If you knew then what you know now?

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

Originally Posted by Disneyaunt4

Would have bought sooner and would have bought more points,230 just isn't enough

I wonder what they put in that waxy little stick that make my lips crave it





OK, I gotta ask. What waxy little stick?

[kelly4me]

Originally Posted by WDW LifeLong Fan

As many have pointed out, I wish we would of split our first purchase at OKW into multiple contracts. We have done this at VWL and AKV.

Why is this splitting of contracts at the same resort desirable? It seems like a big lump of points would be beneficial for booking?

[Chuck S]

Originally Posted by kelly4me

Why is this splitting of contracts at the same resort desirable? It seems like a big lump of points would be beneficial for booking?

A big lump, or a bunch of small lumps really make no difference for booking, as long as they are the same use year and under the same membership number.

But, say you purchase 350 points, and your vacation habits have changed so you now only use about 250 points annually. If you had a 250 and 100 point contract, you could sell off the 100 points you no longer need. Contracts can't be broken up to sell only part of your points. Of course, you can rent them, but I think a lot of folks would rather simply sell the contract completely rather than have to deal with renting on a regular basis.

[tjkraz]

Originally Posted by kelly4me

Why is this splitting of contracts at the same resort desirable? It seems like a big lump of points would be beneficial for booking?

There is little downside to splitting the points into smaller contracts. As long as you buy them all direct from DVC and have the same Home resort and Use Year, the points can be combined for reservations without need for transfers.

The downside to large contracts is the owner (you & me) can never subdivide the contract. If you buy one contract of 600, you are either stuck with that or must sell the entire thing. But if you buy 3 contracts of 200 each, you could sell off part of the ownership if travel habits should change. Or you can bequeath the contracts to individual children, grandchildren, etc.

[crisi]

Originally Posted by kelly4me

Why is this splitting of contracts at the same resort desirable? It seems like a big lump of points would be beneficial for booking?

Booking yes, But if you buy 300 points and then decide you have too many, the contract cannot be split. Nor can it be split if you want to leave half to each of your kids. For these two reasons, larger contracts are often split.

Bigger contracts are also harder to resell and tend to go for less - while very small (25-100 point) contracts often resell at a premium.

[OneMoreTry]

Would have looked for 2 200 pt contracts at OKW instead of one 300. Maybe even 4 100's or 4 150's. Would have bought earlier.

Would still have bought OKW.

[littlestar]

I wouldn't have bought as many points as I did intially knowing what I know today. Luckily, we sold the excess points at a good time in the economy and we are where I want to be now - 155 SSR points. We used to own 395, mostly at VWL and BWV.

When we first became DVC members I knew nothing about Marriott Vacation Club and II (Interval) and RCI. Now we own with Marriott and an independent resort that trades through both II and RCI. So our small amount of DVC points are perfect for booking onsite when I want to and our other timeshares work out great for other travel - we use our non DVC timeshares to trade into other areas of the country at a much reduced price over using DVC points to accomplish that. We also enjoy many other wonderful resorts in the Orlando area besides just DVC. So we now have the best of both worlds - offsite and onsite, at a nice balance.

[Belle & Ariel]

We wish we had bought earlier.

I am very thankful we did not buy more points that our 150. We were looking at resales of 150 to 230. Now we are going longer than we would have to use them all because we enjoy cruising, Hawaii, condos at the beach (we do not care for Vero, HH areas). I guess I am trying to say, start small and add on later if you need.

I do LOVE having DVC and have never regretted buying or been tempted to sell. We are glad we bought where we want to stay because we vacation the same time every year so the 11 month window works for us.

[doubletrouble_vb]

The only thing I would change is that I would have bought 60 BCV points so that when I sold my 150 VWL I would still have that.

------------------------------

In reading this thread I'm thinking that Disney could make a little change by temporarily allowing people to split their master contracts into parts for a fee for each new "add-on". You wouldn't be able to take the master down below 160 points. This would have two advantages for Disney. They should be able to price it so they make a decent profit doing it and it would take some of the bigger units that are forced to post lower resale prices out of the picture. Nothing looks so bad as a 1000 point contract lingering for months on a resale board.

[rbeale8]

We would have split our intial purchase of 350 pts at akl into multiple contracts.We also own two blt contracts @ 50 pts. If I had smaller contracts at akl we might sell a smaller contract and look for one at BWV. We love the food and wine festival!

[Jacky]

I wish I had bought earlier. I bought in 2004. I also am sorry I didn't break up my first contract into 160 and 40 I now am careful about that. I own a 200 BWV, 75 BCV, 110 BCV and 100 BLT. (I just had to get that "free" cruise). I have 2 use years. Bit of a pain but now I am really careful to stay with only those two use years. Better to get just one use year.

I have now added on 3 times. I don't get tired of Disney and its so much fun to be able to take others with you. Those 2 bedrooms are fabulous!!! I just love them.

Now that I have a significant amount of points, I can always do a disney adventure vacation. Or try Vero or HHI. When I only have 200 or 275 I could save all 3 years and not be able to get a disney adventure.

Jacky

[phyllisnnj]

If you knew then what you know now....I probably wouldn't buy.


(1) I already knew to buy DVC for DVC stays.

Like other timeshares, the non-timeshare vacation options are not setup to save money. It gives timeshare owners the option to apply some of their timeshare expense towards other vacation options.

(2) I placed too much emphasis on the importance of staying onsite for extended family vacations.

I thought it would be much more convenient to be onsite so everyone could leave and return to the resort anytime during the day but in reality no one took advantage of this option. We generally all arrive and left together regardless of the time of day.

(3) I didn't know how easy it was to exchange into Disney if you're flexible (don't have to travel during major holidays or a fixed week).

