[jo-jo]

Originally Posted by bransworld

I emailed DVC Member Services about the Member Perks or Lack There Of... and here is the response i got back...

As part of the normal course of doing business, we regularly evaluate
and adjust our pricing. As a result, effective Sunday, October 11,
2009, complimentary valet parking for Disney Vacation Club Members at
the Walt Disney World Resort has been discontinued. The valet parking
charge is $12.00 per day, however complimentary self-parking is always
available. Similar to other fee-based services, such as additional
housekeeping service or additional room amenities, only those Members
who choose to valet park will be charged instead of increasing the
annual dues for all Members.

Thank you again for contacting us.

The word "complimentary" worries me. Almost makes it sound like "you are lucky, you get to park anywhere".

[delmarjohn]

sign of the times ....keep costs down ...it really doesn't surprise me....now if they spent that money saved on the food court at SSR ,that would be a good trade

[WishUponAStar]

Originally Posted by delmarjohn

sign of the times ....keep costs down ...it really doesn't surprise me....now if they spent that money saved on the food court at SSR ,that would be a good trade

haha, what? I personally think SSR has the BEST DVC food court?!

[delmarjohn]

first of all youhave to have food to qualify as a food court,,,,,and the lack of court ....now officially disqaulifies SSR as truly having a food court.....unless you consider the intermingled gift shop to represent court...but on the light side that is just my opinion and you are certainly entitled to yours....but the fact that disney recognizes there is a problem might shed some light on its present configuration

[delmarjohn]

as far as being a food court at dvc ,maybe,but as a member of dvc and a dues payer,my other interest would be that the food court be as profitable and busy as possible....why ...more profit...means less dues....now the big question is...how does the money and profit get distributed from the booking of the resort as a hotel destination

[delmarjohn]

sorry being to serious.....but what is the valet costs for non dvc guests....hopefully dvc members get a discounted rate don't you think?

[bransworld]

I have to be honest I really only wrote the email because another DVC member asked me to... I never plan to use the valet parking so it doesn't bother me too much that they took away the "free" valet parking. But the fact that the "Perks" keep getting smaller is quite frustrating.

[Captgoodguy]

Originally Posted by delmarjohn

...more profit...means less dues....

Sorry, I've never seen a corporation say "Hey, we made more profit over here, let's cut some of the profit over there" It's typically "Hey, we made more profit over here, why are we making more profit over there?"

[Dopey]

Originally Posted by delmarjohn

sorry being to serious.....but what is the valet costs for non dvc guests....hopefully dvc members get a discounted rate don't you think?

I believe that I read somewhere that valet parking for non DVC members went up from 12 to 14 dollars

[WishUponAStar]

Originally Posted by delmarjohn

first of all youhave to have food to qualify as a food court,,,,,and the lack of court ....now officially disqaulifies SSR as truly having a food court.....unless you consider the intermingled gift shop to represent court...but on the light side that is just my opinion and you are certainly entitled to yours....but the fact that disney recognizes there is a problem might shed some light on its present configuration

Originally Posted by delmarjohn

as far as being a food court at dvc ,maybe,but as a member of dvc and a dues payer,my other interest would be that the food court be as profitable and busy as possible....why ...more profit...means less dues....now the big question is...how does the money and profit get distributed from the booking of the resort as a hotel destination

I don't really get what you are saying. None of the DVC resorts have a "food court." Yes, SSR has a counter service restaurant called "Artist Palette" with a huge seating area & in my opinion the food there is excellent for counter service. Are you saying that the food is bad or are you saying that they should make it into a traditional "food court" like Pop Century has?

[delmarjohn]

they themselves refer to it as a food court...since day one I have heard from a higher up that they felt something needed to be done ,but so far nothing....the area was originally setup to service the disney insitute...which was much smaller than than SSR built out...if you do a search for disney insitute you possibly will find a picture of the "counter service"....very little money has been put into it ,once again the disney insitute was MUCH MUCH smaller...but once again it is just my opinion ,just some thoughts

[Prezcatz]

I definitely think the lack of communication is the real travesty here.
Have I ever used the free valet service...No. But it was nice to know it was a perk of being a member. While I do agree with DVCMike that owning DVC does save you money over the long run from what you would pay for a luxury room, I know that were I not in DVC, I would NEVER pay to stay in one of the villas. Don't get me wrong, I do like the space, the separate bed rooms, all of it, but the biggest thing for us was that we knew we wanted to come back to Disney time and again, and this helped us commit to that and taking regular vacations with our kids while they are still young. We would have been fine going with Shades of Green everytime for larger, luxury rooms (I know I'm in the minority here that CAN stay at SoG), or with AS or Pop, because the resorts, while nice, are not the most important thing for us. The parks, the atmosphere, just the magic of being in the world is what we enjoy the most.

I do think that we should be writing to DVC, DisneyFiles, wherever, to let them know that we are not happy. We have made a commitment to Disney, and I feel that in this instance, we should have been treated better and at least notified further in advance that this was going to change. I could go on another entire rant about how DVC'ers should get better discounts, DDP, etc, but I'll save it and start breathing through my nose again now!