The funny thing about this weeks show is that Rob and Amy have
bonded over singular love in amye life, which is a sandwich.
Yeah, no. So you told this story a while
back on a show. I did because it was, it was
such a vivid memory. It was, it was the recap of
Summerfest. And we were doing our Summerfest
bar crawl, monorail crawl, whatever you want to call it.
But we were at the contemporary waiting for a monorail.
And I was having a conversation with Tracy and I look up at Rob
and he's got a thing with a sandwich and, and like, I just
remember him just being like this, such a good sandwich.
And I'm like, I don't know what happened, what's happening right
now, but I'm excited to be. Here we were in line for the
monorail and I hate wasting food and I convinced Rob to take the
other half of my sandwich. What?
Sandwich was it so that the viewers can go get this it.
Was this Turkey sandwich? It was like a Turkey club from
Contempo Cafe. Yeah, Rob, do you remember this
as vividly as we do? Somewhat because, like most good
stories, this involves alcohol. I may have had a few drinks at
the bar crawl. He.
He looked like he really needed some food, so it was a good idea
to go. When you need food, what's
better than a sandwich? That's that's.
And Amy's the best wing man for that because she's got this
thing in her purse that will cure any ailment that you've
ever wanted. So not only will she deliver you
medicine, sandwiches and love, she's the best.
Well, you spoke his love language.
Sandwiches. Food.
Everybody and welcome to this week's episode of the DVC Show.
I am your host Paul Krieger, joined by my sandwich loving
wife, Amy Krieger. Hello, we've got John Secari,
Big fat Panda with us. Welcome home everyone.
The Honorable Jeff Haslam. Hello, everybody.
And then we are joined by special guests this week.
We've got Rob and Tracy Ryan joining us.
Thank you guys. Hello.
It's nice to have somebody like,
it's nice to have the fresh face.
It is. I know we just had Jeff.
Are you saying it's nice to not have?
Derek No, I love Derek. And we just talked about this
because we got a lot of Flack for making fun of them.
We did. We recorded laugh.
I I. I wish, I wish you, the audience
could see what we are all like on the other side of the camera.
A lot of you have seen it in person when you if you've come
to some of our events and everything, Rob and Tracy have
seen it for some reason. They've been friends with with
the Honorable Jeff Haslam for a long time.
But but yeah, we're we're funny. It's funny because they seem
like such nice people. Tracy just exudes happiness and
warmth. Maybe Jeff needs that in his
life. I don't.
Know everybody's got to have that friend.
Yeah, so I. Can't we're sorry for.
For making fun of Derek. But like, we've got 2 concerts
and a cruise next year so we are really good friends.
We are, yeah. He keeps begging us to come to
his house for a pool party and we've still not.
He doesn't have a. Never really invites us.
It's going. To be snowing by the time.
You know what? Maybe that's when he thinks it's
the best season to have a pool party.
I don't know, we love Derek. Derek didn't quit the show,
although I'm sure some of you in the comments will think that he
did, so I'm just going to make that the title of this show.
Derek didn't quit. That would get.
That would get views. That would be good clickbait.
It would be, Yeah, see, I know how to make a good YouTube
video. I have a picture like this of
Derek. But Derek is currently, we
filmed these shows back-to-back. So if you watched last week, you
will know that Derek is currently enjoying some
beverages in Tampa and listening to The Lumineers.
So he and his wife Annie are having a wonderful time.
He said he was going to send me some videos to throw into these
shows. He never did.
I just really wanted some random like Derek comments about Bailey
Tower or you know, just any other random Derek saying so he
may still have filmed them and I might.
Just I think he's going. To I might still pepper them in
eventually but thank you Rob and Tracy for joining us last minute
we decided to do another edition of our member spotlight Jeff
this was your idea because since you guys are best friends you
can just rope them into this last minute and.
Well and Rob and Tracy are not actually new to the DVC fan
camera as they have been on a date night video with Jeff and
Amy before. When you guys went to Magic
Kingdom, did you do the pirate thing?
I think. Your map and.
And be our guest. Favorite dinner of all time, I
think. Really liked to be our guest,
did you? It was it was a free activity
followed by a very expensive dinner.
It rounded. It rounded it.
Yeah, so if you watch watch the vlogs that we put out on usually
like Thursdays or Fridays, you might have seen them before, so.
Yeah. But thank you guys for joining
us. We're going to get into your
kind of Disney Vacation Club story here in a second before we
do this. And all of our content is always
brought to you by key holder vacations in the world of DVC
DVC resale market. If you're looking to buy or sell
a Disney Vacation Club contract, Monera financial who can assist
in financing that DVC resale contract purchase the DVC rental
store where you can try before you buy rent some Disney
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prices at DVC rental store. So there you go.
And if you're a member with some extra points, you can rent out
your own points for cash, get some holiday cash in your
pocket. Or if you're watching this three
years from now, whatever month it is, and you need some money
because your hot water tank blew up or whatever that that case
may be. DVC rental store can help with
that. I just jinxed us like our hot
water tank. I just heard it go in the garage
like I feel like and unlock magic.
Unlock magic.com/DVC fan discounted Walt Disney World and
Universal tickets, as well as specialty party tickets.
