Hi y'all
PMFJI here, but thought I'd maybe add some useless knowledge.
If I was Princess Jes I'd probably be scared to death as well. That's a darned long way to come only to find out you 'might' end up standing there without a room.
That being said, we've been going regularly since right after WDW opened. With the parents earlier. Then for our Honeymoon in 77 at CO staring right out at the castle. I remember thinking, BOY $77 a night is sure expensive!
Once we figured out though that we could rent, we never did anything else.
That first time renting was in 2000 for 15 days and we went every year there for a while. What with buying annual passes it was like going back for free next time.
Those first two years we went for two weeks (plus minus) per year, family of 4, WL, BW, BC, and a 3 day stint at what used to be DL / PO (before all the political correctness).
Sit down meals 3 times a day (one walk up), plus snacks and we saved a TON! Priced outright we would have spent 45% more. Keep in mind that there wasn't a dining package, just us paying. Of course EVERY DAY one of those were character meals, another was a 4 star mom and dad meal, and a few were shows (IE: Hoop De Do Review etc.).
Back then though there was no David's site, so you went to a forum and got really active and got to know people. That, or you lurked a lot and sent PM's. Here for instance I've been running around forever, but under this user ID I just don't post much. (Actually being disabled now all this WDW talk is more excitement than I can stand!)
We just don't get to go like we used to.
Last time actually was for a 'quickie' and was at the S&D for a 2 night stay 3 years ago. Boy do we miss it, like REALLY MISS IT!
Now however that my daughter is married, and the 'boy' is 20 it's time that we F-I-N-A-L-L-Y get to go by ourselves.
But yeah.... getting back to Princess Jes....
If you really want to go, and know you're not going to cancel, by all means you REALLY want to rent! You'll get twice the vacation/honeymoon that you would otherwise. Plan your days, perhaps if you want to hop from one DVC property to another you can pay rack rates for the weekend and "splurge" on a fancy room for a couple of nights because the rack rate typically is the same 7 nights a week whereas the DVC points go WAY up on the weekend.
That is actually when the cash rate may save you money.
I've not checked rental rates since last year, but paying cash versus say 30 points @ rental rates you can see where it'll save money. Nothing like moving from resort to resort to keep it fresh. We find we get bored if we spend more than 4 nights in the same place so we always move. Just check out on a Friday after breakfast and hop to another place for the weekend, then in on Sunday night at a DVC property. (Then again... that's just us.)
