DVC Tour
Something we have always wanted to do since our anniversary trip to Disney World is the DVC Tour. We never have the time in our schedule when we visit though. But on our trip back in February we intentionally left time in our schedule to do the tour. Our only concern was whether they would have any availability on the day we wanted to go. I knew you could book online before your trip but I was not sure the perks you would get during your trip for that. And our DVC Tour wasn’t for the perks, by the way. We really are interested. But the perks are nice! Below is our experience of the tour.
We wanted to do the tour on Tuesday morning. I knew based on prior conversations that they would provide us transportation to any place we wanted to go during/after our tour. So the plan was to do the tour first thing Tuesday morning, then we would head to Animal Kingdom directly afterwards. We did not see anyone DVC related on Sunday after we checked in. So we were sure to look for someone Monday while at Hollywood Studios. Thankfully after lunch we found someone near Rosie’s All-American Cafe.
We told them about our interests in DVC, and we asked them about the tour for the next morning. She said they had availability, and she also informed us of the current perks. Since we were staying at a deluxe hotel, we would received a $100 Disney gift card. And we would also each receive 3 extra Fastpasses (they could not be used on the “prime” rides such as Frozen, Slinky Dog, etc.). We gave them some basic information, most of which they got from scanning my MagicBand. Then we were able to select from various DVC resorts that offered the tours and the available times. We knew we wanted to do the tour at Saratoga Springs. It is the main DVC Center and there are more sample rooms to view there vs the other resorts. You also can get ice cream afterwards there which is a nice perk, ha. We went with the second time of the day which was 9:00 am. We were told it would take 60-90 minutes to complete.
They did give us a call later that evening telling us there was an opening at the Boardwalk (where we were staying) if we wanted it, but we didn’t. I really wanted Saratoga.
We were told to be at the front of our resort at 8:40 am. There would be someone there in a white van with the DVC info on it waiting on us. And for those concerned, they do have two carseats in the vans. One with a 5 point harness and another with a 3 point. But we were sure to let them know when we were booking our tour that we had a two year old.
We arrived at Saratoga around 15 minutes later. We walked into a lobby style area where I scanned our band and received name tags.
Then we were told we could help ourselves to the continental style breakfast that was available. There were three other families there too waiting. I had water and a pastry, and they brought Melody a juice box and crackers from the back.
After about 5 minutes, they brought all the families into a viewing room. There were three or so rows of couches and a projector screen. They showed us a very short (maybe 2 minutes) film abut DVC. This was like a basic commercial you may have even seen on TV already.
Then they called each family individually and assigned us a DVC Guide. Then we were escorted to a smaller room where it was just us with the guide. We spent a little over an hour with her. We spoke about our vacation habits, then she explained to us all things DVC. We went over everywhere we could use our points (so many more places than I expected), what resort we could currently buy into, what the annual dues are based on a certain number of points, purchase price, and closing costs. Lots and lots of numbers. She would conveniently leave the room at certain points to go and get something. I think one time it was the points book to show how many points are needed for each resort and room type. She left again to go get a print out too. Both times were timed so that we could discuss all the info we were just told.
Melody was pretty decent during all of this. They do offer a kids area for children over 3 to stay in during your tour. But we thought this would also be good for us since we knew this was a major sales pitch. She played with her tablet most of the time.
After getting loaded with tons of info, we went and view 3 sample rooms. One from Aulani, one from Copper Creek, and another from the Polynesian. Then we headed back and were asked the ultimate question, do you want to buy it? We knew going in we were not investing that day. We wanted to really sit down and talk about it and run the numbers. She was disappointed, but we told her all of that upfront. She did tell us we had a week to lock in those prices before they could change.
Then we headed up to the ice cream parlor. We “checked out” first where we were assigned our fast passes to our account, and I double checked I had the gift card in my email. Then we were able to order ice cream and they had a select variety of toppings. The ice cream was really good, and Melody enjoyed eating it for a midmorning snack, ha!
After we were finished, we walked outside and there were DVC drivers waiting to take us wherever we wanted. And we headed straight to Animal Kingdom. We were dropped off at the very front of the park and walked right in, just in time for our fastpass at Kilimanjaro Safari.
Overall the tour was about what we expected. A major sales pitch and a bit of pressure to buy at the end. But our main goal from this tour was to get more details, and we received TONs of them. I do think we may eventually buy into DVC, but it is hard to commit to 50 years of vacations. While the closing and purchase prices are one time (or financed over a finite period of time). But the annual dues are due every year. And while they are reasonably priced, they do change each year. And they are due every year no matter if you vacation or not. That is a huge commitment.
I do think it was worth our time given the perks we received plus the info we wanted anyhow. If you aren’t interested in anything more than the perks, I am not sure 90 minutes of time is really worth it considering all that you spent on your vacation already.
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Perks
The gift card is emailed to you. The value of your gift card depends on the type of resort you are staying in. We received a $100 one. And we used it throughout the resort. I just showed my phone and they scanned the barcode anytime I wanted to use it.
The fast passes just show up in your MDE. All of us received 3 (including Melody). You don’t have to schedule them either. You literally can just walk up to any ride offering FP (except the prime ones), scan your band, and walk right in. Easy enough!
