Platinum Perspective
The Platinum Perspective is all about beauty, travel, luxury, psychology, and more! Dr. Megan and Sarah are two best friends who put in the work and do the research so you don't have to.
Platinum Perspective
Smart Luxury: Disney Vacation Club with Marissa Vallotton
Curious about how the Disney Vacation Club (DVC) works? Longing for some insider trading secrets to maximize your vacation points and create magical memories with your family? Join us on a magical journey as we unlock the kingdom of Disney's best-kept secrets. We were fortunate to host the Vice President of Marketing and Sales for DVC Resale Market, Marissa Vallotton, who shared invaluable insights into the DVC, from its unique business model to handy strategies for buying DVC points.
The episode kicks off with Marissa sharing her passion for clean beauty products and her entrepreneurial venture, Lane & Co Shop, catering to kids. Megan and Sarah eagerly learn about Marissa's clean beauty philosophy and her current product line.
Next, Megan and Sarah explore Marissa's captivating journey with Disney, starting with her time at Disney College Program and performing in renowned Disney shows and parades. They delve into her years at Disney Cruise Line and discover the magic that makes Disney cruises exceptional.
The focus then shifts to Disney Vacation Club, where Megan and Sarah, both Disney enthusiasts, inquire about its benefits. Marissa expertly breaks down the pros and cons of DVC, highlighting the long-term savings, flexibility, and exclusive perks for members.
The trio further discusses the advantages of purchasing DVC through the resale market, offering insights into the cost savings and access to most DVC resorts. They touch on the changing benefits for resale owners and consider the current economic climate's impact on buying decisions.
Towards the end, Marissa introduces World of DVC, the parent company encompassing various Disney vacation options. The podcast concludes with key takeaways, emphasizing the accessibility of deluxe Disney experiences through DVC and its affiliated brands.
Want more information on how to purchase a DVC contract or rent points? Click on the links below to be directed and explore the World of DVC offerings!
DVC Resale Market: https://dvcresalemarket.com/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=PlatinumDoesDisney
DVC Rental Store: https://dvcrentalstore.com/guests/reservations/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=PlatinumDoesDisney
Monera Financial (finance your contract): https://monerafinancial.com?utm_source=influencer&utm_medium=PlatinumDoesDisney&utm_campaign=PlatinumDoesDisney
Incredible Vacation Homes: https://incrediblevacationhomes.com/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=PlatinumDoesDisney
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Hi Megan, Hi Sarah, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great. I we're actually getting ready to go on vacation and I am just obsessed and loving shopping on Revolve. Do you shop on Revolve?
Speaker 1:I recently started shopping on Revolve because of you. I love that site. I'm obsessed also.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've been shopping on it for quite a few years now, but I had this epiphany yesterday that it literally is the perfect business model for a clothing company. Their customer service is phenomenal, phenomenal, phenomenal.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they carry low end and high end, which that fits me Like. I want to buy a $25 tank top, but I also want to buy a $600 blazer, right, and you can buy all those things. They literally ship it to you in two days, I know, and it has and good condition.
Speaker 1:Like they're not shoving stuff into a box and sending it. No, they send it in a beautifully wrapped box. Yeah, keep going, I can go on also.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it, I know, and I love that it comes with the prepaid or the prepaid printed label to return. Yes, I find myself like not shopping on sites that I haven't returned with them before, because it just seems like a hassle. And then I don't end up doing it and you get 60 days to return. On Revolve, they give you everything you need. It's so easy. So we're getting ready to go on a beach vacation.
Speaker 2:I bought like $2,500 worth of things. I tried them all on in the comfort of my own home. I picked a third of them that I'm keeping and taking on vacation and I packaged up the rest. I dropped it back off and literally a day later I don't even know how this is possible A day later, I see I got a refund for all of those. I'm like this is incredible. And recently not this past order, but an order before I got my refund and it was missing one of the items and I was like, oh no, so annoying, I have to call about this. It was literally. I called, they answered right away. No, robots, no, not being able to get to someone Human being answered. They were so apologetic. They credited me back, and then they gave me a $25 credit on top of that because of the hassle. Oh my gosh, I mean, this company has figured it out.
Speaker 1:They have. I know I, as you're talking right now, I recently learned this lesson again. I feel like I learned this over and over we. I shopped directly from one of our favorite brands I won't say which one because I don't want to like disparage but wow, I needed to make a return because it didn't fit quite right. It was way too big and there was no one working there to answer phones. I got the run around. I sent multiple email messages with like either no response or you know, a sort of like they didn't understand what I was saying response. But I only had seven days to return the item, so I was running out of time and eventually I was like look, I'm a podcaster, I want you to know that, like this, I'm having a very bad experience here. And immediately they gave me a return.
Speaker 2:Oh, they did. I mean seven days return period is ridiculous. I know I'm like who can do anything in seven days? No, I know.
Speaker 1:And so I was feeling the pressure. But Revolve sells everything that this clothing brand makes, so I'm like, of course, from now on I'm going to be buying this from Revolve because I can just return it to them, and I've been doing this amazing easy way, yes, and you have 60 days.
Speaker 2:I know I'm so disappointed in that brand because I love their products as well, and I was so disappointed to hear your story.
Speaker 3:Oh you know, I know which one it is, I know If you want to know DMS and this.
Speaker 2:We'll let you know who it was.
Speaker 1:I won't shop directly from them.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:Go through Revolve, yeah, so I agree. And in this day and age, when I feel like a lot of customer service is falling away, like I mean, there's multiple brands now that I shop I used to shop from, but they're just shoving their clothes into a bag and I get them and they're the boob cups are wrinkled.
Speaker 2:The item, the garment is completely wrinkled and it's like well, I have to steam this now, if I'm even going to wear it, or I've even had purchasing something from another site and it comes and it's clearly been worn. It smells like someone's perfume. Oh, like gross. Yeah, that's a bummer.
Speaker 1:That's a big bummer.
Speaker 2:But Revolve has figured it out and I feel like there's no reason for me to shop anywhere else now. After this last experience, I'm like I am done. This is so easy and so convenient and they literally have everything that I want. I bought workout clothes, from like workout clothes to fancy ball gowns those ball gowns that we wore in our photo shoot for the podcast. Those are from Revolve.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those were beautiful dresses. I know, I know I love that. I love everything about Revolve and I do agree Like the price differentials that they offer is great.
Speaker 2:I know, oh, and we're not affiliated. We this is pure passion. Revolve. If you want to be affiliated, connect with us. Well, what's going on with you, megan? How's your week? Oh?
Speaker 1:I've had a pretty chill week but it is getting hot outside finally in California and I have to just give a plug real quick to the Curie deodorant.
Speaker 2:Now.
