5. Flexibility

Another key advantage for DVC over ordinary timeshares is flexibility. Your DVC points renew each year based upon your membership use year. The use year is the month when your points refresh, which sounds complicated, but it really isn’t. My use year is December, so when that month rolls around, a fresh batch of points will be deposited in my account.

Again, Disney wants to encourage the addiction of visiting their theme parks. In order to facilitate this, they provide maximum flexibility for would-be guests to return whenever their schedule allows. My wife and I prefer to visit the parks annually. We get twitchy if we don’t visit Haunted Mansion for a long time.

My brother, also a DVC member, takes an entirely different approach. They bank the first year in anticipation of visiting multiple times the second year. In order to do that, they also borrow points from year three. Effectively, they only go to Disney once every three years, but they go three times during that calendar year. In this manner, they save money by buying a single annual pass that entitles them to roughly 25 days’ worth of park visits. For anyone who doesn’t live in the state of Florida, that is basically maximum Disney.  None of this would be possible without the maximum flexibility available through banking and borrowing.

6. Magic Express

Image: Flickr

Have you ever stayed at a Disney resort before? If so, did you use their Magic Express service?Presuming that the answer is yes, you already appreciate the value of this service. If you are unfamiliar with it, Magic Express is living proof that Disney planners are the best in the business at maximizing the earning potential of their theme parks.

Disney wants you to stay at their hotels. They need you to stay at their hotels. When you travel to a Disney theme park but stay with a competing hotel chain, the company suffers a loss in potential revenue. In economic terms, it’s described as opportunity cost. In layman’s terms, it’s money spent on meals, sundries and tourist merchandise that should be given to Disney. When you stay elsewhere, another company takes their cut.

In order to discourage this behavior, Disney provides Magic Express service for people flying to their theme parks. Guests who use these buses are delivered to Disney resorts straight from the airport, virtually guaranteeing that Disney will keep the overwhelming majority of your travel budget. Since you will likely not have a car of your own, your only options for the aforementioned meals, sundries and tourist merchandise will be in-house purchases at Disney hotels and parks.

Some of you may be wondering how this could be viewed as an advantage for DVC membership. The answer is simple. Since you are staying at Disney resorts every time you utilize your points, you will be eligible for Magic Express on your trip. As a tourist, you will not have to worry about keeping up with your luggage from the moment you board your plane. You will place an identifying bar-coded sticker on your belongings, and Disney will do the rest. You get off the plane, get on the bus, and then your bags will be waiting when you get back to the hotel after a day spent at the theme park. Disney has perfected the travel process, thereby creating the smoothest vacation possible for DVC members and other guests staying at their resorts.

7. Dining Plan access

Image: Disney

The final advantage is that DVC visitors are provided the same options as other Disney guests. Included among these is the Disney Dining Plan. This selection is a hotly contested issue among DVC owners, many of whom choose to utilize a program known as Tables in Wonderland instead. A future column will also evaluate those options.

For my part, I am an ardent supporter of the Disney Dining Plan, as I love the cost control built into the process. It allows me to pay for all of my meals (excluding tip and adult beverages) before I ever reach the park. And once I am there, I never have to worry about the cost of anything.

This fixed cost is important because some of the character meals at Disney can provide a dramatic amount of sticker shock. DVC members do not have to use the Disney Dining Plan option, of course, but simply having the choice provides many with peace of mind. Combined with Magic Express, it takes all of the stress out of vacation the moment you arrive at your destination.

Not all of the advantages above will interest everyone reading this. Personally, a golf discount is absolutely wasted on me while many Disney members drive to the parks, so they have never used Magic Express. Similarly, Tables in Wonderland loyalists ardently opposed the Disney Dining Plan. And not everyone will be able to visit Disney theme parks enough to enjoy the advantages of an annual park pass discount. I still perceive the advantages to be overwhelmingly positive, and the fact that my wife and I are members is a testament to that belief.