DVC Vacation Evolution

[RWeThereYetJJ]

Is it a fair assumption to say that the majority of people bought DVC because they wanted to visit the parks more frequently in a cost effective way? I know that was my family's reason. For those who have owned DVC for a while, when did you stop making the focus of your trips about the parks? And what do your trips focus on now? How has owning DVC evolved your vacations?

 

[heynowirv]

Where do I begin? When we first bought DVC it was to have magical experiences with our children and it was.We didn't have AP's but we did have NoExp. tickets and Tables In Wonderland which gave us 20% off meals and cocktails.These all helped to keep our visits manageable,in fact we still have some park days left on our No Exp tickets.
Then the kids grew up went to schools and developed their own lives.That period was more about going to WDW and relaxing going to the parks occasionally,having good meals, Cirque du Soleil ,we even had an anniversary dinner at Victoria & Alberts and that was a real treat.
Now we have 2 graandprincesses with more on the way and the love of Disney is strong in them.Bigger rooms more pool time and princess time.So for us we're kinda right back where we were 20 years ago and loving it.

 

[Sandisw]

I have owned 15 years and once we began going more than once a year, it became secondary!

We did a few hours in the morning and then a few hours at night.

Now, depends on who we are with but most of the time, its just more relaxed even when in the parks.

 

[ClaraOswald]

We've only been DVC owners since 2023. And only taken 3 DVC trips so far. Which is so say...our Disney vacation style hasn't changed much yet. We are starting to add in a "break" day on upcoming trips though.

 

[Travel60]

We didn't buy for parks - we bought early at HHI. Parks was a secondary perk. We visited parks every 2-3 years until DCL arrived and kids were more interested in cruising.

Now with adult children, in- law children and grands, we visit HHI with whole family about once every 3 years. Have first all family cruise (to Alaska!) booked in 2026. Been to the parks once with grands. Miserable for adults, "meh" for kids. Too much crowds, waiting around and phone checking for the next open slot.

Spouse and I go down to WDW and Vero for a few weeks every winter but even that's getting a little old. We used to trade out for other locations but II seems more complicated and less available. We probably just haven't tried hard enough.

 

[AnnaS]

Bought when the kids were young 25 years ago.

DCL cruises & WDW with family and friends - followed school schedule - averaged one DVC trip per year and cruise every 2 years or so

DH and I started to take trips without the kids when youngest started driving (APs came into play around this time) &

Started to make two trips a year. Averaging 14 days each trip/split with HH or Vero (usually Spring and Fall) - no more school schedule to follow - enjoyed the resorts more and meeting up with friends and neighbors who moved to Fl. etc.

Kids (3) all married - two sons own small contracts (use some of my points here and there when they go/still go together)

Family trips and cruises again with family and friends (other non-Disney trips throughout the years)

DH recently passed - will be taking trips again (did one already with DD and family), one coming up with two sons and families, and two others reserved solo after that. It is one place we always discussed I can probably go solo if the time came. Just never thought in a million years it would come so soon.

Travel plans will change with life. UY might be best now/maybe not later. Always loved how flexible DVC is.

 

[Minniesgal]

We bought when the kids were young intending for it to become a winter sun destination once kids were grown without doing the parks anymore. We have done a short no parks trip on the way to a cruise and I have done a solo no parks trip but we are doing the parks again this year with our youngest who will be 22. After this year the plan is no parks trips just pools crazy gold shopping and meals out and most importantly sun

 

[RuntheMouse]

We bought in when the parks became less of a focus. When we were park crazy, I didn’t care as much where we stayed, we weren’t in the room very much. Once that slowed down (we were going more frequently) the accommodations became more important. We love relaxing at the resort with a few hours of parks sprinkled in! Hooray for the AP!

 

[CarolynFH]

We bought when 1) we knew we wanted to visit every year but couldn’t afford to pay cash, 2) DS was a young teen and DD was a preteen, and stuffing four of us into a single hotel room with two beds and one bathroom wasn’t comfortable anymore, and 3) we had vacationed with my parents several times in 2BR villas via their timeshare ownerships and understood how much more comfortable those vacations were. So we didn’t start slow with “studio points,” we bought enough for a 2BR at Thanksgiving and have never looked back.

During the years that the kids were growing up, we were park open to close people. Then as DH and I started taking more trips without kids, especially after retirement, we gradually spent more time in our villa and also started going offsite to eat, visit other places in and near Orlando, etc. We now have grandkids to bring, meaning visits are morphing again!