Speaker 1:I sort of you know I'm not one for gimmicks, but I will try things like this just to see if it works. I have never found an actual natural deodorant that has worked before, and I have to say that the Curie deodorant stick in particular has some lasting power and it smells good.
Speaker 2:What scent did you get?
Speaker 1:I got the new coconut scent. Oh, yep, I have that one too. I love it. I love it too. And I did get the spray. Now I will say she said the spray works for her. Just a couple of sprints, that's not enough for me. So I noticed after a couple of hours. I was like, oh, I think I might need that stick. And when I use that stick it's all day, it's great, it's fantastic. And I'm using the spray like on my clothes so that I smell good from the day.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, Fally free smelling good. I know I love it Having her on the episode. If you haven't listened, we had Sarah Moray, the founder of Curie, on our episode. You can search for it back in our previous episodes. But having her on reignited my use of her products, because I'm always trying so many different things and it's stuck. I mean it is the best natural and clean deodorant Clean deodorant, I agree. I specify the best clean deodorant that I have ever tried. It's amazing. She has figured something really great out.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes. I just wanted to say that real quick because I'm about to go to Florida and that'll be the real test. I know it's the real test but I am pleasantly surprised because I've tried so many of them like this. So I just wanted to give an update that it's got the stamp of approval for me.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love that. Yeah, well, with that, welcome everyone to Platinum Perspective, the podcast about beauty, travel, luxury and more. I'm your cohost, sarah.
Speaker 1:And I'm Megan. Sarah and I are best friends who put the work in to get the most out of life, so you don't have to. Today we have a very special guest named Marissa Ballaton, and I first became introduced to Marissa back in 2021 when we were in the midst of a pandemic and I needed some Disney hope on my future. So I really started researching everything about Disney Vacation Club and starting to understand and unravel all the ins and outs of this amazing program, and Marissa was the person I was talking to the most. That helped me get a bunch of contracts both at the Grand Californian and in the Grand Floridian. So just to give you a little bit of Marissa's background, she is Vice President of Marketing and Sales for DVC Resial Market. This falls under the umbrella of the world of DVC, which includes the DVC Resial Market, dvc Rental Store, vr, guest Vacations, unlock, magic, monetary Financial. And then she also has another interesting dynamic to her, which is that she's into clean products for kids and she has another company named Lane and Co Shop, and so we will dive into that in a moment.
Speaker 1:And a little bit about her background. She began her Disney career in 2007 at Disneyland with the Disneyland College Program. We'll hear more about that in a moment. During her time at Disneyland, she created magical memories for families for families performing in Disney's renowned shows and parades like Phantasmic, the Main Street Electrical Parade, the Parade of Dreams and many more. In 2008, she joined the Disney Cruise Line and set sail around the world working on cruise ships for the next six years, and even met her husband while sailing the seven seas. In 2014, marissa joined the Disney Vacation Club team as a Disney Vacation Club sales guide, where she quickly became recognized as a top performer in a leadership circle recipient. In 2017, marissa and her husband became new parents to their son, kayden, and Marissa's favorite Disney memory is performing in the Disney Parks Christmas Parade on ABC in 2007. I want to hear more about that. And then, in addition to all that, she has sold 12 million in Disney Vacation Club direct sales, 53 million in DVC resale sales, and she's a DVC Leadership Circle Award winner. So welcome Marissa.
Speaker 2:You're so glad to have you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me Such an amazing resume that you have. I can't wait to hear more about it. Before we dive into all of that, though, we have a segment we like to call Rapid Fire where I ask you three questions and you give us your quick responses to those questions Are you ready. I'm ready, okay, question one should Sarah and I take a Disney cruise?
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely, that's the vacation.
Speaker 1:I'll practice that with. We've never taken a cruise before Ever.
Speaker 3:You still like you have to. That makes it even more, even more reason you need to do it.
Speaker 1:I want to hear the sales pitch. Okay, we'll get to that. Question two what is your favorite DVC property of all time?
Speaker 3:I wish this one was so much easier. I think it would be. I'm gonna go with Vero Beach and it's kind of like an odd one, but we're in Orlando and so we're at the park, so much so Vero Beach is just like a really great getaway and vacation for our family.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm so surprised at that. Wow, where is?
Speaker 2:that located.
Speaker 3:So it's about an hour from Walt Disney World. It's on the east coast of Florida so it's kind of like, as you're going out to the cruise ships, it's just a little bit further from there and so it's kind of in the middle of nowhere. But Disney was able to get some beach property and it's everything you love about a cruise, like going to the private island, having like the pool, the activities, but it's all right there and for us it's an hour drive away, so my son gets to go what he calls Mickey's Beach house and Hang out there and get all the Disney stuff without, like, all the household bustle of the parks.
Speaker 1:Oh Cool, that's so nice. Okay, question three Are you also into clean beauty?
Speaker 3:I am, yes, it my when my son was born. I think I think that's probably the journey for a lot of people when you start to have kids, and I had Like pregnancy knows really, really bad, and all the sudden, like every cent would drive me crazy, and so, like at that point, I did away with like all chemicals in the home, all perfumes, started to look for clean like Cosmetics, and that just kind of like it spiraled since there, so it hasn't stopped.
Speaker 2:I love that. Well, my background is in beauty, so Megan is educating me on Disney. But before we jump into Disney, can I ask you a little bit more on that? You have a kids clean beauty line. We do, yeah.
Speaker 3:So basically, when my son was born, we he had crazy hair. My husband and I both have super thick hair, and so right away we were like, okay, we need something to help this hair do a little bit. And for babies, their scalp is so like tiny and their skin on their scalp is so thin and that's such a huge organ that absorbs so much of like the sulfate to the parabens. And so we took a deep, deep dive, and the deeper we went, like the worst it got. And so we were like there's really nothing for little kids that can kind of like Lightly teen their hair. We were putting like lotion on his head because we're like, okay, at least that'll kind of like tame the hair down a little bit. But there was nothing that was like gonna keep that cute like baby look, but also have all those good, clean like Ingredients inside. And so that was kind of the aha moment to say, okay, if there's nothing out there and we need this, then there's probably a need in the market. And so it took us about two years to Find, like a chemist, that held our same values and then formulate, and then you do like the patch testing and the dermatologist testing, and so it took us two years to really get started and then, march of 2020, everything was set and we're like, awesome, let's go. But I think it worked in.
Speaker 3:Our favor is, I think, out of the pandemic, the clean beauty industry really kind of like Took off and I think the more and more people were just starting to be more aware of like whether that was being home.
Speaker 3:They were just more aware of like what they were surrounding themselves with, and so the good news for us is it really was actually perfect timing, where we saw it wasn't just something that we knew we had a need for.