I never exchanged my other timeshares and never looked into exchanging before I purchased DVC.

Best chances to get Disney exchange with Interval International - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38009
DVC has changed exchange companies (from Interval International to RCI) but with a strong RCI trade you can still get an exchange into DVC - http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2078910

(4) I didn't realize that Exchange companies offered timeshare rentals at great prices (especially in the over built Orlando area)

Interval International's general public rental website is www.condodirect.com however the prices are much higher than II getaways and the selection is much less. Condodirect normally doesn't include the high end resorts name brand resorts (Marriott, Starwood, Four Seasons and Hyatt)
RCI's general public website is http://www.wyndham-vacations.com/

Getaways with Interval International - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68193
Buying a T/S just for Interval Getaways? - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44130
Best timeshare for exchanging - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90790
Best Trader - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18099
Bragging about great traders - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67905

(5) I didn't realize that I could rent a house with a private pool at great prices.

Vacation Home Rentals are discussed on the Orlando Hotels and Attractions board - http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=15

Passporter and All Ears recommend All Star Vacation homes
- http://www.passporter.com/articles/a...ationhomes.htm
- http://allearsnet.com/acc/vhomes.htm
Here's a link to their Specials page - http://www.allstarvacationhomes.com/...n-specials.asp

(6) I always purchased non-expiring ticket but never expected non-expiring tickets to increase so dramatically.

10 Day Park Hopper & Water Park Fun - No expiration went from $388 (in 2005) to $507(in 2009) which is much higher than the rate of inflation.
Here's a link to WDW's ticket price history - http://allears.net/tix/tickethistory.htm

The discounted Annual Pass doesn't help me since I enjoy traveling to various places throughout the year. I already owned two other timeshares before buying into DVC. I also bought DVC for extended family vacation so the additional cost of buying tickets for extended family members was getting to be too expensive. Since I don't plan to go to the Disney parks as often, I ended up selling most of my DVC points. I now own enough points to stay a couple of nights at the beginning or end of my Orlando vacation with my extended family members (which will be either onsite via an exchange or offsite). Also if at anytime I really want to stay onsite longer, I can always opt to rent additional points on an as need basis.

Owning Multiple Systems - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90999

Good Luck with your decision

[PinkTink63]

I didn't know that I could have split my points up. That is the only thing that I would have done differently, because I would like to buy some points at one of the newer resorts, but can't now!

[crisi]

Originally Posted by phyllisnnj

(6) I always purchased non-expiring ticket but never expected non-expiring tickets to increase so dramatically.

10 Day Park Hopper & Water Park Fun - No expiration went from $388 (in 2005) to $507(in 2009) which is much higher than the rate of inflation.

The discounted Annual Pass doesn't help me since I enjoy traveling to various places throughout the year. I already owned two other timeshares before buying into DVC. I also bought DVC for extended family vacation so the additional cost of buying tickets for extended family members was getting to be too expensive. Since I don't plan to go to the parks as often, I ended up selling most of my DVC points. I now own enough points to stay a couple of nights at the beginning or end of my Orlando vacation (which will be either onsite via an exchange or offsite). Also if at anytime I really want to stay onsite longer, I can always opt to rent additional points on an as need basis.

A few years ago we would buy non expiring tickets - but the cost to make them non expiring is what has really gone up - the base tickets with the hopper option aren't too much pricier than they were five years ago. For us now, we buy non-expiring waterpark option tickets when we run out of pluses. But for most trips we are using expiring tickets - hauling along the old non-expiring tickets that still have pluses on them.

It also turned out that I was crummy at putting the tickets (and the copies) "somewhere safe" and then spacing where somewhere safe was. So preparation for each trip has turned into half an hour of "where are everyone's tickets" - generally with one of the kids having hung onto their ticket in their fanny pack on the last day where I find it two days later having determined I will need to buy another ticket.

You did remind me however, while I currently find the idea of staying offsite appealing - we are better at driving around the area now, my kids are just getting to the age where they are starting "Disney Independence" - and in a few years being able to head back to the resort on their own will start to weigh in on onsite.

Which gets back to the OP - "What I wish I knew then" - DVC is a longterm thing. Don't pick WL as your home resort because "my little kids love the MK" - they won't be little that long. Don't pick BCV because "my eleven year old thinks SAB is really cool" - ten years from now he'll be in college and you'll be wondering why you don't own out at SSR which is where you wanted to be originally. Don't buy 600 points because that is what you need to do a family reunion next year - unless you are going to be taking that many guests regularly. Don't buy points if you have a new infatuation with Disney - make sure its going to be part of your life for at least several years (and understand that to make it part of your life you may be giving up the beach, or skiing or grandma's house). At the same time, don't get so worried about taking trips with your grandchildren - when your own kids are only five and six - that you loose sight of what you need today (a few DISers have ended up owning too many points planning for future vacations that are too future to worry about today).

[dizneed]

We're seriously thinking of buying into DVC and I have a couple questions that haven't really been answered. I've read through this topic and several others on this message board and others.

1 - From what I've read, it seems to be very difficult to use points at places that are not Disney. Is it more a matter of the points seeming to be worth less outside of Disney, or is it truly difficult to get reservations at the other places listed as part of the World Passport collection?

2 - If you're not particularly fussy about staying at a particular DVC resort and you're able to be a bit flexible with your dates, is is possible to book a vacation within a 3 month window? For instance, if in June you decide you'd like to visit in Sept/Oct for 5 nights, or in Nov you try to book a Jan/Feb vacation, is that possible? Or are you pretty much locked out of anything unless you book 7-11 months in advance?


We are probably looking at visiting Disney about once every couple years. We are also skiiers (though not so much lately) and might consider using points one year to do a ski trip at one of the resorts that are listed in the plan. Has anyone done that?