If you could build a new DVC resort anywhere...

[Dean]

I would like to see one on Florida's Gulf Coast.....there are a lot of RCI resort listed for DVC but none are ever available...Sanibel Island or north of there would be great....

....also the Florida Keys....

You must do an ongoing search some time out to have a chance at any decent resorts.

 

[disneyfreak33]

Roatan, Grand Cayman, or any of the Eastern Caribbean!

 

[tgropp]

My choice would be on site and I would build one on the old Discovery Island and transform the whole island into a paradise.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I agree with the posters that mentioned Colorado (that sounds beautiful) or near Yellowstone. We got lost in Montana once, going to the airport. Once we discovered where we were, we agreed that the scenery had been gorgeous, we just wished we weren't too worried to enjoy it. Frankly, I'm kind of done with all the warm weather DVCs. There's no place to go in the summer for COOL air. So I'll also add Maine, New York, and Cape Cod to my list-anyplace up north.

 

[JimMIA]

With Yellowstone, the park is only really open about four or five months of the year.

Good point, Deb, and a lot of national parks would not make good timeshare destinations because they are so seasonal.

A good example is here at Everglades. We are open year round, but our busy season is November - April, with the busiest time December through February. The lodge in the southern end of the park was destroyed by Hurricane Wilma in 2005. The lodge has not been rebuilt, so there are no overnight accommodations inside the park except campgrounds.

At more than 1.5 million acres, Everglades is the third largest park in the lower 48 states -- only Death Valley and Yellowstone are larger. So visitors to Everglades have to be willing to do a good deal of driving each day...often from 20-100 miles away from the park entrances.

And what business wants to spend millions of dollars building a small hotel which will have a short season? Nobody with any business sense!

 

[ABE4DISNEY]

I LOVE all those locations, but I'll be the devil's advocate.

At many (but not all) of our most popular National Parks, there is no "close to." Yosemite and Yellowstone are two prime examples. If you are on the park boundary there, or at Grand Canyon, or many others, you are an hour or more from where you want to be. (In the summer at Yellowstone you might be three hours away!) And there is no monorail or Disney transportation.

One exception might be our most visited national park -- Great Smokys National Park in NC/TN. From either Cherokee, NC or Gatlinburg, TN, you are within minutes of being in the heart of a beautiful park. Another possibility might be the national capital area (VA/MD) where Disney once considered a resort. Both are within a day's drive of a huge visitor base (most of the East coast), and both are extremely popular

But on the flip side....as someone who is currently planning a Grand Canyon holiday, there are very few NICE options for lodging near the GC. I think Disney could really find a niche there. And as far as the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area, Dolly Parton just announced a huge 300 million project creating her DreamMore Resort. Check it out. It has a lot of Disney-like qualities, as does Dollywood, if you have never been there.
www.dollywood.com/dmr/home.aspx
Disney would be crazy building anything there after that gets developed.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

I'd like a DVC resort that was Christmas all year round but near WDW. So it's built around a kind of new Disney Christmas theme/adventure park. Sleigh rides , snow machines , like ski Dubai where the snow is indoors but it's hot outside. Kids could visit santa, decorations all year round. SantaLand or something. DW is packed at Christmas, flights expensive but most folks love Christmas. Why not extend the idea so we could celebrate it with our families whenever we want! Without the peak prices! Then also be able to visit the other parks as well. A sort of Winter Wonderland. Disney's Snow Palace and Spa resort or something...

 

[dwelty]

One exception might be our most visited national park -- Great Smokys National Park in NC/TN. From either Cherokee, NC or Gatlinburg, TN, you are within minutes of being in the heart of a beautiful park. Another possibility might be the national capital area (VA/MD) where Disney once considered a resort. Both are within a day's drive of a huge visitor base (most of the East coast), and both are extremely popular destinations.

Might I add Zion and Bryce Canyon to your list. There is a lot of available property near park boundaries, and there is great year round access. We have visited both during different times of year, and the weather is generally fine for hiking all year long. Both parks give you a great Western US experience. Lake Tahoe has a proven timeshare market and year round activities, as well as large casinos on the Nevada side of the lake.

Of course this is all a pipe dream, I do not see any more off sited DVC resorts. Yes Aulani is running at high occupancy, but this is only after deep discounts that are advertised much of the year on standard rooms (buy 4 days get the 5th free, etc.) , and bookings by members who own elsewhere. Aulani still has tons of unsold inventory, and from what I hear is running below projections.





*****

 

[asunutgirl]

I like the idea of Maui. Love the island and it would allow people to spend a few days at Aulani and a few on Maui. Or even the big island.

I live on the west coast and we never considered buying into DVC until Aulani was an option. We SCUBA (the whole family) and we loved the idea of combining our love of Disney and our love of SCUBA together.

I also think another DVC at DLR makes sense. We would never have bought into DVC if there weren't any resorts on the west coast. We just don't travel to WDW that much to make it beneficial. And I know someone else on the west coast who didn't buy into DVC until VGC opened.

 

[DougEMG]

Don't the majority of DVC owners buy because they want to go to WDW, DL or a Disney cruise? If you are really interested in owning a timeshare to do non-Disney things aren't some of the other timeshares out there a better option in regards to purchase cost, MF and trading? How would Disney be able to compete with them?

 

[fletch1027]

Marriott has two great time share resorts in Park City, Utah. We stayed at one last summer. Perfect for winter sports and Park City has done a great job coming up with activities to keep people busy when there's no snow (hiking, biking, zip lining, shopping, horses, etc).

