First, What is DVC? DVC stands for Disney Vacation Club. It is a membership purchase of annual use points to stay at some of the premier Disney Resorts. Ultimately, it is a way to ensure you get an upgraded stay, year after year, until your contract expires, with the best Disney Magic available.
But, is purchasing a DVC contract the right option for you?
Maria and I have owned Timeshare property since ’97. Even though the timeshare world has a reputation slightly better than a used car lot. We have used our ownerships in Vistana, Vacation Village, and Massanutten to get into places for quick vacations as well as our many Disney trips since. It was on one of our RCI exchanges, we were able to get into Disney’s Saratoga Springs. Grant it, we had to down grade in space from our normal two bedroom to a one bedroom. But, the stay was magical. We took our first DVC tour and were immediately sold on making a membership purchase. However, our finances were not at a point to incur the purchase. We kept in contact with our rep over the years and finally, after a few more swap/rental stays, we pulled the trigger and purchased a contract at Riviera.
Over the years prior owning our membership, we had opportunities to try out DVC properties without having that elusive membership. A few times we were super lucky and were able to snag an exchange from one of our RCI exchanges and other times purchase from the DVC Rental Store. You can check out some of their open inventory or request a more personal search with the link below.
Our purchase of our DVC was purely emotional. If you have followed us, we are true Disney Adults. I proposed to Maria at the France pavilion in Epcot, we celebrated many birthdays, anniversaries, and Father’s days in WDW. Our purchase into Riviera just followed along that line. We had even caught Add-On-Itis. Oh, it’s a true issue. We added a resale membership at Boulder Ridge to be able to spend the Christmas Holidays in our favorite “Holiday Resort”.
Emotional purchases do come at a cost. And like everything at Disney, cost is at premium. Unlike the regular timeshare market, Disney regulates to keep value in the membership. Even the resale market is at a premium dollar amount. You are not going to pick up a DVC membership for a dollar on eBay. Everyone’s finances are different, and you need to be grounded a bit on your decision to purchase.
There are many DVC resorts to choose from. Our first purchase was a direct purchase from DVC and our Add-On-Itis purchase was from the resale market. During our direct purchase we were originally looking to purchase our membership in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Fernando, our DVC rep was able to put numbers together for that resort and a few others. The numbers and getting into a resort themed around the French Riviera changed our resort decision. Our initial purchase was for enough points to stay in a Deluxe Studio at the Riviera for Father’s Day Week. Then our resale Add-On-Itis purchase was for a week stay the first full week in December at Boulder Ridge. We worked with Derek over at the DVC Rental store. While we can and have used our points for other times through the year, we wanted to make sure we had enough to stay at our favorite resorts at the times we normally visit. We have even snagged resorts to stay during some of the runDisney events.
If you found this article interesting, please remember to share along to your family and friends. If you would like contact information for Fernando at DVC or Dereck over at the DVC Rental store, shoot us an email and we will get you their info. You will find many links in my articles to bring you right to products we have reviewed. It would be great if you did use these links when purchasing as we may get compensation from your purchase. While compensation is great, your feedback and enjoyment from our articles is even better.
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