I definitely agree that Riv preferred studio is a crazy amount. And while I'm just guessing, I think Disney's reasoning for that was likely "you can see fireworks from your room" + "Skyliner access to two parks" and that while most of us on this board don't agree with the reasoning, I do feel that Disney sees Skyliner access as equivalent to being on the monorail -- especially considering HS's growing popularity due to Star Wars.
It's not *that* hard to see---it's about a week in a 1BR during Magic Season, give or take.
I think this is exactly right---and it mirrors our use of timeshares for our family. I think we stayed in a 1BR with the two kids exactly once as very new timeshare owners (at OKW, oddly enough), and we swore we'd never do that again. I rarely if ever book a timeshare studio. The few times I have done it have been last-minute spur-of-the-moment trips that I was doing on a budget as a solo traveler.
Or 32 weeknights in a studio during Adventure season back when weekend nights were ~2.5x weekdays.
I really wish that spread wasn't so large! I admit sometimes we book 2BRs (which of course the kids appreciate), partly because the difference between 1BR and 2BR is often so small and I just feel that 1BR point costs are not a good value -- but also sometimes we just book Studios when we'd prefer a 1BR because the Studios are SO MUCH cheaper than 1BRs.
1BR value is VERY hit or miss. I was just looking at staying 3 nights at SSR in a 1BR in January using money; Disney wants $1800 cash (plus tax) with full cancellation abilities and David's wants $1800 to rent the points for it with no ability to cancel. Um, that's not a hard one.
I think there are lots of things they could do like allowing a buy in to be qualified with the points one has already or a purchase of a minimum # of points to make them qualified. But I don't see them lowering the minimum as you note largely because it would have the opposite effect of encouraging resale hoping to get a lower minimum later.
To some extent but there are ways around it. I believe you're thinking about discounts, park events and things like that but a true VIP would almost certainly be more fundamental allowing direct usage benefits like banking and usage advantages for one group over another. We've discussed this issue over the years and I realize it's problematic but I am convinced they could do so if they wanted though it might require some changes to the POS, which they can do also. And I personally don't buy in to the argument that "people will sue" as a reason they can't or won't do so.
I agree with Brian, in the timeshare world the spread is almost never as large between studios and 1 BR as it is with DVC. That's the problem doing the points on square footage more than usage pattens and common sense.
In 1996 it was 220. We missed the free tix by less than a year.
I'm certain it was never 220. I found a price list for OKW for June 1994 and it was 210 at that point and $60.50 PP and for VB from June 1995 which showed a minimum of 150 and $$61.50 PP. Since I know that it went from 210 to 190 then to 160 over time, it seems the minimum for VB was dropped before OKW was. This thread from 2008 has much more specific info from Rob.
Well, I hope they get the flurry of sales they are needing.
I agree hence the original 260 point buy in points for OKW. It has changed and studios are not as nice as hotel rooms imo for a family of 4. At least hotel rooms give two beds.
