A brief debrief of the DVC rental experience at Disney
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| The main lobby/entrance at Disney's Polynesian Village Resort |
The short story - that worked amazingly well!
Maybe we just landed under a lucky star, because from the get go on this trip things just clicked. We got a view upgrade at the airport hotel. Our flight was a bit early. The text saying our room was ready came through just as we were driving up to the resort. We were seated early for every meal and only had one truly obnoxious person seated near us all week during meals. About the only down side of this entire trip was that neither of us slept particularly well; but that was due to uncontrolled factors like snotty noses, post-nasal drips and snoring. Also, I think we may have missed the weighted blankets that we so love on our home bed. We even landed early in Boston on the way home allowing us to catch an earlier bus back to Portland and get home 2 hours before we thought we would!
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| Daytime view from our Studio Villa |
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| Fireworks on the balcony 5 of 6 nights! |
The slightly longer story...
On paper, once all of our reservation work was done with the DVC Rental Store, and we added tickets to the My Disney Experience (MDE) App, everything else should function in the same way it would if we booked through Disney directly. We were slightly skeptical though. I am happy to report, however, that this was our experience. Everything dumped into the app and once we were "on property" there was no functional difference in how this vacation played out.
With online check-in completed prior to our arrival, we bypassed the front desk completely and walked straight to our room. The MDE app now offers the availability to unlock your door using your cell phone, but this seemed unnecessary since we had active Magic Bands.
Once your Magic band is activated on the day of arrival, new features are available in the MDE app: bus times, maps that show where you are, directions for how to get from point A to B, hailing a Minnie Van, running tallies of room charges and dining plan entitlements, and transportation options.
In the end, the only difference between booking directly with Disney and renting DVC points is the leg work on the front end of the trip. There was no discernible difference in the experience in booking advanced dining reservations, fast passes, or on the property itself.
As long as we can plan enough in advance to find availability, I can't image that we would go back to booking resort rooms through Disney. As referenced in another post, we saved over $2500 by renting points rather than booking a comparable room through Disney, and a more recent check of number comparisons showed that, for a trip for 2, a 6 night night DVC rental points stay could save $700+ over booking a MODERATE level resort room with Disney! As Disney continues to expand, and increase prices to pay for those expansion projects, it would seem there are still ways to work a little magic of your own staying a a deluxe resort without breaking the bank!