Fact or Fiction: Resorts and DVC being sold off

[tiggr33]

OK, I cant find anything about this online and it sounded far fetched to me, but maybe someone else here will now if it is a rumor or truth.

On a WDW bus this morning (OKW to DHS) the driver told us that Disney is selling The Contempoarary, Poly and Grand Floridian to Marriot. And Port Orleans and Carribbean Beach to Holiday Inn; And that DVC is merging with Marriots time share.

I scanned the first page the the DVC and Resorts thread but didnt see anything.

 

[OrlandoMike]

Those bus drivers are amazing! I dont know how they get the news before the Orlando Sentinel or the local television news outlets!

 

[rpmdfw]

Those bus drivers are amazing! I dont know how they get the news before the Orlando Sentinel or the local television news outlets!

That's because they're usually sitting on their "news outlet".

 

[tiggr33]

Thanks Mike. Thats pretty much what I thought. But as someone who has spent tens of thousands of dollars on DVC I was a little upset by his comments.

 

[OrlandoMike]

Thanks Mike. Thats pretty much what I thought. But as someone who has spent tens of thousands of dollars on DVC I was a little upset by his comments.

Next time you catch a driver spouting off like this, kindly ask for his name, his supervisors name, and the number for Disney Guest Relations so you can verify his information!


(But I gotta admit, if this turned out to be true, it wouldn't surprise me one bit!)

 

[tiggr33]

I wouldnt be suprised either in the overall scheme. But I would would want to hear it from DVC, not a bus driver.

 

[Golf4food]

My second cousin's brother's uncle twice removed on his mother's side's neice by his second wife told me that...

You shouldn't belive any rumors that come out of the mouth of a Disney bus driver.

 

[DC7800]

In this case, consider the source.

That said, the sale of the resort(s) - and especially the sale of the Vacation club - has apparently been considered in the past, and unfortunately remains a plausible, if unlikely, rumor. But again, not in this case.

 

[Scurvy]

In this case, consider the source.

That said, the sale of the resort(s) - and especially the sale of the Vacation club - has apparently been considered in the past, and unfortunately remains a plausible, if unlikely, rumor. But again, not in this case.

I have to say, I wouldn't be surprised if they did end up selling the DVC resorts at some point. The sale of the other resorts, on the other hand, would shock me. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if they did end up outsourcing the day-to-day operations of all the resorts to another company. I hope they wouldn't really sell them, though. I think it's a mistake for Disney to sell anything that's actually on premises (or any of the land) and wouldn't have thought they'd ever do such a thing, but given the Four Seasons I was obviously wrong about that.

 

[TK Brown]

I hope this isnt something that would happen. I didnt buy into DVC to merge with Marriott. I would have bought with them if I wanted that. But again...consider the source.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Hoping it's just a rumor--otherwise before long there won't be much "Disney" left of Walt Disney World.
Scurvy: The word "outsourcing" always makes me cringe...

 

[Scurvy]

Hoping it's just a rumor--otherwise before long there won't be much "Disney" left of Walt Disney World.
Scurvy: The word "outsourcing" always makes me cringe...

Yeah, I admit it bugs me, too. At least that sort of thing is easier to undo than an actual sale would be, though! I do miss the days when everything at Disney World was "Disney" and the only "outside" companies you were exposed to were the sponsors, when being at WDW felt like being completely away from the real world. The more they outsource and the more they sell off, the less special WDW seems. To me, at least.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

When I saw this thread I checked for the date of the first post. I thought this may have been a resurrected ten year old thread, as those rumors were flying around over ten years ago. Bcause if Marriott had taken over the hotels I would have, combined with other travel, easily gotten into Gold Elite or even Platinum level.

 

[Captain Bryman]

I totaly doubt this. First of all I think these bus drivers get their jollys by telling guest false news. Also the DVC is the second largest money maker in the Walt Disney Company I doubt they want to lose all of that money. So I say that this is untrue.

