You will find that many on these boards will preach the adage of "no debt at any cost", but in reality it's all about balance and what you feel comfortable. For me it is mostly about liquidity.
For example, in this thread it has been suggested that you should not buy a luxury purchase if you have a car loan, well if you purchase your car brand new and you have outstanding credit, it is likely that you are paying little to no interest anyway. Why should you be in a hurry to pay off your car loan, and use up your cash, if it is not costing you anything?
That being said, part of being a responsible consumer is really knowing what you can and cannot afford regardless of what a sales person tells you. Sales people probably love and hate DW and I. For one thing, with major purchases we generally know whether or not we are going to buy before we even talk to a sales person, so they really don't have to convince us. On the other hand, we generally do not make good targets for sales people because the "pitch" generally does not work on us, because I refuse to make major purchases without taking the time to do the research. For example, we never talked to a DVC "guide" prior to purchasing. My brother was a DVC member and we stayed on his points one year. After that, I knew I wanted to purchase, so we contacted our guide and told him how many points we wanted and at what resort.
Many people are on edge since 2008 because of the state of the economy. Many who never expected to be out of work, suddenly found themselves out of work. However, some careers and jobs and locations are safer than others. Only you know how safe you feel with your career (not necessarily your current job) and what your contingency plan is.
As for DVC, we financed and it worked out well for us because we were able to buy into the resort we wanted (BLT) while we could still afford it. If we had waited until we had enough saved, we probably would not have bought at that resort or would have had to purchase fewer points.
As others have said, it all comes down to risk and how much are you are willing to risk for your vacations? In our case, I am willing to risk quite a bit because looking forward to vacations is what keeps me sane
If my choice was complete financial stability without vacations or having a manageable amount of debt with my annual or semi-annual vacations, I'll take the later. The "trick" is knowing what is "manageable".