Remember When?

[RobDoc]

We purchased OKW in early June, 1993. At that time, only buildings 11-29 were open. Buildings 30 - 56 were under construction. Buildings 62-64, while in the original plans, would not be started for several years after the Commodore House, the original DVC sales center, was demolished and a new one opened at BWV (in the area where the current BWV models are located).

Here is a map of Conch Flats, from the Disney Vacation Club Resort. The name changed to Old Key in 1995 just before Vero Beach was ready to open.

Note the orientation of Miller Road - which was redesigned during the construction of Buildings 62-64. Building 62 now sits approximately where the Commodore House was located - next to Building 16 where the original OKW models were located. Compare the original the current layout of Miller Road.

Here are images of Commodore House during its demolition. The bare space in the foreground was part of the parking area for the sales center. Miller Road was later re-routed into that area from its original path to accommodate construction of Buildings 63 and 64 which sit near where the original Miller Road was located.

 

[RobDoc]

Here are the cash rates for OKW in 1993.

Here is the 1994-1995 point chart for what is now OKW. This chart is the same as the original point chart in 1991.

These points did not change until 1996 when DVC did its first point reallocation in 1996. This was first published in fall 1994 when the 1996 point charts were distributed to DVC members - mostly raising the weeknight points and lowering the weekends ... and only at OKW. The later re-allocations in 2010 and 2011 affected all DVC resorts - even the newly opened BLT Resort.


Points listed are for Studios, 1BRs, 2BRs, GVs ( for Sun-Thurs/Fri-Sat) for 1996:


Adventure: 8/20 , 16/40 , 22/54 , 36/88

Choice: 8/21 , 18/41 , 24/56 , 38/91

Dream: 10/24 , 20/48 , 27/64 , 45/107

Magic: 11/27 , 22/54 , 30/73 , 51/123

Premier: 15/36 , 30/73 , 41/100 , 66/162

Here are the 2014 OKW point charts:

 

[Simba's Mom]

Just curious, what's that dotted line next to building 29? And do you remember what points cost in 1993? One of our biggest regrets is that around then, we were in the MK one day and set up a tour there. Then we went back to our hotel, talked about it, and decided DVC wasn't for us (what were we thinking?) and so we cancelled the tour. So 9 years later, we paid $75/point.

 

[RobDoc]

Notice the second version of the DVC logo - with 3 mountains. The original version also included a red ship. The third version - circa 1996 was trimmed down to only 2 mountains - reportedly the removed mountain was used during construction of BWV as landfill .

 

[RobDoc]

Just curious, what's that dotted line next to building 29? And do you remember what points cost in 1993? One of our biggest regrets is that around then, we were in the MK one day and set up a tour there. Then we went back to our hotel, talked about it, and decided DVC wasn't for us (what were we thinking?) and so we cancelled the tour. So 9 years later, we paid $75/point.

The dotted line represents the completed area of the resort that fall. There were construction barriers across Peninsular Road just past Building 29. Old Turtle Pond and South Point would not open for a number of months into 1994.

We paid $56 per point in June, 1993 and a few years later picked up a resale at $50 per point and another at $58 (which was sold several years ago. )

 

[RobDoc]

 

[RobDoc]

 

[RobDoc]

On our first DVC stay in October, 1993 this was our Resort ID. It was not a room key - at that time the resorts were using those old hard plastic Ving cards to open the door locks. This was just an ID to show you were staying onsite.

At this time, DVC was still offering free park admission for DVC stays. We received one admission for each night of the stay for guests using DVC points (if I remember correctly, the number of admissions was on-half the occupancy of the villa with Studios/1BRs getting 2 passes, 2BRs getting 4 passes and GV getting 6 passes). You could opt to begin the pass on your day of arrival OR your departure date with the total not to exceed the number of nights of the stay. This purchase perk was also extended to early buyers at VB, but ended once HH and BWV began sales. The free admissions were good thru the end of 1999, with a bit of controversy when DVC wanted to disallow the passes for reservations made using points borrowed from the 2000 Use Year - this was resolved by allowing the free passes for all OKW reservations through 12/31/99 whether using 1999 or 2000 points.

We started our first free DVC admission passes on our arrival day and they were valid through the evening before our departure. The dates of that trip were Oct. 3 - Oct. 8, 1993 - which I'm pretty sure was a Sunday thru Thursday stay.

 

[Breyean]

We also bought in June 1993. Did you get the photo afterward of your family in the hot air balloon surrounded by Disney characters?

