Membership Magic Beyond

[Genie+]

Perks are a marketing tool. They’re not going to limitlessly just keep expanding. It’s going to change and evolve.

I understand your argument but the scenario in which this is a good deal seems somewhat specific and limited to me.

Yeah. The existing perks and these new perks are focused. Discounts are more meaningful to those buy more stuff. Moonlight Magic is more meaningful to those who visit more often.

Beyond is more meaningful to those already engaging in these other specific areas.

I think the bigger question here is what perks could/should have been offered without the pay wall?

I'd have to ask why there's a pay wall for
1.) 5 day ticket discounts
2.) OTUP
3.) Annual pass for points
4.) Exchange fee

All of these drive sales and generate revenue. The annual pass and exchange fee drive sales to a product that Disney is recouping a higher cost than paying cash.

I can understand why there's a paywall for
1.)memory maker
2.) Lounge access priority/character meets

I feel like someone was told to come up with a perks program and no one in the room had any real ideas.

I'd bet you a billion dollars moonlight magic was definitely up on the white board.

Because it is a program that focuses on customer engagement, beyond just buying DVC.

 

[pixieprincess925]

Not sure if this has been answered in the last 34 pages (I only read about 5 of those pages...), but is Magic Beyond per person or per membership? I.e., my husband and adult children are on my contracts. would they each need to pay the $99 to get the priority lounge access? or is one of us buying it enough? Obviously if more than one of us has to purchase this we are only eligible to the 24 OTUP.

 

[New Mouse]

Perks are a marketing tool. They’re not going to limitlessly just keep expanding. It’s going to change and evolve.



Yeah. The existing perks and these new perks are focused. Discounts are more meaningful to those buy more stuff. Moonlight Magic is more meaningful to those who visit more often.

Beyond is more meaningful to those already engaging in these other specific areas.



Because it is a program that focuses on customer engagement, beyond just buying DVC.

Offering perks is a customer engagement program. You don't need to charge extra for that.

 

[DonMacGregor]

That's how I read this: It is a way to incentivize Membership for once-a-year visitors.

Or those of us who aren't dying to get a photo of our 786th ride on Space Mountain (as opposed to #785 back in July, when I was wearing my red Mickey shirt versus the blue one). Once in awhile and/or on special occasions with family, first timers, etc., sure, but every single time on the same ride? No thanks. A nice photo in front of the Castle/Spaceship Earth/Tree of Life, taken on my iPhone 16 by a PhotoPass CM or another guest works just fine to memorialize the trip. Don't need Tinkerbell floating in the corner to make the picture "magic".

 

[PalmettoPath]

I think we should all be sure we are not overlooking the true effect of this new product on the membership as a whole. IMO it's not whether this is a good value opportunity to me personally, it's about the message we send to DVC by purchasing member perks at all. It's pure GREED on the part of DVC and I firmly believe this is a test product to gauge interest from the community on purchasing perks.

I am certain their "VISION BOARDS" are filled with future charges to us members if this pilot program is met with high demand.

Resale Restrictions decision was out of our hands, DVC single handedly put in motion one of the biggest blows to overall reputation and value of our contracts. This new program we control the success of it on our own with our wallets.

I personally will pay more for a 5 day park ticket every time then encourage the priority access to anything over my fellow DVC member.

I'd love to see the part of the Vision Board that strategizes how they're going to respond to angry Canadian and Int'l DVC-Y owners who now have no option at all to keep an even footing with our U.S. owner friends...the back-of-the-line level of ownership for Canadians (meaning buy-direct has continually declining benefit going forward).

 

[muppets3d]

It doesn’t take a lot to imagine a scenario where on a busy lounge day, you’re effectively blocked from using it in reasonable time frame. Will it happen to every member every time they go? No. Will it happen periodically? I’d bet money on it.

The points for AP’s is an example of a great benefit. It doesn’t harm anyone, and it’s useful for some. I personally think it’s a terrible waste of points, but if I had a thousand OKW points from 1995 that I bought for 40 a point, I’d imagine it’s the most amazing thing possible. Having almost 500 points from places that sold for 200+ a point makes that math a non starter. With that said, there was no reason to hide this benefit behind a 100 dollar a year package, except greed. They charge you money to take your points and make more money off them.

It’s an incidental benefit of membership. If the lounges go away tomorrow, so be it. The Epcot lounge has been closed most of this year already.

 

[lowlight]

It’s an incidental benefit of membership. If the lounges go away tomorrow, so be it. The Epcot lounge has been closed most of this year already.