 

[tjkraz]

Like others, I wouldn't be surprised if it happened. As a DVC member, honestly I put the odds of a sale slightly over 50% sometime during my 45+ years of ownership. Four decades is a long time for management philosophies to change within any large organization. Bob Iger may not be of a mind to sell that business unit but we don't know about the next CEO or the next or the next...

There's a lot of synergy in Disney owning the theme parks and even a shopping district like Downtown Disney. But not so much with the resorts. Sure they help bring guests into the parks, but you'd get that even if they were operated by another entity. In fact, the benefits could be even greater if the resorts were actually sold to multiple corporations creating a competitive environment.

Honestly I'm not convinced it would be the worst thing in the world, either. Just in my limited travels (maybe 2x per year for business and 2-3x for leisure) I have visited hotels which are MUCH better operated than those at Disney. I'm not a big fan of the Universal theme parks but the resorts--operated by Loews--are fantastic. I've stayed at Loews properties throughout the US and never been disappointed. Spend a couple nights at a Disney resort and then move to Portafino Bay and you'll see the difference. A sale of existing Disney resorts shouldn't have any impact on theming or amenities, but it could give the level of service a real kick in the pants.

Putting my DVC hat on again, I think anyone who buys into DVC should do so with the realization that a sale or change in management companies is a real possibility. Again, 40-50 years is a looooong time.

The new manager would still have to abide by the terms of the POS. The ability to stay at one's Home resort shouldn't be dramatically impacted and we would gain access to dozens of other existing locations within the new system. But the trade-off would be more competition for the non-Home resorts at 7 months (or whatever non-Home booking period the new manager instituted.)

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I don't think it will happen, and definitely not just DVC without the resorts. I see that as too complex. I know somebody out there will say no it's not, and I may have agreed until AKV took over part of Jambo. Now with other DVC resorts that are actually part of the hotel, such as Villas at Grand Californian, I think it would be too difficult.

As I said, I don't think it will happen. I think there would be an uprising of DVC Members so loud that Disney wouldn't be able to ignore it.
If it does happen, count on me taking at least a good chunk of my vacation bucks elsewhere.

MG

 

[Condorman]

Why is it everyone else who speaks with Disney bus drivers gets juicy albeit absurd stories about DVC sales and monorails through the Swan and Dolphin, and when I last spoke with a bus driver I got a sob story about how Disney doesn't give them medical benefits?

Can't I get some gossip fresh off the vine?

 

[tiggr33]

My concerns with him saying the DVC portion today was that today was the quarterly mandatory meeting for all DVC reps.

 

[doconeill]

We know DVC has been quite profitable - far more profitable than expected.

There is also a corporate philosophy that if you want to sell off a division for some cash, you sell off a profitable one to get more cash to do whatever it is you want to do with the cash.

It doesn't always work. Remember Digital? If you don't, it's because its now twice removed from existence. They sold off profitable divisions (storage to Quantum, Alpha to Intel), leaving them with nothing to give them income. They ended up getting acquired by Compaq, who then got acquired by HP.

If Disney was desperate for cash, I'd be more worried about my DVC. If it happened, would it be a bad thing? I dunno.

 

[KYMickey]

Actually if anybody is going to buy DVC I certainly hope it would be Marriott. They're consistently the top rated timeshare company in the nation. We actually have a couple of weeks with Marriott and they're expanding rapidly. One interesting point is that with Marriott you actually have a deaded week, not an ownership that expires after a certain number of years. I wonder how that would be handled? Would the ownership revert to Marriott or to Disney? It certainly would make for some interesting negotiations.

In ways I would be surprised if Marriott is interested since they already have quite a few timeshare units in Orlando and an awful lot in Hilton Head so they wouldn't it actually be gaining many new areas.

Just a thought but I wonder if maybe Disney isn't trying to collect money to make a run at the Baush Garden properties? That's certainly would require a big chunk of change.