I’m a hybrid member, and I probably only own AUL direct because I didn’t do my research and bought on impulse, but to @CVG’s point we definitely get more than $750 a year of value from our Y-card benefits. Two Moonlight Magic events this year alone are worth around $1k (and perhaps one of them we wouldn’t have done if we had to pay out of pocket but the other is a trade off for a different hard ticket event)— plus a couple hundred saved from Sorcerer’s Passes, and at least a few hundred in dining/enchanting extras/merch discounts, etc. I’m not going to try to bother counting free sodas, but at Disney prices it would be a few hundreds bucks (we live near DLR and visit star view station most trips). Plus of the maybe $2-3k we’ll “save” this year, it’s all tax free.
I’m a hybrid member, and I probably only own AUL direct because I didn’t do my research and bought on impulse, but to @CVG’s point we definitely get more than $750 a year of value from our Y-card benefits. Two Moonlight Magic events this year alone are worth around $1k (and perhaps one of them we wouldn’t have done if we had to pay out of pocket but the other is a trade off for a different hard ticket event)— plus a couple hundred saved from Sorcerer’s Passes, and at least a few hundred in dining/enchanting extras/merch discounts, etc. I’m not going to try to bother counting free sodas, but at Disney prices it would be a few hundreds bucks (we live near DLR and visit star view station most trips). Plus of the maybe $2-3k we’ll “save” this year, it’s all tax free.
Of course, two major caveats here: (1) you would theoretically still have $15k in your pocket at the end of the contract (but my “savings dividend” would eclipse it over a decade) and (2) all of my savings dividends are only earned by spending even more money. If my husband hung out here, he would tell you that yes, we got “free” MM tickets, but it came with a cost of 4 round trip tickets to Orlando and several hundred dollars spent on food and merch at WDW over the long weekend trip we took because I really wanted to do Epcot MM…
Long story short, the Y card only saves you money if you were pretty dead set on blowing lots money at WDW and DLR in the first place.
Haha. DINKs hereI have 0 regrets about my direct points.
The kids can have a little less inheritance.
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Haha, you’re looking at this all wrong, the real inheritance is the joyous memories we shared with them (and hopefully our grandkids someday).I have 0 regrets about my direct points.
The kids can have a little less inheritance.
Nope, own all direct because I got in during some good sales that made the price and lower closing costs of direct pts very tempting vs resale. That combined with the convenience factors: Ease of buying and quickly using points in 1 day is big. Ease of using points without restrictions alone makes it worth it- there's bound to be added restrictions with time. Not having to worry about having a stripped contract helps too. We did WDW visits 4-5x a yr before DVC, so the idea of budgeting stays around Member cruises and MM once a year doesn't bother me, because we do Disney cruises and special events anyway.. Having a guide I can call upon for help is valuable as well, vs having to spend hours asking questions in forums where you may not get the correct info. The Sorcerer’s Passes saves us almost $400 each, which is up to $1600 for each year we don't visit during Christmas. .that's big. As you said, over a decade or so, it all winds up being a better value. We also absolutely love the Member fishing excursion when we're not chartering the private excursion from our GFV home resort..I’m a hybrid member, and I probably only own AUL direct because I didn’t do my research and bought on impulse, but to @CVG’s point we definitely get more than $750 a year of value from our Y-card benefits. Two Moonlight Magic events this year alone are worth around $1k (and perhaps one of them we wouldn’t have done if we had to pay out of pocket but the other is a trade off for a different hard ticket event)— plus a couple hundred saved from Sorcerer’s Passes, and at least a few hundred in dining/enchanting extras/merch discounts, etc. I’m not going to try to bother counting free sodas, but at Disney prices it would be a few hundreds bucks (we live near DLR and visit star view station most trips). Plus of the maybe $2-3k we’ll “save” this year, it’s all tax free.
Of course, two major caveats here: (1) you would theoretically still have $15k in your pocket at the end of the contract (but my “savings dividend” would eclipse it over a decade) and (2) all of my savings dividends are only earned by spending even more money. If my husband hung out here, he would tell you that yes, we got “free” MM tickets, but it came with a cost of 4 round trip tickets to Orlando and several hundred dollars spent on food and merch at WDW over the long weekend trip we took because I really wanted to do Epcot MM…
Long story short, the Y card only saves you money if you were pretty dead set on blowing lots money at WDW and DLR in the first place.
