Disney Vacation Club MISTAKES to Avoid! 

Derek’s shirt is straight out of Saved By the Bell. 😂

Hey guys! Can you do a show about guesses as to what is going to happen in 18 years when a bunch of resort contracts expire? Will it make sense for Disney to get so much inventory back at once? Also, what about in 10 years? How can Disney sell points on a contract that is going to expire in just 8 years? Love your show by the way!

I just want yall to know that my husband and I have to press pause every 2-3 minutes to discuss between ourselves! Love this and all episodes!

LOL, Old Key Jeff

Hadn’t even considered OKW…the busses play Jimmy Buffett?!? SOLD🤩

You guys are my favorite combo of DVC-show people

So true how lucky we are to have youtube videos to help us understand our membership better--especially you guys! Thanks.

I was blessed to find DVC Fan & the videos in spring 2022 and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t learn so much from all of you that it made my direct buying process so easy.

Our mistake was having a bad DVC guide and not being told we could change guides. Now we have a good DVC guide.

I'd love to see a show on use years; not explaining them, but the history of them. Which months have the most resorts? How do they seem to be chosen? Do they change within a resort based on anything? Why do certain use years seem to be less saturated than others? There has to be some interesting data on the number of contracts in each use year. All of that.

Watching your videos is what helped us make the best decisions when purchasing our contracts for sure!

This was a great show! I’m still learning lots from you and I’ve made some of the mistakes you pointed out. I purchased direct (Grand Floridian) and resale (Bay Lake Tower) and have not visited either. In fact, I’ve only stayed in one resort hotel…Grand Californian back in 2002. Planning for a big stay for my granddaughter’s first visit in a couple of years. Again, thanks for this show and all the shows; I learn so much from you all.

My rookie mistake was not understanding how animal kingdom worked. I bought into DVC with a small resale contract at animal kingdom and when I gained access to the member booking portal I was surprised to see that I couldn’t book Jambo house at 11 month window. Or so I thought because it wasn’t in my 11 month booking option. I ended up selling that contract and taking a small loss because I didn’t want Kidani Village but later learned I could actually book at the 11 month window even though it wasn’t technically a home resort. Live and learn I suppose.

Humans, stop wearing boring clothes! 😮 Thanks Derek and Panda for making the effort!!❤😂🎉

Great episode! We bought Aulani in October and I found this channel pretty quickly. It has allowed me to truly understand how to maximize my membership!

Great content and very helpful as always. As you said, Paul, so many helpful educational venues like this weren’t available when many of us first purchased but they are awesome now to keep even “old timers” up to date on the ever-changing rules and procedures! My main regret is similar to Jeff’s - we purchased our first 250 pt contract at SSR in 2008 during a 12-day WDW trip while staying at Coronado with our then 11 and 8 yr olds, but as WA State residents who mainly visit Anaheim, we were very excited about the impending DVC at VGC and planned to also purchase there when it was built. We did a couple years later but only 100 pts; what I wish I would have done (had I understood better how home resort priority works, etc.) was purchase a smaller contract at SSR and a larger contract at VGC, since we tend to stay there more often (and in hindsight, the VGC pts are worth a lot more now LOL). We’ve only stayed at SSR twice - both times on our way to or from a DCL cruise (once in a treehouse), but have used our points to stay at Beach Club, AKL (Kidani), OKW (and 4 stays at Aulani) so that’s awesome. We love our stays at VGC, but since it can be hard to get in there, we recently purchased an add on at VDH and hope to stay there for the first time next summer (your discussion made me realize I will have 2024 AND 2025 VDH points to use for a mid-June 2025 stay - YAY! 😊). So I think I’ve heard the “buy where you want to stay” which I think is a good motto, but obviously not quite as important if you live close enough to pop over to WDW-area resorts and don’t have to plan as far in advance as we do!

Not finding DVC resale SOONEr!!! The deals we got on aulani and AK. Unreal.

I own an RCI timeshare, and they make you pay your dues on future points if you're going to borrow them. I always end up paying my dues a year in advance in order to borrow. DVC is so much nicer.

Hands down my favourite show. You guys are hilarious ❤😂

We bought AKL and OKW contract thanks to resale both site unseen. What makes this better is we have done Holiday resort tours (self guided) and a few DVC tours. Now I need Aulani- not planning a trip till 2026

Jeff: buy where you want to stay!! I bought 300 at CCV. No regrets!

