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If you've ever considered Disney Vacation Club, you first need to understand the 2 methods to becoming a member: direct or resale. In this episode, Chad Pennycuff of the My DVC Points podcast explains the difference and provides the pluses and minuses of each.
Want to make more family travel memories without breaking the bank? Longtime travel journalist Lyn Mettler shares her top tips to help families quickly and easily travel for less using rewards points and inspires you with ideas of where to travel on your next vacation.
Hey, everyone.
Welcome back to the Families
Fly Free podcast.
Today we're going to be talking
all about Disney Vacation
Club. So if you've listened to
my podcast in the last few months,
you may know that my family
recently joined Disney Vacation
Club over this summer.
And as we are recording
this today, we just got back
from our first stay at
a Disney Vacation Club villa
over Thanksgiving.
So this was our second trip
in a row over Thanksgiving to
Disney World.
But just coming back from
it was amazing.
We loved staying at Disney Vacation
Club, but I
wanted to bring on an expert for
you today to explain
some of the ins and outs of Disney
Vacation Club, because I know that
as we started to look into this
after hearing from some of
our Families Fly Free members, we
had had a webinar with them and
they really sold me on the whole
concept, but I still had lots of
questions as a potential
new member, just
about some of the basics that you
need to know. So today we have with
us Chad Pennycuff
of the My DVC Points
podcast, and we're
going to dig into some of the
details with him.
So first, Chad, will you introduce
yourself?
Sure. My name is Chad Pennycuff.
I am a community organizer
here in the Disney
space. Right. I actually picked my
title as the Curator
of Magical Stories because about
five years ago I started a podcast
that was all about DVC members'
stories, because
for 15 years I sat
on the fence of Should we buy
DVC? Should we not?
Timeshares are a rip-off, blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah.
And we didn't travel.
We had small kids at home.
My wife was like, Oh, I'm not going
to do this. Finally, when
our youngest got to four years old
and we were done having kids, I was
like, Okay, enough, we need to
revisit this DVC thing.
And we finally had a conversation
with one of her mother's coworkers,
who was a DVC member from Beach
Club, like 20
years into this membership.
And she sat down with us and
explained it all to us.
We joined a few Facebook groups
and I really came out with this
theory that said people
that are on the fence for DVC,
they're looking for a mentor.
They're looking for somebody who's
not a salesperson that'll come
back into them and walk them
through this process.
And so that's when I created the
whole My DVC Points podcast
where I do member interviews.
And if, you know, traditional Disney
podcast style, one of the most
popular show formats out there
is called A Trip Report.
Yeah.
Well, I looked at this and I said,
Why don't we do something called a
membership report that says this is
supposed to be vacations that last
a lifetime?
Why don't we create a show that
talks about somebody's DVC journey
as if it's a complete journey
or a trip report?
And all of my friends that create
Disney podcasts are like, Oh,
that'll never take off.
That'll never take off.
I put it out there.
It took off like wildfire Lyn.
Yeah, people love to hear
how others have made something
work, like fill in the blank.
But I think I always love to listen
to things like that.
Yeah, I tell everybody, we're kind
of like the Amazon reviews
for Disney Vacation Club
because some of our shows are like
high level journeys.
We have this whole new member series
that I would really recommend
anybody looking into it.
Just go to MyDVCPoints.com/newmembers
to see a complete podcast series and
a playlist that we put together that
said, Hey, listen to these episodes
kind of in this order and it'll walk
you through this process.
Yeah. And I know that when we
I always thought the same thing like
this is a timeshare scam, why would
we want to do this?
And we've been my husband's going
been going to Disney since he was a
little boy. Every year we honeymoon
at Disney, so it's been a part of
our experience. And it wasn't, as
you're saying, until I heard -
I did, I did ask our members to
put together a webinar because
I wanted to know why, like why are
they spending so much on this?
Like how how does this make sense?
Right. And so we just asked them all
the questions and just like you had
your friend who explained it to you,
I think that's the same thing that
came across is complete
love and enthusiasm for the
program and how they were buying
more contracts.
And then they explained the
financial side of it.
And so that's what we
kind of hope to do for you guys
today, I think, is if you're new
to Disney Vacation Club, if you have
written it off as a timeshare
scam, as something that's too
expensive, give
it a look. Because when when I
started to really after that panel
delve into it myself,
I came upon the idea
of when you start to learn
how, you know, Disney Vacation
Club's value historically
has gone up over time,
different than any other timeshare
out there.
So if you can get with the
idea that when you purchase a
contract and you
hold on to it for a period of
time, say, ten years, 15 years,
maybe you end up wanting to hold it
forever, who knows?
