DrTomorrow said:
Which really begs the question "Does a plain old Disney trip ever make financial sense?" While I certainly see the personal value in a Disney trip, I don't know if anyone can create the spreadsheet that justifies spending $1000-3000 or more for a weeklong WDW vacation as opposed to investing the money. The image that comes to mind is Jack Skellington trying to discover the meaning of Christmas by boiling candy canes and performing autopsies on stuffed animals....
As with anything Disneywise for a Vacation there is no need to rationalize why we go, or how much we spend on these trips. We are just know there is a special brand of "Magic" in store for us with each trip. Yes you pay through the nose for the experience and Investing any dollars in the market, retirement system or even your own home is a far better strategy for sure - but everyone takes vacations at some point ! so why not stay somewhere first class - that gives you maximum flexibility to adjust your stays, break up your points instead of using it as one block, trade out to other resorts and something that gives you discounts inside the resort regardless of purchasing an AP or not.
Granted it is expensive, but for our Family it is really a vacation experience we enjoy a great deal and we have it "reserved" until 2039 - I'll be 70 years old then and probably still travelling to visit Mickey every chance I get. I have owened and will own in the future other timeshares - I will proably add on points to my
DVC timeshare also. I see the benefit everytime i want to trade my points in for a stay at
Disneyland or trade out for a cruise, etc - we always have options, options options.
For those people that rent some or all of there points out - Are you taking advantage of the potential tax benefits of this arrangement? It is possible claim most or all of your maintenance fees and annual state taxes on the timeshare just by
proactively selling (or at least intending to sell) some of your stake out each year. Although this is not a 100% recovery and does require some extra paperwork at tax time the benifits of writing off some of those annual fees makes the cost recovery of your ownership stake and ongoing annual fees much quicker and more pallatable in the future once you reach the break even point.
The best part about this is these tax benefits can be applied to any timeshare you purchase not just DVC of course and most of the associated fees (II Membership, ICE Gallery, Red Points, Etc.) can be applied as "cost of doing business" as long as a portion of your timeshare is available for renting. It's not a perfect catch all situation, but gives you another avenue to considering adding on an owenership stake or another timeshare altogether.
Bottomline - Disney is probably the most expensive timeshare on the market, it is certainly one of the most flexible usage wise. Sure, there are less expense options that allow almost equal trade in's to DVC properties and far better trade out's from DVC to other resorts.
But for the entertainment dollars our family has to spend and the # of times we can actually get away from work for a week! (Believe me that is tough to do!!) this gave us a focused vacation product in an area(s) we most like to visit.
Yes, DVC is an expensive option, it is better to invest your money in other vehicles instead of vacations for sure, but at least when you Buy a DVC timeshare you get fair presentation of the costs and benefits to your ownership stake. I have seen many other timeshare presentations and the "Pressure Selling" that is involved - can't say that happened when I pourchased my DVC stake.
thanks,
whiles
and a little bit: 
(They are 17 and 15). thanks again!!
