Can members us resort without being a registered guest?

OhioDVC

DIS Veteran
Joined
Nov 28, 2006
During a recent stay at OKW and VWL I met two families from the Orlando area that were DVC members that use the pools at the DVC resorts on a regular basis. They willingly showed me their membership card.

Can members really do that? Legitimately?

I remember my stay at HHI this past summer and the sign at the entrance to the beach pool clearly states "MEMBERS and registered guests only". Does this mean that as a member we can used the DVC resorts when we are not registered guests?

I'm staying at Bonnet Creek for two weeks starting next week. I'm going to flash my membership card and see if anyone questions my use of the DVC resorts.
 
During a recent stay at OKW and VWL I met two families from the Orlando area that were DVC members that use the pools at the DVC resorts on a regular basis. They willingly showed me their membership card.

Can members really do that? Legitimately?

I remember my stay at HHI this past summer and the sign at the entrance to the beach pool clearly states "MEMBERS and registered guests only". Does this mean that as a member we can used the DVC resorts when we are not registered guests?

I'm staying at Bonnet Creek for two weeks starting next week. I'm going to flash my membership card and see if anyone questions my use of the DVC resorts.

No, it's not allowed. Members can pool hop while they are staying at a DVC resort on points but not if they are staying elsewhere.
 
During a recent stay at OKW and VWL I met two families from the Orlando area that were DVC members that use the pools at the DVC resorts on a regular basis. They willingly showed me their membership card.

Can members really do that? Legitimately?

I remember my stay at HHI this past summer and the sign at the entrance to the beach pool clearly states "MEMBERS and registered guests only". Does this mean that as a member we can used the DVC resorts when we are not registered guests?

I'm staying at Bonnet Creek for two weeks starting next week. I'm going to flash my membership card and see if anyone questions my use of the DVC resorts.

Resort amenities--including pools--are available only to DVC members who are using points for a stay.

So no...according to program rules, owners are not entitled to use resort facilities when they are not registered guests.
 
During a recent stay at OKW and VWL I met two families from the Orlando area that were DVC members that use the pools at the DVC resorts on a regular basis. They willingly showed me their membership card.

Can members really do that? Legitimately?

I remember my stay at HHI this past summer and the sign at the entrance to the beach pool clearly states "MEMBERS and registered guests only". Does this mean that as a member we can used the DVC resorts when we are not registered guests?

I'm staying at Bonnet Creek for two weeks starting next week. I'm going to flash my membership card and see if anyone questions my use of the DVC resorts.

Bonnet Creek is on our bucket list, it appears to be a lovely property with interesting poolscape. Come back and report on your stay.
 


Some timeshares allow day use, DVC does not. However there seem to be a subset of members who don't seem willing to follow the rules.
 
I think there is a small number of locals (members & non-members) that treat the Disney pools are their own personal pools.
 
I think there is a small number of locals (members & non-members) that treat the Disney pools are their own personal pools.
This happens a lot at beach and other similar locations. I've seen similar discussion on various travel boards. There is a significant subset of people who feel it's perfectly OK to walk off the beach and use the pool at resorts they are not staying at, even more locals than vacationers it seems. To me it's a totally dishonest and inappropriate thing to do.
 


This happens a lot at beach and other similar locations. I've seen similar discussion on various travel boards. There is a significant subset of people who feel it's perfectly OK to walk off the beach and use the pool at resorts they are not staying at, even more locals than vacationers it seems. To me it's a totally dishonest and inappropriate thing to do.

I agree. I live about 30 miles from WDW and can easily drive over for the day, but would never consider using any guest only amenities when visiting and not staying at the resort.
 
Maybe the MyMagic+ bands will minimize this.... maybe.

I'm starting to see some benefits to being tracked.... this is one instance, and the people who made a "movie" while in the parks (to be shown at Sundance, whether it's "sold" has yet to be seen) is another.
 
During a recent stay at OKW and VWL I met two families from the Orlando area that were DVC members that use the pools at the DVC resorts on a regular basis. They willingly showed me their membership card.

Can members really do that? Legitimately?

I remember my stay at HHI this past summer and the sign at the entrance to the beach pool clearly states "MEMBERS and registered guests only". Does this mean that as a member we can used the DVC resorts when we are not registered guests?

I'm staying at Bonnet Creek for two weeks starting next week. I'm going to flash my membership card and see if anyone questions my use of the DVC resorts.

At HH, unless you are a registered guest you won't have access to get into the Beach House to use the pool. The sign is there to discourage people walking up from the beach and the "Member" reference is there as a suggestion that the resort is more than a hotel but not an invitation to anyone not actually staying at the resort. While the resort will welcome unregistered DVC members to walk around the resort, they will not provide access to the Beach House except guests actually staying at the resort.

DVC Members not staying at the resort won't even be able to drive beyond the guard shack to get to the Beach House unless they already have access to Palmetto Dunes via some other access permit.

As already noted by many in this thread, DVC Members have no "rights" to amenities at any of the DVC Resorts unless they are staying there using their membership (points or cash).

DVC Members not staying at a DVC Resort can still get some of the Member perks at WDW and other locations (HH offers some DVC member discounts) by showing their Member ID but that does not include pool hopping or use of the pools.
 
This happens a lot at beach and other similar locations. I've seen similar discussion on various travel boards. There is a significant subset of people who feel it's perfectly OK to walk off the beach and use the pool at resorts they are not staying at, even more locals than vacationers it seems. To me it's a totally dishonest and inappropriate thing to do.

Yes it is, they feel they are entitled
 
Maybe the MyMagic+ bands will minimize this.... maybe.

I'm starting to see some benefits to being tracked.... this is one instance, and the people who made a "movie" while in the parks (to be shown at Sundance, whether it's "sold" has yet to be seen) is another.

It is possible, they will put a reader at the gates to pools, if they gate them all.
 
Maybe the MyMagic+ bands will minimize this.... maybe.

I'm starting to see some benefits to being tracked.... this is one instance, and the people who made a "movie" while in the parks (to be shown at Sundance, whether it's "sold" has yet to be seen) is another.

It is possible, they will put a reader at the gates to pools, if they gate them all.

I don't see that working unless there was someone watching the gate to make sure that no one comes in behind the registered guests.
 
I suspect some people don't follow th rules, but some people don't know the rules....they don't read the signs, don't both to inform themselves. There area lot of people out there that are just ignorant.
 
So the obvious follow-up question; should someone be called out to a cast member if we discover they are not staying at any WDW resort?
 
I suspect some people don't follow th rules, but some people don't know the rules.
I'll personally give them the benefit of the doubt that they didn't realize they were doing something wrong. The fact that they were blatantly telling people they weren't staying at WDW would indicate they were either very unconcerned about being turned in, or thought they were within their rights as an owner to be there.

The other thing that's hard to dismiss is the distinct possibility that some cast member at some point or another said something to them that either specifically indicated they could do it, or could be easily misinterpreted to make them think they could do it. We all know how inconsistently the rules are applied, and how inconsistent the answer is if you ask multiple cast members a question about the rules.
 
I think there is a small number of locals (members & non-members) that treat the Disney pools are their own personal pools.

My daughter has a co-worker (they don't live in FL) who visits family in the Orlando area and they pool hop to all the pools, DVC in particular by riding the buses from SSR. They park at DTD and go from there. What really steams me is that she bragged that they even swam at BLT on their last trip.

I remember the days when the bus drivers actually asked to see a room key before they let you on the bus. That hasn't happened in years.
 
I think all disney pools should do what SAB does and that is check every persons room key (even my kids were checked) and given a bracelet.
 
So the obvious follow-up question; should someone be called out to a cast member if we discover they are not staying at any WDW resort?

I guess that depends upon whether you think it's your place--and worth your time--to fight that battle.

In my opinion, unless Disney really wishes to get proactive in this regard, it's a losing battle to fight. If you mention it to a Cast Member and it gets the offender removed, you've addressed exactly one violation.

Like crisi said, some people do not even know they are in the wrong. You could try saying something to the offender to find out if they are aware of the rules. If they aren't, educating them may help eliminate one offender. But if they are aware of the rule and still choose to violate, wasting your vacation time getting them evicted won't have any lasting impact. They'll be back the next weekend.
 
I don't think there's much point in letting a cast member know of the situation. Theyll just politely tell them they need to leave and the family will head to another resort or even back to the same resort the next day. If Disney actually cared about this, they would find a way to keep non resort guests out. Like the re using of refillable mugs, Disney just doesn't seem to see this as a problem significant enough for them to address.
 

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