DVC expanding offsite - a good thing?

[Who's your Mickey?]

Would DVD consider converting cruise ship state rooms to DVC rooms?

With only 4 ships and extremely high occupancy rates??? No way!!!!

 

[Tink2312]

My fear is that increasing the offsite share of points will result in more competition for onsite resorts because many more points in the future will be owned offsite

A. I can't imagine there are many people who have bought offsite who want to go to WDW year after year.
B. That's what your 11 month window is for.
Personally as a new DVC member I'm happy both about the opportunity to use the offsite resorts and also the prospect of further expansion because it gibes me more flexibility for my future vacations

 

[CrazyDuck]

after all the real attraction of DVC for most owners is WDW itself right?

I could care less about WDW. I may visit it 2 or 3 times before my 50 year contract is up... I'd actually prefer to see more offside expansion. Your kids will grow up, and there is more to life than Disney! Walking around Epcot's World Showcase does not itself make you a world traveler!

That seems even worse since there will be no incentive to keep DVC owgners happy after that.

They could care less about keeping us happy... They already have our money!

 

[nunzia]

Agree here. I think people who buy Aulani will be those who might want to trade into VGC, or those of us that own VGC will trade into Aulani since the flight cost isn't much higher than going to the East coast. Or people who buy Aulani will be planning on going every 2 to 3 years since the point cost is so high.
It would be awesome to have a Tokyo DVC or Disneyland Paris DVC. I wonder if the German government would let them build a resort that would have a view of Neuschwanstein Castle?

Oh, and of course: another DLR DVC please! 48 units is not enough!

Agreed! Remember too, that off site DVC properties will most likely be combined with lots of regular rooms, like Aulani. I was loooking around at AA vacations and on the main page was an ad for Aulani hotel rooms..so they will be pushing this part also. I think they know the Disney brand offsite will help make the place appealing, I'd love to see a Tahoe resort...there are any number of places that could have a nice Disney hotel with some DVC rooms and be successful.

 

[treehugnmama]

I actually bought onsite but once I stayed at VB I loved it so much we have used 3 years worth of points there. I love that you can still pin trade and have the little disney things there but that it is at the ocean. I just bought more points for my VB stays.

If they would only build a DVC in niagara falls I could drive to it

 

[Chuck S]

I think one advantage for members with DVC building offsite is that we would pretty much be familiar with the room type available. For instance a studio would have a queen bed, full sleeper sofa and kitchenette, one bedroom king bed, full kitchen, washer/dryer, queen sleeper sofa and single sleeper chair...and so on. While RCI and II have some simlar basic guidelines, the set-up and room types do vary from timeshare to timeshare.

 

[tjkraz]

I believe success of off-site locations is key to the future of DVC.

Setting aside our own personal biases, there just isn't an endless supply of customers willing to pay $100+ per point only to be locked into theme park locations for the next 4-5 decades.

Regularly people will visit the forums telling a story long the lines of "I want to buy DVC but my significant other wants to travel to other locations." The advice almost universally given is simply to buy DVC for DVC. Cruises and non-DVC destinations are bad value, RCI trades are very difficult, etc.

But THAT is the business DVC needs to secure in greater numbers. In order to do so, they have to offer a greater variety of non-park locations.

Even when fully built-out a couple years down the road, Aulani will only represent about 10% of all DVC villa rooms. Some portion of owners intend on using points there with regularity. Other posters already commented on the Japanese market. Beyond that, it only takes a relatively small number of all DVC owners booking Aulani at 7 months to fill the resort. And that effectively frees-up rooms at WDW or DL.

Some off-site locations would undoubtedly be more popular than others but I don't see any real concern with Hawaii.

 

[mjl1969]

I could care less about WDW. I may visit it 2 or 3 times before my 50 year contract is up... I'd actually prefer to see more offside expansion. Your kids will grow up, and there is more to life than Disney! Walking around Epcot's World Showcase does not itself make you a world traveler!

Interesting .. you bought DVC but arent particularly motivated to go there every year?

And who says you cant own DVC and do other things? .

Also .. I would be pretty confident to say that most DVC owners prefer Disney above all other destinations...

 

[NewDCLGuy]

Given a choice between a DVC program that has many options for me to book offsite, or only a few options to book offsite, it seems a no-brainer to say more options is better.

Note that DVC is expanding offsite, and wants to do more and more. Might as well enjoy it.

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

I could care less about WDW. I may visit it 2 or 3 times before my 50 year contract is up... I'd actually prefer to see more offside expansion. Your kids will grow up, and there is more to life than Disney! Walking around Epcot's World Showcase does not itself make you a world traveler!

Interesting .. you bought DVC but arent particularly motivated to go there every year?

And who says you cant own DVC and do other things? .

Also .. I would be pretty confident to say that most DVC owners prefer Disney above all other destinations...

Take closer look. CrazyDuck owns at VGC and since you're supposed to buy were you like to stay, I imagine Crazy Duck spends more of his time at DLR.

We bought our points at Aulani specifically for Aulani. We will use our BLT points for stays at WDW.

 

[CMOORE185]

We bought our points at Aulani specifically for Aulani. We will use our BLT points for stays at WDW.

This is a good point, I would venture to guess people that buy offsite buy with the intention of using those points the majority of the time for that offsite location. A good majority of offsite owners probably also own WDW points to use at WDW. If this is true offsite locations should cause no concern for booking problems at WDW locations. You can see from reading these boards that people are buying resale points at HH because it is so hard to book at 7 months in the summer. Offsite locations IMO can be successful for DVC.

 

[JimMIA]

I think a family's preference for WDW or other sites probably depends on several factors -- willingness/ability to explore other options, types of vacations the family might prefer in the future, knowledge they have about vacation traveling generally, and the value DVC offers vs. other options in offsite venues like Hawaii.

