Hey, everybody and welcome to this week's episode of the DVC
Show. I am Paul, your host this week,
and I'm joined at the table by my lovely wife, Amy Krieger.
Hello, sales associate with the DVC resale market, Danny
Metzger. Hi there.
And also sales associate with DVC resale market Linda Smith.
Hey. Everyone.
And back in the production Nook. And we're not going to just keep
him quiet this week. Week The lovely Craig Williams.
Hoy Hoy. Thank you all for joining us and
tuning in to the DVC Show. As always, if you love the
content that we produce here at DVC Fan, please show some love
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at the DVC rental store so please.
Show some love for our sponsors. This week's topic is kind of a
little bit of fun, one that I thought we could discuss, which
is is DVC for everyone. And we've already had a little
bit of a conversation here in the room about Disney Vacation
Club. But I I think I will.
I will get this started with something that I mentioned a
couple minutes ago to all of us, which is that I feel like DVC at
some point is for everyone. It's just finding that.
The right point in in your life where it might make sense, You
might never get to that point, but I think people maybe are too
dismissive of it at the point in which maybe it is for them
versus just being open to the concept of Disney Vacation Club.
Because if you are someone that loves Disney and Disney travel,
then there's no reason why you wouldn't want to potentially
invest in that travel over the course of your life.
Knowing that you're going to come back here again and again
and again, and I say here, but there's also multiple other
places that you can go when it comes to Disney Vacation Club.
And I think it's good to start with us.
You know, when it came to Disney Vacation Club, we didn't think
it was for us. You've got me like I feel like a
deer in a headlights because I was not expecting you to say it
was for everybody at some point in time.
Because now I'm like, going to my head.
I'm like, OK, it's not for my dad.
It's not for, you know, but. A Disney fan a.
Disney fan people. That come to Disney?
No, not the person. Not the person that travels to
Wyoming and vacations in Wyoming every year.
Probably not for you. I'm sorry, but I think people
that are listening to this or that have like come to Disney
and seen a DVC booth at some point in their life and been
like like it was me. Like that.
I was that person that just sort of shrugged it off.
And yet here I am, years later, working and selling and all that
kind of fun stuff. When it comes to Disney fans,
people who like to go to Disney year after year after year, I
think Disney Vacation Club can be for a lot of them.
But I still think that there are people that it does not does not
fit with and those are people that.
Maybe. They don't really care about the
resort they're staying in. They don't really.
They look at their hotel as, you know, this is where I sleep at
night and as long as it's clean and safe, then then I want the
best deal possible because I'm spending all day in the parks.
It does not matter where I stay. And those types of people, if
they're even staying on property at all, are probably going to be
happier staying at like, you know, like the value resorts and
those, I don't think, I think those still kind of remain.
Lower price than DVC, but if you are like we were and you stayed
in moderate level resorts, you came, you know, often multiple
times a year, or at least consistently every single year,
then then it's definitely worth considering buying DVC.
But I I don't think it is for every single Disney fan out
there. I genuinely love this topic and
I know that might seem weird because I.
Like Paul just said, I literally sell Disney Vacation Club.
But my favorite part about my job is that I get to genuinely
build connections and relationships with my clients
and my members and and be that like counselor for you, right.
And so I love when I'm talking to a family and getting to know
the family and you know. I could say to you it might not
be a good fit for you at this time, but I think it's all about
why and understanding why. And again, like Paul said, just
because it's not a good fit for you right now at this point in
your life, the way that you are vacationing doesn't necessarily
mean it's never going to be a good fit for you.
It's just understanding why and when and so.
Just to give you some examples of like someone who I would
literally, they would come to me ask about DVC and I would
literally tell them this is not for you.
Like kind of a jolting thing to hear from a person who literally
is selling you DVC. So if you are the type of family
that you come to Disney once every five or ten years, DVC is
not for you yet, now. Renting points might be a really
good option for you to get your feet wet.