But I guess I should say that the biggest change has been in our travel dates. We bought points for Thanksgiving week because we’d visited during that week two years in a row. But we haven’t been back for Thanksgiving since then, preferring Spring Break when with the kids and late fall into February when it’s just us!

 

[tidefan]

The biggest thing that will change your perspective is when you take your first trip to Aulani...

 

[sndral]

Is it a fair assumption to say that the majority of people bought DVC because they wanted to visit the parks more frequently in a cost effective way? I know that was my family's reason. For those who have owned DVC for a while, when did you stop making the focus of your trips about the parks? And what do your trips focus on now? How has owning DVC evolved your vacations?

No, DVC was a way to save money on our annual WDW visits & we had no plans to go more frequently.
Before DVC I was paying Disney cash rates for 2 deluxe resort rooms because I like space/privacy & renting DVC points was less of a thing then, thus DVC resale enabled us to get 1 or even 2 br.s for not much more than what I was already paying for 2 deluxe rooms for one vacation. Resale didn’t have all of the restrictions it does now, so it was a no brainer.
At the time I had limited vacation time & I enjoyed WDW for a week+ annually, but also liked visiting Europe annually, & usually a further afield domestic trip once a year - so I had no plans to visit WDW more frequently.
Having typed that, I will be going 2x in the next 12 months but only because I’m treating some grandnieces/nephews to their first WDW visits.
Since owning we’ve added a few days to our annual stays, so our annual week long stays are closer to 2 weeks, & we’ve upsized villas occasionally from 1 to 2 br.s (w/ a 3 br. stay coming up this fall.)
Although budgeting my vacation time is no longer an issue I prefer fewer but longer stays over more frequent shorter stays .

 

[Steelers0854]

Disney for us is much more than just parks and entertainment but for us it’s about how easy DW can eat there. DW has allergies to gluten, dairy and egg and other than on cruise ships we have found Disney to be one of the most accommodating places for her. She can easily eat a variety of things, some with little or no modifications, and everyone is so understanding of her allergy. When you go on vacation you don’t want to have to fight for your food, and sometimes at restaurants that is what it can feel like.

We rented points for the majority (all but 1 visit) of our trips to WDW and finally decided it was worth becoming members. With the ease of renting out unused points we aren’t concerned about not using our points for a year or two to do other vacations. This saves us a fortune not only on stays there but for us the Sorcerer pass which saves us even more money.

 

[🍀TwinsMom]

We bought Riviera direct in August of 2019, B/G were 5&6. Now kids are 11 and 12. Just did a mom/son trip at AKJ, just did Animal Kingdom, pools, hot tub, and eating out — per his request.

Did our first kid-free trip this President’s weekend with DH at PIT, Keys to the Kingdom tour, ate a ton, made almost no plans and loved it.

Next up is a girls trip with my bougie daughter at RR/GF split stay in May, followed by a girlfriend trip Labor Day weekend and then a big extended family trip on Thanksgiving.

The parks are expensive, even with AP when it’s X4, so we morphed from week-long trips to long weekends (plus I started a new job and can’t get a ton of time off in a block,) to now packing in more/shorter trips to utilize APs in nicer accommodations/views.

We’re definitely all about the resort, pool, hot tub, restaurants, first, and parks as a fun extra. DVC really is our home away from home, and we’d have to find AirBnBs now, because squishing four adults (kids are very tall) into two queen beds is not going to happen in a hotel anymore.

We love bringing friends and family, and some good friends of our kids own DVC, so that’s fun to meet up with them. The kids know their way around, transportation, how to pack COO, and probably could book the Uber from MCO at this point.

Waking up leisurely, making breakfast in PJs, coffee on the balcony, not having to put on a bra and getting dressed to get food/coffee in the hotel lobby — chef’s kiss.

Sending kids to fetch QS and eating in the room away from the mob, really great.

Swimming late nights with the kids and soothing your feet and back — ahhhh.

Margarita bucket in our freezer in the room — yes, please.

Throw a load of laundry in every night and always have clean clothes after rain/sweating through clothing, very helpful.

Invite our friends and their kids over for spontaneous spaghetti and meatballs made in our villa and had a bottle of wine, sure.

Kids and cousin pig piled on the Murphy and the adults were all seated around it while we watched “Jungle Cruise” when it first came out after a big day at the park.

We have our little unpacking routine with Owners Lockers and a grocery order delivered, lots of creature comforts we love to share with F&F. Hope to snowbird in retirement and have kids meet up with us if they’re interested.

