Free Water Park for 2025 Stays

[bumbershoot]

I think it's cool, and depending on weather it might get me to go.
Oh, and I fly from Seattle, so this would require me to find overnight flights. I'm already finding things to do during the day anyway; why not a waterpark?

 

[Wendysofftoneverland]

I can see with flights this not making a huge difference. However, if you drive like us, this could be great.

A lot of times we drive to WDW after leaving work early and will get to the Orlando area late at night. Rather than spend 40+ points on a room we get to at 11:00 PM, we'll often just stay at a cheap-ish hotel for the night and then head to our resort the next morning. With this deal, we could do that and then head to the free water park immediately that morning. I imagine there could be a sizeable other number of driving families that use a similar strategy.

We've even done the cheap-ish hotel thing when flying...a DS area hotel for getting in after midnight, plus another day (because we didn't have enough DVC points), then walked ourselves and our luggage over to SSR on checkout day. It would have been great fun to then catch a bus to the water park. My oldest has been bugging me for a water park day for a while now.

 

[Madmavis]

I think this is a great perk. My family loves Typhoon Lagoon. We like to take the early flight and generally get to our resort around 10am and try and find ways to spend the day while waiting for our room to be ready. This would save us money, give us our water park day and provide us something to do while waiting for our room to be ready. I just bought our water park tickets for our May trip and would have loved if it was implemented this year.

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

I think this is a great perk but it won't cause us to change our arrival time on check-in day. If we were paying for a water park ticket on arrival day, I would try to make sure we were there as close to park opening as possible to get our money's worth. But since the perk is a free ticket, I don't mind arriving at the water park around 1pm and staying for just a few hours. I won't feel the pressure to stay longer to justify how much the tickets cost for our family since they will be free!

I'm hoping this perk will decrease the number of guests sleeping or practically camping out in the lobby since they will have somewhere else to go for free.

 

[kristenrice]

To be honest with you, this might just be exactly that. When people complain their room is not ready yet (especially if they arrive way before 4pm ) the CM can now say " we can give you free water park passes while you wait and we will text you when you room is ready". I am sure they are getting tired of giving out "free" genie passes or meals when guests rooms are not ready until 6 to 8 pm or later. I was the recipient of both once when room was not available until close to 9pm. (The reason I was given for the room being so late was they had to fix a door)

The downside to this is the unpredictably predictable Florida weather. If the inevitable afternoon thunderstorm happens to be rolling through when people are arriving to check in, how many people are going to head over to the water parks to wait it out?

 

[J-Dog]

So, question (and this may have been answered in the previous posts and I missed it, sorry): we recently have been using our Fixed Week, but then using other points to add on a day both before and after the FW. Since those points can't be merged with a FW, it's technically 3 different bookings. So it ends up being a Saturday, Sunday-Sunday FW, and then a Monday.

Does that mean that we will potentially get the first Saturday, the first Sunday, and the final Monday all as free waterpark days? Or will DVD figure this out and only give us the first Saturday?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Sandisw]

So, question (and this may have been answered in the previous posts and I missed it, sorry): we recently have been using our Fixed Week, but then using other points to add on a day both before and after the FW. Since those points can't be merged with a FW, it's technically 3 different bookings. So it ends up being a Saturday, Sunday-Sunday FW, and then a Monday.

Does that mean that we will potentially get the first Saturday, the first Sunday, and the final Monday all as free waterpark days? Or will DVD figure this out and only give us the first Saturday?

Thanks for any help!

My guess is that reservations that get linked so you don’t have to change rooms would most likely not get the benefit.

But, until it gets to next year, we really don’t know for sure.

 

[Bearval]

So, question (and this may have been answered in the previous posts and I missed it, sorry): we recently have been using our Fixed Week, but then using other points to add on a day both before and after the FW. Since those points can't be merged with a FW, it's technically 3 different bookings. So it ends up being a Saturday, Sunday-Sunday FW, and then a Monday.

Does that mean that we will potentially get the first Saturday, the first Sunday, and the final Monday all as free waterpark days? Or will DVD figure this out and only give us the first Saturday?

Thanks for any help!

I wouldn't be surprised if you did get the water parks for those three days that someone out there would try and book an entire week as single day stays and just asked not to have their room moved each day.

 

[Spivey378]

I’m fixin to try this on Sunday. Can’t wait!

 

[Sandisw]

I’m fixin to try this on Sunday. Can’t wait!

It doesn’t start until 2025.

 

[Sandisw]

I wouldn't be surprised if you did get the water parks for those three days that someone out there would try and book an entire week as single day stays and just asked not to have their room moved each day.

No way they will let that happen.

 

[Spivey378]

It doesn’t start until 2025.

:-(

 

[Bearval]

No way they will let that happen.

I do agree that they most likely wouldn't let that happen but you KNOW someone will try.

 

[eticketplease]

I'm hoping this perk will decrease the number of guests sleeping or practically camping out in the lobby since they will have somewhere else to go for free.

This will only help on checkin day. You will still have a good number of people doing this on check out day waiting to go to the airport.

 

[DougEMG]

The plan for 2025 is a 3 resort split stay in Sept/Oct so I can definitely see us maybe using this when switching resorts. Even if we don't, it is nice to have the option to get into a water park for free.

 

[40ariel]

Does this apply to DVC renting points?

 

[Mle8308]

Does this apply to DVC renting points?

Yes!

 

[Johtull12]

Not sure this will get used much… are there many people who like to get off a plane and go straight to a water park?

Normally I'd agree but after arriving at 11am and being checked in by 12p a couple weeks ago we used the + on our 4 day Hopper + to uber over to Typhoon Lagoon for a few hours to pass the time before dinner. Was a quick 5 day boys trip as a congrats "high five" for one HS and one College graduation. Although pretty sure if Mom and younger sister were with us we'd would've been at Disney Springs.... weather was less than desirable. Not surprisingly the park was empty was actually pretty fun.

 

[Johtull12]

Cut and pasted this from the Disney web site. DVC rooms are not promised by 4pm, they are promised by after 4pm which could mean in an extreme case 8pm.

Q: What time is Check-In and Check-Out at Disney Vacation Club Resorts?
A. Check-In is after 4:00 PM (please notify Member Services if you're planning a late arrival), and Check-Out is by 11:00 AM.

Last April, I wasn't able to check into my 2 bdrm villa until 5:30 after showing up just before 4p. They gave me a $200 credit to Sanna where we had dinner plans that night at 6:30. After many years, it was the first time we were delayed in getting to our room before 4 o'clock and two weeks ago I checked into PVB at noon.

 

[Wendysofftoneverland]

Did they change the start date for this? My Disney Experience now has "included for your stay" Blizzard Beach on check in day for a Dec 2024 trip.