue, it's nice to take advantage of right now.

[lockedoutlogic]

Well.....I haven't thought about it much...

Ok...
I would stay I still like the purchase. We bought ours at age 29...so the "you should have bought in sooner" doesn't really apply.

I hate saratoga. All of you know this. And it's not that the buses are less convenient, or that i can't get a good cookie, or the rooms are run down or dingy (they're actually nicer than most)

IT is what they knew they were doing by building that oversized monstrosity. And make no mistake, they knew what they were doing. They lead the lemmings to the water.

Look at the construction period: 2003-2007. Right at the height of people not knowing the value of saving and purchasing within their means- Like no time before in American or Global History. And Disney used that free-wheelin', non-thinking environment to attempt to place 900 units in a pre-existing, failed location simply to add numbers.

Cattle....it's not about "immersive resort experience" as they always claim. It was about pre-existing service buildings and utility trunk lines. IT was easy. Too easy.

And by not being responsible, and not building appropriate sizes, they sold 33% of their entire contracts at one spot. That is a problem from the get go.

Maybe it's because i worked in resorts from a supervisory role for a couple of years. I always studied what i saw in the customer's faces. Somethings were pleasers...somethings weren't. Some things make alot of sense...some don't. An example of what makes sense is the love of wilderness lodge....what doesn't make sense is the uber praise of Caribbean Beach and the repulsion to Animal Kingdom Lodge...

Saratoga....from the first time we toured it....is not one of those crown pleasers. I knew it in 10 minutes. It looks exactly like the failed DI with pastel overlays. That is a problem in a timeshare of choice.

You can't have locations that aren't in as high of demand and not have it back up on you. At least not 900 units. It doubled the inventory at WDW at the time....and the demand level is not up to that.

These are basically facts. Whether or not you like it better than I do....you have to accept that it is not in as much of demand over the 365 day calender.

Ok...i'm off track. I still love making the purchase. I would have waited for AKV if i had known...but that's another issue.
I don't like what they've done recently....because the membership will never be happy if there is no movement amongst home resorts. It isn't realistic if you think about the disney consumer. They want it all...not just some...not only at certain times.

There moves in the future will determine how this goes....
They are putting the touches on two...what i consider...."better" locations.
Maybe that will help.

[NewmanFamily6]

We are very happy with the purchase As a family of 6 I feel like it has been a great value and we have had some wonderful trips that we otherwise might not have had The Disney cruise line for 6 would just be too much if we did not have DVC

[DVC Mike]

I LOVE my DVC membership!

Just in the past year, DVC added free Internet access, expanded Member Services hours from 5 days a week to 7 days a week, and enhanced the booking policy to allow me to book in one call instead of multiple.

Plus, with the ongoing expansion of resorts (AKV Kidani Village, Treehouse Villas at SSR, Bay Lake Tower, the Villas at the Grand Californian at Disney, and Ko Olina Resort in Hawaii), my vacation options using DVC points are growing.

I haven't had any problems with DVC -- that's right, zero complaints!

I don't think DVC is the best timeshare in the business, but they offer a quality product at a unique location that few can match.

[MarkC]

We love ours because we love to stay at Beach Club. If you're into looking for the best deal and would be happy in a value resort, or you don't go to Disney very often, it's not for you. We like to go about every year. We look at it this way: we know we have about 6 nights a year at the Beach Club for the next 33 years. If we can't go our kids and then grandkids will get to use it. Since we use a Disney visa to pay for our maintenance fees, we will have no expenses for motel stays for a long, long time.

If you don't look at the opportunity cost of investing about $10,000 but also don't factor in inflation (I'll assume they offset each other just to make it easy), the cost of a nights stay for us is $50 over that time. That's right-- $50. If you can find a deal better than that, I would like to know where. I bought and we're thrilled we did. We're staying at the Beach Club in August for 6 nights, and that would cost over $2,000 for one trip. Again, you can find better deals on a value resort but in 30 years my stays will still be free and the value resorts will cost a lot more than that. Plus, what is the value of enjoying one's life? If you can put a price on that, let me know. Enjoy. Mark

[JMTStone]

I love my membership. It saved me lots of money on my upcoming DCL trip. I can't imagine ever getting tired of the place. Especially after DH and I took a solo trip and decided we liked it just as much as with our kids (don't tell them... we said we missed them every second). We had romance Disney!

I can see family trips with my grandkids and then... not to be morbid but, after I'm gone, my girls will still have Disney until 2057.

[Ian]

If you're into looking for the best deal and would be happy in a value resort, or you don't go to Disney very often, it's not for you.

I couldn't agree more.

IMO, if you're comfortable with staying in a value resort (or even ... GASP ... offsite) then DVC isn't for you.

One of the biggest perks for my family is the size of the accomodations.

[Here we go again...]

We love our membership!

We bought into SSR after swearing that we would never do it. We got a great deal and now that we have stayed there we love it. It is very spread out, but that is what we love. We do not see very many people around our room and talk about quiet, wow, we love it.

I can't wait for Bay Lake to open so we can experience being within walking distance to MK and calling it "home".

