So, I'm curious how it works, Mindy...how often do you go to break even with just staying on-site? Just curious. DVC sounds like a great idea!
Disney's sales literature tells you that you break even on your initial costs after an average of about 7 vacations. I also think it depends on what sort of accommodations you take. For instance, it will take more vacations if you stay in studios vs. 2 bedroom villas. This is because a studio will use fewer points as it is less expensive... but then if you' stay in studios, you will get more vacation days from the you have. For instance, we have 210 points. The year we stayed in a studio, we got 2 separate vacations on those points with a couple left over. We stayed at during Spring break at Saratoga Springs in a studio for 5 nights, and then in the fall we returned and stayed at Old Key West in a studio for 5 nights.
The points represent your real estate interest, but you can look at them like money. Spring Break will cost you more points per night than say, mid May and mid January and late September, the fewest points of all. A studio will set you back fewer points than a 2 or 3 bedroom villa. You buy your real estate interest, which gives you a points allotment. Each year on the anniversary of your "use Year" your account refills with a fresh supply of the amount of points you bought. In my case, each Dec 1, we have a fresh supply of 210 points. You can "bank" set aside points to use next year and you can "borrow" points to use this year, from next year's supply. This way, if you don't want to go every year, or if you need extra points, you have some flexibility. You pay a "maintenance" fee on your points annually. But once you've broke even on the membership's initial cost, the annual cost is much less than you'd pay for the same accommodations. Also, the part of the maintenance fee that is real estate taxes can be deductible from taxes depending on your tax situation. We can deduct.
As a time-share DVC trades now with RCI, so if you don't want to visit Disney some year
you could trade out and visit any one of thousands of locations worldwide. I've never done this yet. We've owned since 2007. We're still making up for all the years we didn't take
Disney Vacations.
One thing to note. When comparing ownership to hotel stay.... The regular price of a Disney vacation is hard to pin down. They keep changing the offers. Obviously if you compare a DVC stay to a stay with an AP Discount or some other "deal", it would take more DVC vacations to break even. You have to remember that' you're not necessarily comparing apples to apples unless you would otherwise stay in a DVC resort by renting points or paying cash for unoccupied inventory. A DVC resort stay is much nicer IMHO than a regular hotel. Even in the studio, you have a kitchenette, and with a 1, 2 or 3 bedroom, you have a full kitchen. DVC resorts are actually Deluxe accommodations. So when you compare, for a fare cost comparison you need to compare it to another Deluxe resort, not the Pop Century.
There are also many other advantages such as DVC pricing structure for Annual passes, DVC discounts on dining and shopping and recreation... all that is really a bonus. The intangible benefit of spending money on family vacations with memories your family will treasure forever
and the government can't ever take away. That is the money you spend with Disney is then gone... as far as the government taking it away from your family in estate taxes
. (this is my huge big issue and a big huge part of the reason I bought DVC). I'll explain further how that works if you really want to know.
) but I am SO hoping Disney comes up with a GOOD (= HUGE) AP discount for February, so I can upgrade to CSR! 
But you'll have to meet Max and Mark, too.
Don't think that's going to happen, though. Oh well. Honestly, if I wasn't pretty sure that Max could handle rides and characters, we wouldn't be doing this trip right now, but I know he's going to love it!
I can't imagine it with characters? It was nice the way it was. It reminded me of Colonial Williamsburg, except smaller.. and with a tighter budget. I love those kinds of places, luckily, here in Virginia, we have many to choose from.
That's how excited I am.
I have the following thoughts:
