Disney Vacation Club: Worth It?

For years my husband wanted to become a member of the Disney Vacation Club and I would tell him that if he could prove to me the numbers all worked out, we one day would do so when we had the money since I did not want to take out a loan. Well wouldn’t you know it that very year we get this in the mail:

Oh boy. We had always longed to stay at the Grand Floridian but it was way, way outside of our price range. I was pretty good at finding Disney deals, we usually went on the off season and managed to snag free dining. Would this possibly be worth it?! Could we let this opportunity to have a place to stay at the Grand Floridian every time slip us by?!

We debated a bit. He really wanted to go all in and I...well I can’t lie, I was really really tempted. The Grand Floridian is BEAUTIFUL. But it would mean no more free dining. No more moderate (and affordable!) resorts really. I had him decide how many points we’d need to make it worthwhile and then...

And then we took the DVC plunge. Now for us we justify it because we would never, ever have been able to stay at the Grand Floridian otherwise. It is just too darn expensive. But we basically take a Disney vacation every other year (it used to be every year, but we’ll get to that) at least and to tell the truth we always end up over-spending anyway, so it seemed like a good investment. Except we didn’t have the money to outright pay for what we needed upfront and that was a mistake. We ended up taking out a loan from Disney.

Guys. Don’t do this. I have fantastic credit and the interest rate--the GOOD interest rate--was 11.5%! Outrageous! And to top it all off--about two weeks after we took out this loan? I found out I was pregnant. Cue some real panic. It took us longer than it should have to take out another loan at our credit union at 4.25% interest to pay off the Disney loan and cut our payment by more than 50%. 

So here’s the numbers: $25,000 there about for 170 points at the Grand Floridian Villas. On top of that you pay “dues” every month which amount to about $72 and which, I’m told, go up every year or so. Initially our monthly payment was a huge $323 a month but now it’s down to $128 and I plan on throwing money at it (haha, where is it coming from!?) until it’s gone. Was it worth it? I had some buyers remorse. The Villas weren’t even built at that point. Would they be okay? We planned our first vacation that December when I was 26 (almost 27!) weeks pregnant.

Here’s the walkway from the Grand Floridian Villas to the Grand Floridian

A view of the Grand Floridian from the Villas

The fountain in the lobby of the Grand Floridian Villas:

From the balcony above:

The view from our room:

If we craned to the left we could even see Space Mountain:

And here’s me in the room with my giant pregnant belly:

The room was absolutely gorgeous. I think I have a video around somewhere that I’ll try to upload sometime giving a tour. It was close to everything, the monorail was a lifesaver for me what with waddling around everywhere and...we loved it. LOVED IT. And we’ll be going back this September with a 20 month old so to us while the buy-in was painful, it is going to be very,very worth it. This way we can bring family and friends with us and make the trips even more special! So for us, in the end, it will work out to be worth it considering the cost of the Grand Floridian room and the others that we’re staying at. Could we have not done this and had very nice vacations at Coronado Springs or Riverside or even the All Star resorts? Absolutely, but there’s something...nice about belonging to the Disney Vacation Club. And staying at the Grand Floridian? Totally, totally worth it.

Next up: Disney Vacation Club: How Does That Work?