What Makes a DVC Members Only Cruise Unique

I took my first cruise in 1999 aboard the brand new Disney Wonder.  The paint was so fresh I could smell it mixed in with the salt air as I walked the deck.  Fast forward to 2019 and I’ve now been on 14 Disney cruises, 12 of which were the extra magical DVC Member’s Only Cruise itineraries.  I’ve been to Castaway Cay enough times to establish my favorite location (down by the yoga tree) and become friends with my favorite Cast Members over the years.  Over the years, new itineraries have come along as well as new ships added to the fleet but holding my all time favorite experience spot is the Alaskan DVC Members Cruise in 2015.  When sharing moments with friends and clients, the most commonly asked question I get is, “What makes it different?” Having just returned from the most recent sailing May 15 – 20, 2019, I know some of you are anxious to hear what set this year apart from others, and regular Disney cruises.

2019 Members Cruise – San Diego, CA to Vancouver, BC

Let’s start with theming. Regardless of our departing port we are always greeted with the now famous, “Welcome Home!” If you’re like me, it just gets your adrenaline flowing because you know we are officially on vacation! As we look around we see Members Cruise banners hanging everywhere inviting us onto our luxury liner for the week.  Even the staging area feels electrical.  These are our people.  Disney people.  DVC friends and family are all excited to see what the DVC Cast Members have dreamed up for our voyage!

Exclusive Disney Files

At check-in this year we received a Personal Planner booklet that neatly tucked into our Member Cruise 2019 lanyard pocket.  It held the itinerary for all the special guest presenters as well as daily times and schedules on our journey.  Not something done in previous years, the planner was a genius concept and perfect for someone not using the phone app. While the Navigator still arrived in our stateroom each night, this really helped cruisers plan their schedule in advance. Probably most notable was our own version of Disney Files waiting for us in our staterooms.  It provided an even more detailed synopsis of all the guests and presenters on the ship for the week.  I’m going to share some of my thoughts from the presentations I attended.  Note that most repeated twice and each was probably slightly different so if my recollection isn’t practically perfect in every way, try not to hold it against me.

Day 1 – San Diego

The first evening’s event I attended was dubbed Two Loud Bills – It featured Bill Farmer, best known as the voice of Goofy, along with Bill Barretta of Muppet fame, best known as the puppeteer for Pepe, the King Prawn. Tim O’Day hosted. 

This was an absolutely delightful presentation.  Both gentlemen shared stories about their careers, the characters they love and how they got into the business. Tim challenged them to do the voices of specific characters (usually Goofy and Pepe) to scenes from completely different movies and characters while a screen showed us the movie as they spoke.  The presentation kept us all laughing throughout.  At the end they invited audience members to do their very best imitation of some specific phrases from specific characters and we had some real ringers!  These gentlemen have clearly made an impact on their respective worlds and I am grateful they started off my cruise with a lovely dose of charm and laughter!

Also on the first night’s itinerary was a screening of Disney’s Broadway Hits at Royal Albert Hall with Director, Jay Hatcher, introducing. Apparently this is available on DVD and has won 2 Emmys for sound and direction.  While this wasn’t a DVC exclusive item, watching Disney Broadway stars belt out world famous Disney songs while sitting in the Buena Vista Theater aboard the Disney Wonder certainly holds a little extra pixie dust for those in attendance.

Day 2 – Day at Sea

Probably worth mentioning is that each and every day, at multiple times, the DVC Sales Guides held their own presentation to tell us about the latest and greatest happenings in the Disney Vacation Club world.  From the latest on the new Riviera Resort to the rumor mills and of course, how much you can save if you buy resale.  (That last part is a joke! Come on people, I had to work it in somewhere)

My morning started with One on One with Bill Barretta hosted by Ryan March. I’m really grateful I went to the prior night’s presentation because I felt like I already knew Mr. Barretta and it was like spending time with a new friend.  Ryan did a lovely job of hosting and sharing some of his own personal stories about how the Muppets played a role in his life. (ask him about his lunchbox story)  Barretta went into further depth about his career with the Muppets and how intimidating, humbling, and yet such an honor it was to take on some of the iconic characters the late Jim Henson created.  Namely, Rowlf the Dog. And just as they started discussing him, suddenly we had a visitor! Rowlf made us laugh and love him all the more.   After Rowlf left, we heard the fascinating story of how Barretta’s most famous character evolved. Yes, Pepe the King Prawn was created thanks to his wife’s aunt. Apparently this charming Spanish lady made quite the impression with her questions that were statements and her own answer of “Ok!”   Pepe is quite the character and we spent some time with him as well.   Probably most notable and unique, they showed us footage of the puppeteer’s backstage with some absolutely hilarious muppet outtakes.  We did a fun audience participation session with the song, Mah-na Mah-na which made us all giggle.   At the very end, the Muppet version of Bohemian Rhapsody and the sign language interpreters from a few years ago in sync were shown on screen. Delightful! If you weren’t already a Muppet fan going into the presentation (which, for the record, I was) you certainly were by the time you left.

