Disney Vacation Club Introduces Membership Magic

[bonrea]

So they are giving us discounts... Hmmm....

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2014/01/disney-vacation-club-introduces-membership-magic/

I don’t understand the Annual pass thing. We try to go to WDW at least once a year with our DVC points but the price of the park tickets is getting too high for us to afford. The annual pass doesn’t make sense when you aren’t living in the Orlando area and go at least once a quarter.
We bought 10 day non-expiring tickets years ago and have enjoyed them each time we have visited. It is now time to get more and the 10 day option isn’t even on the Disney Website now. One has to call Disney to get them but the non-expiring price is now so high that it isn’t economical.
The annual pass is good for some that can easily travel to WDW. For the bulk of us DVC members that have to spend an entire day traveling just to get there, discounts on non-expiring tickets is desperately needed.
Because of the current cost of tickets we just use the DVC resorts (and now mainly just studios) as a flop house to take advantage of the free things at WDW and do other things in the Orlando area. Thank God they have kitchens or kitchenettes so we don’t have to eat in the expensive WDW restaurants all the time.
We have even stopped purchasing Disney souvenirs just to be able to afford any tickets to the parks. Give your captive audience something useful to keep us coming back. We are about ready to resale our points because we can’t afford the extras other than just staying in the resorts. I do that at the beach for a lot less than we pay in annual dues these days.

 

[DisneyQueen1320]

To save money we thought about buying the AP.
So this year we go in Nov and the following year go in Oct.

 

[twinsouvenirs]

So they are giving us discounts... Hmmm....

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2014/01/disney-vacation-club-introduces-membership-magic/

We bought 10 day non-expiring tickets years ago and have enjoyed them each time we have visited. It is now time to get more and the 10 day option isn’t even on the Disney Website now. One has to call Disney to get them but the non-expiring price is now so high that it isn’t economical.

You can buy them online and at a slight savings using the mousesaver discount online at undercover tourist

 

[bonrea]

You can buy them online and at a slight savings using the mousesaver discount online at undercover tourist

Yes... correct. For 3 10 day adult (age 10+) tickets direct from Disney with the non-expiring is $2121.48
Undercovertourest.com gives an $81.63 discount = $2039.85

Direct from Disney = $70.716 per day ticket
UCT = $67.995

 

[roydavid7771]

To save money we thought about buying the AP.
So this year we go in Nov and the following year go in Oct.

I pretty much do the same thing. We've ben going once over the summer and recently have been running in the WDW Marathon Weekend. Between the two trips, we cover the 10 day breakeven point and usually stay a few extra days to get even more ahead of the game.

 

[wendyt_ca]

I pretty much do the same thing. We've ben going once over the summer and recently have been running in the WDW Marathon Weekend. Between the two trips, we cover the 10 day breakeven point and usually stay a few extra days to get even more ahead of the game.

We do the same thing as well. And the years we have the AP we generally have a small trip in the middle

 

[supersuperwendy]

OP...is your child school age? We've planned the past few trips during the YES program which our kids love and disney discounts tickets for your whole family if you sign up your child. I had an amazing experience as their chaperone and very much loved the discount!!

http://www.disneyyouth.com/our-programs/education/sp/individual-enrollment/#categories-individual-enrollment

 

[Andrew015]

Unfortunately, Disney is not a cheap place to travel. There are means of making certain aspects of each trip cheaper, and you have already touched on some of them (cooking in the rooms, cutting down on souvenirs, etc.). But trying to compare a Disney vacation to a beach vacation from a cost perspective is not a fair comparison - apples and oranges.

Part of a successful DVC ownership experience is understanding the total cost of ownership upfront before buying in. One must know that all facets of ownership - dues, park tickets, food and travel expense, etc. - increase every year, year over year for 30, 40 or 50 years of ownership (bet you never heard that from any DVC Guide). This must be factored into your purchase equation, or the DVC experience can quickly become more than one bargained for.

With all of that being said, DVC still makes annual trips to Disney more economically feasible than not owning, so for many of us, it's worth the steep price of admission. But to call it "cheap" would be an understatement.

 

[twinsouvenirs]

Unfortunately, Disney is not a cheap place to travel. There are means of making certain aspects of each trip cheaper, and you have already touched on some of them (cooking in the rooms, cutting down on souvenirs, etc.). But trying to compare a Disney vacation to a beach vacation from a cost perspective is not a fair comparison - apples and oranges.

