DVC Members visiting Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and past over the following month-plus could have the prospect to take pleasure in some wonderful freebies and perks, as Disney Trip Membership’s ‘Welcome Dwelling Weeks’ returns for a second yr. This lists the newest reductions and free issues at WDW, together with our commentary about these perks and why it has us eager for the long run.
Welcome Dwelling Weeks first debuted final yr, following within the footsteps of V.I.PASSHOLDER Summer time Days. Now it’s again as soon as once more, from August 14 by way of September 16, 2025! DVC Welcome Dwelling Weeks options free tasty treats, particular experiences, and further aggressive reductions only for eligible Disney Trip Membership Members.
That is along with the rising record of Disney Trip Membership Membership Extras, which at the moment lists 317 Member Advantages in line with Disney. Don’t get too excited–at the very least half of that record is both nothing particular–however there are a number of worthwhile perks. See our Checklist of the Prime 10 Disney Trip Membership Member Perks for those that are worthwhile.
First up is FREE ICE CREAM! This isn’t a drill!!! Deal with your self to a refreshing, complimentary Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Bar, ice cream sandwich or fruit bar at choose Walt Disney World places.
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- Location: Tower of Terror Courtyard
- Dates: Mondays and Tuesdays, beginning August 18, 2025
- Occasions: 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park
- Location: Upcountry Touchdown in Asia
- Dates: Thursdays and Fridays, beginning August 14, 2025
- Occasions: 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
- Magic Kingdom Park
- Location: Tomorrowland Terrace
- Dates: Wednesdays, beginning August 20, 2025
- Occasions: 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM
- Disney Springs
- Location: Gateway to Discovery – A Disney Trip Membership Welcome Dwelling Heart
- Dates: Mondays and Fridays, beginning August 15, 2025
- Occasions: 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
- EPCOT
- Location: Foyer of Dwelling Seas Salon
- Dates: Tuesdays and Thursdays, beginning August 19, 2025
- Occasions: 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
- Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
- Location: Disney Trip Membership Preview Heart
- Dates: Each day, August 14 – September 16, 2025
- Occasions: 11:00 AM to five:00 PM
Members who’re eligible for Membership Extras could take pleasure in this profit. Legitimate park admission and park reservation required. Restrict of 1 ice cream bar, ice cream sandwich or fruit bar per individual per week, per location. A sound Disney Trip Membership Digital Membership Card and photograph ID are required.
Welcome Dwelling Wakeup
Mingle with fellow Members for espresso and a morning deal with at choose accommodations at Walt Disney World Resort:
- Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Modern Resort
- Location: Prime of the World Lounge
- Dates: Saturdays and Sundays, beginning August 16, 2025
- Occasions: 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
- Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Location: Reunion Station
- Dates: Saturdays and Tuesdays, beginning August 16, 2025
- Occasions: 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM
Restrict of 1 Welcome Dwelling Wakeup per week, per Member, whereas provides final. A sound Disney Trip Membership Digital Membership Card and photograph ID are required at occasion check-in. The Member listed on the Digital Membership Card should be in attendance.
Eligibility: Members eligible for Membership Extras with a Resort reservation on the identical Resort the place the occasion is being held (on an occasion date) could attend, plus 4 Visitors (or the variety of extra Visitors on the reservation).
Disney Character Closeups
Meet beloved Disney Characters at enjoyable occasions at Walt Disney World Resort:
- Location: Atlantic Dance Corridor at Disney’s BoardWalk
- Dates: August 25 by way of August 27, 2025, and September 8 by way of September 10, 2025
- Occasions: 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM
- Parking: There isn’t any Resort parking for this occasion. Members are strongly inspired to make use of Walt Disney World Resort transportation.
Eligibility: Members eligible for Membership Extras with a Resort reservation at Walt Disney World Resort, plus 4 Visitors (or the variety of extra Visitors on the reservation). A sound Disney Trip Membership Digital Membership Card and photograph ID are required at occasion check-in. The Member listed on the Digital Membership Card should be in attendance.
Free Doughnut
Cease by Everglazed Donuts & Chilly Brew at Disney Springs to obtain a complimentary Welcome Dwelling Weeks donut (whereas provides final).
