Disney Vacation Club to launch Scenic Selfies scavenger hunt as part of its 30th anniversary

optjayJan 30, 2021

This. Been DVC member since boardwalk opening. Not sure for how much longer. The removal of "perks", like Magical express, Magic hours, etc. The quality of on site food offerings, hours of the parks, ticket price increases...

SirwalterraleighJan 29, 2021

I live between New York and Philly... Wasn’t talking California though 😂 I went on a tangent there...I guess I’m “sorta” defending Disney? Costs aren’t that cheap. At least for stock. But when they order Walmart sized bulk and charge 4x the quality...yeah...that’s still on them. Their labor is still far cheaper...as are their overhead and taxes (they pay none)

MrPromeyJan 29, 2021

Food and fuel are the same compared to where? I have friends in various parts of California* and Nevada who pay a whole lot more for gas than I do. I'm not sure what schools have to do with this discussion. Not to say that isn't a problem in Florida but seems to be way off track for the point I was making. When I said low cost of living, I wasn't talking about you moving your family down here. In fact, please don't. Our roads can't handle more traffic. Florida's got tons of problems and I'm not touting it as the place to live better. That lower cost of living comes with lower average wages to compensate and maybe "basic" was the word missing from what I said - low basic cost of living and by low basic cost of living, what I mean is lower taxes for Disney, lower taxes for their employees, and no state income tax which means Disney's single biggest expense for operation can and does run cheaper. They don't have to pay their people as much because not as much gets taken out of their paycheck before they get it. It's not nice but it's reality and there are plenty of business down here, including Disney, happy to exploit that. So yeah, coming from Philly, the cost to prepare and bring a plate of food to your table at WDW is going to be less than what it is at home which means Disney's already got an advantage and they're skimming more because that's not enough for them. And if you live in parts of California where they have to pay you obscene amounts of money for a basic standard of living*, you can take your money out of state to vacation like a king - not at WDW so much because their prices are out of control compared to what they're offering but a lot of other places. *and in the Bay area, food prices (like going to a restaurant to eat) are crazy-high compared to here. A friend who works in recruiting that went out there to work for Facebook is making roughly 4x what he was here for the same work but can't afford to dine out regularly (one of Facebook's perks is feeding you) and pays almost 3x in rent for someplace about 1/3 the size of what he had here... He likes the people and the climate out there more and he likes to travel so he exploits the hell out of that inequity and brags about it every chance he gets.

SirwalterraleighJan 29, 2021

I agree their quality reductions are deliberate...but it’s a myth Florida is “cheap”... On the whole...that hasn’t been true for along time. House prices are less...rent (which most must because of pathetic wages) is not. Food is the same...fuel is the same... What good are “low taxes” if the schools are awful and you have to pay for a crappy private school to compensate?

MrPromeyJan 29, 2021

And consider that WDW is located in one of the lowest cost of living areas of the country meaning that their costs to bring you that meal are considerably lower than your local places so when they don't even manage to make it good at that price, that's not an accident. It's not an unfortunate and uncontrollable problem or an issue of circumstance beyond their control. It's a deliberate choice.

stevebwvJan 29, 2021

The button is silly. Gone are the days of a surprise lithograph of the new DVC resort that just opened. Or commemorative anniversary pins. The large number of members makes that line item look intimating to those sharpening their pencils. And to be perfectly frank, after saying "gee, that's neat" the item is tucked into some box never to be seen again. A large box of this stuff just went into the garbage truck for us. The real value of DVC has been 22 years of vacations. Vacations I am forced to take or lose the points. My kids have never known life without one or two or three DVC vacations every year. These memories are priceless. The annual pass discount and the dining discounts that go along with it is the only benefit I care about. The prices of the tickets are now so high it makes a Disney vacation unattractive. The crowds (pre-covid) are so large park hopping is a must. There are times the parks are so thick with guests we enter, ride two back to back FPs and leave. I am not paying $100 a day for that. The dinning experiences have been hit or miss over the years. Some stink and others have been great. The consistency is lacking but has always been lacking. Long story short, DVC no longer treats its members as something special outside the resorts. But it is really only a timeshare with incredible popularity that does not require additional add-ons to make sales. I think what most of us would like to see is some kind of loyalty program regardless of DVC membership. This could offer tiered discounts (5%, 10%, 15%) on purchases above and beyond other available discounts. Certain levels would be offered tours and events. (Let's be honest, these high return guests are the target of the tours anyway). There are tons of other options like early Disney+ offerings. Something simple like this would be easy for Disney to do as they track us already. They know all this information. Silver > 30 Nights at WDW over the past 3 years with every $200 spent on table service dinning counting towards a night. Gold > 60 Nights at WDW over the past 3 years with every $200 spent on table service dinning counting towards a night. Platinum > 100 Nights at WDW over the past 3 years with every $200 spent on table service dinning counting towards a night.