Or maybe this is like your first or second Disney trip ever and
you're like okay. I like this, but I'm not sure if
I'm going to do it enough. Start with DVC rental store and
you know, rent those points. Get your feet wet, see if it's
going to be something that you even like to do.
But. Again, DVC is not for the family
who does not do Disney trips. So if you like every year you do
an international trip and you, you know, have this goal to see
all the countries in the world, it might not be a good fit for
you right now. So that's just one of the many.
Well, and I like the point you brought up about rental as well
because it does make it attainable to those people to.
You're pointing me that don't care where they stay necessarily
because those people that are staying in a moderate level
property or in some cases even a value level property, those
those prices that you're paying, it can be attainable to get a
DVC resort on the rental market for that price.
And so now you're staying in an even better accommodation.
You know you don't care where you're going to stay or anything
like that. So you're staying in that
property that is so much nicer now.
And that probably gets some wheels turning when it comes to
the product and what Disney Vacation Club is.
And I think you can't ignore the fact that I can't tell you,
maybe Art of Animation was the last fullblown resort that
they've built since since Disney Vacation Club has been around
that's not had DVC associated with it.
I know they added on the tower, the Grand Astino tower at
Coronado, but like, for them? Even Disney itself, they're
acknowledging that there's value in this product and so it should
make you kind of question, huh, this DVC thing maybe, maybe is
something I should look into and not dismiss also.
It doesn't have to be. All or nothing either.
Like, I literally just got done traveling around the entire
world. I went to 20 different countries
and so was Disney every trip that I took.
Of course not. So you could do a combination of
the two. It doesn't mean that every trip
you ever have to do from here on out has to be at Disney.
So you know when I was looking at DVC when I purchased.
It was like, is a 500 point package going to be right for me
right now? At this point, no.
So I started lower. I still do my international
trips, but I also get my Disney trips in there as well.
So there are other alternatives as well.
And I think you have to step back and really consider the
person that you're speaking to her that you know, in our case
years ago or on the ships or what have you that're sitting in
front of us, and find out what's important to that person.
Are they there investigating you and did they come to see you or
did they call you up or reach out to you because they're
curious? Did they reach out to you
because there is that family time that's very, very important
to them. And I learned a long time ago
and I'll try and make it a quick story, is that when I was in
Vero Beach, the grand opening team, way back when, a very
distinguished gentleman came to see me and he was considerably
older. Quite well off.
He was retired banker on Wall Street and they had a beautiful
home in Vero Beach, and he was in the resort with me.
And he came to look at Disney Vacation Club and he brought in
a pad of paper and he had a billion questions about it.
And we sat there and we went through his questions.
And I was starting to think, you know, this is just not going to
be probably for this gentleman, some of the questions he's
asking me. But the more we talked together,
the more I realized what was really important to him.
It was the family time and he said, Linda, I've got four adult
children, I've got 11 grandkids and I can't get them all
together. I can give him money, I can give
him money when I retire. I'm perfectly comfortable doing
that, but they'll just go blow it on something else.
But if I could give him a gift of a vacation and bring us
together even every so many years, to me that's what I want
to do. So see, it wasn't him that was
really going to use the membership the most.
It was the family that was going to use the membership the most.
And do you know, then very next year he brought 17 people down
for Thanksgiving and they went to Disney World. 17 people,
little, the youngest one was just an infant.
And then they came over to Vera Beach and finished off the
vacation and they had the beach cottage.
And when the wife was let in because she wanted to cook the
Turkey, that was her family tradition.
So I think the value of Disney Vacation Club has many different
meanings to different people. You can be a Disney person and
do nothing to go to the parks. You can be somebody like me that
bought in that used it but love to go skiing in Colorado with
it. That was very important to me.
You went around the world. You could probably sit down and
check off a couple of those countries you could use your
points at. So I think, I think, you know,
I'm being honest now. I've only told one person in all
my years this is not for you, and they didn't take it very
well. That was like my first couple
years I saw. They don't like to hear.
They're like, why would you tell us that?