- Location: Everglazed Donuts & Chilly Brew at Disney Springs
- Dates: Wednesdays, beginning August 20, 2025
- Occasions: Throughout regular working hours of Everglazed Donuts & Chilly Brew
- Eligibility: Members eligible for Membership Extras (one donut per Member, per week, whereas provides final)
Free Reusable Purchasing Bag
Go to choose Disney Trip Membership Welcome Dwelling Facilities for a complimentary, reusable bag to carry all of your goodies.
- Areas: Gateway to Discovery – A Disney Trip Membership Welcome Dwelling Heart at Disney Springs and Golden Vine Home – A Disney Trip Membership Welcome Dwelling Heart at Disney California Journey Park
- Dates: August 14 to September 16, 2025
- Occasions: Throughout regular working hours of Gateway to Discovery – A Disney Trip Membership Welcome Dwelling Heart and Golden Vine Home – A Disney Trip Membership Welcome Dwelling Heart
- Eligibility: Members eligible for Membership Extras (one purchasing bag per Member)
Copper Creek Sneak Peek
Cease by to see the refreshed Resort rooms at Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge.
- Dates: To be introduced
- Occasions: To be introduced
Free Sweet
Obtain complimentary sweet at Films Underneath the Stars at choose Walt Disney World Resorts:
- Disney’s Modern Resort
- Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
- Disney’s Seashore Membership Resort
- Disney’s BoardWalk Resort
- Disney’s Outdated Key West Resort
- Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
- Disney’s Riviera Resort
- Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resorts
- Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
- Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
- Dates: Varies by Resort. Please verify with the Recreation workforce at every respective location.
- Occasions: Throughout regular working hours of Films Underneath the Stars
- Eligibility: Members eligible for Membership Extras (one choice of sweet per week, per Member)
40% Off Choose WDW Eating places
Take pleasure in 40% off meals and nonalcoholic drinks at choose Desk-Service eating places at Walt Disney Resort on choose dates:
- Hollywood & Vine at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- Tusker Home Restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park (Lunch & Dinner)
- Toledo –Tapas, Steak & Seafood at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort (Dinner)
- Boatwright’s Eating Corridor at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside (Dinner)
- Cape Might Cafe at Disney’s Seashore Membership Resort (Dinner)
- The Diamond Horseshoe at Magic Kingdom Park
- Whispering Canyon Cafe at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Tiffins Restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park
- Coral Reef Restaurant at EPCOT
- Ale & Compass Restaurant at Disney’s Yacht Membership Resort (Breakfast & Lunch)
- Dates: Mondays by way of Thursdays from August 14 to September 16, 2025
- Occasions: Throughout regular working hours of collaborating eating places. Low cost solely legitimate throughout sure meal durations at choose eating places (see record of places).
- Eligibility:
- Members eligible for Membership Extras, plus as much as 3 Visitors, until in any other case famous
- Legitimate throughout every location’s common eating hours, until in any other case famous. Provide legitimate for dine-in prospects solely and excludes to-go.
- Not legitimate on sure menu objects, particular occasions or packages and will not be mixed with every other low cost, provide or promotion.
- Low cost is off the common worth of meals and nonalcoholic drinks, excluding tax and gratuity.
- Topic to alter with out discover.
- Legitimate at choose places at Walt Disney World Resort listed above, Monday by way of Thursday solely.
- Legitimate park admission and park reservation required for in-park places.
- To obtain the low cost, the Disney Trip Membership Member should present their Digital Membership Card and government-issued ID. Your Digital Membership Card may be discovered on the My Disney Expertise app and ought to be added to the digital pockets of your cell system.
Be aware that this record is nearly equivalent to the lists from Annual Passholder Appreciation Days, and as such, our commentary is analogous. We took benefit of some reductions then, and shall be doing the identical once more throughout DVC Welcome Dwelling Weeks.
There are some improbable eating places on this record, together with some that make our record of the 25 Greatest Eating places at Walt Disney World for 2025 (or are honorable mentions). Sadly, a lot of our favourite eating places are additionally unpopular ones, which is why they’re getting this aggressive low cost.
Along with the eating places we spotlight, I’d additionally add that Toledo – Tapas, Steak & Seafood was as soon as once more simply acknowledged by the 2025 Michelin Information Florida. This is among the eating places we’ll be revisiting throughout VIPassholder Summer time Days.
