Amy's done this several times before, but I thought it would
be a fun way to start this week's show, which is to go into
the archives of one of your social media accounts and find a
random picture. And I did not tell her who or or
where, but she did her deep dive and this is what we ended up
with, OK. This was from May of 2016.
Wow. Panda, do you remember this
moment as to why you donned a panda mask or where you were?
OK, wait, I yeah, I was in. I think this is what's the big
convention, the theme park convention, IAPA, I think.
IAPA, yeah. Oh, I thought it was a store.
OK. That's coming together more.
OK. Yeah, look at the top the the
banner and it's a big place. Yeah, and I just saw this in
IAPA and I took a picture. Perfect.
Well, you got funny. With my little camera bag in my
water, my hand sound. Pre pre pre pandemic too, you
were ahead of the curve. How you're wearing the bag
around your neck, not like, not like a crossbody or anything,
just. Just before crossbodies were a
thing, this was the style in 2016, Amy.
It actually hurt. It hurt my posture doing that.
It really did. I would have that because the
camera was heavier at one point and I just hung it around my
neck and got. You.
We may have it. Everybody and welcome to this
week's episode of The DVC Show. I'm your host, Paul Krieger,
joined as always by my lovely wife, Amy Krieger.
Hello, We've got John. Scary.
OK, Big big fat panda with us. Welcome home everyone.
Senior Sales Associate for the DVC resale market, Derek de
Boer. Hey now, happy Monday everybody.
The Honourable Jeff's Haslam. Hi, everybody.
He did that like, you know, those sitcoms when they do the
credits and the people looking forward.
I was just going to say, like, Jeff knows that Paul's going to
come to him, but Jeff chooses to stare at his phone or whatever
he's. Staring.
At Jeff Haslam. I was looking at the show notes
that we're about to talk about because, you know, that's
important to know. No.
And they're like 5 miles long, so yeah.
No, they. Are never.
Never, ever. Yeah, this one actually, I did
write out some detailed notes because I just felt like we
could easily derail from a lot of these topics.
So this week we are talking about everything.
Member benefits. It's a common question that
comes up in the DVC fan Facebook community, a common question
that a lot of people ask, which are what are member benefits?
How do you get them? How do you qualify?
So we'll be talking everything from DVC, moonlight magic to
lounges, discounts, membership magic, beyond little, this
little bit of that and kind of help you figure out is it worth
it or what are some of these perks and what are some of what
I would maybe qualify as garbage perks.
Before we get into it, this and all of our content is always
brought to you by Key Holder Vacations and the world of DVC.
DVC resale market where you can buy and sell a Disney Vacation
Club contract. Monera Financial who will assist
in financing that DVC resale contract.
Purchase the DVC rental store where you can try before you
buy, rent some points or rent out your own points and Unlocked
Magic where you can get discounted Walt Disney World and
Universal tickets as well as discounted party tickets for
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, Halloween Party,
Jollywood Nights, head to Unlock magic.com/DVC fan.
So the key question, what are member benefits?
Amy Krieger. Member benefits are benefits
that you get for being a member of BBC.
This was a good show. This was really good.
I I think that we'll get at least, you know, one have a.
Good night everyone. Oh boy, so often called
membership extras, member benefits are those kind of added
things that are a part of being what we would consider a direct
owner or a direct member with Disney Vacation Club.
They do not necessarily apply to your core ownership, nor are
they ever what are they get Derek, They are never
guaranteed. Guaranteed last page of your
contract, remember when you sign and buy direct points from
Disney says we can't remove any of these quote UN quote member
benefits, any of these direct benefits.
They are not tied into your membership.
We can make any changes we want or completely remove them and
you can't do anything about it. So sign by Mickey and date by
the palm tree. That's what they have you do.
I will, I will be honest that I, I did kind of use AI to help
frame my notes here and it puts some really funny quotes in my
notes as well that I've just now coming up on right now.
That says, think of it as the cherry on top of your DVC
sundae. Not required, but makes it
sweeter if you have it. I wondered where that came from.
Not for me, Derek, not for me. But yeah, these are those things
that we talk about that are special extras.
One of the biggest membership extras that we've always talked
about historically is Moonlight Magic, which I am surprised as
of recording this show that we have not heard date 2026
Moonlight Magic. We actually expected it like 2
weeks ago when we were on our Alaskan cruise.
Lauren De La Cruz, who's an amazing contributor for us, she
had a blog prepped and ready with just the space to put in
the dates because we were like, we were fully ready.
This is the time that the past two years they've announced
Moonlight Magic. So I'm just going to leave a
little gap right here in case we did get Moonlight Magic News and
Future Paul comes in and tells us all about it.
Well, would you look at that, literally the day after we
filmed this episode, the 2026 Moonlight Magic dates did drop.
Nothing too earth shattering with what was announced.
There are a coupled Moonlight Magic events for the end of 2025
that were added for Animal Kingdom.
This is similar to what they did last year and these are open to
anyone. Even if you already went to one
of the Fall Moonlight Magic events, you can register for
this. They do have an early
registration window for people. With resort reservations.
And then they will open them up to everyone.
Those additional 2025 Animal Kingdom dates are October 29th,
November 18th, and December 15th.
