Disclaimer - this is a long-a$s post.
What home location would you recommend?
Where do you like to stay? If there is one place that you HAVE to stay every trip, by all means buy in at that resort. However, if you are like our family and like to try all of the resorts (if possible) then buy the cheapest place where you wouldn't mind staying if nothing else is available. With so many feasible choices available, we bought SSR as we couldn't predict our touring patterns for the next 10 years let alone 60 and SSR was the best value at the time. We bought a small contract (150 points) so if we ever decide that there is one resort that we've fallen in love with, it's not as painful to add on.
It's been a couple of years since we bought our contract at SSR... it used to be a slam dunk to buy at SSR (low buy in price per point and relatively low/stable maintenance fees). Looking at the listings now, I would probably be much more tempted to buy at AKV as the value category is a great use of points that you will need your home resort advantage to book as they are typically gone before the 7 month window.
Some resorts are smaller or are impossible to book at certain times of the year. E.g. - VGC is quite small so it's tough to book there unless you own there. Forget about reliably booking at BWV or BCV during Grape & Wine unless you own there. VGF seems tough to book at any point of the year. I've read that there are some VGF owners who have had trouble booking at Xmas at their home resort due to the fixed weeks. BLT standard views are tough to get. In general, if you travel in Oct-Dec it's much tougher to book at other resorts as that is the DVC busy period for travel. If you go in the summer, it'll be a lot easier to book elsewhere although weeks with holidays/Star Wars Weekend/Marathon Weekend/March break can get busy as well.
Do all locations have balconies?
Yes? Sorry, not 100% sure. All of the ones I've seen have balconies.
Do all have full kitchens?
Since your family will need at least a 1-bed, yes. Studios have a kitchenette.
We are looking to travel every two years how many points would you recommend?
Oof... that part makes me consider if buying into DVC would make sense. If you skip a trip then you would risk having your points expire. In theory, you could buy a 100 point contract bank/borrow points and go every two years but it's risky if you have to cancel a trip and would risk losing your banked points. You can always rent them out though but I find my points are always accounted for! Also, your points requirement totally depends on your travel times during the year as different season have vastly different points requirements.
Does it make financial "sense" to use points toward a cruise?
No, never. Rent your points out and use the cash towards a cruise if anything. And you can only use points towards a cruise if you buy direct from Disney.
How did you buy your resale contract?
My wife and I looked at the
points charts and figured out the size of the contract we wanted to have based on the times of year that we like to travel and which resort we wanted to buy. Then we looked at the three companies typically listed on Disboards (Fidelity, TSS, Resales DVC) to see what inventory was out there. There is also a thread titled ROFR in the purchasing DVC section which lists the price points that members are reporting for their recent contracts. IMO, this is more of a brag board where people like to brag about how great of a deal they got so don't be surprised (actually, just expect) that offering at the lowest/lower prices listed in the ROFR will be rejected because they're too low. We found a contract, haggled and settled at a mid-point. Honestly, the amount you might haggle over a buy-in price per point ($2/point for our contract was $300) is peanuts when you consider the MFs you pay, all of the flight costs, tickets, food, merchandise, etc. Literally, a drop in a pool sized Mickey shaped bucket.
We settled using a money order that I mailed to the agent. Honestly, I thought that there would be some non-resident type stuff but there were zero hiccups. I'm sure that selling is a lot more difficult re: IRS stuff but we'll cross that bridge if/when we get there!
Just read, read, read on the Disboards and use the search function to help you learn about a lot of the nuances re: banking/borrowing, 11/7 month windows, booking patterns, etc, etc, etc. It's overwhelming to start but you'll get the hang of it!
Would you do it over again?
My wife keeps trying to talk me out of going to SSR to discuss a Poly contract when we go in a few weeks. So yes, yes I would! Chances are in a few years we'll look at picking up a small Poly contract when they hit the resale market (although I'm cautiously optimistic that studios will be easy-ish to book which means we'll just take our chances using our SSR points).
I guess the final thing to add is you really REALLY have to consider your family vacation tendencies.
Are you always going to be happy travelling to WDW? Are you going to be taking more vacations than you otherwise would have? There is no deal to be had if you are "saving" some money on accommodations only to blow tens of thousands of dollars on food/tickets/flights, etc. Buying into DVC isn't necessarily a magical club with sunshine and rainbows. You're locking yourself into many future WDW vacations and paying upfront for accommodations. If you guys are happy to stay in value resorts, DVC might not make sense. If you have expensive debt (credit cards, unsecured line of credits, etc) or are stretched financially, DVC might not make sense. Take a tour, consider renting points to try it out and really research the heck out of this thing before you make a very expensive plunge!