To be precise, it's an incidental benefit of qualifying direct membership "for all". You buy in at this level direct, you get it. This is the first foray into "incidental benefits of qualifying direct membership...for some". It's ok to disagree with how I feel about it, but minimizing the change to the perk by saying it was never guaranteed, while indeed true, completely misses the point those of us against this are making.

Curiously. If they had said “DVC Y owners can now purchase the $210 MM product for $99” with nothing more, wouldn’t that be a brand new discount for any owner who doesn’t buy an AP and wants MM for a trip??

Forget about the other features…isn’t this program a big discount off MM for DVC owners?

I'd imagine the diagrams of DVC ownership and AP membership are mostly overlapping, but yes, for those who do not have AP's, they would save money. For me, most of these benefits are useless, but the lounge is the only one that makes it contentious for me. I don't begrudge those spending 99 dollars on it because they find value in it, except insofar as it teaches Disney they will be rewarded for their greed. My secondary point was only that none of these benefits are one-sided, Disney stands to gain money from each one in addition to the initial buy in, which I'm sure was a prerequisite to these perks being added.

Or those of us who aren't dying to get a photo of our 786th ride on Space Mountain (as opposed to #785 back in July, when I was wearing my red Mickey shirt versus the blue one).

It's only 782 photos for me, the other 4 are of random people two rows ahead or behind me due to mistiming errors on the photopass camera. I keep those in my MM so I can pretend they are old family members we don't talk to anymore when my children get older. Uncle Jimmy always had bad tastes in t-shirts.

 

[Genie+]

Offering perks is a customer engagement program. You don't need to charge extra for that.

What would happen if GameStop just offered $5 free every month to everyone?

Instead they just offer $5 free every month to those who $25 annual subscription.

A coffee company might not offer a standing 20% off to everyone but instead put it behind a monthly subscription. If you are already buying something every month then you get the perk.

On some level I can see why companies would go this route.

Many supermarkets near me offer perks for Thanksgiving - commonly a free turkey. Many customers spend well through the year, but it’s the 6 weeks leading up to the holiday that counts. There’s reasons behind different ways companies offer perks.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

What would happen if GameStop just offered $5 free every month to everyone?

Instead they just offer $5 free every month to those who $25 annual subscription.

A coffee company might not offer a standing 20% off to everyone but instead put it behind a monthly subscription. If you are already buying something every month then you get the perk.

On some level I can see why companies would go this route.

Many supermarkets near me offer perks for Thanksgiving - commonly a free turkey. Many customers spend well through the year, but it’s the 6 weeks leading up to the holiday that counts. There’s reasons behind different ways companies offer perks.

I read many years ago that the reason outlet malls are far from city centers is that there’s a psychology to it— if you drive two hours, you’re more likely to feel like you’ve got to shop more to make it worth your time and effort. This could be similar (speaking for myself), in that if you $99 for the year of perks, it motivates you to use more of them and visit the parks more frequently?

 

[Sandisw]

To be precise, it's an incidental benefit of qualifying direct membership "for all". You buy in at this level direct, you get it. This is the first foray into "incidental benefits of qualifying direct membership...for some". It's ok to disagree with how I feel about it, but minimizing the change to the perk by saying it was never guaranteed, while indeed true, completely misses the point those of us against this are making.



I'd imagine the diagrams of DVC ownership and AP membership are mostly overlapping, but yes, for those who do not have AP's, they would save money. For me, most of these benefits are useless, but the lounge is the only one that makes it contentious for me. I don't begrudge those spending 99 dollars on it because they find value in it, except insofar as it teaches Disney they will be rewarded for their greed. My secondary point was only that none of these benefits are one-sided, Disney stands to gain money from each one in addition to the initial buy in, which I'm sure was a prerequisite to these perks being added.



It's only 782 photos for me, the other 4 are of random people two rows ahead or behind me due to mistiming errors on the photopass camera. I keep those in my MM so I can pretend they are old family members we don't talk to anymore when my children get older. Uncle Jimmy always had bad tastes in t-shirts.

Honestly, I think you have a high number of DVc owners who are not AP holders and why I think they have finally added a discounted multi day pass.

I agree that there is no question that it’s going to be a win for DVC or they wouldn’t be doing it.

But DVC Y owners will also win if the things included are of benefit to them.

Thats why the more I reviewed it, the more I realized that just the MM benefit is a substantial discount for those non AP DVC Y owners who currently buy it as an add on.

