Free Unlimited magic passes????????

[jwiegand]

I recently ran accross this note about DVC on a Disney website:

You can purchase it from Disney directly also there is an alternative way to purchase. You can purchase from a private owner's ad, timeshare reseller, or real estate agent. The best and first place to look is in the Orlando area. I have set up the link above to internet classified ads for the Orlando area. The price from Disney is about $65.00 per point and from a reseller is about $55.00 per point. Also there is the consideration that the early memberships came with "Unlimited Magic Pass" passes for all the people in your party until December 1999. That alone can be $2000 or more in added bonuses. When you make a purchase of a so called used membership you will not be treated any different from Disney. The original purchase date is still on all the paper work and all the benefits are included.

Note the phrase about Unlimited Magic Passes:

Also there is the consideration that the early memberships came with "Unlimited Magic Pass" passes for all the people in your party until December 1999

This seems to say that if your DVC membership is dated before December 1999, your membership includesUnlimited magic passes for your entire party. Did he mean to say that this feature expired in Dec. 1999? But, then, why would that be a "bonus" now?

Or--have I found a web page that is just 2 years out of date?

 

[TnRobin]

I believe the website is out of date. The passes last thru Dec 1999. I bought in summer 1999 - believe me I wish that I had free passes - but alas I do not.

 

[Towncrier]

Long gone. We were fortunate to have purchased during the free passes period. We made several trips to WDW from 1995 through 1999 and did not have to purchase park passes. This alone justified the cost of DVC for us. The harsh reality hit us in August 2000 when we had to fork over a LOT of money for 5 Annual Passes. We bought AP's since we knew that we would be returning to WDW in 2001 before they expired. Still, it was $1700 that we were not used to spending.

It was fun while it lasted. I still believe that DVC is a good deal for most people today, even without the free passes. It just takes a little longer to recover your initial outlay of money.

 

[Granny]

Oh man, I missed out on those free passes!!!!!

If I had more flexibility in my knees, I would be kicking myself constantly for not joining DVC sooner.

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

It was actually an even better deal. because while the program ended in Dec-99, they changed their policy and let you use points borrowed from 2000 toward days with passes.

 

[DebbieB]

The way I understand it, the free passes were only for members who bought before July 1996 (when Boardwalk opened). Anyone who bought after that didn't get them. I think you had to be staying at OKW and it was only for half of the capacity of your room. So if you were staying in a studio or 1 BR, you got 2 passes, 2 BR got 4, GV got 6.

 

[jwiegand]

Hey gang:

Thanks for all the information. I figured it was just an outdated page, but I HAD to make
sure--because I bought into DVC through a reseller, and the date of my membership is
January of 1996.

Thanks again,

John

 

[Chuck S]

And the passes were not UMP passes. Animal Kingdom was not included, nor was Pleasure Island, Discovery Island or Disney Quest. Only the three parks that were open and operating when the promotion started Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Studios. - I'm not complaining, I got 8 years of park fun! I do wish we could get a good discount on ticket media, but nothing was specifically promised, only that "something" would replace the program. Disney is certainly not contractually obligated.

 

[spruce]

We toured DVC during our June 27th - July 3rd 1996 vacation and were told free passes hadn't been offered for about a year. We finally bought in Feb 1998 the week of OKW's sellout without free passes......spruce

 

[PamOKW]

The passes were also included with some Vero purchases (in fact, longer than when offered at OKW) but could only be used when staying at OKW.

 

[Werner Weiss]

Firefighter Mickey wrote:
It was actually an even better deal. because while the program ended in Dec-99, they changed their policy and let you use points borrowed from 2000 toward days with passes.

That's not the full story. The "limited pass program" (as it was called) was good when staying at OKW (with points that had been purchased with the "limited pass program" feature), through the end of 1999. The "limited pass program" was based on the date of the stay, not the year of the points. The "limited pass program" had a bunch of published restrictions -- for example, it was not available to renters -- but there were no restrictions about banked points, current year points, or borrowed points.

Around 1998, someone at Disney Vacation Development (DVD) or DVC tried to change the rules to say that you wouldn't get passes in 1999 if you were using borrowed points -- even though the program was spelled out very clearly in the public offering. Keep in mind that DVD had to pay for those passes, so it appeared that someone was trying to help the DVD bottom line.

