Odds On When the Official DVC Board Will Be Up?

[PamOKW]

I'm beginning to think this will be a Test Track-like undertaking. It no longer says "Coming in Early 2001" but it says Hi Ho Hi Ho It's Off To Work We Go. Message Board Under Development.

Think we'll see it this year?

[Peggy Sue]

Pam, I keep checking too, and haven't seen any positive progress either. Maybe they will have it ready by December so they can say it came on-line in 2001!! lol!!

I wonder how many DVC members actually frequent the member web site? It doesn't have much to offer once you've toured the site once. I check it just before a vacation to see what discounts might be available to members while we are there, other than that, I don't get much benefit from it. I've leaned more about DVC from this site than anywhere else.

How do you all like the DVC member site in general??

Have a wonderful day!

[Peter Johnson]

2041 ;)

Peter and Syl
DVC (OKW) '92, VB '95
Going to OKW May 19-30 and Dec 8-19 :)

[jimh13432]

It will be operational by Jan 2042. Last one out, please shut off the lights. :D

[wdwnut]

we seem to be a bit cynical here! LOL. i would think this wouldn't be too hard of an undertaking for disney, so i'm guessing it's pretty far down on the priorities list.

[Dennis the WDW Menace]

I have been going to the site to see if any progress has been made for DVC. I hope it is soon because it may offer some valuable info. when we visit the DVC resorts.

[DVCDAVE]

Maybe they are awaiting Webmaster Pete to name his price......;)

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98,99,00,FW
8/00 DVC member @ BWV
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11/01 BWV !

[Peter Johnson]

Disney is in the midst of reorganizing their IT functions, so this will delay the project. If they do enough reorg and cost cutting, who knows, they may not do it at all. After all, IT is always an overhead expense, and when the cost cutting starts, overhead goes first.

I'd be willing to bet that some of the folks who got the early retirement offers are high-ranking IT people.

Just thinking out loud based on 20 years of IT management experience. I hope it doesn't happen that way, but I wouldn't be surprised :(

Peter and Syl
DVC (OKW) '92, VB '95
Going to OKW May 19-30 and Dec 8-19 :)

[KNWVIKING]

I think the board builder is one of the unfortunate 4000. But looking at how long they've been building the board they probably should have axed him a few months ago. Why doesn't Disney just head down to the local high school, grab a handfull of teenagers and tell them to build it. What's the most it would cost, a few bottles of Mountain Dew and a bag of Cheese Curls. Would of been done in a weekend.

[Werner Weiss]

A properly designed and operated Member Services website for DVC members would be a great way to lower the cost of providing Member Services functions to the ever increasing population with Internet access, including: Making reservations Checking point balances Cancelling reservations Banking points Borrowing points Making and checking Interval International exchange requests Checking DVC waitlist status Even booking airline tickets and car rentals
Although the cost of such a system would not be trivial, the long-term savings in reduced Member Services labor, call center space, and long distance (inbound "800") hours would be huge.

As members, we'd get the convenience of online access -- and our annual dues would go down.

-----
Werner Weiss, Curator of Yesterland (http://www.yesterland.com), featuring discontinued Disneyland attractions

[StephenKay]

Hi everybody,

Well when does hell freeze over?
When we find out who shot JFK ?
OR
When do we the membership get a good interactive official site that has been promised for 18 months.

Why can Disney do everything so well apart from when it comes to I.T.

STEVIE
Inverness
Scotland

[TampaDisneyFreaks]

It is not likely to get done. Especially if they follow suit with Disneyworld.com and some other sites I have seen. They say they are improving it, but when all is said and done, there are more flashy graphics, less stuff of substance and much less useful.The DIS is oneof the few sites that I have seen that gets better when they do a site refresh! Thanks Pete!

[drusba]

My understanding is that they hired the same designers and builders as they had for the walkway from BW to MGM. It was only a mere three years before it was finished that they started saying the walkway would be open "soon." Disney builds hotels faster than it does walkways or websites.`

[vwl_ryan]

I'm not sure that it's new, but have your seen the reservation request form on the Members Only site? If you click on the "PLAN YOUR GETAWAY" link, there is a "reservation request" link on the resulting page. This takes you to a reservation form. I haven't used it yet, but it seems to allow you to submit a reservation to Member Services instead of sending an e-mail. Hope this helps somebody!

Ryan

[baileybrad]

I'm afraid that the group that was responsible for making this a reality were layed off in the reduction in force. So how about never.

[This message was edited by baileybrad on 04-12-01 at 01:10 AM.]

[nydizfan]

hopefully ... sometime soon .. disney is not up to snuff with the internet . dave

offsite '71 contemporary '72 golf resort '76 village resorts '93 okw '94 okw '95 contemporary '96 okw '97(got married) okw '97 okw '99 okw '00

[Peter Johnson]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>A properly designed and operated Member Services website for DVC members would be a great way to lower the cost of providing Member Services functions to the ever increasing population with Internet access...[/quote]

Personally, I'd love to have a full-service DVC site, but while I'd like to agree with Werner, I don't think that's true yet. Remember the thread about how many people use the DVC forum? It got about 400 replies. If we assume that one out of 10 DVC internet users sees this forum, that's still only about 4-5000 internet users out of tens of thousands of members. With the cost of creating a reservation site probably in the quarter million dollar range, plus its infrastructure, it's much more cost effective to add to MS.

