JanJ and KenJ's January 2014 Trip Report

Fun, fun! And with fun people too.

Wow! Sounds and looks amazing!

Yay! It's just not a Ken and Jan trip report with out all of the fabulous pictures! Thanks for taking the time to fix it!

All the food looks incredible! I was drooling over everything, especially the Kobe beef burger (the love of my life!), glad to hear you enjoyed it Jan! Loved the hippo pictures, too. I was starting to wonder if it were even physically possible for them to ever leave that water

I asked this in another thread too, but I'll ask it here as well since you talked about the tours. Which one did you prefer? I was planning on taking DH and my sisters on the KTTK in September but now I'm second guessing. Seeing behind the scenes in HM would be awesome!

You always have such amazing photos! I really need to invest in a new camera before our trip! Which tour would you say was your favorite of the two you did so far? Interested in possible doing one of those as well.....and I just LOVE that you caught the bride and groom in front of the castle. I would definitely say that would be a dream photo. Hope you continue having warm weather and tons of fun!

Hmmm... it's really hard to say which is my favourite tour. They all offer different things so it's like choosing between great meals. LOL.

I'm a big fan of anything behind the scenes. So any tour that offers a glimpse behind the curtain is something I enjoy.

I will say that I really enjoyed the Marceline to Magic Kingdom tour because it spent quite a bit of time at the Haunted Mansion. Since it's one of the attractions I've always been fascinated with, I was thrilled when we got to see some of it behind the scenes. That to me was the absolute highlight of this tour.

The KTTK tour is also really good. It takes you backstage for a longer period of time. You spend time in the float storage area and the utilidors.

We did the big tour "Backstage Magic" last year and it was also very good. It's expensive though. Something I'd probably only do once every few years. That one is a whole day (7+ hours) and goes to all the parks backstage. They even take you up to the shops north of MK where they fabricate all of the things you see in the parks. It includes lunch at Wilderness Lodge.

But for $30, the Marceline tour is definitely worth it. At that price, it's hard to justify *not* doing it really.

Well, today has been an interesting day. The weather is rather gloomy here and we ended up doing something rather exciting...

We bought a DVC membership at Villas at Grand Floridian!

The suites are stunning! Here are some pics I took of VGF.

Some of the public spaces...

The Studio Suite...

The 1 Bedroom Suite...

Ahhhh! Its so pretty. Congrats

Welcome home!

Welcome Home !!

Welcome Home!!! I am sure you will absolutely love it.

Awesome - welcome home!!!!

Well, thanks everyone for all the kind wishes.

Unfortunately, there's been a turn of events and a change of heart. We both had a rather sleepless night thinking about what we had just signed up for. We got caught up in the excitement of the moment and later realized that this was not wisest thing for us to do at this time. We contacted our guide and canceled the contract. He was very understanding and professional about it.

I now feel like a fool for posting so quickly that we had signed up. We may still do it in the future, but most likely resale.

Anyway, we will now hopefully enjoy our last 2 days here and not worry about this any longer.

Resale has been great for me. I purchased all of my pts, over 3 contracts, for way less than half of what they go for from Disney. I know this is not for everyone, but it sure has been a great way to enjoy lots of DVC pts!

We did the DVC tour in November and I can understand how you got caught up in the moment. While you're there everything seems to make sense and you think you'd be a fool to pass it up! We managed to hold out......til we got home we got back and started checking out resale and bought at BLT. Our contract just closed on Monday so now we're waiting for our membership numbers!

It's kind of funny you cancelled because I was just thinking this morning " I wonder why they bought at VGF instead of resale at Boardwalk" since you've been saying how much you love it there

Salespeople count on tapping into your emotions and impulses. What really takes courage is calling them up and admitting that you didn't want to do it. I wonder how many people end up with products because they don't want to call the salesperson back and tell them they made a mistake. Kudos to you guys! Resale is pretty awesome. I feel like I got an amazing discount and I still get to be in the cool kids club (LOL). We were able to get way more points than we could have bought direct which means more time/money to go to WDW!!

I thought the same thing! I was really surprised you chose VGF over BWV! Definitely don't feel like a fool, I can totally see DH and I doing the exact same thing! But it'll happen for you guys if/when you're ready!

Thanks Spook. Yes, the Boardwalk is our favourite place and that did weigh in on our decision to cancel the VGF. VGF has VERY nice suites, but the GF in general wouldn't be our first choice for home resort. Definitely felt good signing the papers yesterday and when they hand you the membership cards. But, reality and common sense kicked in high gear later last night and we just knew in our gut we made a poor decision (for us personally).

