We're currently considering DVC. I hear ya on the All Stars. We're not fussy either really and had a ball at the All Stars.
When I calculate how much DVC would cost over its lifetime by adding the initial cost of the points, the maintenance fees on each point annually plus the interest on a loan to finance it and compare that to a family trip to WDW every second year staying at a Disney resort, it probably works out that there's a minimal saving on paper.
But the reasons I'm looking into DVC are:
1) Pre-paid vacations: We are not the type of people who can save for years to achieve something. I wish we were. But the fact is that if I, lets say, want a holiday every 2 years for the next twenty years, each time it comes time to gather money for it I'll have a tough time making a savings plan or sticking to it so each individual holiday will have that nightmare of wondering where the money is coming from. But with DVC, at the very least, I know that once the annual dues are paid, my accommodation is covered. Then I only have to come up with the money for flights, park passes and spending.
But seriously do you know what I'm saying? DVC would discipline me and take the hassle out of 15 or 20 different budgeting sagas every time we go.
2) Inflation: Whilst the annual dues do increase with inflation, the actual amount of points required per night doesn't (or rarely) changes so, for example, if you pay 100 per point now in 2007, well in 2027 you still have those 100 dollar points but by then the All Star rooms will probably cost around 250 dollars per night or so.
3) Family size: There are 5 of us. We stayed in Wilderness Lodge and Port Orleans when my youngest was one. We stayed in Boardwalk Villas (renting points) and All Stars when she was 2. Now that she's 3 our options for Disney rooms are seriously restricted. There's no way we could do one room for all 5 of us anyway as she gets older. Port Orleans Riverside offer a trundle and will accommodate 5 but privacy is also an issue and I can't imagine us and our 2 (soon to be) teenage boys and our girl all sleeping in 1 room. So next possibility is 2 value rooms or an All Star Music suite costing approx 200 dollars per night (often much more). Now we're getting into a weekly cost of 1400 dollars so DVC is starting to look more appealing!! At the new AKV DVC resort, you can get a 1 bedroom villa which sleeps 5 for 25 points a night (week nights) in the summer time. That seems like great value to me, considering you will get a square footage of approx 3 Disney value resort rooms, it would give us privacy, a *full* kitchen to save lots of money on food (and we really did save a lot of money cooking ourselves at The Boardwalk), full laundry facilities in the room (meaning we lug a lot less across the atlantic!) and beautiful, luxury accommodations!
So can you see how our family size has now made the Disney value or moderate rates not so appealing?
4) Beautiful accommodation: Honestly, just being in Disney World is a dream come true for us. It's far from luxury I was reared and All Star Music was beautiful. Spotless. Great fun. Wonderful service. So I feel bad even putting a *but* in here. It's just that we fell in love with The Boardwalk - the atmosphere, the theming and, most of all, the fact that we could walk to two theme parks. Now there is no way in hell that we could ever, ever, ever pay rack rates for a 1 bed villa at The Boardwalk so DVC would give us the opportunity to stay there, not cheaply but certainly a hell of a lot more affordable than 400 or 500 dollars per night. So whilst the All Stars are absolutely great, the extras at places like BWV are out of this world.
5) Weekend points: The number of points required for Fri & Sat nights in a DVC resort are scary but for us (and this is such an individual thing) we will always go for two weeks and spend a couple of nights on the coast and probably a couple of nights at Universal. We may as well choose Fridays and Saturdays for doing that so we save weekly points by staying only weeks nights at DVC. Even if we don't join DVC, we'd be doing those things anyway so it makes DVC more affordable again.
Good luck deciding.
