The History of the Disney Vacation Club (DVC)

POST INDEX BY DATE

1990

Disney enters timeshare industry (posts 5-6)

1991

The original 3-mountain DVC logo (post 7)
Site plans for the Disney Vacation Club resort (posts 8-9)
DVC Preview Center (post 11)
Sales begin (post 12)
DVC's initial press release (post 13)

1992

Where the Magic Never Ends brochure (posts 16-22)

1993

Disney buys land for Vero Beach (post 25)
The original Vero Beach concept art (post 27)
Disney plans to develop Hilton Head Island (HHI) (post 29-30)

1994

Disney buys land for Newport Coast DVC (post 31)
Groundbreaking at Vero Beach (post 32)
Groundbreaking at Hilton Head Island (HHI) (post 33)

1995

Disney discusses Newport Coast plan (post 36)
Boardwalk resort under construction (post 37-38)
Two-mountain DVC logo introduced (post 40)
Vero Beach opens (post 41)

1996

BoardWalk Villas (BWV) opens (post 43)

1997

DVC scraps plan for Newport Coast resort (post 44)

1998

Villas at the Wilderness Lodge (VWL) announced (post 46-47)

1999

Groundbreaking at Villas at the Wilderness Lodge (VWL) (post 48-49)

2000

Beach Club Villas (BCV) announced (post 50-52)

2001

Eagle Pines announced (post 53-54)

2002

Plans for a DVC resort at the Disney Institute announced (post 56)
Saratoga Springs Resort (SSR) announced (post 57)

2003

Jim Lewis in charge (post 63)

2004

Saratoga Springs Resort (SSR) opens (post 64)

2006

AKV announced (post 65-66)

2007

15-yr extension of Old Key West (OKW) (post 67)
Villas at the Grand Californian (VGC) announced (post 68)
Disney buys land in Hawaii for resort (post 70-71)

2008

DVC coming to the Contemporary (post 73-74)
DVC coming to the Treehouses (post 75)
DVC announces Bay Lake Tower (BLT) and TreeHouse Villas (THV) (post 81)

2009

Villas at the Grand Californian (VGC) sales begin (post 82)
Villas at the Grand Californian (VGC) opens (post 83)

2010

DVC starts offering Fixed Weeks (post 85)
Alumni sales begin (post 86)

2011

Resale restrictions announced (post 87)
Grand Floridian DVC planned (post 89)
New DVC logo announced (post 90)
DVC executives fired over Aulani (post 91)
Fort Wilderness DVC planned (post 92)
DVC announces Villas at the Grand Floridian (VGF) (post 93)

2013

Pot rock replaces Bilby (post 96)
Villas at the Grand Floridian (VGF) sales begin (post 97)
Polynesian Villas & Bungalows (PVB) announced (post 98-99)
Villas at the Grand Floridian (VGF) opens (post 101)

2014

Polynesian Villas & Bungalows (PVB) details announced (post 102)

2015

Polynesian Villas & Bungalows (PVB) goes on sale (post 103)
Polynesian Villas & Bungalows (PVB) opens (post 104)
DVC announces Wilderness Lodge plans (post 105)

Posts #3 - #4 contain a summary of key milestones for DVC.

The subsequent 100+ posts (Post #5 onwards) contain news articles and press releases, along with relevant images, that covers the history of DVC from 1990 to the present.

Skip past these summary charts to see the photos and text that makes up the history of DVC. These summary charts provide a high-level view of the dates.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In January 1990, Disney Chairman Michael D. Eisner unveiled a massive and ambitious ten-year building plan. He called it The Disney Decade. Given the opportunity for profit in an industry racking up sales in the billions, Eisner and team had decided that Disney would go into the time-share business.

It was a difficult decision, because it would be a marriage of two opposites: squeaky clean Disney and tarnished time-sharing, an industry known in the 1970s and early 1980s for its sleazy, fly-by-night operators.

"We looked at time-sharing for seven years. There was a serious concern that we didn't want to put our name on a negative consumer image. We didn't want to be associated with deplorable sales and marketing practices," said Don Goodman, Disney's vice president of real estate venture development.

"But here we were in Orlando, the largest time-share market in the world. We concluded that there would be a lot of appeal for time-shares built by a stable developer," Goodman said.

