Bill
going to WDW, I also want to travel outside of Florida. I want to take my daughter to different places and expose her to different cultures. As it is now, I plan for a non-WDW vacation every three years. Next one is planned for 2012. I can absolutely see us using points for places like Washington DC, Hawaii, etc. We've already tried Vero and loved it. For me.... Disney expanding outside of Florida might actually convince me to add on so that my every vacation is DVC. Again, just my opinion...but diversity is a good thing. 
Actually ABD has had mixed success. Disney has been known to cancel Adventures a week before the trip because they didn't get their required number of bookings. They have also removed destinations and added others in an attempt to increase attendance.
"Better" often boils down to personal opinion. Most of your arguments for why offsite non-DVC timeshares are better than offsite DVC timeshares could apply to cruises as well. On paper, DCL is generally more expensive than other mainstream cruise-lines... and doesn't have nearly the features others do. Yet DCL is the cruise-line of choice for many people.
That's kind of like saying EPCOT has had mixed success because Horizons and other attractions got shut down. I have no idea how successful ABD is. But you can't hold it against them if not every single tour has been successful.Actually ABD has had mixed success. Disney has been known to cancel Adventures a week before the trip because they didn't get their required number of bookings. They have also removed destinations and added others in an attempt to increase attendance.
Well said, I agree with these statements.
If you look at the prices those options demand, the inherent demand when all were in the same exchange company and the demand from a rental standpoint; you get a pretty good idea of the overall demand of each resort. Both VB and HH sold MUCH more slowly than DVD anticipated for this very reason, limited numbers wanted to own there. IMO there are other factors for the slower than expected sales but relative demand is one of the major ones. HH and VB have to compete more head to head against other timeshares as will HI. Both are nice resorts but other than their link to the other DVC options, they are just nice timeshares among other nice timeshares. My experience is that most people who defend DVC resorts as being a cut above really don't have much experience experiencing other timeshares. I would agree that it really doesn't matter too much who prefers a given resort as much as if enough people do to put it above a certain level. However, when it comes to selling or renting the resort is when you find out the real demand. My reference in this thread was oriented to the situation of owning those resorts without having an interest in the park locations and I stand steadfast by the idea that there are other, better choices for almost everyone when that is their focus. I did say there were possible limited reasons even then but mostly they center around the flexibility of the DVC system rather than the resorts themselves. YMMV
Enough wanted to buy there to sell the resorts out. And that's really all that matters.
This issue isn't objective. Is this timeshare better or worse than that timeshare. It's whether *some people,* enough people, perfer one timeshare over others. Which I think is what you are saying here
IMO it's not all that matters. The MUCH slower than expected sales cost a minimum of 3 off site options that were in the pipeline. It took MUCH longer and reduced prices to sell the resorts.
There are somewhat objective measures for the areas on TUG, Timesharing Today (don't think DVC is listed) and Tripadvisor. They are no where near perfect but they are certainly better than just he said/she said. RCI and II also rate them internally but they don't publish that data so most people have access to it.
