EDITED TITLE: Should DVC Owners get more Perks?

[DonMacGregor]

I will say that the new addition of allowing multiple resort reservations under a single membership seems a bit over the top. There is a chance that a local DVC owner, can snag two 2BR one-night reservations for that Moonlight Magic day and, because of room capacity, (and some luck with the random queue) toddle on over to Epcot or HS with 17 of their closest friends in tow.

I wouldn't kill 54 points doing it, but you can get 2BR villas for the September HS MN right now at SSR (and 5 or 6 other resorts for a few points more).

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Its a systemic problem ... I am D23 gold - didn't win the lottery with that queue even though their preview date would have worked for me, Don't have the AP as previously mentioned - so wasn't even an option ... wah wah wah ... I throw money at t he Mouse and the little thief just laughs at me Makes me want to go to Universal to pout, have a butterbeer, and give dirty looks to all the Gryffindor cosplayers (not really on that last one) ...

Universal will welcome you of course

 

[john7994]

Universal will welcome you of course

Thats what I like about Universal ... its not reached its height of pretentiousness yet

 

[Sandisw]

What in the earth do you expect them to do so that you can make it, you personally can make it?

As I already stated it is equal they do not restrict access. You may have some events that have more out of staters and some that have more FL residents. It's available to all however. You may think it's easier to get there from Tampa but that's just geography. You don't have a clue that a FL person could get off work any easier than someone else. And for a weekend? ETA: The DVC event for Guardians was on a Monday (the one I went to at least).

There won't be pleasing you on this I'm afraid.

I went last year to the GOTG preview on a wednesdsy. Flew in for one night from NY because I snagged it. Lol

But I do agree there is just never going to be a way to have events that everyone can attend. All they can do is plan some and go from there. Even if they had one once a month, many owners would not get to go.

 

[Sandisw]

Okay. For argument's sake (and nothing else because this is futile at this point), if both the guy from California and guy from Tampa have equal access to "priority over the spot". And it's Moonlight Magic. On a Monday as in your previous post.

So, the guy from California has to secure his spot, make sure he has enough points (because it's likely that all or most points have already been booked at 11-months), and then take a minimum of 3 days off - 2 days for flying and one day for Moonlight Magic. And would probably need to take more days off, because Moonlight Magic in and of itself is not enough of a reason for 2 full days of flying, I'd wager, so most people would go for longer

On the other hand, you have a guy from Tampa, who has equal chance to secure his spot. But then is much more likely to have saved points to use for a single day or two-days here-and-there because it's a 90-minute drive to WDW, and he can easily book a night when it pops up on the schedule. He also needs to be able to take off the last 2 hours of his workday on Monday to make it there on time. And then MAYBE the Tuesday after that, if he gets too drunk.

Sure...Those things are equal....

In essence they are because first, all the guests who have trips booked..even those who did it 11 months ahead thst match the dates get first crack at them, no matter where they live.

And, second, for open reservations, everyone has an equal chance to jump in the que and try.

Now, someone within driving distance will have an easier way and possibly less expensive way to get there than someone needing to fly, but that doesn’t change whether or not all owners are given an equal chance to win the MM lottery. We are.

To be fair, no matter what DVC offered at the parks for special events, it will be easier for some owners over others to take advantage of them.

Other than not getting MYW ticket discounts, we get a lot of benefits currently that everyone can take advantage of when visiting. For me, the food and merchandise discounts are wonderful..loved the 30% off in December! I do love having the two lounges as well.

 

[john7994]

In essence they are because first, all the guests who have trips booked..even those who did it 11 months ahead thst match the dates get first crack at them, no matter where they live.

And, second, for open reservations, everyone has an equal chance to jump in the que and try.

Now, someone within driving distance will have an easier way and possibly less expensive way to get there than someone needing to fly, but that doesn’t change whether or not all owners are given an equal chance to win the MM lottery. We are.

To be fair, no matter what DVC offered at the parks for special events, it will be easier for some owners over others to take advantage of them.

Other than not getting MYW ticket discounts, we get a lot of benefits currently that everyone can take advantage of when visiting. For me, the food and merchandise discounts are wonderful..loved the 30% off in December! I do love having the two lounges as well.