While on the topic, I must admit that Marriott out shines DVC in the area of outdoor grilling. The Park City resort had an area near the pool with 5-6 very high end gas grills built into the stonework. They also had grill utensils out there to use that the staff would keep rotated with clean ones...

 

[Dean]

But on the flip side....as someone who is currently planning a Grand Canyon holiday, there are very few NICE options for lodging near the GC. I think Disney could really find a niche there. And as far as the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area, Dolly Parton just announced a huge 300 million project creating her DreamMore Resort. Check it out. It has a lot of Disney-like qualities, as does Dollywood, if you have never been there.
www.dollywood.com/dmr/home.aspx
Disney would be crazy building anything there after that gets developed.

It's been a few years but Marriott announced then abandoned a resort in Gatlinburg a number of years ago. Obviously there have been some changes but it's a very seasonal area with a lot of resorts.

Don't the majority of DVC owners buy because they want to go to WDW, DL or a Disney cruise? If you are really interested in owning a timeshare to do non-Disney things aren't some of the other timeshares out there a better option in regards to purchase cost, MF and trading? How would Disney be able to compete with them?

In a sense that's the point I was making. It would need to be a resort that was year around enough and in a high enough demand area that it could succeed without the DVC and WDW tie in. VB & HH couldn't and I don't think Aulani could either. However, part of the equation is that DVD has not been aggressive enough to compete head to head with other timeshares. They'll need to be more aggressive getting people to tour (maybe with incentives), tour current owners and be more aggressive on the sales pitch.

 

[JimMIA]

If you are really interested in owning a timeshare to do non-Disney things aren't some of the other timeshares out there a better option in regards to purchase cost, MF and trading? How would Disney be able to compete with them?

Yes there definitely are, but there are two perspectives to consider.

From the knowledgeable timeshare user perspective, you can buy some VERY good timeshare products through eBay and other sources literally for a few hundred dollars including all closing and transfer costs.

A couple of years ago we bought the rough equivalent of 600-700 DVC points in Wyndham via eBay for less than $2,000 including all costs. The MFs are substantially less than DVC, we have access to almost 90 resorts nationwide, and FULL individual RCI membership included in our MFs.

Marriott, Hilton, Bluegreen, Starwood (Sheraton, et al) and several others offer similar options, but I don't know much about those systems.

Even if you buy from the developer scared1 at a comparable price to DVC direct, for non-Disney vacations there are a number of better choices than DVC.

*****
But the perspective that matters to Disney is that of the timeshare developer. For a particular destination, what are the building costs, and can they sell that resort at an acceptable profit level? That's really all that matters to the developer, because they are finished when the last contract is sold.

My opinion is that Disney should focus where they have a unique advantage -- and that is primarily onsite at WDW.

 

[JimMIA]

duplicate post, mods please delete

 

[Meemoo]

I love traveling to to US, but if I could pick where another DVC Resort was built I'd like something closer to home too Hong Kong Disney - I enjoy visiting there, if they could add a DVC on to HK Disneyland Hotel I'd be very happy

 

[JimMIA]

But on the flip side....as someone who is currently planning a Grand Canyon holiday, there are very few NICE options for lodging near the GC. I think Disney could really find a niche there. And as far as the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area, Dolly Parton just announced a huge 300 million project creating her DreamMore Resort. Check it out. It has a lot of Disney-like qualities, as does Dollywood, if you have never been there.
www.dollywood.com/dmr/home.aspx
Disney would be crazy building anything there after that gets developed.

Gotta love the "Welcome Home" on the website!

OTOH, 300 rooms is not a very large resort, and certainly nothing that is going to change the Gatlinburg market.

 

[GoGoJulie]

Tokyo would be awesome!

 

[chrisaman]

Don't the majority of DVC owners buy because they want to go to WDW, DL or a Disney cruise? If you are really interested in owning a timeshare to do non-Disney things aren't some of the other timeshares out there a better option in regards to purchase cost, MF and trading? How would Disney be able to compete with them?

You also have to take into account the fact that Disney runs these resorts outside of Disneyland/Disneyworld. This means you know you are going to get a certain hospitality that you wouldn't nessesarily get at another time share resort. For example, we stayed at the Kanapalli Beach Club in Maui which is a Diamond Resort. We recieved very poor customer service while we were there and they nickle and dimed you for everything. The quality of the room was nice and the pool was great but the rest of the resort was just okay. Nothing lika Aulani. Plus, for those that want to do Disney Parks and take trips away from Disney parks, I think it is perfect. What other timeshare out there allows you to stay on a Disney park and get into parks early. NONE!

 

[ABE4DISNEY]

Gotta love the "Welcome Home" on the website!

OTOH, 300 rooms is not a very large resort, and certainly nothing that is going to change the Gatlinburg market.

I know! I thought I was watching an ad for DVC!

But you are right, 300 is not that large.

I will say though that I love Dollywood! I reminds me of Frontierland but actually nicer! We have found it cleaner and with better food and ambience. I am eager to see her hotel.

 

[ParrotBill]

I would choose the Caribbean, but it needs to be somewhere with acceptable air capacity and prices... so Bahamas, St. Thomas, Aruba, Puerto Rico... or even the Riviera Maya south of Cancun.

Hurricane risks multiple a lot for properties built there... would need to build above storm surge lines, with hurricane shutters, and be ready to pay to rebuild the beach, pools and outdoor areas after a direct hit.

In the US, would like to see Gulf Coast on a good beach, more California including near San Francisco, and maybe a Colorado 4-season resort with ski area.