But certainly like through the
period where you have kids or
grandkids who want to go and you
can sell it at some point in the
future for at least
what you bought it for, maybe
for a profit, as some of my
members have done and Chad
and I were talking before, he's done
that as well.
You just paid nothing to stay
at Disney World for that whole
time, or
you made money to stay in
the world.
Am I right on that Chad?
Yeah. Last year I had $80,000
taxable income that
I had to account for to the IRS
because I sold off about a thousand
points because we looked at it and
we were like, we kept buying and
buying and buying and buying.
And I look down and I'm going and I
have 685 points
here.
This is an insane amount of points.
My dues were getting to be 11 grand
a year and I looked at my wife and
I was like, Why don't we just buy a
house down there?
Because then we have 365
availability. And I looked at what
property taxes would be, all
of the cost of having a house here.
And so we bought a house, literally
Disney's in my backyard.
The trees in my backyard
are owned by Disney.
And when you're sitting at the
kitchen table, you look up and
watch fireworks.
It's that close.
That is awesome.
Yeah.
So you had enough to do
that based on your contracts?
We had enough to do that, right?
So we sold off all
of our resale contracts in order to
do that, because you're going to
make the most money off of selling
resale, right?
And then I keep all of the benefits
as well.
But that's incredibly
that's realistically possible.
Now, let me break something down for
you, Lyn. Nobody with a real estate
license will ever come back
in and talk about this or tell you
this. I'm not a licensed realtor.
I don't sell the stuff.
Okay.
But this is a timeshare.
It is deeded real estate.
But most timeshares here
in Florida, they drain another
swamp, they pop one up and
that's it.
But what's difference is this one
is attached to Disney and it has
the Disney branding on it.
You know, you're inside the bubble
when you're staying at Disney
Vacation Club.
You've also got the world's largest
media company out
here creating movies, content
Avengers, Star Wars, Disney,
Pixar.
All of this stuff that drives people
to want to stay in, come
to Disney.
What better way to do it than to
stay on property?
And then that gets into the whole on
property, off property benefit and
in debate.
I'm an on property guy when I'm here
on vacation.
Me, too.
Yeah.
And I don't think it makes sense for
you if you're don't necessarily
want to stay on property.
But if you're someone who comes to
Disney every year and you want to
stay on property now, like
you have to have the money to
set aside for this time
period. Right?
Of 10 to 15 years.
But if you do, I mean,
and again, I'm no real estate expert
or anything. I just started looking
at this and going, wait a second.
Why am I not heard anyone say this?
I hadn't come across your show yet.
You know, like. Well, it's.
This could be.
It's this dirty little secret of
DVC. And everybody with a real
estate license is trained like
lemmings to say.
Not an investment.
Not an investment.
Not an investment.
And I'm not here telling you that
this is an investment.
I'm telling you, you can buy this
thing.
It is deeded real estate.
Look at the historical stuff.
Go back to DVC resale market and
look up some of their older when
they first started about seven
years ago.
What was their average resale prices
then?
And trend it all out and look at
it.
That's it. Like that's what blew me
away when I went and looked at that
data.
And this is what's
mind blowing about this, Lyn, is
they're 50 year contracts.
So you tend to think of it like
it's a used car and it depreciates
over time because there's less time
left on the contracts.
There's less points on the contract
year after year after year.
The reality of it is Disney keeps
raising the price of coming
here more than
the depreciation is.
And then you've got this other
factor that comes into it.
And we've all been told, hey, never
sign a contract under the influence
of drugs or alcohol.
Right.
The reality with DVC is
people are buying this under the
influence of pixie dust.
And it ought to be a controlled
substance because
you have this great euphoria of
kicking in from Disney and family
time and everything else.
And I just think that's driven by
irrational behavior.
And don't get me wrong, when I
have an MBA in financial planning,
so I know investments like
you wouldn't believe.
I look at this and I was like,
I don't care what people say, if
it's an investment or not, that's up
for you guys to decide.
I can tell you factually
over time, this stuff goes up
in price.
Right?
And the more Disney raises this up
in price, the more it drags
up the resale value of our
contracts.
Because you can see time after time
after time again, people bought
in. I bought Saratoga at
$50 a point.
I held at my seven years, which,
by the way, the
the average in the timeshare
industry is people hold their
contracts 7 to 8 years
and they're out.
And based on what I can tell from
talking to some of my sponsors that
that finance shows 7
to 8 years is about the average
length of time a family holds a DVC
contract.
Through that time, their kids grow
up, their kids become teenagers.
They're not wanting to go to Disney
anymore.
Next thing you know, college is
coming around the corner and you
look down and you go, Wow,
I might have paid 20 grand for this
contract, but now I got to pay
college bills and this thing is
worth 30.
So what are families do?
