I wish I had money when we went on our honeymoon 14 years ago. We stayed at Saratoga Springs, loved it, sat in on the DVC spiel, did the math and saw we could save tons of money but I was 23, finishing my student teaching and broke so we couldn’t. By the time I had enough money it wasn’t worth it anymore. I believe the math right now to buy new only makes sense if you pay cash and you only stay at deluxe resorts. We like to do long split stays so we will stay 5-7 nights at a value, usually Pop and then 9-14 days at a moderate like Caribbean Beach or a deluxe like Animal Kingdom or Saratoga. So between us not always staying deluxe and the points being way more than they were 14 years ago it just isn’t worth it for us. If you need to finance forget about it, it’s somewhere between 10 and 15 percent and that’s with an 800 credit score. We last did the DVC tour in 2018 and I did the math for the sales lady showing her it wouldn’t make financial sense and she basically said “well owning DVC just isn’t for everyone.” You get a discount on annual passes but we only buy them every other year. We go in late August, then at Christmas, then again the following summer in July all on one pass, then we skip a Christmas and don’t need to buy another one until the following summer.
There are a few other perks like free parking at your resort like everyone used to get, but there are also downsides like not as much housekeeping. You can also buy out people’s points that don’t want them anymore but you lose some of the benefits unless you own some points direct and the rest resale. My best advice is to join the DisBoards and use their DVC forum to learn as much as you can. Good luck

Take a look at their new Genie+ pay for fast passes program they just released yesterday. It would make me think twice about being locked into Disney. We have been going yearly and every other year twice a year for 14 years, usually with annual passes and if this shakes out to be something you have to buy to have an enjoyable vacation we will be looking elsewhere to vacation when our annual passes are over. Who knows though, so far reaction has been so poor towards their new program it may not even stick around.

We are here now and are having one of the best vacations we’ve ever had. Super low crowds and low lines means we can ride every ride in the parks in half days and spend more time doing other resort activities.

AK is a wonderful resort and we could vacation there without even going to the parks and have a great time. We stayed there for 10 or 11 days one trip and we went into the parks the least amount of time. Our kids did all the activities, feeding animals, learning to drum, decorating cookies, poolside games, movies at night by the pool, etc.