Speaker 3:So many other families had that. So we have like a kid's hair paste which is Kind of like a pomade, but it's for little kids so that they can put it on their hair. It holds whether that's gonna be like flyaways in a ponytail for a little girl or a little boy almost like a gel like, but it holds kind of still that kid like look in them. So they're not like crunchy and stuffy where you're not like okay To your baby, you're not putting hairspray on, where they have kind of that, that ten-year-old look. And so that was our first product. Now we have a detangler and we have an all-purpose bomb which is like something every mom should have in their purse, because it's like scratches and bruises and it helps with sunburns and mosquito bites, and so we just kept kind of like adding, as we go along and find those needs, I.
Speaker 2:Love that you're speaking to my mom, heart and my beauty industry heart. What's the name of your?
Speaker 3:company. It's Lane and co-shop, and so our website is Lane and co-shop calm, and you can also find us on Amazon or on Walmart. Okay, perfect for all of our listeners.
Speaker 2:We're gonna link, we'll link that on our Instagram and I'm gonna order that detangler because my girls have long hair and we need as much.
Speaker 3:I use it for myself, so it's good for the whole family.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great. Yes, that's amazing. Okay, well, now that we've talked about beauty, let's get into all the Disney fun. I had no idea about all of your background when I was working with you, just buying DVC contracts. It's astounding. Can you tell us more about how you got started with Disney and what kind of performances Were you in?
Speaker 3:and, and all of that Disney vacation college or Disney College yeah, the whole right it's funny because I remember and correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember meeting you for the first time and you're from Florida and then you live in California and my story is the complete opposite. I'm from California and I live in Florida, and so I've always remembered you because I was like she's kind of like the total opposite of me. We just when are you from? In California, Northern California?
Speaker 2:so I'm from Reading like almost the border, oh okay, but I'm dripping Sacramento, oh okay, so that's what really kind of kicked off my Disney journey was living in California.
Speaker 3:I went to school in Southern California. I went to Azusa Pacific, which is kind of near Pasadena area, and so my last year in school I was getting a degree in marketing and they said we had to have some sort of internship and so you know, you go through the college fairs and you're like, okay, what do I do, where do I go? And then they had the Disney College program booth and so for a lot of like the east coasters they know about Disney College program because it's been at Disney World for a very long time, but the Disneyland College program it's not as well known and I was probably one of the first couple years of classes that they ever like launched it to. And so I was like, oh, this is perfect, so I'll go out there and do that. My background kind of before I went to school I danced and performed my whole life and so when I went to college it was deciding do I go to school for like theater, arts and performing and dance, or do I get like a job in business and marketing? And so I went the marketing route. But I always had that love for performing and so Doing the college program while you're doing kind of like the internship side, they want you to have like a regular job in like the parks, and so it was kind of that perfect opportunity to take advantage of kind of both of my passions. And so I was able to take my dance skills and audition and I got parts in a lot of the shows and the cool thing is kind of once you start in entertainment it opens the doors for just so many other things. And so At the time they were launching Tinkerbell as a meet-and-greet character she had never existed before as meet-and-greet and so I got to work with the creative department and be like a Tinkerbell model and so I would go.
Speaker 3:They had the special secret building in Fullerton and I used to got there and like they have this like secret costume design team and so got to be part of that. And then, as I got to know that team in special events, they did the Christmas Day parade which they do every year and they usually have like Ryan Seacrest or Kelly Clarkson host it, and so they were like hey, we need an extra role for the Christmas parade. I was like three months in to my time there and I was like, sure, let me. So it was super exciting. And then from there opened the door to Disney cruise line. So I went out to perform on Disney cruise ships. I told my poor mama was like I'll be gone for six months and then, ten years later, I'm still working on the cruise ships. So I broke her heart. She's like are you ever coming home again for Christmas?
Speaker 2:They came on the cruises with me instead.
Speaker 3:But I loved I mean to answer your question a little bit more detail on cruises. It's an amazing way to do a Disney vacation, just because the shows, the character, interactions. It's so different from the parks where kind of everything is a little bit more like planned and where you have to have your day planned out in the lines. There everything is just much more kind of organic in like Mickey Mouse might just walk by or you're working out in the gym and Chip and Dale are running on the treadmill next to you. So it's really kind of that.
Speaker 3:Experience on the ships.
Speaker 1:Oh, so cool. Yeah, I have friends that have done the Disney cruises before and they rave about them and I'm like what? I've never done a cruise before. But maybe that's the right place to start.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so our, our team. We are now officially like the world of DBC and we just kind of keep like snowballing and so with that we also have a travel agent be our guest vacations, and so if you're ever cruising, those ladies are the experts and there's all kind of perks and benefits with them for booking. So really great way to kind of start out on your first cruise. They'll take care of everything for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was listening to it.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, I was listening to a different podcast and they were going into all those perks and it was. I've never been one to like use a lot of travel agents for planning, but Hearing everything that they do for you and making sure you always get the lowest price and even if the price changes, they'll fix that for you. They give you, like a voucher for food and like all kinds of stuff, so it does sound like a really great way to save money and free to use.
Speaker 3:That's the thing. It's a no-brainer, it's free. They do all the work for you. You just show up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds great. Okay, so there's been a lot of mention of DBC and I have to admit that, um, prior to about ten months ago, I had never heard of DVC before. I had only been to Disneyland a couple times as a kid I hadn't taken my family yet and then I met Megan and.
Speaker 2:She educated me a bit on DVC. She invited my family on our first Disneyland vacation as a family with our kids. It was incredible. But she's talking a lot about DVC. Can you explain it a little bit? I know she's trying to sell me on it. It still feels a little confusing. Yeah, um, we loved our trip at Disneyland. I definitely want to do that more often with my girls. They're still so little now. But, um, for our listeners, who don't even know, probably, what DVC stands for, can we talk a little bit about what that is? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So DVC is Disney Vacation Club and the short and sweet of it it's basically Disney's version of a timeshare. And so really and it is funny because a lot of like the West Coast audience Disney puts less marketing into that and even at the time they there's 15 Disney Vacation Club resorts and one of them is the Grand Californian, which I'm assuming that's where you stayed when you miss. But even at the time that Disney Vacation Club was selling the Grand Californian resort, they couldn't sell it because they did such a poor job of educating like the West Coast audience. And I think there was a little bit of that burn of like timeshares in Mexico and so the West Coast audience is like nope, we want nothing to do with it. And and then now they're releasing their newest resort. That they're releasing is the Disneyland Towers and those are like a hot commodity and they can't Keep up with the sales on them. So I think they've done a good job now of kind of like shifting that narrative.
