As a family we have been lucky enough to holiday at Walt Disney World in Florida several times and on many of these trips we had noticed billboards and badges promoting “Disney’s Best Kept Secret”. In all of the parks there have been stands with Cast Members handing out flyers emblazoned with the same statement under the title of Disney Vacation Club (DVC).
For years we walked past these brightly coloured offerings without a second glance and didn’t think anything they were promoting could possibly be of any interest to us.
What Is DVC?
After searching for some information about Park opening times on the internet I came across a Disney Forum and ended up reading the information posted there about DVC. This scheme is actually the Disney version of Timeshare and the more I read the more interested I became in the idea. We had some money set aside which we had thought of using to help us move house but since there didn’t seem to be anything for us to buy that ticked all the boxes we had decided to stay put whilst the children were at school and the money sat in the bank. I thought that DVC might be a good, long-term use for the money but I decided that I really needed to do my homework first.
I spent a long time researching on the internet about owner’s satisfaction as well as how the scheme worked and then eventually ordered a promotional DVD from Disney. To order this I had to give my phone number and the next day I got an unsolicited (but not unexpected) call from a DVC agent. I was surprised to find him informative but not at all pushy; he answered all my questions and suggested that, since we were heading to Florida in a few weeks, we should book ourselves a DVC Tour when we arrived.
I was very surprised that no matter how many Disney owner forums I went on I rarely found people that were dissatisfied with purchasing DVC.
The Tour
The Cast members at the DVC stands book the tours and say that they last about an hour. They will arrange for you to be picked up from your Disney Hotel or one of the Parks. I had already found out that an hour was a gross underestimate for the Tour so we made an appointment for a day when we knew we would be having a quiet day as we didn’t want to waste park time.
The Tour takes place at the Sales Centre which is located at the Saratoga Springs Resort near Downtown Disney so we drove ourselves there. As soon as we arrived we were greeted and then the receptionist explained that the Sales Agent we had spoken to on the phone was off sick but someone else would see us. They had obviously tied together our name from the booking against the telephone enquiry which I thought was very efficient.
Throughout the visit we had a continuous supply of cans of soft drink, snacks and cookies which certainly impressed my son. Young children can use the crèche facilities instead whilst their parents do the tour if they wish.
The Agent explained about how DVC works and then took us around the Saratoga Springs Resort which is one of the biggest DVC resorts.
He explained the sort of facilities on offer and then took us into all the room types that are available. We were then shown mock-up rooms of the other Resorts which were currently on-sale and we were told that as perspective purchasers we were allowed to visit the other resorts and look at the rooms if we wished.
We then headed back to the sales room to discuss the price and availability of the resorts and also what size contract would meet our requirements. The Agent left us several times so that we could discuss our thoughts in private and at no point did we feel at all pressurised. Knowing that Florida Timeshare presentations can break the strongest of men I had been a bit reticent about attending the Tour but this was a really pleasant experience. Eventually we told him that we were still considering a purchase but we wanted to have a proper look around the resorts and so he gave us his card and told us to give him a call after we got back to England if we wanted any more information. He then furnished us with Special fast passes to use in the parks to make up for time spent at the presentation and then took us to the onsite Ice-cream bar and we all got to choose a Sundae before we left.
How Does DVC Work
Although we like visiting Florida the traditional Timeshare never appealed to us as we couldn’t be absolutely sure which week would be school holiday and we knew that our holiday requirements would change over time.
When Disney decided to dip its toe into the Timeshare market in 1991 it created an unusual scheme that used Points instead of weeks. Clients purchase a certain number of Points and then they swap these points for the accommodation they require for the date that they need each year. The accommodation ranges from Studio Apartments that sleep 4 people up to 3 Bed properties that can sleep 12. Obviously these require differing numbers of points and the year is then split into 4 or 5 different “seasons” with the points requirement varying depending on the popularity of the season. For example:
Studio at Old Key West for a week in September is 95 points
3-bedroomed Grand Villa at Bay Lake Tower over Christmas week is 1287 with a Magic Kingdom View
1-Bedroomed Villa at Saratoga Springs for 2 weeks at the end of August is 454
All rooms are available per day; you do not have to book whole weeks with weekends needing more points than midweek. This makes the bookings very flexible. The total points required for each resort have to stay the same each year but sometimes tweaking of point values up or down for a given type of accommodation or a particular week does happen but the variation is small, usually only 1 or 2 points.
When you buy into DVC you choose your Home Resort. This means that you are legally buying a piece of Florida Real Estate at a particular property. When we visited Disney were selling Animal Kingdom Lodge, Bay Lake Tower and Saratoga Springs but they will only be sold until all the allotted deeds have gone and then they only become available through resale of second-hand contracts or via wait-listing with Disney until they buy back an unwanted contract.
New properties are currently being built at Grand Floridian which should be available for purchase soon. Each resort has contracts that run for 50 years from their opening date.