All right, I think I covered it all.
Rob and Tracy, I'm turning this over to you guys and kind of
just letting you kick us off. Tell us a little bit about your
Disney journey. What made you Disney fans and
what eventually brought you to become Disney Vacation Club
members? All right.
Well, we, we were just talking about this.
We just took a trip to Disneyland last week and we grew
up on the West Coast and we only did Disneyland and California
Adventure. We started going about 2027
years ago. Well.
My first time going was when I was 17 and it was for a cheer
competition in Disneyland. And so then once we got married,
we got married in 2000, we just started going to Disneyland.
We'd get season passes, we would see the DVC people there.
But for anybody who knows, on the West Coast, you see DVC in
the Grand Californian and we would always just do the hotels
around there. We moved to Florida.
Fast forward, you know, 2018, we moved to Florida and that's the
first time we did Disney World. And then we saw how big the
resort was here, all the properties.
But still we would stay off property and try to do the bus
thing in there. And then I want to say it was, I
had two friends, There's Jeff Haslam and then there was a
friend I work with in 2021. He said, my points are going to
run out at the end of the month. We're going to lose them.
I booked you a room at Animal Kingdom Ghost Day.
And so I went with the girls because Tracy was at a work
thing and I told them, enjoy it. This is the only time you're
ever going to see the inside of a DVC property.
And so we, we did that trip and then about six months later, we
had booked a room to meet Jeff and Amy at Disney World.
And he said, what did you pay? I'll just get you a room and
then we'll you know, even it out with that.
That time we stayed at Copper Creek and Copper Creek sold us
on that was we stayed there. Well, just felt that we love
that resort And and then when I started, so that was when you
guys know I started. I'd constantly be talking to
Jeff. He'd be giving me the formulas
I'd be looking at listing. So it was 2022 is when we
finally bought and had we stayed on the West Coast, I don't think
we ever would have bought it because I didn't feel like the
value was there. But being Disney World, like
being close to Disney World, we just, I've almost fallen in love
with the resorts more than the parks.
Like I prefer to go spend time with the resorts now.
So it's, it's been great. We love it.
Yeah, I told this story when we kicked off the show earlier, But
one of my first memories was I think Jeff and I were doing a
dining review or something, And I just remember Jeff talking
into his phone, explaining Disney Vacation Club to someone.
And I'm like, what are you doing?
And he's like, oh, I'm talking to my friends.
I think about buying Disney Vacation Club and that that
turned out to be Robin Tracy that he was constantly talking
to, been explaining, explaining the club to.
So you did a good job. You're a good salesman, Jeff.
It it works. It.
Works well and and the thing this is this is going to be a
fun episode for me because I know Rob and Tracy so well.
You know, we've traveled together, we've known each other
for years. We're both Utah transplants and
I've kind of been along for their journey.
But two things I just want to say.
First of all, Rob says that he loves the resorts and would
prefer not to go to the parks, but his kids absolutely do not
allow him to do that ever. This family loves Disney just as
much as I do as much as we do in our group.
But they get drug kicking and screaming sometimes when they
just want to sit by the pool. And their kids, who are all
adults, mind you, say nae, nae fun fact, their their middle
child is was Tatum's roommate at the college program and they are
both joining us on our DVC fan cruise next year.
But the other thing I wanted to say was when I invited them to
be on the show today, this puts Tracy's personality and
perspective totally. I was like, hey, do you guys
want to be on our show tomorrow? And she says, why did this text
just give me the sweats? We, we're, we can't be that
intimidating. I, I, you know, we had, we had
Jeff Drivazio on the show the last show because Derek told us
last minute he couldn't make it because he had other plans.
But yeah, everyone's like sweating the fact that this is,
and I, I feel like for some people, they've seen us do it.
Like you guys were in the room when we did the live live show
for Summerfest. And then Jeff is always in the
room while he's normally like crawling under the table or, you
know, crawling into the bedroom next door to get something that
we forgot about or whatever. But like, those are like a lot
more stressful shows where like I told you guys at the beginning
of this show, like this is recorded, we can screw up as
many times as we want. So it's just kind of a casual
conversation amongst friends. But yeah, there's a camera in
front of you and yeah, they're like 10,000 people are going to
watch it. But that's, that's a drop in the
bucket. You know, we're a, we're a small
podcast at the end of the day, so.
I just, I want to ask about your, your daughter.
So your daughter was in the cast member program when Tatum was.
Where did she? Where does she work at Disney?
OK, well we have two daughters that work at Disney.
Oh, OK. So our oldest Kira started.
She did 2 Disney college programs and now she's working
part time. But she started and was at
Olga's Cantina where she met her boyfriend of 2 1/2 years.
We told our kids years and years ago you cannot even entertain a
relationship. You can't date anybody unless
they love Disney as much as we do.
And she understood the assignment.
So her second program, she was at Haunted Mansion, and now
she's at Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, and she works
the Frozen show. And yes, so then Caitlin, our
daughter, that was, that is Tatum's age.
They've known each other forever.
They danced when they were little and then they did the
program together. She started at Disney Springs at
Deluxe Burger and Amarett's Bakery, and now she is at Little
Mermaid. I have to ask, was it, is it
Kira that worked at the Haunted Mansion?
