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2026 Annual Dues posted, up to 9% increase for resorts

Disstevefan1

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
The dues is literal robbery.

This could be fake news, but I heard they are obligated to use only 25 percent of the dues for maintenance and can pocket the rest.
 
nickys

nickys

Premium Member
Disstevefan1 said:
The dues is literal robbery.

This could be fake news, but I heard they are obligated to use only 25 percent of the dues for maintenance and can pocket the rest.
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Nothing is pocketed. 🙄

They pay for the operating costs and upkeep of the resort.

To be more specific, Annual dues cover operating expenses (housekeeping, transportation, maintenance, utilities, Front Desk services), administrative expenses (Member Services, member mailings, insurance), refurbishment expenses (updating and maintaining the interior, exterior, and common areas), and real estate taxes (property taxes). Any Disney CM pay rise also has to be covered for all resort and admin staff.

Every resort that is “shared” like the Poly or Boardwalk pays a share of the operating costs of the whole resort. Stand-alone resorts obviously have to pay the full amount.

There has to be a capital reserves fund for each resort added to each year for the cost of the refurbs (roughly every 7 years).

And every member gets a breakdown of where the money goes.

By law they can only charge what it costs to maintain and operate the resorts. With a maximum of 15% going to the admin (staff costs etc) at Member Services & Accounting.

Other than property taxes, the maximum possible increase is 10%.
 
AkiraRaptor

AkiraRaptor

Meega, nala kwishta!
We bought in 2007 and have been going every year since. Even twice a year the last 2 years. We used to spend $3000 or more for the resort room stay every year. Now we only have the yearly annual dues (of which are about $1100 a year now for the number of points we own). Our initial cost was about $15K. And the room type we still get costs a minimum of $3600 for 4 nights if you'd pay cash.

So, if we just paid the $3K for the last 18 years we'd be in for $54K at that base amount. If you use the current dues amount (and it was around $900 when we started 18 years ago), but we'll just use the $1100 for simplicity but the real number would less over time. So, $15K + $19,800 is $34,800. I'd say a $19,200+ savings has been good for us.

The trick with DVC is you have to use it. We do, every year. We've even saved up points so we could get 2 bedrooms some years and take down family and friends. So they didn't have to pay any resort fees at all. It's not for everyone, but for us, since we go every single year, it's paid for itself easily over the years.
 
Basil of Baker Street

Basil of Baker Street

Well-Known Member
yaksplat said:
Yeah. It's horrible staying at the Polynesian 10 nights a year for $1600. Next, you're going to tell me that it's not more valuable now than when I purchased it.
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No, I going to tell you that I've visited many places other than just Disney with $ I would have spent with my initial investment plus yearly dues.

Soooo, I'm glad I never bought into this.
 
SplashJacket

SplashJacket

Well-Known Member
DVC has always been worth it for people who stay at Disney resorts every year and will for the next 50 years.

Added bonus if you go during non-peak times.

If you do Disney cheaply (stay off-site), or like flexibility (infrequent, sporadic, or last-minute trips) it’s not for you.

Most people fall in the latter category (as do I), but for the former group, it does add value.
 
HauntedPirate

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
Not to get all philosophical and whatnot, but DVC was "worth it" prior to 2015. 2015-2019, new resort pricing was "ok". Since then, the price point doesn't support the value prop. I say that as an owner of 2 contracts, the last one purchased in 2019. There's no way we would buy in as new owners at current prices. The 2019 purchase was difficult enough to justify, but things that have happened since then around prices in general that make adding any additional points a hard "NO" for us now. And keeping all of our existing points is becoming harder to justify.
 
Ayla

Ayla

Well-Known Member
yaksplat said:
Yeah. It's horrible staying at the Polynesian 10 nights a year for $1600. Next, you're going to tell me that it's not more valuable now than when I purchased it.
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Your points were free? Awesome deal that you never paid anything other than maintenance fees. (Yes, that is sarcasm. It's like DVC owners have forgotten the tens of thousands of dollars they've already paid. 😂 )
 
Chi84

Chi84

Premium Member
Basil of Baker Street said:
No, I going to tell you that I've visited many places other than just Disney with $ I would have spent with my initial investment plus yearly dues.

