Riviera question

[sky2823]

I see it the other way, people will ride and wait in line to do so. If Disney builds it, they will come. We wait in line in the heat for an hour for a 4 minute park attraction, people will ride the gondolas.

Bill

There is definitely something to be said about the Disney Magic. I hope you are correct.

 

[DenLo]

I see it the other way, people will ride and wait in line to do so. If Disney builds it, they will come. We wait in line in the heat for an hour for a 4 minute park attraction, people will ride the gondolas.

Bill

I have been thinking for a while that Disney believes this too and it is why they instituted the pay if you park overnight at another resort. Soon they will ask you to pay to park if you go to a resort that has a Skyliner station, because I expect people not staying at a Disney resort will take advantage of the free parking at resorts to board the Skyliner to get to a park.

 

[Disney mac]

Coronado will only have buses. And nobody cared that you rode a bus and value or moderate guest rode the same bus. Or is that the problem, that the resorts might share the same gondola. Really? I hope that isn't true as it sounds like a class system.

Oops. I was wrong. Looking again it will connect AoA and Pop century. This may make it even worse to be have to have value hotels and a moderate with it. Perception is weird reality and I think trying to convince dvc buyers to buy with values and a moderate will be a tough sell. I think this will make Riviera fall to the bottom of the dvc 7 month food chain, unless the amenities and rooms are incredible.

 

[Ben E N]

Your order of resorts has me thinking. It’s going to be pretty tough to promote Riviera when the location and transportation won’t be that different than the Carribean Beach it Coronado (which is also getting that new 500 room tower). But the order you have listed is also close to the order of transportation to the parks too. Interesting.
My biggest concern is the ability to be able to book a room at 6-7 months. I’d love to see how many points are starting to get wasted due to lack of ability.

I'm confused about your concern. Do you think people will be unable to get into Riviera at 7 months, or that people will pay full, direct price at a new resort just so that they can hop over to other resorts at 7 months? If it is the latter, that's a pretty silly concern when people could just buy resale for half the price, or buy Aulani points using the big incentive instead of the "hot" new resort at WDW.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Coronado will only have buses. And nobody cared that you rode a bus and value or moderate guest rode the same bus. Or is that the problem, that the resorts might share the same gondola. Really? I hope that isn't true as it sounds like a class system.

Coronado is not going to be DVC.

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

Your order of resorts has me thinking. It’s going to be pretty tough to promote Riviera when the location and transportation won’t be that different than the Carribean Beach it Coronado (which is also getting that new 500 room tower). But the order you have listed is also close to the order of transportation to the parks too. Interesting.
My biggest concern is the ability to be able to book a room at 6-7 months. I’d love to see how many points are starting to get wasted due to lack of ability.

Yeah, location/transportation are the biggest factors IMO in terms of demand, then amenities and point costs. Size of the resort may make a difference as well. You can see the monorail resorts are at the top, then the Epcot resorts, then AKV, then the other resorts. For some reason, the boat system doesn't seem to add much value vs buses (see BRV). I guess people just see it as a bus on the water, lol. We'll see what happens with CCV, it will test that theory a bit, but I'm guessing ultimately it will not be as popular as the Epcot resorts.

This is why I think the Riviera will be in the middle grouping with the Epcot resorts, above AKV.

Coronado will only have buses. And nobody cared that you rode a bus and value or moderate guest rode the same bus. Or is that the problem, that the resorts might share the same gondola. Really? I hope that isn't true as it sounds like a class system.

I could see a renter looking to rent Riviera say to themselves "why should I pay to rent at Riviera when I could stay at AoA or Pop century and use the same gondola?" Not sure if it would have a huge impact, but it could have some.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I could see a renter looking to rent Riviera

I don't think rental demand is something that matters so much. That said, DVC members themselves can be dreadful snobs about "the club."

 

[Disney mac]

I'm confused about your concern. Do you think people will be unable to get into Riviera at 7 months, or that people will pay full, direct price at a new resort just so that they can hop over to other resorts at 7 months? If it is the latter, that's a pretty silly concern when people could just buy resale for half the price, or buy Aulani points using the big incentive instead of the "hot" new resort at WDW.

