Walt Disney Co. to sell time shares in 15-story tower next to Contemporary Resort
KINGDOM TOWER
February 26, 2008 | Orlando Sentinel
The Walt Disney Co. has won approval to begin selling time shares in a 15-story tower the company is erecting next to its famed Contemporary Resort, a $110 million addition that Disney has named "The Kingdom Tower."
Disney has for months refused to divulge its plans for the hard-to-miss, half-built tower that is rising just outside the gates of the Magic Kingdom -- despite rampant speculation among Disney fans that it is destined for time shares.
A spokeswoman for the company's time-share division, Disney Vacation Club, would not discuss the project in detail again Monday.
"We don't have anything to announce today," spokeswoman Diane Hancock said.
But in new filings with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Disney formally states that the Disney Vacation Club will "add a ninth component site to be known as Kingdom Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort."
Disney says in the documents that it will sell the time shares in phases, beginning with an initial 75 units. The Kingdom Tower, which will connect to the existing Contemporary via a fifth-floor pedestrian bridge, will ultimately contain 281 units, according to the filings.
A spokesman for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which awarded a time-share license to the Kingdom Tower project earlier this month, said Disney has now been cleared to start selling units at any time.
"They can begin," department spokesman Sam Farkas said.
Disney appears in no rush. The company says in the documents it doesn't expect to finish the Kingdom Tower until the fall of 2009.
Analysts say the company can afford to be patient. The Kingdom Tower, they say, is likely to prove a huge seller, given that it will be the closest time shares Disney has built to the Magic Kingdom -- the busiest theme park in the world -- and the first built directly alongside Disney's monorail.
"I'd have to imagine that's going to be an extremely popular product," said Jeremy Glaser, a lodging-industry analyst with Morningstar.
Some analysts think Disney is withholding a formal Contemporary announcement because it does not want to undermine time-share sales at Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas or Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, both of which are still selling units. The company's four other time-share resorts at Walt Disney World -- as well as one each in Vero Beach and Hilton Head, S.C. -- are sold out.
Glaser, however, said Disney's silence "could just be some trademark Disney secrecy."
Disney's filings with the state also offer more detail about the Kingdom Tower's amenities.
A new swimming pool, for instance, will be large enough for 180 people; go as deep as 4 feet, 11 inches; and feature two hot tubs and a 104-foot-long water slide. There will be two tennis courts, two shuffleboard courts and two boccie ball courts. A barbecue pavilion will have about 490 square feet of covered area and a pair of picnic tables.
Glaser predicted that Disney will choose to market the Contemporary time shares "as more of an upscale product." An early point-chart submitted by Disney to the state -- Disney Vacation Club owners buy points from the company, which they then redeem for rooms, though they must buy through a "home resort" -- shows guests will have to spend more points to rent one- and two-bedroom units at the Kingdom Tower than any of Disney's other existing time shares.
In a further step toward cementing the new tower's status as a time-share resort, Disney has created a new condominium association that would manage the resort once units are sold off to individual owners. State records show that the "Kingdom Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort Condominium Association" was formally incorporated Jan. 9.
The Kingdom Tower continues a wave of construction for Disney's fast-growing Vacation Club. The company is in the midst of building its first time shares at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., and has announced plans to build an 800-room resort in Hawaii in which at least half of the units will be time shares.
Disney also recently obtained approval to rebuild its little-known Treehouse Villas, a 60-unit community in a heavily forested area of Disney World.
The move has prompted speculation that those units, too, could be converted to time shares.
The widespread building boom comes even as the U.S. economy teeters on the brink of a possible recession.
But Tammie Kaufman, a professor at the University of Central Florida who teaches courses on time shares, said time shares could remain popular even during an economic slump because consumers will want to stretch their vacation money further.
"People are looking for a bargain," Kaufman said.
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DVC Mike
A look back at the site for BLT (1 of 3)
Let's take a look back at the site for Bay Lake Tower.