Then we head into 2026 and similar to years past, we have
kind of those three seasons that they've built events into.
I'm not going to go by season here, but just kind of run down
the list, Epcot, February 12th and September 10th.
That September 10th date is pretty interesting because that
will actually fall in 2026 during Food and Wine and I don't
know that we've actually seen an Epcot Food and Wine Moonlight
Magic ever or at least in a long time.
Hollywood Studios, April 22nd and July 20th.
Animal Kingdom twenty 26th date is January 20th at the moment.
Typhoon Lagoon June 25th, August 4th and August 20th and then
Disney's California Adventure out on the West Coast.
That would be February 23rd. Registration details.
All of the important information that you need is over at
dvcfan.com. But in case it didn't happen, or
even if it did, wow. Yeah, Moonlight Magic is
probably the biggest member benefit that you hear about.
That is a special after hours event that gets you into Epcot,
Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios.
They even do one out on the West Coast at Disney California
Adventure Park. So that is a big one.
Other membership extras, other member benefits we'll get into a
little bit later. The next thing that really comes
into this is kind of, you know, how do you qualify?
Like what? Like how do you actually get
member benefits? And that is really kind of the
grayest area of them all. I think moving into, you know,
as we kind of age in Disney Vacation Club because it kind of
is across the gamut. Derrick, correct me if I'm
wrong, There are some resale owners that purchased before a
certain date that actually do qualify for all of these extras.
It's before they kind of made them a a a direct member
benefit, correct? Yeah, yeah, we actually have and
did a great tutorial, quick little video on it over at the
dvcresalemarket.com. You can go up here to buying and
then it says like tutorial videos.
You can have one where we break it out by even the years when
these restrictions started kind of to, to creep in what the
different point variables used to be, because it used to be the
absolute no brainer. Like, Oh, look, I only have to
have quote, UN quote 25 points direct.
So I'm going to buy 300 points resale and then and just buy a
25 point contract. And then I, you know, entitled
to quote UN quote, all the direct benefits.
Then they raised it to 50, then I think 75, then I think 125 or
something. Now it's 150.
So you have to buy a minimum of 150 points.
And it's, you know, the, the biggest change was probably,
which I know we're going to talk about.
It was, it wasn't just, Oh, I had to buy X amount of points
and I get to, you know, get these little discounts or these
little perks or whatnot. It was, you know, back in 2000
and I want to say 2017 with Riviera that they said, hey, you
know what, you buy a resale contract, you're not going to be
able to use it at Riviera or any quote UN quote, perhaps future
resort. So Disney, in a strange move,
actually gave us like 2 months notice before they made this
change. So we have, we sold a lot of
contracts in those two months because everybody was buying
points no matter what resort because they wanted to be able
to use it for Riviera and for future contracts.
So yeah, there's people, people that bought, you know, before
the restrictions that go online, they could book Riviera, they
could book the cabins, they could do all that.
So it really depends on what level you have and most
importantly when you bought your resale contract.
Yeah. So as Derek mentioned today, as
of making this video, you would have to buy a 150 point contract
or accumulate 150 direct points across multiple contracts to
then qualify for these membership extras or these
direct owner benefits. For some people like us, that
that benefit was 50 points Panda.
It was 25 when we bought one. Yeah, 75. 150.
Yeah, 150 for Panda. 75 when Copper Creek was actively
selling Yeah, so. So it's changed throughout.
Can I, can we make a confession, a real confession?
And I'm not here to help Derek sell resale.
I went crazy to make sure that my first contract was through
Disney so that I can get these benefits.
It's gotta be like a little over 2 years now that I'm a member, I
think. I can't really remember but tell
me if that sounds right to you guys.
Two to three years, yeah. Okay, so two to two to three
years, I've never used a direct benefit.
It would have definitely benefited me to buy resale.
The only time I go to Moonlight Magic and stuff is when Jeff,
Derek, Paul, Amy say, hey, John, we have an extra ticket and I
go, I don't wait up to get them. I don't try.
I don't even know what I'm doing.
So I should have bought resale. I I know that now.
Even the times you've gone into like that, even.
Yeah. The the lounges I've used, I I
never thought about that as a benefit, but you're right.
I've used the not too much, but I have used the lounges.
Thanks, Jeff. Yeah, you're right.
Yeah, as Derek also said, some of these benefits have been
grandfathered in over time to certain members.
So essentially the the the cut off date was April 4th, 2016.
So if you bought a resale contract prior to April 4th,
2016, those people are grandfathered in.
So those people do have these member benefits or these direct
member perks. Without it, you could buy
resale. You still get the points, you
still get to use the points, but you don't get these membership
extras or these member benefits. They're called membership extras
because as Derek mentioned earlier, and as we kind of
started off the show, these are not guaranteed.
They are not a part of your core membership.
You can, you know, with your points, you can always do with
your points what you're allowed to do with your points with
these benefits. These benefits do change and
they are subject to whatever Disney Vacation Club is offering
at that time. Wanted Derek, you hit on this a
little bit and before we really get into what are those core
member benefits like Moonlight magic or like other events or
discounts and things like that. I wanted to have a little bit of
a discussion on this show as what I think is kind of the
modern day direct benefit, which is those resale restrictions and
how that's probably going to change Disney Vacation Club over
the course of maybe the next 10 to 20 years.