Also, many people prefer to use the phone and talk to a real person. I sure wouldn't trust my exactly-7-months-out ressie for BWV to a website. And what about those spur of the moment and last-minute phone calls for various reasons?

I think we internet-savvy folks tend to lose site of the fact that the majority of people are not online, and of those who are, most do no serious online stuff. Very few (if any) commercial websites have generated the amount of traffic they predicted, and none has made a financial success of it yet. So I can't see Disney putting much emphasis on the site until the numbers look better.

I sure hope I'm wrong!

(BTW, if I was Disney, I'd put my web development efforts into the theme park sites, since those sites will grab new customers, and new money, whereas the DVC members are already committed.)

Peter and Syl
DVC (OKW) '92, VB '95
Going to OKW May 19-30 and Dec 8-19 :)

[This message was edited by Peter Johnson on 04-12-01 at 08:38 AM.]

[RumpleMom]

DD graduates in 3 years with Computer Information Systems degree. Her dream is to program for Disney. Be patient and hold that position open :D

[Firefighter Mickey]

Actually, a cost of $250,000 for creating a web site and the software that needs to interface with the backend systems is probably way too low for the functions you are talking about.

In addition, I'm willing to bet that the operating costs of such a site will not be signficantly cheaper than the current method being used. Where are the savings if the person that used to take the reservation is now helping someone make their reservation via the internet (as an example)?

[Mojomanny]

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[Jhalkias]

Pam, I love the "Test Track" analogy - perfect. I too gave up long ago, and decided not to waste my time over there - especially once I found all the great people and information here. I have also wondered if some of my more critical comments would ever find their way to that board.

Who knows - they may be reading some of our comments here, and decided a free flow of information was not in their best interest! <IMG WIDTH="15" HEIGHT="15" SRC="/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif" alt="razz">

1996 Contemporary & Poly
1998 Yacht Club & WLodge
1999 Contemporary
2000 Dixie & Bch Club
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2001(May)Wonder 4 night

[dmadman43]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>If we assume that one out of 10 DVC internet users sees this forum, that's still only about 4-5000 internet users out of tens of thousands of members.[/quote]

I'm not sure I follow this logic. This seems to be using only the population that has discovered this forum. I would posit that given the relative income levels of the average DVC member the access to the internet would be much higher. The percentage that have discovered this forum would be much smaller.

I agree with Werner; the benefits are huge and it would be a huge cost savings in the long run. If you build it they will come....wait....that's a baseball field. :)

[DVCajun]

I agree with the previous post-- first of all, I am a regular here on the DIS DVC board, but I rarely post and I certainly didn't add my name to that roll call. I would also not assume that because someone is not interested in an unofficial Disney message board that they wouldn't be interested in one on the Disney Vacation Club site. I use the internet for all manner of things, including research, making vacation plans, etc. When I saw that Disney was creating a forum for us on their website I was very excited and have checked back often to see if it was up-- after all, what a great way to get your thoughts on Disney read by pertinent folks. We THINK that Disney people read this message board but we don't really KNOW that they do.

But as far as when it happens, well.... I haven't lost hope yet that it will be soon and I'll keep checking, just in case!! :)

Pixie dust!!
http://www.disneyclipart.com/cgi-bin/images.cgi?Movies/Peter_Pan/Tinkerbell/tink08&gif

Audrey

[Paul in CT]

I'm sorry to be cynical about the DVC BB, but I agree with those that think the delay may be due to the Disney "cutbacks". Besides the set up cost, they will also need CM's to maintain the BB. Of course, the money for this will and should come from the member dues if it's only for members. I'm surprised that no one is concerned about this potential cost.

Besides, we have THIS board, do we need anything more? :D Keep up the GREAT work Pete!!

Paul in CT

[Pooh Bear Dad]

I think people are more likely to be candid on an unnofical BB such as this excellent site than an "official" site. This site is great!! An official site might just fragment an interested group. Who wants to monitor two potential BB's anyways?

To increase viewership of this site, perhaps dvc could list a link to this unofficial site on the dvc website. Maybe then they can save the money and forget about making their (likely inferior) own.

Scott

http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/gorayman/groupan2.gif

[Mary Anne]

They asked this question at the Tuesday metting this past week at OKW. The "official" answer was: "if everything goes well late 2001, but most probably 1st quarter 2002". The reason for the hold up was, (and I quote) "Y2K". Honest that what they said.

Other items covered were:

Price to go to $75 per point on 6/3
Wilderness Lodge will probably sell out by next year
They also seemed to encourage trade outs. (Some of them , IE Hawaii, looked very inviting to us.)

[KathrynBWV]

just read a book recently called the cluetrain manifesto. it talks about this stuff we're looking at here. personally, I kind of like the idea of the "non-disney" bulletin board. If disney ran it, do you think they'd keep the honesty?

By the way, I used their website to make a reservation once. Good thing I called a couple of days later. They told me that it's not functional, and that the request would have never actually generated a reservation (note...this was last year).

[disrailfan]

I like the Test Track Analogy! Probably has something to do with all of those Cast members that are getting laid off. I work in the tech industry and was looking at their Careers board and they have many high tech jobs open. Three or Four of them are web type application developer type positions.

Who really knows! lol

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1998 ASM Nov Kids
2000 OKW Dec No Kids
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[howardk613]

They still can't get Go.com right, let alone Disney.com so don't hold your breath for a DVC
site any time during this century.