How many points is enough?

[crisi]

A few thoughts.....

It's easy for a lot of people to pull young kids from school. Fewer people do it in middle and high school. The work is that much more challenging, policies change, and then there are the activities - miss a week of basketball practice to be at Disney and you may be on the bench for weeks. Surprisingly, a lot of kids don't want to miss school at that age either, it's the place their friends are.

If you haven't stayed in a DVC room, you should. A DVC room is significantly different than a deluxe room, and had I gone from deluxe room to DVC studio, I'd have regretted my decision. For us, the benefit of DVC is the additional space and privacy we get when the kids are sleeping in another room...I really prefer the feel of a hotel room over a studio.

[jimim]

For what it's worth this was our mentality for buying in and how much we bought in: our last 10 years of trips have been once a year and sometimes twice a year. 2 years ago we went 3 times after we had our daughter. She was 13 months, then 16 months, and then 2 years old for those. Now we have my son who will be 1 year when we go again in June. We have always wanted to buy in but it was never the right time money wise. We built our home which took about 2 years so that time money was tied up. We had our daughter and that wan't a good time either. Then we had our son and this past year we really sat down and said we should do something. We r plowing room money into disney. We know we will go at least once a year with our family. We r a disney family and just always enjoy being there. We also want to be able to take my parents with us so I looked at the times of the years we usually go over the years and i figured out how many points i need for 2 trips at least a year, one with my parents if they want, and came up with 280 pts for our 2 trips a year with them once or maybe 3 on our own, or bank if we want for a larger trip the following year. we knew that the manual dues for the 280 are doable for us along with annual passes and all the other stuff.

This we know for sure when we made a decision:

We know we r going every year no matter if able so the room discount we will save helps.
We thought about it long and hard and made sure the time was right to put down all the money in one shot and it's done. We said we wouldn't go through with it until then.
We made sure the big things in our lives we set in motion first, home, saving for college for both the kids, and our future for retirement. When all those things lined up and we were still making all monthly payments for the house and life and still able to save for the future also along with everything else we said yes.

That took us 10 years to get to that comfort point.

Sorry if that was drawn out but its how we handled it for us. Everyone is different and there really isn't any right or wrong answer I think.

jim

[ELMC]

Originally Posted by crisi

For us, the benefit of DVC is the additional space and privacy we get when the kids are sleeping in another room...I really prefer the feel of a hotel room over a studio.

It's so interesting that you say that because for me it's the exact opposite. I love having the couch, the table and the kitchenette...just different "areas" to do different things. Different strokes so they say.

[DizBub]

Originally Posted by ELMC

It's so interesting that you say that because for me it's the exact opposite. I love having the couch, the table and the kitchenette...just different "areas" to do different things. Different strokes so they say.

Well said. I agree and that's why, while I do like the studios at OKW it's not my favorite. Really like that sofa in the other ones. Makes it feel not so much like a hotel room, more homey.

My DH goes to bed early and I like to stay up later. This is where the 1brs shine for us. Just requires double the points of a studio. Darn it.

[crisi]

Originally Posted by ELMC

It's so interesting that you say that because for me it's the exact opposite. I love having the couch, the table and the kitchenette...just different "areas" to do different things. Different strokes so they say.

Yep, which is why it's really important to understand what you are getting before you buy and not make assumptions that you are doing an apples to apples swap.

I like two beds in a room or a single king, not a bed and a pull out. I like daily housekeeping. I have no need for a kitchenette in a hotel room. I like the big daybeds at the Poly.

So what makes DVC worthwhile for us is the kids in a different room, the washer and dryer, and a stove - we don't use the microwave. A DVC studio wouldn't add value, it would only remove it for us. A DVC one bedroom removes value, but adds other value other places.

But other people, like you, find the DVC studios an improvement over deluxe rooms.