Yeah. What did she think of that?
Because I would have thought that would have been a cool job.
Did she like, really enjoy that? I think that's been her favorite
spot so far of everywhere. She she loved it.
She took us through the back entrance a few times.
That would be cool I. Would be really.
Cool. Yeah, there's only like a
handful of jobs at Disney, I feel like, where you can just be
angry or, you know, just. You could be miserable.
And it's perfectly acceptable like like that, that you'll get
a cast compliment if you're having a terrible day and you
just play it up even more so like I would.
Try that. Funny.
What's funny about that too, is after our Patreon meet and greet
at Summerfest over at the in the lobby of the Contemporary, I had
to go back to the TTC to get my car.
And so I got on the boat and there's Kira's boyfriend Danny
driving the boat. So it's like it's seriously a
family affair. It is that's amazing, but
working at Olga's has to be had to be fun too.
Like that? That sounds stressful to me.
I don't know, it's a fun environment.
It's. A fun environment, but it's like
fast, like turnover, like get people in and out.
I don't know. Yeah, they were.
She worked as a server before, so she didn't mind that one.
That one was good, she said. It was like that.
It was such a high attraction that everybody was there, there
was always a line, everybody always wanted to end and so
people hate getting put on the wait list and being told it's
like a 2 hour wait list. Yeah.
So we've gotten the impression that that Jeff Haslam talked to
you into Disney Vacation Club practically, but this is one
part that I'm a little confused on that you can clarify.
It's not Disney related. Did you convince Jeff Haslam to
come to Florida? Because you guys were here
first, right? That may, I think that may have
played a little bit of a part. I remember they called us.
We still remember we were out at Jacks Beach and they called us
and they're like, Hey, we got, we got a question like we're
thinking about moving to Florida.
What are your thoughts? And so we, we told them some of
the pros and we told them all the cons were like, look, when
you moved to Florida, there's a lot of bugs.
There's a lot of community. If you can survive July through
August, June, July, August, then you'll make it.
But. And car insurance, yeah.
So we did track them in. Once they told us they were
coming out, we tried to talk them into.
It well we're grateful for that. We're we're glad.
We're glad you're all here so. That's awesome.
OK, so tell us about your favorite memory that's tied to
being a DVC member. OK, that one's easy and I'm sure
Jeff already knows what this one is, but I'll tell the first half
and let her finish it. We had this long drawn out thing
where we were trying to surprise our kids.
We went to Disneyland last year in California Adventure and that
was the first time we'd been there since we moved to Florida.
So like 6 years. We told the kids we were going
to go. We didn't tell them where we
were staying. And I spent months on wait list
and trying to book the Grand Californian.
And so we would everyday her and I would get on there and we'd
check and try to move things and, and I would call the DVC
agents actually. And they would help me do like
the most beneficial thing to get the wait list.
And we were staying three nights and I got the first night
booked. And then about two months before
we went, the wait list for the third night went through.
And so we had the first and third night.
And so we'd get on there every day and we'd check and we're,
you know, it's kind of, I know it sounds dramatic, but it's
like this when you're searching for that room, you're kind of
like. Oh yeah, we've all been there.
And so we're starting to, we're starting to make plans.
We're like, all right, this is kind of crap.
You know, we got first, third night, second night, where are
we going to stay? It's going to be kind of a pain.
Is it worth it? And then two days before we flew
out, we got that last, the last wait list.
And we were so excited, but we didn't tell the kids.
We told them we were staying at a Marriott, which is what we do
if we couldn't get the nights. Yeah.
So now this is we had counting our daughter's boyfriend,
there's three adult children and our teenage daughter that were
in the Uber to Grand Californian and they're just all normal
until we pull in Grand Californian and they all go
quiet and they all go quiet. Just look at us and they're
like, what are we who what they're like, this is Grand
California. And then when we got in, one of
the workers was awesome. I'll let her tell.
There was just the whole process with this, with that one stick.
It was awesome. I'll let you finish telling it
because you're OK. Yeah, OK.
So he's. A good storyteller we did.
There and the kids are still all freaking out.
They're just like, they were so excited because we'd always just
walked past the gate entrance and California Adventure.
Again, the kids are asked what it was and I'm like, don't
worry, you'll never see that place.
Like, let's go get on Grizzly River Run.
So we get in there and I tell the the girl working the front
desk I'm like, so here's what we went through and like, it's
three different reservations. Is there any way you can do this
so that we don't have to switch rooms every night?
I don't know how this works. But we're totally fine if we.
Do yeah. And I was like, but if we have
to, that's fine. I'm like, it's my one daughter's
birthday. And so I was just telling her we
hadn't been there in years. And as I'm talking to her, she
just keeps going and going, and then she just goes, all right,
your room's ready, I got it all, she said.
It's not going to be ready till later.
Oh, it was later she did. And she told us she worked
something out. She thinks we'll really like it.
And then she said you'll get a text.
And when we went to the room, she had not only combined it all
into one for us, but she got us a room overlooking Goofy Sky
School on World of Color. And when we got up there, we
were just like, oh, it was so cool.
I didn't even care to go to the parks anymore at that point.
I. Was like I'm just.
Going to up here and hang out on the balcony and watch the show.
It was amazing. It was.
It was really cool. We tried to Pixie dust the kids
and then we got Pixie dusted. Yeah.
But the kids drug you to the park anyhow, right?
Ended up in the park waiting in lines.
Did you get to watch the show from the balcony ever?
Yeah, Yeah, we did. Was it?
Was it cool? It was it was cool.
You could you could hear like it was just like it was so nice it.
Was like front row seats that's. Front row seat, It's in a chair.
No people touching you, no sweaty people bumped up.
Oh my goodness. Yeah, Grand Cal.
Those theme park view rooms at Grand Cal are are special.
So I don't think you guys mentioned earlier explain kind
of your first purchase experience.
So like how many points did you buy, you know, direct resale,
what was what, what resort did you buy at, what was what?
What did Jeff eventually talk you into?
Basically, did he did he sell you on his home resort?
Oh yeah, we we bought old key Jeff.
I feel like Jeff pushed us off a Cliff.
Our first purchase was 320 points.
Oh man. Yeah, go big or go home.
We went big. He actually hesitated when I
told him the contract. I just put an offer and he's
like, that's a lot of points. He's like, Are you sure?
It worked out really well for us because we bought Old Key West.
It was fall of 20 or summer of 2022 or 2023.
Sorry, I was off here. Summer of 2023, we bought Old
Key West. We didn't realize how many
points we bought, but we really enjoyed the points we bought.
And so it was. It was really cool because over
the past three years we've learned how to use it.
Well, and we don't live far away, we're like 3 hours away so
we could do last minute and which is what we needed to do
anyway with his crazy work schedule so.
Yeah. And now we've kind of figured
out since we started that and we went through that whole process,
we figured out exactly how many points we want at which resort
and how we kind of want to restructure our ownership within
it. And so it was.
It was a good learning process. Yeah, I I always forget this
part of the story, but with Jeff, was it right before then
that we all met up at Top of the World Lounge and had drinks?
And I feel like you were like, hey, these are my friends that
are considering DVC. Like help me convince them.
I can't remember the exact timeline I I thought you guys
had just bought or maybe put in an offer.
I can't remember the timeline exactly.
Something, something right around then.
I don't remember. Yeah, yeah.
I always forget that night, though.
That's probably because there were drinks involved, but yeah.
Yeah, we went up to Top of the World Lounge and watched the
fireworks. Yeah.
So has that been your? What were you saying?
I don't remember if we had bought yet at that.
Jeff, there was like a week that you were talking about friends
coming in and you were trying to get them into Animal Kingdom.
I'm assuming that's these people.
No, actually it's not. But they know those people
because Utah, everybody knows everybody.
No, they, they've been down here already.
For how long have you guys been down here?
They've been down here since 2018.
Seven. Seven years.
So no, this was just last summer.
The Vances. So Jeff's working on other
couples as well. Yeah, basically the whole state
of Utah he's trying to get to. So as as people know me and I've
talked about this before that Rob kind of talked about during
his favorite experience, what he said and what I do is kind of
goes hand in hand. I love letting people experience
this product for the first time, especially those that can't
afford it. In fact, I got to talk to Paul
because I've got an aunt and uncle coming into town next
February and I'm out of points, but I'm not letting them come
it. They've never been here and
they're in their 60s and they want to do it all.
And I'm like, I can't believe I don't have any points.
So we're I'm going to be rental storing for the first time but.
I know a guy. Yeah, we love that.
So has that been your only busy vacation club purchase is the
320 points at Okee West. Yes, yeah, We're currently
looking at some different options because we like the
amount of points, maybe a few more points, maybe closer to
400. And something different for us
is we want to get, we want to get that split up into like 3
contracts. Yeah, that makes sense.
One of our. Be a beneficiary of a of a
different contract. Yeah.
So the points, the points were about perfect for us because
even like we enjoy going without the kids, as Jeff said, like we
almost have more fun. If we can go without the kids,
then we know we get to do what we want to do and nobody else is
pushing us. This is.
This is recorded. This is recorded.
Yeah. So that's kind of like what we'd
ultimately like to happen. Now that we see how it all
works, We want to get 3 smaller contracts that are in the
neighborhood of 400 points combined and then have one of
the kids be a better fishery to each of them.
It's funny you bring that up. We actually just had someone the
other day reach out to us and say like they wanted us to do a
show. Like talking about like having.
How to tie different ways to? Different way to title and trust
and stuff like that. So we may have to go into that,
but at the same time, like it's hard to provide like from our
perspective, it's hard to provide like legal advice, like
what to do with all of that. But that's a it's a great idea
and there's a lot of members. That do that.
OK, so you guys you own it Okie West, but what is your favorite?
Like your absolute favorite? Right DVC resort.
My favorite is Copper Creek. I just love.
I don't know why I love it so much.
I thought moving away from Utah I was like no more mountains, no
more like woodsy feel. But.
I just love it so much and I love Grand Californian and I
know Jeff hates that one, but. It's funny that.
Really, Jeff? No, I I don't hate Grand
Californian. I.
I mean, Floridian, Oh. Yeah, I hate Grand Floridian.
Yeah, that's true. I I.
Actually. I love it.
I love how light and open an area it is.
It's just cheery. I had that same perspective
though with Copper Creek. Like for us moving from like
West Virginia where you've got mountains and trees.
Like when I lived there, I wasn't a wilderness lodge guy,
but then when I moved here, it's kind of like it feels like home,
but I don't have to go 1000 miles to to get there.
So I just got a couple, you know.
We've yeah, we've got 1/2 hour down the road, we've gotten the
Love Lourness Lodge, Copper Creek and all that more being
away from from home, so I get that.
Rob, is your answer the same or different?
A little different. I love Copper Creek at the
holidays, like Christmas time about Copper Creek and the rest
of the year Polynesian. I love Polynesian.
The original or the island tower?
I haven't stayed at the island tower yet.
I've eaten over there, I've gone over there, but so far I've just
stayed. I agree with him as far as
Polynesian just can't do Christmas if no matter what they
do it never feels like Christmas to me.
But Wilderness Lodge Creek is the epitome of Christmas.
Polynesian. You've got such a like a the
grand ceremonial house and like for Christmas they put this
little doinker of a Christmas tree off in the corner.
Because there's nowhere. There's nowhere to.
Put like Nets and shrimp and it's just I get it, I get.
It OK, I'm fine If you take the idol out of the middle.
I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get hate for this, but take the idol
out of the middle for the holiday season and put this
giant tree up right. There, that would work OK.
Oh, dress the idol up as like Santa, put a hat on him and give
him some. We don't remember they have mele
kaliki maka like on rerun. Yeah, they do.
They do. They do.
No, there's another song. Oh, do you remember?
I sang it because we heard it so many.
Times My gosh, yes, it's a it's a Hawaiian 12 days of Christian.
Is it awa awa? No, it is.
That's a running. It is.
It is like the Hawaiian version of the 12 days of.
Please heard it like 300. And it was on repeat.
Like it. I don't.
Yeah. Wait, I just, there's just the
one line. I have to remind myself of what
it is. Yeah.
It's a shame because Jimmy Buffett actually has two full
Christmas albums. I feel like that's at least
three hours worth of music right there.
Yeah, do you remember the song 5 Big fat pigs, 4 Flower Lace, 3
Dried Squid, 2 Coconuts and a something bird in a papaya tree?
OK, anyways, no. I would like you to sing all 12
in order please. Yes.
I had to look at that. I've got a follow up question
based on, you know, you're, you bought the big contract, now
you're kind of revamping and doing that.
So what advice would you give to first time buyers, maybe that
you wish you would have done differently, or that you could
see an advantage of that you didn't do that I LED you astray
upon? Did you?
Where? Has where has Jeff?
LED you astray. What did he?
There's no. Leading astray.
It was just everybody does it different and wants to do it
different. So there's really, you just have
to. The only thing I'd say is for
somebody who's not sure about it, if you're like, yeah, I may
or may not want it, buy a small contract, 50 points, 100 points.
It just use that for whatever it is a year, year, 18 months.
And that's in my mind, that's almost no risk because if you go
100 points or less, it's usually fairly inexpensive.
If you're already going to Disney anyway, you're going to
sit. It's not that expensive to to
buy that. And then if you decide you don't
like it, it's so easy to go back to the resale market, unless
that if you have a, if you have a few points, I feel like it's
easy to sell and resell. If you have a large contract, it
complicates it a little more. But if, if you're just like on
the fence, I think you buy a small contract, try it out.
And once you see how easy it is to book, and I'm a spreadsheet
person. I have a spreadsheet of every
single night we've used it. And then you know, my, my price
per point and everything and like it.
Our average, we do everything we've done studios, 1 bedrooms,
2 bedrooms. Our average has been pretty much
the same as the hotels in the area or less.
And it's definitely a lot less than booking those places for
cash. And so I, I think it's worth it.
And that's what I'd say is get a little contract, try it out and
you'll either love it or hate it.
Feel like I should love it. And I wish we would have done it
sooner. Honestly, if we would have
understood all those years ago, we probably would then thought
it was 100% not affordable and that we wouldn't be able to get
our use out of it. Yeah, so.
I, I'm, I'm, I really want to edit all of our member
spotlights together because I'm pretty sure that if you, you
could clip a small segment of asking that question to everyone
and every single person says, I wish I would have done it
sooner. I wish I would have bought
sooner. It's just, it's the constant
recurring theme. But Rob, I, I like your advice
as well. We kind of people always think
like we're trying to pressure people into, you know, buying a
resale contract. But I think the reality of it is
it is an easy gateway into experiencing this product for
the first time. And you can be of the mindset of
like, yes, I really want those member benefits and I want that
direct contract, But so that you can get your feet wet so that
you can figure out what's the booking system like, how do I
use my points? How do I receive my points?
What's that? Banking, borrowing, What are all
of those steps like the quicker that you can get in like even if
you can only afford that 50 point contract at 1st and then
you experience it and the beauty of the product is you can always
add more points and. If you're, if you're on a budget
and you're, you need to learn how to drive a car, you don't
need to buy a brand new one off the lot that comes with all that
extra stuff. You know what I mean?
