What do you say when someone asks you about dvc?
I think
@supersnoop has a good first step: "It's a timeshare." I'd go a little further, by giving my definition of what "a timeshare" is and, more importantly what it is not.
A timeshare is
not a way to save money. That sounds hard to believe. After all, if I were to add up what it would have cost me to rent all of my timeshare stays on the open market, it would definitely have cost more money than I spent buying and maintaining my timeshares! But I'm
certain that if I did not own timeshare, I would not have gone on many of those vacations---and that means I would not have bought all of those extra plane tickets, rental cars, restaurant meals, admissions, etc. etc.
Instead of saving money, I think of timeshare as doing two things: One, they are all prepaid and use-it-or-lose-it, and that acts as a way to force owners to go on vacations. Vacations become an important thing you plan other things around, rather than something you fit in when you have time. Two, they encourage you to upgrade your lodging in both form and function. I mean, I know people vacation in a hotel room, but I honestly have no idea how they do it, because we're pretty much always in a condo/villa/whatever. And, those condos/villas/whatevers are usually really very nice.
I'd then explain the downsides of a timeshare. First, they are more "self service" than "full service" kinds of places. Many timeshare owners use those kitchens, and so a timeshare resort is less likely to have a lot of restaurants right there. You typically do not have daily housekeeping, etc. etc. Second, timeshares don't exist everywhere, and if you want to do something that isn't a timeshare, you have to pay extra. But the timeshare is already paid for, so it can be hard to convince yourself to do that. Third, timeshares work best if you can plan in advance, and in this case "advance" probably does not mean what you think it means. I am already making plans for the first half of
2024, and already have one booking in place for that February. Fourth, timeshares carry the burden and risk of ownership. Those annual fees come due every year, and they are only going to go up. If something goes wrong with the property, you share in any losses. You do not get your money back if the resort has to close for an extended period of time. If the resort needs expensive and unplanned/unexpected repairs, you might need to pay for some share of them.
So, the questions I'd have a prospective buyer of
any timeshare answer: Do you want to make a
commitment to vacationing
more often and
more regularly? Are you willing to do that for a period of at least 5-10 years? Are you willing to take on the downsides of ownership in exchange for this? Is the ongoing cost something that fits comfortably within your discretionary spending budget? If so, then timeshare can be great fun.
Then, there's the DVC specific question: Do you want to make a comment to vacationing
with Disney more often and more regularly? It's one thing to make vacation a priority. Here, you are making
Disney vacations a priority. Unlike some other timeshares, Disney is always expensive to buy and to own, so there is rarely any reason to use DVC for something other than staying in a DVC resort. I mean, you can, but you'd've been better off doing that some other way than to use DVC points for whatever it happens to be. There are exceptions to this, but they are few and far between.
