New DVC Member Lounge Coming to Disney World
As part of a list of the “24 Oooh-Worthy Things at Disney Experiences in 2024,” the company has revealed that a new Disney Vacation Club Member Lounge coming to Walt Disney World in 2024. This post shares details of the announcement, along with basic background info and our speculation about a potential location.
For starters, exclusive DVC Member spaces have long been part of what Disney Vacation Club calls “Membership Magic.” From the Top of the World Lounge, which reopened with villainous new offerings atop Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, to the colorful Member Lounge perfectly perched in the iconic glass pyramid of the Imagination! pavilion at EPCOT, these exclusive enclaves are among Disney Vacation Club Members’ favorite places at Walt Disney World Resort.
Last year, Disney Vacation Club opened its very first Member Lounge at Disneyland Resort in California. Called Star View Station, the new lounge is located in the heart of Tomorrowland at Disneyland in the space on the second floor of the Star Wars: Launch Bay (formerly Innoventions) building. The sleekly designed “space” is home to a dedicated Disney Vacation Club Member Services team, plenty of indoor and outdoor seating, complimentary Wi-Fi, device-charging stations, and self-service beverage station.
According to the company, construction on a brand-new Disney Vacation Club Member Lounge will begin in 2024 at Walt Disney World. This will be a great place for members to relax and recharge during their day of fun! More details will be shared in the future. That’s literally all they teased. Unless I missed something, this was the only announcement on the entire list of 24 things.
March 4, 2024 Update: Over the weekend, the new Disney Vacation Clubs Gateway to Discovery opened in the Town Center area of Disney Springs. On the ground floor, the Gateway to Discovery features a Welcome Home Center that serves as an interactive portal to discover new vacation destinations with Disney Vacation Club.
Opening sometime in Spring 2024, the second floor space will act as a place for DVC Members and guests to gather. Upon hearing this news, you might’ve heard a collective groan from Disney Vacation Club Members, disappointed that this is the new lounge at Walt Disney World for DVC Members teased at the beginning of the year. Good news–it isn’t!
Disney Vacation Club subsequently clarified that the new lounge is not in the Gateway to Discovery at Disney Springs. (Might’ve made sense to lead with that since this was obviously ripe for confusion since it sounds like a lounge and they previously announced a lounge, but whatever.) We still don’t know anything about the mystery lounge, except that details will be shared about it “at a later date.”
Having a new space at Disney Springs and a new lounge doesn’t come as a complete surprise, as DVC leadership indicated that they were working to bring new “community spaces” (plural) to Members during the annual Condo Association meeting. But that could have meant any number of things, including community halls at the new resorts being built or random rooms converted into such spaces.
I’m a bit more optimistic, though. The first thing that came to my mind when hearing this announcement is how awesome it would be to have a lounge in Magic Kingdom. And I still really hope that’s what it is. Having a spot to stop for a quick break and free Coke Freestyle or coffee is huge. I would hazard a guess that our #1 “attraction” at both EPCOT and Disneyland last year was the respective DVC lounges.
I didn’t get around to doing a photo tour of Star View Station at Disneyland, but it’s awesome. Lots of cool mid-century modern decor and nods to Disneyland history inside, plus Coke Freestyle machines and fancy coffee machines. Granted, one of those coffee makers is seemingly perpetually broken, but when it’s working, the espresso is surprisingly good.
On top of that, there’s a ton of outdoor seating that no one seems to know about (95% of the time, we’re the only ones out there) with great views of Tomorrowland. I would love something like that in Magic Kingdom.
But then I think about where it could conceivably go. I know there’s a laundry list of restaurants that are no longer in use or underutilized, but most of those don’t make a ton of sense. Tomorrowland Terrace is used for dessert parties, and it has a traffic flow corridor. That just seems unworkable. Aunt Polly’s is unworkable for a number of reasons, from being inconveniently located to being a walk-up window. So it’s safe to say that’s out, too.