In 1989, Disney established Disney Vacation Development, Inc., a subsidiary of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, a unit of The Walt Disney Company, to move forward with their timeshare plans.

One of the first indications of this decision was this news article from United Press International about timeshares coming to Walt Disney World.

Disney enters timeshare industry

January 14, 1990 | UPI

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner Sunday revealed that Disney plans to sell time share vacations at its Florida theme parks.

Eisner gave no details about Disney's 'shared vacation ownership' program but said 500 units would be built at the company's Florida complex and offered to time share investors.

Time share resorts sell the same piece of property, usually a condominium, to several investors but allow each investor to use it only a limited number of days per year.

Time share operations have been plagued by complaints of consumer fraud and deception, high pressure sales tactics and mismanagement.

'There are a lot of things that had bad reputations. Amusement parks had bad reputations before Disney came into the process,' Eisner said.

'We didn't use the word time share, not that we're afraid to use it,' Eisner said.

'We've hired the best people in the industry to work for us,' he said. 'We feel that we can do it in a really attractive, honest and capable way, and we're very excited about it,' he told reporters.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

This short 4-sentence blurb told us that site work had begun.

Site work has begun on the first time-share...

November 26, 1990 | Orlando Sentinel

UNDER WAY. Site work has begun on the first time-share units at Walt Disney World. The villas are planned around the front nine of the Lake Buena Vista golf course. The venture involves memberships, rather than selling an interest in each unit. Marketing is expected to begin in the summer.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Original DVC Logo

Disney Vacation Development named their timeshare program the "Disney Vacation Club".

The original DVC logo from 1991 contains three mountains, and was used until 1995 when the 2-mountain logo replaced it.

The original DVC logo with 3-mountains

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

SITE PLANS FILED FOR THE DISNEY VACATION CLUB RESORT
WITH DECLARATION OF CONDOMINIUM

Feb 13, 1995 revised site plan for the Disney Vacation Club resort
Initial phases

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Feb 13, 1995 revised site plan for the Disney Vacation Club resort
Subsequent phases

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Disney has taken construction bids for...

January 28, 1991 | Orlando Sentinel

CLUB FOR GROWN-UPS. Disney has taken construction bids for the first 190 villas at Disney Vacation Club, the entertainment giant's foray into the time-share business. The club isn't taking the usual time-share approach, in which people purchase slices of a property, usually in weekly increments. The Disney project involves memberships. The villas will be built around the second and eighth holes of the Lake Buena Vista Golf Course. A builder is to be selected in the next few weeks.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

DVC Preview Center

The DVC Preview Center opened up in Oct 1991. It was renamed the Commodore House in Dec 1991. The Commodore House was a welcome facility across from the Hospitality House and overlooking the pond next to the bridge. Guests could watch a movie presentation about DVC (the film finished with pixie dust spreading across the ceiling), enjoy refreshments and even a dish of ice cream after completing the tour.

Commodore House had a wonderful covered porch that ran the entire length of the building looking over the golf pond. It had rocking chairs and was just an elegant setting (and very conducive to selling a luxury timeshare disguised as a Disney resort). The porch was accessible from the ground as well as from the interior of the center - so guests could stroll along the porch and enjoy the rocking chairs even during after-hours for the sales center. There was a very comfortable sitting area for guests and a screening room where the current sales video was shown throughout the day. Your DVC Guide would then walk with you next door to Building 16 to view the models.

The building that was home to the first models was Building 16 - which still exists just as it did at that time. Three-story Building 16 has six lock-off 2BRs, two dedicated 2BRs and 2 GVs. One of the lock-offs was used as a model as well as one of the GVs.

In July of 1998, the Commodore House was closed and demolished to complete the plans for the resort (buildings 62, 63 and 64 were constructed on the site of the Commodore House). At this time the DVC Sales Center was moved to BWV where it remained until sales began for SSR in 2003. The sales center has been at the SSR location ever since.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Disney Ventures Into Time Sharing

TWENTY YEARS - A growing attraction - Walt Disney World's 20th anniversary
Memberships For The Disney Vacation Club Go On Sale Today - Starting At $11,730.

