Rumor - AK Lodge to become DVC announcement Thurs?

[DVCLiz]

Well, five minutes away from whatever the announcement is...How will we hear about it? Will it be on a website anywhere?

 

[fishermouse]

If they don't have the extra years, they won't get our money for them...

We're on the same plan as Monte Cristo.

I imagine it wiil be the same end date as SSR, however I can't see them announcing another resort before SSR sells out, also I thought contemporary would be next on the list. Wonder if they just throw this stuff out to see what sticks.. By the way I would just have to buy AKL. We were staying there when we decided to buy SSR. Had a great view of all kinds of annimals from our balcony. They rolled the cost of that vacation over to our downpayment on SSR.

 

[mjmcca]

Well allears has the Nemo announcement

 

[Stitch 03]

Cast member hear's from reliable source:

'There will be an announcement at the press event that some special WDW guests will be staying at the Animal Kingdon soon. There will also be a new restaurant'

Cast member thinks to himsef - I have heard rumor of DVC at the AKL. Perhaps thats what they mean about special guests staying at the AK. Thats it! They are announcing DVC at AKL. I better get to the forums right away to break this exciting news.

Cast member posts news and everyone gets excited.

Actual announcement (as I imagine it):

'... We will soon be welcoming some special gusts to stay at the AK. Yes, folks you guessed it. Finding Nemo and friends will be performing daily at the old Tarzan theatre...'

Of course the restaurant was previously announced.

 

[Mom B]

Pardon my cynicism, but...BAH, HUMBUG! They can announce anything they want to and it doesn't mean it will happen. After all, they "announced" Eagle Pines in a big way at one point, didn't they? Not that I wouldn't LIKE it to happen, I've love to see more DVC properties, but I'm just not gonna hold my breath waiting for it to happen. YKWIM?

 

[nicky mouse]

I know I'm being cynical again (need that trip to Vegas next week and SSR end of May) but what else is guide supposed to say? If s/he sais "Why yes, we were planning on keeping the next DVC Resort secret for 6 more months, but what the heck, I'll tell you right now!" then s/he'll be outta there so fast your head would spin. And if they say (right when the customer is ready to put down a deposit) "Why no, nope, nosiree bob, no more DVC resorts" then the customer lets out a dejected "Oh" and a sigh.

Disney benefits from not promising anything while simultaneously not ruling anything out....

IMHO - YMMV

You're absolutely correct. But a girl can dream.

 

[Tony P. IL.]

Here is something I found from the Orlando Sentinel Dated March 28, 2006. Part of the article has to do with land near AKL. I've put a link to a map that was part of the article.

Here it is,
Walt Disney World is selling off chunks of excess land on the fringes of its empire, allowing developers to pursue their own real-estate magic.

Disney recently sold 53 acres on Sherberth Road south of Disney's Animal Kingdom to a developer who wants to build hundreds of vacation town homes and condominium units, and another 47 acres on Reams Road, north of the Magic Kingdom, to a home builder.

Another 30 acres is for sale on U.S. Highway 192. And more may be put on the market as soon as the company re-evaluates its vast land holdings in Central Florida, particularly parcels on the far edges.

Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger said the company is evaluating its Central Florida land holdings to see what fits into its long-term plans and what doesn't.

Disney owns 27,000 acres in southwest Orange and northwest Osceola counties, most of it purchased in the 1960s when Walt Disney stealthily assembled his holdings before the public learned of his plans to build Disney World. Much of the acreage makes up the area of and around Disney's theme parks, water parks, golf courses, shopping and hotel and time-share resorts between U.S. 192, State Road 429, Reams Road and Interstate 4.

The new deals may illustrate a shift in thinking for Disney.

Finger, spokeswoman for Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney's park planning division, said the 47-acre deal Disney made in December and the 53-acre deal in February are the first for the company in a while, other than land in the Little Lake Bryan and Celebration planned communities.

"With such significant land holdings in Central Florida, our strategy is to manage and develop land resources in ways that promote and enhance and complement our core businesses," Finger said.

Disney is not talking about the 30-acre tract, except to say it is in contract. Yet Disney asked its government agency, the Reedy Creek Improvement District, to de-annex the property, which is on U.S. 192, west of the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

The latest land deals are different from those at Celebration or Little Lake Bryan. Disney fully planned those two communities. The company transferred property in both areas to subsidiaries, which developed the communities and sold off the properties as they were developed. Those sales began in 1994 and still are continuing, Finger said.

The land in the latest deals would be governed by Orange or Osceola county planning and zoning codes, but would otherwise be outside Disney's master plans.

Susan Lawrence, president of Real Estate Strategies in Orlando, said Disney is finding a great time to sell. Prices are at an all-time high. Demand is high, and supply is tight, especially around Disney, she said.

"Like stock, when the prices are extraordinarily high, you're going to sell, especially if there's no long-term strategic use for it," Lawrence said. "That still leaves them with -- what? -- 26,000-plus acres?"

Such sales have been rare for Disney in recent years.

The most recent before December was in 2000, when Disney sold the 40-acre Crossroads at Lake Buena Vista, off State Road 535, for $15.8 million.

Other theme parks in town also have unloaded excess property in the past decade. In 2003, Universal Orlando sold 1,800 acres along Sand Lake Road after deciding it no longer wanted to build a third theme park there.

Since Anheuser-Busch bought SeaWorld in 1989, the company has sold off several hundred acres around Central Florida that were not contiguous to the park.

Last week Disney asked the Reedy Creek Board of Supervisors to begin steps to drop the 30-acre parcel from the agency's jurisdiction. Reedy Creek, a government agency set up by the Florida Legislature, provides utility, fire, emergency medical and other public services to Disney's property.

