First Look at Room Layouts for Poly Tower

[emchen]

When online bookings opened - less than 7 months before the opening, ALL direct DVC owners could book. In fact, as a poly owner, I was able to snatch up the only Disneyland tower room available on certain nights of a certain room type. Disneyland tower DVC owners did not get preferred access

Although technically accurate its not the entire story. VDH owners who bought when sales opened in early May got three months of exclusive access by the time online booking opened on July 27. .

 

[bbeagle]

Although technically accurate its not the entire story. VDH owners who bought when sales opened in early May got three months of exclusive access by the time online booking opened on July 27. .

Yes. Disneyland tower owners had a few months advantage initially.

And if poly tower is the same association they might do a 'welcome home' tower advantage.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Every new DVC resort opening has provided a period of time for the purchasers/owners there to have a home resort priority period to book with their new points even when reservations do not start more than 7 months out. That's been an always and nothing unique to VDH or any other new resort. Then on a selected date it opens for its 7 month trades which is what any of us are doing when we use points at a resort they are not part of.

When a new building in a resort opens then existing owners get the same opportunity to book during the home priority window before it opens to 7 month bookings. The declarations for new sales in that situation will be greater than points sold - it has to be or they would be making declarations on a daily or weekly basis. DVC can also place owners in units that are not declared but cannot sell points beyond what is declared. At the point of booking there will be the initial chunk of points sold but it's minor in the overall scheme and way less than what is bookable. And it will be availability for 11 months of the year while again, they'll be nowhere close to selling the points for that occupancy.

Buying DVC never comes with a guarantee of being able to book anywhere right away nor to always book the room you want at the exact time you want. The concern being discussed is brand new buyers wouldn't be able to book where they bought because all the availability will be taken up by existing owners. That could happen to any buyer there buying 1 year from now too. However, most likely, they'll get what they want. And DVC has the Welcome Home bookings that can possibly get them in places they might not in the future. Historically though booking with a lot more declared than sold tends to offset things. Plus there's a whole lot of owners that don't keep up on the news that closely and wouldn't even know they could book at the new tower. And then there's the fact that existing owners booked in studios may not want to stay in the tower.
That's the long way of saying it really hasn't produced much of if any issue in the past when a new building has been added.

 

[Sandisw]

Yes. Disneyland tower owners had a few months advantage initially.

And if poly tower is the same association they might do a 'welcome home' tower advantage.

If it’s the same association, they can not legally give new buyers of the tower an advance to book over PVB owners.

So, whatever rooms are declared to start sales, both new and existing owners will have the same booking rights from the start.

 

[Sandisw]

Every new DVC resort opening has provided a period of time for the purchasers there to have a home resort priority period to book with their new points even when reservations do not start more than 7 months out. That's been an always and nothing unique to VDH or any other new resort. Then on a selected date it opens for its 7 month trades which is what any of us are doing when we use points at a resort they are not part of.

When a new building in a resort opens then existing owners get the same opportunity to book during the home priority window before it opens to 7 month bookings. The declarations for new sales in that situation will be greater than points sold - it has to be or they would be making declarations on a daily or weekly basis. DVC can also place owners in units that are not declared but cannot sell points beyond what is declared. At the point of booking there will be the initial chunk of points sold but it's minor in the overall scheme and way less than what is bookable. And it will be availability for 11 months of the year while again, they'll be nowhere close to selling the points for that occupancy.

Buying DVC never comes with a guarantee of being able to book anywhere right away nor to always book the room you want at the exact time you want. The concern being discussed is brand new buyers wouldn't be able to book where they bought because all the availability will be taken up by existing owners. That could happen to any buyer there buying 1 year from now too. However, most likely, they'll get what they want. And DVC has the Welcome Home bookings that can possibly get them in places they might not in the future. Historically though booking with a lot more declared than sold tends to offset things. Plus there's a whole lot of owners that don't keep up on the news that closely and wouldn't even know they could book at the new tower. And then there's the fact that existing owners booked in studios may not want to stay in the tower. That's the long way of saying it really hasn't produced much of if any issue in the past when a new building has been added.

I am not sure though that the treehouses and resort studios had the ability to cause the potential issues of PVB and Poly tower if the same association will have during initial bookings.

I don’t remember how the treehouse were declared, but for BPK, 100% of the rooms were available by opening day. I can’t see DVD doing that with Poly tower.

At least at SSR, new buyers had a range of rooms to book if they didn’t get a treehouse. At PVB, it’s overwhelming studios that could be left.