September 30, 1991 | Orlando Sentinel

Amid the hoopla of the 20th anniversary of Walt Disney World, the Walt Disney Co. is launching a spanking-new venture that puts a new twist on time-share ownership.

Beginning today, Disney will sell memberships in the Disney Vacation Club, giving buyers the right to stays in Key West-style vacation homes overlooking the Lake Buena Vista golf course east of Epcot Center.

The Disney Vacation Club works something like a country club - with a one-time purchase price and annual dues.

Memberships in the Disney Vacation Club will start at $11,730 and will be good for 50 years. Owners will be assessed an annual fee of $500 to $700 as their share of property maintenance. Disney plans to offer financing for the initial membership fee.

Owners will receive free admission to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center and the Disney-MGM Studio Tour until Dec. 31, 1999.

Mark Pacala, vice president and general manager of Disney Vacation Development, a new Disney subsidiary, said, "The Disney Vacation Club is a time share with a Disney twist. We have taken the time-share concept and added unprecedented flexibility."

Depending upon the type of membership they buy, Vacation Club owners will be allotted a certain number of 'points.' Each year, owners will decide how to use their points.

For example, an owner could use his points to reserve a two-bedroom villa for a week's stay during peak seasons, for a nine-day stay during a slow month such as September, or to reserve a villa for several weekend stays. Owners also can borrow points from the upcoming year, or bankroll points not used in the current year.

Pacala anticipates the majority of buyers will pay from $11,730 to $15,500 to join. He said he believes the average purchase price will be $13,500, which will enable the buyer to spend one week a year in a two-bedroom villa during spring or summer.

Three-bedroom, one-bedroom and studio units will also be available.

The Vacation Club also has an arrangement with Resort Condominiums International of Indianapolis. That deal allows members to trade vacations for stays in 100 condominiums in Europe, Hawaii, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Vacation Club owners' reservations will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis. Fifty-one units will be available for occupancy starting in December and 146 additional units will open by next summer.

"We have spent a year - and even had some delays - making sure that this is done exactly right," said Michael Eisner, Walt Disney Co. chairman and chief executive officer, who visited the Vacation Club Sunday. "We think this is about as high-quality a product as you'll find anywhere."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

INITIAL PRESS RELEASE

Photo provided to the press which ran in newspapers

Disney Press Release

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Time-share Idea Gets Disney Touch

Company Takes New Approach To Business

October 13, 1991 | Orlando Sentinel

A few years ago, Mickey looked outside the gates of Walt Disney World and saw a booming business. Orlando had become the time-share resort capital of the world - an estimated $400 million annual industry in Central Florida.

That success was largely because of the presence of Disney, but Mickey wasn't getting a bite of it.

To do so was tempting, but there was a downside for the company's squeaky clean image. A bad smell lingered about the time-share cheese. The industry's record had included charges of high-pressure sales tactics, fraudulent sweepstakes campaigns and build-'em and leave-'em developers.

Yet other aspects of the business were tantalizing. The industry had steadily improved in the past five years, and it had attracted other high-profile corporations with reputations to uphold, such as Marriott Corp., Hilton Hotels Corp. and International Telephone & Telegraph Corp.

Disney decided to partake of the time-share feast, but not until it had developed what it believes is a new approach to the business.

"We're not a time-share resort," said Mark L. Pacala, vice president and general manager of Disney Vacation Development Inc., operators of the Disney Vacation Club.

"We're a vacation club. We're calling ourself something different. We are different. We want people to judge by our performance, not in reaction to the word time share."

The words "time share" never appear in any Disney sales brochures.

Disney started selling the club this month. It is wrapping up construction of 197 units in a Key West-themed community on the Lake Buena Vista Golf Course. Of those, 51 units have been reserved for the vacation club, and the remainder will operate as a Disney resort hotel. Eventually, as many as 500 units will be built, and all may be converted to vacation club use.

The venture is different from time shares in more than just its name. Disney had to tackle two key problems when it decided to move into the business - image and control.

To achieve control, Disney has a different way of selling its space.

Instead of selling a specific apartment for a week or two a year, Disney sells interest in the club that entitles buyers to a certain number of points. Buyers use the points to reserve different types of accommodations at different times for varying lengths of stay - all on a first-come, first-served basis. The membership is good for 50 years.