Part of a successful DVC ownership experience is understanding the total cost of ownership upfront before buying in. One most know that all facets of ownership - dues, park tickets, food and travel expense, etc. - increase every year, year over year for 30, 40 or 50 years of ownership (bet you never heard that from any DVC Guide). This must be factored into your equation, or the DVC experience can quickly become more than one bargained for.

With all of that being said, DVC still makes annual trips to Disney more economically feasible than not owning, so for many of us, it's worth the steep price of admission. But to call it "cheap" would be an understatement.

Totally agree--but just to make you feel better, one of my colleagues told me that his friend is planning a trip for his family with the grandparents and the cash trip is already over $15,000--and they haven't purchased a set of mickey ears yet.

With DVC, for three trips (one week long nuclear family trip, memorial day weekend romantic getaway, and post NY week with family in grand villa) our cash outlay is our MFs (around 1400), food 700+300+500 (we cook a lot), an exotic car experience ($375), park tickets (1000) = 4275. Let's be simple & throw in 1/40th of our buy in cost since we paid cash for the points - $625. So we are looking at THREE vacations for $4900. Now, I know we are not the norm; we have tons of frequent flier miles and we LIKE to cook a lot, we travel in the off season, and our kids are only 1.5 yrs so we aren't buying them tickets yet, but as you can see with the exotic car experience, it's not like we are going spartan--that food cost includes shrimp boil dinners and grilled steaks and even two character meals, Artist Pointe dinner, and Be Our Guest.

So I guess I am just still feeling good about our decision

 

[Missyrose]

So they are giving us discounts... Hmmm....

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2014/01/disney-vacation-club-introduces-membership-magic/

I don’t understand the Annual pass thing. We try to go to WDW at least once a year with our DVC points but the price of the park tickets is getting too high for us to afford. The annual pass doesn’t make sense when you aren’t living in the Orlando area and go at least once a quarter.
We bought 10 day non-expiring tickets years ago and have enjoyed them each time we have visited. It is now time to get more and the 10 day option isn’t even on the Disney Website now. One has to call Disney to get them but the non-expiring price is now so high that it isn’t economical.
The annual pass is good for some that can easily travel to WDW. For the bulk of us DVC members that have to spend an entire day traveling just to get there, discounts on non-expiring tickets is desperately needed.
Because of the current cost of tickets we just use the DVC resorts (and now mainly just studios) as a flop house to take advantage of the free things at WDW and do other things in the Orlando area. Thank God they have kitchens or kitchenettes so we don’t have to eat in the expensive WDW restaurants all the time.
We have even stopped purchasing Disney souvenirs just to be able to afford any tickets to the parks. Give your captive audience something useful to keep us coming back. We are about ready to resale our points because we can’t afford the extras other than just staying in the resorts. I do that at the beach for a lot less than we pay in annual dues these days.

It's not just Florida residents that benefit from APs, we live hundreds of miles from Disney and are just about to buy our third set of APs. We go a couple of times a year. Having the APs make it nice to just pop into a park for a few hours without agonizing over wasting a day on a MYW ticket.

We budget for our APs each year, put away the money for them monthly so when it comes time to buy the new ones, we have the money in our account. And actually, our Disney Visa rewards is paying for one of our AP renewals this year!

 

[happymommy]

I agree - it's not just for Florida residents. We're near DC/Baltimore and have had AP's at least twice in the past. There have been years where we went 3 times, and it was nice to not worry about using a day to just pop into a park for a couple of hours. Flights from BWI are often very affordable, so I've taken last minute trips with the kids several times (and gotten good AP discounts at Disney resorts, as we're not DVC owners, but now we prefer to stay off site).

To me, the cost per day for all our entertainment is not unreasonable - heck a movie is expensive now! It is a lot of money, and many folks can't afford to go ever or maybe once. But to me, it's worth it. Or well, we'll see on my next trip with the new FP+ not so sure I'm going to like that restriction of one park (we always park hop but may stop doing that unless we buy AP's again).

I don't see 10 day non expire tickets quite worth it anymore to me. AP's for two or three trips in one year are worth it IMHO.

OP: you are in NC, so is it a long drive even? We drove once, 12 hours straight (not necessarily to save money, but we didn't want to fly). If you're not going to use your points, I guess you can always book a week and rent it out to cover maintenance costs.