SirwalterraleighJan 28, 2021

...you know what’s funny? The unexpected quality of the food was the biggest reason I became a park frequenter in the first place

eliza61nycJan 28, 2021

I think that is more an overall Disney catastrophy. I live in a high cost of living area so for me it's also the quality. 100 bucks for dinner for two is common but damn Disney can you try to make it decent. Lol I hate the excuse "well you don't go for the food". Seriously?? I'm weird 🤣 yeah when I go to a restaurant I want to enjoy the food. I'll probably always be a Disney gal but it's morphed and we're starting to think for our type of trips I probably won't need a membership.

SirwalterraleighJan 28, 2021

No...I totally get you. I’m getting vaccinated over the next month and I am starting to think about getting back into travel. I just won’t do it as a hostage. Many of my volumes of comments would indicate I’m “anti-money” or economy. Not true...I just recognize the importance of ups and downs and cycles as a natural control mechanism. Everyone can’t get rich all the time or there will no longer be any value before too long. Back to topic...DVC May have issues if they think people are looking to vastly increase what they have to dump in on visits using Long paid for contracts. It’s one thing to increase the pass prices - which were insane as of 2018 - but quite another to make it be premium per day. These programs were made with just as much data crunching/analysis as today...actually more more/better study. Some yutz in Burbank can’t just take one comment from his stock analysts and then shove it on a longterm/world wide fan base. It’s not yet that kind of a world. Iger didn’t quit by chance or accident...he knows his wave was crashing and jumped off the top of the wave. Can’t double down on the heights now.

DisneyDebRobJan 28, 2021

Agreed. But most of my post was not even about Covid. That’s uncontrollable. I get it. I just think Covid has made my family think about things a bit more. The little by little cuts were happening before the virus and has been fir years. Pertaining to DVC there really has been nothing. I know we aren’t owed anything and I can lice with it but unless you have a annual pass, there’s really no incentive once your in that they give. Not saying it wasn’t a good investment for us, it was but when you look at the overall picture.. cut after cut.. meals for 2 everywhere hitting the 50 to 120 dollar mark unless you eat at chicken guy every night. Just made us realize that our money could go a longer way at other places. Still love it.. still want to go .. but the 2 times a year down there..16 nights each visit.. totaling over a month a year are long gone. Realistically they are pricing us out. Maybe shorter stays are the answer combined with other places. Then the annual pass doesn’t become worth it. When they have you locked in, they have you. Trying to figure out how to maneuver a new way now. But we do get a button this year!

SirwalterraleighJan 28, 2021

They can’t be held accountable for the covid shutdowns...other than their system has no ability to adjust for disruption and that’s embarrassing. But what do they do when things start to move? End passes?...limited incentives?...end TIW?...push extra cost crowd control parties? Bob’s be stupid...the 2009 recession playbook worked....trying to charge fewer people more is a disaster. I’ll bet anyone on that.

SirwalterraleighJan 28, 2021

You have received excellent value. So have I. Those that buy new or most especially resale contracts with limited term left now will not. It’s simple numbers...not an “opinion” debate. Good for us.

SirwalterraleighJan 28, 2021

I splained it above...it’s a 2 day extension after you pay the off the street up front highest per day price...the longer the ticket, the less the extension is worth. I think is far worse than the typical Florida regular ticket promos.

eliza61nycJan 28, 2021

So we brought into dvc in 2000 at beach club and have had Awesome annual vacations. We're scheduled to go in September of this year. So we'll see. Like others have said, it's getting quickly to the point where it's losing its value. Ive tossed around the idea of selling mainly because prior to covid beach club points were pretty valuable in the dvc world