Comedian Steve Byrne was so funny!

My afternoon session was called Behind the Lamp featuring Pixar Art Director, Craig Foster.  He started the session by apologizing for any missteps he took due to normally being behind the scenes, not in front.   He shared his personal story about dealing with and finally being diagnosed with dyslexia and then walked us through his career of growing up in the midwest, working on a farm, becoming a janitor (a few times) and a Key Grip, before finally getting the opportunity to work at Pixar.  He talked about how all the steps, albeit unusual, brought him to where he is today…in a job he adores.  He showed us some never before seen graphics and inspirations from the Incredibles, Cars, and Up!, to name a few. My favorite graphic, a depiction for Cars, said, “Braking News!”  Which became quite funny when Foster explained it had gained him notoriety as being a genius, when in fact, he never realized the grammatical play on words until after the fact. This session was delightful and a great set up for what was to come from Foster later in the cruise.

That evening the scheduled show, Frozen, was cancelled due to incredibly high waves. Special DVC Cruise guest comedian Steve Byrne, of Comedy Central and Tonight Show fame, graciously agreed to an impromptu set for us.  He was hilarious! Even though these cruises are probably the least attended by children, we had a 13 year old in the audience.  To Byrne’s credit, he kept the show appropriate and actually allowed the youngster to “steal the show” through some interaction.  The Adult Only set performed a couple of nights later was more edgy but both were equally entertaining and kept the audience engaged and laughing.

Day 3 – San Francisco

The Toy Story Blanket Gift

Toy Story 4: Behind the Scenes, hosted by Craig Foster, was the big draw for this day!  For this and the Aladdin screening, Disney security was in full effect.  They literally had the walk-through security scanners plus multiple cast members taking people’s phones away and storing them for pick up after the show.  There would be no note-taking or pictures for anyone!

The presentation was really fun!  We got to learn more about the story line for the upcoming film, how Craig and his team fill-in all the details as the movie progresses and the stages they go through for each.  We saw clips from the film itself and learned about the character plots, twists and turns. This was certainly a highlight for me and many others and one of the “worth-it” moments for the extra cost incurred to be on these Member Only itineraries.

Day 4 – Day at Sea

The day began with Tony Baxter’s Dream Jobs – with host, Tim O’Day.  This presentation took us through Baxter’s career with the Disney company and featured still shots and video from over the years.  Apparently Tony has been with the company for a significant amount of time since Tim kept saying, “since he was 12”, jokingly.  Big Thunder Mountain came across as his favorite project having now built it in 4 different parks on 3 continents! No other “monument” holds that honor.  They shared quite a bit of concept art of things that came to be, and others that didn’t. We learned when presenting a concept he always put EVERYTHING into the rendering because he knew the “powers that be” would remove things. The characters Figment and Dream Keeper were discussed at length.  And finally, Discovery Bay – the park that never was –  was shown and included a conception creation called the Nautilus (looked similar to Atlantis) which they had planned to make into a fancy restaurant.
We learned how Star Tours almost never came to be until one trip to a simulator changed it’s course. Wrapping things up, we learned about the challenges of the Indiana Jones ride as well as how the interviewer for it’s publicity almost got sick during shooting. It’s fascinating to know each ride is different thanks to it being computer driven.

My next presentation of the day was Travels with Walt Disney: A Photographic Voyage Around the World by Jeff Kurtti.  Every guest received a signed copy of Kurtti’s book as part of our cruise. The presentation walked us through the book, how it came to be and how he acquired some of the unique pictures and put them together. He touched on Walt’s lying about his age in order to get into the military, how he and his wife loved Winter Sports,  and how many of the ideas for the parks came from his early experiences that weren’t always publicized.  This presentation was a little slow for me but would likely appeal to historians.  The book itself is fascinating!

Later in the day I attended Disney Artist’s Academy – with Stacia Burns, Hosted by Tim O’day.

Getting Creative

This was a drawing class in Animator’s Palate with paper and pencils provided. Stacia was in the center of the room while cameras broadcast her strokes on all the screens around us as she talked us through the steps and nuances of creating some of Disney’s most beloved characters.  We learned about drawing with symmetry (both sides are balanced) and heard about her adventures in traveling as an ambassador for the company over the years. We drew Goofy, The Cheshire Cat and Thumper.  Given tickets as we entered the presentation, a drawing was held at the end and winners walked away with not only their own 3 drawings, but one from Stacia herself!  This was a wonderful class and I would highly recommend it to anyone, even if you’ve never drawn a thing in your life. 