We did pay off our points at the time of purchase so we did not have to worry about notes. If you can do that, I would highly recommend doing so. I do not know if I would have done it if I had to factor in interest.
Of course this changes the logic of DVC down the road. Now that everything is paid for and all we have is the yearly dues, I call my trips "free". So we stay in Disney 2-3 times a year for "free" .

After 9 days at SSR in a 2 bedroom I don't know if I will ever stay in anything smaller. My DD likes bringing a friend and I like the 2 bathrooms and the fact that they have their own room yet they are still in our room.

[Momof2boys]

Even though we've only had 1 trip thru DVC so far, we enjoyed every second of it. The 1 bedroom was perfect for our family of 4 and it was great to have "space" after a day in the parks. Considering the amount of money we spent staying at Deluxe resorts we definately saw this as the right choice - we only wish we would've done it sooner.

[sillyolbear]

Mark me down as very happy with our membership. Would do it again and regularly encourage others to consider it.

[Roo Girl]

If there was a word stronger than "love", I'd use that to describe how I feel about our DVC membership. Yes, a bold statement! We bought in when we were engaged, had just bought our first house and the future was oh so uncertain but we asked many questions of our Guide (Ricardo Flores, he's the best!) and he was patient with us for 4 months before we actually took the plunge. 3 contracts later (2 SSR and 1 AKV) and we will most definitely add points later with maybe a resale at Beach Club (our latest obsession.) We have used our membership for a single one night stay as well as our 10 day honeymoon. We've just booked the DVC Members Only Cruise in Sept '09 and it just seems that there are never enough points for all we want to do there. We currently have 490 points and it's just DH and I- two big kids in adult bodies. I have never once regretted our DVC purchases and let me tell you, we financed all 3 contracts so that is a HEFTY payment each month, yet I have no problem at all seeing it auto-debited out of our account. The flexibility it affords us and the fact that I know year after year we'll be returning to the world makes me just feel great. I do get wistful when I hear the stories of OKW owners in the early years getting free passes into the park....sigh...but hey, I get it- times change and things get more expensive. DH and I rave whenever we're asked about DVC and try to convert every one of our friends just because we KNOW they'd love it and when you think about the price to take a family of 4 or 5 on vacation these days, DVC really DOES pay for itself in a handful of years. We start to sound cult-ish sometimes but I mean it, we really really have nothing bad to say about our membership or our DVC experience.

[Dsnygirl]

I am so happy to hear all these replies... they are just what I was looking for, as I was getting nervous about all the problems being voiced! But, I also understand that it is human nature to talk about & try to fix what is wrong vs. naturally shouting from the rooftops about something you love... so consider this the thread for that, if you will!

Ian, you mentioned the fact that if you're happy w/ values or moderates that DVC may not be right for you, which is why we stayed away over the last few years... we were content w/ our stays at CBR, and even our quick wknd at an AllStar. So, I was genuinely surprised when my DH specifically brought up the "lack of size" of our CBR room this last time -- I think it must be b/c our girls are older and we stayed for longer -- and he just really wanted to be able to stretch out and live while we were there. I think that's the biggest reason we're considering it, that and being able to invest in our vacations up-front at a place we love and are becoming more & more convinced we will return to every year, vs. every few years like we originally thought.

Another poster pointed out the overall value of the cost over the 30-40 years of your contract... another valid point we've taken into consideration... knowing that we've got great accomodations down the road, regardless of inflation. Thanks for the reminder!!

Okay, let the comments keep coming... and for all the ones posted so far!!

[Ian]

We bought in when we were engaged, had just bought our first house and the future was oh so uncertain but we asked many questions of our Guide (Ricardo Flores, he's the best!) ...

OMG, isn't he?? He's our guide, too, and I swear .... if it wasn't for him I don't know what I'd do!

We've been so happy with him that we actually wrote a really nice letter to DVC management about him. I strongly encourage anyone thinking about Disney to seek him out ... he's the best!

Ian, you mentioned the fact that if you're happy w/ values or moderates that DVC may not be right for you, which is why we stayed away over the last few years... we were content w/ our stays at CBR, and even our quick wknd at an AllStar. So, I was genuinely surprised when my DH specifically brought up the "lack of size" of our CBR room this last time -- I think it must be b/c our girls are older and we stayed for longer -- and he just really wanted to be able to stretch out and live while we were there. I think that's the biggest reason we're considering it, that and being able to invest in our vacations up-front at a place we love and are becoming more & more convinced we will return to every year, vs. every few years like we originally thought.

I'm telling you ... that added space to just be at home and spread out is invaluable.

And I absolutely cannot understate how awesome having the laundry in your room is. If you have kids, it's like a must-have!

[Aurora]

I agree with everything above. And have to say we love SSR and would stay there year after year happily, even if we couldn't get in anywhere else. We just love the rooms and the location.

That said, I wish we could have bought at Bay Lake Towers. To me that is the ULTIMATE. And I looked at the preview center in Chicago and went ga-ga (and I'm not a big fan of "modern" resorts, but this one is a beauty).

I have to point out, dues will always go up. You have to figure that increase into your calculations. So even though it's nice to think of your accommodations as "free," you'll still be paying the dues for 50 years. IMHO, though, it's still a great value.

[GoofyDawg]

Just bought 320 in BLT on the 1st. Can't wait to start using it. We got 320 Developer's points to use up before Oct. 1st.