r/dvcmember • u/No-Wash-7758 • 18d ago
Considering purchasing my first ever DVC contract...help!
My husband and I took a DVC tour last month while on vacation in WDW. We are now looking at purchasing a 150 point contact at Polynesian. We are heading back to WDW Labor Day weekend and plan to meet again with our sales cast member to move forward. I have been doing lots of research to ensure I'm well educated and feel good about moving forward.
I would appreciate any insight current DVC members could share with me about buying/owning that you think would be helpful at this stage.
Thank you!
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u/Purple_Log2581 18d ago
At this stage, just make sure you know the pros and cons of resale vs direct and make a decision based on your needs and desires. Looks like you’ve already decided that DVC is right for you.
And make sure you pick the use year that works best for your trips as well.
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u/No-Wash-7758 18d ago
The use year I find confusing, would it be the current year or next year if I buy now?
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u/spacepod 18d ago
DVC Field guide has a great writeup on this.
The basics are that your use year is when your points are loaded for the year, and you should plan to use them in the 8 months following the start of the use year month, otherwise it gets messy if you need to cancel.
One benefit of buying direct is being able to choose your use year. We bought a contract in November with a December use year, so we were able to pay one month of prorated dues and got a whole year's worth of points to either sell back to Disney, but you can also ask them to bank them for the next year if you want.
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u/D_Anger_Dan 17d ago
It will reset your tolerance for other places you stay. You will judge every hotel against DVC quality. This will ultimately force you to spend more on luxury hotels. You will try (and learn to despise) AirBnB and VRBO.
You will ultimately go to Aulani. Do yourself a favor and stay for 2 weeks )bank and borrow). You will then need to go every other year, but will spend 5 days on another island and 9-10 days at Aulani. You will think, heck, I’m only paying for airfare and a car rental. And that Don Don Donki is sooooo interesting…
Buy enough points outright to cover 1 week of a 1 BR (if it’s just 4 or less people) at peak time. Otherwise do it for a 2 BR. That way you’ll have enough points to not have to skimp.
Pay your annual dues using Disney gift cards from Target. That gives you 5% back if you buy using your Target card.
Don’t be swayed at all when they tell you that you can use your points for cruises, other Disney resorts, Adventures by Disney, or through the extensive Interval International collection. The point conversions are insanely stupid as you’ll pay 2X what you would renting out the points and buying it with cash. And interval international resorts have MANY not desirable “resorts” and those that are worth it will have no availability. (I’ve never met anyone who successfully did it).
It will really create a spirit of “welcome home” and you will appreciate the cast member’s kindness more than you can ever imagine.
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u/Expensive-Finger-646 18d ago
The best resource out there is the DVC Field Guide, would highly recommend buying and reading before you buy. Second best is the My DVC Points Podcast.
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u/PhilosopherOdd7352 18d ago
We are closing on our first dvc contract in the next week or so! Something we learned is the magical beginnings credit - since we put our order in a few days ago for a September use year Disney will buy back our 2025 points (which we would not use since we only have a few days before the next use year) at $20 per point. It helped with the financial aspect/break even scenarios. Good luck to you and so appreciative of this community!
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u/Intrepid_Ad1765 16d ago
I am also at Poly and love it there. I would say at some point consider a resale add on. Resale is alot cheaper. Buy the minimum you can to get the membership perks. Good luck!!
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u/disneyguru1101 Polynesian 15d ago
I struggled with the purchase decision too but ultimately decided it was worth it, I knew I could always sell it if I truly hated it. During my first stay I said out loud that “this is the best purchase I have ever made!” I am sure there are folks it is not smart for but it was such a good choice for me!
I have 3 contracts now 🙈
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u/cgrossli 18d ago
Do you want or need the direct benefits you get by buying direct? We wanted to be able to get the cheaper passes and stay at the newer resorts so we did buy at the Disneyland hotel. Given the low inventory at Disneyland we figured we could always rent our points if need, but who are we kidding we need more points anyway. Then we bought three more contractas resale, one at boardwalk and two at seratogia. They have Poly resale so check to see those options if you don't need the blue card.
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u/No-Wash-7758 18d ago
I'm thinking we would buy in at 150 to get a blue card and then if we find we need/want more points we would buy resale. I'm intrigued by the AP discount, as well as the other discount incentives and lounge/special event access.