The Contemporary Resort used to have two garden wings, as shown on this map.
Here's what the North Wing looked like.
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DVC Mike
A look back at the site for BLT (2 of 3)
In 2006, Disney filed plans for a project on the site of the Contemporary Resort's North Garden Wing and a construction fence was erected, encompassing the wing and part of its parking lot. The North Wing was demolished between January 31 and April 6, 2007.
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DVC Mike
A look back at the site for BLT (3 of 3)
Here is Bay Lake Tower rising up where the North Garden Wing was.
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DVC Mike
DVC MAKES CHANGES TO BOOKING WINDOW RULES
11/7 months in advance of check-IN date instead of check-OUT date
June 28, 2008
In response to ongoing Member feedback regarding our reservation processes, we are introducing a new policy designed to enhance booking guidelines.
The new reservation policy now offers Members the opportunity to place one single phone call to secure an entire Disney Vacation Club Resort reservation for as many as 7 nights, beginning on the first day of their booking window (which is 11 months before check-in at Members' Home Resort, or 7 months before check-in at other Disney Vacation Club Resorts). The previous policy required Members to call daily at the beginning of their booking window, piecing together their reservation one night at a time.
In addition to providing greater Member convenience, the simplification of the reservation process also provides the benefit of reduced call volume to Member Services, thereby shortening Members' wait times and making more efficient use of Member Services resources, which are supported by Members' Annual Dues.
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DVC Mike
Disney's time-share kingdom grows
September 16, 2008 | Orlando Sentinel
The Walt Disney Co.'s rapidly growing time-share division takes an aggressive step forward today when it unveils plans for two new resorts in Orlando -- even as Disney Vacation Club battles some of the strongest financial headwinds it has ever faced. Disney this morning will formally reveal plans for its Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort, confirming earlier reports that the 15-story tower rising just beyond the Magic Kingdom will be used for time shares. The company also will unveil plans to sell time shares at the Treehouse Villas at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, a secluded community of 60 units that is being rebuilt in a forested pocket of Walt Disney World.
Two long rumored resort developments were announced today for Disney’s Vacation Club, Disney’s vacation-ownership program: Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary and Treehouse Villas at Saratoga Springs.
The 15-story Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort is scheduled to join the Disney Vacation Club family of properties in fall 2009, while the Treehouse Villas at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, scheduled to open in summer 2009, will become the next room category offered at that resort.
Disney Vacation Club also announced that Bay Lake Tower sales are scheduled to begin on Sept. 21 for Disney Vacation Club Members, while sales to the general public and sales for the newest phase of Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa will begin at a later date.
“Our founder, Walt Disney, was well known for having one foot in the past and one in the future,” said Disney Vacation Club President Jim Lewis. “These new resort developments share that dynamic sensibility, blending modern luxury and design with the nostalgic spirit of two of the most storied resorts in Walt Disney World history.”
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DVC Mike
DVC Reallocates Point Charts
January 21, 2009
For just the second time in its 18 year history, Disney Vacation Club has taken steps to reallocate the points charts for existing DVC resorts.
Disney Vacation Club adjusts 2010 Vacation Points charts
To help address a growing Member interest in weekend stays at Disney Vacation Club Resorts, Disney Vacation Club has adjusted 2010 Vacation Points charts, reducing Vacation Point requirements for Friday and Saturday nights.
To make this change possible, Vacation Point requirements for some instances of Sunday-Thursday stays are now higher. However, a full week's stay will essentially cost the same amount of Vacation Points as before.
On January 20, 2010, DVC once again modified the 2011 point charts to further increase the cost of weekday stays while lowering weekend costs.
Sales begin for The Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel® & Spa
March 26, 2009 | Anaheim, CA
With construction of The Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel® & Spa on schedule for a late 2009 opening at the Disneyland® Resort in Anaheim, sales have officially begun for this West Coast Disney Vacation Club Resort.
