Last post I promised to write about the new paid DVC perk. This perk was announced alongside another paid premium add-on the Lightning Lane Premier Pass. It’s called Membership Magic Beyond. It costs $99 and is good from January 12 through December 31, 2025. So just what does $99 get you and is it worth it? Read on to find out more.

Let me know in the comments your thoughts on the optional perks and passes. Drop a like if you agree with me. It’s easy and free!

What is it?

Membership Magic Beyond is a paid tier of perks. As with all DVC perks, you must hold a BlueCard membership. That is you need to have bought 150 points directly from Disney to qualify. (Grandfathered blue card memberships still are eligible) For $99 you get the following as listed on the vacation club web site.

• 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.)
• 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.
• 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.

hmm. Where to begin unpacking all of that. Lets start with the discounted tickets

Discount Ticket Prices.

Ok so a discount on multiday theme park tickets sounds great! But hold on. These tickets do not include weekends. That’s right only weekdays. So that is still not so bad, DEPENDING on the discount. Disney tickets are already very expensive so even a little off would be nice. However, no weekends sounds a bit disappointing to me. Grandma and I are Annual pass holders, using the already FREE perk the Sorcerers Pass. This pass is for DVC and Florida residents only. It has very few blackout dates. If you go to Disney for 2 weeks a year or more, this pass is totally worth it. So for us the discount tickets are not a real draw. These perks could be great, but it depends on the discount.

Memory Maker

So this sounds good: Receive a 30-day Memory Maker entitlement. Or does it? When you buy an annual pass you can spend another $99 and add on memory maker for the term of the pass. That’s a whole year as opposed to 30 days. So ok, the AP add-on does not include the other perks, but if you don’t use the other perks, this does not sound attractive. I suppose it will be good for non-annual pass holders or those who did not spring for the additional cost when buying the annual pass. But 30 days seems like a real limitation to me.

DVC Lounge

With this add on you get the equivalent to a Lightning Line pass for entry to a DVC Lounge. The DVC lounge is a place with unlimited coffee and soft drinks. It also has good WiFi and a place to charge your devices. I have never been able to get into a lounge as there was always a wait list. Members seem to go to the lounge and stay for hours. I don’t get it. You come to a Disney park only to sit on a couch and swill drinks while looking at your phone/laptop/tablet. Cann’t you do this at home? People should git up and go out. If everyone has this perk, is it a perk? Won’t there just be a waiting list on top of a waiting list? Gotta watch this one and see how it plays out.

Others

Of the perks that are left the only one that piques my interest is purchasing the Sorcerer pass with points. We don’t buy Single Use Points or do point exchanges, so those perks are not for us. However we do buy the Sorcerer pass every year. This may be a good perk depending on the exchange rate. We recently spent $1800 to renew 2 passes. So if the exchange rate is 200 points per Dollar, then that would be great! If it is 10 points per Dollar, then not so much. Currently you spend around $225 or more for direct points. So it would be great if DVC valued your points as such. Sadly I do not think this will be the case.

Final Thoughts

Is DVC and Disney evil for doing this ….. no. Does it feel a little greedy ….. yes. Will I partake ….. maybe.

Look, Almost all consumer based companies are trying to squeeze every last dollar from their customers. Airlines now charge for every little thing from boarding order, baggage, meals and carry ons. Universal has had an extra cost line skipping pass like the premier pass for decades. The Universal pass has steadily been going up in price. I don’t hear anyone complain that Universal is evil. Now DVC and Disney as a whole is just trying to find ways to get extra revenue. Disney is a business and stockholders want profit, lots of profit. It is very expensive to run a park and timeshare operation. These perks (Speaking of Premier Pass and DVC) are optional. As long as it does not hurt my experience, I am all for it. Why? Because in a perfect world Disney won’t have to increase base prices (at least as fast or as much) since the few that partake in the optional perks will be increasing the profit margins. A pipe dream I know! But Hey! Disney is all about Dreaming!

I expect that the prices for these options will increase over time. It will be interesting to see how much and how fast. k

I will buy the DVC Membership Magic Beyond as I did not spend the extra money to add it to our passes. I do want to see what the lounge is like, but have never wanted to wait in line for it. (HINT Lines are for Rides not Sofas).

Talk to you Next Time