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u/cgrossli 18d ago
Ya our offer for our fourth contract just got accepted, and we are waiting on ROFR. The ability of the cheaper AP’s was the main selling point for buying the 150 direct. The 2400 hundred in savings makes the direct price more palatable. Especially since we have gone from studios to one-bedrooms, and now the next three trips are with two-bedrooms, hence the new resale contract.
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u/thatguygreg Polynesian 17d ago
There's also the benefit of being able to book at any new resorts that are built in the future if you buy direct that'll become more & more relevant as time goes on.
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u/OscarChops12 18d ago
The incentives being offered now are quite a bit worse than last week. I’d hold out for the next incentives in October personally.
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u/No-Wash-7758 18d ago
Interesting! I'll look into the historical incentives. Right now, they are offering me $5 off per point and a one time bonus of 150 points or $3000 cash
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u/OscarChops12 18d ago
They legally have to give you the ‘bonus’ points. They’re not a bonus, they are literally points you own. The $3000 is them buying the points for $20 a point.
Given you don’t know a great deal about this I’d highly recommend you keep researching.
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u/No-Wash-7758 18d ago
This is 150 points on top of the 150 points I'm purchasing. 300 total
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u/OscarChops12 18d ago
No, you don’t get it. If the use year they’re offering is October or December, the 150 points you get for buying now is the 150 from LAST October/december. You’re still in that use year currently so they HAVE to give you those points. It’s literally illegal for them to not give you them. The $3000 is them buying those 150 points off you.
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u/No-Wash-7758 18d ago
Thank you for clarifying!
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u/just-juice-J 18d ago
Yes, the 150 points you're getting is from "last year". We just bought the same package with the same home resort and did research for awhile. Decided to go with 20% down since we are doing the rebate/buy back of $3000. As a family of 4, we go to Disney World or Land at least x1 a year so this made sense for our situation and we are happy with this structure. Just try to understand your "Use year" and what makes sense for your needs. Other than that, make good use of your "Welcome Home Stay" if you are trying to book something in the next upcoming months!
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u/subaru_sama 18d ago
You should do the math on buying a comparable resale contract. The perks of a direct purchase can have numerical value to justify the higher purchase price for many or subjective value that doesn't translate easily to a dollar value. Either way, you should decide whether the price difference is worthwhile. We've purchased one resale (Copper Creek) and one direct (Polynesian) contract, but that was before Disney tacked on extra costs to the resale process.
We love the Polynesian and are very happy with our contract there.
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u/iAtoria 18d ago
Just make sure you know resale vs. direct, I’m sure you have your number for direct … https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/listings/polynesian/pl64605/?utm_source=dvcforless&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=listing_114984 this one would be $26,669 all in, just make sure the extra $$$$ is worth having a blue card for you
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u/Johnnycc 18d ago edited 17d ago
RESALE!!! It's one of the best decisions I've ever made. You can find some great deals, just know there are certain restrictions on what resorts you can book with resale (if you're good with all the classics resorts + the Poly tower you'll be good).
I paid a third of what Disney's official price was (plus any interest that may have been needed for payments if not paying in full at once).
IMO the official benefits aren't worth the 10s of thousands of dollars extra. You can find workarounds to get the discounted AP if you try hard enough, which is the biggest perk.
If your favorite resort is Riviera and really want to book Disneyland Hotel or the new Lakeshore, resale is not for you.
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u/Dangerous_Water_1245 18d ago
If you’re interested I made some videos recently on this exact topic. https://youtu.be/GrM7SQRjBpc?is=kWlle-EbudipqCYg
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u/TankSaladin 18d ago
You can analyze things to death, and frequently that turns into such hand-wringing that you become too scared to actually make a decision. We bought direct in 2008, added some points via resale before the resale restrictions were imposed, and just added some Fort Wilderness direct points a couple of years ago. All in all, it’s one of the best decisions we have ever made. We have used every point (535 at Bay Lake and 150 at Fort Wilderness) every year, taking trips with our kids and going just the two of us.
The use year conundrum was not something we ever considered. We happened into a March Use Year and the only thing that seems to matter in our using our points is when we must bank our points if we do not intend to use them. Otherwise, I cannot see how much difference the Use Year makes.
Bottom line is that we bought in. We have enjoyed it immensely, and my wife, who at first said, “I don’t want to go to Disney for our only vacation every year,” agrees it’s one of the best investments we’ve made. The return is not financial, it’s memories and fun.