When do you decide you have enough DVC points?

[pineapplepalms]

ok revisiting this thread.... I am feeling a lot of guilt so just looking for feedback if this is insane or not.
Currently have 300 VGC, 125 Aulani, 100 VGF, and thinking of buying 300 VDH (this is keeping me up at night)

I live in North Cal and this is my plan:

Driving Trips:
5: 3 night Disneyland trips a year in a studio with my wife and child
1: 3 night Disneyland trip every year also taking my parents and sister's family

Flying Trips:
1 either Aulani or Disneyworld trip each year for 6 nights


My Spouse is ok with whatever I want, but she is too nice about things... I am worried it's too many trips and isn't enough variety (non Disney) trips each year... Do you all feel guilty about not taking the family on non Disney Trips?

I'm also worried that while my Daughter loves the trips now (she is 8), is she going to hate them when she is a teenager?
- have you all regretted getting too many dvc points.

I’m not a good person to talk you down since we’re currently buying a contract for our 6th home resort. But I think if you approximate the amount of points you’ll use for your stays, and plan on how that could change in the future, you can determine if it makes sense to add more. If you’re primarily staying in studios now and go more often, if you switch to 1BRs or larger in the future, you could still use all your points on fewer trips and travel elsewhere the rest of the time. This is how we’re approaching it. We stay in 1BRs or 2BRs now while our kids are little and we’re primarily doing Disney trips, but as we add in more non-Disney vacations, we’ll stay in 2BRs more often and sometimes GVs with others and still use our points.

 

[Straulin]

We just added on another 175 at VGF and have 360 at BCV for a total of 535. That is probably our limit as it gets us 3-4 trips a year. We only get so much vacation annually and those three trips will be enough to use it up.

We also tend to travel to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, TN area and the beach for trips (primarily Hilton Head). Pigeon Forge is close enough that we do weekend trips and Hilton head hopefully will have availability at DCV for those off park trips.

My thought is for the years we want to do other vacations, we just rent out the extra points.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

ok revisiting this thread.... I am feeling a lot of guilt so just looking for feedback if this is insane or not.
Currently have 300 VGC, 125 Aulani, 100 VGF, and thinking of buying 300 VDH (this is keeping me up at night)

I live in North Cal and this is my plan:

Driving Trips:
5: 3 night Disneyland trips a year in a studio with my wife and child
1: 3 night Disneyland trip every year also taking my parents and sister's family

Flying Trips:
1 either Aulani or Disneyworld trip each year for 6 nights


My Spouse is ok with whatever I want, but she is too nice about things... I am worried it's too many trips and isn't enough variety (non Disney) trips each year... Do you all feel guilty about not taking the family on non Disney Trips?

I'm also worried that while my Daughter loves the trips now (she is 8), is she going to hate them when she is a teenager?
- have you all regretted getting too many dvc points.

Yes. We had 1200 at one point. It was just too much. 3 kids who adore Disney— but then marvel started getting creepy (so our once marvel loving son became Disney meh) and Disney stopped with annual pass (so my Disney loving husband became Disney meh) and you just realize you don’t want to be so invested with one company. It’s just not smart. You’d never do it with your financial portfolio, so I wouldn’t advise it with your vacation portfolio. We are thinking 500 is limit for us, but maybe less. We will see.

 

[nalabear]

910 points here. Disney heavy folk but do rent out about 1/2 points any given year.

Gap time right now with adult kids no grandkids. So travel not so much. Probably will change in a few years.

 

[E2ME2]

910 points here. Disney heavy folk but do rent out about 1/2 points any given year.

Gap time right now with adult kids no grandkids. So travel not so much. Probably will change in a few years.

I’m right there with you at 920. Started with 210 SSR Direct in 2011. Then DVC became our Snow-Bird-Retirement plan, and with 920 Points we enjoy the Florida sunshine in Jan & Feb, when it’s cold in the Mid-Atlantic! We are also sort of in that ‘tween’ stage, with adult children - but we have 3 young grandchildren, and we’re sure they will be disney-travelers soon. So I don’t forsee renting any of our points out.
For now we use our 920 in Studios at BCV/BWV/AKV/SSR to get us 60days +/-
I would love to see an 80 Point BCV pop up, with my Use Year
Have fun using those points!

 

[Straulin]

I’m right there with you at 920. Started with 210 SSR Direct in 2011. Then DVC became our Snow-Bird-Retirement plan, and with 920 Points we enjoy the Florida sunshine in Jan & Feb, when it’s cold in the Mid-Atlantic! We are also sort of in that ‘tween’ stage, with adult children - but we have 3 young grandchildren, and we’re sure they will be disney-travelers soon. So I don’t forsee renting any of our points out.
For now we use our 920 in Studios at BCV/BWV/AKV/SSR to get us 60days +/-
I would love to see an 80 Point BCV pop up, with my Use Year
Have fun using those points!

I have wondered if you could do that if you had enough points. Do they make you put a day between every 30 days or anything or can you do back to back reservations?