The most likely candidate in Magic Kingdom is probably Tortuga Tavern. Even though that still gets some use, it strikes me as most plausible especially if Pecos Bill gets converted into Tiana’s Palace. The entire building could go down at once, and Tiana’s Palace could expand into Tortuga Tavern, while still leaving some space for a DVC lounge. But if that we’re going to happen, it seems like it would’ve started almost a year ago. The clock is ticking, and it doesn’t seem like there’s enough time to convert those spaces before Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens.
As a final wildcard, I’ll throw out Stitch’s Great Escape. There’s no reason the lounge needs to be a former food & beverage location–the other ones weren’t. It just needs a hook-up for Coke Freestyle and coffee machines (hopefully). Stitch’s Great Escape is simply a storage room now, and could probably be converted into a lounge. Doesn’t seem like there are any other plans for that location.
Logically, this might be another lounge in EPCOT. As the number of Disney Vacation Club members increases every year–and will be growing significantly again in 2024–demand for the current Imagination Lounge increases. I often ‘rope drop’ the current lounge when it opens (or do it late in the afternoon) to avoid the walk-up waitlist, but I’ve had 30+ waits on several occasions during the midday rush.
A lounge in any other park wouldn’t address demand for the existing DVC lounge in EPCOT. But another one in World Showcase would! And it helps that there are like a half-dozen unused lounges there. Not to mention Restaurant Marrakesh, which is currently used as the Florida Blue Lounge during the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, but sits empty the rest of the year.
Converting one of those spaces wouldn’t require much construction, and would make sense from an operational perspective.
However, given that these lounges also serve as marketing for Disney Vacation Club, I’m skeptical they’d add another lounge in EPCOT. It’s not something prospective or current members would get excited about given that there’s already one lounge in EPCOT. Most people aren’t going to say, “yes! shorter wait times for the current lounge.”
From a marketing and sales perspective, the most valuable location for a lounge is Magic Kingdom. If you polled DVC members, I’d bet that over 80% would want one there over anywhere else. Disney’s Hollywood Studios would probably be a distant second. Honestly, DHS might be a better pick for a location. Magic Kingdom has tons of places to relax, whereas DHS is stressful and doesn’t have options for easy decompressing unless you commit to a lengthy stage show on an uncomfortable bench.
Finally, there’s the worst (IMO) option of all, which is a lounge in the new Polynesian tower. Top of the World started out as being an exceptional offering, but it has become a hassle over the years. Maybe other members feel differently about it, but I don’t want a second version of that. Maybe if this were ~2017, I’d feel differently, but we haven’t done Top of the World in a while and have little desire to return. Of course, maybe that would change if there were another comparable space to soak up demand and ease the current restrictions.
If you’re thinking about joining DVC, be sure to read our Ultimate Guide to Disney Vacation Club. This covers the pros & cons, resale v. direct, how much money you’ll save, and other important things to know before taking the plunge. If you still can’t decide whether membership is right for you, “try before you buy” with the recommendations in How to Save BIG on Deluxe Disney Accommodations Renting DVC Points.
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think about the tease of a new member lounge being built at Walt Disney World? Any hope or speculation as to its location? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? If you’re an existing Member, what do you think? Share any questions, tips, or additional thoughts you have in the comments!
There is a Lounge in Epcot ball. It use to be AT&T then several other corp sponsors member lounge. That could be used as a dvc lounge with very little time to put it together.
Omg that photo of the Polynesian with new DVC building in background! I think the last time I stayed at either the Polynesian or Grand Floridian was circa 1989 (as a child). It’s remarkable how much the landscape at those resorts has changed over time and how much lovelier (not sure what exact word I’m looking for, but I’ll use that) it was when the resorts had breathing room and good sight lines. I knew (from following your site) about all the DVC buildings, but that photo brings it home in a way that isolated preview art didn’t for me. The experience of being in those resorts must have changed significantly. I’m imagining it’s as if a highly designed outside landscape (think an Olmsted-designed park like Central Park or Prospect Park) had a bunch of office buildings injected inside!
