All You Bought Was a Room

[Sammie]

Actually when we bought that is actually all we did get. We are still very happy with our purchase. I am a firm believer though that we make our own magic. It's still there for us. We are much like TJ but even more so in that we have been going since the late 80s. When we bought in 2000, the 9 years of tickets had ended. We did not get ticket discounts and very feww merchandise discounts and if we got any on food they were few and far between. We get way more now. We get our tickets from AAA.
I could care less about Magical Express, I personally don't like built in costs. We are pleased with Sunshine Flyer and it's very reasonable. I don't mind paying for Genie+ or ILL either. Things have changed but then everything does change. You either embrace it or move on to something different. As to how I spend my money, well that is my business not anyone else's.

 

[Sammie]

Well, you could buy a ticket and not be able to get into a park. That happened to a lot of people who didn't realize that they needed a park reservation and capacity was topped at 30%.

FWIW, I knew going in that DVC didn't owe me anything other than a chance to use my points for a reservation. It stinks that APs are not available for sale. But that's the case for everyone, not just DVC members.

How does one buy a ticket and not know about park reserevations, the info is everywhere?

 

[Marionnette]

How does one buy a ticket and not know about park reserevations, the info is everywhere?

Not everyone reads the details if they book on their own. Some TAs don't know the details, especially those who are not exclusive to booking Disney trips. Even people who are members of the disboards have posted that they failed to make park reservations and could not get into a park back when capacity was capped at 30%.

 

[CarolMN]

Procrastination, mostly, LOL. You can't buy a ticket if there are no park reservations available for your dates, so some people " snooze and lose".

 

[Douglas Dubh]

was actually just explaining the ridiculous “EMH” today to DH and being a non Disney fan he just shook his head at how Disney fans are willing to accept any crumb and pay twice as much

I don’t understand the criticism about EMH. A half hour early in four parks seems like a better deal than 1 hour in one.

 

[RoseGold]

A half hour early in four parks seems like a better deal than 1 hour in one.

Go in summer and get back to us on that one, LOL. Honestly the late hours are why we bought in, my husband in particular. We would have been better off mathematically just staying at Swolphin.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

Go in summer and get back to us on that one, LOL. Honestly the late hours are why we bought in, my husband in particular. We would have been better off mathematically just staying at Swolphin.

I live here so I go in the summer quite a lot. The early half hour doesn’t really have anything to do with the late hours.

 

[BigEeyore]

the only 50s that matter at WDW right now is that it feels like we are getting 50% of the magic that we used to and are paying 50% more for it.

Nailed it!

We bought in 2008 - the perks weren't a big factor in our decision to purchase DVC. Being able to stay in the best resorts on property in villas was our motivation, along with a naive trust that Disney would continue to provide a high quality vacation experience forever.
The resorts are still amazing, the vacation experience we bought into - not so much.

 

[Madame]

I don’t understand the criticism about EMH. A half hour early in four parks seems like a better deal than 1 hour in one.

Then you don’t tour the way we did. That’s fine but there has been a net loss of emh since we started going.

 

[AdamsMum]

I don’t understand the criticism about EMH. A half hour early in four parks seems like a better deal than 1 hour in one.

In the half hour early entry, I and many others went straight to Frozen from International Gateway. By the time I got there, the line was around behind the China pavillion. Before I got to the building entrance, the park was open and guests were entering the lightning lane entrance. That's why half an hour doesn't really help.

 

[DVCsloth]

I tend to think about it as only bought a room, any extras from DVC or AP are alright with me. Still get a thrill about $0 balance on checkout.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

In the half hour early entry, I and many others went straight to Frozen from International Gateway. By the time I got there, the line was around behind the China pavillion. Before I got to the building entrance, the park was open and guests were entering the lightning lane entrance. That's why half an hour doesn't really help.

I’m not sure how it’s any worse than when three times more people showed up for only twice the time.

 

[DVCsloth]

I’m not sure how it’s any worse than when three times more people showed up for only twice the time.

Good point, but we did get in quite a lot of what we wanted to do in the early morning EMH and combined with FP+.
Really miss that.

 

[Sammie]

Not everyone reads the details if they book on their own. Some TAs don't know the details, especially those who are not exclusive to booking Disney trips. Even people who are members of the disboards have posted that they failed to make park reservations and could not get into a park back when capacity was capped at 30%.