While Disney Vacation Club has maintained sales operations at the Disneyland® Resort since 2005, the 50 two-bedroom-equivalent vacation homes in development at The Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel® & Spa will be the first Disney Vacation Club Resort accommodations in the Golden State.
"We're excited to bring Disney Vacation Club to the West Coast," said Disney Vacation Club President Jim Lewis. "Like most Disney fans, our Members have great affection for the original Disney vacation destination, and we're thrilled that this expansion project will allow our Members to call the Disneyland® Resort 'home' for the first time."
Beyond the new vacation homes, the 2.5-acre expansion project on the iconic hotel's south side is scheduled to include 200 new traditional hotel rooms, a new pool, about 300 underground valet parking spaces and more. The late Peter Dominick, architect for Disney's Grand Californian Hotel® & Spa, as well as Disney's Wilderness Lodge and Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge at the Walt Disney World® Resort, designed the ambitious expansion, calling on the same California Arts & Crafts architectural styles that define the original hotel.
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel® & Spa currently features 745 Guest rooms, including 44 suites. Upon completion of the expansion project, the hotel will feature 945 Guest rooms, including 44 Guest suites and 50 Disney Vacation Club two-bedroom equivalent villas.
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DVC Mike
Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa Celebrates Expansion
New Wing and First West Coast Disney Vacation Club Villas Open to Guests Today
September 23, 2009 | Anaheim, CA
Disneyland Resort today unveiled a stunning new addition to its Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, including 203 new guest rooms and 50 two-bedroom equivalent Disney Vacation Club villas, the first Disney Vacation Club property on the West Coast. Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa immerses guests in the magic of the Disneyland Resort by capturing the spirit of early California through design and architecture. Many of the new vacation villas offer guests spectacular views into Disney’s California Adventure Park.
“This expansion reinforces Disney’s long-term commitment to investing in Anaheim’s Resort District,” said Ed Grier, president of Disneyland Resort. ”Since opening in 2001, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa continues to impress our guests with its timeless sophistication and exquisite service. The new villas and hotel rooms will give more guests the opportunity to enjoy the immersive vacation experience Disney is known for.”
The 2.5-acre addition to Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, which increases accommodations by more than 30 percent, is part of ongoing resort expansion work. Currently underway is a multiyear expansion of Disney’s California Adventure Park, which will add new attractions, entertainment experiences and an entirely new 12-acre Cars Land. In addition, the resort’s historic Disneyland Hotel also began a major three-year renovation last month.
“We are so fortunate to have a wonderful partner in the Disneyland Resort,” said Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle. ”Disney’s continued investment in Anaheim benefits the entire Resort District as well as the surrounding community. This grand addition to the city’s only four-diamond hotel will encourage even more visitors to come to Anaheim and experience a vacation in our great City.”
The Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa mark the 10th property for Disney Vacation Club, Disney’s innovative vacation-ownership program. As with all Disney Vacation Club properties, guests are able to experience the comforts of home, such as a fully equipped kitchen, living area, dining area, washer and dryer, whirlpool tub and other amenities, depending on the size of the accommodations. Guests can choose from four different room categories including a studio (sleeps 4), one-bedroom villa (sleeps up to 5), two-bedroom villa (sleeps up to 9) and the three-bedroom, two-story Grand Villa (sleeps up to 12).
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DVC Mike
Disney Vacation Club goes west
September 28, 2009 | Orlando Sentinel
Disney Vacation Club, the Walt Disney Co.'s rapidly growing time-share division, opened its first property on the west coast last week, when the resort formally threw open the doors of the 50-unit Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.
The Villas was built as part of an expansion that added another 203 rooms to the Disneyland hotel in Anaheim, Calif., in part to make Vacation Club more enticing to a wider geographic pool of potential time-share buyers. Disney says about 86 percent of Vacation Club's 400,000-plus members (a family of four who buys into DVC is counted as four members) live east of the Mississippi River.
