DVC Poly Announcement

[lovin'fl]

Ok, so curious when we can expect them to start selling...dying to know what cost and how many points per night.

 

[eliza61]

Ok, so curious when we can expect them to start selling...dying to know what cost and how many points per night.

I think that will be the magic question.

 

[eliza61]

No, Bill, you really don't. If you were looking at the big picture, you would also be giving consideration to the positive changes like:

- Vastly improved member website
- You make blanket statements about "long hold times" and "website issues" when those are far from consistent issues. Last 2 times I called MS my wait times were 2 minutes and 0 minutes (rang through immediately.) Website issues have crept up at times but they are typically addressed within hours.

You mention "quality issues with new construction" when we both know you are talking about BLT--the resort that opened 5 years (and two General Managers) ago. There are no widespread reports of issues with other recent developments like Grand Floridian, Aulani, Grand Californian or Treehouse Villas.

If you want to claim some objectivity...be objective.

Ok I was with you possibly up until the website and member service. Sweet Lord!! Are you telling me the dvc website is an improvement!!! THAT WEBSITE STINKS!! and you can call ms 12 different times with the same question and get 12 different answers. LOL, the only reason it doesn't bother me is that, that is exactly how the general customer service number works also.

Disney definitely is not in the IT/customer service business. I think Donald duck is in charge.

to put it in perspective, I come here to get reliable information. Never Member service.

 

[nkosiek]

Disney definitely is not in the IT/customer service business. I think Donald duck is in charge.

Hey now, not cool. The disparaging remark is, "What, are you running a Mickey Mouse organization?"

 

[tjkraz]

I also don't see offering events, mingles, DVC cruises, ABD vacations where the member is paying for the privilege to attend often at a premium as a wonderful thing.

Subjective vs objective. Literally thousands of members are paying--even overpaying by your measure--for those cruises, events, meals and other experiences every single year.

Ok I was with you possibly up until the website and member service. Sweet Lord!! Are you telling me the dvc website is an improvement!!! THAT WEBSITE STINKS!!

Given that we are comparing to some unspecified time in the past, yes it is a vast improvement over what members have previously seen.

Prior to 2012 there was no online booking functionality whatsoever. No availability checker. No way to cancel reservations. No way to book dining plans. No way to pull-up annual dues notices electronically. No online check-in. No room ready text alerts.

So yeah, tech on the DVC side has come a LONG way in 4 years.

Does it work 100% of the time? Unfortunately no. But it's significantly higher than 0%.

Personally, my experiences with the member website reflect reliability upward of 95%. Honestly I can't think of any noteworthy instance where I couldn't perform some online function due to an unexplained outage or glitch...but it probably has happened at some point.

Reading other members' reports of outages may present a skewed impression of the reliability of DVCMember.com. Every inability to log-in--whether due to site error OR user error--seems to prompt a new forum discussion thread.

 

[DebbieB]

Ok I was with you possibly up until the website and member service. Sweet Lord!! Are you telling me the dvc website is an improvement!!! THAT WEBSITE STINKS!! and you can call ms 12 different times with the same question and get 12 different answers. LOL, the only reason it doesn't bother me is that, that is exactly how the general customer service number works also.

Disney definitely is not in the IT/customer service business. I think Donald duck is in charge.

to put it in perspective, I come here to get reliable information. Never Member service.

It's definitely an improvement, before we had nothing. Reservations could only be made by phone and there was no way to check availability online. The Resort Availability Tool is a great addition recently, you can check available dates by multiple resorts and room sizes, all up to 11 months.

I do agree searching for other information is bad, it's difficult to find answers if you don't know where to look.

 

[Deb & Bill]

I'm trying to think what a studio has over a hotel room at the Polynesian. Just a microwave. But one sleeper sofa versus a real bed is a negative. Especially if it is a platform style. Those are like sleeping on rocks.

We stayed in Moorea back in 1997 before they changed it to Tahiti a few years later. The day bed was a real bed, not a pull out or pull down. Two real queen beds. Two sinks in the bathroom. It wasn't too bad for our group.

I don't have to worry about getting anything at the Polynesian. An OKW one bedroom works great for me.

 

[wdrl]

VGF has 47 dedicated 2 bedrooms, 47 lock offs and 6 grand villas. So, AT MOST they have 47 studios, not 90!

