We joined while on the Disney Wonder and just went head first into
DVC without much research. We live in Southern California and have always wanted to join when we would visit
Disneyland, but never thought we were in a position to buy into a "timeshare". When we first started looking several years ago, buy-in was at about 13K For VGC. Prices have shot up tremendously. We wish we would have signed up then so we could have had priority to stay there, now it's nearly impossible to get in at the 7 month window.
Now that we are members, we haven't looked back and the only regret we have is that we wished we broke out our first 160 point contract into two 80 point contracts so we could have more flexibility with resale if it ever got that far. In just a year we have added on a few times as we have found great value in DVC. We chomped at the bit to get into VGF and bought a small 60 point contract. Now we just have the dilemma of figuring out where we are going next every sixth months....
My suggestion, buy where you want to stay to get the priority of the 7-11 month window and plan ahead for your future needs. Hope that helps.
