DVC's First Wave Preview Puts Members Inside Lakeshore Lodge a Week Before It Opens

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Disney Vacation Club has unveiled the Member "First Wave" Experience at Disney's Lakeshore Lodge, a four-day, three-night preview stay running June 24-27, 2027, ahead of the resort's July 1 opening. The package includes 3-day Park Hopper tickets, dinner at Moonglade, breakfast at Pioneer Hall and Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue, priced in Reservation Points from 184 up to 532. Phone-only booking opens November 7, 2026.

DVC's First Wave Preview Puts Members Inside Lakeshore Lodge a Week Before It Opens

Disney Vacation Club has found a way to let Members into Disney's Lakeshore Lodge before anyone else. The Member "First Wave" Experience is a four-day, three-night preview stay running June 24 through 27, 2027: wrapping up four days before the Bay Lake resort's official opening on July 1, 2027. Booking opens November 7, 2026, by phone only, and it is priced in Reservation Points rather than cash for the first two guests in a room.

An aerial view rendering depicts a large resort complex featuring multi-story buildings, a pool area with a water slide, and smaller structures alongside a body of water with a boat.
An aerial view rendering depicts a large resort complex featuring multi-story buildings, a pool area with a water slide, and smaller structures alongside a body of water with a boat. Photo: Blog Mickey

Key Details

What the Package Includes

At the center is the stay itself: three nights at Disney's Lakeshore Lodge on the shores of Bay Lake, timed so Members are in the building before it debuts. Around that, Disney has built a package that goes well beyond a room key.

An artist's rendering depicts a diverse group of people, including many children, watching fireworks over a body of water from a large indoor space with floor-to-ceiling windows and comfortable seating.
An artist's rendering depicts a diverse group of people, including many children, watching fireworks over a body of water from a large indoor space with floor-to-ceiling windows and comfortable seating. Photo: Disney Tourist Blog
A wooden cabin with a brown roof is nestled among tall trees, with a driveway and patches of grass in the foreground.
A wooden cabin with a brown roof is nestled among tall trees, with a driveway and patches of grass in the foreground. Photo: Benjamin D. Esham ( bdesham ) via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Two of the three meals are at Fort Wilderness rather than at Lakeshore Lodge, which is a deliberate piece of geography. Lakeshore Lodge is being built near Fort Wilderness on Bay Lake, and pairing a preview stay with Hoop-Dee-Doo ties the new resort to the most beloved institution in its immediate neighbourhood.

Reservation Points by Room Type

Pricing runs on Reservation Points rather than standard cash rates for the first and second guests in each accommodation. Here is the published chart for the 2027 event:

Published with the original report.
Published with the original report. Photo: Blog Mickey

Two entries in that chart deserve a second look. A 1 Bedroom Villa with a Premium View costs 524 points, more than a 3 Bedroom Grand Villa at 420, and more than a 2 Bedroom Lake House at 424. And the 1 Bedroom Lake House at 532 points costs more than the 2 Bedroom Lake House at 424. If you are running the numbers on this event, do not assume that more space costs more points; the view categories dominate the chart in places.

Additional Guests

Beyond the first two people in a room, everyone else pays a per-person rate in either points or cash:

Payment for the first and second guests must be made using points. The cash option applies only to the additional-guest rates.

The Buzz

Preview stays before a Disney Vacation Club resort opens are rare, and they are the closest thing DVC has to a members-only first-night ticket. Lakeshore Lodge is the newest DVC property at Walt Disney World and the first major new resort on Bay Lake in decades, so a chance to be inside it before the general public (with Hoop-Dee-Doo and Park Hopper tickets attached), set off immediate planning among Members. The points chart, with its unusual view-driven pricing, only sharpened the conversation.

The Booking Rules Are Unusually Strict

This event does not run like a normal DVC booking, and several of the rules will catch people out:

Modern guest room with colorful artwork and wooden accents at Disney's Lakeshore Lodge.
Modern guest room with colorful artwork and wooden accents at Disney's Lakeshore Lodge. Photo: Blog Mickey

The Membership Extras requirement is the one to check before November 7. It is the same eligibility line that governs Moonlight Magic and other Member events, and it is the reason ownership acquired through resale does not qualify.

What Lakeshore Lodge Will Be

Disney's Lakeshore Lodge is the newest Disney Vacation Club resort at Walt Disney World, built on Bay Lake near Fort Wilderness. Disney has previously detailed a 967-accommodation property spanning Duo Studios, Resort and Deluxe Studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom villas, and waterfront Lake Houses: the categories that make up this points chart. Three dining venues are opening with the resort, headlined by Moonglade, and the pool and lazy river complex known as Otter Springs is under construction.

Published with the original report.
Published with the original report. Photo: Blog Mickey

Set an Alarm for 10:00am Eastern on November 7

Everything about this event funnels into one moment. Booking opens Saturday, November 7, 2026, at 10:00am Eastern Time, and the only channel is the phone. With two rooms per Membership, a strictly limited three-night window and a resort every Member wants to see first, this will move fast. Confirm your Membership Extras eligibility, decide your room category and backup category in advance (remembering that the points chart does not run in order of size), and have both Member Services numbers ready before the line opens.

Published with the original report.
Published with the original report. Photo: Blog Mickey

Sources

GenieGrove rewrote this story; the original reporting is theirs.