Disney dropping Vero Beach price

[gatordoc]

Your are under the misconception that DVC saves you money, it doesn't, it causes you to spend more money than the average guest in the long run.

Bill

While DVC members may spend more than the average guest, it has certainly saved us money. Prior to becoming DVC members, we were annual passholders, we stayed at an on-site deluxe resort at WDW three times a year, and solely ate at on-property restaurants. We also traveled to DL every three years, stayed on-site, and solely ate at on-property restaurants. Four DVC contracts later we are still annual passholders, and our travel patterns to WDW and DL have not changed. But we now stay at DVC resorts and cook some of our own meals. Factoring in the cost of our contracts and maintenance fees, we are well past the break even point and spend significantly less for our Disney trips now than in the past. And in addition, we spend far less on Disney souvenirs, though that really doesn't have anything to do with DVC but is mostly because there's not nearly as much interesting, unique merch as there used to be.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I doubt they do timeshare in Europe or Asia. The regulatory factors alone are a mess, and Aulani and even VGC show they don't do well navigating more complex rulesets.

(See also, the Disneyland Area Plan, which restricts them to a max total of 150 timeshare units, and the permit requirements to even get near to that number. Or the fact that 3 DVD execs got fired over the Hawaii debacle. While sure, other timeshare companies do manage it, they have broader portfolios and experience.)

 

[aulanidreamer]

I don’t think the Disney execs are sweating Aulani right now, as they are able to rent the DVC is units as suites on their hotel side without any problem. They may have originally hoped to have the timeshare part sold quicker, but my experience has been the resort is rarely half full. The CM say there are few low times these days. The resort was built as 70% DVC units and they are in the better location, closer to pool and beach. When that option to sell the studios and 1BR to the hotel guest is gone I think it will be a rough adjustment for hotel only guest, especially if they’ve stayed in a DVC unit previously. When the Atlantis opens up next door, things could change but it’s so hard to predict what will happen there.

 

[bianca]

Yeah I saw that when they were desperately trying to sell it before a show on their cruise. It was one of the only ads they had during the whole cruise. The actual idea of Aulani may not have been a terrible one, but they clearly built way too big of a resort there. There are just not that many people who are so passionate about Disney that they have to be associated with it even when staying at a resort half way around the world. With both Vero beach and Hilton Head selling out, though, they have shown that off property spots can sell, just not in huge numbers.

For us, Aulani was "one and done". They shut down the whole resort way too early to justify flying all that way for a vacation. We don't get up early when on vacation and just felt that we didn't use enough of the resort in the limited hours it was up and running. If they were serious about getting people to buy/stay there, they would keep the pools open until at LEAST 10 pm and try harder to keep the adult only areas, just that ...... adult only.

 

[disneynutz]

I get the feeling that Aulani was built and is run by the DVC management team, not Disney resorts. There are some different associations related to Aulani and executives were fired over Aulani, maybe more was going on then we were told.

Bill