A report in today's Orlando Sentinel indicates that the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation has granted approval to selling timeshare ownership in Disney's $110 million dollar expansion at the Contemporary Resort. This 281-unit addition will reportedly be known as Kingdom Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort.
The article by Jason Garcia of the Sentinel sheds additional light on the project:
Disney says in the documents that it will sell the time shares in phases, beginning with an initial 75 units. The Kingdom Tower, which will connect to the existing Contemporary via a fifth-floor pedestrian bridge, will ultimately contain 281 units, according to the filings.
A spokesman for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which awarded a time-share license to the Kingdom Tower project earlier this month, said Disney has now been cleared to start selling units at any time.
"They can begin," department spokesman Sam Farkas said.
Garcia also reveals that Disney incorporated "Kingdom Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort Condominium Association" back in January.
The filing reveals other details regarding amenities at the resort. Cited are a swimming pool with a maximum occupancy of 180, two hot tubs and a 104-foot water slide. Elsewhere Disney is constructing two tennis courts, two shuffleboard courts, two bocce ball courts and a barbecue pavilion.
The report also indicates that early
points charts submitted to the state show that "guests will have to spend more points to rent one- and two-bedroom units at the Kingdom Tower than any of Disney's other existing time shares."
Construction permits previously indicated that the new Contemporary tower will be under development into the fall of 2009. The Kingdom Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort would be the ninth Disney Vacation Club resort offered to the public
As part of its legal filings, Disney Vacation Development is required to disclose the maximum number of points that a DVC member would have to spend in order to book a single night at a given resort. DVCNews has obtained a copy of the Maximum Reallocation Chart which includes the "Kingdom Tower Resort."
DVC uses a point system to determine the cost for a single night in any of its resort rooms. The cost will vary depending season and night of the week. However, DVC could conceivably reoganize the points such that every single night of the year costs the same amount to members. That cost is revealed in the Maximum Reallocation Chart.
Following are the Maximum Reallocation amounts for all of the Walt Disney World-based DVC resorts:
OKW BWV (Standard) BWV (Preferred) VWL BCV SSR AKV KTV
Studio 15 15 18 18 18 16 15 16
One Bedroom 30 30 36 36 36 32 36 39
Two Bedroom 40 40 46 46 46 41 45 54
Grand Villa 65 n/a 100 n/a n/a 90 99 96
Based upon the data above, it appears that the average One Bedroom villa at the Contemporary's Kingdom Tower Villas will cost 8% more than BWV(p), VWL, BCV. A Two Bedroom villa will be at least 17% higher than all other resorts.
Note that the absence of separate room categories for Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas (Value, Standard, Savanna, Concierge) suggests that the figure presented is an aggregate of all rooms that are scheduled to be declared into inventory. It is likely that the Kingdom Tower Villas will also have multiple views available, perhaps Magic Kingdom View, Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake. Therefore, even though the KTV Two Bedroom is listed as being 17% higher than the same room at the Beach Club Villas, a room with a Magic Kingdom view may, in fact, have a nightly cost much greater than 17% above BCV.
The complete points charts, including DVC seasons and weeknight vs. weekend stay values should be released as sales officially begin.
UPDATE: There seems to be some confusion regarding the value of the data presented here. Let me take a moment to try and explain a bit more clearly.
The figures presented above represent the amount that it would cost to spend a single night in the indicated resort and room size if the points were equal for every night of the year. For example, by using "Caskbill's" DVC Planner, we can determine that the number of points required to spend all of 2008 in a Two Bedroom villa at the Beach Club is 16760. Divide 16760 by 366 days and you get 45.79 points per day on average. Round-up and the average daily point stay is equal to the 46 points per night cited on DVC's Maximum Reallocation Chart.
DVC has the right to reallocate the points charts as they see fit. This document is part of DVD's disclosure to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Effectively DVC is saying that worst-case, the most a member will ever pay for a BCV two bedroom villa is 46 points per night if the charts were completely flat.
The same will hold true for the Kingdom Tower Villas. DVC will still have multiple seasons and probably multiple room categories as well. There will be nights when you can get a Two Bedroom villa for much less than the 54 points stated here, and other nights when it will cost much more. The 54 points per night is simply an average.
The true relevance in this data lies in comparing one resort to another. KTV's nightly average is 17% higher than the average for the Beach Club or the BoardWalk preferred. While the exact points chart remains a mystery, we have a ballpark figure to work with rather than being forced to speculate whether the Contemporary points will be 5% higher or 80% higher.
