New Disney Resort Project?

[rodkenrich]

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[Figment632]

Does anyone know of any information about the rumor regarding the leveling of the former River Country area next summer to make room for a new mega resort?

Only that it isn' true.

 

[BayouMickey]

I think they are using some of RC to expand FW. There was some work being done there. But only resort building is the one they are doing where the unfinished "Legendary Years" was suposed to be.

 

[Figment632]

I think they are using some of RC to expand FW. There was some work being done there. But only resort building is the one they are doing where the unfinished "Legendary Years" was suposed to be.

Agreed.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Only that it isn' true.

THAT i do know

 

[Figment1983]

River Country was one of my favorite places, I wish they would just put the poor place out of it's missery instead of letting it rot away. It would be nice if they expanded between the Fort and Wilderness Lodge.

 

[doconeill]

Screamscape is reporting this, but it is weird - they claim the "Tri Circle D Ranch area, the nearby beach area along the lake and the former River Country property may all be planned to be leveled sometime next summer, to clear the site to make way for a brand new mega Disney resort project."

The Tri-Circle D Ranch is on the opposite side of FW from RC, and there is no "nearby beach area" to either.

Anyways, I think this is just a re-iteration of the "Fort Wilderness Junction/Buffalo Junction" project that got dug up recently and people are taking it to be something new.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Ok...I'm letting my imagination run a little here...so i apologize for fueling the unfonded, unfunded rumor fires...

But the DVC unit at Wilderness should really be expanded....they would sell fairly easily and the prime location would go aways to correcting the Saratoga nightmare

but a simple expansion of the campground is far more realistic

 

[anthony2k7]

Only that it isn' true.

at all? so there are no plans for the RC area at all?

 

[artesian]

Ok...I'm letting my imagination run a little here...so i apologize for fueling the unfonded, unfunded rumor fires...

But the DVC unit at Wilderness should really be expanded....they would sell fairly easily and the prime location would go aways to correcting the Saratoga nightmare
but a simple expansion of the campground is far more realistic

What does that mean?

 

[lockedoutlogic]

What does that mean?

The Saratoga Effect

once upon a time, there was a very effective timeshare enterprise allowing for the owners to move freely amongst several themed units and locations. This was known as "DVC"
In 2003, awash in the flow of imaginary money of fake real estate values and stock prices that nearly crashed the world economy in 2008, Disney quickly threw up this "thing" on the site of the abandoned and embarassing Eisnerian pet project, the Disney Institute. And Saratoga was born and expanded to the now ridiculous number of 1260 units by 2009.

The problem - as is seems - is that when they opened Saratoga, it comprised close to 40% of the total of DVC units (including Vero Beach and Hilton Head). And due to it's sprawling layout, lackluster facilities, and lack of attachment to a WDW gated park...it quickly became the least in demand of the DVC locations. Perhaps the point chart that placed it just shy of the more desirable Boardwalk, VWL, and Beach Club locations (and well above Old Key West...which is in almost the same location and provides similar experiences) also helped to get the snowball rolling.

So they had the largest property lacking widerange appeal...and they had somewhere in the area of 40,000 new members sold into it (guess who's one of them ) who did want to use the other, older, smaller, better located DVC units.

What does that create? logjam...as in reservation logjam. The real result is that it all but eliminated the flexibility for DVC members to choose where they can stay at many times...which is a fundamental benefit and still a hard stressed DVC selling point.

You can't add that many rooms at the "bottom" of the food chain without consequences. they effectively killed the waitlist and alot of the freedom of choice.

So that is the saratoga nightmare. Though the recent additions to DVC have probably dulled it...a little.

But i hope they learned their lesson. which is don't try to sell snakeoil to WDW's most consistent clientele. Because you end up with no demand for your pre-fab pastel painted horse buildings.




My thought was part of the area around river country could house an expansion to the wilderness lodge villas...which would make sense in alot of ways due to the prime location and the wilderness lodge villas being the smallest number of units ever constructed.

 

[bookwormde]

Follow the $, with a 300% gross margin and a major percentage of the bottom line DVC is where it is likely headed. AKL, THV and BLT will be virtually sold out in 2013 so how is Disney going to repalce the lost income if they do not.

My guess is that since they can not fit a big (or tall) resort there that it will be a seperate section of VWL like THV is to SSR with a much longer expiration reange (2065 is my guess) and a much higher point structure than VWL (more like BLT MK view).

With Disney anymore it is all about the $ so that is where I look. Just a guess of course.

bookwormde

 

[doconeill]

I'm hearing it from all sides now - I'm no longer sure this is just the Wilderness Junction dredged up from the deep. And of course no resort has been built recently that wasn't DVC. Yes, it is a cash cow - as long as they keep building so they can keep selling. Funny thing is Eisner wouldn't believe it would work, so didn't give it much backing.

But I'm not sure how it being at least a mostly-DVC resort, bringing in cash for the bottom line, is a bad thing. DVC resorts are available to the general public as well.

What is interesting is every time I hear the rumor, there is something about it that makes no sense. Even the DIS Unplugged mentioned it, but said that the "island which contained River Country" or something like that.

 

[patsal]

I wonder if the sources are messing up RC and Discovery Island...

 

[KYMickey]

I wonder if the sources are messing up RC and Discovery Island...

I highly doubt it. Discovery Island wouldn't be a very desirable location to build a resort on because of transportation considerations. Getting to and from it would be a nightmare and the travel times to any place except magic kingdom would be atrocious! If any area has the potential to become a new resort it's definitely RC. It could either be accessed from the WL side or from the campground. I would say it's actually a very desirable location.

 

[doconeill]

Discovery Island isn't big enough anyways. I think they just got confused and meant the area around RC between WL and FW. There is a huge swath of land there.

 

[TisBit]

What does that mean?

The Saratoga Effect

What does that create? logjam...as in reservation logjam. The real result is that it all but eliminated the flexibility for DVC members to choose where they can stay at many times...which is a fundamental benefit and still a hard stressed DVC selling point.

You can't add that many rooms at the "bottom" of the food chain without consequences. they effectively killed the waitlist and alot of the freedom of choice.

Or put another way, there are people out there that feel that Saratoga Springs killed DVC, true or not and will bash SSR regardless. In actuallity, what seems to be more and more the case is that the SSR bashing has reduced (for the record before SSR, Old Key West was the bashee) and many people are beginning to enjoy the resort. As for availability, again an easy scapegoat when someone doesn't get what they want. Truth is, I have traded out and stayed at most of the resorts at WDW, so being able to stay at other resorts being gone is a bit dramatic.

Long story short, DVC added a ton of members (40% more) and that created a feeding frenzy for all the resorts as people wanted to stay at as many resorts as they could, just to try them out. As the years have gone by with SSR owners, that has begun to subside as members have had that opportunity and are not as anxiously shopping around. The new shoppers are actually AKV and they have begun to receive some bashings since the opening of Kidani. The "new" kids will always be the outcast.

 

[doconeill]

And those snobby BLT owners that WON'T try other resorts, so we can try theirs...

There are a number of us who think SSR was devalued when PI closed...

 

[KYMickey]

And those snobby BLT owners that WON'T try other resorts, so we can try theirs...

There are a number of us who think SSR was devalued when PI closed...

+1 definitely!

 

[Snowgod]

There are a number of us who think SSR was devalued when PI closed...

+ 2