There is a Disney Vacation Club Membership Agreement, presumably for each resort. What I'm quoting from is my copy of what I received in 1998 when I purchased at Disney's Boardwalk Villas. From what I can tell, you should be able to find the whole thing in the Orange County, Florida public records under Book 5101 starting at page 235.
As far as I can tell, the first page basically says that the Condominium doesn't want to have to take responsibility for keeping track of everything so they're hiring Disney Vacation Club Management Corporation (DVCMC) to do the paperwork, make reservations, deal with customers (that would be us,) etc.
Section IV. USE OF HOME RESORT VACATION POINTS, 4.2 Reservations, b. Reservation Requests: "Reservation requests for Vacation Homes by Club Members at the Condominium will be taken on a first come, first served basis."
There is no mention of checkout or checkin
Section VII. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS, 7.2 Amendment of this Agreement: "DVCMC, in its sole discretion, may change the terms and conditions of this Agreement and the Home Resort Rules and Regulations. These changes may affect an Owner's right to use, exchange and rent the Owner's Ownership Interest and impose obligations upon the use and enjoyment of the Ownership Interest and the appurtenant Club membership. Such changes may be made by DVCMC without the consent of any Club Member and may adversely affect a Club Member's rights and benefits and increase or decrease the Club Members' costs of ownership. Further, although DVCMC generally is required to make such changes in a manner which, in its reasonable business judgment, improves upon the quality and operation of the Vacation Ownership Plan and furthers the collective enjoyment of its benefits by the Club Members taken as a whole, such changes under some circumstances may not be to the advantage of some Club Members and could adversely affect their ability to secure reservations when and where they want them. Notice of any amendment shall be: (i) mailed by DVCMC to each Club Member or to the designated representative of each Multiple Club Member at the Club Member's or designated representative's last known mailing address prior to the effective date or (ii) included as a part of a newsletter or other periodic report sent by the Association or dVCMC as the Management Company."
Notice that option two, at the end, does not require them to send notice out prior to the effective date.
Now the Multi-Site Public Offering Statement basically says exactly the same thing as above. There are a couple of attachments to mine, one for Buena Vista Trading Company (BVTC) and one for Home Resort Rules and Regulations.
The BVTC document talks about Home Resort reservation priorities for a GIVEN USE DAY -- "To reserve a given Use Day at a
DVC Resort on a space-available, first come, first served basis, a Club Member must call, e-mail, ...." There is no discussion of checkin or checkout dates.
The Home Resort Rules and Regulations document I have, presumably for The Boardwalk, does talk about reserving based on checkout day.
One thing to note is that I found evidence of at least 16 different amendments to the Disney Vacation Club Membership Agreement filed with Orange County. I got myself lost in the system, though, and was unable to figure out if anything had been filed recently.
Honestly, though, I can certainly see DVCMC making this change under the provision that they think it will help their customers. They may not have publicized it simply because they wanted to a) phase it in and b) see what their customers had to say about it and c) see how it worked out before they made it "official."
LOL -- a "quick reply" (right!) that basically says, 'yes, they do have the legal right to change almost anything at any time with no input from us.'
