Beach Club Villas Renovations, some good, some disappointing

[corpcomp]

Stayed at BCV for a few days over the weekend to celebrate DS 21 birthday while he was working in Central Florida as an Intern. We were in a 1BR room 546 facing the woods.

The Pros

1. Huge new TVs on the walls, look between 55 & 60 inches.
2. New kitchen appliances - stainless steel
3. New safe with electronic keyboard - no more key to deal with.
4. A more modern look to the place.
5. Bathrooms all redone, very nice new shower with huge 4 foot tiles on the walls. Had no idea they came that big.

The Cons (at least to me)

1. They took away the ceiling fans!
2. They took away the jacuzzi tub. Now just a regular tub.
3. New flooring in the living room simulating dark wood grain but it felt very hard as if it were concrete.
4. Outside balcony was losing paint in a number of places overhead. Figured they would have painted that.
5. Working on 3rd, 4th and 5th floors at the same time. We had to walk to the other end of the building to get an elevator up to the 5th floor and then walk half way back.
6. Refrig I believe is smaller than the original one. Big gap between the top of the frig and the bottom of the cabinet above.
7. Definitely lost the beachy feeling.

Still it was clean and the cleaning service brought towels practically every day, 8 on one day for the three of us as well as chocolates on the bed at night. They also brought us chocolate covered strawberries when we checked in. Son loved them.

I tried to order a birthday cake through Disney. A six inch cake was $56. Yikes! Then called Garden Grocer. An 8 inch cake was $27 and when it arrived, it was personalized and beautifully decorated. Yeah I know still expensive but he only turns 21 once.

Your thoughts?

 

[Shanti]

Stayed at BCV for a few days over the weekend...They took away the ceiling fans...They took away the jacuzzi tub. Now just a regular tub...Definitely lost the beachy feeling...Your thoughts?

I don't know who's been in charge of Disney's resort interior decorating for the past few years, but I don't like what they're doing. There has been less theming, and more of a generic look, at renovated resort after renovated resort (& DVC). The one exception I would make is the Poly's DVC guest rooms, but even at the Poly, they took away the lobby's waterfall...It's Disney, not the Hilton. Let the resort rooms keep showing some theming and charm.

 

[corpcomp]

They took away the waterfall?
OMG!

Also security is huge
Everyone and I mean everyone going in the back end of Epcot had to go through metal detectors, even little kids

I was picked out at Hollywood studios probably because I walked in separately from my family
But they kept telling me it's just random

 

[disneynutz]

Seems that new resorts/rooms get the theming, when DVC does a refurbishment, they take it away. Don't know if it Disney's way of getting people to buy new.

Bill

 

[SpaceMountain77]

Seems that new resorts/rooms get the theming, when DVC does a refurbishment, they take it away. Don't know if it Disney's way of getting people to buy new.

Bill

PVB studios, with their bright colors and warm wood tones, certainly stand in stark contrast to the bright and white refurbishments.

 

[corpcomp]

PVB studios, with their bright colors and warm wood tones, certainly stand in stark contrast to the bright and white refurbishments.

Yes one of the thing I noticed was that the refrig in the Grand Floridian was a GE Monogram. I priced it at Best Buy and it was $6500! The new, much smaller refrig in BCV was a Kenmore, about $550. Obviously they spend the minimum on refurbishments. And I do realize they get a big discount on volume.

 

[ScubaCat]

No incentive to put any more than the minimum into it. You buy BCV, then they drop in a Hampton Inn once it's sold out. No taste or class, but they made their money. It does seem a lot worse under the Iger regime, but I highly doubt there will be any improvement with the next person.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

In all honesty, part of it is because members gripe about annual fees.
It's tough to have it both ways.

MG

 

[disneynutz]

Yes one of the thing I noticed was that the refrig in the Grand Floridian was a GE Monogram. I priced it at Best Buy and it was $6500! The new, much smaller refrig in BCV was a Kenmore, about $550. Obviously they spend the minimum on refurbishments. And I do realize they get a big discount on volume.

VGF is a different animal. Because GF is Disney's flagship resort, DVD was told to increase their construction budget, design and the quality of furnishings.