You know, direct buyers have access to the full DVC
portfolio. So you can act, you can purchase
at, you can purchase at Copper Creek Direct if you would decide
to do so or Riviera Direct and you can book within that zero to
seven month window at any Disney Vacation Club property where
resale starting with Riviera, we started to see the introduction
of resale restrictions. So Riviera if you purchase it
resale, you can only use the points at Riviera that carries
forward to Disneyland Hotel, that carries forward to Fort
Wilderness. We expect that to carry forward
to Lakeshore Lodge most likely because that might be a part of
Fort Wilderness. But you know in some ways that
benefit, that flexibility, that opportunity to use them at
multiple different resorts is I think one of the biggest modern
day benefits. Because you and I have even
talked about, you know, if whenever our direct contract
runs out that gives us the opportunity to use points that
way, we would potentially buy again so that we could then use
our points at newer resorts. It's really going to kind of
change the landscape. And so it's not really rolled
into it technically is what we would call resale restrictions.
But I just wanted to pose the question, do you think this is
kind of the modern day member benefit?
And Jeff, I'll kind of I'll jump to you first on this.
Yeah, I, I think it is. I mean, I think we're a little
bit plain, fast and loose with the word quote UN quote benefit,
but it is something that is going to change over time.
I, I really think it's a double edged sword, if you will,
because it does give you access to all of these new properties.
And at much to Derek's dismay, they're not going to stop
building these things. It appears like, it seems like
we're getting new DVC resorts faster than we're getting new
lights at Tron. So I think moving forward, we're
we're going to have to have a direct contract to have access
to all of those things. The reason I say we're playing
fast and loose with the term benefit is you are really paying
significant more, significantly more for that option.
And I question sometimes the longevity of that because you
would have to think at some point there's a ceiling of how
much people are willing to pay for this product.
I don't know that we're there yet, but at some point in the
next 10 years, like I can't imagine anybody paying $500 a
point. I could be wrong, but I don't
see it. You know what I mean?
Like, I don't know. I don't.
Know I remember which is funny you said that story.
I remember being a guide in like 2007, 2008.
We remember when the points direct, we're going to hit over
$100 a point and we would all laugh would be like, do you
think people are seriously going to buy these points for like
$100 a point when we know when DVC started, people paid like
$50 a .60. I paid like 70 something.
So it was comical that we thought that nobody is going to
buy this or it's going to have to be super highly discounted to
spend anywhere near $100 a point.
Now look at where we're at. We're at, you know, 200 and
45245 dollars a point. They keep building these resorts
that use more and more points compared to the older resort.
So therefore, you know, back when I was the guy, the average
point package was probably like, you know, 100 and 25150.
Now, if you want to stay at some of these newer resorts, you have
to look at the point chart and go, oh God, now I got to buy
like $245 a point. And it looks like according to
say, you know, the Polynesian tower point chart, I'm going to
use this many. OK, I guess I do need to buy
like Jeff said, it's a lot of money and I don't want and I
think it's important that we say we do not want to make this show
and that's what we pride ourselves on.
This is not a direct benefits are not worth it.
It's not worth buying direct. This is 100% not the point of
that show is we pride ourselves and I probably do it every
single day. I'll have someone and I will
find out to that family, whatever it is they're looking
at purchasing that if these benefits, I don't care if it's
the 10% off of Wetzel Pretzel or it's going to Moonlight Night
Magic or whatever that direct benefit is at that time.
If that's important to you, buy direct.
Here's some great friends of mine that still sell direct.
They will happily help you. We just want you to be a member.
So I want people to know that this is not a resale versus
buying direct or I bought resale and I save 50,000.
So that's way better than you bought direct and you paid more
blah, blah, blah. That's what I don't want this
show to be about, which I tell us we won't make it that because
I think the most important, the important thing that you can do
to yourself is do your research 1st.
And that's where, you know, Panda even said he's like, you
know, what if I probably would have looked at this maybe a
little bit more than maybe a little, maybe resale would have
been better for me. But if you're the family out
there that buying direct and getting, you know, taking
advantage of these member perks, no matter how temporary they
are, if that FOMO is going to kill you, call me, reach out to
me. I can give you some great Disney
Vacation Club guides who can help.
But you just need to know what you're getting into that's.
All I mean we've all done it. We, we bought direct.
We wanted those member benefits. We wanted to make sure that we
did a direct. We actually did both at the same
time. So we bought a resale and
direct. When we first bought Panda, you
bought direct. Derek, you bought direct.
When you initially bought Jeff, you bought direct and resale and
then bought all of Old Key West. But you know the the point
being, we've all done it. And I stand behind a statement
that I've made multiple times before, which is that I think
that over the life cycle of a Disney Vacation Club member,
most are going to become what I call a hybrid member that own a
combination of those direct and resale points.
You were really quiet over there tonight.
I know she's over here. She's over here.
Did you know for you like cruise Story?
You could see her dreaming of sandwiches.
Yeah, I am hungry. She's zoned out on this on this
topic so. No, I agree as to me, you know,
it can get very confusing especially once you start
getting into the weeds and when you were talking about, you
know, resale restrictions and in this year's when it started
this, but then I was thinking in my head, OK and then.
