Member Update Meetings --- Lots of changes

Caskbill

<font color="blue">DVC-Operations<br>DVC-Planning<
Joined
Nov 19, 2000
Messages
7,189
Went to the member's update meeting today (Wed). The meetings have been changed from what they were in the past.

1. There will no longer be meetings at OKW on Tuesdays and BWV on Thursdays.

2. The meetings are now on Wednesdays, at SSR, being held in the Cinema building. Meetings will be at 4:00 pm in the afternoon instead of in the morning like they use to be at OKW and BWV.

3. The old meetings were presented by the Sales staff. Sales will no longer host the meetings. The meetings are now presented by DVC staff.

The first meeting was today. The cinema building at SSR is quite large and comfortable. The screen is very large and makes everything very easy to see. Scott presented the meeting with a very nice Power Point presentation.

Today's meeting covered what's happening at WDW and DVC. I didn't take notes so this is by memory.

It's going to be easier to check out II (Interval International) trades. Members will be able to log on to a special II site (run by II). It will be similar to the regular II site except it will only display the Disney approved resorts that will be available to DVC members and not the full listing of II resorts that is available to regular II members. You will get to the special II site via a link from the member's only DVC site. You will have to log into the DVC site, but you will not need to log in again for the II site. The II site is being developed by II, but with a Disney flair to it.

Next year (2005) is the 50th anniversary of Disneyland and there will be lots of things happening at WDW. They didn't go into details but said to expect a lot.

A number of things are coming to WDW. There's a Cinderella show (presently at Tokyo Disneyland) that is coming to the Magic Kingdom. (they showed a short video of the show)

The Paris MGM stunt show is coming to WDW MGM. (Most of you probably already know this as construction at MGM is well under way.) They did show a short video of the stunt show as it takes place in Paris. It looks pretty neat with cars jumping ramps, both frontwards and backwards, motorcycles, lots of fire, etc.

Talked a little bit about Expedition Everest, the new roller coaster ride at Animal Kingdom. At some point in the ride, the roller coaster stops going forward and goes backwards for awhile.

There's an animatronic dragon that pulls a cart that goes around the theme park at Disneyland (or California Adventure??). Anyway, they're bringing that to WDW also.

As to DVC, they showed lots of slides of SSR, many aerial views as construction took place and as it is today. They also showed side by side comparisons of the artists' renderings from a few years ago, and a photo of the actual buildings as they appear today. Very interesting. The artists' renderings were very accurate.

Outside of the SSR and the II internet information they discussed how information is going to get to members besides the update meetings. This includes the quarterly Vacation Magic, and the monthly e-mail newsletter that goes out. There's a place on the card for the door prizes to put your e-mail so you can be put in the system for the monthly newsletter.

This was their first member's meeting and they'll be learning from it and future meetings on what to present.

There's no more freebies based on DVC trivia as was common at the old meetings. Probably because they expect larger crowds. Today's attendance included members who were staying at SSR, OKW, BWV, BCV, VWL and even VB this week. The 4:00 pm time is based on member feedback.

There were door prizes. They gave out about 6 different items. The grand door prize was a minature golf bag (About 18 inches tall) with pockets to cary things in. Inside the bag was a bottle of SSR water.

Personally I think this is going to be a big improvement over the old update meetings. It appears they want to make it a true update meeting. (Unlike the old meetings which were mostly a rehash of how to use your points in the different collections)

There was no food or refreshements, but they did give everyone a small bottle of water.
 
Thanks for the report on the meeting! It sounds like a big improvement over what I had heard the other meetings were like before. I never felt compelled to take time from our vacation to attend one based on the feedback here on the DIS, but I guess I may have to take some time out of our upcoming trip to finally go to one of these meetings; because, it sounds like it will have a wider spectum of content that actually may be of interest to my family.

Thanks so much for taking the time to post a detailed account of your experience! I look forward to attending one in a few weeks
 
Thanks for sharing.

