OKW pool slide

[nisiemouse]

Simba's mom: Glad you made it safely back. You started quite a thread. I also hope they start soon. We will be there May 30.
Thanks for updating us.

 

[Dancind]

OK, Littlestar, that was funny. In the future, there will probably be posts complaining about pool crashers at OKW, won't that be interesting? We've already heard that it gets a lot of use from non-guests, but it still wasn't ever crowded. Diana

 

[dianeschlicht]

Originally posted by Simba's Mom
Whew, now I'm back to using FREE Internet!

Someone at the meeting suggested later that this might be one of DVC's ways of softening the blow when they discontinue the pool-hopping priveleges. At least the OKW members will have access to a pool slide when they can no longer pool-hop. I was just concerned about when this enhancement will take place, weather-wise. I hope they're planning on doing this very soon, like in January when the weather's often too cold to swim anyways. I'd hate to see the OKW main pool down in the hot weather (especially in May, when we'll be there).

Sorry for the misunderstanding about $10 for 15 minutes. That's what they charged (when I ran out after the meeting) in the Boardwalk Business Center across the hall.

LOL! You had all of us guessing about the $10 comment!

I think everyone is right that this is the signal of the end of pool hopping. It wont effect me, since I am not much of a pool person anyway. I love the hot tubs at the quiet pools.

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

Originally posted by dianeschlicht
I love the hot tubs at the quiet pools.

 

[dianeschlicht]

LOL, Is that supposed to be me drowning?

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

Originally posted by dianeschlicht
LOL, Is that supposed to be me drowning?

No........... this is drowning

.

 

[dianeschlicht]

That's what would happen to me if I went down the slide at ANY DVC resort, much less OKW! Can you tell I don't swim? That's why the slide means nothing to me.

 

[tjkraz]

Originally posted by Desperado
I think one of the reasons they didn't ask for a vote (at least one we know about, they certainly could have conducted multiple surveys we didn't hear about) is because this is a major step toward the elimination of pool hopping. We've already seen this with SAB and are hearing it about SSR.

Even if they prohibited pool hopping at SSR, I don't see that as any great reason to justify paying thousands for construction of a slide.

They had to know that if it was put to a vote, there was a high likelihood of failure. Why would DVC choose to pay tens (hundreds?) of thousands for a resort amenity if they knew they could pawn-off the cost on the owners? This certainly isn't some magnanimous gesture on DVC's part to absorb the costs themselves.

Of course they could be using the proceeds of the overpriced member gathering next May to fund the project, but that's another thread altogether.

 

[pmcpmc]

its because so many Okw points are being offered for resale.
Disney can only profit from ROFR if people are willing to buy OKW in large numbers.
When you look at the public records in Orlando you don't notice any being registered for Okw like the hundreds you see for BWV,BCV and a few at VWL.

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

Originally posted by tjkraz
Of course they could be using the proceeds of the overpriced member gathering next May to fund the project...

 

[PamOKW]

Simba'sMom -- See what you started. Thanks so much for taking the time and spending the money to give us the "breaking news". Do you recall if they mentioned anything about OKW owing additional real estate taxes for 2003? This seems to have been mentioned in the BWV meeting and I was wondering if we should expect the same.

 

[DeeP]

Originally posted by tjkraz
They had to know that if it was put to a vote, there was a high likelihood of failure. Why would DVC choose to pay tens (hundreds?) of thousands for a resort amenity if they knew they could pawn-off the cost on the owners? This certainly isn't some magnanimous gesture on DVC's part to absorb the costs themselves.

Just curious but, why do you make this sound like it is some horrible, devious plan hatched up by Disney to do something terrible to the resort? Does the thought that maybe Disney sees this as a good thing, as adding or enhancing the resort, even seem remotely possible to you?

 

[Desperado]

Originally posted by tjkraz
Even if they prohibited pool hopping at SSR, I don't see that as any great reason to justify paying thousands for construction of a slide.

