Disney Resort Fee for Dummies

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

Do DVC owners have to pay the $95.00 resort fee if they trade in via RCI? My other resorts will waive the resort fee for owners who exchange back. For some reason, I think Disney may be just a tiny bit more greedy.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

chriskre will answer but I think you DO have to pay - you can finagle free internet and you can call and request a location with pretty good results - but money, yup, I think you pay!

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

Sometimes I think they should add to the traditional "welcome home" greeting that they give their members. It might be better to say, "Welcome home. We are going to squeeze you for all you've got." Hey, that's just like teenagers and adult kids. Home sweet home. <3

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Surprisingly I have yet to do a DVC Orlando exchange. I've been to Vero but Vero doesn't have that $95 BS fee.
In Vero they did comp me the internet and upgrade my room to oceanview from parking lot view so they do consider you as an owner with requests.
I know they upgraded my room because when I called they told me they had assigned me a first floor unit and could not move me but when I went to check in and started chatting with the CM, she had no problem moving my room and comping me internet. She also put a special little sticker on my room key for restaurant and beach rental discounts.

Sorry I don't yet know the answer to the $95 but my guess is they probably would want their fee.

I will say that if you have ANY problem with your room that DVC will make it right with some sort of credit. Last stay that I had got me a $400 credit because the room was awful and they couldn't move us. I had to negotiate a little to get that because they only wanted to give me a few points back but I wasn't planning on returning so preferred the room credit. They ended up sending me a check instead.

[mickey moe Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickey moe]

I just did a trade for the Grand Californian Hotel last week and the did not charge me the $95 fee. Last march on my OKW trade I was charged.

Moe

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

I just did a trade for the Grand Californian Hotel last week and the did not charge me the $95 fee. Last march on my OKW trade I was charged.

Moe

Nice trade Moe!

The $95 DVC Orlando fee is allegedly a transportation fee - they pick u up at the airport and bring you back plus all the transept around the property - considering what a car rental is, it is actually not a bad cost at all.

Disneyland does not have the same transportation system in place - neither does HHI, so no fee.

[SOS8260456 Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close SOS8260456]

We have always had to pay the $95 fee both before being DVC owners and after becoming owners. I am not sure exactly what the $95 fee is for because it was being charged before the free airport transportation (Magical Express) was first introduced. I had read somewhere (don't remember where) that initially Disney went to Interval International because RCI refused to allow the extra fee and II allowed it. The fee remains even though Disney is back with RCI.

As far as member benefits go, some resorts used to give a hard time if you were not staying on points. Your room key would indicate if you were staying on points or not. The two major benefits that I can think of that this affected were the free member internet services and free member dvd rentals. The free internet is no longer an issue because it is now free to everyone and I haven't done a dvd rental in a long time so I have no clue regarding that.

In regards to the room key though, I noticed a quirk in the room keys. Part of our recent stay was on points and part was RCI exchanges. I noticed throughout the whole trip my room key had nothing regarding DVC on it at all, while my children's and my husband's said "DVC room only". All of the reservations had my name first on them. We finished up our trip at Bay Lake Towers and since I had lost my DVC member card and my room key did not say DVC member on it, I needed one of my children with me if I wanted to visit the Lounge on the top floor. I joked with the CM's about how it wasn't fair that the person paying for the membership needed one of her children who didn't pay for it, in order to get into the "member only" area.

I also just recently learned that the fee is per trip not per week, so since we stayed three weeks in a row through exchanges, the fee only had to be paid once, not 3 times. I never knew that.

Lisa from PA

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

I also just recently learned that the fee is per trip not per week, so since we stayed three weeks in a row through exchanges, the fee only had to be paid once, not 3 times. I never knew that.

Lisa from PA

Lisa, thanks for this great info.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

I also just recently learned that the fee is per trip not per week, so since we stayed three weeks in a row through exchanges, the fee only had to be paid once, not 3 times. I never knew that.

Lisa from PA

Good to know if I ever work my TPU's up to where I can spend a month at Mickey's House.
Something to work towards.

[robin5252 Member Find all posts View Profile Close robin5252]

We are trading into Disney for the first time in a few years. We are DVC members however we are using RCI... question can we still have an incidental account with the 1500 dollar limit by putting down our credit card of course...????