Speaker 3:But really this started in like the late 90s with Disney and so basically what it is is it's the most flexible option when it comes to timeshare. So if you know anything about timeshare, a lot of timeshares you either buy like a week so let's say you have week 52 and that's basically going to be Christmas week every year and you buy the same location, same resort, same type of room, and so when Disney stepped into the timeshare industry, they didn't want that just because they knew that their audience and their guests wanted something much more flexible. And they're also dealing with families who are growing and so that vacation style is probably going to shift Every year for at least the next like 20 years of that kind of family life. And and so Disney really revolutionized the timeshare industry and so they were actually the first ones to ever create a point system. So if you hear any timeshares now, like Mary ought Hilton they all use a point system. Now, that was all modeled off after what Disney had created, and so with Disney, it's super flexible.
Speaker 3:You basically you buy points and your points you can use however you want a vacation. So it's almost like monopoly money where you say, okay, I've got these points. What is that equal on the point chart and you can buy whatever you want in terms of what you have points for, so you can use your points for as little as a one night stay. So, like for us. We're here in Orlando, we're Disney Vacation Club members, but we don't do a traditional week stay at Disney. We just did. For example, we did a night in the Grand Floridian Grand Villa, which is a crazy beautiful. Megan, have you stayed there? Yeah, that's why we say when we go it's my property.
Speaker 1:I've tried to tell Sarah about it. It just blows your mind how beautiful it is. Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's just stunning and so like. For us. Our points are not going to stretch for a full week in that room, but we had Mother's Day so I was like, alright, this is my Mother's Day, so we'll go there, we'll get that room and it's just the three of us. But hey, it's gonna be fun. And so you.
Speaker 3:That's the flexibility with the membership. You're not locked into a set time of year, a certain room, a certain resort. You get your points and you use them however you want. So if you want to stay for one night, or if you want to flex your points and maybe find a smaller room During a slower season, you can stay for as many nights as your points allow. And then, to add to that flexibility, if you're a family that may not be going to Disney every year, there's the banking and borrowing. So if you don't use your points one year, you can bank them to the next year. So each set of points has a two-year life. So if I'm not going in the year 2023, I have up to the year 2025 to use those points by. And then, in the same breath, let's say I'm doing something really, really big in 2023 and I know next year I really don't have much of a vacation plans you can borrow ahead so in any one given time you can utilize three years worth of points. So you really can kind of flex on how you want a vacation.
Speaker 3:But I think kind of the biggest win where people say, okay, disney Vacation Club makes sense for us, is if you start to run the math on it and again it kind of goes to that classic like time share where a lot of times with time shares You're buying into something where the maintenance is not maintaining and so you're paying what most people know is like the maintenance or the annual dues and you're paying more in that cost than what the value of the room is and then those costs keep rising as the value of the room starts to drop Over the years. If they're not improving that, well, disney, because they have such high standards, that's not the case. So they've kind of flipped that time share kind of value when it comes to Disney Vacation Club. So for example, if you're staying at the Grand Floridian and let's say you're doing a week stay at the Grand Floridian, you're probably paying about $6,000, $5,000 to $6,000 for that week. If you're buying a membership that equals to that week cost. It's probably going to be about a $25,000 membership. So when you start to do the math and you go okay, that's a $5,000 vacation Equal to a $25,000 Disney Vacation Club membership. In about five vacations that membership pays for itself. And so for people who go to Disney and Once you kind of have that Disney bug, most people keep going to Disney, and so once you start adding up those costs, so many families go okay, we're paying this over the span.
Speaker 3:Maybe it's not five years, maybe it's 10 years, but over that span we're going to be paying this out. And the Grand Floridian membership, for example, goes into the year 2064. So for five years worth of vacation you're getting 40 years of vacation out of it. And then each year after that you're still paying the dues. But, for example, the dues on that membership are going to be about $1,500. So your $1,500 cost is getting you a $5,000 vacation, and so every year you're going to maintain that value as you go. And so if you talk to members who joined in the 90s, they're like this is the best thing we have ever done, because they pay like next to nothing.
Speaker 3:And they're staying in the nicest rooms on Disney property for literally just their dues that year. Wow, wow, and can you? This is so informative can you clarify?
Speaker 2:So are you buying Vacation Club for one specific resort? Is that right? Because I think, Megan, you mentioned you own within Disneyland and Disney World. Yeah, so yeah go for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we bought we initially bought at Grand Californian, so you choose your home resort and so my home resort is Grand Californian. And then we also wanted a home resort of Grand Floridian, because I have all my family in Florida and so your home resort gets you priority access to those rooms 11 months in advance. Every other property then becomes available to you at 7 months. Now if those home members have already reserved their rooms, then you're sort of out of luck. So like Boardwalk Thills Up Fast Beach Club, those are ones like and Grand Floridian and Grand Californian both fill up also, which is why I was like okay, well, we know we love these resorts, we know we want priority access to these resorts in particular and I have flexibility to go try out some of these other resorts if I want to later.
Speaker 1:But because I know it's going to be harder for me to use my points at 7 months If I belong to a different resort, we just went ahead and bought our favorite, and I think that's usually what they recommend is buy your favorite resort and then you can use your points. At the end of the day, you can use your points pretty much anywhere if you're just playing the timing correctly In Mercer, let's hear your clarification of what I just said. You know, you're the first one.
Speaker 3:You're the first one to start right on, and I think when you look at kind of vacationers, we usually see two types of vacationers and there's, like our planner type, who know where they want to stay. They don't want to compromise on, like, what resort they want to stay at, and so those are the planners that you go. Okay, that's Megan.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's me.
Speaker 3:And I remember even having these conversations of like if you want to stay at the Grand Californian, you've got to buy at the Grand Californian and there's a premium to that because it is a smaller resort. And so you'll find with all the resorts they're going to differ among the years left on the membership. So you're going to find you can buy Disney Vacation Club and all of this is going to be on the resale market unless you're buying directly from Disney and then they have like one resort you can choose from. But if you're looking on the resale market it gives you some more flexibility to figure out what makes the most sense. But they're going to go into anywhere from 20 years remaining on that deed to 50 years. So that's going to be kind of.
Speaker 3:The first deciding factor is do we want something more short term or are we looking for more of like a legacy that we want that 50 year deed on? And then the next thing is deciding are we going to be picky about where we want to stay and if we want to stay at specific places, buy at those places, because if you love that place, it's probably means a lot of people love it too. Versus we have other families who go. We don't care, all the deluxe properties are awesome. We might plan six months in advance, we might plan three months in advance and we're good with whatever's available. Then if you're in that bucket, buy for the best value, and so you can kind of look at like the different economical factors and go, okay, saratoga Springs at Walt Disney World might be a good option. It's lower on the dues, it's lower on the entry cost. It still has about 35 years of membership on it, so that might be the route to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And so for people in California right now, the option, the big option, is Grand California and the new option is the. The villas just went up, yeah. So yeah, we'll talk more about those villas, I think in a little bit, but I think just to break down the pros and the cons of DVC, just so that we have like a balanced view of it, I'd say like the number one thing that Marisa just mentioned is like for us it was savings over time.
