The Most Comprehensive
Disney Vacation Club Ownership Guidebook Available.

The DVC Field Guide is a quick and easy guide for Disney Vacation Club owners and potential members. Like many real estate transactions, DVC ownership can be very complicated, with countless rules concerning how to use your membership.

The field guide is a reference book and is not designed to be read from cover to cover. Instead, it was designed to allow readers to quickly find the information they need. That being said, I'd recommend that you initially skim through the field guide and read some of the chapter insights to get a feel for what each chapter is about. I especially want to call your attention to the detailed accommodation information in the back of the book. This section includes detailed room floor plans from my yourfirstvisit.net and some really cool aerial photos from Jonathan Salazar taken during the pandemic. This will be an excellent planning reference for each DVC accommodation.

Also, there are financial modeling worksheets available for download that, with only a few entries, you can see your specific cash flow and DVC decision breakeven analysis.

A DVC purchase is not for everyone. I think the information and supplemental information in the DVC Field Guide will help you make an informed decision. If you are already a DVC member, then the guide will explain in simple terms how to use your membership better and more efficiently.

Sample Pages from the DVC Field Guide

DVC Field Guide Chapters

Chapter 2 DVC Introduction

The chapter deals with the basics of DVC membership. There is a brief discussion on how DVC works. Included is a quick tour of the DVC resorts where you will most likely be vacationing. There is detail surrounded your home resort choice, what month you want to have the points in your account, and lastly, how many points to purchase. Included is a handy planning model that allows you to put various scenarios into it and calculate the points required.

• Choosing a home resort

• Choosing a use year

• Deciding how many points to consider

Chapter 3 Buying A DVC Contract Direct From Disney

The initial cost of membership will be the highest one-time cost that a member will incur. There are two main ways to purchase a membership—directly from Disney or through existing owners. In this chapter, we discuss buying that contract through Disney.

• Initial cost of a membership from Disney

• What to expect from a DVC sales presentation

• DVC Financing explained

Chapter 4 Buying A DVC Contract From Resale

Buying a DVC membership from existing owners can save potential members as much as 40%. This chapter discusses the initial cost of ownership of purchasing a contract from a current owner through a resale broker rather than Disney. Purchasing a membership from existing owners does come with some limitations in additional benefits and club usage that will also be discussed.

• Resale cost of a membership

• Impact of resale restrictions on membership

• Resale timeline

• Resale-Disney’s right of first refusal (ROFR)

• Resale historical prices

• Resale financing options

Chapter 5 DVC Direct vs. Resale

The chapter details the restrictions that Disney has imposed over owners who don’t buy their membership directly from them.

• Direct vs. resale initial cost comparisons

• Resale restrictions

• Advantages to buy direct

• Advantages to buy resale

Chapter 6 Annual Dues-Maintenance Cost

Like most timeshares, DVC requires members to pay for the administration and physical upkeep of the resorts. This chapter discusses the components of the annual operating budget and how it gets applied to membership. There is also a historical comparison of yearly dues by home resort to determine future increases.

• What are Annual Dues?

• Annual Dues cost components

• Replacement Funds

• Saving money on paying annual dues

• Home Resort Annual Dues comparison

Chapter 7 DVC Ownership Discounts

Although not contractually obligated, DVC does offer additional benefits to its members. The chapter gives an exhaustive list of current perks that DVC members can expect to find. All DVC members are not eligible for these perks.

• Dining Discounts

• Shopping Discounts

• Tour Discounts

• Member Exclusive Events

• Complimentary Benefits

• Who is eligible—Blue Card vs. White Card?

Chapter 8 DVC Ownership Evaluation-DVC Economics

Owning a piece of Disney as a DVC member is both a financial and emotional experience. In this chapter, we look at the decision only as a financial one. Your subscription gives you access to an economic model that compares DVC ownership to a Disney Vacation. Don’t be frightened. The model only requires a few inputs but will give you a financial analysis comparing a DVC decision to your existing Disney vacation habits.

• How much does a Disney Vacation cost?

• Room Rack Rates for all WDW hotels

• Access to an easy to use financial model comparing DVC ownership

Chapter 9 DVC Accommodations

Vacations at DVC resorts are the primary use of vacation points purchased by DVC members. This chapter compares the DVC accommodations across all of the DVC resorts.

• DVC accommodations described.

• A look at DVC Kitchens

• Kitchen amenity list.

Chapter 10 DVC Availability

DVC rooms have occupancy rates of 95%. Understanding the availability of a particular room accommodation can help make your membership decision easier and save you some money. I’ve been tracking room availability for several years at different intervals of time. This is an introduction to my availability charts.

• Historical availability for every DVC Resort

• Pandemic Impact on villa availability

• Ranking the accommodation availability from hardest to easiest to get.

Chapter 11 Using Points For Non-DVC Accommodations

There is another way to use your points, including vacations at non-DVC resorts, Disney cruises, and Disney tours. The use of points for these vacations are generally not recommended as a good value. This chapter details the current non-DVC accommodations.

• Disney Cruises

• Disney Member Cruises

• Adventures by Disney

• Concierge Collection

• RCI Exchanges

Chapter 12 DVC Owner Topics

This section covers a variety of topics specific to DVC membership. Even though it’s titled owner topics, any potential owners may find the discussion useful in understanding how DVC works.

• Banking & borrowing

• Owning contracts with multiple use years.

• Owning at multiple home resorts

• How to modify/cancel a reservation

• Saving money by renting points

• How to transfer points between members

• How to waitlist a reservation

• What’s a lock-off premium

• Housekeeping

• Grocery delivery options

• Owner’s locker

• Travel Insurance

• Many other topics

Chapter 13

Resort and Accommodation Details

This is the meat and potatoes section of the book. Included in this chapter is comprehensive information about every DVC resort and its 141 accommodations. This has room layouts, room locations, room views, vacation point requirements, and availability. The myriad of information here should help members and potential members in vacation planning or making future DVC purchases.

• DVC resort overview

• Accommodation room floorplan

• Accommodation room locations

• Accommodation point charts

• Room availability tables for every week of the year at 11,7, 5,3,1 month from reservation.

Room availability for key dates of the year.

Chapter 14 Ownership Key Dates

There are key DVC milestones each year that members need to be aware of. This chapter gives you some handy guides to use.

• 11-month booking window

• 7-month booking window

• DVC resort addresses