It just made sense...

It was something we had in the back of our minds every since we took our first trip to Disney World together - almost ten years ago for our Honeymoon.

Can we do this every year? How could we ever afford to stay onsite (especially the Contemporary)?

After we got married we rarely took vacations. We went to Las Vegas once. And I think that was it. Yup. Trips up to Wisconsin, but that doesn't really count in my book. We always talked about going to Disney World - especially for Christmas time - but figured we should wait 'til we had kids. We have a difficult time spending money.

Finally, our first family trip - almost a year ago - and we fell in love with it all over again - and this time with a fresh perspective.

And then we started thinking about it again. The Disney Vacation Club. We briefly looked into it a year ago, but since the only people I knew who belonged inherited a large sum of money and that's how they got it. So I figured it wasn't for us.

Then, this past week two families I know, two families, went to DisneyWorld and the urge to join DVC got so much stronger. Not only that, but the Doorway to Dreams store in Woodfield hosted an amazing event.

And so I went. Just to check things out.

And it was amazing. I learned how flexible the DVC can be. I learned how the point system work. I learned how DVC is so very different than other time shares. But most importantly, I figured out, we can afford this. We could have afforded it ten years ago (and would have paid a lot less than today).

So we took the plunge. We joined the DVC and I couldn't be happier.

We already have our first trip planned for February. We're staying in a 2bedroom at the Boardwalk and bringing along our friends, who just happened to be with us for our first family trip.

Not only that, we've got our next two trips after that "sort of" planned out. Mike and I want to go for our 10th anniversary - just a quick weekend trip in January or February of 2011. And then, we'd love to take the grandparents (both sets) to stay with us in 2012. See how that all works - a quick weekend stay in a studio, then we can save our points for the next year and get a 2 bedroom (which is really like a 3 bedroom as far as sleeping arrangements go).

We don't even have to go every year - we can "bank" our points one year and go the following year - we can even "borrow" points from the year after that and stay in a villa at one of the nicest resorts at DisneyWorld. Well, let's face it, they're all nice.

And we can go other places too.

This is going to be good for us. It's going to force us to think about going somewhere and doing something. If we can't afford to fly to Florida - maybe we'll drive down and stay longer - or maybe we'll use our points at one of the resorts in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, or heck, even Chicago!

Those in the DVC will say they wish they hadn't waited. Those not in the DVC will question our decision. I know. It just keeps happening. And that's okay, because I know this is for us and we will love it.