Disney Trip Report- Part I: Welcome Home

There is nothing like it. After leaving the airport and driving down the highway for a little bit you come to a huge sign over the highway. The sign that lets you know that you are entering the Happiest Place on Earth.

After passing under that fabulous sign on Friday morning, N, A and I headed to our resort for the first part of our stay. Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village.

Here we heard the magical words that since becoming DVC members has developed special meaning for us, “Welcome Home.” For us, this resort was home for just a few short days. But what amazing days they were!!

DVC or Disney Vacation Club, is the Disney timeshare. It works through a point system by which guests can stay at the various DVC resorts, so instead of paying a nightly fee, we pay with points. Anyone can stay at the DVC resorts but they are pricey and the DVC rooms are generally in a separate area and even the smallest room contains a fridge and mini kitchen.

The points are replenished yearly and if we need more for an extra big vacation, we can bank the points from one year and borrow from the next year. So at any time we can have up to 3 years worth of points to use. You can buy as many points as you want from DVC and you pay a yearly due that goes to the maintenance of your home resort.

N and I have 220 points, and our home resort is Saratoga Springs. The home resort is where our yearly dues are calculated and we can book there up to 11 months in advance. We can book at any other DVC Resort up to 7 months in advance.

DVC members also have other benefits including:

Adventures by Disney – Disney’s specially designed guided vacations.
Disney Cruise Line
Other hotel stays worldwide through an exchange program
A DVC magazine that is released quarterly and includes Disney news, recipes, and more.
A DVC discount on Disney products and merchandise.
Other Special DVC member benefits, such as private lounges, extra park hours and more.

There are 14 total DVC resorts. 1 in Hawaii, 1 in California at Disney Land, 1 in Vero Beach, Florida, 1 in South Carolina and 10 in Walt Disney World.

Each Resort has it’s own special features, such as proximity to specific parks, pools, entertainment and much more. N and I have stayed at 3 different DVC resorts in the past 3 years, 1 new one each time. This year we stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge which actually has two different locations Jambo House and Kidani Village. We stayed at Kidani Village, which is the DVC specific part of the Animal Kingdom Lodge. A later post will contain my review of the resort.