Disney Vacation Club
Jul 13 '00
My Family recently purchased part of Disney World. How you may ask? Through a Disney program that is called the Disney Vacation Club. It's better than any time share in the way that you can stay at any disney resort, at any time. This includes the Disney Cruise Line, as well as various first class resorts around the world.
This is how it works. It's almost like purchasing stock. There are a certain amount of "points" you can purchase per year. I think the current rate is $65 a point. It starts at 100 points a year and goes up to 2,000. You get this amount of points, every year until the year 2052. The points are payable through a payment plan and depending on when in the year you purchase, you can give in your points for that year as a discount. You can buy more points at any time.
You buy into a resort which is called you "home" resort. Currently, you can choose between 4 resorts, two in the Disney area. The resorts are Disney's Boardwalk villas, Disney's Old Key West Resort, Disney's Vero Beach Resort, and Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort. They are currently working on making Fort Wilderness into one too. My family bought at the Boardwalk, I think that Old Key West is sold out, it was the first one built for the Vacation Club. The Boardwalk and Old Key West are located inside Disney World, Vero Beach is in Vero Beach, Florida, and Hilton Head Island is in North Carolina.
The difference between your home resort and any other resort is that you can make reservations for 11 months in advance as compared to 4 months for any other resort. You can stay at any Disney resort, except for the All-Star Resorts and the Swan and Dolphin. Points range from each time year in seasons. Of course, the middle of July is going to cost more than the first week in September. Weekends are more than weeknights, and rates change yearly.
There are also worldwide first class resorts available such as the Plaza in New York, as well as resorts in Spain, England, and even Australia. You can also take an adventure. There are whitewater rafting packages as well biking expeditions in France and African Safaris. They are all for a fixed amount of points (a lot of course). Some international resorts require a $70 dollar reservation fee and are only available in 7 day increments.
You can bank and borrow points in certain times of the year. What this means is, if you know you are not going to use any points this year, you can bank them all for next year to have mpre vacation time or do something extra special. You can also borrow points from the next year if you need extra for this year.
My personal favorite resort is the Boardwalk. It has a nice atmosphere and is definitely a family setting. The staff is very friendly and helpful. The pool is amazing. There are two, as well as a kiddie pool with a spouting elephant statue. The big pool has a 200 foot water slide that looks like a roller coaster on the coast of old Atlantic City. That is the whole theme of course. Right downstairs is the Boardwalk itself, with 3 restaurants, a bakery, a piano club, and swing dancing club, art gallery, and at night it light up and there are carnival games for the kids to play.
The Disney Vacation club is definitely an excellent choice for any family that frequents the Orlando Area. Me being from Miami, my family goes there about 4-5 times a year, and with DVC, we can stay in first class resorts every time!
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Epinions.com ID:
koalabear
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Member: Normi
Location: Weston, Fl
Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 1 member
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