Celebrating Happy & Dreaming Big: Roberto’s Membership Magic Makers Story

At Disneyland Resort, “The Happiest Place on Earth,” a Disney Vacation Club Sales Counselor settles into a cozy cubicle, where each morning he routinely recites a magical mantra of his own making:

I am here to teach our guests how to vacation in ways they never dreamed possible.

I am here to give our guests the best Disney experience with Respect, Honesty and Integrity.

I am here to make a difference by helping our guests join the Membership.

I am doing what I signed up to do in this lifetime.

I do what I do because it’s my purpose and my destiny to do so.

Roberto Espinoza says that starting each workday with those words, which he calls “My Purpose,” emboldens his efforts to spread the magic of Membership – a “North Star” he’s followed since joining The Walt Disney Company in 2013. But Roberto’s Disney Vacation Club story began long before he “earned his ears.”

Once upon a quarter century ago, Roberto and his wife, Elisa, took a life-changing trip to Walt Disney World Resort. It was during that singular stay that they would discover Disney Vacation Club. Soon after, they’d call Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge “home,” marking the first page in an adventure book that’s still being written today.

“Sometimes I call her Ellie, and she calls me Carl,” Roberto said, referencing the doting duo from the 2009 Disney and Pixar film Up, an iconic couple who, in many ways, mirror Roberto and Elisa (including famously filling their own adventure book). “Seeing the movie for the first time really reinforced that life is short, and because of that, we vowed to make every year an adventure.”

Anyone else envisioning the movie’s tear-jerking, dialogue-free opening montage (directed, of course, by Disney Vacation Club Member Cruise veteran Pete Docter)? And maybe you’re hearing the sequence’s beautifully bittersweet score “Married Life” (composed by Pete’s fellow Member Cruise veteran Michael Giacchino)? You’re not alone.

While many of Carl and Ellie’s dreams remained unfulfilled, Roberto and Elisa have spent their “Married Life” doing what they dream through the magic of Membership – traveling to all seven continents and visiting more than 25 countries. From exploring Machu Picchu on a Signature Land trip to Peru with Adventures by Disney to sailing the Alaskan coastline with Disney Cruise Line to river cruising along the Nile through The World Collection to hearing a welcoming ‘bonjour!’ from Princess Aurora at Disneyland Paris through The Disney Collection, each adventure has added a page to their book. Along the way, they happily collect home resorts like passport stamps – with The Villas at Disneyland Hotel, The Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa and The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa having now joined the places they call “home.”

“I’ve learned that not everything is meant to be, but DVC is,” he said. “Owning a piece of the magic has changed my life, and now I get to help families create their own adventure books, too, just by speaking to them owner-to-owner.”

It was the constant encouragement from his wife, who endearingly spent a decade listening to Roberto rave about Disney Vacation Club at every opportunity, that finally pushed him to turn this passion into a fulfilling career.

For Roberto, “celebrate happy” is more than the Disneyland Resort 70th anniversary slogan. It’s a way of life. Inspiring Disney lovers to dream bigger and encouraging Disney Vacation Club Members to maximize their Membership, he uses his own firsthand experience as a Disney Vacation Club Member to help Members and guests lock in vacations – year after year.

“And now I get to contribute to the tremendous growth here at Disneyland,” he said of several recent Disney Vacation Club expansions, including the creation of Disney Vacation Club Star View Station – A Member Lounge at Disneyland Park, the opening of The Villas at Disneyland Hotel and the debut of Golden Vine House – A Disney Vacation Club Welcome Home Center at Disney California Adventure Park. “Now, I get to change lives, just as DVC changed ours.”

Click here to watch a brief clip about Roberto and his Disney Vacation Club story, available exclusively on the Disney Files on Demand YouTube playlist.