tellingson
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2014
First off, let me give you some history.
My wife and I are fairly frugal. When we were first married, we would find the cheapest hotel, order the cheaper items on menus etc. We would both laugh at how expensive some resorts were at Disneyland and Disney World. "Look at this dear. They want $500 bucks a night for a studio. Who pays this kind of money for a bed?" Long story short, we were gifted a 2 day vacation to Disney World in 2012. While there we learned about the Disney Vacation Club. When the person at the booth learned that we were staying in All-Stars Movies, they were noticeable less interested in talking to us but they pitched DVC as "listen to this presentation for free fastpasses". Free fastpasses to any ride? Done. We'll get an early presentation and get them in time to hit the parks in the morning. We meet up for the presentation and talk to the guide. We walk through the rooms... (AKV was selling at the time) and we both were like...Wow. These are really nice. Then they give us the pitch about points and the price and we were pretty close to signing, but wanted to take some time to think about it.
Enter the DIS Boards. Really invaluable resource here. Long story short, we ended up buying resale at SSR. And we have loved it! We have been able to stay at OKW, SSR, and VGC in the last 6 years. Later we added on another resale contract at VGC because we love the resort and it is a drive for us rather than a flight.
Enter family reunion... So my wife's family wanted to do a Disneyland trip for their first ever family reunion. Okay, cool. My wife and I both love Disney. They want everyone staying at the same hotel so we have a sense of togetherness. Awesome! It is a family reunion after all! My wife works with her mom to find a place close that seems decent. It is basically across the street from the gate. Cool! Looks like a great location!
The vacation arrives and we are excited! Disneyland! Fresh Sourdough (my favorite)! Star Wars Land! Halloween theme! We are super pumped! We have stayed at the VGC a couple times by this point.
We arrive at the hotel, get to the room and... huh. Is this it? ...What is that smell? How much did we pay for this? We were both super disappointed. Knowing that we could have stayed at the VGC instead for less money (but didn't because of family)... Being at the parks was almost depressing knowing what we would have to go back to. Staying off property was not something my wife and I enjoyed.
We noticed many things that we never would have thought of as reason to stay on Disney property. For example, as soon as you leave Disney property, you no longer have the rules and restrictions. There are no designated smoking areas. So as soon as people leave the property, they lite up. You are walking through cigarette smoke almost every time you leave the property to go to your hotel. With a toddler in tow, I was very not happy about it. The rooms that we stayed in had no magic. Zero, zilch, nada. They were substandard, overpriced and disappointing. The pool was a joke and cold. The room came with free breakfast though. So I guess that was nice. But the room and location caused us to go in and out of the magic for the entire vacation. It was hard to feel the full Disney experience when we were so dramatically pulled out of the magic during the middle of the day for naps, and at the end of every day when we went to sleep.
7 years ago, the room would have been great, and we would have been happy just to be there. But once you have tasted the DVC koolaid, you just can't go back.
My wife and I agreed that never again, would we stay off property. DVC has made it so that we can't vacation at Disney any other way. Thank you DVC for ruining my family reunion and helping me realize how much better it could have been.
My wife and I are fairly frugal. When we were first married, we would find the cheapest hotel, order the cheaper items on menus etc. We would both laugh at how expensive some resorts were at Disneyland and Disney World. "Look at this dear. They want $500 bucks a night for a studio. Who pays this kind of money for a bed?" Long story short, we were gifted a 2 day vacation to Disney World in 2012. While there we learned about the Disney Vacation Club. When the person at the booth learned that we were staying in All-Stars Movies, they were noticeable less interested in talking to us but they pitched DVC as "listen to this presentation for free fastpasses". Free fastpasses to any ride? Done. We'll get an early presentation and get them in time to hit the parks in the morning. We meet up for the presentation and talk to the guide. We walk through the rooms... (AKV was selling at the time) and we both were like...Wow. These are really nice. Then they give us the pitch about points and the price and we were pretty close to signing, but wanted to take some time to think about it.
Enter the DIS Boards. Really invaluable resource here. Long story short, we ended up buying resale at SSR. And we have loved it! We have been able to stay at OKW, SSR, and VGC in the last 6 years. Later we added on another resale contract at VGC because we love the resort and it is a drive for us rather than a flight.
Enter family reunion... So my wife's family wanted to do a Disneyland trip for their first ever family reunion. Okay, cool. My wife and I both love Disney. They want everyone staying at the same hotel so we have a sense of togetherness. Awesome! It is a family reunion after all! My wife works with her mom to find a place close that seems decent. It is basically across the street from the gate. Cool! Looks like a great location!
The vacation arrives and we are excited! Disneyland! Fresh Sourdough (my favorite)! Star Wars Land! Halloween theme! We are super pumped! We have stayed at the VGC a couple times by this point.
We arrive at the hotel, get to the room and... huh. Is this it? ...What is that smell? How much did we pay for this? We were both super disappointed. Knowing that we could have stayed at the VGC instead for less money (but didn't because of family)... Being at the parks was almost depressing knowing what we would have to go back to. Staying off property was not something my wife and I enjoyed.
We noticed many things that we never would have thought of as reason to stay on Disney property. For example, as soon as you leave Disney property, you no longer have the rules and restrictions. There are no designated smoking areas. So as soon as people leave the property, they lite up. You are walking through cigarette smoke almost every time you leave the property to go to your hotel. With a toddler in tow, I was very not happy about it. The rooms that we stayed in had no magic. Zero, zilch, nada. They were substandard, overpriced and disappointing. The pool was a joke and cold. The room came with free breakfast though. So I guess that was nice. But the room and location caused us to go in and out of the magic for the entire vacation. It was hard to feel the full Disney experience when we were so dramatically pulled out of the magic during the middle of the day for naps, and at the end of every day when we went to sleep.
7 years ago, the room would have been great, and we would have been happy just to be there. But once you have tasted the DVC koolaid, you just can't go back.
My wife and I agreed that never again, would we stay off property. DVC has made it so that we can't vacation at Disney any other way. Thank you DVC for ruining my family reunion and helping me realize how much better it could have been.