I think (from Disney’s perspective) they already have things covered— they can let owners use their points (at a terrible conversion rate) to cruise when they want— they also sell a member cruise at extremely high prices, not sure they want to undercut either by introducing a better (for owners) DVC Cruise product. If anything, I think they’d expand to a second (shorter?) member cruise to fill cabins during slow seasons.
Agree with you on longer term strategy.
You don’t think they are going to build a Skyliner?
I'm thinking you might be right on that. I would like to hope that point washing would be in the $25/pt amount, but I think it's much more likely to be in the $50+/pt range, if it's ever offered at all.
I agree. Any point washing system will be designed to discourage a resale + wash strategy. They want you to buy direct from an actively selling resort because that's where they make the most money. I think we effectively see how expensive Disney thinks a point wash should be with the recent CCV and SSR "flash" sales. Both of those indicate about a $70/point spread if you take average resale prices of CCV and SSR and compare it to the incentive price offered (not factoring in magical beginnings).
Oooooh... interesting to think this one through. Only accessible by cruise, or some other way? The idea of dues there boggles my mind. We live on a barrier island and have had insurance companies decide not to renew our policy just because of where we live.
I agree with Castaway - too remote. But with Lookout Cay it’s really just a secluded part of Eleuthera, which has 2 (small) airports and some luxury resorts. They could do it here. Look at this place for example:
Sure, but I think there are a few reasons why that might not be the end for Vero:
I do wonder when DCL has their next cruise ships sailing in the 2027-2030 timeframe, if they may oversaturate the market and then start offering a better DVC trade value in the $18-20/pt range. If they did that now, I'd be buying points and likely cruising more. Even if they only offered the higher trade value on their older ships, I'd do it.
This is great info. I hope you’re right and it sticks around. It definitely has a following. Despite being in a sleepy part of the coast, and you rarely hear anyone regret going.
I still think it will be gone in 2042... but there are some glimmers of hope listed above...
Would it be way out of the question to put another on Maui?
Not in favor of giving non home resort direct purchasers priority booking over non home resort resale owners. You’ve created a delta between resale and direct with everything you’ve already done and sufficiently differentiated the two products. Congrats. Do you really need to do more to diminish resale? It’s like stomping on an animal once it’s already dead. Enough already! Eventually you tank the resale product so much you can’t help but realize they really clobbered their direct buyer by making sure they take an absolute bath when they need to sell.
I’ve asked guides about point washing and most have a sort of perhaps answer saying it would at least give them some money out of resale. I think it might happen if there’s a point where DVD really needs a quick cash infusion, because it would be a quick offer to treat those resale points like the grandfathered resale points. Maybe they test the waters with an offer like you can only wash resale for the same number of points you have or something like that, and then see how popular it is at their initial $$ cost they offer. If it’s popular they can start increasing the cost.Very good point! Current price gap can be quite large depending on resort. Some are $60 or $80pp, or low as $20 PVB.
I should’ve been more clear about that and which resorts we had been considering. Maybe resale BLT or CCV as SAP+, AKV or SSR as mostly SAP for 1BRs at 7 months, or Poly Direct on a good incentive round (resale price is too high for me to consider today). Got me thinking about direct flash sales getting some sold out resorts in the $135-$150pp range. Would doing one of those or a good Poly round be better than any 5 of those resale today plus eventually point washing them?
Add we have similar issues in this department. Maybe the ability to book restricted resorts helps with this, but maybe even better is for us not to add-on and instead use WDW bouncebacks to book some trips.
Tricky tricky. I’m not sure what to do
I hear you. I just mention it because it seems like Disney is thinking about how they might add ways to sweeten their direct product. Maybe there are reasons they would want to keep HHI/VB around - maybe not so much because they want to sell points specific to those two resorts, but because they want to provide even more incentives to direct point purchasers using those two resorts. Who knows - 2042 is still a ways away.
