DVC - vacation locations About This Page:

[Bev in Zion]

Hi all,

Please bare with me...... with my question and understaning this process of DVC

We are a family of 4 and I am thinking about investing in the DVC - studio.
I am just reviewing the "Point chart" and trying to see if I understand it and how the point system works. I totally get it, if I am going to Disney World.

Lets say I purchase - the lowest (minimum) 160 points

Now looking at the point chart for "Adventure club"
it has a trip to Australia 10 days/9 nights ---- 637 pts for Adults & 573 child


*** If I wanted to take this trip, does it mean I have to borrow my points on 7 or 8 years just to be able to go on this trip. ***

I may be doing the math wrong, but I thought if it is 637pts x 2 adults = 1274
and I only get 160 pts allocated/year --- I would need to borrow from the future years to come ( 7 or 8 yrs of points) just to vacation in Australia.

If I am not understanding this, please advise

We don't need to vacation for 10 days all at once but I wanted to see if we could afford to vacation outside the U.S. If it take that many points and me borrowing from that many years - than we would probably not be able to vacation in the Adventure club section.

If someone has the mininum 160 points and they have vacation in the "Adventure club" - please tell me how you did it.

thanks everyone


HELP HELP HELP HELP

[tjkraz]

Originally Posted by Bev in Zion

Lets say I purchase - the lowest (minimum) 160 points

Now looking at the point chart for "Adventure club"
it has a trip to Australia 10 days/9 nights ---- 637 pts for Adults & 573 child

*** If I wanted to take this trip, does it mean I have to borrow my points on 7 or 8 years just to be able to go on this trip. ***

Members can only borrow points one year in advance. The most points you can have available for any single trip would be 3 years' worth--one year banked, the current year and one year borrowed. For instance, if you banked 160 points from 2009 and borrowed 160 from 2011, in the year 2010 you would have a max of 480 points available including that year's allocation.

So really those Adventures by Disney trips are off limits unless you purchase a much larger number of points.

The points listed for the "Adventures" are per person. To take a family of 4 to Australia you would be looking at 637+637+573+573=2420 points. The cash price for booking that same trip is in the neighborhood of $16,000 - 18,000. So unfortunately a one-time purchase of 160 DVC points just isn't going to cut it.

Economically buying points for almost exclusive use at the 10 DVC resorts is the best option. 160 points at the Bay Lake Tower will get you as many as 10 consecutive nights PER YEAR in a Lake View Studio. Or you can get 5-6 nights per year in a One Bedroom villa. And that's for the next FIFTY YEARS.

DVC is a great alternative to paying cash prices for Disney Deluxe Resorts, but you're really not going to find it to be a cost-cutting way to take Disney Cruises, Adventures by Disney or visit any of the worldwide Disney parks. Those options exist, but the cost/benefit isn't nearly as attractive as using points for the actual DVC properties.

[Bev in Zion]

Thank you

Thats what I thought........ "Adventures" is out of the question.

I got a little excited because I seen the Disney commercials how some families say how they have been all over place

but as you said ...... they are good buy for the Disney World DVC resorts

[rescuesk]

Tim explained it perfectly!

DVC is a great deal if you travel to WDW at least once a year. If you are looking to use your DVC membership for non-Disney trips, it is not the best idea.

We have used our membership (we have 375 points) for 16 Disney trips. In addition, we have gone on 2 Disney cruises with points, stayed at the Royal Garden Hotel in London, spent 5 nights at Hilton Head, and in 4 weeks, we are heading up to Cape Cod on an RCI exchange.

Please check out the thread at the top of the forum, http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...tion-club.html for loads of information on DVC membership!

[chezp]

Tim gave a great explanation. And as Sue said, your DVC points can open up all sorts of vacation opportunities.

Since we became members in 2002, as well as our six (seven in December!) trips to WDW on our points, we've also:

- taken a three night cruise around the Caribbean (both of us on points)
- taken the inaugural Mediterranean cruise in 2007 (one of us on points)
- visited Disneyland twice
- stayed at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego
- stayed at the Fairmont in San Francisco
- stayed at the Royal Garden Hotel in London
- visited Vero Beach once (we go back in December)
- visited Hilton Head Island once

We're now planning on putting our future points into an Alaskan cruise with Disney in 2011 and the Barcelona to Dover cruise next June. As you can see, we've made good use of our points. It may not be the most economical use of our points, although a good deal of our points have gone on our WDW trips.

Yes, the Adventures by Disney trips do take a lot of points - had we not got the prospect of the cruises, I may have looked into doing those instead - but there is still so much else you can do with your points. Don't forget you can use them at all the Disney theme parks around the world for starters, as well as Disney cruises.

deciding and if there's anything you want to know, ask away!

[Bev in Zion]

Thank you all for the wonderful input...... I will check out the board and read up some more.

We don't get to Disney World often (1997, 2004 & 2008) as you can see the years are very far apart.

I love Disney and if could go every year that would be great. I just wanted to see if this was an opportunity to go elsewhere.

I am a simple person leading a simple life. So the other destinations for me don't have to be wild or expensive. I just feel its nice to get away and relax.

Although I have wanting to go to Hawaii

Again thank you all.... I will keep reading