They did the same for the hotels over the past year - discontinued Standard view and combined various views into Resort view, giving Disney more flexibility in room assignments. It's caused a bit of consternation on the Disney Resorts forums, with guests having to formulate requests to reduce their chances of getting a view of the YC roof, for instance.
One theory is maybe they love reeling the DVC families with the under-pointed December pre-Christmas season charts knowing tickets are super expensive that time of year, holiday splurging mentality helps sell upgrades and special meals etc, and DVC people wanting to share this special time at WDW with friends and family who help increase sales in all those categories even more. In turn the heavy demand from DVC helps boost overall perception of best time to visit, while Disney knows it’s one of the best times that guests part with their money.
Sorry to sound as a broken record, but they did reallocate points to lower bungalows and cabins and increase studios and other rooms types. It happened with the original 2020 point charts, which they rolled back and didn't attempt it anymore since they've been called out. So no real 3D chess strategy there, they simply cannot do it.
This is almost wholly a post-pandemic problem. The pandemic increased remote work. I can't tell you how many more people I now see at WDW who are doing work--in lounges, restaurants, cafes, etc. The ability to work remotely has allowed people to pick an early week in December to experience the holiday (instead of something closer to the holiday, when they have actual time off). People just work during the day and hit the parks in the evenings. I rarely saw laptops up in public places pre-pandemic--and when I did, I thought it was mainly bloggers--and now I see it all the time.
I don't at BWV. I've stayed there. Truthfully, I much prefer Beach Club, if I can find days there. But...what was lowered at BWV to allow for the increased rate for standard view in May?Sad that they increased the BWV standard view for May or should I say BWV standard resort view
I’ve edited my post.
Season 4 was lowered (sun to thurs)
First 2 weeks Feb and 2+ months over the summer went from 12 to 11 points weekdays.
To me, this all seems reasonable then. Same category, very minor reshuffling of points. Early Feb is pretty empty no, minus the two holiday weekends.
This is probably minor. My sense is that many people who go to Aulani are from Asia and Australia--and the American holiday of Thanksgiving means nada to them. (I don't know, maybe 60% Americans, 40% international?). I would be interested in learning how many who live in Asia and Australia have bought into DVC Aulani--and if this was part of the initial (and likely failed) DVD sales strategy for this resort, specifically to find a way to sell to many people who are NOT American, Canadian, or British, which I suspect is about 90% of the DVC Florida crowd. (The California DVC crowd, who owns at DH and GC, I think is about 80% west coasters.)
June 11 to Aug 31st was lowered.
At the time AUL was built, Hawaii was an extremely popular vacation and honeymoon destination for Japanese tourists, so AUL was designed with them in mind. AUL was the first DVC resort to sell fixed weeks (now called Favorite Weeks) because that was the form of timeshare ownership the Japanese and other Asians were most familiar with and therefore most comfortable buying. Unfortunately, AUL opened right around the time the Japanese economy tanked (Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster), and sales weren’t at all what DVC had hoped.
This strikes me as more likely than a reclassification.
Definitions pulled from DVC website:
