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The Disney Vacation Club started in 1991. It was Disney’s foray into the Time Share business. The First Resort dedicated to this venture was the Old Key West Resort. As you drive in to Old Key West Today you notice that this is a standalone Resort, meaning it does not have a Regular Hotel Resort attached to it. All the other DVC (Disney Vacation Club) Resorts, except Saratoga Springs, have a Regular Hotel Resort Attached to them that shares their names and amenities. This might sound confusing, because even as a non DVC member you can stay in any of these Resorts. The difference is the room that you get. The Regular room in the Disney Resorts has two beds, a bath and a view. The DVC Resorts give you four different room choices, and sometimes two or more choices of a view. The Four categories of DVC rooms are the studio, the one bedroom, two bedrooms and a three bedroom Grand Villa. The Studio rooms are the basic Disney Resort rooms, except that they have a small fridge, microwave, and sink. The One Bedroom has a full kitchen, a living room area, a HUGE bathroom, with a Jacuzzi tub and a bedroom with a king size bed. The Two Bedroom basically combines these two. The Three Bedroom obviously has three bedrooms, a Kitchen area, living room and a dining room area. All of them have nice spacious bathrooms and a Washer/Dryer (the Studio doesn’t have the washer). The One great Perk of the Disney Vacation Club is the size of your accommodations. We have a friend that is now a DVC member that went to Disney World with her Family (three young kids with her and her husband). When she came back, she said the room was too tiny for the five of them, other than that they had a great time. Now her oldest at the time was seven. To have your room be too small when your kids are still young is rough. And I know the argument; all you do is sleep there. That is true, but there is something to be said for being comfortable while you are getting ready for the day and winding down at night.
Another Perk of the Vacation Club is the resorts you can stay in. In Walt Disney World, the Disney Vacation Club Villas (as the rooms are called) are in the Beach Club Resort, The Boardwalk Resort, The Wilderness Lodge, the Old Key West Resort, Saratoga Springs Spa and Resort, the Animal Kingdom Lodge, and The new Bay Lake Towers at the Contemporary Resort. If you look on the Official Disney Website, all of these except Old Key West are listed as Disney Deluxe Resort Hotels. The Price range for these Resorts of course vary because of times of the year, but to give you an idea of prices, standard room with a standard view, during the value season costs $340/night. A One Bedroom suite at the same time of year would cost $600/night. That’s a lot of money! But for the size of the room and the locations and views the room is well worth it. But, to spend that much money on one vacation in today’s economy may not be feasible for many people. However, if you enjoy Walt Disney World and think you may visit once a year or even every other year, The DVC may be for you. For the same $4200 it would cost to stay at the beach club at a one bedroom suite, you can put a down payment down on a DVC membership and be staying there or at any of the other DVC Resorts for the next 42 years. Besides the seven DVC Resorts in Walt Disney World, there are the Vero Beach Resort, the Hilton Head Resort, and The Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. Disney is also building Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa in Oahu. The DVC also has reciprocity agreements with RCI properties and the Buena Vista Trading Company for accommodations all over the world. This means that if for some reason you decide not to go to Disney World, you can still use your Disney Vacation Club to go other places.
The Disney Vacation Club is not a true Time Share. One way it is not, is that DVC uses a point system; you buy so many points when you first start out, and you get the same number of points every year thereafter. The Resort stays are divided into point amounts for a week day, week-end day, and a weeklong stays. At different times during the year, the points may change, because of high volume times (for example the week after Christmas). It seems a little confusing, but all of the DVC Member services people are wonderful at helping you to understand and keep everything straight.
Another way is that you are not locked into a specific time when you can use the Resorts. Or in what size rooms you can stay. This is a very nice feature, as we have stayed in all the different (size rooms except the Grand Villa) at different times of the year. A few years ago now, we took my sister’s family, my parent, and our own family down and had a Magical Family Vacation. The kids loved being in Walt Disney World with their grandparents and there were plenty of Magical Experiences had that week.
My family and I absolutely Love the Disney Vacation Club, then again we love going to Walt Disney World every year. We have stayed in all the sizes of rooms and have taken long weekends and two week trips to Disney, with the Disney Vacation Club. These trips were made even more Magical by the Resorts and rooms we stayed in.
So, now that you know, an Unknown Magic that can lead you to More Magical Experiences is the Disney Vacation Club, Disney’s “Best Kept Secret.”
**I apologize now for the length of today’s post and if it wasn’t really geared towards First Time Visitors. The topic is one that I enjoy talking about. I know this might have sounded like an infomercial, but we do enjoy the DVC very much.
unknownmagicwithinwaltdisneyworld 