Anyone receive the survey about future properties?

[DisneyPiPhi]

We would buy at a ski resort in a heart beat! I really do think that would be a great move for DVC.

I think we'd consider it, too! DH and DD love to ski (I like it, too, but not to their extent) but ski vacations are super expensive. Being able to use DVC points for a ski trip every couple years would be great.

Most ski areas, at least in New England, are becoming year round destinations with adding down hill mountain biking, zip lining, and mountain coasters. In fact, Berkshire East in my neck of the woods has a better mountain biking season now, than a ski season.

This sounds great for a DVC resort! We would definitely go to a place like this, especially if it was near a national park.

 

[Hjs33]

Maybe, but IMHO, it just increases the number if points eligible to compete for home resort priority booking. at each resort. If I buy a ski resort to go in peak season, the last thing I want is more people trying to get the time I want.

This can be easily solved... you would get home resort at 11 months. A sister resort would be able to get in at 9 months and everyone else at 7 months. You would still get first crack at the home resort, but the sister resort would also get an earlier window. This type of benefit would help sell the off site resorts and maybe they might actually finally sell out Aulani.

I know theme park resorts will always be more popular, but if they are going to build outside of the theme parks I think this would go a long way in making them more attractive and valuable. I like the idea of Aulani, but I would never go there often enough to want to own there. But if they offered a New Hampshire ski resort with Aulani as a “sister” resort then I would be all over it.

 

[rg35]

I hope this isn't the direction they plan on going. Universal is firing salvos across Disney's bow in Orlando with their new theme park, and Disney is asking people if they'd be interested in staying at ski resorts around the country.

I wish they'd focus on their core products in their core locations instead of dabbling into things that have mostly been failures. The off site DVC locations haven't been great successes.

I do suppose that Aulani is a nice resort, but if I ever plan a trip to Hawaii it's going to be to see more of the islands and explore the beauty of the non-commercialized areas. Small sample size, but all of my friends who have gone to Hawaii have spent time traveling around the islands, not staying in one place for a week. If I just wanted to sit on the beach at a nice hotel, I could do that for a lot less money and time by going to Bermuda or the Caribbean.

The rub with Hawaii (or any of the other far-flung locations on the survey) - it's expensive just getting there. These aren't places that most people will travel to annually in a manner of how the typical timeshare model works. The truth is that the majority of Americans can't afford to travel like that regularly.

And I don't see how a ski resort would work within the timeshare model at all. Skiing is a seasonal attraction. What do you do to draw people there other times of the year? You'd have everyone clamoring to book rooms a few months out of the year, and a bunch of other people unable to use their points because they don't want to book in an off season.

They're going to sell these as "visit XYZ whenever you can, but when you don't want to travel there, you can always use your points at Walt Disney World!" which is going to put more strain on the WDW resorts. If any of these locations move forward, I'd like to see them excluded from booking at WDW (although I know the chance of that happening is slim to none).

 

[kungaloosh22]

Lake Tahoe's pretty popular year round. We drag our kayaks up there in the summer. I'd love a Tahoe DVC, as well as one in Maui (which we much prefer to Oahu). I seriously doubt they'll ever build a new DVC in either location though.

 

[The Jackal]

One problem with a ski area resort is the early spring when it’s 45F out and rainy. Who would want to spend money or points to go to VT, NH to stay indoors and watch the rain. I live in MA sometimes from late February or early March to the end of April before the flowers bloom it is not too pretty, it’s cold and muddy. I know up north they sometimes ski into May, but the snow isn’t that good and they have to make it. We as a family would never visit a ski area DVC. Also once the leaves turn brown in the fall, it’s not pretty to look at. Unless they are going to build some kind of indoor attraction that can be used year round like an indoor water park or something. I’ll pass

 

[emchen]

Lake Tahoe's pretty popular year round. We drag our kayaks up there in the summer. I'd love a Tahoe DVC, as well as one in Maui (which we much prefer to Oahu). I seriously doubt they'll ever build a new DVC in either location though.

Mammoth is pretty great in the Summers as well. There was ski-able snow through June and July a couple years back.

Mammoth please!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

IMO they’d be insane to build a ski resort timeshare. There are tons of them and so many have had to switch it up. If DVC did this they’d really have to up their game and also start with much harder sales techniques. And then with the Disney name I bet most buyers would look at it as a nice ski trip now and then and to go to trade into the parks just as often. Skiing is on the decline and getting more and more expensive. It would be another feeder towards 7 month frenzy. Also, a lot of ski areas are not terribly convenient to get to, have some cheaper lodging locations available and there isn’t the same sort of “onsite” benefit to matter as much where you stay. And ski areas during the summer? Most are dead and great lodging options have terrific deals already. Tahoe has the lake and is actually a bit busier during the summer - always has been - but has big shoulder seasons of spring and fall. DVC is used to people accepting a bit less because of the onsite parks locations. I doubt they’d like the price tag of really doing it right for offsite.

I lived in Tahoe for years and worked either within or closely to the ski industry. My current house looks up at runs of one of the Tahoe area ski resorts and I still know many who work in the industry. Current management really seems to just be following the Jim Lewis plan but offsite is no better now for them than it was then IMO. Certainly not a ski timeshare. Finding an existing newer build in bankruptcy and adding to it would be the best possibility but I still doubt it would work any better than other offsite have. Disney is parks and they’ve done well by that.

 

[skier_pete]

DVC in Lake Tahoe I am in on my first direct contract. I doubt any of this happens.

 

[CarolynFH]

DVC in Lake Tahoe I am in on my first direct contract. I doubt any of this happens.

I agree, and I'm not the only one who believes they're surveying for purposes of expanding trading options, not new DVC resort building options.

 

[iheartglaciers]

I’d love a Disney ski resort, but I doubt this is a serious idea. Besides the decline in skiing and seasonality issue, climate change is making it really hard to be in the ski resort industry these days.

 

[MICKIMINI]

I live in NH. The only "slow" season is the end of ski season (more perception then reality) around February/early March until school gets out in June. It often is snowing/feet of snow on the ground on Memorial Day Weekend in the north country. Otherwise, we have traffic jams on Route 95, Route 93, Route 16, and Route 11 especially on Friday nights going north and Sunday nights (or Monday for holidays) going south. Try getting through North Conway any month but possibly April and you'd think you were in Boston! I believe that a DVC resort would be mobbed with tourists from the mid-Atlantic, NY, PA and New England and also Canada as they are already here spending like crazy.

It's only about 2.5 hours direct on SWA from MHT to MCO...imagine a ski trip, quick flight and then WDW I personally think it would be a lot like combining a cruise with a park visit. It is a captivating idea Disney...