[MissDisney]

Mickey Mom --
The DVC thing in my mind is something tha tmakes sense ONLY -- and I repeat ONLY -- if you are the type of family who wants to take vacations in a deluxe resort and especially if you need the space of the larger rooms.

Here's why: going to a value and grabbing a couple of connecting rooms is a great thing, plenty of room for everyone and a good price. But my family would absolutley not be happy with that. We love POR and have had connecting rooms there, which was very special. But we really feel like we are wrapped in luxury and location when we stay at BWV.

So we decided that the vacation we like is a big villa at a deluxe DVC resort, which we could never afford by booking it the regular way. And while you can defintely save money by renting the points for a stay like that, if you plan to go many times in your lifetime, you'll save a ton of money too by just buying the membership.

Over the regular rates, we save thousands of dollars over the course of a single year's points. We took a 6 day trip at the most expensive Christmas week to Boardwalk Villas and had enough points left over for another trip this summer for five days at AKL Kidani Village, as well as a couple of nights at Caribbean Beach. And we paid nothing NOTHING when we checked out. So now you can figure how much of a savings that is, even with the $750 in fees we pay. That's a HUGE savings, and so you count it against the cost of the membership, and you can see how the savings will wipe out that lump payment in just about 5 years or so. Then you are vacationing for just the fees. NICE

Adn the DVC memberships expire after some time -- I think ours is something like 25 years or so. That's also a beautiful thing, because you don't want to saddle your heirs with a lifetime of payments. I never saw the value of lifetime memberships, actually.

And last but certianly not least, DVC allows you to get cheap APs, and there are other perks as well, like special events. And don't forget that if ther eis a year when you dont' wish to use your points, you can always rent them out, which brings in a lot more money than the fees you pay, so that cash would count against your membership money, as well.