 

[RichVIII]

I have been pinging "non-Disboard" folks and whoever said it earlier in this thread. We are a highly engaged audience.

Despite them getting the same emails we all do, they were like, what are you talking about? These are the same people not stalking the DVC kiosk to get a new slider, checking out the latest photos of Poly tower, wondering about the trust or running spreadsheets.

I think a large portion of the membership doesn't know or care. If nobody buys it, they will discontinue it. If lots some of people buy it, they will raise the price.

Now, the non-Us folks have a valid complaint. Degraded non-guaranteed perks is a tough argument for me. Welcome to late-stage capitalism.

 

[Sandisw]

Well, you also rarely run into Skyliner downtimes and I have done so at most times of the year. We must travel at different times. Each time I wanted to try the lounge (twice) I had to wait a few minutes. I would assume the Beyond buyers jumping ahead will make this worse. At the same time I won’t get worked up about losing access to a budget airport lounge (even if it is at WDW).

I still find it strange that they would water down the perks for non-buyers of beyond if the package would be strong even without it (taking your word for it).

Sure, they absolutely could have left it out. And some might be less upset if they did. As we know, I am indifferent to it and no one really knows how many other DVC owners will be. Some of my DVc friends don’t visit the lounge at all and some said hardly ever…where I pop in every trip just to get a soda!

To be fair, though, if I had gone and the wait was anything more than 5 minutes, I would not have stayed. And I don’t see that changing.

My take is that they included things they think would be of interest to a wide variety of members.

Maybe they are hoping this won’t be seen as a huge deal to the membership as a whole when comparing to what else it has to offer.

Only time will tell!

 

[walt34]

Sure, they absolutely could have left it out. And some might be less upset if they did. As we know, I am indifferent to it and no one really knows how many other DVC owners will be. Some of my DVc friends don’t visit the lounge at all and some said hardly ever…where I pop in every trip just to get a soda!

To be fair, though, if I had gone and the wait was anything more than 5 minutes, I would not have stayed. And I don’t see that changing.

My take is that they included things they think would be of interest to a wide variety of members.

Maybe they are hoping this won’t be seen as a huge deal to the membership as a whole when comparing to what else it has to offer.

Only time will tell!

I agree and add my hope that they won’t continue moving features to subscriptions that they don’t sell to foreigners. Sooner or later they’ll have something I want to have.

Someone needs to go talk to the tax department and figure this out. This is the second new product after LLMP that excludes those that travel the farthest. A worrying trend.

 

[Sandisw]

I agree and add my hope that they won’t continue moving features to subscriptions that they don’t sell to foreigners. Sooner or later they’ll have something I want to have.

Someone needs to go talk to the tax department and figure this out. This is the second new product after LLMP that excludes those that travel the farthest. A worrying trend.

Someone said they may consult a timeshare lawyer to see what is up.

We know there are some states in the US that don’t allow their residents to by given the $150 dining card owners get if one of their referrals buys into DVC. And that is based on specific laws.

You have to wonder something like this is in play? It will be interesting when we can get more info!

 

[BaybeeYoda]

I read until page 21 of these 35 pages, so apologies if I’m repeating what someone else may have brought up. I didn’t read pages 22-35 .

Has it occurred to anyone that the lounge is actually a money loss for Dvc sales division, and perhaps they’re trying to compensate for that? That this perk is just a little nice thing they are doing for us, and the “fee” is helping them subsidize the lounge (among other things)?

This past June, I spoke to one of the lounge cast members who indicated that the elevator fix for the old lounge would cost the sales division over $1 million (and that the elevator issues arose bc some angry member punched the buttons, partially breaking the elevator). He also told me that the temporary lounge (the one by test track) was costing another seven figures out of their sales budget. In other words, the lounge is not paid for by Dvc maintenance fees/dues. The lounge instead is 100% subsidized by DVC sales.

As a result, the lounge is not a guaranteed perk for any of us direct or otherwise, particularly since our maintenance fees are not paying for it. It is instead a marketing tool presumably to garner new revenue and build goodwill. The lounge is causing bad will instead, it would make most sense for them to get rid of it and revert back to the days before the lounge existed.

In fact, does anyone remember when the lounge first opened at Epcot? There was a ton of buzz around it. It was expected to ONLY be open for an entire year. That’s it. No longer. However, after that, the lounge stayed open much to my children’s excitement. We were able to use the lounge not once during that one year when it first opened, but every year since during our yearly trip. And now, my kids feel entitled that lounge- as do many others, it seems.

