This is my second year renting... off of two different people. Last year I got the Wilderness Lodge Villa for 6 nights for only $830. There is a smidge of risk, but you can double check on the county site that the person does actually own DVC points. The guy I am renting from this time is an attorney, so he even drew up a contract. They both sent me the actual reservation from disney world. It has my name on it. You can't really call to check on it, but when I made my dining reservations(last year) they would look it up for me. They actually "own" the reservation, so you can't call and make changes to it. You don't get daily housekeeping, just on the 4th day. That is for all DVC members. Not a biggie, we just got extra towels and to be honest, it was nice not having someone come in my room all the time. The guy I rented from does own BLT points, so if you would like to have his email, let me know and I will pm you. He charged me $12 a point, you can do a search on dvc
point chart to see how many you would need. Here is a link(if disboards will let me post it....
http://www.wdwinfo.com/resort/dvcpoint.cfm I found him here on disboards. For lake view for the 4 nights, I needed 60 points, so $720. That averages only $180 a night... well worth it in my opinion. You can still get Magical Express and one perk, you can add the Dining plan without buying park tickets thru Disney..... so I was able to buy my park tickets thru undercover tourist and also get the dining plan last year.
As far as taking the girls by myself... it all started when I turned 40. My oldest was 5/youngest 2 1/2. I wanted to go to disney but my husband is a teacher and can only go over holidays or in the summer. He HATES amusement type parks(had been to disney years ago) ... so he did not want to go. I kept saying, I don't need you to go, I can take them myself. He was like, you are going to take a 5 year old and a 2 year old to disney by yourself? AFter months of working on him, he said, well if you think you can do it, go ahead. I booked the trip. I knew my 5 year old would love it, what was a total surprise was my 2 year old. She came back a walking disney world commercial!! My husband was like, Oh you have to take them back again next year!! The only difficulty was the flight as my 2 year old went from seat to seat to seat and I was exhausted by the time I arrived in Orlando!! The second year my sisterinlaw came.. then the third year is when I took my neice. The past two years, I have taken them by myself and they are so good there, it really isn't hard. I know if my husband came, he wouldn't be so happy that we ride "its a small world" 15 times in a day...
so really it is almost easier without him. I love him dearly and he does so much other stuff with the kids..... also it is cheaper without him! He is more of a beach guy, which is why we just had 10 days at Virginia Beach.
Laura!!! 
-boy I sure wish it was! 