You know, X amount of people or grandfathered in under 25 points
and they have to know when that date changed or you know, that's
important to them or X amount of people grandfathered under 75
and X. And I just I'm just.
It can get very confusing. I think the big thing to know is
if you own now and you are eligible for benefits, you know
that you have benefits and you know what direct contract you
probably bought that gave you those benefits, Yeah.
Or, if you were an older resale buyer, you know that you bought
in before any of this nonsense actually occurred.
It's also important to know that whatever that contract is that
gave you those benefits, if you don't have the new requirements,
once that contract expires, your benefits go away.
So if you're grandfathered in with, let's say, a boardwalk
contract in 2020440224, 2024, that's this.
That's last year. That's last year in 2042.
Now they're even more confused. In 2042, you're going to lose
those benefits. So luckily for us, it's our 2057
contract. So if we want to keep having
benefits after that, you know, we'll have to make some
decisions. But I don't know, it's just
interesting to think about. So let's talk before we get into
the even added confusing nature of this, what some of these
benefits are and all of these benefits that Panda has never
used. First off, a big benefit is the
ability to buy an annual pass basically at that Florida
resident level. So the eligibility for a
Sorcerer's pass or an Incredi pass, the ability to buy that as
a direct member is a big perk that a lot of people look at.
If you have a larger family, if you are, if you are buying
annual passes for you know, 456 people in your in your family to
get down to Disney World multiple times a year, then this
is an entirely huge savings as compared to you know, those
ticket prices. Yeah.
And to be clear, the Incredi pass anybody can buy, but it is
the ability to purchase the Sorcerer's Pass, which is
typically a Florida resident pass.
That is the DVC benefit. So it's not a discount on annual
passes. It is just the ability to
purchase that lower tier pass that has it.
It has some block out dates, but out of all the passes that have
block out dates, it has the fewest.
But yeah, it now, if you live in Florida, then that benefit is
not, you know, for Panda. He's a Florida resident.
He can purchase any of the Florida passes.
So it doesn't matter. You know, that benefit doesn't
make sense for him. But if you live out of state,
that can be a good benefit. Next benefit are those member
lounges. So Panda, you've you've visited
the Epcot lounge before, I think you went to the Magic Kingdom
lounge already. So this is one that has been
growing as of late. So we do have the Epcot member
lounge. We recently had Mckim's Mile
House added over in Frontierland at Magic Kingdom.
We have a new member lounge, also Starview Station at
Disneyland Park and also kind of a lounge slash sales center at
Disney Springs. So this has been kind of a
growing brand in that member benefit space, which I think a
lot of people enjoy is the ability to have a place that has
some air conditioning. You have maybe a light
refreshment from a Coke freestyle machine, have some
small stacks like, you know, Doritos or Oreos or.
Apple chips. Apple chips.
I do think if they keep going with the lounges, I think that
that will draw people in. You know, add 1 to Animal
Kingdom, add 1 to Hollywood Studios, then you've got a
lounge I. Do wonder if they're I do wonder
if they're devaluing another product they have in the process
of that though, which is Club 33.
But no, just I. Don't think the value of club 33
is in the lounges, I think it's in the the additional perks that
you get. I don't know.
I heard one person tell me one time they bought it for the
bathrooms. Well, just say it.
Yeah, but I've never got offered a free VIP tour at a DVC lounge.
That's. True.
That's true. Other things related to benefits
include dining and merchandise discounts.
These can typically range anywhere from 10 to 20%
Restaurants on property shops at Disney springs.
Sometimes you'll see benefits extended to shop Disney and you
know you can definitely save some money by eating at these
restaurants and having that Disney Vacation Club benefit.
The argument here on the other side would be if you are again a
Florida resident or an annual pass holder, if you already have
that, you're receiving the same exact discount.
So annual pass holder discounts and DVC discounts typically go
hand in hand. And if you have a Disney Chase
Visa credit card, you get very similar discounts.
But there are some spending restrictions.
So for example, like the 20% in stores, you do have to spend at
least 50 bucks. But who's going into World
Disney and buying something that isn't usually spending at least
50 bucks? None of us.
Yeah, I. Was gonna say do they have
anything under $50? Not much.
Also in this realm are what we would call membership extras.
These are those specialty events that Disney Vacation Club puts
on throughout the year and we've seen kind of a growing number of
these also in the past few years.
The big one, we talked about it to kick off the show Moonlight
Magic, that speciality after hours event.
It is, you know, free snacks, rare character meets, sometimes
fireworks, low wait times for a lot of your popular rides for
these parks. I will say it is very cutthroat
to get into these events. It is similar to registering for
a Run Disney race if you're familiar with that process, you
know, getting that perfect DVC reservation right at 8:00 AM
when reservations open. It is very, very competitive to
get into these events sometimes. And you know that as the Disney
Vacation Club membership has grown, it's gotten even more
competitive. And that's been kind of a
growing complaint that a lot of people have here.
So yes, it is a member benefit, but there's not the promise that
you're going to get into these events, you know?
I hear, yeah, I'm just going to back you up on that, Paul,
because I hear at least a couple times a week from people that
bought direct because that was for them, their main kind of
FOMO like that was it. It was like, Oh my God.