And I said, well, just kind of the questions and answers that
are going through. And do you know that in six
months later, they called back and they did buy, they bought a
small package to try it out. So there's going to be, and
there's nothing wrong with those people that come and look at it.
They're curious. They would get all the facts.
You've spent the time, you've done your job and for whatever
reason they make that decision. But you know what?
That's fine because they may go tell their friends.
Or someone in their family. I think this might be for you.
Here's Linda's card. Who's Danny's card?
Want to reach out to them? You know, you never know how
it's going to touch people. You you brought something up
that kind of triggered a thought, and you know who DVC is
for who They think that it's not for workaholics.
Oh yeah, you. Know those people?
They're just like, I haven't taken a vacation in 10 years,
but you know, we used to get it on the cruise all the time.
I'm here with my family. I've never my kids, have never
told me they've loved me so many times in my life because this is
the first vacation that I have taken with them in X amount of
years. And it's like, so they think,
you know, I don't vacation, so DVC isn't for me, but DVC is
going to make you take. That vacation.
So that's someone who you know, I think a lot of times would
think that it isn't for them. But we're like, OK, we need to
have a therapy session. Right now.
We're going to have some hard truths.
We're going to we're going to have some some hard
conversations right now and and just remember at the end of the
day, like if it really is not for you, if you call up any DVC
resale market guides, we don't want you to have this if it's
not a good fit for you. Because guess what?
You're going to be, you know, online like they sold me this
thing and I never use it. We're we're going to be very
transparent and very honest with you and get to know you and your
family and your lifestyle and and see if it's a good fit for
you. And you know what?
There's three things that we hear from members all the time.
We wish we had bought sooner. We wished we had bought more
points. Best thing we ever did.
And worst case scenario. If it's not the best thing you
ever did, just call us back. We'll sell it for you or you can
rent out your points if, you know, I think that's a big
concern for a lot of people too, is like, what if there's a year
that I don't want to do Disney or there's always those, like
it's like 4 years where the kids go to college and and they don't
want to hang out with, you know, the the family.
And it's like what do we do in those four years?
There are other alternatives to it.
So I think it's really important to explore that, you know?
You have banking and borrowing your points.
So if you're not going to use the points one year, you can
bank them into the next year, do something huge the next year Or
if there is that gap, that four year gap or whatever, or you
want to take an international trip that you wouldn't typically
take, just rent your points out and then that'll cover your dues
for the year plus some. One of the reasons I was most
excited for this topic is I think if there's been one person
in the four years that I've known him who has not expressed
much interest in DVC, he is in this room today and that would
be Mr. Craig Williams. So I thought it'd be fun to have
Craig chime in on this topic a little bit.
And Craig, I think we'll just start a little bit with just,
you know, what has, what is your overall impression of DVC and
why has it been something that you've not been that interested
in? I OK.
First things first, we have to make very clear.
I have a very strange job that sees me put up into hotel rooms
a lot of my, you know, lot of the time for absolutely no cost
at all because it's because of work.
On top of that, to media events where I'm given hotel rooms to
stay on property, so I stay on Disney property quite a bit it.
Is 100% my work and do I want to then invest in a place that
brings me that I mostly associate with work anymore?
Not really. I still find special moments
with Disney and I love Walt Disney World.
I, you know, I cannot get enough of it.
That's why I continue to do this.
But I when I'm planning trips involved with Disney, it's on
Disney Cruise Line and it's to Disneyland and.
We do know the challenges of DVC and Disneyland.
Y'all talk about that enough. I know it'll probably get easier
with the new tower at Disneyland Hotel, but you know, I I thought
maybe I could get involved with DVC because of that.
But then I kind of backed off on that and I said the same thing
again with the cabins at Fort Wilderness because that's the
only place on property that I ever like doing.
Staycations at it For my family, we have a dog that has seizures,
that needs medication a lot of the day.
So it's not as easy as just like, oh, we'll stick them in
the kennel for the weekend and go away because we know that,
you know, something bad happens in the middle of the night.
We're we're missing out on that. So we literally need to have.