Speaker 1:Like I have a calculator I can send you Saratoga I'm happy to share with anybody where we went through and we looked up what's rack rate and rack rate means like what is Disney selling this room for through the hotel versus what is it for? What's the breakdown for a specific contract? And for us it was Grand California and how much does it cost, how many years are left and how many points do I need in order to get that room? And so you can break it down and say what's the savings if I do buy this. And for us it was like 40 to 50% savings versus just like buying straight from Disney. So that was like the number one.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's huge. It's huge. Yeah, I mean it's in it. We need the larger accommodations for my family. I know not everybody's like this, but we have poor sleepers in my family. We need extra space.
Speaker 3:I might be the bad sleeper, that's how we are. Yeah. It's like, everyone needs their own room.
Speaker 1:Everyone needs their own room yeah, that's us, and so that was a huge one. But the other downside is like Grand California is so hard to get in, even just through the hotel side. Those are like larger suites. They go so fast that every time I was looking, even if I had the money to spend on that huge you know room, it was already gone.
Speaker 1:And so the nice thing is that, like 11 months in advance and I am the planner I'm such a planner, I know when I want to go and I just I'm on there that day and I'm booking it for 11 months in advance, and then I have first steps and I wanted, I wanted the larger rooms and I wanted first steps. So those were like the huge things for us. And then again, though, I like the flexibility of the Grand Californian, because I have those points and there's so many other resorts in Orlando to try out that are through DBC, and so the flexibility of it was sort of fun for the, for the Florida side. And then we have access to exclusive perks. I don't know if you want to talk more about this, marissa, but there's differences in the perks you receive if you're a direct member versus a resale member, but you do pay a cost for that. So I don't know, if you want to explain a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. And so basically I worked for Disney Vacation Club directly through Disney for about three years and then I switched over to the DBC resale side of things, and so when you're looking to buy as a consumer and you go, okay, what's going to be the best option for my family, that's kind of the two routes to look at and when you're buying directly from Disney, you're going to get a totally unrestricted membership and then you're going to get benefits and perks. So the perks are going to be they offer sometimes these different like member parties here and there throughout the year and then discounts. So whether that is like on shopping, usually it's going to be about 20% on your shopping, 10% on some of your sit down dining locations, and so that's kind of going to be the direct route. Now, for a lot of people that's very important and so like, if that falls into like, hey, this is a priority for me, then that's a route to go.
Speaker 3:What we find for a lot of people when they look to make the decision to become a Disney Vacation Club member is their first step in deciding to be a member is the savings. So they're saying, okay, why am I doing this? Cause I want to save on future vacations. And then they go oh, and if I go resale, I'm saving 50% off what Disney charges, so that savings is even more. So if you're looking to give up a few of those perks and really kind of get to the bottom of that savings, that's where resale makes a lot of sense. And so I think go ahead.
Speaker 2:No, I just wanted to clarify what resale means. Yeah, is that someone is selling their contracts that they originally purchased.
Speaker 3:Exactly. So basically, when you're buying directly from Disney, they're selling their live inventory. So if you were to go to Disney Vacation Club right now at Disneyland, they're going to probably tell you all about the new Disneyland hotel and Elani because those are their live properties right now on the West coast. But you might say, hey, I really want the Grand Californian. I prefer that. I don't want to have some of the different transient track taxes that have just come out and I won't go into too much detail.
Speaker 3:But if you want a deep dive, you can go to dbcresalemarketcom. We have all the blogs on our website and you can find the deep guys there. But especially with the Grand Cal, it's still probably the most beloved West coast resort, just because that ease of walking in and out of California adventure and just kind of that grand location and all of that. And so if you were to go there and go directly through Disney, you can't buy Grand Californian or you're on a waitlist that might be a 10 to 15 year waitlist. That never happens, and so for a lot of people that the outings they did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so there's no waitlist left anymore, which is crazy.
Speaker 3:They might reopen it here and there, but yeah, there's times where they go. It's not even worth putting your name down because it doesn't exist.
Speaker 3:And so that's where people look into the resale side of things, because one, they can get access to resorts that they may not be able to get directly through Disney. But, for example, like you could go to Disney now and ask for like Saratoga Springs, but you're going to be paying about $100 more per point to buy directly from Disney versus the resale market. And so if the core of kind of like your reason to buy Disney Vacation Club is savings, then usually the resale market is going to be that option. Or even in your case, megan, where it's like, hey, I want the Grand Cal, then that's going to be your option there. And I think too, even when you look at like Disney Vacation Club as a whole, I think for families where it makes the most sense is if you kind of map out the next like 30 years of vacation and say, are we going to go five to 10 more times? And if the answer is yes, then Disney Vacation Club is probably the right move.
Speaker 3:If you're saying, hey, we might do like three trips in the next 30 years, then it's probably something where maybe just rent DVC points for that stay, because that's another really great option where you can rent somebody else's points, and so basically what we take care of is the resale market is like a brokerage, so it's like a real estate transaction where somebody's selling their contract and then we work as the broker. We're all former cast members, we all use short for DVC and then we take care of that side of the broker side for you. And then once you become a member, you still log into the Disney website. Everything's the same there. You just don't get some of the added perks. But if you're saying, hey, this might just be, let's say, a one trip to a Lonnie thing and maybe I don't want to pay racquerate the Disney prices, maybe I want to save on that, well, you can also rent DVC points and you're still saving about 40 to 50% off Disney's racquerate for that one vacation.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, okay. I'm really interested in this. So this is so. They would work with you to rent. It's basically like an Airbnb type of situation, like somewhere where you're renting someone's room.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you're basically renting their points. And so the beauty of that is it's not Airbnb, where you're kind of like, hey, can you book this for me and I'm going to stay in your location we own DVC rental storecom and with that you would just almost like you'd book your regular Disney say. You'd say, hey, I want to stay between July 10 through July 17. And then we'll go find a member who has points that match your request and then we'll book that state for you, and then we send you the confirmation number and then you just put that into, whether that's your my Disney Experience app or you just hold that reservation number for when you check in, and then it's just like you are a regular paying guest for that check in.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, okay, that's great to know. And also, when we're speaking to resale and these like long commitments of 30 or 50 years, is it fair to assume that if you change your mind, there is this resale market that you can then sell these large contracts that you've purchased?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so that's where it kind of becomes like when we were making that decision for our family, that's where it kind of became a no brainer because we were like, hey, we're using and going to Disney, enough where this makes sense, but we bought it at the Polynesian and for when I bought it about four years ago, to what I could sell it for now. So, yeah, not that it's seen as something where you want to like turn around and flip and make a great profit on. But that's kind of the beauty of it is.