It will be interesting to see if people are willing to travel to SSR for a rehash of stuff already in the press and on the various Disney oriented websites.

The only new piece of "news" was the upcoming II site link. Figures they would do that before something really useful like true online account management and reservation capability.

But I guess they need to find a use for the facility and it does cost less to have one meeting.
 
Thanks for the info Caskbill.

When I was "home" a few weeks ago, I heard mention of a change for the Updates but never heard just what they would be. Guess you filled in the blanks for me!
 

Thanks for the update Caskbill! We haven't attended a member meeting yet...but I plan to next week. We'll be at SSR...how convenient. Glad to see they are using the Cinema for something. I still hope they will start showing free films for DVC members there each evening! :)

I am glad to see that "Sales" is no longer running these meetings. That seems unnecessary since most of us are walking DVC billboards anyway (happy clients). I do hope to start hearing more about the...what did Jim call it in the last Vacation Magic..."cachet and prestige" that they will be bringing to members of DVC.

I have to agree with JimC...it seems that everything they discussed has already made it to the press and is known...at least by Disboard members. Even the new II website, which wasn't in the press as far as I know, was reported here weeks ago by our friend Dean. I suppose there are lots of regular folks who don't go the lengths we do to get this kind of information, though...so it's nice that DVC is making sure it gets out there.
 
Thanks for the update on the new meeting plans and on the content. While I like the idea of a true "update" rather than a sales pitch, I can't say that I'd be inclined to leave a park (or even another resort) to make a 4:00 p.m. meeting at SSR.

I suspect that the II site is the one that Dean managed to give us a sneak peak at.
 
Thanks for the great report, Bill! That II site sounds interesting.
 
Thanks for the update Caskbill.

I hope they considered that members may be inclined to stay at SSR, after the meeting, for dinner and are planning accordingly.
 
Thanks for the update Caskbill. I was only going to WDW for 11 days next year, but if there is going to be that much happening I might just extend that to a full 2 weeks!
 
Come on. Tell me you never went to the update for the free breakfast! A continental breakfast like that would cost you, probably $11.95 a head anywhere at WDW.

There goes another wonderful perk!
 
Thanks for all the info. I haven't been to a member update yet, hopefully on our next trip. And then we can check out SSR too.
 
If you think I am going to these meetings when there is no food or gifts you have got to be kidding. This is terrible and I for one see it as a cutback on their marketing program. Lets see how many of you go when there is nothing being provided. Lets be honest. Who needs these stale updates.

Pete
 
Thanks for the report Caskbill -- I appreciate the information!

Enjoy the rest of your vacation. :)
 
I have a question that I did not see answered or asked yet by another poster, how long did the meeting last? If you wanted to make a PS for one of the DD restaurants for after the meeting, what you think would be a reasonable time to get out of the meeting and walk over to DD by? Thanks for keeping us informed.
 
Thanks for the info. I attended one of the "sales" meetings and felt it was a waste of time other than the breakfast. I'll probably try one of the new and improved meetings next visit.
 
Well, those of you who didn't go to MH just got another MH perk - what Bill described is basically what we got as part of our MH SSR Preview at the Cinema. Of course, we had Miss Sara Toga to emcee our presentation, and they had WDW Ambassadors and Imagineers, but it sounds like the same information / slides / power point presentations.
 
Thanks for again helping us as DVC members by reporting on this meeting.
 
It's going to be easier to check out II (Interval International) trades. Members will be able to log on to a special II site (run by II). It will be similar to the regular II site except it will only display the Disney approved resorts that will be available to DVC members and not the full listing of II resorts that is available to regular II members. You will get to the special II site via a link from the member's only DVC site. You will have to log into the DVC site, but you will not need to log in again for the II site. The II site is being developed by II, but with a Disney flair to it.
BillPa, is the link you gave really the II one? This page has been on the members site for awhile now. It isn't really any different than what is in our guide books.
 



New Posts

















DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest

Back
Top