They amputate the contract.
Yeah.
Okay.
Historically, this happens time
and time and time again.
The only thing I have for proof on
it. And I started to do an episode
on this and I did all the research
on it and I'm talking with my
sponsor and he goes, You
should really, you know, entitle
this this episode, the DVC members
get paid to go on vacation.
Yeah.
And I was like, That's a
little click baity for me.
We're kind of like, stick to the
facts, ma'am. Kind of a deal.
And I believe in content, integrity
and the stuff that I produce.
So I'm not going to say you're going
to get paid to go on vacation.
I'm not going to say you're going to
get this free.
I'll just say, financially speaking,
you're going to do okay if you come
to Disney.
Two out of three years.
Then DVC might
make sense for you, especially
if you wanting to come and stay at
the luxury resorts.
Now, if you're going to play the
Marriott game and the Hilton game
and stay off property and and do
all of those kind of things and do
that for your Disney vacation,
you might come out ahead.
Okay.
But you're not technically in the
bubble or you're really close if
you're staying at Swan and Dolphin
on Marriott Points.
So
I look at it like I
would rather own this thing.
I would rather have this as a member
and be a part of the vacation club,
ride this thing out and at the end
of this contract, sell it.
Because
if you're talking about the
financials of this, you have your
initial investment is to what
you pay for your points.
You have the dues that you pay on
this.
And then the third thing is the
opportunity cost.
What could you have done with that
money if you didn't buy DVC
and if you financed the contract,
which I really don't like,
but if you do finance the contract,
you know exactly what your
opportunity cost is.
It's called interest.
So you can do the math on that one.
And so I tell people, hey, look,
make an informed, educated decision
about DVC.
But look at these factors.
Look at the historical resale value.
And do you really think that they're
going to not be the world's
leader in family entertainment ten
years from now?
I don't.
Yeah.
I agree. And we should say we're
not accountants. Check with your
accountant before you do any such
thing here. But I will say
it from what the research I have
done, I personally think definitely
it's possible to stay there.
Very definitely.
It's possible to get paid
to stay there.
We can't guarantee that.
But if you were saying look
at the historic data yourself and
make an informed decision that,
you know, feels right for you, but
just open your eyes to that
possibility rather than this is a
monster expense to have to stay
at Disney year after year.
You're actually, even if you
like, you're still going to come out
better than paying to stay
at these resorts directly.
That math is very confusing, which
we won't go into right now, but
you can do the math on that and you
will see that's a much better deal
as long as you use it every year.
I think that's a really great
paradigm to frame this and my plan
is to challenge
conventional wisdom about how
all timeshares are bad.
Disney's the only one I know of
that actually does go up in value.
Actually has a really strong
resale market.
I have a company that pays me for
advertising to advertise
to people who are looking and
researching DVC to come
back in to them and send them leads.
I have another company that pays me
to get members to give them their
points so that they can rent them
out for them.
So what other timeshare is
out there that does that like?
It's it's pretty rare.
I will say this.
It's really, really, really, really
rare in my opinion.
Yeah. And this is again, we're
talking about mindset opening
your mind. This is the same thing we
run into with flying free traveling
free travel credit cards.
I mean, like this is the
whole idea of everyone assumes
credit cards are bad.
They're not bad.
It's how you use them, good
or bad, right?
If you can use them smartly
like we teach you to do,
not pay the high interest, pay
your balance and make you
earn points on every dollar
you spend.
Now you have just maximized
that system and it's the same thing
with flying free.
It sounds too good to be true,
but if you can open your mind to the
possibility for a minute and
let us show you, it's
not like it's hard to believe,
but I don't know.
I just think so many people don't
stop to challenge what you're
saying, the conventional wisdom on
these things.
Yeah, it definitely is.
And I can tell you,
having served this community for
five plus years in my own experience
as well.
There's a lot of people that come
in, buy DVC, ride this
out for it, however long
that makes sense for their family.
And then when they look done, they
look back and they go, Wow, this is
worth a lot more than I paid for it.
And if that's something that sounds
intriguing to you, buy resale
because you're going to say, yeah,
you're going to about that.
Yeah. Okay.
So there's there's essentially two
ways to buy DVC.
You can buy it straight from Disney.
And those are from you're buying
this from Disney Vacation Club
development.
This is the company that comes back
in and they build the resorts and
they convert it into timeshares and
they cross all the legal hoops
of making a resort into a timeshare
through the state of Florida or
whatever regulations.
And they sell these
points as fractional timeshare
membership.
And that's what we did recently
was we did buy our contracts
direct from Disney.
We'll talk more about that in a
minute.
But yeah, and when you do
that and you buy enough points
from Disney, you unlock
what they call their membership
extras program.