They told us about these private parties and the parks are shut
down and all the wait times are low.
And they're like, Derek, we've been a member for four years and
we've never been able to get it ever.
They were buying more points with me because they wanted more
points for their membership. But to them, this one thing that
put them over the edge, that made them want to do this,
they've tried for four years. So I hear it from people all the
time that you've got to have the sun, the moon, the stars,
everything else line up perfectly to take advantage of
of of these events. So just keep that in mind.
Smaller events that they've been doing more frequently.
I think this is again, response to, to the negative, negative
feedback they've gotten for like moonlight Magic.
A lot of people always say these are always at these certain
weeks and I can never travel during those weeks.
You know, I'm, I'm never, that doesn't align with my vacation
plans because when it comes down to it, there's maybe what, 10 to
12 moonlight magic events a year.
So you've got to be here on one of those 10 to 12 days to
actually even get to go. So Disney Vacation Clubs
response, and I think it's a good one, has been to pepper in
some other smaller events throughout the year, one that we
know is meat and treats. So these happen.
There's some upcoming ones that are happening around the
Halloween season. There's one that they
historically do over Valentine's Day.
And again, these are just some special character opportunities,
give you some free snacks and just kind of an added perk to
make you feel special about being a Disney Vacation Club
member. Also during the summer months
they have been doing what they call Welcome Home weeks, which
is about 3 to 4 weeks during August and into September.
They actually just ended mid-september this year and they
have a plethora of options and benefits.
This year they added some things like a free tote bag that was
available at Disney Springs. They did a special doughnut day,
I think 2 days at at Everglades, which Everglades had like a
specialty, you know, welcome home donut that they gave out
for free those days. I a lot of just small little
things like that, some ice cream treats.
So kind of that month or six weeks or so is really just
peppered with a variety of different benefits and different
kind of freebies and giveaways because they know that a lot of
DVC members kind of travel down here during that time of year.
Specialty gifts. If you ever stop by ADVC kiosk,
we know magic band sliders have always been a thing that comes
out. They have specialty pins that
come out throughout the year. Coins one time.
I feel like they had a coin at least once they had some sort
of, or maybe that was a coin we got at like the opening of a
lounge or something. I remember a coin but I can't
remember why. We have a lot of these things
just in a box upstairs that just kind of tells you it sounds
special at the time. I do still have my magic band
Slaughter. That is the coolest one.
There you go. Panda's got a bottle.
Look at that. Perfect.
So all of these like kind of little free pins free, you know,
snacks, small pieces of swag, but they give you that extra
little bit of Pixie dust to make you feel special and feel feel
recognized as a member. Want to pause there?
Any comments from you guys you know about any of these benefits
or or kind of what how you've used them or seen them in the
past other than the resale guy in the corner?
Why is Derek laughing? No, no.
Well, no. I, I I wanted to add something,
but other people can certainly jump in.
Yeah, sounds good. Yeah.
I just want to say, despite everybody, you know, talking
about this, which again is very, very important to say, you know,
direct, direct members get this and they get this and they get
this. I want to stress that I tell
people every single day when you buy a resale contract, you're
going to be using the same member website.
You are going to be using the same phone number to call member
services and member accounting that everyone else does.
You're going to be receiving the same free parking.
You're going to be receiving the same extra magic hours, right
that they do in the resorts because you're staying in a
deluxe Disney resort. So I think it's, it's amazing to
me how many people you know, don't think that or they
thought, you know, what website do I use?
And it's not because you bought a resale contract.
We've got to send you to like some dark web website and move
you through into like the Disney website.
It's the same member services is not going to treat you any
different whatsoever. When you check into a resort,
you're not going to be treated any different whatsoever.
That is just where research comes into play because I hear
every day, all the agents at the DVC resale market, we hear every
single day like, Oh my God, I wish I found you guys sooner
because I was looking at buying, even if it's, you know, Saratoga
Springs. So I'm looking at Saratoga
Springs with you guys and it averages, you know, say between
90 and $100 a point. Saratoga direct from Disney
right now is $215 a point. So that's when that factor goes,
Derek. So I was thinking of we're
probably need like 200 points. So this is over like $100
different input. So if I buy a resale contract,
I'm going to save 20 grand. And that's where their own brain
kicks in and they go that's a lot.
That's a lot of like pretzels that I have to buy at like 10%
off. That's a lot of, you know, 10%
off T-shirts or that's a lot of even annual passes that you can
currently buy. So that's where you, you got to
do your research and you figure out what's important to you.
Is it? I think the most important
reason that people buy with us, and I just had a couple families
do it today, is because they looked and they said, Derek, for
example, we looked at buying direct.
But you know what we realized the resort that we needed was in
their case, it was the boardwalk.
It wasn't about bells and whistles that you get buying
direct. It's the fact of I want to buy
this resort and make it my home resort because I've done the
research and I realize how important it is, say, to own the
Grand Californian, to own the Boardwalk, to own the beach
Club. So Derek, what they're trying to
tell me that yes, I can use my Polynesian points at the
Boardwalk technically at seven months out, but doing my
research, watching this amazing show that comes out every single
Monday has helped me determine that I think this is the path
that I want to go down. So you got to, you have to look
at perks, but you have to look at what resort do you and your
family need and then make the decision from that point on.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
I just have to derail this conversation for one second. 40
minutes ago, we recorded our first show and Panda froze in
the middle of it and had to come back.
