My wife, son and I also attended the Doorway to Dreams event today. I will recap the incentives and then add my comments on the event.
From listening to the presentation and also talking with a
DVC salesperson/rep. these are the incentives, as I understood them.
Purchases of 110 points or more would receive a $10 per point discount at Saratoga Springs and $8 per point discount at Animal Kingdom Villas.
If you purchased from 110 to 159 points you will receive a one-time allotment equal to your purchase. Those points must be used within twelve months of your contract date and reservations cannot be booked more then seven months prior to check-in date.
If you purchase 160 points to 199 you receive a one-time allotment equal to one and a half times the amount of your purchase. Those points must be used within twelve months of your contract date and reservations cannot be booked more then seven months prior to check-in date.
For purchases of 200 points or more you receive a one-time allotment equal to two times the amount of your purchase. Those points must be used within twelve months of your contract date and reservations cannot be booked more then seven months prior to check-in date.
While later talking with a sales representative he mentioned that the discounted price at Saratoga Springs and the Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas could be received for purchases starting at 100 points. However you needed to meet the 110-point threshold to receive the extra allotment of points.
Purchases of the Animal Kingdom Lodge would include 2007 use year points and Saratoga Springs would include 2006 and 2007 use year points. I believe they mentioned that the dues for 2006 would be waived for Saratoga Springs and you would be allowed to bank those points into the future (2008 I assume).
The incentives being offered were for the people attending the event and we have 7 days to take advantage of them.
They did mention some type of adjustment for people whose use years begin in Oct, Nov and Dec but I didn't listen closely to that since it doesn't apply to my family.
General Impressions of the event.
My family attended the 1:00 PM showing and we also arrived early and were encouraged to visit the mall. We returned about 15 minutes before 1:00 PM and they were still encouraging people to visit the mall until 1:00. When I commented that we had already done that we were allowed to stay but I was then mentioned that they were having issues with the air conditioning. I was under the impression that they were trying to keep a large group from gathering in the upper entrance of the Improv due to the small size of the area and the heat.
A few minutes after this we were ushered into the reception area of the club where cast members passed out a number of small items, registered people for a sweepstakes and offered water and soda. In this area were drawings of different aspects of the Animal Kingdom Villas, most of these were very similar to the artwork that was in the information were sent about the Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas earlier in the summer. It was at this time that were received our number (We were lucky and were in the first group) and then moved down into the theater of the Improv. This is the area were food and additional beverages were available.
I have never seen the DVC character before and she didn't seem to get a great response from the crowd. Maybe this character appeals better on the east coast but it didn't seem to connect with the adults and large number of children in the audience.
I thought the 3 cast members did a nice job of explaining the offers being made available and talking about how the extra points involved with the incentives could be used. Two of the cast members shared some of their experiences of belonging to the Vacation Club and they also showed a short film that had a family discuss the impact of their membership upon their family.
At this point DVC explained how the tours of the new store would be conducted, explained how we could meet with DVC reps and introduced the characters (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto).
The tour of the store was nice (and fast since they were bringing other groups through). I was impressed with the rooms. They have added an additional bathroom in the 1 and 2 bedrooms that is at the entrance of the villa (I believe its a half bath). The living area in the family room appears a little larger and this might be due to the flat screen T.V. requiring a smaller cabinet to hold. The master bath was arraigned different then the BCV with the shower, tub, and sink being together. It seemed that the elimination of some walls created a larger general area.
After this we returned and took a photo with the characters (we were giving a card to use to access the photo online) and then met with a sales rep and received our gift bags.
While it was warm, I didn't think it was uncomfortable for guests since we didn't have to move around as much as the cast members and most of use were dressed for warm weather. We also had access to water and soda. I did feel for the cast members who were hustling around since they were obviously working up a sweat while doing their job.
A couple of the cast members mentioned they had flown in from Florida for the event.
While talking with some of cast members it was mentioned that the Chicago area was picked due to the large number of DVC members who lived within an hour drive of the mall. They said that if the store did well (generating sales) that they were looking at opening other stores in other locations. It was mentioned that they are basically running out of room and time to promote sales in their current on-property locations to meet the demand for tours.
Overall I was a nice event. Our son had a great time (the cast members were great with him) and its always fun to see how excited he gets to see and meet the characters (Mickey and company). Now my wife and I have to decide if we want to purchase additional points and how many.
Hope this information was useful.
That really sucks seeing as we are in a position to add on. I am really starting to rethink 
