spring 2013 • Volume22 • Number1 TWENTY YEARS OF DISNEY VACATION CLUB® The entertainment world raises a lot of interesting questions. Like why do we talk about people being “on” TV shows but “in” movies? Why do unscripted shows employ writers? Why are “Jimmy Kimmel Live” episodes previously recorded? And why in the world do so many bad guys insist on messing with Liam Neeson? A new attraction now open at Disney’s Hollywood Studios takes a cannon-shot at the fi rst of these questions and adds another: What does it take to sail with Captain Jack Sparrow? This immersive new addition to the Park is called “The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow,” and it puts you very much “in” the Pirates of the Caribbean fi lm saga, surrounding you in the action and putting you to the ultimate pirate test. You’ll fi nd my interview with one of the attraction’s Walt Disney Imagineers on pages 3-4, the fi rst of many pages in this edition to answer intriguing questions. For example, how can one work Disney into their home decorating without turning their living space into a Theme Park? For that, we turn to pages 5-6, where HGTV star and veteran Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival presenter Genevieve Gorder answers this and other questions Members submitted through our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/disneyvacationclub). But what if subtlety isn’t your style? Then turn to pages 8 and 11, where some incredibly talented Members provide inspiration. There are so many answers in this edition of your magazine that a list of questions could’ve served as a table of contents. “What’s MyMagic+?” (Pages 16) “Where in a Disney Theme Park can I fi nd treasures from Pleasure Island’s Adventurers Club?” (Pages 17-18) “Where, outside of New Fantasyland, can I fi nd mermaids in a Magic Kingdom attraction?” (Page 19) “Who exactly is the wizard of Oz?” (Page 21) “Where’s that new D23 page?” (Page 23, of course) “Seriously, why do people mess with Liam Neeson?” (We don’t know, friends. We just don’t know.) Welcome home, Ryan March Disney Files Editor Illustration of Ryan by Keelan Parham VOL. 22 NO. 1 Disney Files Magazine Information contained in this Contact Member Services from For Member Services in Japanese, Disney Vacation Club magazine is subject to change 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Eastern weekdays call 0120-98-4050 Tuesday-Sunday, P.O. Box 10350 without notice 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Eastern weekends 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (Japan Time) Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830 (800) 800-9800 or (407) 566-3800 Email: [email protected] DVC-MBR-65-U Update your mailing address online at Fax: (407) 938-4151 Please recycle this publication www.dvcmember.com Email: [email protected] facebook.com/disneyvacationclub Only the beginning By Claire Bilby, formerly Senior Vice President and General Manager, Disney Vacation Club; now Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Disneyland Paris and Europe When connecting Members to the places and people to build on this momentum they love, vacation points and resort reservations are now rests in the capable only the beginning. hands of Ken Potrock, whose Disney Vacation Club has established a proud tradi- perspectives will fill this page tion of creating experiences that help Members enjoy beginning this summer. While those places and people in true insider fashion. From I’m excited about the Member voyages with Disney Cruise Line and Member opportunities presented by trips with Adventures by Disney, to advance screenings my new role at Disneyland of Disney films and sneak previews of Disney attractions, Paris (who wouldn’t want to these and other experiences create lifelong memories and work in Paris?), I must admit that I envy the role Ken will help reinforce what makes our community a community. have inherited by the time you read this. In my year and a half with the Disney Vacation Club My experiences with Disney Vacation Club were family, I had the extraordinary opportunity to sail with among the most rewarding of my career, and I will Members on three Member Cruise voyages and travel forever cherish every memory. Backed by talented Cast with Members to both Peru and the Wild West through Members who take such enormous pride in their work Adventures by Disney. In that same span of time, we and inspired by passionate Members who continuously worked with the Walt Disney Studios to allow Members to drive us to raise the bar – Disney Vacation Club is a enjoy advance screenings of two major film releases, and business like no other. we partnered with Disney Parks to include Members in Ken takes the reins as