Is the magic gone?

[disneynutz]

Our biggest concern is the corporate mentality. DVC has already risen to a new level within the Disney family of companies. In the past DVD was was in the back row and not really noticed. Now it has moved to the front row and is expected to perform.

Internal support services have not kept up with growth. Same with maintenance at some of the resorts. If you use it more, it's going to wear out faster.

Policies, programs, and perks that were in place to attract new members are no longer needed so they are gradually being modified or removed.

The DVC is a wonderful way to prepay for your resort accommodations.

We just pray that the executives in charge don't let the success of the DVC go to their head. The decisions they make now will be with us for many years to come.

 

[jamhayward]

We have owned for 8 years and still continue to be big fans. There is still nothing like hearing "Welcome Home" when you arrive for your stay.

 

[a Really Bad Egg]

DVC Australia. Sounds magical.

 

[BigMickeyFan32]

I agree. Australia would be grand.

 

[AKV707]

In terms of the "best kept secret" thing, I never thought that it was a secret. That is not why I bought my AKV contract. As has been said, DVC has just added magic to my WDW vacations. I don't look at DVC as some elitist, private club. It is a place for people who love WDW, go frequently, and get the magic of a "home" in the world.

By adding GCV, Hawaii, and KTV, it has only given all of us more options. I look forward to even more options in the future.

 

[OKWJan]

DVC is still magical for us too, and we have been members for 12 years. Even though we now live in Celebration, just 15 minutes away, we still like to go over and visit OKW because we have has so many great memories there. We go for one night to get a savannah view at the AKL, or go to BCV to get our favorite gelato. We still love our DVC and our friends love us having it as our guest bedroom

Jan

 

[brack]

It gets more "Magical" each time I visit.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

I think for a lot of us who are spellbound by Walt Disney's dream and creations the magic will never wear out. I've imparted that feeling to my own children. From the time I see Mickey and Minnie at the entrance of Disney World, to the point I enter OKW and I'm "Welcomed Home" , I'm back in the 70's when the park 1st opened reliving the 1st time I went to the Magic Kingdom with my Mom and Dad. The joy and sense of wonder is the same. IMO, DVC was created for Families not for the elite,it was created for families like mine who want to up the experience a few notches. I think that's why it changed the timeshare industry, because it can work in so many different ways. Some have 1000 points and I have 210 but I think we all enjoy themjust as much and work it to what suits us best. Reading these boards may help you determine if it's for you or not!
Best of Luck
OKW-Jun 2008-GV Family Reunion

 

[Deb & Bill]

We bought in 1997 and sold two of our contract last fall. We have a third on the market to sell. When the cost of points started to climb so rapidly and the little things that used to mean a lot to us as members started to disappear, we started to feel like it was less and less "magical" and more and more "corporate". Dues stayed fairly steady the first two years, but have begun to climb nearly as fast the the price of a point. I see DVC becoming more of a marketing scheme and less of a "club".

Personally, I don't see how newer members can even afford to buy in at the going price of points. Then when you add on the dues and figure out how much you will be paying for the year, it looks less and less affordable. Tickets continue to go up, but if you get an AP, and plan on getting at least two trips into one 12 month period, it's not so bad. But for families with several children (we only have one), it can be very expensive. Add on the rising cost of the dining plan and it looks less inviting.

We'll keep maybe two contracts or at least the original one for a while longer. Our two or three trips a year have been reduced to one a year. We miss the non-Disney vacations that we used to take every year or so. And Adventures by Disney are not my idea of fun at all.

HHI and VB might be nice; we did VB once for a three night stay and it was okay, but not the Gulf Coast beach we are used to. It will be just too expensive to get to Hawaii for me.

Call me disillusioned or realistic. It's just not the same to me as it was in 1997.

 

[kimberh]

For our Family " The Magic is not Gone!" The magic is staying with your family taking having a family vacation. The older your children are, the harder it is to take a vacation together. Two of mine are married now. DVC for me, means that I can afford Deluxe Loding with the amenities of the resort, and we can have Family Bonding. It is a wonderful time.

AKL was our favorite resort, I am so excited that this has become a DVC resort, then to see what they are building for the new Lodge! This is our next large family trip. We do go other places, not just Disney. This year we are going to Grand Cayman, with another Timeshare that I own. We have three 2 bedrooms booked there. I have been planning this for 2 years.

