>Size Matters

>

I am truly blessed. My family is wonderful, our friends are great, I have a good job and I did something almost eight years ago that changed my life. I joined the Disney Vacation Club. I wrote about the DVC in one of my posts a while back called Disney’s Best Kept Secret.  I love the Disney Vacation Club. Not only because of the fact that we get to vacation in Disney as much as we do, but because when we go to Walt Disney World, the accommodations we get are unbelievable. Being Vacation Club Members, we get to stay in what Disney used to call the Home Away from Home Villas. They are now called the Deluxe Villa Resort Hotels, and this is today’s Unknown Magic.



My Mom in the Kitchen at the Beach Club Resort

 The Deluxe Villas used to be called the Home Away from Home Villas, because they offer the amenities of home. They each have a Washer/Dryer, a full Kitchen; with refrigerator, dishwasher, and full oven. Each also has a dining area and a living room area that has a sofa, chair and television, with DVD player. I know some of you are thinking, “Why on earth would I want a washer/dryer on vacation?” With the amount of money that the airlines are charging for baggage, it may be another way people are thinking about to save money. Another question, you may be asking is “Why would I want to cook when I can get the Disney Dining Plan?” The Disney Dining Plan only really covers 2 meals a day. This leaves you to pay for the third meal. If you are getting a breakfast and dinner, you’ll need to get lunch. What a great way to take a break in the middle of the day; head back to your room for some lunch and a swim, before going back to the parks later in the afternoon. Or getting up in the morning and enjoying a nice breakfast before you leave for the park is a nice way to start the day. The other great thing about having the kitchen, even with the Dining Plan is having a refrigerator for left-overs!

The best thing about this is now anyone can stay in the Deluxe Villa Resort Hotel rooms. They are offered at what are considered the Disney Vacation Club Resorts. These would be: Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort, Disney’s Beach Club Villas, Disney’s Boardwalk Villas, Disney’s Old Key West Resort, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas at Kidani Village, The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. All of the Resorts offer different reasons why you may want to stay in them. Everything from being able to see the Animals from the Animal Kingdom (in the Villas at Kidani Village) as you wake up in the morning, to being able to watch the Wishes Fireworks from your bathtub (Bay Lake Tower) at night.

A few years ago, we stayed at the Beach Club Resort and had a room that faced Epcot. This room was wonderful, because we could see IllumiNations, the Epcot fireworks from our room. What a Magical Experience that was. We have also been able to stay in room at the Boardwalk Resort that was above the Boardwalk. My son slept with the curtains open all night long, so that he could see the lights of the Boardwalk as he went to sleep. We have also had the pleasure of staying in the Wilderness Lodge Villas, which were very nice around Christmas, because it was very rustic.

But no matter which of the Deluxe Villa Resorts you decide to stay in, you will get the added Magical Experience of size. The normal room size in the Walt Disney World resort has two beds and a sitting are. As described above, not only do you have a kitchen and a living room/dining area, you will have either one bedroom with a King size bed, or a two bedroom with a king size bed in one room and either a twin and a pull out sofa, or two twins in the second. Some of the units also have balconies. For larger families, these Villas are wonderful options to having someone sleep on a cot. I whole heartedly recommend the Disney Villa Resorts for the added room and privacy, especially if you have teenagers. We have found in the last few years that traveling with a teenage son and staying in a smaller room with two beds is not the best for us. After a few days we all need a little bit of space.

So, now you know, if you want a little more space and maybe a washer/dryer or a fridge and stove, you might want to look into one of the Disney Villa Resorts. Not only will the size help you, but where they are and what they offer can help you to have Magical Experiences.

For more information about the Disney Villa Resorts, check out: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/benefits/groups/

The Picture of the Fireworks from the Balcony is actually from the website http://www.parkinfo2go.com/dvc-bcv/ A great site that shows where your room in the Beach Club can be.

>Disney’s Best Kept Secret

>

Have you heard about “Disney’s Best Kept Secret?” This used to be heard and seen all around Walt Disney World, a few years ago. Disney doesn’t try to keep the secret; it’s just that many people don’t know about this Magical Experience, so I guess it qualifies as an Unknown Magic. It is one of my favorite Unknown Magics, it is the reason why I am Blogging today and the reason I can Blog about the things I do blog about. This “Best Kept Secret“/Unknown Magic is the Disney Vacation Club. I will not discuss how to become a Vacation Club member or the cost, for that Information you can go to Disney Vacation Club to get more information.

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.