DVC Ownership Approach

We started in 2022. Never heard of DVC before that likely as we lived in the west coast and when VGC was on sale we had not yet had our kids and were likely not in the stage of our life where we would have been too tempted to buy DVC. Too bad as if I would have known some direct VGC points in the 100s would have been a great buy.

As we were stuck at home and as things were starting to open back up at the time, we started to do our homework to make our kids first trips to Disneyland and were also looking at WDW as it was open a bit earlier. As we were exploring vacation ideas with the kids watching youtube videos about the parks, resorts, and cruises, all of a sudden the algorithm started to feed us DVC content about the resorts and programs. At first mostly WDW resorts, but once we heard the Grand Cal was a potential option that was something we had to look into. We did the math and decided to jump in with 520 VGC points.

We quickly knew we would want to try other things in the program in the future but knew we would not want to use the VGC points at other resorts. Our 520 points didn't take long to grow to 2,000 points as we visited WDW just after getting out of ROFL on the VGC points, we got a great deal on the 2022 sale at RVA, completed the collection of Peter Dominick resorts (VGC, CCV (Wilderness Lodge), and AKV), and ended it with some VDH points to add more points on the west coast.

So far this has been an amazing journey. We like to stay in the larger rooms but mostly have the points to also bring friends and family along for the ride. I like taking over the mantle as the "crazy uncle" to allow family and friends join us on this adventure.

Our family reunion where we hosted our east coast family at WDW.

We went to Disney World for our one and only and paid cash for AKL. The next year we took the girls to Disneyland so they could go there once. We took the DVC tour on that trip.

Came home and put an offer in on 200 points at AKL and it was taken through ROFR.

looked around and found a CCV 200 point contract in an August use year, previous owners had used the first year points but not all of them and it wasn’t priced much higher than AKL was going for resale at the time. So we took that one off the market. we had planned initially to go every other year in a 2BR early summer so that was ideal.

COVID happened and the oldest was graduating from high school and so I wanted to take the family to Aulani and take my folks, so when the DVC offices opened again and they pretty decent incentives I contacted them to purchase the minimum (at that time) 100 but with incentives 125 made more sense so we added 125 at CCV.

Aulani stayed in the back of my mind as a place I really wanted to go and visit repeatedly. That graduation trip showed me late May-early June was tough to book as we couldn’t get one 2BR and had to settle for two 1BR rooms. So we recently added 200 subsidized at Aulani.

We are up to 525; however, I kind of want a smaller contract to match the Aulani use year at Grand California so we can lay over on that trip back from Aulani!

But then again we may also be done!

I purchased both of my contracts while I was working overseas in Saudi Arabia. I had passed by the DVC booths many times on my trips to WDW and DL, but never thought to stop in…I wish I had!

What prompted me to buy was our first grandchild arrived in 2021 and we want to be able to instill Disney in her (and future grandkids) the way it was in me and the way we did the same for our kids.

The minimum for direct benefits was 150 points, but I purchased two 100 point contracts so I could leave one to each kid if necessary. I also added my adult kids on the deed so they would have direct benefits as well.

However, I knew that I wanted to take our granddaughter to DIsney for her first trip around age 6. We would also take both our girls and their husbands, so I knew we would need more points. So…we purchased another 280 point resale contract at BLT, due to its closeness to MK. We will get a 2 bedroom and a 1 bedroom villa for a week, using the BLT points and will probably stay a couple of nights in 3 1-bedroom villas at AK prior to the BLT week.

My only regret is that we have two Monorail resorts and I would love to have something close to Epcot, like BWVs, so maybe one day, after our big trip next year, I may consider selling the BLT contract and buying something else, though I would be losing time in resort expiration.

So, I chose the number of points we own primarily based on one big trip in 2027, but will look to go to Disney several times a year. We also own a lot of Hilton Grand Vacation points, so we use that to travel to everywhere else.

As every good Disney story starts, my husband said we can take the kids (20 months and not born yet) two times when they are older. Fast forward to our 4th trip with our now 3 year old son and 1-year-old daughter--we became DVC members after the first time we took our 20-month-old and saw the magic through his eyes. We were planning a big Thanksgiving 2026 trip for our daughter's 2nd birthday-bringing all the grandparents and knew DVC rooms would be best/cheaper to get a contract in the end. We ended up with a 200point Copper Creek contract through resale. We had our first stay at the Wilderness Lodge and LOVED IT. We ultimately bought where we want to stay. Also, so excited for Copper Creek because of the holiday decorations, as we plan on going to Disney during Thanksgiving or Christmas. After our 4th trip with our son for his 3rd birthday, we decided to add more points through resale and buy a 150-point Boardwalk contract. Boardwalk is my family's favorite area, and as the kids get older, it will be our Epcot resort. Lastly, we do want to buy direct, but waiting on Lakeshore Lodge. What went from bringing the kids two times in their life to going 3-4 times a year with 350 and counting points--DVC is something we love and continue to look forward to!