I keep telling my wife when we retire we need to do September through March at DVC. It would be prohibitively expensive, but I still like the idea.

 

[E2ME2]

I have wondered if you could do that if you had enough points. Do they make you put a day between every 30 days or anything or can you do back to back reservations?

I keep telling my wife when we retire we need to do September through March at DVC. It would be prohibitively expensive, but I still like the idea.

You are limited to 30 days per reservation, but we typically stay 35 Days at SSR (most of our points are there) No break between ressies is required and, after our reservations are set in stone, we have MS link the 30 days with the 5 days, and we don’t need to change rooms. It’s worked for us that way since 2021
Don’t know that I’d ever acquire enough points to cover Sep.-Mar. But Jan-early March is definitely doable. For 2024 we are booked from 1/1 - 3/3

 

[Craho]

On the other end, I have 150 and its too many. It was just enough when the kids were younger, but now that the kids are adults, we seldom want to be at Disney.

We just bought 150 resale last year..2042 bc my husband and I are late 40’s. My kids are teens now and I’m the Disney person. They love the trips still but…
Just wondering how do you use your points these days? I worry about this a little bc although we still love Disney, we love to travel all over the place and still do. Do you rent your points?

 

[tom1944]

You are limited to 30 days per reservation, but we typically stay 35 Days at SSR (most of our points are there) No break between ressies is required and, after our reservations are set in stone, we have MS link the 30 days with the 5 days, and we don’t need to change rooms. It’s worked for us that way since 2021
Don’t know that I’d ever acquire enough points to cover Sep.-Mar. But Jan-early March is definitely doable. For 2024 we are booked from 1/1 - 3/3

I always felt getting out of NJ for the month of February would make winter much easier to deal with.

Now that we own DVC I changed that thought to the day after MLK Day until the day before President Day weekend.

I think we would include HHI for some period of time during those 4 weeks.

Most likely we would do a leisurely drive there and back. Leave the Saturday of MLK weekend and arrive at WDW on Tuesday.

Leave the Friday before President Weekend and stay at HHI. Leave that Monday for home.

Once I get my wife to agree I am ready.

 

[crisi]

We just bought 150 resale last year..2042 bc my husband and I are late 40’s. My kids are teens now and I’m the Disney person. They love the trips still but…
Just wondering how do you use your points these days? I worry about this a little bc although we still love Disney, we love to travel all over the place and still do. Do you rent your points?

Every other year we go to Hilton Head (although we went to Hawaii once) in late February. It isn't warm enough to go into the ocean, but its warmer than Minnesota. We read, visit Savannah, eat out, enjoy relative warmth. My now adult children are talking about another Disney trip - my son hasn't been since he was 14 or so when he got bored with his parents , and now at 24 is realizing his parents are actually ok people. So maybe in a few years, but its hard to schedule vacations. My youngest is still in college and then there are jobs with little vacation time. Plus Disney has gotten so expensive

 

[E2ME2]

I always felt getting out of NJ for the month of February would make winter much easier to deal with.

Now that we own DVC I changed that thought to the day after MLK Day until the day before President Day weekend.

I think we would include HHI for some period of time during those 4 weeks.

Most likely we would do a leisurely drive there and back. Leave the Saturday of MLK weekend and arrive at WDW on Tuesday.

Leave the Friday before President Weekend and stay at HHI. Leave that Monday for home.

Once I get my wife to agree I am ready.

Sounds like a great plan to me!

 

[Craho]

Every other year we go to Hilton Head (although we went to Hawaii once) in late February. It isn't warm enough to go into the ocean, but its warmer than Minnesota. We read, visit Savannah, eat out, enjoy relative warmth. My now adult children are talking about another Disney trip - my son hasn't been since he was 14 or so when he got bored with his parents , and now at 24 is realizing his parents are actually ok people. So maybe in a few years, but its hard to schedule vacations. My youngest is still in college and then there are jobs with little vacation time. Plus Disney has gotten so expensive

I’m kind of thinking we may try HH or VB at some point. I keep thinking we have some years of the kids bringing their friends or extended family joining us (I have a 2 year old niece). And then eventually my husband and I would be happy to go to Epcot festivals just us or with friends. So I figure we will use the points somehow. I’m actually happy that it will expire in 2042 bc I don’t want those MF’s for 45 years..I’ll be gone and who knows if kids will want to inherit it.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

When I get to pick the colors on the hotel

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

ok revisiting this thread.... I am feeling a lot of guilt so just looking for feedback if this is insane or not.
Currently have 300 VGC, 125 Aulani, 100 VGF, and thinking of buying 300 VDH (this is keeping me up at night)

I live in North Cal and this is my plan:

Driving Trips:
5: 3 night Disneyland trips a year in a studio with my wife and child
1: 3 night Disneyland trip every year also taking my parents and sister's family

Flying Trips:
1 either Aulani or Disneyworld trip each year for 6 nights


My Spouse is ok with whatever I want, but she is too nice about things... I am worried it's too many trips and isn't enough variety (non Disney) trips each year... Do you all feel guilty about not taking the family on non Disney Trips?

