We used points last year for 2 adults cat. 6 verandah, 7-nights on the fall points special. It was pure heaven and well worth it. We are going on 3-day same everything this year and paying cash. A lot of people say to figure the $10 rule per point but everyone's situation is different. Last year we were new members, had 3 years points available to us and with the points sale it just made sense. This year we are in borrowed status and with the Sept. special going on, cash made sense. But something else that worked to our advantage this year is we are staying 1 night(weeknight) before the cruise at VWL and 5 nights(all weeknights) after the cruise. That put a lot of points back into our account by avoiding the weekend since we had initially booked a straight resort trip for 8 nts and now we are staying 6 nts plus the 3 day cruise. I like to figure strictly what my dues cost me per point and figure my cost as that. After all, there is no consideration at all that I would ever rent my points out except for financial hardship reasons, so it is still my points to do with as I see fit and depending what those available points will do for me is how I spend them. To give you an example our dues at BWV on 290 points which is what it cost for that cruise last year was 1110.70 (3.83/pp x 290). The cash special was 1998.00. Since we had already spent that money on dues we would have had to shell out another 1998.00 which was a good deal but we had a lot of points that were not planned for anything else at the time. And the difference we saved by using points paid for our air fare, transfers, $75.00 fee, and then some. Weigh it all out because every situation is different. There are times when even with what you are just paying for dues the price will be almost the same(as we figured for our 3 day cruise) and IMHO I would not want to use my points because they will get me a whole lot more at the DVC resorts. Good luck with your planning!