general rules, as best as i can remember them:
A) the
DVC works best for people who:
1) go to disney at least every other year
2) prefer to stay on-site at the mods or deluxes
3) can plan their vacations 10 or 11 months in advance
4) intend to use DVC primarily for staying at a DVC resort at disney (rather than trading out for other timeshares or cruises, etc.)
(also: are financially prepared to handle the annual maintenance fees.)
once you decide to buy into the DVC,
B) buy where you want to stay (or at least, where you won't be disappointed to stay.)
if you don't really want to stay at SSR or AKL, rooms may be available at the other resorts at the 7 month window or they may not. BCV, BWV and VWL are popular and relatively smaller - if you want to stay primarily at one of those resorts, don't be afraid to shop for a resale or push disney for a contract at a sold-out resort.
C) once you have your resort narrowed down, look at the
point chart to figure how many points you need each year. if it's more than the 160 minimum, you may be better off buying 2 separate contracts. it's generally easier if you eventually decide to sell to get rid of a 160 pt contract and a 60 pt contract than it is to sell a larger, more expensive 220 pt contract. (if it's less than 160, you may want to look for a resale.)
D) if you have a choice of use year months, it only really matters if you vacation consistently at the same time each year. the rule is that you can bank 100% of your points up to 6 months after your use year month. (example: if i always go to disney around christmas, it's good to have a november-use year month since that gives me till may of the next year to decide whether to bank the points or use them.)
E) maintenance fees per point per year for reference:
Year OKW BWV VB HH VWL BCV SSR AKV
2007 4.40 4.85 5.63 4.98 4.73 4.63 4.12 4.62
scanning threads on the DVC boards (and searching for old threads on topics you are curious about) is a great way to figure out what you're doing. i am interesting in looking at other timeshares but getting information on them is much more difficult than researching the DVC...