Like get something used, learn how to drive it, and then yeah,
she. Keeps looking at me I've.
Never got I love I love that Rob is a numbers guy and figured it
out. He's not just like it feels
good. You know, he's actually looked
at the I've never looked at the numbers.
I just. Lie, I'm not going to lie, I got
a little excited when Jeff was like, I'm going to text you the
formula and he texts me the formula with like you do this
many points by how many years are left on the contract.
Add this to what the dues are and then you divide it by and I
was like, oh I like this where? Like where you going, Jeff?
And I didn't even know Jeff was that analytical.
So Jeff probably held Rob back from buying it because I'm like,
is it really worth it? Like we've bought timeshares
before and we've gotten burned, you know, like, so I was
hesitant. That's a whole show.
I. Want to dig into?
That. OK.
Wait, that's a great, that's a great question.
If you've bought others, do you even consider it really a
timeshare compared to the? To me it just feels so
different. So we actually have one
timeshare, and I won't say the names.
I don't know the legalities, but we bought it in 2005.
And I know this because I pulled it out last week.
We used it for three years and it was so difficult to use that
I put it away in 2008. I pulled it out last week and
we're still members. I called them and we're still
members. We just have to pay to like turn
it back on. But it was so hard to use that
we just stopped using it because it was such a pain.
Yeah, so. I mean, I know it's technically
a timeshare, but it's just such a different product, yeah.
Yeah, it's so much better. It's better.
It just. Doesn't.
Give off. The sleaze and slime of a of a
regular timeshare. We we got oh, I we haven't
brought this up on a show yet. Great Segway, we got an we got
an advertisement in the mail last week and.
I thought it would be fun, we could all go as like a group
project. Yeah, it was on board with.
It was like a come, come to the I don't, I don't.
Think it was a presentation where they were going to teach
us about getting out of our timeshare and they were going to
teach us like the laws of like not having to pay annual dues.
But they were what were the offers we were going to get?
They were offering things. We got a free hotel stay.
We got like a couple 100 bucks. Like, yeah, it would just would
have been great to sit through. Just that would have been fun.
Plus. I'm not a time sure I could get
out of if I could figure out how to do it.
I don't know if you really want want.
That Jeff, I want to know from your perspective too, since we
kind of got the got the idea of where like Rob and Tracy were on
like who was holding who back on buying?
Who would you say was like the harder sell when you were
talking them about the product? Tracy for sure.
Real. Really.
Yeah. But it was only because Rob did
the numbers like that was he and I could talk numbers.
So she didn't trust. She didn't trust Rob's numbers.
That's what you're. Saying it's my numbers, I had
nothing to do. With that, I did my math before
she was like, I know you don't know how to do math.
Yeah. But but I, I think that first
day that Tracy did really just any analytical things that were
talked about before went right out the window because as we all
know there there is definitely an emotional cost, emotional
aspect of this purchase. That well, I honestly, I
honestly didn't know if he was just talking about it and going
to get my hopes up that we were going to do it, you know,
because we talk about then. So I didn't let myself get
excited. Yeah.
And what finally what did seller on it honestly was that was the
year our daughter moved to Orlando.
And so our oldest was in Orlando.
She couldn't get time off work. She's always asking us to go
down. And then I was presenting the
DVC numbers to Tracy and I was like, this is so much easier.
And so that was kind of what sold her and that's what we used
it for the first year was we would use it to go see our
daughter. And so, yeah, it was nice.
We'd book it as we're driving down to Orlando, we'd book a
room, just find whatever's available, get a room and go see
our kid. And so end up working out great.
Wow. Just saying too cast members get
an incredible Disney vacation called discount.
Just saying. Check that out maybe?
So, so tell us what's like what's on the horizon?
So what are you excited about? Do you have any trips planned or
do you have anything that you're considering planning related to,
like a DVC adventure? What do you got?
To go or. Go ahead.
So last year we we booked at Copper Creek we only did one
night and all of our kids and Kira's boyfriend have birthdays
in May and June. And so we did one big birthday
celebration and we brought all the birthday presents and just
stayed in a 2 bedroom and had the most amazing time
celebrating the birthdays and. We got Pixie dusted on that one
too. They gave it.
They gave us a 9:00 AM check in. Oh wow, our.
Room was ready. We got really lucky.
So awesome. But we cooked dinner in, we
cooked breakfast in, we brought games and we literally just
hung. They're like, well, we can go
into the park and have dinner and we're like, we are not
stepping foot into a park. We're going to enjoy this
resort, so don't anybody they that we're leaving and it was
the best time ever. Now we've decided that we want
to do that every single year, but we want to do like a minimum
of a three night stay and just celebrate all birthdays.
So. That's what we're looking
forward to just. Making that a tradition every
year. Yeah, that's awesome.
Are you going to try to stick with Copper Creek or are you
going to try different resorts? Well.
Tracy's sticking with Copper Creek.
I, I love it, but I am really open to going anywhere,
honestly. Really.
It's what the kids want, I guess.
I guess that's the theme. Jeff loves it.