Disney is banking on the 830-room resort it is building in Hawaii -- in which 480 of the rooms will be time-share units -- to give Vacation Club a similar boost. The Hawaiian resort is scheduled to open in 2011.
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DVC Mike
DVC Begins Selling Fixed Weeks
Back when it started in 1991, the Disney Vacation Club was different than many timeshares in that instead of selling “fixed weeks” where a person bought a specific week they would be able to use year after year, DVC used a flexible points-based system that may be used in different time increments for vacation stays anytime throughout the year at DVC resorts in a variety of accommodations from studios to three-bedroom villas.
Beginning with Aulani, DVC will begin selling what they call a “Guaranteed Week”. The Guaranteed Week option allows an owner to secure a reservation every year during a specific timeshare week, in a specific room size and view, throughout the duration of their DVC ownership. Member Services will automatically book your guaranteed reservation every year – on a priority basis and ahead of other members trying to book at the 11-month window on a first-come, first-served basis.
DVC says that Guaranteed Week ownership interests will be capped at 35% of any specific Use Day for any specific Vacation Home type. At least 65% of all dates and villa sizes will remain available for booking on points at the resort.
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DVC Mike
Aulani Sales Begin
July 1, 2010 | Celebration, Fla.
Disney Vacation Club began selling real estate interests for the company’s first family-friendly destination resort in Hawai`i today. Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas, Ko Olina, Hawai`i, is scheduled to open its first phase in fall 2011 and will mark the eleventh resort for Disney Vacation Club.
“We are thrilled to give families joining Disney Vacation Club a new resort option in one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world,” said Disney Vacation Club President Jim Lewis. “Once Aulani opens, families will be able to immerse themselves in the culture of Hawai`i while knowing that they will get the quality vacation experience only Disney can deliver.”
Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, Ko Olina, Hawai`i, is planned to include 481 two-bedroom equivalent Disney Vacation Club villas and 360 traditional hotel rooms upon its completion. Other family friendly resort amenities are scheduled to include an 18,000 sq. ft. spa, two restaurants, a wedding lawn, a kids’ club, a conference center and a pool area complete with a feature pool, wading pool, tube slides, sunset-facing hot tubs and a snorkel lagoon.
Built adjacent to a crystal-blue lagoon and a white-sand beach, Aulani is located on 21 acres of oceanfront property in the Ko Olina Resort & Marina development, near the existing Ko Olina Marina and a Ted Robinson-designed, 18-hole Championship Golf course. Located on the western side of O`ahu, the resort will also offer easy access to other points of interest on the island, such as the North Shore area and Pearl Harbor.
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DVC Mike
Disney aims to boost direct time-share sales by restricting resales
January 18, 2011 | Orlando Sentinel
In a bid to buttress its own sales, Disney's time-share business said Tuesday it will impose new restrictions on buyers who purchase their time shares from existing owners — rather than directly from Disney.
Disney Vacation Club, which sells time shares as "points" that can be redeemed for stays in various accommodations, said it will no longer allow owners who acquire their points via resales to redeem them for nights in conventional hotel rooms at the company's five theme-park resorts worldwide, voyages aboard its cruise ships or vacations through its guided-tour operation.
Instead, such owners will be allowed to use their points only for stays in one of Disney's 11 time-share resorts — seven of which are at Walt Disney World — or in third-party hotels available through time-share exchange operator RCI.
Customers who buy directly from Disney will still be able to redeem their points at Disney hotels, aboard Disney Cruise Line or through Adventures by Disney. The ability to use points for different Disney vacations is a perk frequently cited by Disney Vacation Club sales agents.
A Disney Vacation Club spokeswoman said customers who bought their time shares directly from Disney have requested such a change.
"Our members just felt that that they should get more benefits when they purchase through Disney Vacation Club than those who purchase on the secondary market," spokeswoman Diane Hancock said. She added that the change aligns Disney with other time-share operators who impose similar restrictions on resales.
