FALL 2010 Vol. 19 No. 3 Disney Files Magazine Is Published by the Good People at You May Be Wondering Why Our Cover’S on Fire
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FALL 2010 vol. 19 no. 3 Disney Files Magazine is published by the good people at You may be wondering why our cover’s on fire. It’s a reasonable question, and I have Disney Vacation Club ® a (somewhat) reasonable answer. This issue is HOT! And not just Orlando-in-August P.O. Box 10350 Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830 hot. More like fireflies-with-a-fever hot. Laying-asphalt-in-a-wool-sweater hot. The-flat- screen-TV-someone-just-sold-me-at-a-discount-out-of-the-back-of-a-van hot. (Once again, I’ve said too much.) The point is, this magazine couldn’t be hotter if we’d soaked All dates, times, events and prices it in acid. That’s right, acid! (Kudos to those who caught that “It’s Tough to Be a Bug” printed herein are subject to reference. There’s another one on page 12, just for you.) The pages ahead are… change without notice. (Our lawyers do a happy dance when we say that.) Liquid-magma hot: Get an inside look at the “volcanic” creative concept for the expansive pool area at Disney’s new Hawai‘i resort (pages 3-4). MOVING? Update your mailing address McSteamy hot: Meet one of the firefighters charged with making sure special effects online at www.dvcmember.com don’t send Seattle Grace and other Disney production sets up in smoke (pages 5-6). Trendy hot: Track some of the latest Membership trends, as revealed in the 2009 MEMBERSHIP QUESTIONS? Condominium Association Survey (page 8). Contact Member Services from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Eastern daily at Tropical-rainforest hot: Learn 10 things we’d like you to know about Costa Rica (800) 800-9800 or (407) 566-3800 before booking your Member Getaways vacation (pages 11-12). Fax Number: (407) 938-4151 African-fire-pit hot: Test your eye for detail in this Kidani Village edition of our popular “Picture This” puzzle (page 13). E-mail Member Services at: [email protected] Seared-over-coals hot: Fire up your grill and try your hand at preparing a hot dish from Napa Rose at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel ® & Spa (page 14). Taylor Dayne hot. Or Taylor Hicks hot. (Whichever Taylor lights your fire.) Find out what’s hot at this year’s Epcot ® International Food & Wine Festival (page 17). Burning-questions hot: Disney Files Magazine columnist Jim Korkis answers smoldering questions about Disney history (pages 27-28). So sit back, pour yourself a glass of something on ice, crack the nearest window and check the batteries in your smoke detectors. It’s about to get hot up in here. (My awkward use of the phrase “up in here” shows just how qualified I am to present a “hot” issue. Clearly, I’m not cool.) Welcome home, m a h r a P Ryan March n a l e Disney Files Editor e K y b n o i t a r t s u l l I DVC-MBR-65-L FROM THE DESK OF JIM LEWIS by Jim Lewis, President, Disney Vacation Club ® when bigger is better As you read this edition of Disney Files Magazine, families It’s with that in mind that are enjoying the newest development in the Disney Vacation we develop, not just additional Club neighborhood. I’m not talking about a lakefront tower in vacation homes, but truly Florida, a Craftsman villa in California or even a beachside unique accommodations in resort in Hawai‘i. I’m talking about a 15,000-square-foot retail both the places you love and the space in Japan. places you’ve dreamed of Located in the Ikspiari ® shopping complex at the Tokyo visiting. Disney Resort ®, this new Disney Vacation Club preview center The opening of The Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian lets Guests explore a two-bedroom model of proposed vacation Hotel ® & Spa in Anaheim marked a big step in that direction, home accommodations at our upcoming resort in Ko Olina, bringing our spacious, home-like accommodations to the West Hawai‘i and meet Cast Members who know the secret to Coast for the first time. We move even further west in fall 2011, vacationing in ways families may never have dreamed possible. when we’re scheduled to open the first phase of Aulani, Disney I tell you this, not because I think you’re going to rush to Vacation Club Villas, Ko Olina, Hawai‘i. More than just a beach Tokyo to check the place out (though you’re certainly welcome resort, this spectacular property takes Disney Vacation Club to do so), but because the new preview center represents our accommodations to a place that ranks among the most popular latest step in a growth strategy that continues to benefit both destinations on the