I see DVC adding extra amenities, such as Concierge. This will be my personal trip for 2. We are taking this trip in May.

The Magic is me and what I make in a trip. Some of the "old timers" don't feel as special as they use to... I have stayed at the "old" Days Inn in Orlando. It is not the same at VWL or BCV's or BWV's or the rest of the DVC resorts.

I encourage you to not let other peoples opinons make you think that there is not any Magic left with DVC. Corporate has made some changes since I have become a member. I feel we need to voice our likes and dislikes to them. I don't think Corporate ever factored in the power of the Internet when they wrote the POS. They are trying to readjust some things now. I guess we will all have to see how far they are going to go. Then it will be up to each owner to decide if DVC is right for their family or not. There seems to always be a buyer.

 

[beachblanket]

DVC members are not special and do not deserve special treatment.

I hope you are wrong when it comes to this:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-fastpass0607sep06,0,589545.story

That link shows that Disney is clearly preparing to enter the realm of ROI-oriented "customer relationship management." The latter is code for "the most profitable customers get a significantly better vacation experience than the less profitable."

In that context, if Disney starts stratifying guest benefits by resort level (the latter being a proxy for per-guest profitability), we darn well better automatically be at the top of the heap. If Disney even thought of giving some one-time visitor at the Grand Floridian "park visit experience priority" over me, my membership would be on the market in three nano-seconds.

 

[nunzia]

Just to clarify, I'm not looking for a "Disney Elitist" secret society complete with secret handshakes and everything. I was just curious if any of you thought it was any less magical now that it's experiencing such a spike in growth. Thanks for the feedback..

Not to put a damper..but I have noticed that there seems to be more service issues..either with MS messing up or with Mousekeeping. I do see this as a stupid trend companies have of cutting labor to ridiculous points for higher profit, at the same time beating everyone over the head about expected high levels of customer service. The two don't really mesh.
My biggest concern is paying for premium rooms and finding sub par cleanliness.
For Disney to maintain their reputatin there should never be instances of a room not being cleaned properly, or a server not understaning a dining plan, or a MS cast member not knowing how to use points the correct way.
That said..I'm so glad to be a DVC member! I just hope they can maintain the customer service bar.

 

[TinksDH]

HHI & VB are the secrets.

Shhhhhh!!!

 

[kapeman]

It was never a "secret"...that's a marketing slogan and nothing more!

I had never heard of DVC until I started doing research for a trip last Fall.
I didn't even bother looking at the DVC sections of the board until after I had watched the promos on-site and had already decided that WDW was a place I wanted to visit often.

Almost no one I talk to about it has even heard of DVC.

So, in a sense, it is still a secret. It's easy to forget that when you frequent the meeting place of the inner circle, so to speak.

 

[eva]

Obviously, just about everyone on these boards is thrilled with their DVC purchase and their only regret is that they didn't buy sooner. I get that. But part of the appeal to me as a prospective buyer is that this was Disney's best kept secret. It's not a secret at all anymore. Does anyone feel a little less "magical" about their purchase now that DVC is more mainstream (perhaps "mainstream" isn't the right word, but I'm just saying it's far more well known now than it was just a few years ago- and when KT starts selling, that will be the case even more so).

I'm probably worried about nothing and this is just a way for me to stall and not shell out the money to join. But what do you think? Is it still as magical now that the DVC community has grown so much? And are you concerned about the flood of points entering the system that KT will bring (I'm guessing that the 11-month window will become even more important then and the ability to stay at places other than your home resort will be limited).

Things have definitely changed in the 10+ years we have been members. DVC did seem a bit more luxurious and more like a private club back then. If you mentioned DVC to someone at WDW 10 years ago, most likely you would get a puzzled stare. Not many people had heard of it. Now most people I run into in the parks and even here at home have heard of DVC.

But I still get that thrill of going every year. I just found out that we are making an impromptu trip in 6 weeks and I can barely contain myself. I'm really excited because we will be trying SSR for the first time. Since we will not be hitting any parks, being close to DD will be great.