So to that end, I can loosely sympathize with Prince Harry - the people that didn't book the right dates based on the random time based MM lottery are "DVC Spares"!

 

[J-Dog]

For me, the food and merchandise discounts are wonderful..loved the 30% off in December!

I guess maybe I'm bitter because I missed the 30% off by a week.

 

[Sandisw]

I guess maybe I'm bitter because I missed the 30% off by a week.

Yeah...I get that!! LOL

 

[Mle8308]

Okay. For argument's sake (and nothing else because this is futile at this point), if both the guy from California and guy from Tampa have equal access to "priority over the spot". And it's Moonlight Magic. On a Monday as in your previous post.

So, the guy from California has to secure his spot, make sure he has enough points (because it's likely that all or most points have already been booked at 11-months), and then take a minimum of 3 days off - 2 days for flying and one day for Moonlight Magic. And would probably need to take more days off, because Moonlight Magic in and of itself is not enough of a reason for 2 full days of flying, I'd wager, so most people would go for longer

On the other hand, you have a guy from Tampa, who has equal chance to secure his spot. But then is much more likely to have saved points to use for a single day or two-days here-and-there because it's a 90-minute drive to WDW, and he can easily book a night when it pops up on the schedule. He also needs to be able to take off the last 2 hours of his workday on Monday to make it there on time. And then MAYBE the Tuesday after that, if he gets too drunk.

Sure...Those things are equal....

Technically the opportunity is equal, now is it equitable???

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Okay. For argument's sake (and nothing else because this is futile at this point), if both the guy from California and guy from Tampa have equal access to "priority over the spot". And it's Moonlight Magic. On a Monday as in your previous post.

So, the guy from California has to secure his spot, make sure he has enough points (because it's likely that all or most points have already been booked at 11-months), and then take a minimum of 3 days off - 2 days for flying and one day for Moonlight Magic. And would probably need to take more days off, because Moonlight Magic in and of itself is not enough of a reason for 2 full days of flying, I'd wager, so most people would go for longer

On the other hand, you have a guy from Tampa, who has equal chance to secure his spot. But then is much more likely to have saved points to use for a single day or two-days here-and-there because it's a 90-minute drive to WDW, and he can easily book a night when it pops up on the schedule. He also needs to be able to take off the last 2 hours of his workday on Monday to make it there on time. And then MAYBE the Tuesday after that, if he gets too drunk.

Sure...Those things are equal....

Perhaps you have never driven I-4 from Tampa.

 

[J-Dog]

Perhaps you have never driven I-4 from Tampa.

LOL! I actually have. Google maps says that it is a 57-minute drive to MK. One of the times I did it, it was 2+ hours in traffic. So I averaged....

 

[RoseGold]

How many locals ARE DVC members? Because there's a big difference in being IN Orlando and being IN the state of FL. I've been trying to tell you that these events are well attended by out of state DVC members. That DVC members, yes out of state ones, do make special trips for these events

I don't have any data to back this up, but I would imagine a good amount of locals are, we've seen quite a few on these boards. I can see how DVC would be pretty useful to a local who could book a stray OKW room for next Friday, something like that.

Locals are likely to interact with Disney more and be able to use this, or use it on other people, like when Pete got his Aulani points to use for visitors.

 

[tjkraz]

To nobody in particular:

My closing comment on the topic of perks is this: there is no group of Disney guests who have better perks than DVC members. Not annual passholders. Not Florida residents. Not D23 members. None.

(Club 33 members pay $15k per year for their lounge access and Golden Oak homeowners pay millions as an entry fee, so I hope we can agree they are both on a different plane of existence.)

Some of the basic perks (dining, shopping, tours) overlap with Annual Passholders. And APs receive some modest perks that DVC members don't have like free magnets.

But Passholders don't have two private lounges in Florida. Passholders don't have exclusive theme park nights. Passholders don't have unique chartered cruises, exclusive treat stops at holiday parties, private fireworks viewing areas or Halloween "meet and treat" events. Nor do Florida residents or D23 members. DVC members get gift bags on cruises, free movie screenings and early booking for many events.