I do not think they have sold out, but some weeks in December may be possible.

I am going from memory, but I believe the way it was worded in the master declaration is that it was 35% of a type in a week. IE they could not sell every room for a certain week, then just take 2 other random weeks off of the market.

Jerseyduke's count of VGF's vacation homes is correct.

VGF's master declaration states that no more than 35% of each accommodation type for each calendar week (which runs from Sunday to Sunday) could be sold as Fixed Weeks. Given the number of accommodation types at VGF, the maximum number of Fixed Week deeds that could be sold each week is as follows:

Standard View:
10.5 out of 30 Studios
10.5 out of 30 One-Bedrooms
10.5 out of 30 Dedicated Two-Bedrooms
Lake View:
5.95 out of 17 Studios
5.95 out of 17 One-Bedrooms
5.95 out of 17 Dedicated Two-Bedrooms
2.10 out of 6 Grand Villas

Since DVD can't sell a fraction, I assume all of these numbers of Fixed Weeks are rounded down. Thus, the Standard View accommodation types are maxed out at 10 Fixed Week deeds for each type and each week, and the Lake View accommodation types are maxed out at 5 (and 2 for the Grand Villas).

So far, VGF's Fixed Week sales have not maxed out on any accommodation type for any week. Some Lake View accommodation types have had four out of a possible five Fixed Week deeds sold, particularly for the last six weeks of the year. 17 Fixed Week deeds have been sold for Grand Villas, but they are in 17 different weeks; thus, at least one more Grand Villa Fixed Week deed can be sold in every week of the year. The Standard View accommodation types are much more available. Ten Fixed Week deeds could be sold for each accommodation type for each week. However, no more than four Fixed Week deeds have been sold for any Standard View accommodation type for any week.

The 90 was my Poly estimate of max fixed weeks (I guessed 25% of 360)

If PVB's master declaration uses similar language as VGF, then up to 35% of PVB's studios - 126 studios - might set aside as Fixed Weeks. However, in reality, a far fewer number of Fixed Week deeds will probably be sold. Of the VGF points sold so far, Fixed Week deeds only account for 4.6%. Unless PVB proves to be a significantly different "animal" than VGF, Fixed Week deeds shouldn't be a factor.

 

[wdrl]

I'm trying to think what a studio has over a hotel room at the Polynesian. Just a microwave. But one sleeper sofa versus a real bed is a negative. Especially if it is a platform style. Those are like sleeping on rocks.

Not all of the longhouses in the hotel portion of Polynesian Village have balconies. Niue's second floor and Fiji's second floor don't have balconies. All of the DVC longhouses will have balconies. Also, all of the DVC longhouses will be 465 sqft. Some of the hotel rooms are only 415 sqft.

See Tikiman's website for more details.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Not all of the longhouses in the hotel portion of Polynesian Village have balconies. Niue's second floor and Fiji's second floor don't have balconies. All of the DVC longhouses will have balconies. Also, all of the DVC longhouses will be 465 sqft. Some of the hotel rooms are only 415 sqft.

See Tikiman's website for more details.

Did they add the balconies for Tahiti? I thought only the third floor had a balcony and the first had a patio. That's the one we stayed in and I don't remember a balcony on the second floor.

Even so, two real beds trump a bed and a sleeper sofa if you are putting five in that tiny space.

 

[wdrl]

Did they add the balconies for Tahiti? I thought only the third floor had a balcony and the first had a patio. That's the one we stayed in and I don't remember a balcony on the second floor.

According to Tikiman, the Moorea (nee Tahiti) Longhouse has balconies on the second and third floors.

 

[Tikiman]

All the original longhouses were built with balconies on the 3rd floor and no balconies on the 2nd floor. The newer longhouses (Tokelau, Moorea and Pago Pago) always had balconies on both upper floors.
Maybe this will help get a better perspective on the room size. Here is the room in Moorea before it was changed into DVC. The bathrooms in the new studios take up half the room so the bathroom wall comes to about the left side of the first bed.

You may think that is a small room with it cut in half but to give you an idea how much bigger these Polynesian rooms are, even cut in half the remaining sleeping area is almost the size (square footage wise) as an entire Value Resort room. As much as I would have liked to have seen two queens, I think if the sofa sleeper is comfortable it is a nice idea so that it can be out of the way during the day.

Here is the layout for the new studio.