LOVED the free passes. Our son was young then, so we took the two free DVC tickets and bought him a child's AP for a few years, since back then there was, I believe, a lower price on that from the adult price.

I also seem to recall after AK was opened a controversy over whether the free DVC passes were good there. I think those couple of years we only visited once or twice, so I don't remember the details.

 

[jekjones1558]

Fun trip down memory lane. Thanks, Doc!

 

[RobDoc]

We also bought in June 1993. Did you get the photo afterward of your family in the hot air balloon surrounded by Disney characters?

LOVED the free passes. Our son was young then, so we took the two free DVC tickets and bought him a child's AP for a few years, since back then there was, I believe, a lower price on that from the adult price.

I also seem to recall after AK was opened a controversy over whether the free DVC passes were good there. I think those couple of years we only visited once or twice, so I don't remember the details.

Yes ... and we still have that balloon photo. The free pass program was good at MK, EPCOT and DHS as they were the only Disney parks when the pass program was being used as a sales promotion. AK was excluded and was not accessible to DVC members when it opened on Earth Day in April, 1999. I was told that the agreement between DVD and the Theme Parks division cost DVD about $35 for each admission for that "free" promotion (still below the cost of admission at that time).

We were staying at OKW in September, 1999 when Hurricane Floyd was projected to go through the Orlando area. Disney proactively closed the parks and prepared for the worst when Floyd turned north before hitting the coast around Daytona. Since they had already announced that the parks were closed that day and WDW now had LOTS of onsite guests with nothing to do, they provided Disney transport and free AK access to all onsite guests - so we were able to enjoy a few hours at AK that day without the need to purchase admission.

 

[com_op_2000]

We bought originally in June of '93.
We knew we would buy in and soon as we heard of DVC, but we were leary due to having been burnt by a previous time share purchase.
We were staying onsite at DL-AB (Currently PO-RS)v and took the tour. Went home, discussed, and DW bought it for me for a birthday gift.
Got the photo of us in the balloon.

 

[DvcDoc]

What a great walk through the early days of DVC! Thanks for sharing it with us Doc!
Joe

 

[DebbieB]

Interesting. I thought the split to standard/preferred was shortly after BWV opening in 1996. This was 1998 but the wording on the bottom mentions preferred views, was there another page? I bought in 1999 and I know it was split then.

 

[RobDoc]

Interesting. I thought the split to standard/preferred was shortly after BWV opening in 1996. This was 1998 but the wording on the bottom mentions preferred views, was there another page? I bought in 1999 and I know it was split then.

I think you are correct - the standard/preferred was changed very early on at BWV. I will need to do some more digging to see if I have more squirreled away that would explain the lack of Standard points mentioned in these BWV point charts. There must be another page for the Statndard View villas.

Here is the 1999 BWV Point Chart:

 

[AnnaS]

Thanks Doc. Enjoying looking at the early days. We bought OKW in 2000 at $67 per point. They were offering OKW since bldgs 62 - 64 were finished and BWVs. We went with OKW (toured at the BW). They were also building WLVs then.

Wish we had toured and bought sooner. We had no clue a "timeshare" option was available in Disney from our few trips there. They were so low key. I had no idea until we were ready to go down again and one of my friends told me she had just bought. So of course, I approached them the rest is history

 

[Simba's Mom]

Speaking of split views, back to OKW. In what year did they make HH a booking category? I know it was after 2002, since that's when we bought and there was just one overall category. Was it around 2008?
And as far as BWV is concerned, in what year did they split "preferred view" into 2 categories, so that you could specifically book Boardwalk view? I'm thinking that that wasn't long after we bought in 2002. I remember when we joined, reading on the boards from people who were "lucky" or "unlucky" in getting (or not) the boardwalk view. However, I first stayed there in late 2003 and I can't remember if the views were split by then.

 

[DebbieB]

Speaking of split views, back to OKW. In what year did they make HH a booking category? I know it was after 2002, since that's when we bought and there was just one overall category. Was it around 2008?
And as far as BWV is concerned, in what year did they split "preferred view" into 2 categories, so that you could specifically book Boardwalk view? I'm thinking that that wasn't long after we bought in 2002. I remember when we joined, reading on the boards from people who were "lucky" or "unlucky" in getting (or not) the boardwalk view. However, I first stayed there in late 2003 and I can't remember if the views were split by then.

I think the split for boardwalk view was sometime in 2003.