Hello alll! After over a decade of “thinking about it” we are finally getting a DVC membership for BLT. In looking over the bennies of buying direct vs resale, the only two that had value to us were hotel/ticket/event discounts and DVC lounges. Maybe some special events, but that wasn’t tangible enough to really evaluate. Even buying just the minimum 150 direct points and rest resale would have been $21K more in purchase price. That covers a LOT of discounts, so really it boiled down to lounge access and that seemed an awful high premium, so we’re going with all resale points.
That is a long introduction to the question: I’m OK with no lounge access in the parks, but was hoping for something at the top of BLT–our home resort–for things like fireworks. Our budget means more likely we’ll be in a non-park-view room. Vilans Lair is clearly blue card only, but I’ve seen a few mentions of an open veranda area nearby that is also available? There wasn’t much detail for me to hunt with, is there something like that?
After decades of staying at value resorts, really looking forward to BLT. The offer is in and now it’s the long wait for ROFR. I’m OK if there isn’t any plan B for the top of BLT, but know if there is any kind of plan B (other than stalking a blue card holder! ) , I’d find out here. Thanks in advance.
The lounge / bar is open to all members. They have a bookable event for “eligible” members, which means a reserved seat, food and the table held for you during the fireworks.
But not all the seats are used for that. I don’t know if they would if enough people booked.
Any DVC member can go to the CM in the lobby to put their name down for the lounge from around 6pm. First come, first served.
There is also a large balcony outside and you can queue to go up about 15 minutes prior to the fireworks. And there might be more seats inside available after the fireworks too.
Oh! That is a lot better than I had gleaned from the reading I’ve been doing. I had interpreted all the posts about the bookable events as that being the only offering up there.
The check in desk is now on the 16th floor. As of today the elevators on the opposite side of the lobby are the only ones that will go to the 16th floor (the other elevators are getting serviced).
I was there last night and as of 6:45 they were turning almost everyone away or telling them they could go to the patio and the pop up bar there. There were a lot of angry members.
OK, so I think I’m getting hung up on “eligible members”. I figger (hope) as a DVC member I’m eligible for some stuff and that is a smaller set than what blue card members are eligible for. That WDW site doesn’t help either!
Fully realizing there can be capacity issues that can affect any member type, is there a place on top of BLT accessible by DVC members that don’t have blue cards–especially around fireworks time? If there are, just subject to capacity, that’s cool, it is something I can try for. If it is really only just for blue card holders, then bummer, no amount of planning will help.
The reason I like Touringplans is if there is a way to increase your odds of getting something hard to get, this is the place to find out how. It’s why I’ve been a TP member for almost a decade (just checked, June 1st!)
There is nothing that resale DVC (non-blue card) owners get. Any “membership extras” that are offered to DVC members apply ONLY to either those grandfathered in, or else are direct DVC owners of 150 points.
You shouldn’t ever count on getting anything otherwise. (I am a resale owner.) There may have been a time when they were more lax about checking, but they seem to be very diligent about checking your status for things these days.
When I made the call on direct vs resale it was an easy call, none of the “membership extras” (and indeed all of them combined) had even close to the value of extra cost of the minimum number of direct points. Since I never expected them, not missing them. The only one that might be nice is the BLT observation area (my home resort). It was (and still is) confusing if it is legitimately accessible by non blue card holders. If it is just a matter of planning ahead, great. If completely off limits or only if cast members don’t check, oh well. My accommodations reference for the past decade is the value resorts, so no matter what, this is a big step up and looking forward to it. Like any good liner, just trying to see how much I can get.
Thanks for clarifying Ryan. It would have been cool, but definitely NOT worth $21K extra in purchase points! That covers lots of 10/20% discounts and maybe some fireworks boat rides or who knows what-all.
That’s exactly why we bought resale as well. I will admit, though, the way Disney words things sometimes, it is annoying. Because owning “resale”, you are still technically a “DVC Member”…so it is annoying when they use language that refers to Members but don’t ACTUALLY mean resale owners. I wish they had another term…like Members and Premium Members or some such distinction. But I’ve learned that anytime they talk about Members having access to some special thing, they really mean “Members who qualify for Membership Extras”, which does NOT include us lowly resale owners!
) , I’d find out here. Thanks in advance.