Panda has the best stories ❤

Shout out to WV!!! I also def watched Panda’s commercial, and I’m currently looking at buying a Trapper Keeper for my 48 year old self.

Good video. Looking to sell my okw contract. I’ve had it since 1993 but now children are all grown and not really interested in it. I really enjoyed using it all these years.

Could you guys please do a Glossary video? I know all of these terms like “Use Year”, “Direct”, “Resale”, etc are all second nature to you, but it’s a completely foreign language to us newbies. Thanks.

This was such a helpful show! Thank you for the information!

This was very helpful for me, thank you for the information. There really is a lot to learn about using your DVC points.

Thanks Amy for the clarification at the end of video. I was very confused at that point as to how to use diversified points. (A lot of assuming that viewers know) A step by step video as to how to book diversified points would be helpful.

At the time “2005” when i purchased direct, I was only offered SSR at the time that’s what was being sold. The question never came up about other availability. I don’t have any regrets though. Fast forward I have since purchased 2 more direct smaller contracts regrets: not knowing about the resale market.

So easy to get confused on our contract which is a December use year. It takes concentration! 😅😅

Actually by watching the DVC Fan I avoided mistakes so far. Did the DVC presentation in 2016 on the Fantasy and decided not for me. Got hooked in 22 with a stay with family member points at AK 2 bedroom savanna view! But waited little over a year to buy with cash for the July VGF! Only 150 pts direct. Thank you Guys and Gals!!!! 🎉

My big mistake was thinking I would need 1/3 of the points. I figured oh I go every two to three years, so I looked at how many points it would be to book a two bedroom in December (the highest month at the time) and I divided by three😮. Big mistake. With the exception of the pandemic, I have gone every year since purchasing. And quickly realized I had to add on. 🤷‍♀️ Lesson learned 😅

My first stay as a new DVC (resale) member was this past March. I went to the Poly. Didn’t get a “Welcome Home,” waited at the front desk for a good 5 minutes before I was finally greeted by someone in the pod of cast members that was standing around chatting, and was never offered a lei or for my luggage to be stored, despite my room not being ready. Needless to say, was NOT the best start. That said, I come to Disney probably 3-4x a year now at least and am fairly knowledgeable about stuff so I didn’t necessarily need pomp and circumstance to welcome me. It just really would have been nice!

Amy...Aulani is pronounced...Ah-oo-lah-knee. And when you say it fast and all together, it will sound correct!

We bought 200OKW and separated the points in 150 and 50. Now I wish we had done 150 and the other 50 at AK, Rivera or another resort that has studios in lower point values like Boardwalk. Many times we won’t need a large room and OKW takes more points for something that sleeps 5. We may never stay there. So far we just got back from Boardwalk, have the cabins booked, DLH booked and Hawaii. Looking at maybe using the rest of Oct use years at Rivera.

Lol “going a full Jeff Haslam”… 😂😂😂

We recently lost 4 points too. Booked a last minute cruise (88 days away). The only room available was GF resort studio, so we reserved it, borrowing the points. The following Monday, a room at our home resort (plus several other resorts), so I modified my reservation and orphaned 4 borrowed points.

Is Derek the one who steals the lamps from the Poly LOL jkjk

Just love this group! I look forward to your posts. Just bought resale AK from your company…very excited!

Great video, should be a mandatory video for any new buyers. :-) I learned a couple new things myself and been a member for years.

Years ago I was with a friend when Copper Creek just opened and we didn’t know they sold anything else. We saw the two bedroom and I didn’t want there so thought that was it. We walked over and looked on our own, was told nothing so left and never thought about it again till years later seeing RU-vidrs talk about it.

Based on the banter, I thought Jeff's last name would have been pronounced "Hassle Him". 😁

Our out of the pandemic upgrade was from a 2 br at RR to a 3br grand Villa. There was an issue with our reserved 2 br, where the prior guests trashed the room and shorted the tv out.

We bought AKL completely unseen and it is the perfect match . We lucked out!

Aulani, like Maui. That’s how I remember it.

We bought in 2014 and were told that we could only buy at Grand Floridian.

Saved by the bell that's the show I'm thinking of.

I'm thinking I'll never decide where I want to buy because I want to stay at them all!! Lol!

