NEW VGF Building

[davidl81]

20K won’t even buy the bedroom furniture, let along build the kitchenette, redo the floor, or gut and redo the bathroom. Remember this is all industrial stuff built for durability against destructive children while still looking super-premium. Also Disney is terrible at controlling construction costs and everything always costs 2X what it should. $200K+ per room is probably more realistic.

I agree that 20k per room is not close. Also one has to remember how this works in an accounting world. DVD has to actually purchase the building from the resort side of the business (or whatever entity owns it). That building has a book value of some sort with an initial capital cost, deprecation factored into etc. While taken as a whole there could be a total infusion of cash to the parks division of Disney, the profit % this will generate is not quite as great as many people on here are saying.

 

[davidl81]

I don’t see how they can make it a DVC studio without moving a wall. So yes. Even if they didn’t, they’re closing down the whole building, so they can work very quickly.
From the SSR thread:

I doubt they tear out walls. A total rebuild like that would take a lot more time. I would think rooms stay the same layout wise some minor plumbing work done to add a sink etc. But it will be a total interior refurbishment. New paint, tile, appliances, bath fixtures etc. The rooms will look brand new when done, but not physically any smaller.

 

[davidl81]

A Murphy bed and adding some type of kitchenette is what I see being done.

Why would they redo and gut the rooms when a hard goods refrub is 7 years out for VGF? Wouldn't they want the whole resort on the same timing?

Maybe I am off with 7 years but it hasn't had a hard goods refresh has it?

They are not going to sell a “new” DVC resort of old hotel rooms by just adding a Murphy bed and a microwave. These rooms will get fully gutted and rebuilt. I don’t think the actual walls will get knocked down etc, but everything will be brand new inside the building. Carpet, fixtures, bathroom etc. This is Disney’s flagship resort, they won’t skimp out on it.

 

[JETSDAD]

They are not going to sell a “new” DVC resort of old hotel rooms by just adding a Murphy bed and a microwave. These rooms will get fully gutted and rebuilt. I don’t think the actual walls will get knocked down etc, but everything will be brand new inside the building. Carpet, fixtures, bathroom etc. This is Disney’s flagship resort, they won’t skimp out on it.

That's going to be an extremely tight timeline to do 200 rooms to that extent starting in the spring for summer occupancy.

 

[davidl81]

That's going to be an extremely tight timeline to do 200 rooms to that extent starting in the spring for summer occupancy.

They have 12-14 months (depending on opening date). A lot of time to get this done. Also weather won't play a factor since this is all interior work.

Has anyone been by VGF lately? I would not be shocked if some of this has started or is getting prepped to start.

 

[JETSDAD]

They have 12-14 months (depending on opening date). A lot of time to get this done. Also weather won't play a factor since this is all interior work.

Has anyone been by VGF lately? I would not be shocked if some of this has started or is getting prepped to start.

Starting next spring, we plan to convert Big Pine Key (Building 9) at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa into approximately 200 Resort Studios, each accommodating up to five people. Featuring the Victorian elegance and charm of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, these new Villas will offer Members luxury accommodations and amenities, with some Villas boasting stunning views of Bay Lake and Magic Kingdom. Projected to open in summer 2022, these new Villas are an expansion of The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and will be a part of its current condominium association.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

That's going to be an extremely tight timeline to do 200 rooms to that extent starting in the spring for summer occupancy.

It could be a March 20th start and open Sept 21st and still fall in that timeframe. 6 months.

 

[JETSDAD]

It could be a March 20th start and open Sept 21st and still fall in that timeframe. 6 months.

Even giving it from the first day of spring to the last day of summer will be tight. You're talking about gutting the whole building, adding new plumbing, redoing not only 200 rooms but the lobby, hallways, etc. Not saying it's impossible just that Disney doesn't generally work too quickly. I'm predicting they don't do that sort of project and that there won't be full kitchenettes added.

 

[Donna M]

It will be interesting if they do include the kitchenettes that we are used to. If they are only resort studios and not deluxe studios, maybe they will have a different setup. I don´t know how you could get less than what they already have.

I believe we will see that new building set up just like all the studios.

 

[FinallyFL]

Perhaps a kitchentte like in the Riveria Tower Studios which would remove the need for plumbing changes.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Even giving it from the first day of spring to the last day of summer will be tight. You're talking about gutting the whole building, adding new plumbing, redoing not only 200 rooms but the lobby, hallways, etc. Not saying it's impossible just that Disney doesn't generally work too quickly. I'm predicting they don't do that sort of project and that there won't be full kitchenettes added.

Agreed it would be FAST. If they leave the bathroom layout like it is and just pop in a small kitchenette the plumbing wouldn't seem to require too much. Flooring, tile, paint and move in some furniture. Either they plan to still be working on parts of the building or it isn't going to be changing the room design much at all.

 

[RanDIZ]

I’ve heard ideas are Disney Springs or Animal Kingdom, with Disney Springs being slightly more plausible. DS would give a jump to SSR and OKW desirability; and AKL would probably go through the roof. The only complaint I ever hear about AKL is transportation, so if that goes away, look out! Plus, all low point charts at all these resorts.

