Would it be beneficial for us to join the Disney Vacation Club? That’s a question that no doubt many people have agonised with over the years, and one that I was asked by Les and Jill Taylor on one of my recent blogs.

The first, and most important, thing is to understand exactly what the Disney Vacation Club is, and that’s something I covered in a previous blog. To sum it up, essentially it’s Disney’s version of a timeshare, but it’s a much more friendly version. You’re certainly not going to get any high pressured sales if you do want to learn more and take a tour when you’re next at Walt Disney World or Disneyland – and in fact, I’d encourage you to do that, if it’s something that appeals to you.

Disney's Saratoga Springs, the biggest Disney Vacation Club resort to date

Of course, the other thing I would say, as the co-author of PassPorter’s Disney Vacation Club Guide, is that this will be essential in making your decision on whether to buy in or not. It’s packed with answers to every question you may have about how the DVC works, and probably questions you didn’t even know you had!

There are some other useful sources in previous blogs as well. I posed the question does the Disney Vacation Club make sense for us? and also looked at what to know before buying into the Disney Vacation Club, both of which should give you more information.

Now going back to Les and Jill’s question to me, they explained that they’d like to take the entire family to Disney in the next few years, a total of 15 people. With that big a group, you’d certainly need a huge accommodation! Even the three-bedroom villas available at many of the Disney Vacation Club resorts only house up to 12 people, so even those wouldn’t be enough. However, perhaps a couple of two-bedroom villas, which each sleep at least eight people, might be an option.

Larger rooms, such as a one- or two-bedroom villa at the Beach Club Villas will drain your points allocation

Those will take a lot of points though, with the number varying, as always depending on the time of the year you visit, the property you choose, and what nights you say, with Fridays and Saturdays pricier. Two-bedroom villas range in price from 54 to 98 points a night, so that’s something worth knowing before going ahead with any purchase of points to buy into the Disney Vacation Club, as you need to know roughly how many you’ll need to use.

Something else Les and Jill mentioned, and I hope they won’t mind me saying this, is that they’re retired seniors. The Disney Vacation Club has a minimum contract length of up to 2042, with contracts now going up to 2062. Of course, if you’re making a purchase of this length, you want to know that either you, or your family, can enjoy it. As it’s something that you own for the length of the contract, then you can bequeath it in your will for other members of the family to enjoy.

What I would say is that the Disney Vacation Club can give you some amazing savings on Disney vacations over the years, but it is a long term commitment, and you need to know that you, and your family will be happy to travel to Disney for many years to make the best of it.