DCappella – Disney’s acapella group was the performance for the evening and they did not disappoint! A truly impressive collaboration of 7 vocal artists that put on a show using just their voices.  The beatboxer, Antonio, was my favorite and we learned his home base is the Lion King Show at Animal Kingdom. A great excuse to visit! (as if we need more)

Day 5 – Victoria, BC

Aladdin – Yes, as part of the DVC Member’s Only Cruise we were some of the first people in the world to see Disney’s newest version of the classic film, Aladdin.  Security measures were in full force once again as they were with Toy Story 4.  As we all know, Will Smith had some un-fillable shoes taking on the role of the Genie previously voiced by Robin Williams.  All things considered, he did a great job. Jasmine and Aladdin were both charming and the live-action movie warms the heart just like the original.

Finally, I want to talk about Drawn to Disney – Featuring Burny Mattinson and Stacia Martin, hosted by Tim O’Day.  I actually attended this presentation earlier in the cruise but have intentionally saved for last.    Burny currently holds the record for being the longest employed Cast Member by Walt Disney, celebrating 66 years with the company! This presentation was unique in that while Tim questioned Burny at a coffee table setting stage right, Stacia was drawing characters on an easel stage left.   We learned about the early days of Burny’s career and how he was hired thanks to a curious security guard on the Disney lot. They walked us through some of the evolution of animation, including how he had to carry 8ft X 4ft storyboards with him back in the day when presenting his latest concepts to Walt and his team. He and Stacia discussed the concept of drawing being 75% mental and 25% actual hand-eye to paper.  They let us in on their mindset of total immersion of the character while creating the scenes.  They literally let themselves become that character and feel their mood, experience their facial expressions and then translate them onto the paper. Burny said his favorite character would have to be Winnie the Pooh, because he is “most like him”.   Tim and Burny dove a little deeper into each of the movies he had worked on while Stacia Martin drew Sleeping Beauty, Piglet, Scrooge, an Aristocat (Marie, I think), Pinocchio,  and of course, Mickey Mouse. 

Tim O’ Day, Burny Mattinson and Stacia Martin

Stacia interjected relevant commentary on each of the movies as they went along. Towards the end, Tim asked her what stood out most about the guests she interacts with around the world while sharing her talents.  Her reply gave me goose bumps.  In essence, she said Disney enthusiasts have told her time and time again the reason they love it so much is because it brings “something positive” to their lives. And while her answer seems so obvious, it never clicked with me the way it did when she said it out loud.  We are all inundated with so many negative messages in our lives, Disney and all it encompasses, has evolved into a staple source of joy for us! I will never forget this presentation because of that moment.

Presentations that were included but I didn’t attend:

Creating the Walt Disney Family Museum
The Disneyland Kitchen (cooking/culinary show)
ABC Funny – a preview and pilot screening of a brand new show
Pixar Pals Dance Party – a rare appearance (for a Disney cruise) by the Toy Story Characters
ABC “American Housewife” – making a sitcom
Mickey’s Atrium Disco – apparently Mickey debuted a new look from the Disco era
Autograph session with DCappella and JD McCrary
Walt Disney’s Disneyland – a screening of “old movies” from the original era.  Friends said this was a very special presentation that made them feel like they were in Walt’s living room watching old family movies.  Sad I didn’t make it to this one!

The itinerary was so full and so busy we really had very little down time unless we chose to take it.  These cruises are definitely designed for the Disney Enthusiasts!

The Treasure Trove

Last but not least, let’s take a look at all the DVC Members Cruise gifts we received.  There were so many! I’m not going to try to describe them all because it would take up another entire blog post but here is a snapshot of all the things we brought home:

2019 DVC Member’s Cruise Gifts

Highlights for me are the little Minehune Carving, the two books and of course, the Toy Story 4 Blanket (see above), because it has the new characters!  You’ll note the menus to the left for each restaurant and a bonus for the Pirate Night.  I love that we get to bring those home as well.

So, “What’s Unique?”, you ask?  Everything.  In typical Disney fashion, each Member Cruise is as unique as the special guests, entertainers and DVC Members who attend. While certainly more expensive than a regular Disney cruise, I couldn’t recommend them more.  If you’d like to see more pictures from our trip, friend me on Facebook at Shontell C. Crawford and on Instagram @dvcbyresale  I’ll be posting them over the next week. As always, post your questions below and thanks so much for reading.