Speaker 3:If you're buying Disney Vacation Club, if you've watched the prices of Disney tickets or Genie Plus or anything like that, disney prices are always increasing. They're not taking a dip, no matter what we're seeing in any market. And so Disney Vacation Club really follows that same trend to where really the value keeps on rising. And so we could take our contract that we bought four years ago and sell it and make quite a bit more than what we paid for it, and most people can say the same about Disney Vacation Club. So the beauty of it is, if you love it and can use it, that's really where you're going to get the most value out of it. But if, for some reason, you're not, that's okay, because there's going to be a lot more families that are looking to buy that contract from you.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's great to know. Yeah, I was going to pick your brain about this, marissa, because I was just playing around on the DVC Resale Market website this morning just in preparation for this and just thinking I always have add-on items and I'm like I'm thinking, oh, maybe let's go see what the Grand Cal is going for right now. It's $100 more per point than when I purchased it two years ago, which is incredible. So that means if I'm not that I want to sell it, but if I did sell it right now, I would make money.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's funny because I was pulling up your contract just to see like what prices you get for when you start it. And yeah, the pricing there and it really is again, you can buy it at any resort, but the ones that we see really start to increase in value is that supply and demand. It's similar to regular real estate and so if you look at like Alani, for example, Alani has over 600 units allotted to it that have like Disney Vacation Club locations, versus the Grand Californian has 48. So when you talk about like supply and demand, there is far more demand than there is supply at the Grand Californian and so that's why that one resort we see just increased so much every year.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. That's amazing. What about when you go to like the ones that have very few I guess, years left on them? Is it still a good buy at that point? Yeah, so he waster. These are ones that have like 15 years left on them, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So old Key West Beach Club, boardwalk, vero Beach, those all expire in the year 2042, so we're getting right at that like 18 year mark on all of them. And so, again, my rule of thumb when it comes to Disney Vacation Club is always Are you gonna get at least like five years break even, and then are you gonna get another X amount of years out of it, for just the dues, and if you can Justify that, then it still makes sense. And so for those resorts you're still, because they have less years, they're gonna be quite a lot cheaper, and so that's again a great option for families who say we like this idea, but we don't really want to buy into a 50 year Type thing. We know like, for the next 10 to 15 years this is gonna be high priority. Then get cheaper points, take advantage of like the lowest costs on the market, and then you don't even need to worry about reselling it in the future. It's just gonna expire.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes sense and those are super cheap. They are, yeah, this morning. Yeah, that's interesting. Okay, can you tell us more about the member cruises for DVC, because I don't think I realized that was a thing until I was researching for this episode. But that's interesting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that's another one of the perks that you'd have to have some point spot directly from Disney to qualify for the member Cruises. But what they do is usually once, sometimes like twice a year, they do a member only cruise. So you still have to pay for the cruise. Sometimes they limit it. So sometimes they say you have to either use all points for the cruise or like at least have one person on points. Sometimes they allow you to just pay cash for the cruise and so it's a really, really fun cruise. They charter it just for DVC members.
Speaker 3:You get special gifts in your room each night. So every night you check back into your room you have like a whole little gift basket of fun surprises. And what I probably love the most, what they do on those cruises is they bring out a ton of the Broadway stars, so whether it's like the original Mary Poppins, the original Tarzan, the original Nala, and they do like many shows throughout the cruise and you get to really kind of like know them on like that one-on-one basis. So for me that was like the big draw of a member cruise. That's cool, that's really cool, yeah, okay, interesting.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I want to highlight one thing that we did we strategized with you about Marissa is that you can buy like the Minimal amount of points direct from Disney to be considered a direct member, and for us at that point that was a hundred and twenty five points. That was not nearly enough to cover what we needed for accommodation. So then we bought the rest of our contracts through DVC resale, and so that's a way where you can have all those perks and get, for the majority of our points, a great cost savings on top of, you know, buying the DVC contract, buying it resale, and so we have some of those perks. I wouldn't say like we use them a lot, though here in California there's not a lot of. There's not like I think they're building a lounge or they're about to open a lounge, but most of the lounges you have access to are in Florida and I think we use like the percentage off on dining and things like that here.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's probably about the only perk I've used.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they definitely. You'll see there's. It's a pretty big like East Coast and we'll see that shift a little bit. Now with Disneyland Tower, I think they just opened last month the, the member lounge at the Disneyland Tower, so that should be should be open and ready for you.
Speaker 3:But yeah, they do a lot of like member events and things here at Walt Disney World. I think one of the biggest things that goes over like so well with the members is the moonlight magic. So you get free tickets into the park. You now you have to get those tickets and you have to get in the virtual queue, which is very hit and miss, but those are fun. Where you get it's almost like moonlight mad or almost like extra magic hours, but you get to go in for free for a few hours in the evening. So those are like some really great perks.
Speaker 3:But if it's just kind of like the shopping or dining discounts what a lot of people do if they're not wanting to like purchase, the direct minimum so the direct minimum now is 150 points which you get depending on kind of where that's important to you. It does make sense for a lot of families to kind of do that combo of both. But another way to kind of still get some of those perks would be getting like a Disney visa when you get a lot of the same like shopping and dining discounts without having to do like the direct purchase. So you can kind of play around with all those different things and see, hey, what's most important to us? Oh.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. I've never heard of that before. That'd be a great way to to have the same perks. Okay, well, in the economy the way that it is right now, is it still a good time to buy? Because everything seems to be going up price wise and again, talking about how much of the difference I've seen across two years, is it still a good time to buy right now?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So basically, if you kind of follow like the trend of real estate, disney Vacation Club really kind of followed a similar trend, slightly different. So 2023 was very, very different for Disney Vacation Club. Then we've seen in like the traditional real estate market, I think with regular real estate in 2023. There's just been a plateau. There really hasn't been much of a drop, it's just kind of slowed down. And so what we saw in 2020 was this like vacation revenge, where everyone was like I just need to go on vacation, so I'm gonna buy Disney Vacation Club because that means I know, I'm going on vacation.