planet. our company and our Members. To say Members are eager to stay at this new resort would Assuming that only the Disney stockholders among you be a gross understatement. You’ll even find a photo of a would be interested in a detailed discussion of our company’s Member in this magazine who’s among the many who simply business results, I’ll focus here on what I believe is the most couldn’t wait a year to make her first visit. important way our success benefits you, our Member Without the success we’ve enjoyed in recent years, those community. beachfront villas simply wouldn’t be in development today. The continued growth of our Member population – Each of our resort projects requires the confidence and supported in part by new sales operations like the one we’re investment of The Walt Disney Company, and the continued establishing in Japan – is the key to upholding our commitment growth of our Member community has helped Disney Vacation to delivering diverse vacation experiences. As much as Members Club gain support from our colleagues in Burbank. It’s the enjoy Disney Cruise Line ® voyages, Adventures by Disney proverbial “win-win” scenario. experiences and other great options through our Disney, World So as Japanese families learn what you already know and Passport, Adventurer and Concierge Collections, research fuel the next phase of growth in our community, I thank you clearly illustrates that you’re happiest when staying in Disney for the invaluable role you play in writing our success story. As Vacation Club Resorts. I’m fond of telling our Cast, the best is yet to come. Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, Ko Olina Hawai‘i page 2 dvcmember.com To say lava is important to Hawai‘i would be the very formations that will shape our recreation area. We want the definition of an understatement. Like saying water is rock you come across here to appear to be the very rock that important to the ocean. Or that cows are important to steak. would be coming up out of the ground if it was real, only ours Or that sweeping song numbers through which surprisingly will be ever-so-slightly magical. [More on that “magic” in a lyrical villains needlessly telegraph their next evil move are moment.] We’re giving this space all the properties of a real important to Disney musicals. One simply can’t exist without Hawaiian valley.” the other. The Imagineered “valley” will be known as the Waikolohe So when Walt Disney Imagineers set out to create a (pronounced why-ko-loh-hay), which is Hawaiian for vibrant oasis at the heart of Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, Ko “mischievous water” and offers a playful nod to some Olina, Hawai‘i, they cast the Hawaiian islands’ magma (or refreshing surprises. Many of those surprises will unfold along lava, as it’s called when it reaches the earth’s surface) in a the banks of a not-so-lazy river, which will carry tube-riding starring role. adventurers on a “journey of discovery” through the valley’s “Our vision is to create the illusion that as much of the eye-catching volcanic outcropping. Notice we didn’t say resort’s landscape as possible was already here,” explained “volcano.” Imagineer Joe Rohde, who grew up on O‘ahu. “We’re trying to “If we were to design a true, full-scale volcanic caldera, it mimic a certain quality of Hawaiian landscape, where it is would be at least 20 times the size of the entire resort,” Joe wetter and more forested toward the middle, and drier and explained. “What we’re creating is far more realistic for this more open out towards the sea. The land has a pattern, and space, a dynamic outcropping formed by that fantastic the pattern of our resort will respect that. meeting of lava and water, and erosion. It’s going to be very “What you can see right along this very stretch of believable, and it will create a beautifully dramatic silhouette coastline on O‘ahu is that, as the lava flowed hundreds of against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean.” thousands of years ago, it cooled rapidly as it hit the sea, piling Water slides twisting in and out of the rock formations up on itself and creating fantastic shapes. That’s will take Guests on a wild ride through misty caverns dotted the inspiration behind the rock by beads of sunlight that find their way through the rock. The occasional hot spring will blow off a little steam, while cooler and more “mischievous” fountain springs surprise explorers themselves. The with a bit of added refreshment. (We’d tell you exactly where many images in these mischievous springs will be located, but we wouldn’t our rocks won’t be want to spoil the surprise.