Welcome, Laura, so glad you are here, my dear friend! Looking forward to seeing you soon and I'm sure you'll have trip reports for us to read!

I wrote too much on my DVC approach, but it is all the good friends I've met too!!! Of course, I'll have trip reports...it wouldn't be me without them right?

It absolutely wouldnt be you if you didnt have trip reports:)

We purchased 200 direct points at the Riviera in Sept of 2020. We went direct thinking it would be our one and only purchase. We had taken the skyliner by the Riviera, but had never been inside. At the time, CCV, was also on sale, but we decided we would prefer an Epcot resort. We looked at BCV, but it was $100.00 per point than RIV. In the end, we felt we had made the right choice. After my son was accepted by the DCP, we wanted to make several trips to see him, so we added on 50-points direct at RIV. We've felt settled for the last few years, but now my son has a steady girlfriend and the additional space of a one-bedroom has become more appealing, meaning we need more points. I am excited to see the final look of DLL, and would consider adding on there. I'm afraid the size of the resort might be a deterrent for us, but the location would allow us to have a MK resort area property. 

Your story brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for sharing. Extremely touching. ❤️

We own 6 direct and 1 resale contract across 4 resorts. Our resale is at AKL, the others are from resorts with longer contracts. I personally wanted not to have any restrictions to where we could use our points, but also didn’t find a shorter contract worthwhile to buy direct. So we bought one resale. And yes, we clearly had add-on-itis and now reality and dues are catching up to us. So we are on an indefinite pause from purchasing. 😂

Thank you for your kind words. Everytime I tell the story, my eyes fill with tears. It took me a few days to write my response of why I'm a DVC member.

I have 150 direct points at the Polynesian. It was on sale at the time, and I wanted a monorail resort. My husband and his brother plus girlfriend had a magical visit last month!

I am loving everyone's stories! Everyone has such a personal and unique approach to ownership. Keep sharing your stories!

It is definitely not helping my addonitis though, lol!

I remember seeing the DVC booths in EPCOT back in 2016 and thinking it was some kind of rewards program. When I realized it was a timeshare, I didn’t look into it much further, timeshares have such a negative stigma, and the cost felt completely out of reach for me at the time.

Fast forward to 2022, when I came across DVCFan videos on YouTube. That’s when I started to understand that DVC wasn’t like traditional timeshares. I went down the rabbit hole learning everything I could, but still kept coming up with excuses not to buy.

In 2023, a friend and I booked a last-minute trip to Aulani. We stayed on the hotel side, but during that trip I knew I wanted to come back and I didn’t want to keep paying cash rates. When I looked at how much I had spent, it really hit me that I could have put that money toward a contract instead.

Two days after getting home, I made an offer on 200 Saratoga Springs points through the DVC Resale Market. Before our first DVC stay, we had only ever stayed at value resorts at Disney World, so I really didn’t know which resort I wanted. I ended up picking SSR because of the cost per point and it still had at least 30 years left on the contract.

Since becoming DVC members, my sister and I have been to Disney World eight times, and we even made it to Disneyland for the first time, staying at the Grand Californian.

It’s usually just the two of us traveling, but we’re already feeling like we need more points. I’m currently leaning toward adding 150 direct points at Lakeshore Lodge. I know the direct benefits could change at any time, but I definitely get a bit of FOMO.

Buying DVC was definitely an emotional decision, but it’s also been one of the best ones I’ve made. It’s brought me so much joy.

Laura - your story (and everyone's replies) are the reason I think Disney Adults will change the world and make it better. My heart aches with you with the happy and the sad.

We just bought our first DVC contract (Feb. 2026 @ BLT resale) with the gift my mom left us when she passed away last year. She was a delight, stubborn, Daisy Duck diehard and the reason why I love WDW; my first WDW memories are camping at Ft. Wilderness in the late 70s?

We picked BLT because we love the walk to MK (and the monorail), but our very first DVC trip will be AK savannah view (DH's fav) in August.

Keep the stories coming...

I share because I truly believe in showing hope, in giving ideas, and spreading joy. I will agree Disney adults can change the world.

I enjoy BLT especially with the new remodel. I've stayed in a studio and also a 1 Bedroom there. I agree, it is a short walk and SO convenient. I now have done all DVC resorts on the East Coast. Yes, I do love a bucket list challenge.