Exciting news! We were finally able to visit the DVC lounge at Epcot this past June and it was so quiet and relaxing, we loved it. I’m all for a lounge at MK, but one at Animal Kingdom would be welcome. We seem to do much more walking at this park than others, criss crossing the park to do attractions often, and a lounge there would be so welcome to put my feet up a bit. I remember when there was a passholder lounge a few years ago in a room off Pizzafari, I really enjoyed that.
why haven’t you considered Animal Kingdom at all? Don’t they want to increase time spent in the park? And the fact it’s the least desired means it’ll probably be there!
Thanks for the heads up on this Tom! Looking forward to another lounge , no matter where it is! We had a great experience at Top of the World Lounge in September , no reservation, just walked up with our party of four on a MNSSHP night and got right in.at about 9 pm. The Seven Lair Cake is maybe the best desert I have every had – at WDW or anywhere else.
I’ve had some nice visits to the Top of the World, Villains Lair. But it is not a place you just stop by on a whim. It is always a planned stop. I hope they do not put one in at the new Polynesian building. That resort (our home resort) is seemingly always overrun with non guest more so than any other resort except maybe the Grand Floridian. I have high hopes that this new DVC poly tower addresses this and the over crowding of the pools but I digress. A DVC lounge in all the parks would be really nice. Once they get going on the land behind Big Thunder, they could do it right. A World Showcase one would be terrific. They could convert my least favorite quick serve (food only not location) Katsura Grill and put it there. I love that location! For Animal Kingdom, they could close down the Rain Forest Cafe, put in a better restaurant and allocate some space for DVC. Ok, I’m being facetious with these two silly ideas but one can dream.
Katsura Grill isn’t very ADA friendly when it comes to a manual wheelchair, so let’s not speak that into existence.
I think Tortuga is already being converted into a bar/lounge (I.e. nomad lounge in AK) but that’s where I thought too. I like your stitch thought though.
Please, MK!!!! AND DHS!. MK first though. Just a A/C lounge with comfortable chairs…..doesn’t have to include free anything. Please no on Disney Springs…..plenty of a/c spaces there with restaurants, etc. I hope the new tower at Poly includes a DVC lounge as well….make it open to all DVC “qualified” owners regardless of stay status….ok, exclude 7/4 and 12/31…thats reasonable.
Quire honestly, all parks should have a DVC lounge!
I’d keep an eye on Disney Springs. Bid invites were sent out recently for a DVC sales office there with construction set to happen this spring. I didn’t get a look at the project as we weren’t bidding it but the description provided was vague enough that it could be more than just offices.
Totally agree- TOTW is unnavigable and poorly done, and the current EPCOT one is always packed, people sleeping across seating etc. HS’s lack of shade would make that park a nice idea too, but agree MK is likely more popular wish list item for folks.
We’ve visited the DVC lounge at Disneyland and had no idea there was outdoor seating! Huh, learn something new every day!
There used to be a membership lounge in Tomorrowland (for AAA members I think?) that was tucked into a space in the Carousel building. I think the lounge went away when Disney’s relationship with AAA cooled off, but perhaps the space is still there and could be re-branded as DVC?
We are at Disney World on our annual visit. We enjoyed the Villian’s Lair at Top of the World Lounge last Thursday evening for the first time. Exceptional cast members and a great experience overall. Yesterday we enjoyed a mid day break at the lounge in Epcot. Always a highlight of a busy day at Epcot! After complimenting cast members at each location they encouraged me to email DVC to let them know how much we enjoy these perks of membership. I just sent an email and then saw this post from Tom! I agree that a lounge in Magic Kingdom would be a terrific addition!
Good Report!
Big point: DVC lounge at Disneyland has rest rooms!