So I mentioned in an earlier pin post about one of our favorite places to trade pins (and they really aren't very many in the Chicago area) and that's Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, home of Disney's Doorway to Dreams. Doorway to Dreams is a store representing the Disney Vacation Club, and they employ Disney cast members who like to trade pins just about as much as we do. In fact they have a whole collection of Disney Vacation Club pins, like the one below... 

The Disney Vacation Club is an interesting proposition. It's a timeshare at heart, you purchase into one of the many Disney Vacation Club resort properties (they just finished a DVC addition onto the Contemporary at Disney World) and you "own" your timeshare rights for 50 years. You don't actually buy a unit though, you buy points, and these points can be used at any Disney Resort or any of over 500 other resorts or hotels worldwide. Since they opened Doorway to Dreams in 2007, I've watched the point price rise from $92 each to about $112 now. You buy in at the 160 point level and can go waaaaaaaay upwards from there. 160 points gets you a good week at any of the resorts worldwide, or a little more than a week at Disney (depending on the seasonal times you go you could really stretch those points. Those 160 points will run you, with taxes, less the ever changing incentives they offer, around $18k. And there about $500 in fees each year, which rises with inflation to the tune of about 2-3% annually.

So in a nutshell it's a prepaid vacation plan. And after about 5 years, you break even. Then the combination of rising prices and the fact you would've already paid the package price had you taken the 5 years of trips individually means you've traveling at very low cost.

Still, I haven't taken the plunge yet. In fact, you might say I went entirely the other direction by purchasing my own property in the Disney World area rather than investing in points in the DVC. Why did I do that? More to come...