I don’t think it will be tough to get riviera at 5 months let alone 7. I don’t see the resort. Being very high in demand at all. The boats imo at BRV don’t add much value due to the ability to be shut down during weather, and with all the bus cutbacks the last few years it’s tough to get home to that resort. So yes, I think the further flooding of the market will make it tough to get rooms. Just wondering if anyone else felt that way or just the feeling I had being there last week.

 

[Ben E N]

I don’t think it will be tough to get riviera at 5 months let alone 7. I don’t see the resort. Being very high in demand at all. The boats imo at BRV don’t add much value due to the ability to be shut down during weather, and with all the bus cutbacks the last few years it’s tough to get home to that resort. So yes, I think the further flooding of the market will make it tough to get rooms. Just wondering if anyone else felt that way or just the feeling I had being there last week.

I don't think it will be as bad as your fear. People who plan to buy points just for resort hopping but them resale at SSR. They would be fools to pay full direct price to do so. Even when they do change at 7 months, though, SSR and OKW people will happily fill in those rooms, assuming the point cost is not too extreme. The location is more convenient to two big name parks, and the rooms are newer than in those two resorts. That's without even including all the people who bought Aulani just to stay in WDW.

 

[southerngirl528]

But the order you have listed is also close to the order of transportation to the parks too.

I respectfully disagree about OKW being the worst for transportation at WDW. I've owned there 25 years and have a busload (couldn't resist!) of experience with OKW transportation. OKW buses do not stop at any other resorts, just their own internal bus stops. Lots of other resorts buses will make at least one other resort stop. I've stayed twice at VGF, which I LOVE, but found the bus system there to be just plain awful. For one, it is quite a hike from the villas over to the far side of the porte-cochere at the GF, and the wait for buses was unbelievably long during our stays. And after waiting all that time, THEN the danged bus stopped at the Poly as well! Yikes. And yikes. Yes, I do love the monorail option at VGF.

 

[zavandor]

During the first 2 years of operations availability at Riviera will evaporate in seconds, due to SWL. At that point if a pattern is established, it may be hard to change.

 

[Dean]

I respectfully disagree about OKW being the worst for transportation at WDW. I've owned there 25 years and have a busload (couldn't resist!) of experience with OKW transportation. OKW buses do not stop at any other resorts, just their own internal bus stops. Lots of other resorts buses will make at least one other resort stop. I've stayed twice at VGF, which I LOVE, but found the bus system there to be just plain awful. For one, it is quite a hike from the villas over to the far side of the porte-cochere at the GF, and the wait for buses was unbelievably long during our stays. And after waiting all that time, THEN the danged bus stopped at the Poly as well! Yikes. And yikes. Yes, I do love the monorail option at VGF.

I think it depends on how you use it. For getting to the parks it's likely better than same but if you include getting around the resort itself, I think it's clearly the most challenging. OKW is the ONLY resort I wouldn't do without a car.

 

[Firepath]

It was before my time, but weren't the "gondolas" that went across Magic Kingdom open and without AC?
Did anyone ever die on them (from the heat)?

 

[Ben E N]

It was before my time, but weren't the "gondolas" that went across Magic Kingdom open and without AC?
Did anyone ever die on them (from the heat)?

Yes they were open and without AC. Because they were open it is pretty much impossible for anyone to die from the heat, unless they had other health issues that would cause them to also die from the heat just standing around on the ground. Those rides were also pretty short (fantasyland to tomorrowland or so) compared to a hotel to Hollywood Studios.

 

[southerngirl528]

I think it depends on how you use it. For getting to the parks it's likely better than same but if you include getting around the resort itself, I think it's clearly the most challenging. OKW is the ONLY resort I wouldn't do without a car.

I certainly agree with your first sentence here. As for the other, for us, we usually request Turtle Pond as I like to be AWAY from HH. And we just hop on the first bus, no matter where it's heading, because it is going to make its last stop at HH before leaving for whichever park. And of course there's the internal bus. Though I usually did have a car, we didn't have it to use within OKW. Parking is too tough up at HH anyway IMO.

