DVC News for December 2022
This past month proved so wild that you may have forgotten that Florida suffered through another hurricane!
When a hurricane isn’t the biggest story for the month, Disney has big problems. Thankfully, the company also has a solution.
The Once and Future King of Disney
As I discussed last time, Bob Iger is back in charge at The Walt Disney Company.
This chain of events wouldn’t have been believable for a telenovela, but it’s the reality Disney faced last month.
Since the last time we spoke, more details have emerged about why former CEO Bob Chapek had to go.
The gist is that Chapek lost his staff’s confidence for several reasons. Apparently, the last straw involved an outsourced decision-making process.
Disney CFO Christine McCarthy decided that Disney should hire a corporate advisor to evaluate the company’s current worker composition.
Chapek and the Board of Directors went along with the plan. However, when the heads of the various creative divisions learned what was happening, they revolted.
Specifically, Disney planned to remove all marketing budgets from the various divisions and centralize them with Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution.
Basically, the quants would have controlled everything at Disney, which is precisely the corporate structure Bob Iger hated when Michael Eisner was CEO.
When various high-profile executives alerted Disney that they were angry enough to leave, the Board decided to throw Chapek under the bus.
Technically, he wasn’t responsible for this decision, but he had signed off on it. Also, most executives hated his leadership style and wanted to leave.
So, Disney called Iger, who happily agreed to return as Disney CEO.
Iger has already held one Town Hall during which he declared an intent to return the company to his previous corporate setup.
Meanwhile, we appear headed toward a resolution with the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
If the Financial Times’ reporting is accurate, this agreement will favor Disney.
Presuming that’s true, Disney is already better off with Iger than it had been under Chapek.
The Annual Pass Updates
If not for the Iger/Chapek drama, the wildest story of the month would have involved annual passes.
Disneyland Resort reopened sales of its out-of-state annual passes in November. At Disneyland, they’re called Magic Keys.
As a reminder, park officials listed the Magic Keys as sold out during the second half of 2021.
For more than a year, Disneyland fanatics couldn’t purchase Magic Keys. This turn of events occurred due to an issue with Park Passes.
The wording of the Magic Key program needed to clarify that availability could be a problem for passholders.
Soon after the introduction of Magic Keys, owners recognized that they faced Park Pass sellouts for various dates. At least one class action lawsuit ensued.
After that, Disneyland closed the program by using the “sold out” terminology.
Then, in mid-November, management suddenly announced that Magic Keys would go back on sale the following day.
Two of the Magic Key tiers sold out again on that fateful next day! Within 30 hours, Disneyland had stopped all Magic Key sales again.
So, anybody sick on that day was out of luck. So what was the point of the whole thing? We may never know. It proved to be the final theme park miscue of the Bob Chapek era.
Meanwhile, Walt Disney World fans watched with fascination and no small amount of envy. Disney did NOT reopen annual pass sales at its Orlando parks.
However, park officials did guarantee that annual passes would return in 2023.
Of course, they’d previously promised that dining plans would come back in 2022…which never happened.
Folks, we’re all thrilled that Iger is back. Unfortunately, the parks had become a mess under Chapek. Speaking of which…
Two Factor Authentication Goes Poorly
Since the last time we spoke, the Disney Vacation Club has announced the introduction of two-factor authentication (2FA) to use the official site.
Also, DVC has implemented 2FA as a requirement when you use the site. And here’s the most crucial part of this conversation.
DVC has also recognized that its 2FA implementation contained a bug that prevented many users from logging in.
Yes, some people who signed up for 2FA discovered they were stuck in limbo as their accounts temporarily stopped working correctly.
DVC announced the following about the problem:
“Dear Disney Vacation Club® Member,
Previously, we notified you of an upcoming change to how Members access their Membership accounts on www.disneyvacationclub.com.
During this transition, we learned that one aspect of the process was not working the way we originally intended.
Therefore, we have made the decision to revert to the previous login process, and plan to implement additional enhancements in the coming months.
We appreciate your understanding and will continue to provide updates on our efforts.
Sincerely,
Disney Vacation Club”
So, DVC has thrown out the recent changes because they didn’t work. In short, you were lucky if you didn’t try to log in during the past few weeks.
The ones who did will be cranky about this mishap for a while. I’m genuinely sorry if you were one of those affected.
Other Disney Updates
We’ve still got other news to cover, most of which is good. For starters, Hurricane Nicole came and went at Walt Disney World.
This weather event proved nowhere near as severe as Hurricane Ian, and we’re all incredibly thankful for that. The parks didn’t even have to close for a full day.
As a side note, Disney once again closed the Bungalows, Cabins, and Treehouse Villas in preparation for the storm.
DVC members should consider this possibility when they book these particular rooms during hurricane season. I highly recommend vacation insurance for this reason.
The other bad news involves Splash Mountain. Walt Disney World officials have confirmed that the Magic Kingdom attraction will permanently close on January 23rd, 2023.
Note that I’m only saying Walt Disney World. Disneyland’s version will apparently stay open for a while longer.
Not coincidentally, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opens on January 27th, which is also the start of the Disney centennial celebration.
Since Disneyland will function as the central hub of Disney100, park officials understandably didn’t want to have the closure of Splash Mountain dominate the headlines that week.
Similarly, Mickey’s Toontown will reopen in its new form on March 8th. So yes, Runaway Railway will debut several weeks before this themed land officially returns.
The other significant stories this month are reopenings. At the Norway pavilion, Akershus has reopened, complete with its character meal.
Even better, Fantasmic! once again anchors the night at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
The new version of the show debuted in November. You can watch it here:
At this point, the only significant Disney restaurant that remains closed is 1900 Park Fare…and a cast member there specifically told me it’ll be back during the first half of 2023!
Other DVC Updates
DVC members staying at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort are in for a surprise. The new Hey Disney! tech is testing in the rooms.
This virtual assistant is basically a Disney-fied Amazon Echo. However, it includes Disney functionality to streamline your vacation experience.
Here’s a CNET video about the technology:
Disney will add this virtual assistant to the various resorts over the next year or so.
Speaking of DVC resorts, demand at Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser has started to slow. For this reason, DVC members catch a break.
Disney is currently discounting the DVC Points cost for these rooms during the first quarter of 2023. The savings could be as much as 30 percent.
Here’s a list of the available discounted dates:
- January 11 – 13, 2023
- January 17 – 19, 2023
- January 19 – 21, 2023
- January 21 – 23, 2023
- January 25 – 27, 2023
- January 31 – February 2, 2023
- February 12 – 14, 2023
- February 28 – March 2, 2023
- March 2 – 4, 2023
Please understand that sellouts frequently happen at the Star Wars Hotel. So, some of these dates may already be gone by the time you read this.
Meanwhile, DVC members can do something new at the Top of the World Lounge this month.
DVC has previously sold special engagement tickets for the seated area at the top of Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.
A new option is available on Wednesdays from December 7th through January 25th. The Bound to be Bad party costs $139 per person plus tax.
For that price, you experience a kind of Disney Villain cosplay gathering with “villain superfans deviously decked out in devilish dress.”
Thankfully, desserts and adult beverages are included in that price.
Okay, that’s everything for December. Happy holidays, everyone!