Bill

 

[castleri]

In all honesty, part of it is because members gripe about annual fees.
It's tough to have it both ways.

MG

I agree with this but do wish they could find some way to make things a little less generic and still stay within budget constraints. It seems like there is a lack of imagination on someone's part.

 

[disneynutz]

I agree with this but do wish they could find some way to make things a little less generic and still stay within budget constraints. It seems like there is a lack of imagination on someone's part.

I have learned that Disney is smart, they have reasons for everything that they do. Do they want the DVC rooms to look different/worse than the cash rooms? Do they want to drive people to buying new resorts and not the refurbished older resale resorts?

Bill

 

[smjj]

I also think Disney is going generic and loosing the theme of each resort. My thinking is they got a deal on all this generic crap so it can be used in more than one resort at a time. I saw a mock up of the BCV rooms about a year ago here on the DIS and the thread jest was as I just stated, new but hardly BCV anymore...smjj

 

[disneynutz]

Disney has different levels of resorts, value, moderate, DVC and deluxe. My guess is that the look, feel, and quality of the DVC refurbishments is intentional and not related to budget restrictions or a concern over increased dues.

Bill

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I'm not sure what their motive is, but I never thought (with a couple of specific exceptions) that they never really built the DVC resorts quite to the grand level of a deluxe.
Sounds strange but even the little things... I remember years back when I first opened the slider at VWL. It was so light and cheap feeling, I was like "WT...??"

MG

 

[corpcomp]

I'm not sure what their motive is, but I never thought (with a couple of specific exceptions) that they never really built the DVC resorts quite to the grand level of a deluxe.
Sounds strange but even the little things... I remember years back when I first opened the slider at VWL. It was so light and cheap feeling, I was like "WT...??"

MG

Well the one thing I notice is the pictures. They make or break a room. In the toilet, they kept the two small beach pictures. In the bedroom and living room, there are larger pictures that are beach related BUT, they are so subtle in color that they do not stand out. Almost black and white types. One other thing. They still have those stupid doors under the sink that overlap each other and in ours they would not close. They also have the large garbage cans under the sink that you have to pull out to put anything in because they are as tall as the cabinet. I know, small gripes.

One other tip. For the new Soarin ride, go there about 8:30pm. There were no lines two nights in a row. Same music, same Patrick introducing the ride (2nd night the ride shut down right as we got to the que to go in due to (the announcement was: "Delta 747 and United blocking the runway" - yeah, blame someone else). Going back August 5 to pick up my son from his internship and have a fastpass for Frozen.

 

[Shanti]

PVB studios, with their bright colors and warm wood tones, certainly stand in stark contrast to the bright and white refurbishments.

Yes, we stayed in a Poly villa last year, and it was well-themed and lovely- took lots of pics.

 

[Dancind]

But how are the new beds? Comfortable, or the usual hard, similar to sleeping on the floor? That's what really bugs me. The beds in the moderates are probably nicer.

 

[Missyrose]

My guess, and that's all it is, is that for every guest (DVC and cash) there were probably one or two (or maybe even three) who thought the shabby-chic themes were just villas looking sloppy and old. Making the villas look slick, shiny and new will probably yield fewer complaints. It also makes the villas at BC and Boardwalk look more like the resort counterparts, which will play better for Disney's cash guests.

 

[ScubaCat]

My guess, and that's all it is, is that for every guest (DVC and cash) there were probably one or two (or maybe even three) who thought the shabby-chic themes were just villas looking sloppy and old. Making the villas look slick, shiny and new will probably yield fewer complaints. It also makes the villas at BC and Boardwalk look more like the resort counterparts, which will play better for Disney's cash guests.

It's a decision at a higher level. The beach theming was stripped from the hotel rooms as well. (4 photocopied photos do not count, but nice try.) It's almost definitely for cost containment; it's cheaper to do the same thing everywhere than to uniquely theme each property.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

There's a lot of talk about cost savings but it all comes from members and is based on reserves. Nothing for Disney to gain by going cheap and I'd think BCV reserves should have been some of the highest out there since they hadn't had anything done. Where BWV's and OKW's are coming from after having their refurbs a few years ago I have no idea, but if they could get two during the time BCV gets one then something is a little off.