Is DVC for me? Does it make sense if I only stay in Value Resorts?
Part two of a four-part series comparing Disney Vacation Club membership with a current Disney vacation
Is DVC a viable option for people who only stay at value resorts? The value resorts are the All-Star Resorts (Movies, Music, and Sports), Art of Animation, Pop Century, and Fort Wilderness Cabins. They are designed for the most frugal Disney World Vacationers. Guests who stay here can count on a clean room and a place to sleep and shower, but their time is generally spent at the parks.
To see if DVC does make sense for owners who always stay at value resorts, I put some low-end assumptions into the financial model. You can look at different scenarios yourself to fine-tune the model to your situation.
I put in a seven-day time frame that generated the average rack rate for All-Star Music and compared it to a home resort and a vacation at a standard room at Animal Kingdom. I assumed a Disney vacation every year. For a family of four and a rack rate discount of 10% and taxes, .
For DVC, I used an Animal Kingdom contract purchase with enough points to get a standard studio. The average point requirement for a studio is 105 points for 2022.
I used an average increase of 4% for both the value room and the DVC annual dues.
The DVC model will be favorable financially, but it will be some time before the cash flow becomes positive. For a purchase from resale, the break-even point is 18 years, and for direct purchase from Disney, the break-even point is 24 years. On the other hand, your vacations are now being spent in larger rooms at DVC resorts with better amenities.
Great care has gone into making this financial model representative of the real world, but you should use this only as a guide. I make no guarantees that the information is 100% correct. Disney can change the hotel rates or the policies from time to time; however, this is unusual. Disney does discount room rates based on availability, seasonal promotions, or regional discounts. The model allows you to factor these into your analysis. The hotel rack rates in the model were taken from the website www.mousesavers.com. Please visit this site as you will find a lot of information to save you money on your Disney World vacation.
DVC Field Guide
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The DVC Field Guide is a comprehensive work devoted to helping you answer the question, Is the Disney Vacation Club for me? If you've already decided to become a DVC member, this guide can help you maximize your membership and make your vacations even better.