You'll hear members refer to this
as the blue card
because back in the day when you
bought enough points from Disney,
they used to send you a physical
blue card in the mail.
And any time you wanted to get a
discount on dining or merchandise
or something else, you would have to
show your blue card.
So here in the member community,
it just became, as you know,
do you have a blue card?
Okay, yes or no?
And that's kind of the
the whole magic of blue card.
This right. When you start to hear
that in your other research,
because my goal is to come back in
and get people to starting to think
here, but then equip
them to go back in and do more
research because it really,
truly takes hours and hours and
hours of research before you come in
and buy Disney Vacation Club.
That's my my whole premise and goal.
You want to ask a lot of questions,
I think.
Yes. You want to understand this
product and know every
little intricacy about the product
before you give up your hard earned
money.
Never buy something you don't
understand.
Yes.
And that's kind of why we have hours
and hours and hours of shows,
including the recommended playlist
over at my
MyDVDPoints.com/NewMember, where
we're going to walk you through all
of these decisions.
You have to make everything from
picking a home resort to
direct versus resale to picking
your use year to
all of all of those decisions
that you have to make when you're
going through this process.
Yeah. And I can't tell you, like,
how helpful that is
because there is a lot
of lingo thrown around here
that you don't know as someone who's
new to Disney Vacation Cllub like
blue card. You just threw out that
one. Explain what that is.
But it's stuff like that and
there's use year.
That's another one you mentioned.
So you have to understand what is
that and
what use makes sense
for you. So to have a curated
list of all the things that you need
to know, super
duper helpful when you're trying
to make a decision here.
So, okay, so that's buying
direct and I did want
to get the perks
right and I and I felt
like we purchased at Grand
Floridian and they as
we're recording, they do still have
a discounted offer for that.
And that's we decided to go for
that one because it wasn't
as cheap as buying resale,
which he's going to explain here in
a minute. But it was close.
We got the perks.
And I felt like looking at the
historic data,
Grand Floridian has been much higher
than it is right now.
It's lower because they just
released new inventory
and new rooms.
And that's a classic resort at
Disney that I feel like people are
always going to want.
So it seemed to me like a smart buy
if we decide to resell it in the
future.
If somebody is listening to this and
they're considering it.
Grand Floridian is my
resort of choice.
That is where I would recommend you
buy right now.
Today, if you're buying in and you
want to unlock these blue card
benefits or this membership
extras or whatever you want to call
it. And the reason is really
simple.
So a couple of years back.
Well, first off, let me explain
resale.
Lyn, when we're done with our
contracts and we say, you know what,
we've kind of lost that lovin feelin
towards the mouse.
Well, believe it or not, Lyn, it
happens, okay?
Everybody thinks it doesn't happen.
It's not going to happen to them.
But there's a 50% chance in seven
years, you're done with this.
Now, right now, it could be
that you really fell in love
with the mouse, but there's a new
resort that opened back up.
And you want to sell
Grand Floridian to buy the
Disneyland Tower Hotel.
Okay, that's coming up here.
You've, you know, got your training
wheels on in the membership.
You know what you're doing now.
And you just look at it and go, hey,
I'd rather not own this resort.
I'd rather own that one.
Okay, so that happens as well.
But when you're done with this
membership, there's companies
out there that specialize
in finding you a buyer for this
because this is a deeded piece of
real estate.
So they are licensed real estate
agents with the state of Florida,
California, Hawaii
or South Carolina, where they
can sell your real estate
for you. Just like a real estate
agent.
And there's a huge market of that.
Matter of fact, they pay pretty well
to get on my show so
that they can start to reach that
audience.
And I think it's a beautiful thing,
because sometimes you just want
to save some money and you don't
really care about the perks.
Right and so explain
that how that you don't get the
perks with resale
and how that works exactly.
So it's like this Disney's out here
and they've created this product and
they're marketing it and this goes
on with every timeshare developer
known to man.
People get tired of the timeshare
and they want out, so
they sell it to somebody else.
And what happens is, is
I could go buy Grand Flo points
today and probably pay $40
to $60 less per point
by buying it from a member
who wants out as opposed to
buying it straight from Disney, the
manufacturer.
You can kind of think of it like
buying a used car versus buying a
new car, although
I would tell you it's the same exact
car, right?
You're just getting it from a
different source, so to speak,
because that's the same used bed
you're going to sleep in either way.
Right? Well, you don't get the blue
card perks, right?
Correct.
If you buy from Disney, they come
out here and they say, okay, well,
we'll give you 20% off merchandise
because you're a DVC member.
We'll give you 10% off of a lot
of sit down dining.