It certainly could end up without a big deal, but it definitely has that potential if there are indeed a whole bunch of PVB owners out there want those larger units.

I guess we will see how it goes if DVD makes it part of PVB…which, I still have a very hard time imagining they will.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I am not sure though that the treehouses and resort studios had the ability to cause the potential issues of PVB and Poly tower if the same association will have during initial bookings.

I don’t remember how the treehouse were declared, but for BPK, 100% of the rooms were available by opening day. I can’t see DVD doing that with Poly tower.

At least at SSR, new buyers had a range of rooms to book if they didn’t get a treehouse. At PVB, it’s overwhelming studios that could be left.

It certainly could end up without a big deal, but it definitely has that potential if there are indeed a whole bunch of PVB owners out there want those larger units.

I guess we will see how it goes if DVD makes it part of PVB…which, I still have a very hard time imagining they will.

There also was Kidani.

Treehouses had people quite excited since at that time they were the exact same # of points as 2 BR's and I think some times booked up quickly. All in all what's being forgotten is that the points sold by the time the resort opens is virtually nothing and there will be a much much larger number declared whether it's part or all of the building. And then all the other factors - when people are going, if they want to change their booking, when the new buyers want to go. Plus DVC IS going to open it up for 7 month bookings after a much shortened home priority window and the new buyer the next day will have no guarantee of home resort if they want to go in within the 7 month window. And it won't be due to competition just from the existing owners at the resort but a much larger pool of DVC owners from all resorts. I guess if you view the current studios as a far inferior product you will assume this will be an issue but I think there are many who prefer the exiting for various reasons. I don't think that everyone will be looking to switch.

However there could be a far worse resort to do this at. At least at PVB the existing studios sleep 5 and have the extra shower/sink room. And all but a handful of studios connect so even someone looking for a 2BR but not getting it could likely be ok with 2 studios for their 1st trip if they really wanted to stay at the resort.

I know that each new resort or addition is speculated to be very different from what's happened in the past in some regard but has that actually ever happened? Not that I recall. But the question is why should this new tower have some sort of "guarantee" of rooms when no other before it has? This discussion is about a tiny handful of buyers having special opportunities that no other buyer of DVC ever gets. Being a "founding member" has gotten you a name on a plaque or some such item in the past but never a guarantee of a room when you want it. DVC is kind of a game of Jenga since most is sold as flexible and yet it works. Even with a completely new resort there can be people who don't get exactly what they want on the 1st day of booking if they are looking for something popular. I did not at BLT but I knew I had no guarantee of a particular accommodation.
I did just read on Facebook that a boat dock person at MK was telling people about DVC and that the Poly tower sold out in 48 hours. So if that is true then yes, we might see a new level of difficulty in booking.

 

[Sandisw]

There also was Kidani.

Treehouses had people quite excited since at that time they were the exact same # of points as 2 BR's and I think some times booked up quickly. All in all what's being forgotten is that the points sold by the time the resort opens is virtually nothing and there will be a much much larger number declared whether it's part or all of the building. And then all the other factors - when people are going, if they want to change their booking, when the new buyers want to go. Plus DVC IS going to open it up for 7 month bookings after a much shortened home priority window and the new buyer the next day will have no guarantee of home resort if they want to go in within the 7 month window. And it won't be due to competition just from the existing owners at the resort but a much larger pool of DVC owners from all resorts. I guess if you view the current studios as a far inferior product you will assume this will be an issue but I think there are many who prefer the exiting for various reasons. I don't think that everyone will be looking to switch.

However there could be a far worse resort to do this at. At least at PVB the existing studios sleep 5 and have the extra shower/sink room. And all but a handful of studios connect so even someone looking for a 2BR but not getting it could likely be ok with 2 studios for their 1st trip if they really wanted to stay at the resort.

I know that each new resort or addition is speculated to be very different from what's happened in the past in some regard but has that actually ever happened? Not that I recall. But the question is why should this new tower have some sort of "guarantee" of rooms when no other before it has? This discussion is about a tiny handful of buyers having special opportunities that no other buyer of DVC ever gets. Being a "founding member" has gotten you a name on a plaque or some such item in the past but never a guarantee of a room when you want it. DVC is kind of a game of Jenga since most is sold as flexible and yet it works. Even with a completely new resort there can be people who don't get exactly what they want on the 1st day of booking if they are looking for something popular. I did not at BLT but I knew I had no guarantee of a particular accommodation.
I did just read on Facebook that a boat dock person at MK was telling people about DVC and that the Poly tower sold out in 48 hours. So if that is true then yes, we might see a new level of difficulty in booking.