another exciting slate of sneak previews of Cars Land at Disney California Adven- Member experiences take shape, from a new collection ture Park, New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom Park of Member trips with Adventures by Disney to our next and the souped-up Test Track at Epcot. highly anticipated Member Cruise voyage (sailing The past year also saw the re-imagination of Sept. 29 out of Port Canaveral, Fla.). “Welcome Home Wednesdays” at the Walt Disney World I thank you for being such a special part of my Resort, and the creation of two new weekly Member Disney career, and I’ll watch with great interest from events – “Royal Member Gathering” at the Disneyland Disneyland Paris as Ken and the Disney Vacation Club Resort and “Mahalo Member Mingle” at Aulani, Disney Cast family create more magic with you. When it comes Vacation Club Villas, Ko Olina, Hawai‘i. to elevating the Member experience, everything on this As announced earlier this year, the job of continuing page is only the beginning. Carrying the torch By Ken Potrock, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Disney Vacation Club and Adventures by Disney Just hours after it was announced that I’d be joining the team at Disney Vacation Club, I found myself boarding the spectacular Disney Dream Ship for my first Member Cruise. I was filled with many emotions as I entered the terminal, from excitement to curi- osity to a touch of anxiousness. I knew I had more than a few things to learn about Disney Vacation Club, its Members and the Cast. That anxiousness quickly vanished, as I was immediately made to feel at home, not only by colleagues old and new, but by Members themselves. Clearly, “welcome home” is more than just a catchphrase. It’s a family-first philosophy that’s evident in every interac- tion I experienced or observed throughout the voyage, and it reassures me that my future here will be as rewarding for me as I hope it’ll be for you. Claire and team have done an extraordinary job shepherding the continuous improvement of this special community, and I’m deeply proud to now carry that torch. I thank you for welcoming me so warmly to your neighborhood, and I look forward to making memories with you to last a lifetime. 22 Walt Disney World Resort: Think a pirate’s life is for you? It sure does sound appealing – what with all that marauding, embezzling and even high-jacking. No self-respecting rascal, scoundrel, villain or knave (or ne’er do-well cad, for that matter) would dream of living any other way. But before you pillage, plunder, rifle or loot (or kidnap and ravage without giving a hoot), Disney’s Hollywood Studios invites you to stop by Soundstage 4 to see if you really have what it takes. It’s an immersive new attraction called The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow, and it’s taking wannabe devils and black sheep (really bad eggs) deeper into the Pirates of the Caribbean film saga – and closer to Captain Jack – than they ever dreamed possible. Whether drawn to the experience by a hunger for loot, a thirst for rum (comically referenced – though not actually served – in the new attraction) or unfulfilled dreams of eternal youth (the building’s new exterior mural was inspired by the map to the Fountain of Youth seen in both Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), Guests’ journey begins as soon as they enter the re-imagined soundstage. It’s there, in a dark and foreboding pirate stranglehold, that recruits meet the real “head” of this operation – a disembodied talking skull (voiced by James Arnold Taylor, known to Star Wars fans as the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars). Brought to life by a crackling, supernatural energy, this skeletal servant of the pirate world sounds some important warnings (including a few words about dead men’s inability to tell tales) before opening the fortress door to La Isla del storytelling creatively Gorrión (Island of the Sparrow), the secret home port and presented through treasure cave of the legendary Captain Jack Sparrow. state-of-the-art “What we really wanted to do with this environment technology. And for me was create a place that would feel equally at home personally, this project in the mythology of both the attraction and the fi lms,” has been a huge thrill. To Walt Disney Imagineer Jason Surrell told Disney be able to not only write Files Magazine. “Haunted caverns are part of every for Johnny Depp, but to incarnation of the Pirates of the Caribbean Theme Park actually help direct him attraction, and they inspired the setting of Isla de Muerta (with veteran fi lmmaker Peter in the original fi lm Pirates( of the Caribbean: The Curse Kohn, one of the fi rst assistant of the Black Pearl).