Visiting the different resorts with a car is pretty hard at Christmas time. I tried to stop in at the Annimator

Great show!

I originally bought 50 direct Hilton Head points in 2017, bought 50 resale Saratoga Springs points in January 2024 and just closed on 100 direct Riviera points in June 2024....my "mistake" is getting Hilton Head since I really don't care to stay there & the dues are high!

I kinda want another use year because of those September rates (use year October). But so far chicken. I will say our guide does know our weakness and has them noted and just recently called. Probably because our direct is GF and that’s sold out. Great show!

We first bought in 1996. We own three resorts and five different use years.

We also bought at the Polynesian without ever staying! Was kinda a mistake as we realized we like 1 bedrooms but now with the Poly tower maybe It will pay off🤷‍♂️

We purchased our OKW contract in 1993 and we only needed 190 points (not 210 at that time).

Awesome show

waiting patiently for a smaaaallll BWV OCT uy to come up, will not look at diff UY. 💜💚We also took the tour on our Honeymoon back in 1997 while staying at Dixie Landings! It was selling BWV or OKW and would have costed us 9,000. We also like Derek didnt do it because we ended up buying a new Condo townhome. We waited years later to buy in and paid cash.

The guard did not want to let me in. I just wanted to run in to get a mug from the shop.

Pandas logic I think doesn’t check out though? He’s saying if he could do it over again he would buy at SSR or OKW and that he could still go to Riviera but I thought if you owned resale you couldn’t use your points at RIV? I might be totally jumbled lol

Mine is getting a resale at RR with a different use year as our direct contract at RR. Direct RR and AKL and SSR resale all have Oct UY. Resale RR UY is Dec. And what a pain to use in connection with the direct RR. I never lost points before this and that is the contract where I lost 7 points the year before last. My new strategy is just to bank and borrow the RR resale and not combine it with the RR direct 🤷‍♂️

We 620 OKW points and bought the extension. We still have to end up borrowing some years. 😅

How about an episode on renting points. I had some points that I couldn't move to the next year so I tried the DVC Rental Store for the first time. It was fairly easy, but I had so many questions about why some pay more than others, when I get a match is that resort even available, should I wait for a 75 point match or do a few smaller matches. Every time I log on it says there 800 people on the site so I assume it would be a popular topic to discuss. Thanks!

I forgot to bank my points once..... Worst mistake Thankfully disney worked it out for me after some prodding though... 112 points going down the drain would suck

lol Aulani = "owl-ahny" (51:20) 🙂

So when y’all get chance go over on the process of how to back step by step pleas

Love the podcast, but big mistake is cast members feel weird or helpless with DVC guest expectations for they paid a lot of money, but cast members are told create magic for everyone.

Not paying attention or thinking about banking/borrowing points. Those are final transactions! Or you’ll be like me and get yourself in a situation where some points are stuck in a use year when you need them.

Would it be possible to do a show on using your points International. Please and Thank You!

What was the reasoning why they excluded the 4 months?

I didn’t realize it was possible to purchase 25 points if using cash. Did i hear that right?

Knowing what I know now,, I would have looked for Old Key West instead of Hilton Head or Vero Beach when I bought three years ago. Edited to add: I have a similar story as Jeff. 7 of our 8 pre-DVC stays were All Star or Pop Century. In 2013, Disney offered a $20 a night upgrade from value to moderate. We stayed at Riverside that year.

What is approx price for 2 people for parks and food for a week in wdw. If you have dvc. And then there's travel costs as well. Also is it worth it for a couple in there 50s ,kids grown, 1 grandkid so far, but dnt know if you would vacation with them all together anymore. Can extended family use it without us there.

This episode brought so many questions to mind for me! I'd like to buy direct for the perks but I have no interest in the current offerings. I'd love some points at the Boardwalk. Will the price per point be comparable with resale prices or will it be the same $225-range for current offerings?

I’m still confused about points in holding. Lol Wait does a revolving 60 days mean?

Are the Direct membership perks permanent as long as you own any contract? If I buy direct and buy resale, but then sell the direct contract, do I keep the perks?

Can a large contract be split? If I were to buy a 400 pt contract, can I later split it to give each of daughters a 200 pt contract?

ah-oo-lani

What if you have a September use year go on vacation Labor Day week every year and there's a hurricane do we get our points back.

Your mistake was OKW