We'll let you come up to our
lounge in the Epcot Center
that they pay staff and you can get,
you know, a free Dixie
cup of Coke Zero out
of the machine.
Right.
Believe it or not, free soda
at Disney. That's five bucks a
person each way.
So we hit it
every time. My family's here.
So that's $25 and free soda.
Every time we go up there,
you do the math on it.
If you're going up there four times
a year, that's 100 bucks a year in
in free soda.
Okay. So it will pay
for itself through the benefits and
the discounts.
So do you feel like it does the
benefits?
Like, I feel like the benefits are
like icing on the cake, but it's not
really enough to make it worth
getting buying direct versus
resale.
Say it really
depends. Okay.
And it depends on are you going
to be a long haul buyer?
Mm hmm.
Right. If you're going to be a long
haul buyer, you've got more time
to recoup that investment.
Right? Because you're going have to
buy 150 points and at $60
a point, you're talking 15
Grand or more.
Right. So there he's saying, like,
you have to buy at least 150
points direct from Disney to get
the blue card benefits.
Yeah, as a matter of fact, let me
not do that math in my head because
I have a feeling I got that wrong.
So 150
times 60 is $9,000.
Okay.
What are you going to do with
Disney to get $9,000
of value out of it?
So there's a 20% merch discount.
You can unlock that if you buy an
annual pass.
A real sore spot with DVC members
right now, as we used to be able
to buy the second tier down
annual pass that's only sold to
Florida residents
and it used to save us
a couple hundred bucks a year per
pass off.
It saves me $200 a year.
And I'm a family of five.
Okay. There is $1,000 a
year. Yeah.
So nine years of membership and just
annual passes alone paid for it.
But then there's other marketing
events that DVC does called
Moonlight Magic.
And you'll see companies that
come back in and they rent out the
theme park for the entire night.
So I think Pampered Chef does it.
Farmers Insurance does it.
A bunch of different organizations
will just run a theme park out for a
night, and Disney Vacation
Club looked at this and said, hey,
as opposed to doing some kind of a
bait and switch, we'll take
$80 off your theme park tickets
if you'll come sit in our timeshare
pitch.
DVC kind of flip the script on that.
And what they did was they said,
we're going to lease out the entire
theme park for a night and we're
going to give it away not to
prospective buyers, but to existing
members who bought from us.
And so that's kind of a cool night
to come in to Disney, where you get
your own little private party, their
special character meet.
The big thing is Free Mickey Bars.
And so the joke in my
community is how many free Mickey
bars do you have to eat to break
even on this direct contract?
A lot.
Yeah, well, if you go to my website,
you know, myDVCpoints.com
and go over to the resort wiki and
you scroll down to our research page
on that resort, we break it out for
you. How many free Mickey bars do
you have to eat to break even on 150
points?
And we have some formulas on there
that we update the average resale
price and the direct price and it
calculate it for us.
So it's just kind of a fun thing.
But I'm like, Lyn, I don't want to
eat that many calories.
Okay.
But my point is
how you perceive value,
whether these free parties, whether
the merch discounts the
$10 off a Christmas party
if you buy or Micky's not
so secret Halloween party DVC
members, they'll take ten bucks off
a ticket.
All of that stuff will add up over
time.
And with enough time, you will come
out ahead.
Okay.
But.
You've also got the average 7 to 8
years and they're the people on
this.
So I can't tell you if you're
going to be coming a lot, a little,
how much you're going to be here.
As somebody who now lives next to
Walt Disney World and has a house
here when they have a Moonlight
Magic event.
I'm at two out of three of them.
Well, my question with that is, is
it hard to get a vacation
club villa during that if
all DVC people want to come down for
that? Like, is the availability very
limited?
People, local people will book
the night. And the way that works is
what she's referring to is let's say
this event is happening on July
18th, so
they will have a sign up date and
probably some time
April, they'll say, hey, if you have
a vacation booked and you're staying
on property on July
18th, we'll open this up
and you guys can come back in and
get first crack at getting tickets
to this free event.
And then they'll offer a round to
after that for if
you miss the first time or
you're staying off property or
you're just in the area or whatever.
So they generally sell out about 90%
of them in that first crack.
But then you can have an opportunity
to get one in the second one.
So is it more about if you're
already have something booked?
It can be if if they do
it in the summer when attendance
is really down in Walt Disney World,
because very few families want to
come in the peak of the Florida
heat.
Then it's easier to come back in and
book a room. Okay.
Yeah, but if it's an
October-November moonlight magic
and you don't have a room booked
when those dates pop out,
you're probably not getting one.
And unless you find a
cancelation and you can slide into
that.
That's what I figured that would be
would be tough to get in.
So if you have a direct
contract and then you later
add on a resale contract,
how does how did the perks work?