 

[disney junky]

We have only ever bought annual passes twice, both times because we knew we were going to be able to get our money's worth out of them, ie, more than one trip per year. Our dd was the the cp and was a cm, so we did a bit more frequent visiting. We also had a place there while she was in school. That said, we also bought the non-expiring a couple time for our son to use, knowing he'd never make good use of the AP. I think every person's situation is a little different. We are heading down in May, and I've looked at getting AP's for my wife and me, but there just isn't another trip that's feasible within a 12 month window, so instead, we're getting everyone 7 day park hoppers.

 

[DVC Sue]

Having Annual Passes really adds to the enjoyment of our trip. With an AP, we can pop into a park for a short time to do a favorite ride or eat at a restaurant. When we had 5 or 10 day passes, we felt the needs to maximize each and every day. So, we would have to be in a park the WHOLE day or we felt like we were wasting money. APs have given us a lot more flexibility.

 

[wendyt_ca]

We live on the east coast of Canada (so pretty far away lol). And we always get the annual passes. We were always going once a year so buying DVC was a must for us and we have already saved about what it cost us. But the past few years we decided we would plan our trips so that we could get the AP go say mid Oct that year and then the following year go before it expires. This has made Disney even more affordable! And because of the AP it's made possible for me to throw in a trip down with my friend because all I need to pay for is flight and food. And DH and I tend to take a trip in the middle so it works really well for us. If we didn't get the AP it would be 1 trip a year. Last year I was able to go to Disney 3 times. This year is our off year so we will now be waiting until Sept. But then once we get this new AP promotion we are going in Sept, over Christmas-New Years and in March...this would not be doable without it or DVC.
And I agree it makes it convenient to just go to a park one day for a couple of hours without worrying about wasting a day on a regular MYW ticket.

 

[twinsouvenirs]

Having Annual Passes really adds to the enjoyment of our trip. With an AP, we can pop into a park for a short time to do a favorite ride or eat at a restaurant. When we had 5 or 10 day passes, we felt the needs to maximize each and every day. So, we would have to be in a park the WHOLE day or we felt like we were wasting money. APs have given us a lot more flexibility.

This comment alone may lead to me getting APs this year... I do just die to stop into epcot's world showcase one evening a trip but don't always want to allocate a full day.

 

[Mousewerks]

Having Annual Passes really adds to the enjoyment of our trip. With an AP, we can pop into a park for a short time to do a favorite ride or eat at a restaurant. When we had 5 or 10 day passes, we felt the needs to maximize each and every day. So, we would have to be in a park the WHOLE day or we felt like we were wasting money. APs have given us a lot more flexibility.

Couldn't have said it better myself. The times we've had APs just take a whole lot of stress out of touring the parks.

 

[Missyrose]

This comment alone may lead to me getting APs this year... I do just die to stop into epcot's world showcase one evening a trip but don't always want to allocate a full day.

It's your first year with DVC, you'll figure out what works for your family pretty quickly.

 

[quandrea]

I saw a Monday thru Friday annual pass online for two hundred nine dollars. Thinking about getting that for our family. Does anyone know if you have to be a fl resident?

 

[Andrew015]

Totally agree--but just to make you feel better, one of my colleagues told me that his friend is planning a trip for his family with the grandparents and the cash trip is already over $15,000--and they haven't purchased a set of mickey ears yet.

This past May, I spent 10 days at VWL with my family. I took my Mom, Dad, Brother and now Fiance (5 people total including myself), and we stayed in two separate studios.

My Aunt, Cousin, his wife and their three children met us down there and stayed in the main Wilderness Lodge on a cash reservation for the same duration. All things totalled, they were over the $15,000 mark for the entire trip.

My ENTIRE 150 point VWL contract (purchased via resale @ $50/point) cost me only $8,000. Factoring in my total upfront DVC purchase cost + maintenance fee + park tickets + food + travel, I still ended up a few thousand cheaper than my Cousin's family. So moral of the story, my DVC investment has basically paid for itself in one trip. All future trips will essentially be at the cost of my annual maintenance fees + food + tickets + airfare. For those future trips, I plan to buy AP's and get at least two trips per pass.

When you look at DVC from this perspective, while still expensive (each trip still ends up in the "thousands"), it is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than paying cash as a non-member. For me, I find it to be a very economical way to get deluxe Disney accommodations for my annual fix of the Mouse. I'd have it no other way.

 

[chalee94]

I saw a Monday thru Friday annual pass online for two hundred nine dollars. Thinking about getting that for our family. Does anyone know if you have to be a fl resident?

you have to be a FL resident, yes. DVC won't cut it.