Do You Fear For Your DVC Membership?

[BWV Dreamin]

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[chuff88]

They also got huge pushback from employees who did not want to leave California. Most were refusing to move.

Yeah, I think the cancelled Lake Nona move has a lot less to do with finances and a lot more to do with employee pushback and the ongoing legal issues. I saw that they're already offering to financially cover the cost of employees who had already moved to Florida to relocate back to California. The cancellation of Galactic Starcruiser is definitely more financially motivated, but it sounds like it was hemorrhaging money, so that's also not surprising. Regardless of any other circumstances, Disney isn't going to keep something around that's losing that much money.

 

[RoseGold]

Not everyone. We own at VGC and Aulani. Our trips to VGC have already paid for themselves - even compared to renting points, let alone rack rates. But it doesn't really matter, I have no fear of DVC somehow going belly up and screwing everyone over. It will never happen.

Maybe VGC will be OK, but even Aulani is hosed if WDW collapses. A huge chunk of those points are going straight to Florida. I don't think it will happen in the foreseeable future, but that's the obvious outcome for us, as owners.

And if Disney is in that bad shape, I would guess Aulani goes first, not Lake Buena Vista.

 

[carlbarry]

I just check the wait times in the parks, laugh about how many people there are, and know that the industry average for occupancy in hotels is 69%, while Disney runs at 99%. Unless DeSantis succeeds and his committee takes over control, and thus runs the place into the ground like nearby BibleLand, I have no worries.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I really want to buy some resale Poly1. But I am just so nervous about the direction of Disney right now. I still think they are hurting from Covid in addition to the other elements Disney is dealing with. Consumer debt is high right now, just how much more are people going to spend?

 

[RanDIZ]

No, we’ll just stay dvc and go to universal lol. And they are on a 20 year upward trajectory. If they weren’t around, yeah, I’d be more worried. I mean Disney has gotten so crazy in terms of woke I wouldn’t be surprised if they decided to close animal kingdom because zoos are verboten. They aren’t making any decisions based primarily on economics anymore.

The sooner Iger and company realize they went down a path of destruction to please the few, the sooner they can right the ship and go back to what actually works and made them the empire they once were.

 

[crisi]

Yeah, I think the cancelled Lake Nona move has a lot less to do with finances and a lot more to do with employee pushback and the ongoing legal issues. I saw that they're already offering to financially cover the cost of employees who had already moved to Florida to relocate back to California. The cancellation of Galactic Starcruiser is definitely more financially motivated, but it sounds like it was hemorrhaging money, so that's also not surprising. Regardless of any other circumstances, Disney isn't going to keep something around that's losing that much money.

I'd say politics and not legal issues. 2000 jobs averaging $120k a year isn't nothing - most states would be groveling for that (look at the groveling for a 2nd Amazon headquarters). Plus the jobs lost to not building the building, creating the infrastructure, etc, for those employees.

But Disney won't leave Florida. Politicians aren't around forever. I'd expect them to "punish" Florida by reducing their investment in Florida, but not at the expense of their own business. Expect jobs that can be moved OUT of Florida to get moved out, there isn't any reason Disney couldn't move a lot of Florida based jobs that aren't customer contact or managing customer contact to other states.

And if Florida's politics aren't short term, Disney is better off reducing their footprint there as much as possible, since Florida won't be educating employable citizens. That doesn't mean they'll throw away their investment in WDW, that goes beyond "as much as possible." But I wouldn't expect a fifth gate, more hotels, etc.

 

[carlbarry]

The sooner Iger and company realize they went down a path of destruction to please the few, the sooner they can right the ship and go back to what actually works and made them the empire they once were.

The "few" who are packing the Parks every day?
I'm one of the "few." I need kosher meals. Disney provides them. Christmas isn't my holiday, Chanukah is. Disney has Chanukah menorahs throughout WDW, as well as a Chanukah presentation at Epcot. One year, there was a choir in the Jambo House lobby singing both Christmas carols and Chanukah songs.
Are you saying that doing that is causing people to not come to WDW?

 

[tom1944]

I am glad Disney is inclusive.

 

[Vulnox]

The "few" who are packing the Parks every day?
I'm one of the "few." I need kosher meals. Disney provides them. Christmas isn't my holiday, Chanukah is. Disney has Chanukah menorahs throughout WDW, as well as a Chanukah presentation at Epcot. One year, there was a choir in the Jambo House lobby singing both Christmas carols and Chanukah songs.
Are you saying that doing that is causing people to not come to WDW?

Yeah the idea that it's a "few" should have already been set aside. Not sure how many ballot initiatives aimed at harming certain groups have to be shot down and otherwise in the bag elections have to be lost (Jacksonville Mayor race...) before people like DeSantis realize that the number of people that like seeing others treated fairly far outpaces those that wish anyone harm, and the constant poking just stirs up people that don't like bullies.

Anyway, I don't want to take this thread down a path of being locked for political fighting. I will just say I don't believe these issues are political. Politics should be about taxes and infrastructure, not book bans and discrimination. My fight is with bad people of any political affiliation, and it's clear it isn't just a "few" that feel that way. Disney is doing the right thing.