Normally, when Disney sells land that is governed by Reedy Creek the company asks the agency to de-annex the land so that any new landowners would not share the district's services and would not have any votes in Reedy Creek affairs.

Reedy Creek Executive Director C. Ray Maxwell said his agency is prepared to receive more de-annexation requests from Disney.

"They have gone around and looked at the entire property, the perimeter of the property, and said, OK, does this really fit into future development plans or not?" Maxwell said. "And if it doesn't, is there a market for it?"

Maitland-based Centex Homes bought the 47-acre Reams Road property for $4.8 million. Division President Pat Knight said Centex likes the property, but the company has not yet decided what to do with it.

Sherberth Development Partners, an investment group out of New York and Chicago, paid $15.4 million for the 53 acres. Orlando-based Resorts Development Group will develop the property. President Steve Parker said plans call for vacation homes, including short-term rental homes.

Parker said his company got an unexpected chance to buy the Disney property.

Resorts Development already was planning a 40-acre development next door when it learned that Disney would sell the 53-acre parcel. Knowing how rarely Disney has sold its Central Florida holdings, his investors immediately stepped up to buy it, he said.

"We like to think it was real-estate genius, but it was really dumb luck," he said. "They said, 'We just decided today to start selling some of it.' We said, 'OK, we'll buy it.' "
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/busi...h032806,0,2056037.graphic?coll=orl-home-promo

 

[bom_noite]

Ok - I thought this rumor was dead! But, it clings to life. This is the last sentence of a BizJournal article. What hotels will be made-over and how?


It previously announced plans to add characters from its "Pirates of the Caribbean" film series in July, as well as makeovers in two of its on-site hotel rooms and an additional retail outlet in Downtown Disney.

I will keep looking!

 

[bom_noite]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww Forget IT - this Rumor is Dead. Old News:

Mar. 30th, 2006 -- The Walt Disney World resort is renovating rooms in two of their oldest hotels; the Contemporary and Polynesian hotels.

Both hotels were opened in 1971 with the Disney World resort. To keep up with the numerous high-end resorts around Orlando, massive room redecorating is underway. The Contemporary resort, built to be futuristic, no longer feels that way.

It's particularly important for high-price resorts to keep up with the times to be worthy of high prices.

For more information, see: The South Florida Sun-Sentinal.

 

[lisareniff]

Well that was fun to think about for a day! Maybe next time....

 

[Disney Doll]

A DVC Resort at AKL? That means another high-quality resort that we crafty SSR owners can fill up at 7 months.

Excellent....

That being laughed at, my guess is that you will not hear of an announcement of another DVC resort until SSR is close to being or completely sold out.

My second guess is that it will be a resort on the monorail. The most likely candidate is the Contemporary, as one of the "wings"...probably the one toward the left, if you are looking at the front of the building...would be torn down and rebuilt or totally renovated and maybe even added on to (there's a decent amount of land over there) to make a smallish DVC resort, probably about the size of BCV or VWL. Think about it...if they build a smallish resort in a highly desirable area, there are folks that will be willing to pay a HUGE premium to buy points there. The AKL area is lovely, as is the Lodge itself, but it is not as desirable of an area at this point as the MK area is for most people.

Time will tell....

 

[bicker]

probably the one toward the left, if you are looking at the front of the building...

The North Wing is a safe bet, since they just rehabbed all the rooms in the South Wing.

 

[Stuart D]

Loving these rumours and speculation. Here's to the next one.

 

[bicker]

Hehehehe

 

[WishesComeTrue]

Before anyone ditches this rumor completely and forever I just wanted to add that during a "lunch with an imagineer" session very recently when the imagineer asked if anyone were DVC members and only 2 people raised their hands (s)he said "well AKL is getting a DVC addition." When the two, very well informed members, looked at her with a blank face the imagineer said, "OH, was that not announced yet?"

I was searching for more possible information about the rumor on-line and stumbled on this thread.

And NO, I am not giving his/her name, although I WILL say it was a Design Administrator with WD Imagineering.

 

[lisareniff]

Before anyone ditches this rumor completely and forever I just wanted to add that during a "lunch with an imagineer" session very recently when the imagineer asked if anyone were DVC members and only 2 people raised their hands (s)he said "well AKL is getting a DVC addition." When the two, very well informed members, looked at her with a blank face the imagineer said, "OH, was that not announced yet?"

I was searching for more possible information about the rumor on-line and stumbled on this thread.

And NO, I am not giving his/her name, although I WILL say it was a Design Administrator with WD Imagineering.

Thanks for the tidbit, WishesComeTrue.... who ever you are!

 

[corinnak]

Oh, this is far from dead - there is just a new AKL DVC rumor thread. Actually, maybe a few. Here is the biggie, though. No indeedy - this rumor is alive and well!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1188305

 

[tracyl921]

Ok, so the last time I spoke with my DVC guy/gal (who shall remain nameless), I was told the Contemporary was the next DVC location and one near AKL was in the works. So, I'm a believer!

 

[vascubaguy]

As posted in the other thread, we know for sure something is going on at AKL... they've filed paperwork with the Orange County Comptroller. DVC is taking 3 bays at AKL to be converted into "models". Now, we dont' know what kind of models, but we know the paperwork was filed by DVC...

So that part, we know is not a rumor.

BTW, I saw this thread and was like hrmm... then to my suprise I noticed it was 4 months old. Maybe an announcement next thursday?

 

[CarolMN]

....... WishesComeTrue.... who ever you are!

Well, Wishes is someone who registered today just to post this bit of information on an old thread.

Wishes is either correct or not correct. We can all decide for ourselves.

Best wishes -