They had to know that if it was put to a vote, there was a high likelihood of failure. Why would DVC choose to pay tens (hundreds?) of thousands for a resort amenity if they knew they could pawn-off the cost on the owners? This certainly isn't some magnanimous gesture on DVC's part to absorb the costs themselves.

Of course they could be using the proceeds of the overpriced member gathering next May to fund the project, but that's another thread altogether.

The polls on this forum certainly don't support you position.

It's not just pool hopping at SSR, it will probably be pool hopping anywhere for any DVC member. Try to pay attention.

 

[Desperado]

Originally posted by DeeP
Just curious but, why do you make this sound like it is some horrible, devious plan hatched up by Disney to do something terrible to the resort? Does the thought that maybe Disney sees this as a good thing, as adding or enhancing the resort, even seem remotely possible to you?

Great point, I get really tired of the unjustified Disney cynicism by people who have not studied or are certainly not well read on disney management practices.

It's a slide. Those promoting "the sky is falling scenario" and huge due increases are not being honest in thier assessments of the impact. Those huge increases are not reflected in the calculatins presented above.

 

[tjkraz]

Originally posted by pmcpmc
its because so many Okw points are being offered for resale.

That's actually not a bad point. However, I was always under the impression that there wasn't a whole lot of money to be made in DVC's reselling of contracts. I know that if they happen to be priced at a particular, below market level, DVC will exercise ROFR and turn a profit. But you're still back to the old supply and demand argument. You can't change the fact that OKW is 12 years old. A lot of owners have had life-changing experiences since they first bought, which may be prompting them to sell. And when you combine that with the fact that it's such a large resort, there are going to be a lot of resales available.

Regardless of amenities added, as long as there are a lot of resales, the price won't begin to increase. DVC could begin to invoke ROFR at a higher price level, but they would run the risk of getting stuck with a large inventory of points if people don't begin buying.

My own personal opinion is that they are trying to drive up interest in OKW among the entire DVC community. Some people are clearly alienated by the lack of this one amenity, and perhaps it will help address some of those emotions. But I think that if they believed that 51% of OKW owners would have voted for the addition, they certainly would have called for a vote before footing the bill themselves.

 

[WDWDaisy]

Originally posted by PamOKW
Simba'sMom -- See what you started. Thanks so much for taking the time and spending the money to give us the "breaking news". Do you recall if they mentioned anything about OKW owing additional real estate taxes for 2003? This seems to have been mentioned in the BWV meeting and I was wondering if we should expect the same.

I will take this one, Yes they est. the Taxes for '03 by a little. I think they said it was going to be about .035 per point. To me this is not a little amount but the assest value of OKW came in higher then they had planed.

 

[RobDoc]

Originally posted by Desperado
The polls on this forum certainly don't support you position.
It's not just pool hopping at SSR, it will probably be pool hopping anywhere for any DVC member. Try to pay attention.

I'm not sure which polls are referred to with this comment. The poll asking how OKW owners would have voted currently shows 44% of those responding would have voted for a slide and 56% would have voted against. This is assuming that only OKW owners have voted in this poll.

The other poll didn't even ask for only OKW owners to vote- so there is again no way to know what OKW owners woukd prefer from that poll. Prior polls on this forum have been in the 60% range against a slide and the survey done by DVC (that survey was sent only to OKW owners) was even higher against- and that result was announced by DVC to the membership.

Perhaps others should "try to pay attention" .

 

[tjkraz]

Originally posted by DeeP
Just curious but, why do you make this sound like it is some horrible, devious plan hatched up by Disney to do something terrible to the resort? Does the thought that maybe Disney sees this as a good thing, as adding or enhancing the resort, even seem remotely possible to you?

Of course it's possible. But to assert that DVC would willingly pay the thousands of dollars it's going to cost for the expansion if they had other funding avenues available is a bit ludicrous. If they knew they could accomplish the same goal by allowing owners to pay for it, they certainly would have gone that route.

I don't consider myself a die hard Disney cynic, but they just don't throw money around without good reason. This entire board is up in arms about the $300 being charged for the member gathering in May, which most consider $100-150 more than the true value of the event. So it's hard for me to buy into the fact that DVC/WDW is just being generous in this case.

