In late 2012 Disney Vacation Club revealed that owners would soon have access to an exclusive free membership in D23: The Official Disney Fan Club. Turns out that while the membership may be free, it does not appear to be very exclusive.
According to website StitchKingdom.com, D23 will be introducing a free membership level this summer which is available to all Disney fans. The description of this product exactly matches details provided via Disney Files Magazine and DVCMember.com. The free public membership will reportedly include access to the soon-to-be-gated D23 website, a weekly email newsletter and the opportunity to buy exclusive D23 merchandise.
The free public membership will not include the member ID card, certificate or annual gift which are part of the $29.95 Silver level, nor the quarterly D23 print magazine included with the $74.95 Gold level.
StitchKingdom.com quotes D23 head Steven Clark as saying that the free membership level is something they have always wanted to offer:
"The free level of membership is something we've wanted to do since the beginning of D23, but as you can imagine sometimes something as simple as a free level of membership has complexity to it and we've finally been able to actually make that happen. We're in a position with where D23 is now that we are able to actually offer that free level of membership; we're able to put in some of the bells and whistles into our website that we've wanted to do since the beginning. We've finally come to that point where we're going to be able to offer varying levels of D23 experiences so any Disney fan — at no cost — can now have a certain amount of access to the Walt Disney Archives and Disney Legends and the access we have to all of Disney's various business units."
Additional quotes from Steven Clark and details on the free offering can be found at StitchKingdom.com.
In January, Disney Vacation Club indicated that an online registration tool was being created for members who wished to take advantage of the free D23 offer. The sign-up option was scheduled to debut on DVCMember.com sometime in spring 2013, although it now seems unnecessary unless additional changes are planned to differentiate the free DVC owner membership from the free product being made available to the general public.