I didn’t read it as getting something special but rather over 4 million points being immediately eligible to book larger units, during home resort bookings, leaving new buyers with the chance of being shut out of the new rooms at a much higher rate.

Typically, when a resort opens, there are more declared rooms than points sold so initial bookings tend to be easier. If these are combined, that won’t be the case.

IIRC, AKV Jambo was not yet sold out when Kidani opened. It was only 2 years into sales at that point.

While two connecting studios are possible, it is not the same as the larger units, given no kitchen, king bed, or washer/dryer.

I guess we will see once it’s announced as to what association it will be

 

[CarolMN]

IMO, there is only a SMALL subset of existing POLY owners who are interested in booking 1 & 2 (and 3 if they have them) bedroom villas, so I doubt there is going to be an 11 month problem for those larger villas if the Tower is added to the existing association. (Except maybe for the usual peaks common to all of the near-park resorts).

Think about how many points those larger villas will cost vs the cost of the existing PVB studios. I'd expect more competition for the duos and small number of deluxe studios in the Tower at 11 months, than for the larger villas. This seems to be holding true for VGF.

 

[zavandor]

Add on top of that, we owners generally see substantial dues increases whenever a soft or hard refurb is done on a resort. Imagine the dues increase to cover the construction of a new tower! If I were a PVB owner, I would be praying against it being in the same association.

That's not how it works.

There are two separate companies.
DVD - Disney Vacation Development leases the land from Disney, builds the resort, sells the point and makes billions for the Disney company in the process.

DVCMC - DVC Management Company has the task of managing the resorts for the DVC owners. They collect the dues use them from the resort upkeep, refurbishments, pay the contracts with Disney for housekeeping and transportation etc.
The budget for the DVCMC is audited. Nothing can be spent to build new resorts.

Of course there is some level of collusion because the DVCMC board is nominated by DVD and most if not all people also work for DVD. But DVCMC has a fiduciary duty to make the best interests for the owners. So anything that benefits Disney must be spin up as benefiting the owners too.
And that's how we managed to make them rollback the 2020 and 2023 point charts. Because they were damaging the members with decisions that benefited Disney.

Anyway, if DVD touches even one cent of our dues to build a new resort they all end up in jail.

ETA: Disney can get some revenues from the DVCMC. One is breakage. Another is savings on the admin fees used to pay for MS (it's a fixed amount, so if they spend less they pocket the difference). However, it's just a few things and audited and controlled.

 

[hockeydad21]

IMO, there is only a SMALL subset of existing POLY owners who are interested in booking 1 & 2 (and 3 if they have them) bedroom villas, so I doubt there is going to be an 11 month problem for those larger villas if the Tower is added to the existing association. (Except maybe for the usual peaks common to all of the near-park resorts).

Think about how many points those larger villas will cost vs the cost of the existing PVB studios. I'd expect more competition for the duos and small number of deluxe studios in the Tower at 11 months, than for the larger villas. This seems to be holding true for VGF.

Agreed. Studios are the most popular booking category by far at every DVC resort due to the low point cost. There's obviously still a need for larger accommodations for some families, but most families prefer to book studios.

With that being said, I do believe that they still could pull off adding the tower to the existing association without it creating an availability issue for new direct buyers to book their first trip there. That's quite literally one of the reasons why DVC offers the "welcome home stay" for direct buyers. They'll find a way to get you the room you want for that first trip even if there isn't DVC inventory available. They'll simply pull it out of their cash inventory, which they'll have PLENTY of until the majority of the resort is declared. Those first few months shouldn't be an issue.

 

[maui22]

That's quite literally one of the reasons why DVC offers the "welcome home stay" for direct buyers. They'll find a way to get you the room you want for that first trip even if there isn't DVC inventory available. They'll simply pull it out of their cash inventory, which they'll have PLENTY of until the majority of the resort is declared. Those first few months shouldn't be an issue.

This is exactly what Disney did for us when we bought BLT spring 2009. BLT wasn't open, but booking window was open. All BLT rooms early were 100% booked for the dates we wanted. Disney used the "welcome home stay" to get us a room.

 

[Wedgeout]

I know it’s going to be beautiful but really looking like a Polynesian island village meets Waikiki.