1 Month Out - Using DVC Membership For the First Time!

[Andrew015]

I am just a mere 30 days away from using my DVC membership for the first time! I can’t believe it’s almost here. I will be traveling to China on April 20th for business, returning the 27th. I am home for one week (hopefully, long enough to get back on EST), and then I depart for Villas Wilderness Lodge for 10 days!

Seeing as how I will be slightly distracted with the China trip, I want to make sure that I am not forgetting anything prior to leaving. I’ve done WDW a number of times, but never as a DVC owner. I suppose it’s not much different in the grand scheme of things, but as a newbie, I don’t want to have an “Awe, Crap… I forgot the…!” moment on the airplane as we’re pulling away from the gate. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

• I’ll be sure to take my membership card and print off all room confirmations.
• I’ve made advanced dining reservations for all but the first day. We’re getting in late afternoon, so rather than rush to a park, we’re going to take the boat over to CR and tour the monorail resorts. I figure we’ll end up eating dinner at CR or Poly, but haven’t decided where. Any recommendations that might not be too difficult to get into? Once again, I’ll bring confirmation #’s for the ADR’s.
• Magical Express packet arrived last week, so we’re all set there.
• We plan on purchasing our park tickets from the WL front desk on day #2. I know this could be done in advance, but it only took about 5 minutes last time, and I enjoy interacting with the front desk.


What else am I missing? I’m probably over thinking this, but naturally, I want everything to go off without a hitch!

 

[disneynutz]

You can save some money by purchasing your tickets from UT using the Mouse Saver discount code.

You can access the TOTWL at BLT if you want to, take your room key and member ID.

Report any house keeping problems or maintenance issues that you may have.

I don't know what room requests you made so I can't help you there.

You are an owner now so relax, slow down, start looking at the little things and enjoy your time at WDW.

Bill

 

[bobbiwoz]

And from what I learned here yesterday, if you do purchase your tickets from UT, you can have them put on your room key so you can access the park entrance through the faster lanes!

 

[Orsino]

Now that you are DVC, I'm assuming you will be going to the world at least once per year. You might consider annual passes instead of tickets. We go once a year, but we offset by a week so that we get two uses out of one AP and buy the AP every other year. I find this works well for us. The DVC discount makes it very much worth it for us. We used to have very full (long) park days then rest during non-park days, but with an AP we are do several half-days instead (much better for enjoying the DVC resort itself!).

Plus the fact that you are going for 10 days seems to make even more sense for AP.