Jeff is like your kids. Running your life, I think if I
had to say I would do it at Copper Creek every year, Copper
Creek or Jambo House, just because those when we're doing
something like that, I like it when it's all enclosed right
there, kind of like that feel. Only because we don't talk about
these properties enough. I I know you've done Grand
California and you mentioned have you experienced Vero Beach
or Hilton Head or Aulani or have any desire to go to those?
We haven't been to Aulani. I have looked at booking that.
We haven't been to Pero Vero. We just, we tried to book it.
We never made it. We went to Hilton Head for two
or three nights, just me and you.
That was really. Cool.
Yeah. And so, yeah.
Tracy get get him to Alani at some point.
It is. And Vero Beach, you know if it
because it it does open sometimes last minute, then you
guys don't live too far and Vero Beach is a great one.
Yeah, all three of those are just.
And if you go to Vero, the kids can't drag you to the park.
That's true. Yeah, Rob Aulani is where you
will enjoy the resort, not have to worry about a park.
It's a park. It's a park already.
It's got roller. Coasters pretty much.
There wasn't even Aulani, I don't think.
Yeah, we were. It's been 9 years since we've
been there so. How old is Aulani, you know?
That's a great question 2. 1000. Aulani Resort in Hawaii built.
Now Panda Panda will trust his phone in 1000. 11 August 2011.
Yeah. Okay.
Get about an Omni mover. I I just, I just happened to
know what the word Omni means and it's multi direction.
So I don't, I don't need to look that.
That one's going to, that one's going to live on for a little
bit, I'm pretty sure, but. Listen, Bob Gur told me what it
was. That's OK.
I I don't want to get us off rails.
But after that show, we did learn that Panda actually
interviewed the inventor of the Omni mover himself.
Like sat down and interviewed him.
And he and he, he, he schooled me, he told me.
What are you talking about? What about it was mean at first?
That that is, that is some St. cred right there on the
situation. Rob Tracy, this is one of our
most nerve wracking parts of this show because I feel like
we've always we grill you with questions for the the better
part of 1/2 hour to 40 minutes. And then we say, hey, if there
was any question that you would like to ask us, please do so and
we will answer whatever that question is.
Despite my wife Amy just yawning.
I'm like dig into the into the microphone there.
But I feel like you've asked Jeff Haslam every question known
to man. But if you could ask us a
question about Disney or DVC or anything really, what would it
be? What I didn't tell them about
this part? Oh, you guys, stop putting
people on the spot like that. I like to save this one though,
because then it's like off the cuff, like you don't know what
they're going to ask. It doesn't They have too much,
they don't have too much time to plan.
If I if I add it to the to the questions.
Amy, I'm just, I'm just showing you.
I'm just showing you proof. Look at that school by the man
himself. Go back and watch that after
this show. See what he says?
I would, I would say of if you had the choice right now,
because this is a question we've been talking about and we're
undecided. We know we like DVC resale.
If you were buying direct points right now, which property would
you buy them at and why? Oh, that's a good question,
that. Is a.
That is a good question, Panda. That's what I did.
I I did it and I, I, I honestly wish I didn't.
Now there are times when I go in the lounges and I'm happy I did
it, but when I look at what I could have saved money wise and
how many more points I could have had, I would rather have
300 points instead of 150. I bought at Riviera because I
had to have, you know, the blue card they called it at the time
and it really wasn't necessary. I've never used it for anything
other than the lounges Panda. I'm happy I got access but it
was it was not a money saving thing for me for sure.
Say Panda, that you had your your resale contract already,
but you know someone was just handing me the money to buy
direct. Would it be Riviera since it's?
No, it would be. It would be Polynesian now.
Polynesian now and. I still love the Riviera, but
Polly would be my first. I'm torn between the cabins at
Fort Wilderness because I still I like them.
I like the idea of bringing my dog.
Maybe if I have enough I'll just book 2 cabins and then I can
have all my dogs. Or waiting for Lakeshore Lodge
to be available because that, that's going to be cool.
Good thing we're married. Mine, mine lived in the avenue
between those. But I, I, you know, I, I never,
it's funny because like I agree with, you know, like Tracy said,
like wish you got in sooner and I would encourage anyone to do
that right now, that's considering the product.
But for me, I, I would choose, you know, the cabins at Fort
Wilderness if we're talking about actively selling
properties. But in my position, I would say
wait and see what's going to happen with Lakeshore Lodge
because there's a lot of questions that remain.
There's the question of does it get coupled into, you know, Fort
Wilderness in some capacity? Do those merge into that
Palmetto Trust product? And if they do, that makes it a
lot more appealing to me, like makes it even more appealing
than it is now. But for both reasons, that is
one of those newer products out there that you know, kind of
just locks us into. Right.
And then you've got your direct for.
You've got. Long expiration date.
Yeah, so long, longer than we'll we'll be here talking about DVC,
I'm pretty sure at that point. But Jeff?
Yeah, I I'm torn because the one bedroom at Riviera is my
favorite room on property, hands down.
No battle. But we had and Tracy and Rob,
when we went to Summerfest, they stayed with us in our cabin.
Those cabins are pretty special and they put up with our dogs
the whole time and it is so fun. So I think I would probably
still pick Riviera because I can still use my points over there
at the cabins, but I'm paying like half the dues.
