by Bret Bowen, (Capt.Tigger)

Up until last year, DVC (Disney Vacation Club) was just my way to stay at Disney World. I know that you can stay all over the world but we bought-in because of the savings for us to go to Disney World. Well, I started looking at DVC a little differently last summer while on our first Disney cruise. We were invited to a DVC member meeting (yeah ok ).  I know they are going to put the big sell on but ok, I’ll go and see what they have. Well they did not put on the big sell. Yes, they had some good offers that we took advantage of and we added on points. They also gave away some prizes during a fun game of DVC trivia where every family was a winner.  We won a very large special edition DVC beach towel. They also gave each family that attended the meeting a bag of goodies and some were really nice.

Now, we go back on the Disney Cruise this year and once again we are invited to a meeting.  We go and once again they had some good deals on points but we did not need any. As with the last meeting, they had goodies to pass out and snacks and drinks. The goodies we got were two DVC hats, red in color. It also had two lanyards inside to hold your cards. We once again played the trivia game and we won another beach towel which is identical to the one we got last year.  The gathering was a nice time and they did have other meetings for nonmembers that you could attend.

When we got to our room, we had magnets stuck on our door that looked like life rings and had the DVC logo and said "Welcome Home Members". Also, on our bed, was a “Captain’s Log”. It has a guide to nautical terms . You can chart your course. It has a guide to Nautical Flags. It also has an on-board activity log and excursion log. There is a section for autographs and some post cards. In the back, it has a nice DVC pen and room for your photos.

We went to Disney World after the cruise. They have a meeting most Wednesdays for DVC members at Atlantic Dance Hall on the Boardwalk. We have wanted to attend for a few years but never made it over. Well, this trip we were going to make time. We did make time for it and went over to the meeting. As we walked in they had Sushi from Wolfgang Pucks and water or lemonade. They also had snacks, Crackerjacks or popcorn. Now, I don’t eat sushi but that is kind of cool for free. We had a large crowd. There had to be almost 150 folks at the meeting. They played a trivia game and gave out some nice prizes. They also drew some names out of the box and gave away some nice things.   As everyone left, each member was given a gift. It was a large blue foldable DVC tote bag.

From attending the little things that DVC has to offer, I now look at my membership a little differently.  I hope to do more of the little things that DVC offers as the years go on. I am proud to say I am a Disney Vacation Club member...