Before BCV opened...

[lenshanem]

was there a lot of speculation on the boards about DVC liek there is now about SSR? (point price increases, longer contracts, etc.) or did everyone feel it woudl do great cause of the location and SAB? Was there a mad rush t add on poinst at first? History lesson here?

 

[Terry S]

Yes! There was a lot of speculation. Especially about the price per point. Everyone thought that it would open at a higher price than it did. I beleive $80 was the average that people thought. (We bought at $70 and didn't have to sell back any points). There was also some speculation that they would change the ending date. And yes, there was a big rush in the beginning to buy points for those that had been waiting, but I think that may have been the case with the last few resorts.

 

[SlyHubby]

the same thing happens on this board every time a new resort is built and the outcomes are always the same.

 

[PamOKW]

There was an awful lot of pent up anticipation for BCV. I think it was add-ons (coupled with the great pre-opening deal they offered) that really pushed the sales at that resort. The opening of WLV was also met with a lot of concern about the decor. Early pictures had people worried whether they liked the darker color scheme.....that has also completely died out once people saw the rooms in person.

I'm not sure whether the opening of SSR will be quite as frenzied because it doesn't have the emotional draw that BCV and VWL had on some folks. Some people didn't buy DVC because of their love for those resorts and not wanting to give up staying there. When they became part of DVC, people jumped on the chance to buy. SSR does not have that base and it also suffers from being "out of sight" for many WDW guests. If they can't see it from the parks, it is a harder sell.

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

Remember too that when BCV opened for sale it was only a few months after the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Travel and tourism was really set back. I firmly believe that the BCV would have gone for a much higher price (not the $100.00 per point that was rumored on these boards) had it not been for the timing.

HBC

 

[PamOKW]

Very true, HBC. I'm sure Disney didn't know what would happen with the bottom falling out of tourism.

 

[lenshanem]

Originally posted by PamOKW
There was an awful lot of pent up anticipation for BCV. I think it was add-ons (coupled with the great pre-opening deal they offered) that really pushed the sales at that resort.

What great pre-opening deal did they offer? Do you think they'll offer DVc members a deal for presales at SSr?

 

[Terry S]

The pre-sale special price was $75 per point. The deal was that you could choose to take $5 off per point without having to sell back any points OR you could get a certain amount of nights free to stay at a non-DVC disney resort depending on the number of points you purchased. I think I was offered 11 nights for my 800 points. I took the $5 off, someone who took the free nights might be able to help you more with that.

I honestly think that they quickly realized that they didn't need to make that good of an offer and they fairly quickly changed it. I don't know if they will offer as good of a deal with SSR.

 

[zulaya]

We bought 210 points at $75 and we got 7 nights free at a deluxe resort of our choice. This was in March of 2002 during the pre-sale. We had originally only planned to buy 200 points, but our guide told us about buying 210 and getting the 7 nights, well that paid for our week long stay at the Polynesian in December 2002. It was more cost effective for us to take the 7 nights free (and keep our Polynesian stay which was planned with family) than sell back for $5 per point.

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

When BCV started selling points they offered the free nights at other non DVC resorts because the BCV's were not yet opened. They didn't open until July of 2002 but were selling points in February of that year (at least they may have started earlier but I don't remember). I took the $5.00 off because we didn't plan on returning to WDW until well after the BCV was opened and with our size family we would need two rooms anyways.

So the question is when they start selling SSR and if that is before it opens, will they create some kind of choice for those buying points so they can go to WDW? I would think yes.

HBC