Soooo, I'm glad I never bought into this.
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I would never have bought into it if it would have restricted our visits to other places.

But I can say that we benefited immeasurably with our every other year family vacation.
 
nickys

nickys

Premium Member
Ayla said:
Your points were free? Awesome deal that you never paid anything other than maintenance fees. (Yes, that is sarcasm. It's like DVC owners have forgotten the tens of thousands of dollars they've already paid. 😂 )
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Yes, they have. But after a while, there is a break-even point, where the value of the vacations taken surpass the up-front cost + fees to date.

At that point the vacation nights each year cost only the annual dues.
 
AkiraRaptor

AkiraRaptor

Meega, nala kwishta!
ToTBellHop said:
Wonder what the break-even is for a new contract. It's incredible how much the price has risen over the last decade.
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When we purchased in 2007 the sale pitch was it took about 7 years. That would be 1 stay each year for 5 days / 6 nights in a savanna room. Our points were bought at 95 each.

With today's average at around 240 (yikes!) at say the Poly, and staying in a theme park water view, it would be about 6-7 years depending upon the time of year costs. Factor in yearly dues, and it would defiantly be 7 years, maybe 8.

So I'd say the points increases have matched the cash room increases over the years keeping the 7 year pitch still true.
 
LuvtheGoof

LuvtheGoof

DVC Guru
Premium Member
We bought in 2007 for under $90/point direct and have 400 points now. I have a spreadsheet that I track every cost and every trip with DVC. Even figuring the best discounts for the times we have gone, we have saved over $88,000 in resort costs alone. For example, we just took a week long trip in a 3 bdr grand villa at SSR with all the family. Paying cash for the room would have cost us $18,221 just for this one trip! Our dues are just over $3,469 for this year, and even though we needed more points, our dues total for the needed points was still under $5,000. Quite the savings I would say.

It can still be affordable compared to the Disney resort room cost. So just some basic math. I just checked a Poly Deluxe Studio Resort View for October 3-10. To buy from Disney, the room alone is $8,724.39 for the week. This cost does not include tickets at all - just the room. If using points, it is 185 for the exact same dates. Current new buyer price for Poly is $226/point for 200 points. So the buy in would be $45,200. The current dues cost is $7.93/point, so dues for the year are $1,586. We will have to make an assumption here that the resort price and the dues will each go up about the same each year. Of course, there can be differences as some years the resort cost goes up a lot more than the dues, but some years the dues go up a bit more, but over that period it all should even out. Anyway, if we look at a 10 year period for that same cost, the resort room would have cost you $87,243.90. Between the initial DVC cost and 10 years of dues, that would have cost you $61,060. There is a savings on the resort cost of $26,183.90 over that 10 year period. I have no idea where people still claim that it takes upwards of 20 years to break even nowadays, but maybe they just don't care to do proper research.

If you even just look at 7 years, you would spend $61,070.73 buying from Disney, or $56,302 with buy in plus dues for that 7 year period. You are still ahead even after 7 years.

So I will still caveat all of this. DVC is not for everyone. You really need to want to go to Disney at least every other year and want to stay in deluxe accommodations. If you are ok with staying in value resorts or a person who commando visits the parks and just sleeps in a room, it is not for you.
 
yaksplat

yaksplat

Well-Known Member
ToTBellHop said:
Wonder what the break-even is for a new contract. It's incredible how much the price has risen over the last decade.
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It's still 7 years. Even with a direct sale at $240pp, the nightly room cost is just so expensive. I had extrapolated the room cost out 20 years and I thought there was no way that a room would be a grand a night, going back to $585 per night in 2019, or even $304 per night in 2005. But the calculation was right. The rooms have gone up 6.7% per year on average in the last 20 years. They'll nearly double in the next 10 years as well.
 

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