Separation Anxiety

I will always associate Jelly Belly Jelly Beans with leaving Walt Disney World.

It was December 2001, and the time had come for us to leave Walt Disney World and start the long drive back to northern Ohio.  I had started crying the night before (during Fantasmic), and had been on the verge of tears ever since.  I just hated the thought of leaving my happy place and returning to real life, and the long drive home we faced wasn’t helping.  We stopped at Goodings Supermarket to stock up on supplies for our drive, and they had a huge Jelly Belly selection.  I can’t tell you how many pounds I bought.  As we drove home, I sat there gorging on bean after bean, with tears silently streaming down my face.  I think I nearly broke my husband’s heart.  My daughter, seated in the back, thankfully had no idea.

This was the most extreme reaction I've ever had to leaving WDW, but the emotions were not unique to that trip.  Why is it so hard to leave?  And what can help lessen the blow?  Over the years, I have learned a few tricks on how to ease my transition back into the real world. 

1. Document your trip so that once you get home, you can share your experiences, either with a trip report or through photos (or both).  Reliving your experiences in this manner can help prolong the magic, and can help you remember tricks you learned for use in future trips. 
2. Listening to Disney podcasts and participating in Disney discussion boards can help you keep the enchantment alive, as well as bring you the joy of helping others plan their vacations. I truly believe that helping others prepare for their WDW holidays can be almost as fun as planning my own.  Okay, “almost” might be stretching it, but I do enjoy helping.
3. Recreating Disney recipes at home is always fun.  I will often do entire Disney dinners based on ones we enjoyed, and will even tie in a Disney movie that matched the meal’s theme.
4. Surrounding myself with souvenirs from my trip doesn’t hurt.  Disney jewelry is always a good pick-me-up!
5. Listening to Disney music is a great way to relive the magic, but this can backfire.  I am absolutely incapable of listening to the Fantasmic finale, Baroque Hoedown from the Main Street Electrical Parade, or Come Again from the Country Bear Jamboree without welling up.  Would you buy it if I claimed they are happy tears?
6. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It’s never too early to start planning your next Disney vacation.  I am absolutely positive that the reason I have often found it so hard to leave WDW is because I don’t know when, or even if, I’ll be back.  I went nine long years between my last trip as a child and my first “adult” trip on my honeymoon, and I think that separation scarred me for life.  Since then my trips to the world have been at least two years apart, sometimes as many as four.  To put it plainly, I get homesick for Walt Disney World.  Short of moving to Florida or other drastic measures, the best way to curb this panic attack is to be sure that I will be returning before too long.  Hopefully, my new DVC membership will help here.  Knowing that I will be back before long should help ease my sorrow at the parting.  Should. 

Speaking of separations, I want to let you know that this will be my only post this week.  I will be traveling for work, with no access to Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/disneygene) or my blog.  I’ll miss “talking” to you, and I look forward to resuming next week!

DVC – What has Teri Gotten Herself into Now?

You may have seen my increasingly frantic posts over the last two months on Facebook regarding DVC and wondered what has my panties all in a bunch this time. Here’s a brief rundown on why I’ve gotten myself sucked into DVC, and why it may interest you, as well.

Let me start by saying that if you consider a trip to Walt Disney World a one-time parental obligation (rather like a polio vaccine), then Disney Vacation Club is not for you. If, however, you truly believe that it’s never too early to start planning your next Disney vacation, then this may be worth a closer look.

Disney Vacation Club (DVC) is a vacation timeshare owned by The Walt Disney Company. It allows buying real estate interest in a DVC resort. To be a DVC member, one must purchase a one-time real estate interest in one of the Disney Resorts, and thereafter pay annual dues. The memberships have an expiration date of approximately 50 years after the initial offering of the property. Properties include locations at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Hilton Head, Hawaii (in 2011) and more. Ownership amount is based on a flexible number of points per year. Is it a good deal? More on that later.

Why have I been stressing about my purchase? After all, you’d think Disney would be more than happy to take my money. In a nutshell, I didn’t buy directly from Disney. You see, Disney requires that you purchase a minimum of 160 points, and are currently charging (insert choking noise here) $120 per point. That means, excluding taxes, maintenance fees, and closing costs, you are looking at a minimum purchase price of $19,200. Having not won the lottery, that option was not in my budget.

There is, however, a thriving resale market. If you no longer wish to continue in your contract, Disney will allow you to sell it. There are several reputable brokers who specialize in the Disney resale market – The Timeshare Store, DVC by Resale, and Resales DVC to name a few. If you purchase a minimum of 25 points, you get all of the benefits of DVC membership (discounts on theme park tickets, dining, merchandise, etc.) at a fraction of the cost. I’ll divulge the terms of my deal to give you an idea.

We purchased 100 points at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort. This basically means we can stay there for about one week per year in a studio. We can use our points at other DVC resorts as well, based on availability. We paid $68 per point, so our cost was $6800, as opposed to paying $19,200 through Disney. Why is this better than just staying in a hotel, you ask? Well, Disney rack rates (AKA sucker prices, those you would pay if you just booked on Disney’s website or called 407-W-DISNEY) on the room I described would be, including tax, $2323 for the week. We paid $6800 plus about $400 in closing costs. That means that in less than four trips, we will have completely recouped our initial cost. We will pay yearly maintenance fees of around $400, which means from there on out, I’ll stay at WDW for a week, while only paying for about the first night and a half. Eat that, suckers!

So why have I been so frantic? Well, although Disney allows resales to be purchased, they want to make sure the property values stay high. Therefore, they will swoop in and purchase the property themselves if they think the price is too low. This happened to us first. We had bid $82 on 50 points at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, and Disney chose to exercise their Right of First Refusal and purchase that property themselves. At that point, we figured that if we just kept eating Ramen Noodles and toasted cheese sandwiches for another year or so, we may be able to bid on a larger contract, so we bit the bullet and went ahead. This time we got it! Saratoga Springs – the Disney resort featuring “Health, Horses, and History” – it’s very Teri, all the way!