Some exclusive member events require an added fee...which is entirely optional. You know who can't attend Wicked Wind Down, sail on the 2nd voyage of the Disney Wish or attend a Jodi Benson book signing? Everyone who isn't a direct purchase DVC member.

Park tickets are an area where Disney/DVC could and probably should do something for members. No argument here. But beyond that, I'm really not sure what else DVC members can reasonably expect to receive. Not everyone can regularly attend Moonlight Magic, attraction previews, movie premiers and some other timed events. There's luck of the draw involved. I'd rather take my chances on hitting one of those special events every couple of years rather than DVC dumbing-down the perks program to something like free baseball caps for everyone.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I don't have any data to back this up, but I would imagine a good amount of locals are, we've seen quite a few on these boards. I can see how DVC would be pretty useful to a local who could book a stray OKW room for next Friday, something like that.

Locals are likely to interact with Disney more and be able to use this, or use it on other people, like when Pete got his Aulani points to use for visitors.

There are locals sure but of the over 200K members (estimates I've seen are between 220K to 250K) how many are there? Sure a local could choose to hunt for last minute availability but then again a local most of the time goes back home after visiting the parks. A timeshare program especially with how much it takes to get in these days that's a huge chunk of change for someone who lives a hop skip and away from the Parks.

With all due respect Pete is so not an appropriate example to use most people realize his situation owning this company getting into real estate biz, sets him apart.

And I don't think anyone could ascertain that a local is more likely to use it on guests. Based on threads I've read it's often just down to what a person bought DVC in mind for such as treating family members or friends.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

There are locals sure but of the over 200K members (estimates I've seen are between 220K to 250K) how many are there? Sure a local could choose to hunt for last minute availability but then again a local most of the time goes back home after visiting the parks. A timeshare program especially with how much it takes to get in these days that's a huge chunk of change for someone who lives a hop skip and away from the Parks.

With all due respect Pete is so not an appropriate example to use most people realize his situation owning this company getting into real estate biz, sets him apart.

And I don't think anyone could ascertain that a local is more likely to use it on guests. Based on threads I've read it's often just down to what a person bought DVC in mind for such as treating family members or friends.

Actually ”local” I don’t know. That said, several years ago they had a pin-board of the US set up at the SSR sales center which represented membership from the various states. BY FAR, not even close, Florida had the largest representation. Can’t remember the percentage, and can’t say if that still holds today.

 

[tjkraz]

There are locals sure but of the over 200K members (estimates I've seen are between 220K to 250K) how many are there?

The most recent official numbers are about 248k across the 15 associations. However:

- Best guess, they're only counting 1x for each contract. Whether you have 2, 3, 4 names on a contract, the group is only being counted as one "member".
- The number of owners for each resort is counted individually. So if a person/family owns points at 4 resorts, they're most likely being counted 4x.

Net result, 248k members with some being counted twice and others not counted at all. So....yeah.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Actually ”local” I don’t know. That said, several years ago they had a pin-board of the US set up at the SSR sales center which represented membership from the various states. BY FAR, not even close, Florida had the largest representation. Can’t remember the percentage, and can’t say if that still holds today.

That's why I specified in my other comment being local and being in FL. Most people consider local as being in and around Orlando. While Tampa is close generally you would not refer to them being local. A Tampa resident would be local to Busch Gardens though but I don't think you'd refer to an Orlando resident as being local to Tampa.

The most recent official numbers are about 248k across the 15 associations. However:

- Best guess, they're only counting 1x for each contract. Whether you have 2, 3, 4 names on a contract, the group is only being counted as one "member".
- The number of owners for each resort is counted individually. So if a person/family owns points at 4 resorts, they're most likely being counted 4x.

Net result, 248k members with some being counted twice and others not counted at all. So....yeah.

That's entirely possible for sure although my point really being there's a lot of members around such that we couldn't reasonably assume some appreciable amount in local.

