Subject:
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Re: Disney Vacation Club
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Wed, 24 Jul 2002 16:18:05 GMT
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Viewed:
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1956 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.fun, Michael Huffman writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.fun, Rob Doucette writes:
>
> > That might have been my van (white/blue Mercury Villager) with a DVC plate
> > in front and red/white/blue mouse ears on the antenna.
>
> Yep. :)
>
> > We've been members since 1999. Our home property is the BoardWalk Villas
> > but we usually stay at Old Key West. I've never had a bad experience there.
> > Because we go every spring there is no pressure to see it all, we usually
> > only hit the parks 2 days during the week. The rest of the time we pool hop
> > at the resorts (membership privilege) and see the other sites. Also, you
> > can buy 5 day Park Hopper passes to maximize flexibility; unused days never
> > expire.
> >
> > Do you have any specific questions?
>
> Here's some stream of conscious questions in no particular order (it's late
> here):
>
> What led up to you decision to join?
Kids.
We first toured DVC on our honeymoon in 1995 (we were evacuated from St.
John due to hurricanes Luis (sp?) and Marilyn, Disney/Delta helped me pull
together a honeymoon package in less than an hour!). We decided to join
after my son was born. DVC is much more flexible than a time share and it
encourages (forces?) you to take a vacation at least every other year lest
you lose your points.
> I think the initial cost/yearly dues is a
> little steep & the 40 year time limit has put us off a little. However, we
> figure like any other time-share, you'll have the similar expenses. And we
> figure if we still enjoy going to Disney after 30 years, we're doing good.
> What sealed the deal for your family to join DVC?
See above. The points system works for us. We bought in a little above the
minimum. You get an alotment of points each year. You can bank up to a
full years worth of points and you can borrow ahead a year. There are fixed
time periods to bank as you approach your renewal date. If you don't bank
'em, they're gone. There are points 'price' charts published each year.
The total aggregate points for a property can't change although individual
nights/time of year does change to load balance the property. Friday and
Saturday nights together typically cost as much as Sunday through Thursday
together. We usually only book Sunday through Thursday for this reason.
> Do you use the Disney Travel Company to book anything outside the DVC (ie.
> airline tickets, vacations outside of Disney, etc.)? Or do you use DTC just
> for room reservations? If you don't mind me asking, (a) how far away from a
> Disney park are you, and (b) which one do you more attend often? (We've been
> to Florida this year & plan to go out to California again later this year --
> trying to decide which one we like best).
a. 20 hour drive.
I've never used DTC in the past (when the kids were under 2 years). I can
usually find good deals on USAir direct to Orlando from Baltimore (I'm in
York, PA). This year, we drove, since we're out of FF miles, I'd have to
pay for 4 tickets plus rental (I prefer to have a car down there), and the
extra security hastle and delay with kids was not something I was looking
forward to. I brought my work laptop with DVD and the kids watched movies
on the way home.
b. We only do the parks on 2 days each visit. Animal Kingdom is great in
the morning followed by MGM. We can see what we want to see in each in a
half of day. The second day we do Magic Kingdom (an all day event with
small kids). [I took my Dad on a Steam Train Tour at MK last year in May.
He went home to Massachusetts, retired, sold the house they lived in for 30
years and moved to Orlando. My parents moved into their new house the week
before we went down this year.] Epcot doesn't interest the kids that much
yet so we haven't been there yet with them.
> Do you feel like you have enough points? Do you plan to buy more in the
> future? How many (on average) do you end up using?
Yes because we can get a 2 bedroom condo in Old Key West. If we need to
move to a more expensive time of year (i.e. kid's vacation week) we can
switch to every other year visits. I think we use 150+ plus, I'd have to
look at past records. If we have extra points we can't/don't want to bank,
we add a day.
We don't plan on buying anymore points. There are some people who are
totally consumed with Disney and visit 3 or 4 times a year. Its not LEGO ;-)
> Do you use DVC with exended family (ie. the in-laws or friends)? If so, how
> well does the accomodations work out?
We went down with my parents last year (see above) and a 2 bedroom condo
worked out great. They had their own room/bath with a king size bed, TV,
etc and we had the other bedroom with 2 queen size beds. My wife slept with
my daughter and I slept with my son. We could have used the living room
couch as well, it folds out into a bed as well.
> Any other thoughts or comments would be helpful. So far, we've heard good
> things, so we're thinking about doing it and most likely will, but we'd like to
> hear a few more testimonies. :)
The big savings is in the travel strategy. Don't eat out, shop for
groceries when you get down there. If you're driving, you can pack some of
your own (condiments, etc.). Pack sandwiches, snack crackers, and reusable
water bottles for the parks.
Buy park hopper passes (you can get them without the water park admissions
which expire, the theme park admissions don't). A park hopper will let you
enter any of the 4 parks on a single use day so you can see what you want to
see and move on the next park. When I run out of days, I buy another 5-day
hopper. I don't think I bought any new passes this year and I still have a
few adult and kids passes left. I mark the passes with a Sharpie (days
remaining) and double check the status at the front desk.
Pool hopping is a big plus for us. We stay at Old Key West and visit the
pools at BoardWalk (cool slide), Coronado Springs, Wilderness Lodge, etc.
Nice 1/2 day trips.
Your pace will be much more liesurely if you're not pressed to 'see it all'.
Check out Deb's Unofficial Walt Disney World Information Guide WDWIG at
http://www.wdwig.com/ for some great travel tips as well.
I think my total out of pocket expenses this year was less than $400. Add
the annual maintence fees which are a function of the number of points you
have and I still did OK for a family vacation. A condo with an eat in
kitchen beats a motel room.
If we get burned out on WDW, we can always hit: SeaWorld, Univerisal, or go
to Hilton Head or Vero Beach instead. We may bank/borrow and do the cruise
one year.
After 4 visits, we are developing certain rituals. On arrival day, we'll go
to one of the MK resorts and ride the monorail up front for a few loops.
The charater breakfast is fun the day we do MK. And of course there is
Dad's pilgrimage to LIC.
I can honestly say I've never had a bad experience there. The quality is
always top notch, folks go out of there way to help (my 2 year old daughter
is handicapped, they let her in to Animal Kindom for an hour to ride around
in her Go-bot, a standing wheel chair, for free).
Hope this helps,
-Rob.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Disney Vacation Club
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| (...) Yep. :) (...) Here's some stream of conscious questions in no particular order (it's late here): What led up to you decision to join? I think the initial cost/yearly dues is a little steep & the 40 year time limit has put us off a little. (...) (22 years ago, 24-Jul-02, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
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