I own at AKV so I would definitely welcome a skyliner. But with AKV already so close to AK, I don’t see it ever happening solely on this level. Now if the goal was to jump from AKV to AK to Coronado to HS, I could see the major benefit it would serve. We can only hope.

 

[Nabas]

Starting next spring, we plan to convert Big Pine Key (Building 9) at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa into approximately 200 Resort Studios, each accommodating up to five people. Featuring the Victorian elegance and charm of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, these new Villas will offer Members luxury accommodations and amenities, with some Villas boasting stunning views of Bay Lake and Magic Kingdom. Projected to open in summer 2022, these new Villas are an expansion of The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and will be a part of its current condominium association.

Right, so somewhere between 3 to 6 months for 200 rooms.

Having peeked in during our last PVB stay, they seemed to be gutting Poly rooms down to studs, and presumably this was for most (all?) of the 8 (?) Poly long houses. This started last summer and is supposed to finish this summer, roughly 12 months.

So it seems they could do a lot of work on one Grand Floridian building in 3-6 months.

Originally I assumed it was going to be a minimalist approach, especially since they described these as "Resort Studios", rather than "Deluxe Studios".

I now think I'm overanalyzing this. My current guess is that, with 200 rooms and 3-6 months, Disney can give these the usual DVC Studio treatment.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

They have 12-14 months (depending on opening date). A lot of time to get this done. Also weather won't play a factor since this is all interior work.

Has anyone been by VGF lately? I would not be shocked if some of this has started or is getting prepped to start.

Was there the end of April. No construction going on.

 

[Nabas]

Has anyone been by VGF lately? I would not be shocked if some of this has started or is getting prepped to start.

We left VGF on May 19. No construction at that time.

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

I imagine that will be true at the new Disneyland DVC too. They’re taking a big swing with it!

Right? Of the 300 rooms at Disneyland Tower, they only plan for like 20 1-bedrooms and 20 2-bedrooms.
I did my due diligence and gave feedback. In response, they said
"In determining what to build, we spend multiple hours studying overall member behavior at Disneyland which helped inform us.". Well.. ok but I don't think that's truly reflective of what it will be like when there are many more
East coast DVC owners at Disneyland. I know Disneyland isn't really a week long pair of parks for people - it's more
2-4 days - but while a lot of studios will be great I think the amount of 1's and 2's they planned is too few.
Sorry for the off topic comment - shutting up now . And yes - I'm all caught up with 30 pages of reading now!

I'm of the "VGF was only $255 direct because it was such a small resort / own where you want to stay / it was sold out". Adding so many units and being actively on sale, I'm betting more like $220. I just don't see THAT many people buying at that higher price but we shall see! Yes possibly not resale restrictions like Riviera which makes it more appealing but... 6 years less contract length partially negates that.

Like many people... we had a PLAN in our heads of our next DVC purchase (Disneyland Tower for us) but now we have to consider GF cuz location location location. Split stay with GF and RIV (where we own along with VGC) would be pretty awesome and I do love 1 bedrooms which will be even harder to get now at 7 months if we don't own there. Though the likely size of those new studios... I might be just fine with that for 2-3 nights!

 

[sethschroeder]

Regardless of what they do could they actually shift points on the resort room categories?

What I mean by this is add points to the resort and increase the point requirement of the existing studios.

They are all "studios".

So instead of have a 175 point standard view and 200 point lake view. Those become 190 and 210 while the new rooms become 180 for a week in the studio.

Didn't something similar happen at SSR and tree house are not even the same room size.

 

[CastAStone]

Regardless of what they do could they actually shift points on the resort room categories?

What I mean by this is add points to the resort and increase the point requirement of the existing studios.

They are all "studios".

So instead of have a 175 point standard view and 200 point lake view. Those become 190 and 210 while the new rooms become 180 for a week in the studio.

Didn't something similar happen at SSR and tree house are not even the same room size.

I don’t see why not. Like, they wouldn’t do that right away, but I would think that they could. I don’t know if anyone has kept careful track of the Jambo-Kidani split, but it’s not hard to imagine that occurring to some degree organically just trying to get the charts to work.

 

[CastAStone]

Regardless of what they do could they actually shift points on the resort room categories?

What I mean by this is add points to the resort and increase the point requirement of the existing studios.

They are all "studios".

So instead of have a 175 point standard view and 200 point lake view. Those become 190 and 210 while the new rooms become 180 for a week in the studio.

Didn't something similar happen at SSR and tree house are not even the same room size.

One more thought: When they split Saratoga springs into standard and preferred, they proved they could move points around between units.

 

[M:SpilotISTC12]

One more thought: When they split Saratoga springs into standard and preferred, they proved they could move points around between units.

This would be great at VGF! If it means that there is a smaller amount of rooms that are a little more affordable points wise, I would very interested! It would definitely make me prefer it to the Poly. I'm a fan of smaller point charts so if there is another resort that is a little more point friendly than I'm game!