Originally posted by Desperado
The polls on this forum certainly don't support you position.

It's not just pool hopping at SSR, it will probably be pool hopping anywhere for any DVC member. Try to pay attention.

Actually you might want to check this poll:

http://www.disboards.com/poll.php?s=&action=showresults&pollid=3152

Last time I checked it (about 2 mins ago), 91 OKW owners had voted. Of those, 40 said they were infavor of the expansion, while 51 said that they either didn't like the idea or will live with it but would have voted against. By my math, that means 56% of OKW owners would have voted against the expansion.

With regard to pool hopping, of course I was paying attention to the discussion. My point was that pool hopping is a "perk" that costs DVC nothing to offer to its members. It is financially irresponsible of them to use the line of reasoning that they are going to spend thousands of DVC dollars to expand the OKW pool amenities simply because they want to discontinue pool hopping. The elimination of pool hopping may be a by-product of this decision, but there's no way it is the driving force behind it.

 

[pmcpmc]

Originally posted by tjkraz
That's actually not a bad point. However, I was always under the impression that there wasn't a whole lot of money to be made in DVC's reselling of contracts. I know that if they happen to be priced at a particular, below market level, DVC will exercise ROFR and turn a profit. But you're still back to the old supply and demand argument. You can't change the fact that OKW is 12 years old. A lot of owners have had life-changing experiences since they first bought, which may be prompting them to sell. And when you combine that with the fact that it's such a large resort, there are going to be a lot of resales available.

Regardless of amenities added, as long as there are a lot of resales, the price won't begin to increase. DVC could begin to invoke ROFR at a higher price level, but they would run the risk of getting stuck with a large inventory of points if people don't begin buying.

My own personal opinion is that they are trying to drive up interest in OKW among the entire DVC community. Some people are clearly alienated by the lack of this one amenity, and perhaps it will help address some of those emotions. But I think that if they believed that 51% of OKW owners would have voted for the addition, they certainly would have called for a vote before footing the bill themselves.

The point I was making agrees with yours .
The need to increase interest in Okw.
A full Dvc resort area at all times gives large add on value in other things like food entertainmentetc.
I remember when I went to Okw when my kids were younger that there were character breakfasts.
The fact that this stopped may have been to do with the aging users(me included,before I offend the sensitive)

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Originally posted by tjkraz
But I think that if they believed that 51% of OKW owners would have voted for the addition, they certainly would have called for a vote before footing the bill themselves.

That's an excellent point.

Mr. Desperado likes to cite a poll as evidence that the majority of OKW owners now support a slide. But if you look at the poll of OKW owners on this board, you'll see that's not the case.

As of a few minutes ago, the numbers in Companion Pool Poll -- OKW Only are:

• I'm so excited. I've been wanting this for a long time: 40 (31.50%)
• I did not want a slide before and I am unhappy about the announcement: 18 (14.17%)
• I would not have voted for a slide but I'll live with it: 33 (25.98%)
• Not An OKW Owner but I'd like to see the results: 36 (28.35%)
• Total: 127 votes (100%)

Let's make those numbers more meaningful by eliminating the 4th (non-voting) choice and categorizing the three choices from which OKW owners made their selections:

• Would have voted FOR slide -- I'm so excited. I've been wanting this for a long time: 40 (43.96%)
• Would have voted AGAINST slide -- I did not want a slide before and I am unhappy about the announcement: 18 (19.78%)
• Would have voted AGAINST slide -- I would not have voted for a slide but I'll live with it: 33 (36.26%)
• Total: 91 votes (100%)

So there you have it:

• 43.96% FOR
• 56.04% AGAINST

Sure, it's not a scientific poll. And it doesn't indicate a landslide against the slide.

Mr. Desperado wrote, "The polls on this forum certainly don't support you position" -- when, in fact, this poll actually does support the statements made by tjkraz.

Please do not consider this an attack on Mr. Desperado, but merely a quick analysis of the poll numbers, and an attempt to clear up any misperceptions.