DVC Policy Change

Acknowledgment and Disclosure Statement

The good news just keeps on coming.

I think the term Imagineer now means someone who full-time imagines new ways to squeeze more money from the Disney Loyal.

Wow. So if you've not bought direct you won't be able to buy discounted annual passes?

Well pardon my language but that fully blows! I was planning on getting mine used when we have the financing available to us, so that it is not directly through Disney so we would not get the Discounts and additional perks that go along with being a DVC member?

>>>> O U C H >>>>

guess we should have just bit the bullet and bought "used" previously so we would be grandfathered in..
too late now~!

Membership Extras, such as vacation options in the Disney and Concierge Collections,
certain discounts, offers, and special events are incidental benefits.

These incidental benefits are subject to change or termination without notice, may require the payment of a fee and
cannot be combined with any other offers or promotions. Membership Extras are also subject to availability and block-out dates may apply, including high periods of demand such as Christmas and New Year's Day. To receive any Membership Extras, purchasers must present a valid Disney Vacation Club Membership Card along with a corresponding valid photo ID. Disney and Concierge Collections options are not available for
ownership interests not purchased directly from Disney Vacation Development, Inc. after March 21, 2011,
and, effective April 4, 2016, Members who have not purchased an ownership interest directly from DVD will not have access to Membership Extras.

(take from the link Mr Hub supplied above)

Robyn-if I am reading the disclosure right (and I am no expert in DVC so I may be wrong!),
it looks like Annual Passes are part of the "membership extras" and will not be available from here on out
to 'new' re-sale memberships.

F-MrsHurst-I am thinking this will drastically strip down the re-sale memberships to basically "room only" and the other benefits will be no more.

On that note, I wonder if the re-sale business will see the cost of buying points plunge??

and what if you "mix points" ? If you purchase some from Disney and some from re-sale-?

Luckily we are grandfathered in! But how does it work if we add on through resale? Will it even matter since we were already members before the change?

All of my points are through DVC directly, but I had been considering adding on through resale. Now maybe not so much?

Well, I can't say I'm surprised.

If only we'd bought Bay Lake Tower direct from Disney back in January 2012! Oh well, we all have 20/20 hindsight. Coulda, shoulda, woulda.

If you were close to buying in on a resale contract, go ahead and do it. As long as you have an extra $4K to buy a 25 point add-on direct, problem solved. But I'd do it fast before they find a way to close that loophole!

Honestly, as much as it annoys me, I think that this policy makes a lot of sense on Disney's part. There are more and more potential resale contracts every time they make a new direct sale. Those resales are on constant competition with the direct sales. Thanks to the internet, almost everyone who is considering a DVC purchase knows about the resale market. The previous distinction of not being able to use your points on cruises and other things if you bought resale was really just silly. It's such a poor value to exchange points for the other available options that it hardly even made a difference.

The benefits and discounts (especially the AP) are awesome, but even on it's own, a DVC resale contract is still a great value. Even worst case scenario, you buy the points direct from Disney, which is like $165/pt, right? On a 50 year contract, each point has cost you $3.30. Let's say that your current annual dues is $5.50/pt (some are even less). That's $8.80/point cost of ownership. You can't come close to renting points for that. Old Key West has studios for 10pts./night for many nights during the year. That means that for $88 in real cost, you can still stay at Old Key West (or Boardwalk), a deluxe and a beautiful one at that, for less per night than you can stay at the All-Stars. Most properties run around 15-22 points for a studio. That still puts your deluxe room rate at $132-194/night for a deluxe. That's Beach Club, Wilderness Lodge, BLT, Poly, SSR, AKL...I think there are even a few times of year when you can get into Grand Floridian at that rate.

I know it's just one more piece of bad news to come out of Florida this year, but DVC is still an incredible deal if you can figure out how to handle the initial investment. I am curious--with the announcement of Tom Staggs's resignation yesterday, did he resign because he's been forced to make cut and after cut and he can't take it anymore or was he asked to resign? Was any part of that pressure in relation to public outcry to Disney treating their guests like ATM's? I did see an article that said it was a "mutual separation". That rings to me that Staggs didn't necessarily go willingly...

Maybe it will make it cheaper to buy resale then? I think we would only be using it once a year as we both don't have that much vacation time, so doesn't make sense to buy AP really. It stinks we would miss out on the discounts too, but I do have the Disney Visa and get 10% stores and restaurants. But I know there are a bunch more perks. I wonder if you can still get DVC member pins.

Remember it's 10% off only when you buy over $50 worth and if you use the card to buy it.

I read that as long as you have even a 25 point direct sail contract that you get to take advantage of the incidental benefits.

lol, I am usually spending at least $50 so I usually just account for it.... I have a problem....