In February, my son & I stayed at the new Ft. Wilderness cabins and enjoyed it! You will LOVE the Animal Kingdom. Waking up to the animals is AMAZING!

Crazy, huh? Our loved ones leave this earth and we can reap the benefits....in the beginning I felt a little guilty, I now give myself grace and know my husband wanted it that way!

We are sitting on 400 pts right now - 2 - 200 point contracts. Ideally, we want to get two more 200 point contracts so that when we get a little older that we can gift 200 points to each one of our children. We are at Poly and I've been thinking about looking at other resorts but not sure of the proper course. I like the idea of having all Poly just to make it easy but saving money sounds good too! ;) Also, the Bungalows seem to be available all the time.

Cabungalow points? I'm pretty sure that's Saratogas calling card.

Will the new A-frame cabins at Revenge of Reflections throw off the vibe of the cabungalow resale point kings and make those people who bought hundreds of OKW direct points on that great sale last year be super excited with their direct SAP points..... time will tell....

With that said, I'm 99% sure I will give into the temptation and get more cheap resale points at some point in the future for those cabins and I'll try and stay at the bungalow at least once or twice over the years..... This thought even made me okay to get MrsNVDISFamily a SSR hoodie that was super cheap at the character warehouse during our last trip as I was like..... yea we'll own there one day. Also brought back good memories as it was our first stay in a DVC room years ago.

For our use year, we followed the school year (September-June). Living in New Hampshire, we would rarely go in the summer, so a September use year is perfect for us.

As far as points go, we wanted enough for a two bedroom during April vacation every other year. 362 points at copper creek. So we went with 200.

We chose copper creek in 2022 for a few reasson. We wanted a later expiration date and to be able To get into wilderness lodge during early December.

I was a Disney fan growing up but my wife wasn't, she went once as a kid and thought it was ok. We took a Florida vacation in 2022 with our young kids and just did a couple park days. It wasn't a full Disney vacation, but we stayed at French Quarter because it was cheap during that time and only did 2 park days. We also visited other areas around Florida. Those two park days and staying at the resort totally hooked her and she immediately wanted to go back. I knew about DVC but always thought it wasn't a good deal and only for "rich" people. Once I did some research, learned about the resale market, we were on our way to buying a couple small 50 point resale contracts with the intent of going every other year. Then we got in on the GFV fire sale and bought direct points. Now we are sitting at 300 points between a few contracts and have gone twice a year since we purchased. Our first trip as members was a family vacation where we were able to accommodate my family, my mom, and my brothers family in a 2 Bed Villa at the Grand Floridian. Never in a million years would I have thought that would be possible.

After we got home from our honeymoon paying cash for a Savannah view at Jambo house, I started researching DVC. It was a few months later we got 100 points direct at the Grand. Then we saved up because we wanted to get the remaining 50 for the “perks” just out of pure fomo. The Grand had sold out, but the Poly tower opened and the Polynesian went on sale. We got another 100 points direct. I liked the idea of diversifying the points amongst smaller contracts in case we ever needed to sell them for some reason.

My wife is a teacher so we can only really go in the summer time now. I’d like to get enough to make two trips down a year for a week each. One of those weeks being when school goes back in the fall. I think somewhere in the 300s will be our goal. I’ll be looking resale for those and we aren’t in any hurry now. We usually bank our remaining points every year.

I really liked Riviera when we stayed there, but I’m not a fan of the restrictions. I still love the original portfolio. We will probably get whatever is priced right at that point because we have 200 points at both of our favorite resorts.

Bought our first contract resale in Spring of 2025 - 150 Poly points. That was after listening to ALL the DVC Show episodes (on 1.5x speed so they’re all fast talkers in my mind 🤣). Points didn’t load until October because of a delayed closing due to final reservation. So before we even used them, we added another 150 Polynesian points, this time direct while on the Disney Treasure in November. Would have done Riviera if not for the resale restrictions. Just finished our first stay as members! Didn’t originally think we would do more than 150 pts but here we are. Cliche only regret is not buying sooner.

My wife and I took our 2 girls (2 and 4 at the time) a few years ago to “cross Disney off the list”… at least that was the plan in my mind.

We bought points off of a friend who couldn’t use them and somehow ended up at Beach Club. I quickly realized we’d need to come back. To Beach Club. More times. Once it clicked for me, I quickly dove into research and in large part thanks to this site, landed on a Beach Club resale contract.

Of course, that was just the first step as we rather quickly also added on when the Poly Island Tower opened (we bought that Direct, because, well, FOMO).

We spent way more than we should have in a short amount of time, but no regrets yet. We just got back from the bubble, and are already counting down to our next visit in July.