 

[davidhr]

Is it a fair assumption to say that the majority of people bought DVC because they wanted to visit the parks more frequently in a cost effective way? I know that was my family's reason. For those who have owned DVC for a while, when did you stop making the focus of your trips about the parks? And what do your trips focus on now? How has owning DVC evolved your vacations?

bout a year in we realized we enjoyed flying there for 3-4 nights for the weekend, relaxing at the pools, enjoying all the dining options and activities of the area without visiting the parks. I'd say about 50% of our trips now don't have significant park time*

*We might still go to Epcot for dinner if we have the AP, even if we don't spend much time at the parks.

 

[Anthony1971]

22 years. Parks were never everyday…. Now breakfast is far more important than being at the park when it opens when we go to the parks.
Learned to enjoy the resorts before DVC. Nothing better then laying the Hammock that was on the Poly beach and hearing the train whistle from MK.

 

[Pens Fan]

We bought when my husband was close to retirement and we knew we'd be able to go every year. We also waited until we could pay cash. We started with 300 points. Things escalated quickly . We decided we needed a few more points, then a few more. Oh - wow - found out HHI is amazing, better buy some there as well! Then after a particularly brutal month of constantly shoveling snow we decided, hey - let's buy enough DVC points to become snowbirds! Then we realized how much we missed staying on Crescent Lake pre-DVC so what else can you do? Hello Boardwalk contract! Addonitis is very, very real in our household.

As to how we visit - that has completely changed. We are not park warriors anymore. There will be no rope dropping on our vacations!! We do hit the parks maybe every other day, but we spend a lot of time at the resorts - either the one we are staying at or exploring others. We love Disney Springs, and in the future plan on branching out and checking out some non-Disney Orlando dining. I see a few days here and there in Epic Universe in our future as well.

The best part about all of this is there's no longer any FOMO in our trips. If we don't ride something or get that perfect ADR it's no big deal. We'll be back in few months.

 

[FreeTime]

We bought pre-kids with one on the way so that we could “always have a place to get away during the Lean years” as we figured since the points were paid for the dues, gas to get there, food for the room would be an affordable getaway with a fun pool. We had non expiring hoppers for years and would only go to the parks a day or two. We had APs on occasion.

We didn’t buy to go to the parks as there was never a guarantee that they would be there forever, we would like them, we could afford them.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

Is it a fair assumption to say that the majority of people bought DVC because they wanted to visit the parks more frequently in a cost effective way? I know that was my family's reason. For those who have owned DVC for a while, when did you stop making the focus of your trips about the parks? And what do your trips focus on now? How has owning DVC evolved your vacations?

I thought that would happen as you described (going and not going to the parks sometimes), but it has not and I still love the parks. I attempted to do it once and felt such an itch to go to the parks, have not attempted it since. That being said, we are not commando park people and go for a little in the morning, back to resort, then back out at night.

DH and I get bored easily so I don’t see us (even after the kids are grown) ever not wanting park tickets on an Orlando trip!

 

[Disney Spaz]

We bought our first contract in 2013 when our youngest was 7. At the time we were park commando's and stayed that way for years, including when a variety of family members joined us over the years. Then the pandemic hit and we were one of the few lucky ones to return and stay at Jambo House before it reopened for non DVC guests. That started our transition to more resort and less parks. Our DS was 30 and our DD was 15 and we have video of them having a lightsaber battle on the bridge over the lobby of Jambo House. It felt like we had the whole resort to ourselves. As a result we started spending more time at the resort and then started doing some of the resort activities as they have returned.

Now DS goes with his DW and hopefully soon DGS. Our DD is 18 and enjoys sleeping in, grabbing food and bringing it back to the room, chilling in the lobby and reading a book, and roastiing marshmallows at the fire pit most nights. I am sure once our DGS can start going and gets a little older we will spend more time in the parks but until then relaxing at our home resorts is why we strongly feel buy where you want to stay. We always have and have not been disappointed.

 

[Girlstar30]

I'm not buying DVC for the theme parks... I actually enjoy hotel days more... love disney dining and characters and relaxing by the pool... I love shopping at the different resorts especially for ornaments. Would love to go to member events as we love cruising so the member cruises interest me as well as Moonlight Magic (yes I know it can be taken away at any time) Now i do love the holidays so going to the different hotels during the holidays to see the displays and having somewhere nice to stay during the Halloween party is great. I hope to use my points when I go to pride nite and d23. And ofc I will be visiting the theme parks too but I love all theme parks so I think our trips will he full of sea world, Busch gardens and universal too. We love going to the beach so vero is part of our plans as well.