Now if I'm going to the DIS past threads from what I could find a poster did look but the numbers are old (from April 2018) and found the total number of memberships per resort

OKW 27,670
BWV 19,084
VB. 5,424
HHI. 5,029
BRV 7,683
BCV 10,707
SSR. 48,883
BLT 19,295
AUL 21,475
AKV 27,660
VGF 9,624
POL. 20,262
VGC 3,455
CCV 5,173 (when CCV was still early in its sales process)
Riviera 0 (no points had been sold yet)

IDK grander point was confined to what the PP was mentioning.

 

[tjkraz]

That's entirely possible for sure although my point really being there's a lot of members around such that we couldn't reasonably assume some appreciable amount in local.

Yeah, I have no idea what it says about where people live. Was just trying to answer the question about how many members there are. (To the extent it can even be answered.)

As of December 2022:

OKW 27070
BWV 18885
VB 5526
HHI 5027
BRV 7626
BCV 10629
SSR 47529
BLT 18500
AUL 25205
AKV 26777
VGF 10239
PVB 18516
VGC 3399
CCV 12689
RIV 10085

Most of those numbers are a slight decrease from yours. DVC probably figured out a way to better avoid double counting some families.

 

[keishashadow]

Perhaps you have never driven I-4 from Tampa.

it gives Universal’s HHN event a real run for the money as to scares at times..

Florida had the largest representation. Can’t remember the percentage, and can’t say if that still holds today.

Remember when the points were re-allocated so that weekends became more point heavy?

While not exactly a perk, I’m guessing more than a few locals bought into DVC with the intent to do weekend trips only. assume not too thrilled with that change.

 

[john7994]

To nobody in particular:

Park tickets are an area where Disney/DVC could and probably should do something for members. No argument here. But beyond that, I'm really not sure what else DVC members can reasonably expect to receive. Not everyone can regularly attend Moonlight Magic, attraction previews, movie premiers and some other timed events. There's luck of the draw involved. I'd rather take my chances on hitting one of those special events every couple of years rather than DVC dumbing-down the perks program to something like free baseball caps for everyone.

I'll take a stab at being "nobody in particular" for today ... to things that I could reasonably expect to receive ... oh snap - that's the big condition isn't - what's "reasonable" - defined by who? You? Disney? quite the conundrum ain't it?

Glad we don't need to argue about Park Tickets (and dare I say APs?) - but not sure how reasonably Disney views this one. Might as well throw in eliminating Park Reservations, Free/ Discounted Genie+, Park Hopping time restrictions or complimentary LL/ILL selection per park day for DVC Members into that same bucket as well (but not for the white carders of course! ) - Wouldn't it be nice to have dedicated DVC Member express lanes at rope drop - without having to share it with all the other 25 qualifying resorts (maybe we'll let the APers in)- oh my! - someone is bound to not like that! Pretty soon we will be sharing free parking at the resorts with everyone else at this rate

What else begs a little love for those planning a "magical vacation year after year"? If I vacation, I gotta eat, so some type of priority on ADRs would be nice (all kinds of nuances could be applied to this one) - after all - you can only load up on so many snacks and soda at the free DVC lounge (subject to availability and additional cost for the Villain's lair sorta not free is that one) - wouldn't it be nice not to deal with people that load up on 50 ADRs and then drop 40 of them a few at a time each day of their vacation - pure joy as I sip a complimentary 'welcome home' beverage in the resort lounge, or a snack pack in my room, or a quick bite at the pool! It is "home" - shouldn't it feel like it?

And for those of us that can't make the MM or take the occasional DVC Member cruise or grab a holiday treat at Pizzarizzo - how about some exclusive character meet and greets during regular park hours - oh bother! - you have to be a chase card member for those right? And here I thought we had all the unique perks! Speaking of Cruises - priority booking sounds nice - wouldn't it be nice if DVC room inventories weren't plagued with stalking/walking reservations, transparency in room types/locations without relying on hit or miss "room requests" and third party room guides - talk about hunger-games level controversial! How about a few more behind the scenes DVC exclusive tours like Soarin' outside of just on Tuesdays?

There are whole other threads for just the basics that need to be addressed with the DVC Product (Website booking and waitlist mechanics, Linens, toilet paper, true owners lockers, coffee makers, refurb schedules, and overall room shabbiness at some resorts etc)

But I can see what you mean by not being really sure what else DVC members can reasonably expect to receive ...