I additionally need to spotlight that Toledo is just not open Mondays and Tuesdays. One thing I knew at one level, however forgot throughout a latest keep at Gran Destino Tower once I opted to eat on the Poly on a Sunday, with the plan to do Toledo on Monday. Now my silly mistake appears like an act of 4D chess, as I’ll be staying at Coronado Springs very quickly beginning on a Wednesday!
Different eating places we’d suggest doing are Hollywood & Vine and Tusker Home. Character eating at 40% off is just too good to go up, particularly at these places. I’m shocked to see Tusker Home on the record with out Boma additionally making an look–it turns into a no brainer to do the character ‘model’ of this meal for significantly lower than the full-priced possibility over at Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Minnie’s Seasonal Dine is one in all Sarah’s absolute favourite character meals, and we’re particularly huge followers of Minnie’s Halloween Dine. Technically, you could possibly do Hollywood & Vine twice for 2 completely different character meals throughout Welcome Dwelling Weeks. Minnie’s Summertime Dine runs by way of August 15, and Minnie’s Halloween Dine begins on August 16, 2025. So you will have two days for Summertime Dine–act quick!
I’ve talked about this elsewhere, however the spotlight for me of V.I.PASSHOLDER Days was Tiffins Restaurant. It was completely improbable. Among the finest in-park meals I’ve had in years. So good that I’m planning on eating there once more throughout Welcome Dwelling Weeks (for analysis, in fact–gotta have a pair meals for a extra complete new assessment).
It was additionally far and away the busiest I had seen Tiffins since its opening yr, and ADRs for the restaurant have been really aggressive. Actually, in every single place I ate through the AP Appreciation Days was pretty busy, and I’m guessing that was largely the results of Annual Passholders, as a result of most different eating places have been not busy throughout my meals final month.
This actually makes me marvel why Walt Disney World isn’t doing one other tier to the low cost–and even together with extra eating places at 40% off. It’s unlikely that Olivia’s Cafe, Sanaa, Boma, Kona Cafe, Turf Membership, or different eating places with perpetual deep reductions for Forged Members have robust bookings for the following few months. And plenty of of these are literally at DVC resorts, too!
I shared this identical sentiment again when V.I.Passholder Summer time Days was first introduced, and thought that absolutely the 40% off was one tier, and as a part of the slow-trickle nature of the announcement, a 20% off broad low cost can be introduced later. Or perhaps even 25% or 30% off.
That thought was fallacious. In the long run, it was simply the 40% off, and solely at a smaller pool of choose eating places. And that smaller pool was very busy, as a result of demand wasn’t diluted throughout extra places. In the meantime, these different places–at the very least the handful at which I ate–have been very gradual. I nonetheless don’t perceive Walt Disney World’s thought course of with this method, however I’m not complaining. I’ll simply focus my consideration on the 40% off places.
Whereas we’re on the subject, I’ll reiterate that it’s odd that Walt Disney World nonetheless has not introduced again Tables in Wonderland. Demand for many Advance Eating Reservations has fallen off a cliff. The atmosphere is just not what it was in 2021-2023, with robust pent-up demand colliding with diminished capability and staffing shortages.
ADRs are extra considerable than anytime we’ve been monitoring them–not simply anytime within the final 5 years, however ever. I’ve eaten at a number of eating places within the final yr which have been eerily uncrowded. Even throughout Free Eating ‘season,’ which was once one of many busiest occasions of the yr, many desk service eating places are useless.
Relating to Tables in Wonderland, my finest guess is that Walt Disney World has forgotten about it. Critically. (For this reason I maintain posting about it periodically–as a “reminder” to these inside the firm who is likely to be studying this.) I don’t understand how else to clarify why Tables in Wonderland hasn’t returned, at the same time as Walt Disney World in any other case pulls from the 2019 playbook.
Tables in Wonderland is a solution to improve demand for desk service eating places, which is badly wanted, whereas additionally monetizing it through an upfront income stream. Tables in Wonderland kills two birds with one stone, and feels prefer it’d scratch Walt Disney World management proper the place they itch.
When Disney Trip Membership first introduced Welcome Dwelling Weeks final yr, we speculated as to why they have been providing this perk. In its sophomore yr, DVC Welcome Dwelling Weeks is getting larger and higher, and we nonetheless have the identical query, albeit to a a lot lesser diploma.