In any case, I think the lounge opened in 2016 perhaps? 2017? Regardless I just remember being so happy it stayed open past that one year mark. I’m still happy it’s open, and understand that it’s 100% funded by the sales division and therefore I’m grateful it’s not coming out of my maintenance fees.

So, for me, I’m more than happy to pay that $99 to help support the sales division. Keep the lounge open. We love the lounge.

just my two cents.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Here is why I will. I have no interest in getting involved in rentals. My time is worth more to me than the extra.

Really? I get not wanting to go through the effort and hassle of renting through something like the rent/trade board, but boy, posting my confirmed reservation through Davids took like all of 30 minutes of effort on my part total.

 

[Unclelude]

I kinda wish they'd add more points tiers... That way I could convince my DW we need 500 OKW direct points ( or whatever the next big fire sale is ).

Me: "Look honey, if we can get to DVC-BY-1000, we can get skip the line and get a FREE hug from *any* character in *any* park ( weekdays only )"

DW: Sold!

Kidding aside, I don't know how that would go, but I'd guess they would get some fomo add-ons if this morphed into points tiers... Esp if they had some good teasers... 'free dining' ... Lifetime resort mug .. another secret handshake ( diff from the blue card handshake)

Let's go!!!

Have fun!!

 

[tx911]

I read until page 21 of these 35 pages, so apologies if I’m repeating what someone else may have brought up. I didn’t read pages 22-35 .

Has it occurred to anyone that the lounge is actually a money loss for Dvc sales division, and perhaps they’re trying to compensate for that? That this perk is just a little nice thing they are doing for us, and the “fee” is helping them subsidize the lounge (among other things)?

This past June, I spoke to one of the lounge cast members who indicated that the elevator fix for the old lounge would cost the sales division over $1 million (and that the elevator issues arose bc some angry member punched the buttons, partially breaking the elevator). He also told me that the temporary lounge (the one by test track) was costing another seven figures out of their sales budget. In other words, the lounge is not paid for by Dvc maintenance fees/dues. The lounge instead is 100% subsidized by DVC sales.

As a result, the lounge is not a guaranteed perk for any of us direct or otherwise, particularly since our maintenance fees are not paying for it. It is instead a marketing tool presumably to garner new revenue and build goodwill. The lounge is causing bad will instead, it would make most sense for them to get rid of it and revert back to the days before the lounge existed.

In fact, does anyone remember when the lounge first opened at Epcot? There was a ton of buzz around it. It was expected to ONLY be open for an entire year. That’s it. No longer. However, after that, the lounge stayed open much to my children’s excitement. We were able to use the lounge not once during that one year when it first opened, but every year since during our yearly trip. And now, my kids feel entitled that lounge- as do many others, it seems.

In any case, I think the lounge opened in 2017 perhaps? 2018? Regardless I just remember being so happy it stayed open past that one year mark. I’m still happy it’s open, and understand that it’s 100% funded by the sales division and therefore I’m grateful it’s not coming out of my maintenance fees.

So, for me, I’m more than happy to pay that $99 to help support the sales division. Keep the lounge open. We love the lounge.

just my two cents.

Well, they must feel like it's been worth the expense, because they have gone all-in on new lounges at both Disney Springs and Magic Kingdom.

 

[Sandisw]

Really? I get not wanting to go through the effort and hassle of renting through something like the rent/trade board, but boy, posting my confirmed reservation through Davids took like all of 30 minutes of effort on my part total.

And that is why we all have our priorities! I have done rentals in the past to strangers via a broker, and its not for me. To be honest, if I am going to use my points for someone other than me, then I am going to offer them to family and friends for at most the cost of dues...and in some cases, it would be free.

So, in this case, using them for my AP, when I would buy it anyway is going to allow me to use the money I save for something else! Its a win win!

 

[muppets3d]

To be precise, it's an incidental benefit of qualifying direct membership "for all". You buy in at this level direct, you get it. This is the first foray into "incidental benefits of qualifying direct membership...for some". It's ok to disagree with how I feel about it, but minimizing the change to the perk by saying it was never guaranteed, while indeed true, completely misses the point those of us against this are making.

Am I going crazy, or is the lounge still there (or at least it will be when it finally reopens after the refurb)? So what is all this FUD about? You don't need to buy the buy-up plan to get your Coke Zero and bag of cheez-its.