I'm also worried that while my Daughter loves the trips now (she is 8), is she going to hate them when she is a teenager?
- have you all regretted getting too many dvc points.

So we are SoCal natives and have the opposite issue thinking about buying a place in Mammoth… here’s something I am dealing with that I think is worth thinking about, as our older kid hit second grade it’s harder to travel as much for 3-4 day weekends. It’s frowned upon to pull them out of school, they have sports/dance/etc. obligations on the weekends, plus birthday parties, play dates etc.

My kids love Disney but we didn’t renew our keys this year because even with only a 45-75m drive, it was a real pain to make reservations far in advance and we just can’t get to the park a couple seasons a year.

We already had 200 points at Aulani and I’m in ROFR for 125 at the Grand Floridian, because I can commit to a week in Hawaii at least every other year, and we’ll probably do a long weekend in Orlando once a year or a week every other year. If there are truly fantastic incentives at VDH, or if VGC (which I like better) comes down below $200/pt resale, I’d pick up another 100 points, maybe…but I think they are going to be so hard to book less than 8m out for the foreseeable future, that we’re better off paying cash/renting points, beyond a 3 day weekend a year.

We also try to do a couple ski trips and at least one big international/cultural trip each year…so a family that ONLY does Disney CA is going to have an easier time using massive points at VDH and VGC. I really need DVC to open a property in Park City or Lake Tahoe.

 

[nalabear]

Soon enough the reservations for afternoon hours will disappear much like WDW is my guess; and that will be a huge lift on concession sales for the evening. I bet it'll be a little later though; like 5pm but same anyways for many locales.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

Soon enough the reservations for afternoon hours will disappear much like WDW is my guess; and that will be a huge lift on concession sales for the evening. I bet it'll be a little later though; like 5pm but same anyways for many locales.

I don’t know if you are replying to my post, but I am not confident that DL will remove reservation requirements, especially for Fri-Sat-Sun—but my DVC decision (not to pay high $/pt for local hotels) is based on the fact it’s a huge pain to get VGC within 9 months, let alone 7, and I don’t see that changing unless the economy completely collapses. Either way, the home booking priority doesn’t help me if I generally decide 1-21 days out when I visit DL. As it so happens, I’m still thinking about whether or not we’ll try to go Sunday.

 

[🍀TwinsMom]

You are limited to 30 days per reservation, but we typically stay 35 Days at SSR (most of our points are there) No break between ressies is required and, after our reservations are set in stone, we have MS link the 30 days with the 5 days, and we don’t need to change rooms. It’s worked for us that way since 2021
Don’t know that I’d ever acquire enough points to cover Sep.-Mar. But Jan-early March is definitely doable. For 2024 we are booked from 1/1 - 3/3

You're living my dream!

 

[CaliAdventurer]

You know when the thought of paying the dues starts to win out. I look all the time but with 1540 pts, the dues are real. Made an offer last year but this year, even though the prices are less, the thought of being committed to more dues makes me shut the laptop.

 

[NVDISFamily]

You know when the thought of paying the dues starts to win out. I look all the time but with 1540 pts, the dues are real. Made an offer last year but this year, even though the prices are less, the thought of being committed to more dues makes me shut the laptop.

So true. I'm likely going to buy some VDH points but the thought of paying dues on 2000 ish points is starting to scare me.

 

[MsChristy12]

My Spouse is ok with whatever I want, but she is too nice about things... I am worried it's too many trips and isn't enough variety (non Disney) trips each year... Do you all feel guilty about not taking the family on non Disney Trips?

I'm also worried that while my Daughter loves the trips now (she is 8), is she going to hate them when she is a teenager?
- have you all regretted getting too many dvc points.

I'm from the west coast too. Our first ever DVC contract is creeping up into the ROFR monster cave right now! The contract we got is 170 points, but I'm also lurking around for a 2nd contract that is much smaller (around 50 pts) because I want a different home resort advantage. If we do get the 2nd one, we'll be done! Manageable dues is my priority and biggest concern. I know renting out or swapping points can be a solution but honestly, I prefer not to if I don't need to, and that's just my personal preference.

We love traveling and our goal is to visit as many countries as possible while we still can. We are Disney fanatics but we really don't want to miss out on seeing the world either. Buying DVC is the decision we made after our realizing, we like the deluxe accommodation and will most likely book it every trip from here on out, so it makes sense to buy in. But that doesn't mean we will go to Disney every year for sure. if we go annually, I actually would feel like I'm robbing our vacation time and $$ that we could use on an international vacation? I know when we get older, we can still go to Disney pretty easily. But some foreign countries/famous sights, they require more mobility and perhaps physical endurance, so I rather travel further first while we can easily do so. Ultimately, it depends on what travel means to you and your family. However, don't forget that DVC holds decent value, so you can always sell in a few years if you feel like it's too much.