What Perks/Benefits Were Dropped?

[kevmag]

I was reading another thread, which complained about a change to the DVC Annual Golf Membership, and that got me thinking...

As a new DVC member (approx 6 months), I was curious what other perks and benefits were taken away (or modified substantially) over the years, that really bothered people?

(And to avoid being flamed...YES, i read my contract from front to back, and am aware that I have no contractual rights to ANY perks. I am asking completely out of curiousity, since I've read many posts over the last half year in which people said they felt there was an overall deterioration in WDW/DVC 'magic').

 

[tjkraz]

Arguably the most noteworthy removal is free valet parking which went away in October '09. It appears that the valet parking vendor had agreed to provide service for free to DVC members for a period of time. When they decided to begin charging members, DVC looked at subsidizing it via annual dues but decided it was more appropriate for just those who wanted to valet park to pay the fees.

We used to have a 10% discount on Length of Stay park passes. Not a very good perk. The park pass had to be for the entire length of the hotel stay (although some CMs did allow guests to drop either the arrival OR departure day.) In most cases you could pre-purchase a Park Hopper ticket for less money. This perk went away around 2005 when Disney revised its ticket scheme, and we obtained a discount on Annual Passes.

Early DVC buyers sometimes claim that they received free park admission as a perk. Technically that was a sales incentive--much like the free AP vouchers or $15-20 per point discount offered today.

We used to get 10% off purchases at The Disney Store. That was discontinued when Disney sold the stores a few years back and it was never reinstated even after they re-acquired the stores. We DO get codes for on-line Disney Store purchases. I don't believe he on-line discount was offered when we had the in-store perk.

Dining discounts have come-and-gone over the years. Disney seems to tweak that list every year or so. I have copies of the member perks booklets going back quite a few years. The volume of restaurants hasn't really changed in the last 4-5 years...just the locations. It was never a very big list for as far back as I can remember.