Generalized visitor goodwill stays cause primary. Disney used to do much more little issues that they name “shock and delight,” that are little surprising issues that each shock friends and delight them. Many of those have been on a person degree, and have largely vanished through the years. Some additionally occurred at a bigger scale. Welcome Dwelling Weeks is an occasion of that. Members visiting throughout these dates didn’t count on free ice cream or espresso, however it delights them in a manner that’s disproportionate to the associated fee for Disney.
The advantages of blissful DVC Members ought to be pretty apparent, however however, it’s one thing that Disney “forgot” to an extent from mid-2020 to early 2023 (roughly). Within the couple of years since, we’ve seen the pendulum begin to swing again within the different route, with Disney Trip Membership “realizing” {that a} blissful membership base is essential. That is doubly true once they’re making an attempt to promote virtually a half-dozen completely different resorts, plus Disney Lakeshore Lodge on the best way quickly.
The second cause, which is form of touched upon above, is that mid-August by way of mid-September is the slowest time of yr at Walt Disney World. The enlargement of DVC Welcome Dwelling Weeks into eating reductions can mainly be seen as a de facto extension of V.I.Passholder Summer time Days. Clearly, Annual Passholders who aren’t eligible for these restaurant reductions received’t really feel that manner, however it phrases of the sensible affect, the end result shall be comparable.
I’m actually shocked there isn’t extra like this, geared toward filling tables or nudging Annual Passholders to go to the parks. The ice cream is an efficient instance of this, and maybe that’s seen as ok. There’s already the Discovering Nemo magnet for APs at Animal Kingdom, plus the DVC lounges in EPCOT and Magic Kingdom, and now the ice cream and restaurant reductions.
If all these issues received’t transfer the needle, perhaps the thought course of is that extra received’t, both. However it wouldn’t harm to make the free reusable bag additionally accessible at Animal Kingdom or do one thing else there to assist buoy attendance.
One other profit for Disney Trip Membership in relation to stuff like this, and even Moonlight Magic or the Member Lounges, is that it creates FOMO. That’s one other driver for gross sales. When non-Members see a few of the issues they may have in the event that they “simply” joined DVC, it helps push them off the fence. Particularly in the event that they’re diehard followers or regulars who would possibly as properly make the leap.
Likewise, Membership Extras are a great way of transferring the needle on resales vs. direct gross sales, and will incentivize these on the fence to pay extra to purchase direct so that they don’t miss out on any perks. If DVC Welcome Dwelling Weeks turns into an annual staple, it’s going to begin being talked about in evaluation of being straight from Disney or through the resale market.
Suffice to say, it’s a strong gross sales technique from a holistic perspective. Even when nobody goes to purchase extra DVC due to free ice cream or no matter they get from Welcome Dwelling Weeks, this plus Moonlight Magic plus entry to the Member Lounges, and so on., will tip the scales in combination. That’s exactly why these perks exist–and are a part of the advertising and marketing funds versus annual dues–within the first place!
Finally, I like that Disney Trip Membership is doing Welcome Dwelling Weeks and assume it bodes properly for the long run. It may imply an enlargement and restoration of different perks, as Disney goals to each promote a ton extra factors and likewise entice followers to go to now that pent-up demand has light.
The corporate recognizing that going above and past and making friends really feel heat and fuzzy about their visits is an efficient factor that’s mutually advantageous and, hopefully, shall be a philosophy that’s prolonged past simply Annual Passholders and Disney Trip Membership Members. If there are any doubts about this internally, maybe management ought to learn one of many many books written about delivering exemplary Disney visitor service and observe their very own recommendation.
In the event you’re fascinated about becoming a member of DVC, you should definitely learn our Final Information to Disney Trip Membership. This covers the professionals & cons, resale v. direct, how a lot cash you’ll save, and different essential issues to know earlier than taking the plunge. In the event you nonetheless can’t determine whether or not membership is best for you, “attempt before you purchase” with the suggestions in Methods to Save BIG on Deluxe Disney Lodging Renting DVC Factors.
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider the DVC Welcome Dwelling Weeks? Excited this shall be occurring throughout your journey, disillusioned that you just’ll miss it, or do you not likely care? Long term, are you optimistic that this bodes properly for Disney not off course with extra “shock and delight” choices and making an attempt to exceed expectations, or assume that is only a one-off? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Share any questions, suggestions, or extra ideas you will have within the feedback!