Lakeshore Lodge is the big variable.
It is the big question mark. So if that becomes all one
property like we maybe are hoping or think that it will, I
would probably wait, wait as well and buy at Lakeshore.
But as far as existing properties, right now, I'm still
going to pick Riviera. Tracy and Rob, what are you
going to buy? What?
Are we going to buy? He's the spreadsheet guy.
That would not be a question for me.
If we, if we were buying direct, I would probably, I'm intrigued
by Lakeshore, but I'd I'd probably buy direct a
Polynesian. That's what I've looked at.
But but right now we mostly just do sleep around points.
So yeah. I think Lakeshore is going to
give a lot, a lot of those similar like Copper Creek
Wilderness Lodge vibes. And I'm, I'm interested to see
like what that final product looks like the, the A-frame
cabins, like I think those are going to be so cool to stay in.
Yeah. Yeah, something that I just find
interesting. My niece was like 32 years old.
She knows she could use my points anywhere.
We, you know, I we go places with her kids and stuff.
My nieces and nephews. She's my niece.
And then her little nieces, you know, her kids.
And she prefers Old Key West. I just think it's so odd that of
all the places I've taken her, she just loves it.
We go there all the time and it's so convenient for the
points for me. Yeah.
But. It's still her favorite.
How old? She's like 3233.
OK, Yeah. And her kids are like, you know,
10-11. Yeah, like Christmas time.
We're going back to old Key West.
I love Old Key West. I, I love it.
I mean it probably I would love it more when we're not like
going to the parks. It's not as easy, right?
Right. But to hang out, it's it's fun.
I feel. Just the value feels.
The value in the space, especially anything bigger than
a studio. Yeah, yeah.
One bedrooms, the two bedrooms and up and I feel like like it's
funny. People don't think about it a
lot. People don't talk about like
when people think about going to Disney World, like they want to
be in the center of the action. But but I think that anyone
that's been here before and then comes back, if you would
experience Old Key West, it kind of goes to the point that like
Rob and Tracy, you were saying where it's like, as adults, we
want that escape from the parks. We want to be able to like step
back from the Disney bubble for a minute and just like relax.
And that's the vibe that, you know, some of these resorts
really give off is they they allow that old Key West,
Saratoga especially. I think, you know, we're never
going to see resorts like that again.
I say that all the time, but it's true.
And for that reason, it is kind of that separation that you get
from the parks. You can hop on a bus, you can
get to the parks and you can still enjoy your Disney vacation
and be in the bubble. But those are the resorts where,
you know, if, if you're staying at one of those, it's going to
be harder to drag the family back to the parks that day.
If you really want to just have that relaxing evening.
Where if, if you're staying at the Polynesian or if you're
staying at Grand Floridian, it's easy to jump, jump on the
monorail or hop on a boat or take The Walking path back over
to Magic Kingdom that night or, and, and then head back in the
park. So it's an interesting one for
sure. Well, that's about all we have
in terms of questions. Rob, Tracy, anything else from
you guys, any parting words on your on your DVC journey?
Should people call Jeff to get advice on the product or?
You know what, let me let me post Jeff's phone number on here
for. Everybody.
Yeah, perfect. I'm excited for what that's.
In it's in Utah on the Billboard right thing.
It's on the right under Rob's. Call call the has.
Oh yeah. Do you guys call him the has
like? No, we've never heard.
This story is falling apart. He.
Told us that was a Utah thing like all his friends in.
Well, they've been removed from Utah, so I'll give for a while.
So I'll, I'll give him that. I'll give Jeff that.
Call Jeff because Jeff is a very good resource.
He will tell you all the pros, all the cons.
He'll lay out his spreadsheets and they are very thorough.
Yeah. Keith blushing.
I am. Hey Jeff, you do.
You do spreadsheets too. Yep.
Wow, yeah. And Jeff?
Yeah, and unlike your comment earlier, or maybe it was the
last show when you said something about having a real
job, like my job is in fact. I know your job is real.
Stop. Wow.
You can dish it out, but you can't take it.
OK, I got you. You.
You are harder than me, I know that.
It's so great when when Derek's not here to like, like we just
pick on each other like me. No, no, you if Jeff listen, if
Jeff doesn't pick on you, he doesn't love you.
So that is. That is absolute facts.
Yeah. I know this.
Isn't that right #2 isn't that? Can I do this?
Can I do it? We'll blur that out and.
I told you you were gonna have. To listen, I don't know.
You guys don't know because we've had to edit the whole
show. Tracy is just a truck stop
mouth. My God.
If you see little, little, little cuts, that's one, yeah.
Rob Tracy, thank you guys so much for jumping in last minute
joining us for this member Spotlight.
We've had the opportunity to hang out a bunch of times, but
it's it's great to get to know you guys a little bit better.
Hear a little bit more about your Disney and DVC journey.
So thank you guys. Look forward to catching up, not
in the parks, Rob, but our editor Resort.
With sandwiches. With sandwiches, maybe a
beverage or two. So yeah, but that is going to do
it for this week's episode of the DVC show.
We do hope you all enjoyed it and we will see you next Monday.