If you are
booking a room with your resale
contract.
So in 2019, Disney
fundamentally changed the rules
and they kind of struck back at this
this voracious
resale market and
they said something.
Huge, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
They came back in and they said,
okay, any resorts we build
going forward, if you buy
resale, you can only stay
at that resort.
Now, right now, Riviera
is the only resort that they have
announced and built since then.
Disneyland Tower is about to go on
sale and that should follow that
model if everything goes
according to plan.
Now, they did convert a building
at the Grand Floridian
into DVC and
they made it, they kind of attached
it under the existing DVC
condominium association that's
there.
So it's that new point
at the Grand Flo right now
is under the old contract.
And the old contract says if you buy
resale, you can stay at any
of the resorts that were opened
prior to 2019.
So you could buy Grand Flo resale
today and stay anyplace
but Riviera.
If you buy Riviera resale today,
you're limited only staying at
Riviera.
So that's something to
consider if you're interested in
buying direct at Riviera
is know that if you want
to resell it later,
the person who buys will only
ever be able to stay at Riviera.
You as the owner, right.
Direct from Disney can stay at any
of the resorts.
The any place you want to.
It's why earlier.
Makes the resale value lower,
in my opinion. So I don't think I
would want to buy that.
With the thought that I might resell
it in the future.
Yeah. So we're now a couple of
years into this.
And here's the people who are really
buying Riveria resale.
A) They already own some points at
Riviera. They love the resort.
They know they only want to stay
there.
And an interesting thing is
I'm a I want to stay every place in
DVC kind of a guy, right?
I want to try. Beach Club, Boardwalk
Alani, Grand Flo,
Hilton Head. I want to try them.
All right.
There is a pretty significant
part of that, our community that
they only want to stay at their home
resort.
So I originally thought this
would devastate the Riviera
resale, but it's really
not as opposed to $50, $60
a point. It's it's maybe $60,
$70 a point that
it's taking.
So the punishment isn't that big
right now.
But right now you've got people
who own points that can stay every
place else.
So you've got a bunch of people who
can go, Okay, hey, look, I can stay
wherever I want to with this vast
majority. And my point.
I'll add on a Riviera resale,
and I'm cool with only staying there
at Riviera, which means you pretty
much have to book Riviera at 11
months because it seven months it
tends to sell out really, really,
really fast.
So let's I think we should back up
and explain home resort and
that 11 month and seven month
window too.
Yeah. So that's a fundamental
concept that says if I
buy Grand Flo, I can
book Grand Flo at 11
months.
I can look at it. Ten months, nine
months, eight months, seven months.
Right. But at seven months,
everybody else who has eligible
points to book other places in the
network can also come back
in and book my home resort.
Now, seven months, I can go book
their home resort with
eligible points.
And that's where this stuff gets
into this barrel of fishhooks, of
complete complications.
Yes. And they just keep making the
product more and more complex, which
is a guy who essentially
has a part time job of explaining
this to people.
You're really creating an income
path for me here, Disney.
But like.
Okay.
So this is why we tell people, look,
before you buy DVC, make
an informed and educated decision.
Research, research, research,
research, research.
And what happens is people find our
community and it becomes like
crack cocaine because
we don't have a dog in the fight.
We're here to talk about what we
love as fans of this product
and welcome new people into the
community.
So we'll debate all
of these different topics ad
nauseum.
But you've got to get through a
little bit of a learning curve to
come back in and join our
conversations, because
that's that's really what it is.
Yeah. And it is really helpful to
hear like on our panel
that we have inside of Families Fly
Free, you know why different people
bought different things and some
bought direct, some bought resale.
Why did they do that?
Which ones have they sold?
Where did they buy and why did
they buy that?
And so I think once
you start to hear other people's
reasonings, that starts to make more
sense to you. But yeah, so
since we bought it Grand Floridian,
basically we have first dibs to book
Grand Floridian 11
months ahead of time.
So like, if we're going to go there
next Thanksgiving, that means I have
to buy it this month
or have to book it this month
for next Thanksgiving.
And then like I think the
conventional wisdom here is you
just grab your home resort
anyway. Like, let's say we didn't
really plan to stay at Grand
Floridian. We really wanted to stay
at, I don't know, Boardwalk.
Then we would grab our Grand
Floridian at 11 months and then at
seven months we could see what
else was available.
If Boardwalk wasn't available, we
have our home resort for sure.
If it is available, we can let that
one go. We can modify or let it go
and book Boardwalk, for
example.
And depending on when you want to
go, that's a really valid deal.
Like if you're talking Christmas
week.
That's a really peak, peak, peak,
peak, peak time.
You're lucky to get your home resort
booked.