Someone's vacuuming outside, I believe.
So we need to like we have to have everything in place so we
can actually vacation the way we want to.
You know, my family has to be taking care of everything.
Now we have the new addition of a child in our family that makes
life even more stressful. So staycations are something
that we rarely, rarely, rarely ever got to do.
And it's it's something that we we still don't.
And I don't think we'll ever be able to do in the future.
And then also to trying not to lose my train of thought with
it, like talk about disconnecting.
Unfortunately when you work for Pete Werner, that is not an
option and you are not allowed to do that unless you are on a
cruise. And so for me, a cruise is still
the best way that I can go on and be like, oops, I didn't buy
the Internet package. I'm so sorry, I.
I actually can't be on my phone for that long because if I have
a cell phone connection, I'm expected to check in.
So I'm in a very unique circumstance in terms of how I I
see Disney. And then beyond that too, I I
shared with the group earlier that I'm I'm really starting to
move on like with how I'm traveling when I do get time to
travel with trying to hit national parks and.
I am sometimes very, very thrifty with the deals I'm
looking for with hotels and how to really stretch the dollar.
And so when I add up everything, DVC just isn't something for me.
Maybe one day if grandkids are ever in the picture and do hear
that story of you want to get all the family together, maybe
go at it from that direction, but that's that's.
Long into my future, right? Now, yeah, it's, I mean it makes
perfect sense as to why it's not, it's it's not beneficial to
you now, you know, like you said, you know you're at Disney
always, you know, you're put up in rooms to review these rooms
and stuff like that. It's just not something that
makes sense to spend your own money on.
But as you ended with, you know, who knows what the future brings
you? Are you in Florida?
Are you working related to the travel industry?
You know what? What does that future mean?
And what does Disney then mean or what does Disney Vacation
Club mean to you At that point, Amy and I are kind of in the
same boat as as you mentioned, which is that with our vacation,
it's not that we don't still disconnect with DVCI still think
we do. I still love more than anything
like taking a long weekend and doing that at at a Disney
Vacation Club property because for me some of my work gets I I
get inspired to do some of it there.
So you you always find inspiration when you're like.
In the bubble kind of and that kind of stuff.
But for that full disconnect, we just did an Alaskan cruise with
Royal Caribbean and now Amy has this dream of us becoming
Diamond Platinum plus members of the Royal Caribbean, I mean you.
Get free drink vouchers. What else do you want?
There's no other reason to spend thousands, about thousands of
dollars on cruises, but it's the same sort of thing, You know,
it's we want to see more of the world we want to see.
Other things I mean, I know too, you choose where you want to buy
into DVC and it's a lot easier when you do it resale and you
can find the contract that's at the right price for everything
that you want at the right resort.
But I also don't like a lot of the DVC resort properties like I
I don't like Bay Lake Tower. There is nothing about it
besides top of the world. There is nothing about it until
they completely remodel that entire thing that I will never
like it. Old Key West is my least
favorite part of Walt Disney World property, and I know that
always gets me into a lot of trouble.
Old Key West reminds me of the very first apartment condo that
I lived in all the way off of 27 in Davenport because it has the
exact same color scheme and looks almost the exact same from
the outside. Yeah, and it's just it brings me
nightmares of being my absolute poorest.
And I thought you were just going to say you were a bad
golfer. No, no, I am a bad golfer too.
But yeah, so like, I don't like that Saratoga just doesn't vibe
with me. Of course I love everything at
Wilderness Lodge. Polynesian.
I've been lucky enough to stay in the DVC side multiple times
and always enjoy it. Animal Kingdom Lodge, without a
doubt. So there's there's ones that can
get me, but then you stick me in like a.
Viera and I'm like, I don't understand what people are
seeing in this property because I hate it so much.
Now, you mentioned earlier the new cabin edition at Fort
Wilderness being something that's appealing to you.
What just sort of made that more interesting?
Because it is. I I hate saying that Fort
Wilderness isn't like being in Florida because Orlando also
isn't like being in Florida. You know, once you get far
enough north or South or any direction, Florida all of a
sudden has a very unique wildlife and in just nature.