Fortunately, reason prevailed. (Probably a Disney lawyer said, "we have to honor the contract; we can't add a restriction that isn't there.") So Disney delivered on their written commitment by providing passes through the end of 1999, without regard to whether the stay was booked with banked points, current year points, or borrowed points.

But Disney really stuck with the wording of the "limited pass program." Beginning in December of 1998, all old 3-park passes (such as old 3-park Hoppers and 3-park Annual Passes) could be used at Disney's Animal Kingdom (which had opened in Spring 1998) -- all except the DVC passes.

It was a great program while it lasted. It was a sales incentive, similar to the way that Marriott Vacation Club gives Marriott Rewards points as sales incentives. It was clear that the "limited pass program" would end at the end of 1999.

As other have written, DVC continues to see well (at least the WDW locations) without having to offer a major incentive.

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

Yes, but unless I'm mistaken old hopper passes had to be upgraded for the additional park. The upgrade fee was pro-rated though.

I Know we had to pay to get AK added to our AP's. I think it cost us something like 17 cents to upgrade 4 AP's (we only had something like 3 days left on the APs though).

 

[DebbieB]

Another restriction I just thought of (I stayed with a member with free passes once) was that it was only good for the number of nights you stayed, not days. So if you were there for 7 days/6 nights, you only got 6 days of passes so you had to drop the first or last day.

 

[Halle]

The old park hopper passes did not have to be updated to use them at Animal Kingom, only the AP's did.

 

[PamOKW]

The DVC pass offered absolutely no way to visit AK. Every other Disney pass provided some additional fee to have it include the new park. There was not even a discount on purchasing a one-day pass to AK. Towards the end, I was "wasting" DVC passes because APs began to make more sense.

This was the first "hint" that DVC was not interested in offering any reasonable pass to DVC members in the future --- and that "hint" has proven to be true.

 

[Werner Weiss]

We actually used the DVC pass program to visit Disney's Animal Kingdom (DAK). Yes it's true! We might be the the only DVC family that ever did so.

And we weren't cheating -- or at least we weren't trying to.

On Saturday, December 19, 1988, I asked Guest Services at Epcot if they were aware of any way of upgrading the DVC 3-park admission program to include DAK. I was willing to pay extra, but I didn't want to buy four 1-day passes, given that our resort IDs would get us into the other three WDW theme parks through the DVC "limited pass program."

In case you don't know this, you should be aware that Guest Services in the parks can work all sorts of magic applying old passes toward new passes. Somehow, the Guest Services CMs in the parks are empowered to do things that the CMs in the WDW resort hotels can't do.

I was expecting the Guest Services CM to say, "No, I'm sorry. DVC passes can't be upgraded to include Animal Kingdom."

Instead, the CM called the front entrance manager at DAK. When he got off the phone, the CM explained to me, "Beginning, Monday, December 21, all 3-park passes will be good at Animal Kingdom, with no more upgrade fees." He gave me the name of the front entrance manager at DAK in case we had any problems.

Monday morning, we went to DAK, fed out resort IDs into the reader, and entered the park. No intervention was needed.

After we got home, we received a mass mailing from DVC. The publication restated the policy that DVC passes could not be used at DAK. Period.

It appears we were lucky. Because on the day we went to DAK, the computers were programmed to accept DVC passes.

 

[WebmasterDoc]

In Sept. '99, when WDW hunkered down for Hurricane Floyd all parks were closed for a day........ except AK.

Any onsite guest with admission media was allowed into AK that day, including OKW guests with the free passes. The following day the DVC passes were again not valid at AK. The buses ran only to AK that day- as all other areas were completely closed. AK was not particularly busy, but was the only thing open at WDW for that one day.

Sounds like Werner stumbled onto a very good deal- even if it was short lived.

 

[ReneeMoss]

Yes - free park pass perks were terrific - We used it very well, right up to and including Dec. 31, 1999 -If I ever added up the cost of all those free passes, I bet it would practically have paid for our points at OKW. On New Year's Day, 2000 - we purchased entry to AK - our first outlay for entry since 1990 ! Now we buy AP's - as a Florida Resident, still a good deal....