 

[TinksDH]

The arguements for and against DVC are similar to the "on-site or off-site" discussions. For us, we want total immersion into WDW when we are there, so on-site is a given (unless we run out of points and still need a WDW fix!). So once we made the "on-site" decision, DVC is the smart financial decision for us with our family of 5 and the frequency that we visit. AND we just used our points to take our first DCL cruise (big mistake - we are now hooked and even re-booked onboard!) so we definitely still feel the magic, and even more so now than ever as the planning process has gotten so much easier over the years. We could navigate WDW blindfolded I beleive...

Having been a member now for 7 years, I think there may be a slight reduction in the service level, particularly within MS. However, in comparing DVC MS with another timeshare we own, there is NO comparison. DVC MS is clearly head & shoulders above the other we own. So I guess it's all a relative thing.

I don't know if the service level reduction is just at DVC. I noticed in WDW this past trip that I didn't see as many maintenance/painting crews that I typically see. There looked like there was more trash around the grounds, even though Maintenance cleans up after each parade. Don't get me wrong - it is still the cleanest park I have been to, and maybe it was just an off few days. I still find the bathrooms very clean and for the most part the CMs are friendly and happy.

Another thing we noticed is that you no longer get decaf coffee filter packs in your room, just regular coffee. As my wife can not consume any caffeine, decaf is a must. However, a call to Housekeeping quickly solved the problem and we got what appeard to be a pre-made up bag of 6 decaf packs and sugar/creamer. So maybe it's now gone to a "request" service to minimize the number of packs they lose due to folks stuffing their suitcases the day they leave...

 

[PinkTink63]

One of the things we like about DVC is knowing what the cost for our accomodations are always going to be! Before DVC we always stayed at the moderates with a "code". I don't have to hassle with those anymore and we get deluxe accomodations. So it still holds the "magic" for us!

We have only owned since 2005, so we are not "old timers" to DVC. We have not experienced a decrease in service and quality so far and we hope that doesn't happen. I know that perks can be taken away at anytime, but I really hope they don't do away with the discount of AP's. This perk allows us a much longer stay than we could normally do!

 

[crisi]

I hope you are wrong when it comes to this:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-fastpass0607sep06,0,589545.story

That link shows that Disney is clearly preparing to enter the realm of ROI-oriented "customer relationship management." The latter is code for "the most profitable customers get a significantly better vacation experience than the less profitable."

In that context, if Disney starts stratifying guest benefits by resort level (the latter being a proxy for per-guest profitability), we darn well better automatically be at the top of the heap. If Disney even thought of giving some one-time visitor at the Grand Floridian "park visit experience priority" over me, my membership would be on the market in three nano-seconds.

That technology is something Disney has had for years, when the patent was filed the Disney boards went nuts. So far, no release.

But I suspect that DVC would NOT be on the top of that list - we are getting a deal over Deluxe guests, and as a Deluxe guest I'd be upset that someone who was getting a room for what works out to $80 a night was getting better service than me paying $450. Plus, they don't need to sell us rooms. AFTER purchase, we are Disney's least profitable customers. We are more likely to have APs, we are more likely to cook in our rooms, we have our Mickey Ears and ballcaps and sweatshirts from the last four trips.

 

[PBB]

This is a very interesting thread. For me the magic is not gone in the DVC properties. We love HH and VB very much and pretty much vacation there more than WDW.

For me, the magic is gone at the parks. A good example is the way Disney has now configured their ticket media. We are planning our first trip in 4 years to WDW and reading through all the options and variations to purchase park passes has become ridiculous. My tax return seems to make sense after reading all the Magic your way options.

I used to feel there was value at WDW. I don't feel that now. Everything is priced like you live in NY or LA and not middle America. No where can you turn and purchase something that is not premium priced. We used to purchase annual passes and go twice a year. Now Disney has priced the annual passes to the point where it is worth us buying a pass and going again. We are better off not taking the risk and buying another set of passes the next time. The buffets and dinners at the restaurants were quality fare and a reasonable price. Not now. They have become boring menus and crazy pricing.

If DVC did not have HH or VB I would have sold off my membership a long time ago. Next thing that will happen is the Disney accountants will figure a way to charge for air at the parks.

 

[a Really Bad Egg]

I've never thought of the magic as the rides, the food, the tickets, the rooms, the club or the welcome home.

Nope...the magic was the time we lived, loved and laughed together as a family.

Disney just set the stage for it...and still does.