I agree with Talsonic! my family and I have been members since May 2000. the DVC really dictates to you where you can and cannot stay, and if you really like the value and moderate resorts (like i do), then forget about it! the points don't cover the value resorts at all! they do cover the moderate resorts, but they cost more points than the deluxe resorts because they have maids that come in every day. in the deluxe resorts, maids don't come to your room unless you call for them, or untill you leave. this means that your beds won't be made, the trash won't be taken out, your linens won't be washed (unless you wash them yourself), the floor won't be vaccumed (unless you do it yourself. they supply you with a vaccum cleaner), and your dirty towels will not be taken out and replenished with clean towels. in fact, and i know this by experience, if you need clean towels, it will cost you $6 (this was in April 2001). which, i know, $6 doesn't sound like much...but my God! what the hell are we paying for with the DVC, ya know? we're not paying for maid service everyday, we're not paying for the washing of our linens everyday, and the only extra stuff that a basic studio room has compared to a 'regular', non-villa room is a sink, cabinets, dishes, dishwasher? (not sure about that), and fridge...and a balcony (if you're above the 1st floor)
we bought into Vero Beach because the points were cheaper there (they were having some sort of special at the time). so, we can book a room at WDW, i think it's 7 months in advance. here recently, we found out that people who bought into the WDW resorts can book up to 11 months in advance. and let me add that when they try to sell you on the membership, they tell you that you're pretty much garunteed a room, which couldn't be further from the truth. from my experiences, the first time we used the points (April 2001) we had to chop up our stay. we could book Boardwalk for only one night of our stay, so we decided to stay there for one night, and then go to Old Key West the rest of our stay, which was ok, but we were checking in when we COULD have been doing something in a park. and, just this year, we tried booking a vacation in May but all the Studio rooms were booked. Studio rooms are the cheapest you can get, and we don't have enough points to stay in a room any bigger, so there was absolutely nothing we could do. so mom decided to call the 'regular', non-DVC member reservation place, and found out that she could book just about any where she wanted to for the same week. go figure! and, right now we have reservations for this Thanksgiving for Beach Club Villas..but we couldn't book the whole week...so we'll be staying at BCV, then we'll have to go to Dixie Landings (aka Riverside) and then back to BCV. it's insane! we're on a waiting list for the days that we're needing for BCV...but who knows if we'll get them! hopefully we will, but we haven't heard anything yet, so...
anyway, sorry this turned out to be a rant, but i know how this DVC stuff can be...it seems really great at first, but then you start seeing the negative sides of it. and i'm not telling you not to buy into it. that's up to you to decide, and you may be lucky and wouldn't have any trouble at all with it. and it could partially be because i'm bias and really miss my moderate and value resorts, i dunno. but all i know is that if i could go back to May 2000, i would've done all i could to persuade my parents not to buy into it! i say you're better off with the 'pay-as-you-stay' system!