Okay, so they say you're going to
switch at seven months.
Maybe there's a little bit of
shuffling in there where
at 8 a.m., somebody
find something and they want and
then they free up their room and you
slide into it.
That tends to happen.
So I tell people, keep checking
the first couple hours of your seven
month window to see if there's
been some shuffling in your room now
starts to open up.
Well, another tip one of my members
gave me was to check that
30 days ahead of time, too,
because that's when you have to
cancel buy, right, in order to not
have it. We won't explain what the
penalty is, but
and so, you know, check around
that week before.
But like somehow I managed to come
up with we were originally booked at
Boardwalk over Thanksgiving week,
which obviously would be a prime
week.
And I decided later on
we had booked the one bedroom that I
would would prefer to stay in a two
bedroom.
And by just checking, as
you're saying, I came up with two
nights at the end in a two bedroom
at Beach Club, which is pretty hard
to do anyway.
And somehow I snagged it over
Thanksgiving. So you just never
know. It's so similar to checking
Southwest flights, you guys.
It's like you just have
to keep checking, you know?
So you'll hear us say
a lot in the community stalk the
website.
Yeah. Okay, just stalk it,
stalk it, talk it.
And eventually,
you'll come back in and find
something.
And it is like if you have the
mindset, which I think most of my
listeners do of, you know, it's kind
of a game, all of this is like, how
much can you get for how little?
What can you find?
What better deal can you get?
This really is the same thing.
It's a game you're playing of what
can you get win and can you switch
it around? And you know, so if you
like that kind of thing, it's
it's actually kind of a fun,
fun game to play.
I think it really is because
we talk about it in our community as
point stretch and splurge
where you can look at this and go,
Grand Flo is kind of on the upper
end here in Walt Disney World.
But you could also go to Saratoga
at the lower end.
And there's been times when I've had
a one bedroom booked at
Bay Lake Tower, and
I looked at it and I was like, Well,
we're five people in there.
There's not going to be as much
elbow room as I would really like.
And then come to find out
I could save a few points by moving
to a two-bedroom at Old Key West.
Exactly.
And you're like less points, more
elbow room.
How much is that walk to Magic
Kingdom really worth versus the
bus ride?
And you have those kind of
discussions and that's what we do
in our community is we come back in
and do that.
We have a live show every Sunday
night where it's all about
member opinions and it's very
interactive on topics such as
that will debate one resort
versus another.
We geek out and nerd out on this
stuff. We are super fans,
but the thing of it is, is we're
super welcoming to new people as
well.
Well, what I love about your show is
just listening to the episodes on
the different resorts and what
the drawbacks and benefits
are of each and what the layout is
of each. What's the layout of the
one bedroom and does it have 1
bathroom or 2 or does it have a
pullout couch or does it have the
Murphy bed like all that stuff?
That's why I ended up going with
Boardwalk was after listening to
your podcast on that, and
understanding the layout and
understanding like which room type
was the least likely
to get booked, which I think was the
pool view and the
pool or garden view.
And so like you can waitlist things
in there. So I knew to like waitlist
that because there was a better
chance of it opening because less
people book that particular
view. So there's so many little
things like that that you can really
delve into if you want to, as
you're saying, really stretch the
points that you bought.
And that's what you're going to see
a lot of DVC members do
is they start to come into it and
some of them are like, Hey man, I'm
a bou-gie kind of person and I
want Grand Flo.
And then something kicks
in with people and they start
looking at this and they start
going, Well, you know what?
I could stay seven days in a studio
at Grand Flo, but I could get two
full weekends and a week if I just
moved to Saratoga.
That's an extra two or three nights.
Hmm.
You know, let's move down to stay
longer.
And what you'll find in DVC is
the cheapest point rooms
book the fastest.
Like, if it's a cheap point room, it
is gone in a nanosecond.
It's like Animal Kingdom is one
that's generally cheap.
That books fast, right?
Yeah. There's a there are some value
rooms over at Animal Kingdom
and the inside scoop on
them is, is they converted hotel
rooms to DVC.
These are a little bit smaller
rooms.
So when DVC converted them, they
called them value rooms because
you're not getting as much square
footage and they lowered the point
cost.
Well, there's only like ten of these
little studios out there,
and they're super cheap.
They're the cheapest thing in Walt
Disney World. And they go instantly.
And not only that, I think they're
the best location in that resort
that they happen to be in as well,
because they're up front and they're
near everything, whereas you're
not walking through the entire
resort to the back 40
to go down all the long hallways to
maximize the amount of rooms on a
savannah.
So there's that, too.
Right. But that's kind of like the
nerdy details that we talk about
here on our shows and
what we do and.
So I want to kind of bring this to
a close. But one last
question on resale.
