Disney Timeshare

We own a disney time share. I have 4 kids, ages 9, 7, 5 & 3. We bought the share @ 3 yrs ago and we go at least once a year. We used it this year to go to Aruba. It was really worth it for us. We bought at Bay Lake Towers which is connected to the Contemporary and within walking distance to Magic Kingdom. It is really nice to be on the monorail.

The maintenance is more expensive at Animal Kingdom because you have to pay for upkeep of the animals. So take that into consideration.

I don't know about Disney, but I do know a little about timeshares. We have one on the beach in Kauai. A couple of things to note:

1) You want to look for a deeded time share. In other words, you actually own a piece of property, not "points" or a "trust."
2) You can buy at a fraction of the cost by buying a timeshare through a reseller (basically a real estate agent who sells timeshares that other owners are selling). We bought ours for 1/3 of the cost the developer is selling them for.
3) Ignore all the hoopla about how you can trade to other properties, but only if you buy from the developer. If you decide in a year or two that you'd rather go to Paris than Orlando, all you have to do is sign up with RCI, bank your week, and go to Paris.
4) Be sure you understand what kind of maintenance fees you will have on a yearly basis.

All that being said, only buy a timeshare if you have cash on hand to do so. The reason we own one is that it forces us to take a 1 week vacation every year. We're workaholics and would never take a vacation if we didn't have a "use it or lose it" timeshare. I mean, I guess we could rent our timeshare out, but it's there, so we go, faithfully, ever year. And we have a great time. The price was such that if we sell it, we will break even at a minimum, but will probably make money. And all things being equal, if we rented the same size place in the same location, we would pay a whole lot more than we do by owning it. So it works for us. I have no complaints.

Was this the Disney Vacation Club? I had talked to them about it and I had doubts. If you plan on coming more often there are so many great deals off the Disney property. The car rentals are cheap out of Orlando and a lot of the surrounding hotels have transportation to and from the airport and to the parks.
I don't live to far from the park and the areas west of Disney's main gate (on and just off of 192) are very nice and convenient.

Timeshares are not good investments....ever. We purchase time share weeks from owners that can't afford to use them....owners cannot sell them for a song! Look on eBay for timeshares to buy from folks all over the world. We recently were at Diney World and stayed at the Wyndam for $85 a night. Can you top that?

I did some research on timeshares, and from what i can tell most owners will tell to you 1)not buy from the developer...buy through a reseller (although I believe DVC does not allow this for their properties) and 2)considering "renting" a timeshare. There are lots of people who can't use/can't afford their timeshares and are willing to "rent" their weeks/points/etc. I think DVC doesn't let you rent either, but I know Wyndham does for their Disney property.

There are tons of "steals" out there on Ebay and Craigslist for points. Try renting them first and if you find you really like it, consider buying.

I say NO to all timeshares.

We are in a legal battle to get out of the one we bought in 2009 that we will never be able to use. We were lied to and scammed.

My parents have one with Marriott and it is good, but they pay $1200 a year in maintenance fees...started at $700 in 1995. They get benefits from their points, but that's it.

We are with a company called CE Travelers now and we love it. We use Wyndham Timeshares but have none of the other headache that comes with them.

What time of year do you intend to go down there? That might make some difference at times!

Sorry if this ends up sounding like an advertisement, but there's really not enough great things I can say about DVC!...

I have a DVC timeshare and we LOVE IT! You purchase points and can use it any time of year that you want. If you have a general time of year that you like to go and a resort preference you can look up how many points you would generally need and base your purchase on that (for example, if you can only go when kids are out of school you will need more points for a week than if you can go during their "value season" - but if you can only go every other year maybe, then you can purchase less since you can bank and borrow.)

The past few years we have not been able to use our points for a variety of reasons so we have allowed friends to use some while "banking" the rest. The process to book someone else under your points could not be easier and our friends have never had any complaints about the check in process or stay. Banking is also an easy process with just a quick phone call (I believe you may also be able to do it on the internet now too).

While we have traditionally always used our points at Disney World, there are hundreds of places around the world that they can be used - some you have to use a week but many you can do by the day. (We are really looking forward to being able to go to the new resort in Hawaii when funds allow!)

For the fees, there's really no "hidden costs". You have your "mortgage" (you can claim the interest) and tax bill and then yearly maintenance fees. Since you are not locked into the same week every year (as with other timeshares) there's no fee for booking (only exception I believe is when you book a trip to a non-Disney resort, but I believe it's a nominal fee).

And the rooms are amazing! A few years ago we were able to go with both my family and my husband's and rent a Grand Villa. It's 2 floors and had 3 bed rooms (2 with 2 queen beds and 1 with a king), a pullout queen size sofa bed, 4 full bathrooms, a full kitchen and full dining room (as well as a washer and dryer). This "room" was bigger than my house I think! Everyone loved it and since we had the full kitchen and dining room we were able to save money on meals by eating in the room. We ended up banking some points from the previous year and borrowing some from the next year in order to cover the points, but it was definitely worth it and I'm sure that we will do that again one day.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions that I haven't covered, I'd be more that happy to help.