Recently, DVC announced a new paid membership called Membership Magic Beyond. While there are a lot of different benefits, one of the most interesting benefits to me was the extended lounge hours at the Epcot ImaginAtrium lounge in the Imagination Pavilion. Normally the ImaginAtrium Lounge operates from 10am – 5pm. However, on DVC’s own page about the ImaginAtrium, they say the lounge has added extended hours from 6pm to 9pm for Membership Magic Beyond members.
For our first trip to Epcot since Membership Magic Beyond benefits began on January 12th, we decided to test out how visiting the ImaginAtrium would work during extended hours. What did we learn?
First, just because you are enrolled in Membership Magic Beyond does not mean you can access the extended lounge hours. You must be staying at a Walt Disney World Resort or Disney’s Vero Beach Resort using your DVC Membership. This means you either are staying on points or have booked your stay through DVC Member Services using cash. It is similar to the restriction for Moonlight Magic early registration.
While the website for Extended Hours only says you must be enrolled in Membership Magic Beyond, we were denied entry to the lounge in the evening on our first night at Epcot because we weren’t staying on property yet.
Second, the extended hours benefit is actually part of the Character Experience Benefit of Membership Magic Beyond. This means that you are limited to accessing the lounge during extended hours once per stay, although just like the included Water Park access on check-in day, you could use this benefit multiple times if you have a split stay. I also verified with a Cast Member working at the lounge that this benefit applies once per stay and not once per year as the language in the terms & conditions was a little confusing.
So what was the experience like?
During our visit, Zootopia’s Nick Wilde and Judy Hops were the meet & greet characters. When you check in, you’ll receive a Passport which acts as your “ticket” to meet the characters and also has the signatures of the characters inside of it. I assume this means the characters won’t do autographs, but we did not ask them.
Because this is so “exclusive”, the characters spent a lot of time with each group and even allowed us to come back and take a quick photo with them since they weren’t very busy. The “exclusivity” of it does make me question why DVC is being so restrictive about this. I understand that they don’t want to overwhelm the lounge during extended hours, but there was a point where we were the only family in the lounge for about 30 minutes and there were more cast members in there than guests. My kids really enjoyed having free reign of the lounge, but I do think they’re being too restrictive.
While the placement of the characters may make it difficult to keep that as a once per stay, only when using your membership benefit. I do think DVC should consider opening the lounge for extended hours to all Membership Magic Beyond guests whether they’re staying on property or not. I think that would increase the usage of the lounge enough where it would make sense. If they really want, keep the characters limited to just once per stay when using your membership and simply don’t give a passport to everyone.
I will say, it was really nice to see the Imagination Pavilion at night and see Spaceship Earth lit up at night and having the lounge all to ourselves was a really unique experience! I will definitely be back, especially if they change out the characters and have someone different next time I’m there.
If you’re a Membership Magic Beyond member, will you be going to the ImaginAtrium to experience the Character Meet & Greet?
Joy
February 13, 2025Do you have to be staying at on property with direct DVC points?
Ryan Chung
February 13, 2025No, you do need to be staying on property using your DVC membership, but similar to Moonlight Magic early registration, DVC currently doesn’t not differentiate between which points you are using.
Datautvinning MacBook
February 13, 2025This article answered a lot of my questions, great job.
Patty mazon
February 13, 2025We just came back from our week at the Poly studio split stay between original Poly and the new Poly tower (great stay ) and we did check out the member lounge and we enjoyed our pics with Zootopia characters. The same restrictions were explained to us . They close the lounge at 5 , clean and open at 6 . There were only a few groups there and we were the only ones getting our pics . They stay open till 9 and the workers hoped to get out early , lots of workers , not many people. The snacks and drinks were the same for the before 6 pm crowd . I was hoping for a beer or wine . lol . It was a nice relaxing, Although a bit awkward with low crowds . We are planning our first Disneyland trip and took advantage of the weekday tickets . The cost of the 3 day pass was cheaper than the 2 day pass (single park) when purchased with a Pixar hotel stay . Love your blogs and hope to meet your crew one of our trips.
Adam R
February 13, 2025I went by on day 3 of opening. I have a blue card and the Membership Beyond add on, but on that trip I was staying on rented points. At that time they asked me if I was staying on points and I basically said yes, just not my points, kind of dancing around the situation – they eventually let us in. She said we were good and was sorry it took so long they were just learning the system too. Don’t know if they’ve tightened things up since then, but way too many restrictions. Great interaction, lots of time, but I feel like they need more traffic to keep it going.
Dennis
February 13, 2025Only US members can purchase, which means I may never get into the lounge again. Always seems to be a waitlist when I go and now I will be at the bottom of the list.