For example, the minimum purchase of $11,730 would entitle the buyer to 230 vacation points ($51 per point). The buyer could use those points in various ways, including a three-week stay in a studio apartment during a slow season, a one-week stay in a two-bedroom apartment during a moderate season or a four-day stay in a three-bedroom apartment at a busy season like Christmas.

Participation can be in almost any amount. Pacala said research indicates most purchases will be in the $11,730-to-$16,000 range.

As many as 2,500 members might participate in the first 51 units, Pacala estimated. At the $11,730 minimum, that would be a sellout of almost $30 mil-lion.

Pacala said the company never considered selling time-share property. The late Walt Disney bought 30,000 acres specifically so he could maintain total control, he said. Property owners might be tempted to try to stick their collective noses into the business of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the governmental arm of Disney created by special legislative action in 1967. Disney in effect governs its 30,000 acres it-self.

The vacation club is registered by the state as a condominium and falls under both state condominium and time-share sales laws.

Condominium association members have votes, but Pacala sees no problem with that. The vacation club association will vote on such things as special assessments, budget increases of more than 15 percent and retaining the resort management, which is Disney.

Suppose the association votes out Disney as manager. Not likely, Pacala believes. However remote, suppose it happened? The ground lease spells out how the resort must be managed and to what standards, Pacala said. For anyone but Disney to do it would be "very expensive," he said. "It's our infrastructure. Our know-how."

With the control factor resolved, Disney then tackled image.

Marketing will be low-key, said Pacala, who was recruited from Marriott Corp., where he helped develop the Fairfield Inn economy motel concept.

Information will be left for visitors at Disney World's 9,000-plus hotel rooms. Two booths, one at the Magic Kingdom and one at Epcot Center, also will distribute information to those who ask for it.

No gifts or other incentives will be offered for visitors to go to the Vacation Club Preview Center and hear the sales pitch. Buyers through the end of the decade, though, do get an incentive - free admission to the Disney theme parks during their vacation visits.

State law requires a 15-day period when buyers can change their minds and get their money back. Disney will offer 30 days.

The 1-to 1 1/2-hour sales presentation by "vacation guides" includes a movie and two video presentations. Participants have three opportunities to leave and catch a van back to their hotels or the parks. "If someone's yawning or looking at their watch, the vacation guide asks if they want to go on," Pacala said.

If a visitor decides to buy, the salesperson leaves the visitor with a manager who makes sure the buyer understands the purchase and isn't pressured. All visitors make two final stops - first at an old-fashioned ice cream parlor for ice cream and then at a wall mural for a photograph. The picture is sent to both buyers and non-buyers as a souvenir, along with a survey asking if any problems were encountered.

Disney has hired salespeople with a minimum of five years' experience. All went through three months of intensive training, not only in the vacation-club concept, but in the Disney culture. Ten percent to 20 percent have had experience in time-share sales.

Pacala said compensation is based on commission and a base salary. Without spelling out the formula, Pacala said customers' feedback on how they were handled will affect a salesperson's earnings. Most salespeople are expected to get 60 percent to 80 percent of their earnings from the base salary, he said.

Buyers can finance through their bank or Disney. Payment plans range from one to 10 years with initial interest rates ranging from 10.8 percent to 13.8 percent. The lowest rates are for buyers who agree to direct payment deductions from their checking accounts.

Besides the purchase price, club members pay annual dues starting at $500. That charge covers use of Disney's transportation as well as maintenance and real estate taxes.

Pacala said the program is designed for people who consistently take vacations.

"We want people to buy because they want to use it," Pacala said. "It's not an investment."

Even though the vacation-club structure is different from most time-share operations, it is firmly planted in the time-share culture.

Club members who don't want to come to Disney World every year can exchange with time-share owners through Resort Condominiums International, a worldwide exchange network. Exchanges may be made at the top 100 resorts of the network.

"The underlying premise of time share is sound," Pacala said. "We've tried to approach this thing in a manner that avoids problems of the past."

Will the vacation club concept be expanded to Disney parks in California, Europe and Japan or even other resort areas? "We're not ruling anything out, but right now we're focusing all our energy right here," Pacala said. "We must make this a success first."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

DISNEY WORLD READY TO OPEN TIMESHARE UNITS

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .