Since our baseball game for that evening was canceled, we decided to drive over to the Disney Boardwalk Inn to walk around and have dinner. On our way back to the car at the end of the evening we stopped in the hotel lobby so my wife could "powder her nose". I waited for her next to the DVC kiosk in the lobby and struck up a conversation with the young man working there. I told him he had 30 seconds to tell me all he could about DVC before my wife came out of the restroom. He tried to talk me into signing up for a tour, but at this point I wasn't quite ready to commit, having already endured two other presentations the past 48 hours.
The next day the weather was beautiful and we spent the entire day and night touring Epcot. This is the first trip where I really began to notice all of the DVC kiosks around the parks and other parts of the Walt Disney World resort. I had noticed them on previous trips, but they seemed to now be present in greater numbers than before. We were early for our dinner reservation at Alfredo's Restaurante' at the Italy pavilion (amoment of silence for the dearly departed restaurant), and while waiting for our name to be called, I struck up a conversation with the lady working the nearby DVC kiosk.
After talking with her for a while I was interested enough to have her sign us up for the tour for the next day. As we had friends driving down from Jacksonville the next day to meet us for dinner, we had nothing schedule for the afternoon. They offered to send a van for us to pick us up anywhere we would be, but we opted to just take our own car(I have also heard stories that if you interrupt your park touring to take the DVC tour, they will give you Fastpasses for when you return back to the park).
At this time DVC was only selling Saratoga Springs, and this is where the preview center was located. We drove over to the resort, and a few minutes after checking in, we were introduced to our guide, Tommy Costanzo (before you ask, no relation to George Costanza). Tommy spent some time talking to us about the benefits of DVC, how the program works, etc. We then hopped in a golf cart and Tommy drove us over to where the model units were located. They were very smart in how they toured you through the units, starting off with the smallest (Studio) and working our way through the one and two bedroom, before finishing up in a two story, three bedroom Grand Villa. At this point I was ready to move in!
After the tour, Tommy took us back to the preview center and put us in a conference room. He then talked about the cost of ownership, the financing options and current incentives being offered (at this time, Saratoga was selling for $91 per point, and they were offering an incentive of an $8 per point discount down to $83). The main difference here between DVC and Sheraton/Marriott was that the incentive wasn't only available if we signed right then, but it still applied for 3 days if we needed some time to think things over.
Tommy was very up front with us at this point in saying that now was the time for him to go back to his office so my wife and I could talk things over in private (an option neither Sheraton nor Marriott offered up), and to call him at his extension from the phone in the conference room whenever we were ready to continue with him. Take 1 minute, take 10 minutes, take 30-60 minutes, whatever you need, Tommy said.
Now at this point I was ready to sign on the dotted line, but I had a huge obstacle between me and DVC. The wife, and her consent. I love my wife more than words can describe, and have never had a mean thing to say about her. But the woman is...frugal (and she will admit that). I thought best case with her was that she was going to suggest we take the 3 days while the incentive still applied to sleep on it and talk things over before making a final decision. I was floored when she said (as soon as Tommy was out the door) that it sounded like a great deal and we should sign up. I think we called Tommy in his office before he even had a chance to sit down in his chair!
We signed up for 160 points with Saratoga Springs as our home resort. At the time, the minimum purchase for a new contract was 150 points, but it takes 160 points to trade outside of Disney for a week at a non-Disney resort in High Season (more on this in a future post). We figured the additional 10 points over the minimum would cover all of our bases if we ever decided to do an exchange outside of DVC.
At the conclusion of the tour, we were ushered through a replica of an old time ice cream shop where we could have any type of ice cream sundaes that they could make (not sure if this is offered to those who don't purchase a contract). After dropping $13K on my DVC contract, that was the best ice cream sundae I have ever eaten!
A few follow up items...
- We were given the option of filling out all of the paperwork right there, or having DVC mail us everything and we could complete at home. We opted for the latter option and completed everything at home with no issues.
- Every year since I order the DVC planning DVD (nerd alert!) just because. Watching a video from a few years back, none other than Tommy Costanza pops up as once of the guides explaining the Disney Vacation Club to the viewers.
- Tommy was not only our guide for the tour, but also was assigned as our "guide" going forward for assisting with any of our DVC needs with our contract (or future add on contracts). For some reason within the last year we were assigned another guide, although to our knowledge, Tommy is still with DVC. It was rumored he was going to take an assignment to the West Coast to sell DVC at the Grand Californian resort at Disneyland so maybe this had something to do with the change.
Coming next post...DVC 101: How Does the DVC Program Work?!?!
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