One thing I didn't even account for was the exchange rate! The conversion to Canadian dollars added another 4 grand onto the contract. We had to finance the whole thing and it just wasn't sitting well in our stomachs.

I think we are going to look into resale at Boardwalk or maybe even BLT. When I started looking at the resale prices, they were SO much cheaper than direct. I realize there are many benefits to direct like adding points to existing contract, but getting points at almost half price is very enticing.

Where did you buy your points from?

Thanks alicemouse! What a nice thing to say! Makes us feel better since we felt pretty lousy this morning. You know, I was very worried about having to call our guide this morning and tell him we wanted to cancel it. I anticipated that we would be in for a "hard time" or sell tactic to keep us. But, kudos to him, he was extremely professional and understanding. No hassle at all. He even said he wasn't overly shocked that we canceled because I was hesitating quite a bit yesterday. At the end of the day, it's us that have to make the payment and live with the contractual obligation. So I figured we should cancel immediately as we could get out of it with no penalties at all.

I sent our guide an email thanking him for his understanding. His reply was that the only way he knows how to treat his customers is the Disney way. What a great attitude.

Thanks Allie. We didn't plan on buying DVC when we woke up yesterday morning. The weather was crappy and we were walking along the Boardwalk and went into the DVC suite to ask what incentives Disney currently had over resale. Next thing I knew, were were in a 2 hour meeting with a guide and the rest is history. Because we attended a DVC presentation 2 years ago and didn't sign up, they had a senior guide meet with us. They bring him out for the tough sells. It was definitely a more pressured pitch than we had previously.

When the time is right, we'll look into resale at BWV or some other resort. I'm sitting here typing this as I'm looking over the Boardwalk from our balcony. I really like this place!

Jan just got off the phone now having booked a bounce back offer (35% off at the Boardwalk) for this September. LOL. So, it's not all that bad.

Wow an extra 4 grand!!??? That's a good chunk of change. We ended up paying about an extra 2 grand with exchange. It sucked for us because when we started the dollar was doing much better than when we passed ROFR and had to pay. Ah well, it's worth it.
We bought from the Timeshare Store ( I believe Disneydoc used them as well). It was very simple and painless. I highly recommend them. I'm still signed up to get their emails with new listings and I'm getting at least 3-4 emails a week! They've got lots of listings.

Yeah, it was 200 points @ $155 per point. That was $31,000 US. The rate yesterday was $1.12 so that made it $34,700 CDN. That was the number that we were choking on all night. The bounce back we just booked today was less than the exchange difference!

The scary thing is how fast the cost of points go up. When we were at the DVC presentation 2 years ago, they were $120 per point!

Thanks for the info on Timeshare Store. I'll check it out!

No kidding, it was $150 per point when we went in November. Our BLT was $102 per point but I've seen some Boardwalk for $80

Thanks disneydoc! We'll definitely look into the resale market when ready.

And do NOT feel bad about theDVC sales pitch! I have never taken a tour...even when on the fence - cause they play to our Disney hearts! I know I would buckle.

I did indeed do the Timeshare Store, and totally recommend. AKL and OKW for $65, $67, $68 per point. Killer. You will find a great contract when the time is right. For me, I like to have the money to pay all at once, then only annual dues after that. Worth saving up for!

As long as you don't buy a TS in Mexico and then try to get out of it. Not quite as easy.

I also can recommend The Timeshare Store. And Fidelity also.

TS in Mexico is most definitely not an option.

Oh, btw, the lighthouse has been on each night, all night since last week.

Thanks! That indeed is sound advice. I'd like to have the cash to buy up front instead of financing it if possible. At those prices it's much more affordable for sure.

Well, as far as this trip report goes, I haven't taken any photos today or yesterday (apart from the GF Villas). The weather has been just gloomy, cold and wet and we've stayed mostly indoors.

Tomorrow is our last day here and it should be nice weather. Hope to get some pics up then. Not sure exactly what we're doing tomorrow yet.

Then we're off to the airport early Saturday morning and back to the snow and ice of home.

We've really enjoyed hanging out with MrHub and Scrappy. Extremely nice people and a lot of fun!

By the way, those VGF pics were really awesome! Thank you for those, and enjoy your (sniff) last day.

Glad to hear your guide was so understanding! When did you book for in September? We'll be there the same week in September that you two were there last year!