This episode of the My DVC Points Podcast is sponsored by DVC Resale Market, Vacation Club Loans and by community members in My DVC Points VIP Producer Club.

Meet Brad Coates from the DVC Round Table at the Resort Loop Podcast and former co-host of DisDads. Tim from Resort Loop recruited Brad to join Resort Loop for an episode on DVC and he's been a regular on the monthly DVC Round Table for years now. The original round table show was a mixture of owners, renters, and prospective members in the Resort Loop community. At the time, this was probably the only people creating content in the DVC community. (For the record, My DVC Points highly recommends Resort Loop and the entire crew over at their DVC Round Table. We promote community and great people who serve the Disney and DVC community.)

Meet Brad Coates – Happiest DisDad Alive!

Brad started his Disney journey when his mother took him to Disney for his high school graduation trip. Honestly, he wasn't a huge fan. Years later, while working in LA as a youth pastor, Brad regularly chaperoned church youth outings at Disneyland. He points out, there's nothing magical about the place when you're responsible for a bunch of teens and tweens.

    The trip that started it all in 1999. We have vacationed with Disney every year since.

However, things changed when his second daughter PJ was a baby. His mother-in-law wanted to take a family trip to Disney. Reluctantly, Brad agreed, and it became a pivotal moment in his Disney journey. More specifically, at a character meet and greet when Minnie held his 2-month old in her arms and spent way more time than usual holding her and playing after her. After about five minutes, other people in line were beyond the cuteness of Minnie holding a newborn and wanted to get the line moving. However, Minnie wanted more time with baby PJ. The entire family followed Minnie's holding baby PB into Minnie's house. She spends another 15-20 minutes holding PJ on the plastic couch in Minnie's house. The full force of the Disney magic came over Brad and his wife. They ended up sobbing with tears of joy. Later that day, Brad turns to his wife and explains, as a youth pastor, money is tight. However, being in ministry is hard on the pastor's family. Brad made a commitment to finding a way to take his family to Disney every year going forward. Brad is thrilled to state that PJ has just turned 20 and has enjoyed a magical Disney vacation at least once a year every year of her life. He credits owning DVC as making it affordable. Brad jokes that his oldest daughter is getting married and has concerns about being able to sustain the annual Disney every year. She's looking at him like, well, you have these DVC points!

2005, PJ is still at Minnie fan!

After 6 years of figuring out how to do Disney on the cheap, in 2005, Brad decided to splurge and stay at Paradise Pier Resort at Disneyland. Before 2005, they drove an RV to park outside Disneyland, stayed in cheap hotels off-property, and did the best they could do with a limited budget. (Pastors are one of most underpaid professions). However, in 2005, they decided to sit through a DVC presentation to get the fast passes. Now here's the unique part of the story. Brad had already owned two timeshares before and hated them. He had a lot of trouble getting out of his traditional timeshares. He fell into that trap not just once, but twice. However, the DVC guide was different. The guide answered all the questions and explained DVC in a non-pressure fashion. Two months later, Brad and his wife realize they had already made a commitment to their family to go on a Disney vacation at least once a year. The couple learned a valuable lesson in the other timeshares. Only buy where you really want to stay. They knew they wanted to keep going to Disney, but in all honesty, they had never been to Walt Disney World before joining. The Coates fam