Each year you get another allocation of points to use. You can Bank your points for a year if you don’t want to use them and if you don’t have enough you can Borrow from your next year’s allocation which means that you can use up to three years points for a booking. It is also possible to rent points out privately if you don’t think you will use your allocation for any reason.
Your Home Resort is available for you to book from 11 months before your travel date; the earlier you book the more likely you are to get exactly the size accommodation and the view preference that you require. At 7 months before travel you can book any other of the DVC resorts, there are 7 different resorts of the WDW property in Florida, there is one at Hilton Head Island South Carolina, one at Vero Beach on the Floridian Coast, one at Disneyland in California and another at Ko Olina in Hawaii. At almost any point up to a couple of days before arrival you can change your plans and move resorts or room type if there is availability.
If you don’t want to travel to the Disney resorts there is also the opportunity to swap Disney Points out to RCI, another timeshare company that offers hotels throughout the world. You can also choose to use your points for Disney Cruises or to purchase accommodation at other Disney Hotels which are not DVC but this doesn’t tend to be a very economical use of points. Buying through Resale rather than Direct does mean that you cannot use the points for Cruises.
Costs
Buying DVC requires an upfront payment of a certain amount per point. This varies on the resort being sold and also discounts are offered for increased amounts of points. Finance is available through Disney and no credit checks are made for UK purchasers as it seems it cannot be done by foreign companies. However interest rates are quite high and there seemed to be a lot of fees involved. Personally I would never take a loan for any sort of holiday as I couldn’t enjoy it if I knew it hadn’t been completely paid for yet.
The current purchase prices are about $130 per point direct with Disney but the different properties are available Resale from $55-$95 per point depending on the resort. There are various companies that deal with Resale and it was easy for us to find a contract size that suited us. Most contracts seem to be between 100-160 points although occasionally you do see smaller ones on sale and they get snapped up very quickly. Large contracts do take longer to sell which is a consideration if buying direct, it is better to get them to split it into two smaller contracts than to just have a large one.
Each year a maintenance fee has to be paid for each point owned. The amount of the maintenance fee varies between resorts. Currently the fee at Bay Lake is $4.23 per point which is the cheapest up to $7.12 at Vero Beach.
The fees do increase yearly but the rises have never been excessive and it is easy to find the historical figures to make comparisons.
We sat and did the calculations very thoroughly. This is not a cheap way of holidaying in Florida but since I like staying at nice resorts when I am on holiday it worked out as an economic option for us in the long term.
We decided to opt for points at Bay lake Tower. Its funky retro style decor and its location right next to Magic Kingdom were what appealed to us. It is best to pick the resort that you like best as you are pretty much guaranteed to always get in there at the 11 month mark and you need to be happy if you can’t change at 7 months.
The contract we have gives us enough points to stay for 8 nights per year at Bay Lake in October which is our preferred time of year. Splitting the cost of the original contract over all the years we will own it for and adding on our fees for the year the cost for this year is £675 but the accommodation we can use at the Deluxe rated hotel is currently selling for £2448 for non DVC members.
Other Benefits
I love the fact that we own our own little piece of the Magic. We have seen DVC as a long term investment for us and we love the flexibility. Our children are teenagers and soon my husband and I will be holidaying on our own but we know that we can accommodate our changing need through DVC.
We have been able to use our points to send our daughter and her friend to WDW to celebrate the end of their senior schooling. Being able to offer them the free accommodation is a lovely feeling and they will have a wonderful time.
The Resale market seems very buoyant for DVC, especially for medium sized contracts so we know that if we need to sell it on in the future there is a good chance that we would get a reasonable price. This is not on our agenda but you never know what the future holds. We are also able to Will the contracts over to our children if we wish.
DVC members are offered various discounts around the resorts at restaurants and shops. There are also discounts against Annual park passes and park tours. These are not particularly significant to us but they can add up if you like using the more expensive restaurants (which we don’t!).
Final Thoughts
I have decided that buying DVC is definitely the right move and financially it makes sense for us. However I am glad I had researched all of the pros and cons before we even went on the Tour as I think it is always good for sales Agents to know that you have already researched the details. I knew there had been an issue with door locks at BLT and as soon as I mentioned this he said “you’ve obviously done your homework” and from that point onwards I found his information was more in-depth and less general.
Overall I am more than happy with my DVC purchase. I love the resorts which are all so different and are run with the expected Disney efficiency. Each resort has its own atmosphere and selling points. Some are close to particular parks so you can just walk in and others are close to Downtown Disney so you can take in a show or a film, have a drink and then stroll back to your room.
Even the studios offer more accommodation than a standard hotel room, they have a separate kitchenette with a fridge, microwave and toaster and there is a free laundrette. The one, two and three bedroom apartments have huge kitchen and living spaces which are fully equipped and also have washer-dryers.
Having my DVC means that I will always have an excuse to fit a crafty trip to Orlando every couple of years amongst my holiday plans.
My only regret is that we didn’t do this years ago as it would have paid for itself already if we had purchased on our very first trip!
Disney's Best Kept Secret 
An excellent review. John