For our family, we prefer to explore all of the options and then choose the one that best suits us for that particular trip. For example:

• if we are doing a trip to Southern California (which I can barely imagine doing! ), we would probably stay in one of our Wyndham options for a number of reasons.
• When we do a national parks trip, we would stay in lodges inside the parks even though we might be able to stay on Wyndham points or via an RCI exchange offsite. (Onsite at WDW is nice; onsite in any national park is vastly better than anywhere offsite.)
• If we go to Hawaii, we would probably stay at Wyndham on Oahu, Kauai, or the Big Island and look at all options on Maui. We would not stay at Aulani.
• If we wanted to cruise, we would almost certainly cruise on some line other than DCL.
• For a skiing trip, we'd look at the whole range of options, including Wyndham, RCI either through DVC or Wyndham exchanges, or simply paying cash...with our outcome primarily dictated by our destination.

As far as offsite DVC owners impacting 7-month availability at WDW, I think that is a minimal problem compared with owners at the larger WDW resorts (SSR, OKW, BWV, BLT, AKV) using their points at other WDW resorts.

 

[bwvBound]

I would be pretty confident to say that most DVC owners prefer Disney above all other destinations...

"Disney" or "WDW"? Seems to me that your primary concern is WDW?

Add me to the "eager for HI" list. We tend to visit HI once or twice each year and often without much planning. We always return both rested and inspired. I'm very much looking forward to the Disney storytelling and "theming" at the new resort. I'm pleased that my DVC points from WDW can be used for HI at the 7-month window whenever we might choose to visit Oahu. (Yes, we have 8 nights booked at Aulani this calendar year ... opening up space at WDW for someone else! Hope to repeat the use of points every now and again.)

As for WDW, our original purpose for buying DVC has nothing to do with either parks or Florida weather. Our primary intention for DVC ownership is to satisfy a need for convention accommodations. It has worked quite well in this capacity. We used DVC for our convention purposes through our first 5 years of ownership before taking our first true "vacation" using DVC.

In all, I'm finding that WDW isn't a place I really want to "vacation." We've now done it a few times (pre-Christmas and F&W)-- but it isn't restful, inspiring or satisfying. It has become "work" for me in the planning and organizing of daily agendas, dining reservations, etc. I feel cheated by the noise and chaos of cheer squads and other tour groups of rowdy youth. There are very few months of the year where I would consider Orlando weather comparable or preferable to what I have at home -- and many months where I won't even consider Orlando as a destination.

For my vacations, I want pretty scenery, day trips to great significant sites, a measure "quite and orderly" behavior, and a safe place to crash at the end of the day. I found Vero to meet this expectation and I anticipate the same of HI. I look forward to a possible DVC at National Harbor for exploring the DC area. (We very much enjoyed our non-DVC exchange into Williamsburg a few years back.) There are lots of places I'd love to vacation ... far, far away from WDW.

 

[Dean]

I think the question is why own DVC at all if off site from parks is the main goal. I know there may be personal exceptions (I can think of a few LIMITED situations) but in general there are better resort options if HI, HH or FL Atlantic are the main goal. Many other timeshare options give you a lot more, better and cheaper choices than DVC for this purpose. One could have direct access to II or RCI or both, for a LOT cheaper, with many more exchange options. Many of those can be used just as flexibly as DVC, some more so. One of the more obvious choices is Marriott since they have several HH resorts, a Ko'Olina property and the West Palm area with all resorts being at least comparable to DVC.

 

[CMOORE185]

I think the question is why own DVC at all if off site from parks is the main goal. I know there may be personal exceptions (I can think of a few LIMITED situations) but in general there are better resort options if HI, HH or FL Atlantic are the main goal. Many other timeshare options give you a lot more, better and cheaper choices than DVC for this purpose. One could have direct access to II or RCI or both, for a LOT cheaper, with many more exchange options. Many of those can be used just as flexibly as DVC, some more so. One of the more obvious choices is Marriott since they have several HH resorts, a Ko'Olina property and the West Palm area with all resorts being at least comparable to DVC.

I do not think there is a better resort option on HHI than Disneys Hilton Head resort, just my personal opinion.

 

[Dean]

I do not think there is a better resort option on HHI than Disneys Hilton Head resort, just my personal opinion.

Many disagree but it suffices to say that there are at least 5 or 6 that are at least equal to DVC.

 

[Sammie]

I would gladly welcome any new locations we are getting tired of Disney World.

 

[bethy]

We bought DVC b/c we are certain we will always want to spend a long weekend at DLR at least once per year. Why not? But we don't consider that our "vacation". More of a fun getaway. And then we occasionally want to vacation in WDW and other parts of Florida and do Carribean cruises - so we plan to occasionally use our DVC points at WDW as well.

So we are psyched about Hawaii - we have only been to other island and never to Oahu and so will be curious to see if we like it as well. I think we will - we are resort people and there are plenty of lovely excursions nearby and great weather all around. We'd love to see some additional destinations like D.C. and a mountain destination. I like the way Disney does themeing and many things about the way they do hospitality. I hope their unique approach can offset their decided lack of luxury compared to some of the other big players in other popular tourist destinations.

To us, options are always a good thing - esp when looking at 50 years.

 

[emum]

Living in Australia, we bought Aulani because that is where we will spend most of our "Disney" lives, along with VGC. We will probably only make one or two trips back to WDW in the next 50 years.

I would never consider buying into any other timeshare. Disney is a brand we know and trust implicitly.

Cheers,
Sally

 

[nunzia]

Just spoke to a friend and she is paying $6,900 for a week at an upscale Ocean view room in Hawaii...if I ever make it there (hate to fly) I will love having a DVC in Hawaii!