Tell us what the
benefits are
of buying resale.
Okay.
Why would you buy resale versus
direct?
So this is my favorite quote from
Marissa at DVC Resale Market.
And she will tell you the reason
why you buy DVC in
the first place is to save
money on deluxe accommodations
at Disney bar-none.
Right. That is the fundamental
reason why you buy DVC.
The fundamental reason why you buy
resale is to save even
more money.
On deluxe accommodations at Disney.
So it's really truly
a lower point of price
coming in to the deal, $50
to $60 a point, because
once you own this contract,
they're going to essentially be
the same minus these new 2019
rules of restrictions and where you
can stay and where you can't.
But they all function the same.
You use the same system.
They're the same.
It's the same website.
Yeah, it's the same website.
It's literally the same exact rooms.
Disney doesn't look at you like
you're a second class citizen if you
show up on resale points.
They don't care. They don't know the
difference.
You really buy resale to
save money, which is why a lot
of people who really want the perks
will go by the 150 direct
and then go, Yeah, but I really need
like 350 to pull off that week
and a two bedroom.
So I'll go buy 200 points on resale.
I'll get my 150 direct.
Now I've got my benefits and my
perks and now I'll go buy
the rest of the the points I need on
resale and save the money.
And I can tell you, like I already
can see that's where I'm going,
right? I'm not ready to buy another
one yet, but I can see us wanting
to buy another one and that's what
we will do. We now have our direct
points.
We would go and buy a resale
contract to supplement whatever we
wanted.
And I think too, we were talking
about the potential to
possibly make money on your contract
that you bought and you brought
up the point that so of course,
the lower price you paid for
it, the more money
you can potentially make or
the better chance you have of
breaking, even if
historic continues into the
future.
That's a key consideration,
I think.
Yeah, the rule of thumb is it takes
about ten years to break even
with. Okay, just doing the
math on what you would have paid for
Disney Deluxe accommodation
if you buy direct.
So what you paid it
ten years, you've kind of gotten
your money back.
Well, you can significantly shorten
that by saving $60
a point and buying resale,
and then that's just to get your
money back from staying.
But to your point, Lyn, it's what we
started this show out with that
theory of what if I buy
this, ride this for as long
as makes sense to my family
and then I sell it for more than I
paid for it?
I think if you do some research and
you buy wise.
That's not completely unreasonable.
It's not off the table.
I love it. I think that's a gem.
So as you can see here, I think
we probably could talk with Chad
for days about
Disney Vacation Club.
So we just dipped datos
in the water here, I think.
But hopefully we introduce
the idea to you that it
really can be a money savings
for you. If you want to stay on
property at Disney regularly,
open your mind to that thought and
go for sure.
Check out the My DVC Points podcast
and his website
for more info. So let's have you
tell us all the places we can find
you online and on
social media, etc..
Yeah, the best place is just search
for My DVC Points in any podcast
app and you're going to find
my traditional show that's called My
DVC Points podcast.
You'll find one called Community
Hall Live, which is our Sunday Night
Live Stream show.
We just take the audio track and
put it out there on a podcast
so you can get all of that debate
and content there.
I have another team that comes back
in and they just do news, Disney
news that's like DVC member
specific.
They'll cover everything else
everybody else does.
But when it comes to news that
impacts DVC members, they go first
time for a deep dive and they really
start to focus in on that.
So there's that show MyDVCPoints.Com
or you can also find us on
YouTube and that's
where we're growing as well.
The best place to kind of come
back and is if you're new is search
for the My DVC Points Community
Group on Facebook.
So we have like 4100
plus members in there.
And what's unique about our group is
we take zero snark.
I have the best moderated group
out there.
Like our moderators will shut down
snark and they kind of follow my
respectful.
Everybody's here to learn kind of
mentality.
So we welcome new people and there's
no "go Google it" if somebody
asks a question you either
it's the thumper rule, right?
You either say something nice or
don't say nothing at all.
And so that's kind of how we
run shop there.
If you listen to our shows,
all of that teaching mentality
comes right back into the group and
you can interact with us there.
And you'll be in a community of like
minded people, which I think is
always great. And we have started in
Families Fly Free, we now have a
quarterly DVC Insider
call. So I'm on there
and then I have one of our Families
Fly Free members who's been a DVC
member for years. We rotate. And you
can bring your questions that you
have. They can, if you're thinking
about it or you're already a member
and you're not sure how to book.
And then we try to hit what the
current news is inside
of DVC whatever's changed
or new lounges they've added
or new perks or that kind of thing.
So if you want to learn more there.
Alright, I think that was an awesome
show. Thanks so much, Chad.
Thanks for having me, Lyn.
All right. Have a great week,
everyone.