Can't imagine spending that much money and not know what I was doing.

 

[drusba]

Returning to OP's original post, when you think about it, "all you bought is a room" is itself an overstatement of what you actually bought, unless you purchased a guaranteed week at one of the resorts that have that option. For everyone else, all you really bought was a percentage chance to get a room for any particular time, and, for some rooms, such as AKV club level and value studios (and 2BRs), and BWV standard view studios (and 2BRs), your percentage chance is most often extremely low even at 11-months out.

 

[bakerworld]

The real DVC magic is walking thru IG. We often walk out IG to take buses to Disney Springs because it's shorter that walking all the way to the front from the R&C to get to RR. LOL

So yep, DVC is just a room with the real perk of choosing where the room is and how close it will be to a destination.

 

[taaren]

Because we're West Coast I've never really understood buying DVC for the perks, because our one perk is $20 off your AP. (That's a 2% discount. I can do better with buying Target GCs.)

Still, staying DVC has gotten even more valuable to me post-pandemic since it means we can use the hotel bucket to make or switch starting park reservations after the AP bucket of park reservations is gone. I've never stayed on-site on anything but points (a few times we've stayed on rented-distressed points at DLH and PPH, but that's been the closest we've gotten), because I can't fathom paying those prices on my very-middle-class-salary. I've never made it to a Moonlight Magic, whenever they announce them they're less than 7 months out and my points for year are always planned out wayyyy ahead of time; I'm not going to take off two days of work to try to fly in to stay offsite for that event.

"Just a room" is still amazing when I'd pay roughly the same price to stay at the Best Western across the street, DVC is one heck of an upgrade.

 

[jade1]

DVC is one thing we still enjoy immensely.

I guess it's "just a room" in Deluxe Category Resorts at Walt Disney World, but we love it.

 

[Anthony1971]

Anyone who bough thinking they were getting anything more then a room did not fully understand what they were buying. I understand the point as the theme parks and more have gone through some less then desirable changes for those that have seen different for newer it may still be a great experience compared to other places. We have owned since 2003.... The resorts are still great for us. From going since the 80's and one of us the 70's we have not been huge park goers for a while there is just a lot more to do and enjoy after all it is a vacation and we treat it as such...... Just not going far out of my way to plan what time I will be on a ride or eat dinner unless it is a special dinner.
Times are cyclical in the late 90's early 00 Disney had boom as well only length of stay tickets that were expensive then... 2003 or 4 back came the non expiring tickets and "cheaper than ever pricing" We are entering a rough economy once again.................. Capek says he is flexible and we may just find out in the not very distant future if this true. If times get rough Pricing and the level of service will change I have personally seen more attention to customers lately at more luxury expendable based places although pricing has remained but I expect that will follow at some point as well as customers spend elsewhere where they find more value for whatever reason that may be.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Anyone who bough thinking they were getting anything more then a room did not fully understand what they were buying. I understand the point as the theme parks and more have gone through some less then desirable changes for those that have seen different for newer it may still be a great experience compared to other places. We have owned since 2003.... The resorts are still great for us. From going since the 80's and one of us the 70's we have not been huge park goers for a while there is just a lot more to do and enjoy after all it is a vacation and we treat it as such...... Just not going far out of my way to plan what time I will be on a ride or eat dinner unless it is a special dinner.
Times are cyclical in the late 90's early 00 Disney had boom as well only length of stay tickets that were expensive then... 2003 or 4 back came the non expiring tickets and "cheaper than ever pricing" We are entering a rough economy once again.................. Capek says he is flexible and we may just find out in the not very distant future if this true. If times get rough Pricing and the level of service will change I have personally seen more attention to customers lately at more luxury expendable based places although pricing has remained but I expect that will follow at some point as well as customers spend elsewhere where they find more value for whatever reason that may be.

You know? That statement gets sort of personal with me. It has become almost cliche around here as an automatic response over the years. My personal response has always been this. Would you have bought DVC had the parks not been there? With all the other timeshares on the market, this would have been the one parks be darned? Sorry. I'm not buying it. "Well, you didn't buy any access to the parks." Go back and re-read everything I said before the quote.

I think the ones that are really fooling themselves are the ones that have been brainwashed into believing that the parks have no relevance to DVC.