DVC - For couples or for families?

[Louise Potts]

Hello everyone!

My Husband and I have not been fortunate to have children together despite a lot of money, heartache and years spent having IVF, however my Husband does have a daughter (aged 10) who lives with us half the week and who I ADORE and we are soon due to have our 2nd wonderful trip together to WDW.

But my question is this - being in the DVC has always been on my bucket list but is it more of an investment for people with large families and lots of kids?

When I look at the accommodation options the minimum sleep is 5 however I suspect once my Step Daughter is a bit older (she is 11 this year) it may just be me and my Husband using the points.

We love Disney and would definitely use the points and enjoy the more adult side of Disney trips (boardwalk, springs, meals, bars etc) but is it a pointless investment for just a couple?

Welcome any opinions on this at all....

Thanks!

 

[mrcase77]

I haven’t been yet, but from looks no at videos...you might either look at YouTube videos that tour the studio villas (there’s a bunch) or consider renting points to check it out. The studios can cram 5 in there but it’s a bed, a fold out couch, and a small Murphy bed. It seems comfortably sized for two. I haven’t been yet (have a trip lined up for next year renting points for a boardwalk inn studio). But it looks like the studios might fit your family well size wise.

It seems like renting would let you feel it out before you commit?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

In most timeshares, studios are really oriented to couples. Even at Disney, they are more comfortable for couples.

The questions for suitability are more around frequency of visits, preferred accommodation types, ability to plan nearly a year in advance,and ability to pay for both the capital expense and annual dues.

 

[striker1064]

Only you can make that determination, but I mean if you're looking for anecdotes, it's just my wife and I. No kids, now or in the future, and we have DVC.

Renting points to be sure it's for you is always good advice, I'm just not necessarily sure it will help in this particular situation if you already have experience at the resorts.

One big piece of advice given here is to buy for your current travel patterns, and expect patterns to change as your kids get older, move out, etc. You know what's kind of nice? You don't have to worry about that part. Planning at 11 months out is tougher with kids (or so I'm reading). But if it's just you two, you've been in the same jobs for a while, you know when you can and can't realistically take time off, that makes owning DVC a lot easier. Of course your travel patterns are likely to change in time, but a big variable a lot of others have isn't there for you. Plus, unless you're looking to bring other family members or just want extra space, you should always be fine renting studios. That's also kinda nice.

These are all the things we thought about before we bought DVC.

 

[NewbieMom]

It really depends on how you like to vacation. The studios are a lot like hotel rooms, but if you like the convenience of being onsite, you should do a comparison of the cost vs benefits of staying onsite vs offsite.

Even before the kids, my husband and I like having the extra space and the convenience of an in-room kitchen and laundry. If these are important to you, you'll be looking at 1 bedrooms, at a minimum.

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

We are a kid-less couple with no plans to have kids and we love our DVC. We do WDW every year and like staying in onsite deluxe resorts. We do take our family (nieces/nephews) every couple years but also do just us for F&W, F&G, and just a random long weekend. As long as you see you and your husband going year after year, it makes sense. The great thing to about being just you two is a week in a studio is a lot less points than a week in a 2BR. You can buy a relatively smallish contract to see if you like it. If you don't smaller contracts are easier to unload. If you love it you can always add more.

One thing I will warn against is using DVC for non-WDW resorts (other than Disneyland, Aulani, HHI, and VB) is usually not a good use/attractive option. You get your best bang for your buck at Disney resorts. I've found while RCI has a lot of options to trade out to, none have looked appealing. I'm not saying there aren't some, but just my small sample of searches RCI tradeouts aren't as nice on average as DVC resorts. The reason I point this out is if you are looking to use DVC as a vehicle to travel the world, DVC really isn't the best. We do WDW once a year and then take another 3-6 vacations outside that. Except for Aulani, we've never used our points outside Florida.

 

[DVCismyhappyplace]

I bought DVC before I even met DH. We are child-free and will remain that way. As everyone has pointed out the studios are very similar to regular hotel rooms in size. We typically stay in studios, but every once in a while like to spread out in 1 bedrooms.