Speaker 3:That was an amazing time to buy because their sellers were much more willing and we're talking more on the resell side of things but sellers were willing to negotiate because they were saying we don't know what like the future looks like for us in vacationing, so we're just gonna let this go. And so you saw like a lot more like negotiating in deals during that time, but then inevitably the market just shot up and like went crazy and, in my opinion, probably like 2021, the end of that year into 2022, probably overinflated in terms of pricing, like it probably got higher than really the market was supposed to go. And so 2023 that's why we saw a drop and so, instead of like traditional real estate where a plateaued, there's a pretty massive drop so far this year and so in all of our tracking from January on to about April May, every month prices dropped average prices dropped and dropped and dropped and dropped, and then it flipped in May. So April, may, june, we've seen them climb back up not by much, only for about like 5% increase, but I think we've hit that bottom. So I think for people who wait in the wings and say, hey, when is it gonna bottom out? I think we're right there and so it's kind of like if you're looking for a really good deal, we're probably at that like tail end of the really good deals. To compare, when we were right in kind of the peak of like pricing, we struggled to keep like a hundred contracts on the website. At the beginning of this year we had about 800 contracts on the website, so that's the difference of inventory, and then right now we're probably about 400 contracts and so again back to that supply and demand.
Speaker 3:Right now we're kind of in that equal playing field where you can still get a really good deal. But I think the biggest reason like if you've been thinking about buying Disney Vacation Club and resell is the option for you, the reason to buy now versus Any other time is right, a first refusal and again not to do too much in deep dive. But basically when you buy on the resum market, disney is still the developer, so they have the right to buy any contract that they see come through. So every buyer that says like if Megan says hey, I want to buy this Grand California contract, we go under contract, we submit it to Disney and then Disney says yes or no and if Disney says no, they get to keep that contract for themselves.
Speaker 3:So if Megan negotiated a steal of a deal, disney says thank you very much, I want that deal, I'm gonna take it. And then she doesn't get it and then we're back to the drawing board again and so that really drives up prices and it also makes it hard to get a deal because you know you've got to get it past the mouse. So right now Disney hasn't bought back and read a first refusal. Out of 2000 contracts We've sold this year, they've got four so they're not buying now. And so if you're trying to sneak in a good deal, this is the time. Disney works on a calendar of October to October, so where, like most people, their year new year comes in January, disney's new year is coming in October and so we'll probably see that shift back to them buying again. But so far from October to now they've only got four contracts.
Speaker 2:Wow, okay, so the sweet spot is right now.
Speaker 1:I remember, just like crossing my fingers with every contract I purchased, like, is it gonna get passed right, a first refusal, is it gonna get passed? Because I think they were buying back more back then when I was purchasing.
Speaker 1:But also there wasn't this yeah, there wasn't this inventory either. Like I was also shocked, not just the price of the Grand California but the number of contracts available. Because, yeah, back when I was buying there were no contracts and I had to say, marissa, first one, you find that's this use year, this month, that I wanted to purchase, jump on it for us. Yeah, so she keep getting these amazing ones for me. But it was like it was up I sometimes I'd see it for one second on the website and to be gone.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that's amazing. Can we clarify just me being a total novice in this right now? Can we clarify the points? How? The points relate to the dollar. So Are the points? Is the dollar to the point different depending on where you're buying? Or is there a set dollar, like when you say it's a hundred and fifty points, yeah, to buy in. What does that mean in dollars?
Speaker 3:So if you're looking at like, let's say, a regular hotel room at Disney, right, and so the typical Hotel room at Disney that sleeps for maybe five people, if you're doing that stay for a week, it's probably gonna be about a hundred and fifty points. So in terms of like dollar value, a hundred fifty points at least, about five thousand dollar vacation.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm thinking back to. I'm like when we stayed at Grand California, we were in a one bedroom suite. Yes, it was phenomenal, I loved it. It had great views. I thought we definitely want to stay here again, and I think it was about five thousand dollars for Four or five nights, but that was spring break, so it was probably inflated a bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so your one bedrooms are gonna be a little bit higher in points. Okay, but so you only stayed for a five nights versus like a seven night stay, so you're probably about 200 points for that stay.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, interesting.
Speaker 3:Okay, that's good to know and so the value of points.
Speaker 3:If I have a hundred points and I own at the Polynesian, that hundred points is equal to the same hundred points at the Grand California and the Grand Floridian at a Lonnie. So it's you don't get like if you're buying points at one resort they don't equal more at another resort, so everybody's points have the same value to them. It's just going back to Megan's point of the reason you buy at a specific location is you get priority booking access. So the cost to buy the points will differ and a lot of that depends on Either the length of that contract so you might be paying double for a 40-year deed, but that's because you're getting 20 more years or it's that priority location, like, for example, beach Club at Walt Disney World, is one of the most demanded locations. It only has 18 years worth of membership on it but it's still selling as like one of the top five prices Just because it's such a high demanded location. So it's gonna typically cost more to stay there and that kind of reflects in the pricing in the points.
Speaker 2:Okay, oh, that's super informative, Okay, thank you, yeah, like just to clarify further.
Speaker 1:Like old QS, for instance, which has like no, like you know it's I think it's got a 15 years left, and I mean it's, you know it's, it's running its course pretty quick here Versus Grand Cal, which is is it 2060? That's the end of our contract. It's the price difference for those points is 100 versus 330. Yeah, so you're gonna. I mean, and that's like both things are in there, like there's a longer contract to get with Grand Cal and it's Much more in demand and so you do pay more money per point to stay there.
Speaker 1:But that also means it's not always a great use of your points to trade them to state other resorts, unless it's a Polynesian or there, yeah, the contemporary, the other high-end ones were to those cost more money also. So I Trading your points becomes a little bit more of like a strategy for like where do I want to use my points and is it a good use, is it? It's probably not a good use for me to use my Grand California points to go stay at the old Key West because the points cost was different. So there's some of that going on the back of your mind too. Yeah, so yeah, I'd say like one con of DVC is that it is super complex and it took a lot. But you know it took a lot of time to figure out. I find that complexity a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Understanding how these things work and pulling that apart and it was so much fun for me to learn I still learn more about it and I'm was like, oh yes, like there's an extra tidbit right there. I didn't know that makes me excited. I think some people are like me and some people are like this is just so much to understand. But you know, I think talking to somebody like Marissa actually really helps you Figure this out, and that's what it took for me and Eric. My husband Was like talking to Marissa, trying to figure out what does this make sense or not? And my husband was firmly against ever buying a timeshare.
Speaker 1:He was like no, and I just kept bringing it up and talking about the cost savings and like now he's fully in, he's so happy we have those contracts. So I think it's a different type of timeshare and, yeah, I agree with what you said, marissa like timeshares in general have a really bad rap, but this one in particular, because it appreciates over time, is, like you know, great. So it's nice to have that option to sell it later and all that stuff. So, yeah, so before we go, do you want to tell us more about world of DVC? I know a lot about DVC resale market here and I've heard a lot about the rental store, but there's other components to this company that could be of use for listeners.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think it kind of goes to your point of there's gonna be many different types of like Disney vacationers and there are gonna be people who want like the DVC side, who are Committed to going to Disney all like year after year, and that's where DVC makes sense.
