There are two things to think about. One: what do you need in WDW lodging. Two: is the timeshare "bargain" the right one for you?
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First, there are three features one might want in lodging for a WDW-centric vacation:
1: To be onsite (in a Disney-owned property).
2: To have a reasonable amount of space.
3: To cost a reasonable amount of money.
For most people, and for most definitions of "reasonable", you can only have two of those three. So, it is worth thinking about which one of those is absolutely most important to you, and which one you can most easily live without. Different people will weigh these differently.
For my family, #2 was and is the biggest non-negotiable. We have never been "put all four of us in a single hotel room" people, and while I understand people do this it was definitely not for us. At the very least, we would get a Residence Inn or equivalent sort of place with some sort of kitchen facilities and at least one door between where the adults slept and where the kids slept. More commonly we rented houses or condos. Timeshare is great for this--in most cases, you can stay in a condo for roughly what it costs to stay in a hotel room. In fact, we've gotten to the point that we are generally unwilling to stay in a single hotel room even as a couple. I just passed on a good deal on a studio in Maui for whale season, because 465 sq. ft. was "too small."
But, for my family, #1 was the easiest to give up. We like staying onsite. But, we are not always willing to pay the cost difference for an onsite Villa vs. an offsite condo, townhome, or even pool home, because that difference is a few thousand dollars for a one-week stay. We still stay in DVC Villas when I can arrange a good deal on one. But we've also stayed in well-located non-Disney condos/homes and had
fantastic vacations that way. If push came to shove, I would put our DVC stays firmly in the rear-view mirror.
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Second, I'm pretty sure that owning timeshare will not save you money---and that's true even if you buy a very inexpensive one on the resale market. It is likely that each individual stay will be less expensive than it would have been had you been renting it. But, it is
also likely that you will end up taking more vacations as an owner than you would as a non-owner. That's because timeshare is a commitment to use-it-or-lose-it vacations, so vacations become a priority around which you shcedule other things rather than an afterthought you fit in around the rest of your life. And, even if the lodging is a better deal, you still have transportation, food, and entertainment expenses.
I happen to think that's not a bad thing. In fact, I think it is the best part about owning timeshares. We bought our first one about 15 years ago, when the kids were 5 and 7. Over the years, we took many fantastic vacations that were truly memorable--and not all of them were even timeshare based! Once we made vacations a priority,
they were a priority. And, because most of our vacations were relatively inexpensive, we were able to sometimes splurge on something big without feeling bad about it. Now that the kids are (mostly) out of the house, I am so very grateful that we did that. We will never get that time with them back, but we sure did make the most of it.