And I had messaged in the group it, you know, it was just kind
of funny the way you froze and 40 minutes later, while Derek
was talking just now, Panda wrote back in the group, lol.
Like we're not all here together recording at the right.
Just tells you how much the rest of us zoned out what Derek
talked there. Yeah, I'll be honest.
With you, Derek, I love you with all of my heart.
I have no idea what you just said.
You don't have to watch it with me.
It's just not us are. You serious?
No, it made sense. You don't realize the importance
of the resort that you own because you had 900 points at
Old Key West, but if you wanted to, always stay at the boardwalk
if you wanted. To reduce.
Then you reduce the importance of the resort.
That's it. That's all I got to say so.
Why would derailed Hold on, They caught the Disney Springs scuba
diver. Did you see what they caught
him? He was celebrating with his
family after his 20 grand win. They released a picture.
Oh my gosh. Well, welcome to the interlude
portion of the show. Go ahead, Jeff.
Back to what the show is about, which I think was membership
perks. I don't know, maybe.
I forgot, it's been a while. Since you and I both buddy.
I, I think the great thing about these membership perks is it's
not something that Disney has to do.
We talk about it all the time. These perks can come and go and
ebb and flow and whatever, but they do offer them and it does
not cost you an anything extra to go to, to most of these
things. So I think that is something
that it really does show members what they, how they, how much
they mean to them and, and, and it's something that it's nice.
Now, having said that, Moonlight magic, as we said, it's, it's
harder to get into than the Taylor Swift concert.
We catch a lot of crass because we seem to be at all of them,
even though we're not. We don't get any kind of special
treatment. It's just all about luck of the
draw. Sometimes we're just very lucky
to be in this space and we have members that reach out and say,
Hey, do you guys want to come and hang out with us?
And that's so great, but it's kind of like knowing that it's a
little bit of a lottery and you should never buy for that
reason, but it is a nice win when you get it.
Yeah, but but don't think that Disney's offering these little
perks, like just out of the goodness of their heart.
You know that, right? I mean, they're doing it.
So then when someone meets with the direct guide, they have a
look at this list. Look of all the parties, do you
like free doughnuts? Here's a free doughnut that
we're doing this, this and this. That's why they're doing it.
They're not like, how can we make our members happy?
They're doing it to say, how can we convince more people to buy
direct? That's why they're doing.
It and this man knows it because he sold those doughnuts for a
lot of years. He did, and he's again.
Donuts and those ice. Cream.
Ice cream. That was it back in the.
Day I do not. It is not my intention to help
resale. I really mean this for real
because I bought direct. It's OK.
This show is called Resale Benefits Now.
But when Jeff says you don't pay more for those things, I paid 10
grand more to buy direct so I can go sit in the lounge and
have a free coke. So we do pay for it technically,
if you know if resale's available.
I was gonna save this. Save us where I'm out.
I was gonna save this for the end of the show, but like I, I
did have in my notes, like I do want to applaud Disney because
they've done a lot better job with these benefits because if
you go back a year or so with this show, we were critical
about the benefits being offered.
I know that if I were a new member buying in today and I
stand behind this, I would have FOMO if I did not buy a direct
contract and I did not be eligible for these benefits.
And yes. Am I paying more money for it
because of it? Yeah, Yeah, I am.
But it is the FOMO of missing out on some of these things.
And they look really cool. We make them look really cool.
We, you know, you know, people posting on the Internet, it's
like anything that you see on the Internet when someone does
something and you're just like, oh, wow, that's cool.
I wish I could do that. You know, that feeling has a
financial value to it. Now the number country is out
there. Yes, you are saving a bunch of
money. And I applaud you for the fact
that you know you, you are you are able to have this membership
and not feel bad about missing out on those things.
I'm not one of those people. I would have FOMO about missing
out on some of these events and doing those things.
And I think that Disney Vacation Club has done a good job in
recent years in adding more of those opportunities.
Yes, definitely to Derek's point, so that they can have
that laundry list of things, so they can say look at all these
things that you get for being a direct member because at the end
of the day, their goal is to sell.
Well, and Speaking of FOMO, there's something that we said
we weren't going to buy that you bought literally on day one,
which is the other tier that we have of.
This is where it gets even more confusing and Disney has now
come out with a paid level of Disney Vacation Club benefits
called Member Magic Beyond. So this program was launched at
the end of 2024 and and members that purchased would were
eligible throughout the year in 2025.
It is $99 per year and it gives you access to things like
discounted ticket prices. You get a memory maker benefit
that's valid. I think it's a 30 day benefit
for memory maker which gives you access to photo pass photos.
You get the access to the Epcot Lounge after hours with an
exclusive meet and greet that is only for those extra hours.
For the Member Magic Beyond access, you get priority Lounge
access to Disney Vacation Club lounges.
You can actually use your points.
For a Disney Vacation Club or I guess a Disney annual pass to
Walt Disney World or to renew your annual pass you can use
your points to pay for that. You also get bonus one time use
points up to 24. I always call this like buy one
get one free one time use points.