 

[chalee94]

The fact that Disney has canceled the headquarters move to Lake Nona is huge.

If you think back to 2021, I'm pretty sure the threat to move to FL was motivated by bad blood over CA Dems shutting down DL.

Not huge or even that unexpected despite all the hubbub...

 

[J-Dog]

Maybe VGC will be OK, but even Aulani is hosed if WDW collapses. A huge chunk of those points are going straight to Florida. I don't think it will happen in the foreseeable future, but that's the obvious outcome for us, as owners.

And if Disney is in that bad shape, I would guess Aulani goes first, not Lake Buena Vista.

OT, but if DVD were to sell Aulani (for example), what happens? Do the points owners get a share of the selling price? Or all they all just screwed? I assume that this is in the POS, but I don't remember reading it.

 

[bumbershoot]

The fact that Disney has canceled the headquarters move to Lake Nona is huge.

The California employees didn't want to go to Florida. It's huge that they listened.

Galactic cruiser was a novel but terrible business idea.

Absolutely. Someone on quora described GS as a "star wars themed hotel". If only. They took the fantastic concept of a SW themed hotel and destroyed it, like Universal took a proper Gringotts themed roller coaster and destroyed it.

The sooner Iger and company realize they went down a path of destruction to please the few, the sooner they can right the ship and go back to what actually works and made them the empire they once were.

I wonder what you mean?

If you think back to 2021, I'm pretty sure the threat to move to FL was motivated by bad blood over CA Dems shutting down DL.

100%. There's no "pretty sure" about it. If you want pixar-style creativity you need people in offices, with each other, having impromptu meetings at the coffee machine. CA wasn't allowing that. FL was. Now it's opened back up, so why would they need a FL campus?


As for the question...I got the full value of my purchase price, even with the fact that we had a DVC loan for 5? years, within the first 2 years of ownership. The rest has all been gravy.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

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[chalee94]

The California employees didn't want to go to Florida. It's huge that they listened.

Not true at all. A number of the involved employees (over 10% from the reports I've seen) went ahead and have already moved to FL, attracted by the lower cost of living (especially housing) and culture.

As with any situation like this, there will always be a mixed response.

But many in the FL state government were not counting on Disney to follow through, so it's not considered to be a lost investment. As noted, the Pandemic is over, so the motivation to move the jobs is mostly gone from the C-suite.

 

[tom1944]

Yeah the idea that it's a "few" should have already been set aside. Not sure how many ballot initiatives aimed at harming certain groups have to be shot down and otherwise in the bag elections have to be lost (Jacksonville Mayor race...) before people like DeSantis realize that the number of people that like seeing others treated fairly far outpaces those that wish anyone harm, and the constant poking just stirs up people that don't like bullies.

Anyway, I don't want to take this thread down a path of being locked for political fighting. I will just say I don't believe these issues are political. Politics should be about taxes and infrastructure, not book bans and discrimination. My fight is with bad people of any political affiliation, and it's clear it isn't just a "few" that feel that way. Disney is doing the right thing.

Treating people fairly does me no harm.

 

[carlbarry]

Yeah the idea that it's a "few" should have already been set aside. Not sure how many ballot initiatives aimed at harming certain groups have to be shot down and otherwise in the bag elections have to be lost (Jacksonville Mayor race...) before people like DeSantis realize that the number of people that like seeing others treated fairly far outpaces those that wish anyone harm, and the constant poking just stirs up people that don't like bullies.

Anyway, I don't want to take this thread down a path of being locked for political fighting. I will just say I don't believe these issues are political. Politics should be about taxes and infrastructure, not book bans and discrimination. My fight is with bad people of any political affiliation, and it's clear it isn't just a "few" that feel that way. Disney is doing the right thing.

That's what makes America great . . . and Disney great: everybody is welcome.
This past December I was in the member lounge at Epcot. The snacks out, cheese snacks, were not marked kosher, so I couldn't eat them. I asked the CM cleaning there if there were other snacks. A few minutes later she brought over to my assigned seat a bag of potato chips. I looked at the bag, and saw a kosher certification. I pointed it out to her, as what I needed to be able to eat it.
A few minutes later she approached me again with 2 different snacks, and said she looked and found these two with the same symbol. WOW! In some countries, they'd come and kill me. Here, it's accepted. G-d bless America and thank you Disney for making everybody feel welcome.
And yes, I did write member services to praise her.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Well is Disney going to move its headquarters every time they don’t like a politician? First Newsom, now DeSantis. Disney needs to focus on its business. As previously mentioned, acquisitions of Fox and Hulu were bad decisions. We don’t even know the depths of these decisions. Can Iger fix this in two years?

 

[chrish2]

It seems like the current situation is most likely going to suppress investment by Disney in Florida compared to other locations (US and internationally). A decade of diverted investment is going to have an impact but "what could have been" is hard to comprehend from a DVC member. The state has more to loose and this hostile environment just seems counter productive compared to other things the state can focus on. After all isn't Florida viewed as one of the most acutely affected states of likely climate change effects?

 

[Sammie]

Not at all. Lots of other things worthy of my concern than DVC.