And so actually Fort Wilderness is doing a good job of capturing
what Florida is like outside of the Disney bubble in a way and.
I I love the cabin aesthetic. I I love that you know you're
right next to all your neighbors, but you also don't
feel like you're on top of each other.
You know everyone can be sitting out on their patios, having a
cookout without feeling like you're encroaching on each
other. And I know obviously riding
around on golf carts around that property is always fun.
So it in it it in its of itself is just a great place to stay
and. Yeah with with DVC coming in and
refreshing that's the one thing that could like truly sell me on
it because the cabins, as much as I love them they've also been
very dated since the last refurb they went through.
It's we live in a time period where we don't want things dark
and I don't want to say damp in that way too but that's kind of
how it is they they don't allow a lot of natural light and and
it's just not the most. It's it's a cabin experience,
but it's not the most pleasant. Add in some natural light, like
really make the interior something special.
Add more Disney touches in there.
All of a sudden you could have like a you could have a premier
property on hand. And that's something I will if I
love it enough, I will go out of my way to say no.
I do want to stay here for a couple nights each year and make
that my time where I say no, I'm cutting off Pete.
Don't, please don't call me. Don't call me.
Throw, throw the phone in the lake and go.
I don't know what happened. I was on I.
Was. How did I get into airplane mode
for all those? Days, I don't know how to use
this new phone or something like that.
And and to that point about Fort Wilderness that you made about
sort of escaping Florida a little bit, that's something
that Amy and I have said since we moved down here and I know
that we're kind of from the same neck of the woods almost, is
that we didn't really appreciate, I think Fort
Wilderness. Or Wilderness Lodge as much as
we do now that we are Floridians because it it does, even though
it's Pacific Northwest, it's still pine trees.
It kind of gives that feel of home for us, which which makes
me want to go back there. And so it's definitely ever
since we moved, you know, Copper Creek, Boulder Ridge, Fort
Wilderness, all of that has moved significantly up in our
interest list. Because it does give us those
memories at home. It's the idea that you could
walk out into trees and you know you only have to worry about
deer, maybe like rattlesnakes. Every now and then.
It's in Florida that's completely different.
It's like 100 different ways you can die just by walking into a
wooded area. If if you are really savvy too
and and you are one of those people you know, you were kind
of saying that you like you like the challenge of like finding a
really good deal, I would encourage you also to start.
Like if you do want to get your feet wet, start with a really
small point package like A50 pointer.
You obviously can't do that if you're buying direct, but if you
buy resell, you could start with a really small point package.
You could do just like a few nights here and there at Disney
or bank and borrow your points and do like a whole week.
But I'd be really interested to see like what kind of trips you
make out of that small point package and then if it's a good
fit for you, great you add on, you know when it's right for
your life and if not, you sell it.
And those small point packages sell really quickly, I mean
within hours most of the time. True.
And you know, it's interesting. Sometimes people also it's very
smart, you know, from a financial standpoint to buy that
small point package because that's what you can afford.
And I would much rather see a young couple buy A50 or a 70
point package than not buy at all and continue to rent and
pull money out of pocket or put the vacation on the credit card
and it takes them a long time to pay it off.
Put that money, you're going to stay anyway.
Buy that small package because you'd be amazed how many times
over the years people let out on Okay.
I'm going to buy another 50 now I can afford another hundred.
And now it goes up and goes up. But to the topic of the day, I
think you know Disney Vacation Club.
Who it belongs to depends on the person.
And where they're at. And life changes, life changes.
Where you can do things when you're much longer, younger from
a financial standpoint and get away from work and jobs and all
that is different than that person I was describing that
came in not to buy for himself, but buying for the kids and the
grandkids and what we always call the family legacy.
And if you talk to anyone who has like 1000 points now, I mean
like look at Pete like he didn't start with the number of points
that he has now your life is going to change and so.
Like, you know, don't get so caught up.