 

[momto3pirates]

We have kids but we go for Food and Wine with our adult friends and leave the kids home. This year we have 6 people going and a 2 bedroom at AKV. DVC and Disney in general is not just for kids.

 

[DisneyDotts]

I guess it would depend on your vacation habits. We are a couple with no kids ( he has 1 from a previous marriage though - grown basically. I still consider her mine ). We aren't planning on having any together but are looking into DVC since we go there every year. We are strictly going to purchase it just for the 2 of us. His daughter will go every now and then but possibly not often due to work / school stuff and she's at the age where hanging with us just isn't a priority anymore. So for us wanting to go every year, and have been going every year for the last 4 years it's certainly on our list. We have another timeshare but actually don't use it as often as we thought we would. I honestly wish we hadn't purchased it and instead purchased DVC instead. You live and learn I guess.

P.S Do a bunch of research before buying into any Timeshare. I had the misfortune of falling in love with the resort ( not DVC ) and bought on the spot. Bad thing to do!!

 

[Debbie Jean]

This thread made me laugh. My favorite DVC trips are solo!

 

[Bshapiro]

Something you may also want to consider, which is also a big factor as to why I am planning to purchase DVC soon - is that it in a way forces you to have a vacation and I you are able to bring your step-daughter along with for "free" even as she gets older that could be a big draw, especially if you only see her some of the time. My oldest daughter, 25, was also split between me and her mother. Every two years we would go to Disneyland ( we live in California) so this was always something that could be planned and I never had to worry about loosing out on seeing her. Her mother would not fight me on the vacation days if I had paid for the Disney trip, where if it was "just" my family then she always would try and get my daughter to go with her instead.

Now that she is 25, we still do Disney every 2 years as its become a tradition. I also have 2 new daughters, 3 and 7, so we are looking at getting enough points for a 2 bedroom so we can bring everyone with plenty of room.

If you have yet to actually stay at a DVC resort, I would HIGHLY recommend doing so. This is what we did and will either do again for our upcoming trip in 2019 if we don't end up buying our own points. If it's just the 2 of you, you could even visit a few of the DVC resorts to see which you like best.

I think that the intangible value of always having a planned vacation with family, especially kids, can be priceless.

 

[kboo]

Something you may also want to consider, which is also a big factor as to why I am planning to purchase DVC soon - is that it in a way forces you to have a vacation and I you are able to bring your step-daughter along with for "free" even as she gets older that could be a big draw, especially if you only see her some of the time. My oldest daughter, 25, was also split between me and her mother. Every two years we would go to Disneyland ( we live in California) so this was always something that could be planned and I never had to worry about loosing out on seeing her. Her mother would not fight me on the vacation days if I had paid for the Disney trip, where if it was "just" my family then she always would try and get my daughter to go with her instead.

Now that she is 25, we still do Disney every 2 years as its become a tradition. I also have 2 new daughters, 3 and 7, so we are looking at getting enough points for a 2 bedroom so we can bring everyone with plenty of room.

If you have yet to actually stay at a DVC resort, I would HIGHLY recommend doing so. This is what we did and will either do again for our upcoming trip in 2019 if we don't end up buying our own points. If it's just the 2 of you, you could even visit a few of the DVC resorts to see which you like best.

I think that the intangible value of always having a planned vacation with family, especially kids, can be priceless.

I was raised going to Disney in the summers; DH was not. When we were dating and married with no kids, we went a few times on couples-only, adult trips, but we also traveled to many, MANY other places when we were DINKs. We often did short, last minute trips, sometimes timed to coincide with one of our work conferences.

Our travel styles changed dramatically when we had kids, and we found ourselves needing to take true vacations (not ones where one of us was gone for long stretches "conferencing.") and finding more kid-friendly venues no more than 3 hours away by plane. Our work got more hectic, too, and we realized that tagging along at conferences wasn't really a "family vacation" the way we needed to, and liked to take with kids. DVC has forced us to make sure to plan at least ONE pure vacation trip. The upshot of this is that it's also forced us to plan real non-Disney vacations as well. We're going to Paris this summer with our 6 and 2 year olds, and went to Hawaii last year.

