Buying any timeshare is usually an emotion-led decision. Salespeople count on this. You just had an awesome vacation--why not own a piece of it now and do it every year! Membership has its privledges! Now multiply that times Disney, something I suspect we all have extremely strong feelings about. I think a lot of us at a certain age as kids grew up dreaming of going just once. Now as adults we can freakin
own a piece of DW and go every year!
I was immune to timeshares, especially as I saw lots of family members get them, regret them, then struggle to merely give them away. I also never had as strong a reaction to any place we've stayed before until DW (which I'd never gone to until I was 40). I read about
DVC at first, saw the word timeshare, then filed it in my mental garbage can. We started going to Disney more. We went from staying at pre-refurb dumpster CBR to Animal Kingdom Lodge. We started enjoying time at the deluxe resorts as much as we enjoyed the parks. We started going twice a year. Made friends with people who had DVC and learned more about it. Eventually, after several years, we bought 100 points at Riviera.
So what was the value proposition for us? First, and I think this pretty much bread-and-butter for every single "is DVC worth it" article you will pull up in Google. If you aren't sure you will be vacationing frequently at Disney World for most of the rest of your life, OR if you are perfectly happy staying in the absolute cheapest deals you can find at value resorts, then DVC is never going to work out for you. If you go to DW once a year at least, and you stay at high moderates or deluxe resorts or want huge rooms, AND you don't need to finance the initial buy-in, DVC will most likely reach a break even in some years and then begin saving you money (this will happen sooner if you buy resale, and sooner if hotel rates climb). There are plenty of spreadsheets floating around that can show you break even and whatnot. And unlike nearly every other timeshare, you can always sell your DVC for at least some % of your initial buy-in. Now, that's purely the economic side of "worth it." But there's also an emotional "worth it" that's harder to quantify. A DVC purchase can be worth it even if you buy direct and have to finance, if the purchase brings you joy. Life is too short. If buying a piece of Disney gives you ongoing happiness and satisfaction, or if the idea of leaving a legacy of memories and points for your children fills you with glee--then DVC may be worth it too, even if it's just a timeshare that you can't quite make the numbers work out as far as savings over a long period of time.
For me personally, it was worth it financially based on our cash on hand and what I see as our long term vacationing habits. But it was also absolutely worth it for the emotional value as well. This is going to vary for people based on the number of variables at play. When considering, it's still important to recognize that it's still just a timeshare. Everyone needs to cautious and well researched before purchasing, and make extremely sure that it's a place you want to go every year for the next 20-50 years. But emotional satisfaction is not a meaningless value either.
we decided why pay $4,900 for one of those rooms one time when we could buy resale and have it locked in for a while. So after about 5 trips we will have got close to breaking even and then our dues are about the same price as a room at a value after that. Plus we don’t look at it as an investment. We fully plan to use those points til they expire
