I am having trouble justifying our DVC purchase and would love someone to change my mind.
First a little background...my family consists of 6 of us...2 adults, 4 kids. We are Disney addicts and go to Disneyworld about once a year. We have been looking at DVC for years now, and always said that if they opened a DVC on the monorail, we would buy. Which we did. Last May.
In hindsight, we did it all wrong...too many points (BLT 320), wrong UY (June when we go in April or May, although that may change) and financed some of it. But it is what it is, and we have never canceled our trip, so I think we are okay on UY.
Here is where I have trouble...when we bought I didn't realize that you could not use free dining and some of the other perks that you would get paying for regular rooms. We would typically get two deluxe rooms, DDP and park hoppers. This cost would come to about $8k-$10k total. With free dining we would spend around $6-$8k.
We are taking our first DVC trip in May. We are doing BLT, lake view, probably DDP although I haven't purchased it yet, and park hopper tix. Both trips are 9 days, 8 nights.
Now if I add up the monthly payment, plus DDP and park hoppers for the family, we come out to almost $13K!!
I realize that when DVC is paid off our cost will decrease significantly, but it is tough to swallow that kind of cost, especially during this economic time. I don't even want to tell my husband that I haven't bought the park tix and dining plan yet. He will freak!
So I guess my question is, is it worth it? Do you have to "suck it up" for the first few vacations in order to reap the benefits? I guess with all of the promotions going on, it is hard to swallow and I feel very restricted. It seems as if it's not a benefit at this time.
Any reassurances would be appreciated.
First a little background...my family consists of 6 of us...2 adults, 4 kids. We are Disney addicts and go to Disneyworld about once a year. We have been looking at DVC for years now, and always said that if they opened a DVC on the monorail, we would buy. Which we did. Last May.
In hindsight, we did it all wrong...too many points (BLT 320), wrong UY (June when we go in April or May, although that may change) and financed some of it. But it is what it is, and we have never canceled our trip, so I think we are okay on UY.
Here is where I have trouble...when we bought I didn't realize that you could not use free dining and some of the other perks that you would get paying for regular rooms. We would typically get two deluxe rooms, DDP and park hoppers. This cost would come to about $8k-$10k total. With free dining we would spend around $6-$8k.
We are taking our first DVC trip in May. We are doing BLT, lake view, probably DDP although I haven't purchased it yet, and park hopper tix. Both trips are 9 days, 8 nights.
Now if I add up the monthly payment, plus DDP and park hoppers for the family, we come out to almost $13K!!
I realize that when DVC is paid off our cost will decrease significantly, but it is tough to swallow that kind of cost, especially during this economic time. I don't even want to tell my husband that I haven't bought the park tix and dining plan yet. He will freak!
So I guess my question is, is it worth it? Do you have to "suck it up" for the first few vacations in order to reap the benefits? I guess with all of the promotions going on, it is hard to swallow and I feel very restricted. It seems as if it's not a benefit at this time.
Any reassurances would be appreciated.