That said, after buying DVC, DH and I found we also started thinking more about WDW for adult time. As it is, we always have a date night or 2 when we are at WDW, and find there's a lot of fun things to do as adults as well. I am planning a secret long weekend for our 25th anniversary next year - if I can find the child care! The hardest thing I am going to have to do is convince him that we really DON'T need to go to V&A for our date night in April, without telling him that it's because I plan on taking us there on our surprise long weekend.

Anyway - even without kids - one "benefit" of DVC is that you do sort of have to plan out how you will use your points, which in turn causes us to think about actually taking vacations more.

 

[disneynutz]

DVC is about saving money, no matter who is in your party. If You vacation at WDW on a regular basis at a deluxe resort, compare what you spend on your room with what DVC will cost to purchase with the cost of yearly dues. If DVC is a savings, buy, if not, don't.

Bill

 

[Deb & Bill]

We have one son and he was four yrs old when we bought 21 years ago. We are now retired and he lives in Miami, so he can join us for a night or two when we book a trip. I have five trips planned right now for the next 18 months (we live three hours away). We like to go for Food & Wine and Flower and Garden. We pretty much always book a one bedroom villa and he sleeps on the sleeper sofa. We prefer a king sized bed and need to book a one bedroom to get that. We have brought along nieces a few times (all the nephews were a lot older than our son). We brought Bill's parents on one trip and my mom on another. Also his brother and sister in law and their three kids. But most of our trips have been the three of us. Three works out nicely with DVC.

 

[Dean]

Hello everyone!

My Husband and I have not been fortunate to have children together despite a lot of money, heartache and years spent having IVF, however my Husband does have a daughter (aged 10) who lives with us half the week and who I ADORE and we are soon due to have our 2nd wonderful trip together to WDW.

But my question is this - being in the DVC has always been on my bucket list but is it more of an investment for people with large families and lots of kids?

When I look at the accommodation options the minimum sleep is 5 however I suspect once my Step Daughter is a bit older (she is 11 this year) it may just be me and my Husband using the points.

We love Disney and would definitely use the points and enjoy the more adult side of Disney trips (boardwalk, springs, meals, bars etc) but is it a pointless investment for just a couple?

Welcome any opinions on this at all....

Thanks!

It works best and is the best savings for a studio or 2 BR, less so for a 1 BR but still can be worthwhile. DVC only makes sense if one can afford it, thinks staying on property is worth a premium, can plan ahead 7-11 months out and are OK with the compromises of a timeshare. If so then DVC might be a good fit. Then there's the home resort, use year, resale vs retail and # of points questions.

 

[CarolynFH]

Add us to the list of DVC owners who bought when our kids were young and enjoyed many family trips as they grew up. But we also took “just us” trips too, and now that our nest is empty and we’re retired, we’re still using our DVC points. In fact, we’re borrowed ahead....

Just want to add we usually stay in a 1 BR (for kitchen & W/D) but have a studio-1BR split stay scheduled next.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Our son was almost an adult when we bought in. He is an adult, at this point.

And so far, most of our trips have been couple trips.

Definitely not only for large families.

 

[iheartglaciers]

I also have DVC and no kids. What I love about DVC is the variation of resorts and room types. It makes it easy to do larger family trips and solo/couple/adult trips.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

DVC ownership should have the basis in saving money on accommodations for those who visit Disney on a regular basis (every year or every other year) and who want to stay onsite in accommodations other than values and/or moderates. It also might be about staying in upgraded accommodations for similar cost to cash stays onsite. Solo, married, family really doesn't matter.

 

[Louise Potts]

I haven’t been yet, but from looks no at videos...you might either look at YouTube videos that tour the studio villas (there’s a bunch) or consider renting points to check it out. The studios can cram 5 in there but it’s a bed, a fold out couch, and a small Murphy bed. It seems comfortably sized for two. I haven’t been yet (have a trip lined up for next year renting points for a boardwalk inn studio). But it looks like the studios might fit your family well size wise.

It seems like renting would let you feel it out before you commit?

Hey! Thanks for your reply, so am I able to rent out a DVC property from a current DVC owner before I decide to join myself? How do I do that? Thanks so much for your help!