It was before my time, but weren't the "gondolas" that went across Magic Kingdom open and without AC?
Did anyone ever die on them (from the heat)?

You are correct, Firepath. But those were tiny holding no more than 3 or 4 people. The new Skyliners look to hold a decent number of folks. Don't think they would be practical if they did not. But you make a good point.

 

[TCRAIG]

It was before my time, but weren't the "gondolas" that went across Magic Kingdom open and without AC?
Did anyone ever die on them (from the heat)?

Yup and Nope!

 

[skier_pete]

As has been said - It's unlikely Disney did not consider that it is hot or stormy in Florida. These gondolas are built to run up the side of mountains in snowstorms. People act like they are going to be hugely high up in the air, but they will likely run below the tops of the treelines. I suspect they will rarely shut down, even for the afternoon deluges. For MAJOR storms (hurricanes etc.) yes they'll shut them down, and have some alternate plan to transport people.

But the AC was not removed due to cost - simply because it is impractical to run an AC unit on each individual cabin. There are lots of claims that the ventilation systems will keep the cabins reasonably cool - or at least as reasonably cool as the monorail when it is full of hot sweaty people. (I.E. not that cool.)

 

[skier_pete]

Based on resales prices (from most to least expensive) it goes VGF, Poly, BLT/BCV, BWV, AKV, SSR/BRV, OKW. That's pretty close to the pecking order in terms of difficulty booking, though it depends on which room you want. It will depend on the amenities and point charts as well, but I think Riveria will probably end up near BWV or slightly below in popularity would be my guess.

7 month booking window during peak DVC seasons will pretty much always get worse as they keep adding more DVC resorts IMO, especially at the upper end. There's a chance it could improve peak season availability in SSR/OKW/AKV, but I don't think it will.

Your order of resorts has me thinking. It’s going to be pretty tough to promote Riviera when the location and transportation won’t be that different than the Carribean Beach it Coronado (which is also getting that new 500 room tower). But the order you have listed is also close to the order of transportation to the parks too. Interesting.

Disney is claiming (what little they are talking about) that Riviera with be a "flagship" DVC property - in other words - luxurious at a high level. They will market the
"less than 5 minute" ride to Epcot and "Less than 10 minute" to DHS, the theme park views of fireworks in TWO parks (Epcot and DHS). With Star Wars land, easy access to DHS will become a much bigger thing.

It will undoubtably have it's own bus that goes to MK, AK, and DS versus sharing with CBR. It also will have a walkway to the gondola that is mere seconds from the building. If you look at the construction aerials on the rumors thread - the gondola station can't be 50 yards from the building and I could see them putting in a covered walkway. Remember, most folks at CBR will need to take a bus or walk 5-10 minutes to get to the gondola, and at Pop/AoA it will be a mostly 5-10 minute walk only. Riviera will be the only station that is being built so close.

However, that said - I agree with the ranking of properties - and would suspect that Riviera will fall somewhere just below BWV in terms of difficulty and popularity - but it will still be VERY popular with the easy access to Epcot and the Boardwalk area. I suspect there will be two point categories - a "standard" and a "theme Park" with the standard being similar number of points to say the BWV/BCV room rates, and the "Theme park" rooms being a 25-35% premium room category. I think Epcot fans will love being able to buy an "Epcot Resort" that doesn't expire in 20 years, especially if they put some good restaurants and a high end pool in place. I also think the location relative to SW:GE will also be a selling point for some people. But will it have the popularity of VGF and Poly? I don't think so.

 

[Ben E N]

suspect there will be two point categories - a "standard" and a "theme Park" with the standard being similar number of points to say the BWV/BCV room rates, and the "Theme park" rooms being a 25-35% premium room category

I would also anticipate a water view category. They charge more for water view rooms at CB, so I would imagine they would charge more to look at the same water from Riviera.

 

[skier_pete]

I would also anticipate a water view category. They charge more for water view rooms at CB, so I would imagine they would charge more to look at the same water from Riviera.

Could be the case, but then I would expect a cheaper "standard" room that only sees the front of the resort but not the parks.