re: Disney Vacation Club?

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but do you have easy monorail access from Bay Lake?

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2nd easiest of all the DVC resorts.

You just have to walk to the main building... but it's an almost shorter walk to the main gate at MK. The only reason you would need the monorail is to get to EPCOT (switchover at ticket center) or one of the other MK resorts.

I have 2 young kids and have never been to Disney. How much is it without the vacation club?

from the website:

160 points is a $26,000 then another $1000/yr in fees. That will get me 3 nights at Bay Lake Tower every year.

If we go 20 years in a row that will end up being $46,000. $767/ night


Am I missing something? That seems outrageous to me.

Another thing that needs to be factored in is renting/buying pts and discounts, which are sometimes as high as 35%.

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we bought 800pts

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That will get you a GV for 2 weeks in the middle of the summer.

What am I missing?

As I stated earlier we go once every 18 months, so with that logic I came up with the following numbers based off 2014 rack rates.

2 Bedroom Beach Club Villa
6 nights
Assume max 35% discount (not always available)

May $1,081 per night x 6 = $6,486 / $4,216 w/discount
October $940 per night x 6 = $5,640 / $3,666 w/discount

That's 7,882 every 3 years not including tax and obviously not accounting for price increases.

DVC Beach Club Villas expire in 28 years. Over that period, we would spend a minimum of $71,000.

I would need 200pts per year to keep the expected 18 month cycle.

Average current price for a DVC resale membership at BCV with 200pts per year is $19,000. Factor in yearly dues of $1,200 and the total for the next 28 years is $52,600.

Again, this is obviously a quick numbers crunch and I'm not accounting for yearly rack rate increases, yearly dues increases, etc.

Am I missing something or is DVC really that good of a deal....for people who will use it?

You can throw in the investment value/growth of the money that you use to pay up front for DVC. That evens it out some. DVC gets other perks too: discounts on tours, cruise discount, early access to deals, etc.

Eta: also inflation on the price of the hotel rooms.

I tried to do it quick and simple. I would be crucified on the money board for something like this.

It just seems like I'm missing something big. Obviously the inflation and the fact that a 35% discount is not always available would make the DVC membership even more appealing.

I also thought about the rate of use and perhaps when my kids get older we may not use it as often, but the counter to that is the pts can be used at other properties around the world. So if we get tired of Disney for a year or two we can skip it and head somewhere else.

What kind of ticket discounts do you get? Do they allow you to book restaurants farther out?

(no message)

It's a personal choice and people tend to argue endlessly about it. I crunched the numbers and it really doesn't make financial sense for the average Disney fan but I don't think I've ever run into a disappointed owner either.