Disney Vacation Club has finally confirmed the long-rumored membership program for perks at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and beyond. This post discusses the details of the paid member add-on, along with our more general commentary about this and the barrage of upcharges, price increases, and so forth.
Introducing the “Membership Magic Beyond” option—a yearly enhanced benefits package that gives you special ways to elevate your family’s stays. Eligible Members can purchase Membership Magic Beyond for $99 starting December 3, 2024 for usage January 12 through December 31, 2025.
Membership Magic Beyond will supplement rather than replace the current Disney Vacation Club Membership Extras, which currently lists 306 Member Benefits according to Disney. Don’t get too excited–at least half of that list is either nothing special or not even real right now (“temporarily unavailable”)–but there are a lot of valuable perks. See our List of the Top 10 Disney Vacation Club Member Perks for the ones that are worthwhile.
Disney Vacation Club’s Membership Magic Beyond will offer the following paid perks:
Enjoy Enhanced Value
- Purchase specially priced 5-day weekday Walt Disney World Theme Park tickets with one water park visit included. Available for the enrolled Member and up to 7 family members living in their household. More pricing details to come.
- Purchase specially priced 3-day weekday Disneyland Resort Theme Park tickets that include Lightning Lane Multi Pass. Available for the enrolled Member and up to 7 family members living in their household. More pricing details to come.
- Receive a 30-day Memory Maker entitlement to capture and share treasured Walt Disney World memories. (Up to a $210 value if purchased separately.)
Get Exclusive Access
- Meet and mingle with special Disney Characters at Disney Vacation Club ImaginAtrium – A Member Lounge at EPCOT. The enrolled Member must have a Resort reservation and be staying on Points. The enrolled Member can bring up to 4 guests or the number of guests on their resort stay reservation, whichever is greater. Available 7 days a week. Capacity restrictions may apply.
- Take advantage of priority access to Disney Vacation Club ImaginAtrium – A Member Lounge, Disney Vacation Club Star View Station – A Member Lounge and a new Member lounge projected to open in 2025 in Magic Kingdom Park. Use this benefit when lounge access goes on a waitlist. The enrolled Member can bring up to 4 guests or the number of guests on their resort stay reservation, whichever is greater. Capacity restrictions may apply.
Experience More Flexibility
- Use your Points to purchase the Disney Sorcerer Pass to enjoy Walt Disney World Resort Theme Parks.
Get one bonus One-Time-Use Point for each One-Time-Use Point purchased! Members can purchase up to 12 Points for a total of 24 - One-Time-Use Points in a Use Year. Excludes bookings offered through the hotel exchange program.
- Enjoy having your $95 transaction fee waived when booking Disney Collection Resorts and experiences, including Adventures by Disney, Disney Cruise Line and National Geographic Expeditions experiences.
The Membership Magic Beyond option is part of Membership Extras which, effective June 3, 2021, requires having an ownership interest with 150 Vacation Points or more purchased directly from Disney Vacation Development, Inc. This is an incidental benefit subject to availability, change or termination. Yearly enrollment fee applies. All offers are subject to availability. Special ticket and Annual Pass offers are not part of the ownership interest and are subject to change or termination.
This means Membership Magic Beyond is what’s colloquially known as a “blue card” perk. It’s all-digital now, so “blue card” member is a misnomer, but that’s what most DVC members still call it. Disney Vacation Club is able to restrict perks to only certain owners because these things are funded by DVC’s marketing budget–or some other budget–and not annual owner dues.
Turning to commentary, Disney might pitch this as offering more convenience, flexibility, or options for members to purchase the perks that best serve their needs. [Insert additional flowery marketing language.] And some guests might even agree! Perhaps there are some DVC members who would use the lounges more often but for the waitlist, would like to use points to purchase the Sorcerer AP, or buy special tickets.
It’s not uncommon to see this type of product segmentation in the travel and hospitality industries. Airlines do it, hotels do it, and Walt Disney World certainly does it. So it’s really no surprise that Disney Vacation Club would do it. And I don’t doubt for a second that diehard fans who already dropped tens of thousands of dollars to join the club will be inclined to purchase this. Unlike Lightning Lane Premier Pass, DVC diehards absolutely are the target audience for this type of thing. It makes complete sense for Disney Vacation Club to offer this.
I mention this in the interest of balance, but also because I am the target for this. Almost. Basically, I’m just the target for a (paid) FastPass to the front of the lounge lines. We use these lounges every single day that we visit EPCOT and Disneyland–sometimes more than once. There are multiple Cast Members who recognize me at the Imagination lounge. (My silly/stupid goal is to stop being carded.)
Not to brag or anything, but I haven’t bought a caffeinated beverage at EPCOT in years–or at Disneyland since the lounge opened–but I’ve consumed hundreds of them. I’ve half-joked for a while that I’d pay for FastPass to two things: the TTA PeopleMover and the Imagination lounge. So I am very squarely the target audience for this.