Speaker 3:But we found that there's also people that want to stay in DVC rooms for a savings and do a one-off stay and then, as we got like bigger, we said you know, there's people that want to like do Disney cruises or adventures by Disney and have like that concierge and travel agent Experience, and so that's really how like world of DVC took off, and so kind of what is housed in world of DVC in our team is we've got the DVC resale side. So if you're looking to become a Disney vacation club member through the resale market, that's what that covers. And then we have the DVC rental store and so whether you're a member who wants to rent out their points if you're not using them one year, or if you're saying, hey, I want to stay in the deluxe rooms at the best price, that's the best way to do it if you're not a member, and so it's again like I asked you a question, yeah, about that.
Speaker 2:So, looking back, I on our trip with Megan. I just booked my trip through the Grand California. Yeah, would I have saved money if I would have connected with this this what you're mentioning right here, where we can just rent the points yep.
Speaker 3:So basically, if you went in spring break I'll pull up the numbers really quickly here but if you were in spring break and you did a one bedroom, right, yes, so that would have been bedroom and you did how many nights, I Think it was.
Speaker 2:I think it was four night, okay, and I I can't remember exactly, but it was somewhere between five and six thousand dollars, but I do think that included the actual park tickets. Okay, so four of us, or three of us, because one was one was little and Did you have like the full kitchen and all that?
Speaker 3:No, okay, it was a kitchenette. Okay, so that stay, if you would have booked through the rental store, would have been about two thousand dollars.
Speaker 2:What? Oh my god, wait, let me make sure my husband's not with me. Oh, my less than half price, yeah, what would have been the reality of that being available, getting those dates and that room so?
Speaker 3:it goes back to that planning. So if it was more last minute it would have been hard to do. But if you were planning between that like seven to eleven month window, there's gonna be a pretty good probability that you'd be able to book that room.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness. So for anyone who kind of zoned out on the, on the Timeshare option, because they don't think that's for them, this option is for anyone and everyone, and it's I mean Even if you're a DVC member and, megan, you know this you never have enough points, and so I'm I'm like can I get this vacation here?
Speaker 3:So it's great if you're kind of in between as well and need a few more points for that Stay.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, okay, Thank you for explaining that a bit more, yeah.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, that that's gonna be the DVC rental store side, and so that falls into world of DVC. And then we also have a financing side. So if you are looking to finance your Disney Vacation Club through the resell market, we have Monera financial. And then our latest kind of additions to the family of world of DVC have been our travel agency, which is beer guest vacations, and so that's been around for about 10 years. They're a platinum Disney travel agency. But again, if you're doing a Disney trip and you really want everything planned for you, it's a free service. They get all kinds of perks and benefits for you. So that team is Amazing. I actually one of my dear, dear friends. She just came on to be the president of beer guest vacation and she might be your next interview. She comes from the world of home shopping network. She was a host for many, many years. Oh, yes.
Speaker 3:I'm like I put her on everything I can with our marketing stuff.
Speaker 3:You're such a great friend and that seems awesome there, and so that that's another side of again Just kind of we want to take care of that full Disney vacation from start to finish. And then our newest kind of baby in the world, the DVC, is a new tool called unlock magic, and so unlock magic is an app you can find in the app store and so you can join an unlock magic calm and basically, if you've been to Disney recently and tried to get like a dining reservation, you know how hard those are, and so this is a dining alert system, so where you basically can say, hey, I'm looking for this date, this location, and then it does all the work for you so it'll send you a text once it finds it. You don't have to search the app and constantly try to find that room. There's also discounted tickets there, so whether you're going to Walt Disney World or Universal, they're like the lowest price you can get tickets on. So that's another little community there as well, that's great.
Speaker 1:I Wanted to pick your brain a little bit, so I was watching one of your videos the DVC rental store I think it's world of DVC videos and they started talking about these celebration homes that you can rent with your points.
Speaker 3:So that is another. So we actually, if you're a DVC member, we we've watched a new program called Disney Vacation Club swaps, and so when you're a Disney Vacation Club member, you have options to use your points for things like cruises or like through the traditional timeshare exchange. But it's really really poor use of points. You're going to use more points than it's worth to pay cash. So kind of running the numbers and math. It really doesn't make sense. So we were like, well, why don't we do something where it makes sense? And so for DVC members, they can swap their points, whether that's for cruises or sandals or beaches, or if you want to go on a World Caribbean cruise instead of a Disney cruise. So there's so many more ways you can use your points.
Speaker 3:But through that we found that a lot of families, or even like corporate events, they'll come to Disney but they want to rent a full house, especially here in Orlando, and so our latest project has been incredible vacation homes. So we have a whole collection of incredibly themed. Most of them have like universal or Disney theming. They're gorgeous. Most of them are like ten bedroom homes and they're right one exit away from Walt Disney World. So if you're going with a larger family or kind of want that like home away from home feel. When you're at Disney World, it's a really really great option and it's not the same as staying on Disney property by any means. But if you're looking for, like a really kind of luxury style house for a fraction of the cost, it's a really really cool way to stay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you for that explanation, marissa. We appreciate that. Are there any any other takeaways that we should take with us today about the DVC rental store or about World of DVC anything else?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean the cool thing is with all of our team, most of us are former Disney cast members, and so I think the biggest thing you can do whether it's planning your next vacation it's like a one-off trip or becoming a DVC member is just take some time and educate yourself, and so, if you have the time to do it our team is amazing at that and if you have a million questions, all of our websites have a chat function. Hop on there. They'll answer any questions that you have. We're open all seven days a week and our staff is just Fantastic and they literally knew Disney inside and out. So that would be my biggest kind of like takeaway from all of this is do your education, take that time, and for some people it might be just using a travel agent, for some people it might be renting points, and then other people may say, okay, I need to become a DVC member. So it's it's kind of educating yourself through that, and our team is fantastic with that.
Speaker 1:Awesome, thank you. Yeah, and just to remind everybody, you can catch Marissa at world of DVC the DVC, dvc resale market, dvc rental store Be our guest, vacations, unlocked magic and her, her beauty Business, which is Lane and co shop. So thank you, marissa, for coming today and explaining all this to us. We really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you for having me you. I learned so much. This was incredible and I'm gonna have to decide Okay, do we want to do DVC? Do we want to just rent the points?
Speaker 3:You're gonna run the great time and then you'll come back and say, okay, I need to.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you, ladies, it was super fun chatting with you.
Speaker 1:Please rate, like and subscribe and catch us on Instagram and Facebook at platinum perspective podcast. Bye everybody, thank you, bye.
Speaker 2:You.
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