I think that's one thing that a lot of people do is they'll look
at that point package and or that point chart I should say.
And you you do, you start dreaming and you start planning
and you're like, Oh well, if I had 200 points, I could do this
or I could do this, but and so you're like, OK, I need 400
points. It's like you don't have to
start there, just get. In Even if it's fifty points,
like get in, see how your family is going to use it, see how
creative you can get with those points.
I mean, you'd be surprised how far a 50 point contract can take
you. Like you can get super creative
with it, but just like get started, you don't have to start
with an astronomical amount of points.
That's the cool thing about BBC. And it increases your quality of
life. I mean, my gosh, look at, you
know, 50 points. I believe it's nine points a
night. And John O House.
Yeah, in a value studio, I just wish they'd call it John by the
studio that makes more more sense to me.
But nine points a night, 50 points in a room that's worth
rack rate about $600 a night before room tax at 12, 1/2,
exactly so. You could do a week in Aulani
with 50 points, Like that's mind blowing.
But if you're creative enough and you, you know you're not
going to. Go to Alani every single year.
But if you're creative enough, you can do a Hawaii dream
vacation at Alani with A50 point package.
Yeah. So I think, I think the bottom
line is if you want to go to Disney, then then you should
definitely look at Disney Vacation Club, right?
It's definitely for the Disney fan that wants to go to Disney,
that wants to stay at Alani, Walt Disney World, Disneyland,
where you know, wherever, but if you're not going to Disney.
Disney Vacation Club is most valuable being used at Disney
Vacation Club resorts. So if you're not going right to
those Disney Vacation Club resorts, then you might want to
start thinking if CBC is for you.
Yeah, and I think the real, the real thing I wanted to bring
home with this topic was to really get the wheels spinning
with those people that just dismissed Disney Vacation Club
before they ever even think about it, before they ever even
think about what it means. Not necessarily to them, but
Linda, to your point. To maybe their spouse, to maybe
their kids, Craig, to your point, to grandkids potentially
down the road, you don't know where life will take you.
So you know, thinking about the product in that more futuristic
realm potentially, I think that. I I kind of double down on what
I say it is for anyone that is within this Disney space and
loves doing Disney or has family members that love doing Disney,
loves being a part of Disney. I think that there is a time and
place where it is for everyone. It's just whether or not that
aligns with when you're potentially looking at at at
purchasing that. And when you want variety too,
because you know Disney's very, very important.
It was founded by Walt Disney World.
This was, I think, Walt Disney's dream.
That he didn't get to see for families to be able to stay in
homes in Disney. He didn't get to see that.
And that's what Disney Vacation Club has created and evolved and
saved all this money. But don't forget those 3200
other places that become deportant to people like me, the
ski vacations. That I'll tell you what, you
could go to Colorado and ski peak week in a one bedroom for
150 or 100. It's either 150 or 160 vacation
points. You can't go stay in a one
bedroom at Disney for peak week for 150.
That's peak. That's like, that's New Year's.
That is the best time, busiest time, so don't when you get
tired of the theme park idea, just know that there's other
life for you. There's that castle in Ireland,
you can go do so. It goes on and on.
I think another. Person type of people, group of
people, I should say, who I I I talked to them a lot, maybe
initially think that DVC isn't for them, and then actually end
up joining our cast members because you know, you get that
cast discount. So you think, what do I need DVC
for? I get this cast discount to stay
and all of the properties, but anyone who's been a cast member
for a long time also knows that you have that inflation piece.
And so I get cast members all the time that will.
End up buying. And they're like, I really
should have done this a long time ago.
If I, if I would have known that even with my cast discount, it
was going to be hundreds of dollars to stay at any of these,
you know, Disney properties, I would have done it a lot sooner.
So I thought that was interesting as well.
DVC is for everyone. Come, come full circle.
All right. I think that was great.
Thank you, Craig, for sort of chiming in this week on the on
the show. So I greatly appreciate that and
I hope you all enjoyed it and we will see you all with next
week's DBC show.