However, I won’t buy it for a few reasons. First, I wouldn’t use any of the other perks (not sure about the character thing, actually). Second, spending $99 to get priority access to “free” soda and coffee kinda defeats the purpose of “free” soda and coffee.
Finally, it just doesn’t feel right to me. Don’t get me wrong–I’m perfectly fine with Lightning Lanes (even if I’d prefer faster-moving standby) from a moral perspective. Ride capacity is fairly robust at most attractions, so each guest is costing other guests a few seconds, at most. In aggregate, it’s obviously a different story. I’m more concerned about my individual impact, since the aggregate impact is obviously out of my control.
The difference here is that lounge capacity is very limited, so cutting someone on the waitlist has a clearer consequence. I could be costing a family that visits once per year 10 minutes, perhaps more, just so I could visit the lounge for the thousandth time to get a “free” soda and check my email. I don’t begrudge anyone who does buy this, and I’m not pretending to be the ethical arbiter of this stuff. All I know is that it doesn’t sit right with me–I don’t want to be the one doing it. My people already get a bad rap, so I don’t really want to be the jerky entitled blogger who is cutting families who have limited park time. To each their own, though.
Then there’s the other side of this. After the Lightning Lane Premier Pass announcements today, I shook my head when coming across this news. When is enough enough?! When do Walt Disney World and Disneyland just stop being fun for fans because the company has gotten so brazen with price increases, nickel and diming, and trying to squeeze every last cent out of people? How long before guests realize there’s a disproportionate number of announcements with immediacy that are of this nature instead of positive news? At what point does Disney cross the rubicon?
Look, I don’t think Membership Magic Beyond is going to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. For most DVC members, it’ll be mildly annoying at worst–perhaps something they actually want at best. But it’s also not the first or last of this. (Remember, Walt Disney World still hasn’t done the annual price increase that hit Disneyland last week–it was presumably delayed due to the hurricane. So there’s still that to look forward to.)
Based on what we’ve been hearing from readers–at least the vocal ones–there are a lot of lifelong fans who are on the precipice of reaching their breaking point. And this is on top of all those who already have due to the end of Disney’s Magical Express, free FastPass, and everything else that’s been cut over the last several years. Even if you’re indifferent to some or most of this, I think you’ve gotta admit that in aggregate, it’s exhausting.
Twice in the same day, I’m thinking the same thing. (The rest of this is repeated from the final few paragraphs of the Disneyland LLPP post, but most of you read the Walt Disney World version, so this is new to you.) One of my fears for a while has been that Disney is inflicting long-lasting brand damage for short-term financial gain.
We’ve seen this with the aforementioned lost (free) perks, along with entertainment cuts, nickel and diming, catering to the affluent, crowds and long lines, and a laundry list of other complaints. Not to mention Disney’s falling reputation, which is based on all of the above plus other issues. We’ve discussed all of this at length–no sense in belaboring the point here.
Beyond that, there are examples of very niche product offerings that are clearly aimed at the wealthy. Most notable of these is the abandoned Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser. Same goes for the $100,000+ private jet Disney Parks worldwide “adventure” and the new Cotino Storyliving by Disney communities.
Starcruiser was a colossal failure, but I’ve long wondered whether–even assuming it were a financial success–was it worth all of the negative headlines? Think of how few guests stayed there versus the millions of views on various YouTube videos or news articles, almost all of which were negative. These are niche offerings, but they have an outsized digital footprint. Is Disney’s immediate monetary gain worth the brand damage and loss of goodwill?
I can’t help but wonder the same thing about Lightning Lane Premier Pass Membership Magic Beyond. I’d expect that the number of people who read about Lightning Lane Premier Pass Membership Magic Beyond on the day it’s announced and feel alienated or annoyed will dwarf those who ever purchase it. Most consumers will quickly conclude the answer is “no” when asking themselves whether it’s worth it. Disney would be well-served to ask themselves the very same question when it comes to this and other such affluent offerings. Is the negative word-of-mouth and reputational hit really worth the 99 bucks? The answer might also be “no” if they looked beyond the immediate impact to this quarter’s balance sheet.
If you’re thinking about joining DVC, be sure to read our Ultimate Guide to Disney Vacation Club. This covers the pros & cons, resale v. direct, how much money you’ll save, and other important things to know before taking the plunge. If you still can’t decide whether membership is right for you, “try before you buy” with the recommendations in How to Save BIG on Deluxe Disney Accommodations Renting DVC Points.
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think about the new Membership Magic Beyond? Excited or disappointed about this new upcharge, or do you not really care? Bigger picture, does it bother or worry you that this is seemingly the direction that Walt Disney World and Disneyland are headed? When is enough enough for you? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Share any questions, tips, or additional thoughts you have in the comments!