But some company followers said Disney is trying to prop up its own direct sales, which stumbled during the global recession and credit freeze. Disney reported lower vacation-club sales during its 2010 fiscal year, which ended Oct. 2.
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DVC Mike
Remember Deevy See?
The Founder and First Lady of DVC
(or so she said)
The Founder and First Lady of DVC
(or so she said)
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DVC Mike
Disney planning addition to Grand Floridian
March 23, 2011 | Orlando Sentinel
Walt Disney World is preparing to build an addition to Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, the most expensive of the giant resort's 17 hotels.
A permit application submitted to the South Florida Water Management District describes a six- to seven-story, T-shaped building that will be connected via a covered walkway to the existing Grand Floridian. The nearly 900-room, Victorian-themed hotel, next to the Magic Kingdom, has standard room rates that begin at $440 a night.
No construction timetable was provided, and Disney wouldn't discuss the project Tuesday.
"At any given time, we have numerous projects in various stages of development across our resort," spokesman Bryan Malenius said. "If a project comes to fruition, we will share details when it makes sense to do so for our business."
But the plans, which were filed with the water-management district earlier this month and quickly surfaced online in Disney fan forums, have touched off widespread speculation that the building will be used for Disney Vacation Club time shares
Disney would be following a familiar model if that's what it does. The company's newest time-share project in Orlando, the 15-story Bay Lake Tower, was built as an addition to Disney's Contemporary Resort, another high-priced Disney hotel by the Magic Kingdom.
Disney also has a history of attempting to keep its time-share projects quiet for as long as possible, for fear of undermining sales at already-open properties. Disney refrained from discussing its Bay Lake Tower plans until nearly two years after breaking ground on the project.
Disney is currently peddling units in three open time shares at Disney World — Bay Lake Tower, Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas, and Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa — as well in an under-construction resort in Hawaii dubbed "Aulani." That project, the first major resort Disney has built that isn't tied to a theme park, is scheduled to open in phases beginning this fall.
A new time-share project would be the first Disney has launched since the global recession and credit crunch, which decimated much of the time-share industry. Sales at Disney's time-share business fell during the downturn; the unit generated an estimated $190 million a year in operating profit before the slump.
Still, Disney says it has been happy with Vacation Club's performance through the recession.
"It has been a business that has been far more resilient than I think any of us internally would have thought," Walt Disney Co. Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo said during an analyst conference earlier this month.
Rasulo added that Disney prefers not to do lengthy pre-sales for its time-share developments. "We basically like people to be able to use their unit as soon as they buy in for the Vacation Club," he said.
Disney declined to discuss the pace of sales in Bay Lake Tower, other than to say it is "pleased with the continued popularity" of the project.
A Satellite view of VGF history
May 2010 - Here is a look before anything was underway at the Grand Floridian
May 2010 - The same view with an overlay of where Disney plans to put VGF.
Jan 2012 - Prepping the land
Oct 2012 - Building under construction
Jan 2014 - Well after VGF was completed
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DVC Mike
Disney Vacation Club Reveals Bold New Look
June 15, 2011 | The Disney Blog
Since 1991, the Disney Vacation Club logo has symbolized a unique approach to delivering vacation experiences at Disney Parks and beyond. Sporting a Mickey-eared sun rising above snow-capped mountains flanked by swaying palms and fronted by rolling waves, the logo was designed to change the way families think about vacationing with the mouse.
Now, with Disney’s innovative vacation-ownership program having grown to include more than 500 vacation options across the globe, and with its member community having grown to represent more than 100 countries and every U.S. state, the Disney Vacation Club experience is about more than mountains, beaches and Disney Parks.
It was with that growth in mind that artists recently re-imagined the logo by dramatically widening its perspective, topping the entire globe with those familiar ears. More than just shiny eye candy (though it’s hard to go wrong with shiny), the new logo represents an ongoing commitment to helping families expand their vacation horizons and travel in ways they never dreamed possible.
The present day logo introduced in June 2011
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DVC Mike