At the end of the day, a lot of these things when launched, I
think we kind of turned our nose up at, but there is value here
in saying that if you're going to buy X number of one time use
points, it makes more sense to buy Member Magic Beyond to get a
couple of these points. Or if you're going to buy Memory
Maker, if you're doing that for your annual trip to Disney
World, you know, buying this is cheaper than buying that and
gets you some of these added perks.
My question, I guess to you all is the thought of this program
and whether or not it's been successful, because my
impression has been the advertising, the marketing was
hot and heavy early on to get people on board with this.
But I have not heard a lick of anything about what's happening
next year. And you know, what are they
going to, what are they going to add?
What are they going to change? What is going to make this worth
the $199 that they probably try to charge for it next year?
Just throwing an idea out there. I don't know.
That's the fact.
I hope they keep it at $99.00. But whatever, whatever the ploy
here with having this paid member benefit option, it's kind
of a question of OK, but is it worth it and are people going
to? I don't it's like those other
subscriptions that you have and it's like what is going to get
me next year to renew this subscription.
I don't think, yeah, but I don't think you're going to hear about
that for a long time. Did you guys get your worth out
of it? What do you guys think?
You bought it? Did you feel like you saved?
We personally. Bought it for.
FOMO don't because we. Just gave $100 to Disney.
But that doesn't mean that there isn't value for people.
We just have you. We don't buy one time use points
anymore. We don't have.
You used it to get priority in the lounges.
Have you ever? Used.
Yeah, no, we, we've tried. So one time there was nobody in
the lounge, so that didn't matter.
And then the other time was when Mckim them all out.
It was when Mckim's Mile House were opened and they wouldn't
even let us join the list because because they said that
it was at capacity even though we.
Yeah, but that was like the first day it was open, so.
Yeah. So we.
Actually I buy used priority to the lounges and they won't even
put me on the list. There's a problem there.
They need to save 5 or 10 spots for these people.
I agree. I agree that that day was
mishandled, but I I think they've.
They knew it was mishandled. I think they know that and I
think they've. But it was also opening day, so
I'm not going to hold it against them too much, but.
We did use, we did go into the lounge once and do that
character thing. So did.
Disneyland too, did you mention that?
What was it, Disneyland? We did Starview Station and we
used the benefit to get into the lounge there.
And I think it's, it's, it's important to note that even
Bruce and the DVC fan Facebook group, which made me think of
when you guys started talking about this, he made a special
post on it, which I thought was really interesting and said I
paid the $99 basically for lounge access.
It was well worth it. So he was talking about how he
went to Epcot and the Magic Kingdom, was told it was a long
wait, got right in. He goes One night I was with
friends at the Epcot lounge. The lounge closed at 5:00.
But wait, I paid the $99.00 and got into that lounge with my
friends until 8:30 that night. So yeah, Bruce.
Sees the value so so there's definitely value in it for you
know what I mean and then like like I said if you're buying one
time use points if you are gonna buy memory maker you don't
already have it attached to an annual pass like you can
definitely get your money's worth it just it's gonna be on
an individual basis now you were talking about how we haven't
heard anything for next year. I don't think you're gonna hear
anything until like a week out, you know what I mean?
Because they don't want to give you too much time to think.
You know, it's basically like if you don't buy it at the
beginning and start using it at the beginning, you're not
getting as much value from it and you get the same length of
time as anyone else. So they want to be selling it,
you know, January, whatever. They're probably not going to
tell you what to expect until like a week or two before so
that you don't have all this time to sit and analyze and
listen to these five people on the DC show.
I. Don't know, but I would disagree
with that only from a perspective of, you know, any
type of annual membership program, you know, the goal is
to retain membership. It's called churn.
Essentially. You, you never want to see a
high churn rate. You never want to see people
drop off. So to get them inspired, you're
going to offer something to get them to renew.
We see it happen with, you know, Disney Plus, you know, if you
drop your subscription, they're going to offer you, you know,
something back. We see it with HelloFresh all
the time, or big HelloFresh, you know, customers here, we buy
into that meal program and whenever you try to cancel it,
it's like, why are you canceling?
Please stay and we'll give you $20 off your next four boxes.
So I think that they want to try to avoid that and get ahead of
it, which would mean that they kind of really want you to renew
like so I would expect something like within the next month or
so. I get your point where it's like
it minimizes the benefit, but a lot of the benefits that are
being offered really aren't minimized by anything.
Like, you know, the one time, the one time photo pass thing,
you know, that's not minimized, you know?
Or do they want to get less time to think about it?
They want more people to be like, oh, I better buy it now,
you know what I mean? Yeah, Instead of thinking about
it and really analyzing all the options and if they're going to.
I don't even remember like last year.
When did it go on sale? Think there was that much time?
So I I have a question about it because I don't have it, but did
it say when you bought it that this is the price just for this
year? Like what was the legal legal
ease in it? Was it this year?
It was specific January 12th through December 31st of 2025
and from my. Point of view.
Oh, sorry, Paul. I was just going to say
purchases started on December 3rd, 2024.
That was when they they actually opened up purchases.
Go ahead, Jeff. Yeah, and for me, like $99.00
for what you're getting. I didn't buy it for the same
reason that you've already talked about.
I'm a local. Most of the perks didn't really
do much for me. If they jump, if they double it
like you know, you, you mentioned as a hypothetical to
199, there's going to have to be a lot more to cover that big
spread. I think you'll probably see if
I'm doing my predictions, something like 129 bucks, you
know, a little bit of an increase with maybe another perk
or two for me. I, I wish it would give, you
know, either a better dining discount or a quick service
discount or something that's a little more accessible to the
entire direct membership rather than just, you know, we've
already talked about the, the vast majority of Disney Vacation
Club members live here in Florida.
It would be nice if they took care of the local people too a
little bit, you know, but it it's, I didn't buy it just
because I didn't see anything for me personally, But I'd I'd
never said it was a bad deal. Like if no, if you're somebody
that uses some of these options, I think 100 bucks is kind of a
steal. But if I was, if I.
Was. If, if I was buying direct, it
would be an absolute no brainer because you're dropping 30
grand. So when the guide says, and hey,
would you like VIP lounge access and this and this and this and
it's only $99.00, I would that, that yes rate had to have been
99.9% because if you're spending that much money for 99, what's
99 bucks? It's a it's a no brainer.
Agree. Agree.
Yeah. Excuse.
Me so it looks like it went on sale and or sorry it it was
announced end of October last year and then it went on sale
December 3rd. So it's like that's like a
little over a month notice. So maybe by December we should
hear something about what the 2020.
Yeah, or even November, end of October, but.
We'll wait and. See.
We we listened to our guests and they said they wanted to pay
more than $99. I would pay more if there were
some good benefits. Yeah, if to Jeff point, if there
were some more things that we could use locally like like
could. You imagine.
Bundle into this like. Skip the line to meet some of
the characters. You get 3 passes.
Anytime there's a character line you get, you know you're going
to. We're going to just let you be
the next person that would make people.
GO-1 Lightning lane for one day for the entire year of 20 tables
in Wonderland. Like if you could apply that
benefit. I'd take one Lightning 100%.
Or or even something like yeah Disney.
The Disney Visa card used to have a specific meet and greet.
You could only meet Boba Fett. If you were a.
Disney visa card member, you know, do that magic member
beyond you get to meet Oswald or Steamboat Mickey or some, I
don't know something that's a little more accessible to the
the greater membership. It's just.
Disappearing for anyone else? Yeah, what was that?
Is Jeff disappearing for anyone else?
Yeah, he's getting a little blurry.
No. He's fine, his internet's ready
to go to. The ghost of Jeff Haslam.
What I last thing I wanted to highlight tonight, I did have on
here. Are benefits worth it?
I think that we've kind of covered that over the course of
our conversations as to what we believe you need to think about
as to whether or not you think benefits are worth it.
The last thing I did want to cover is what I do call garbage
benefits, or at least I chalk them up into the realm of
garbage benefits. And as Jeff mentioned either
earlier, this show or the last show, This is why Disney doesn't
invite us to anything is because of how we're honest about this.
But I have received phone calls and I know Derek has is from
time to time is Hey I'm thinking about buying 300 points so I can
go on a Disney cruise every other year.
Oh yeah. No, you should never think about
buying points to go on cruises. You should never think about
buying points to do like some of the adventure swaps or anything
like that. Please, you know, just sit down
and crunch the numbers for a little bit if you're really
thinking about that because it is a big way that again, to
Derek's point, it's something that they offer and it's
something that you can add to this list of things that they
offer. Use your points for a Disney
Cruise. But my two big takeaways are
your points are more valuable than that and the, you know, the
restrictions that are actually involved in you getting into
that program and then having something happen and you can't
use your points that way. Just watch the show we did
called Five Ways to Waste Your DVC Point.
There you go. That's all we have to say.
Watch the show Five Ways to waste Your DVC Points and you
will learn everything you need to know about that.
There are some things that are chalked up as direct member
benefits that just truly are a sales tactic and and I think
very deceptive in in, you know, a way to sell direct contracts.
Everyone's just nodding no. One else wants to say anything
to that they just want to see me crash that agreed.
But you know, I I think there are some things that you know,
shouldn't be considered when it when it comes to you know, what
are we considering benefits So well, there you have it.
We've talked for longer than I thought we were going to talk
about member benefits. Thank you Derek for the
monologue and. You're welcome.
My and my only, my only suggest out there.
Just just do your research. That's it.
That's all we ask. Do your research.
Really interested to learn in the comments of this video and I
might even as part of this put a pull up on DVC fan.
We've done this before, but just asking that question, are you a
direct member? Are you a resale member?
Because most times the results do surprise us.
There are, you know, again, just like us, there are a lot of
direct members. There are a lot of direct
members for the reasons that we have said, which is the fear of
missing out on a lot of these perks and a lot of these events.
And do they save us money? That can be debated very much,
especially if you're a spreadsheet person.
But did it make you happy? That's, that's all that matters
at the end. So if you if you ask yourself
all the questions that we've kind of brought up over the
course of this show and the answer is yes, then go for it.
If you're trying to save some money, then this guy down here
is is your man and he'll talk to you some more point in the wrong
direction, but you get the point.
But that's going to do it for this episode of the DVC show.
Hope you enjoyed it. See you next Monday.
Bye.