VWL Groupies & Lovers Thread (Special Collectors Edition 2.5) updated 2 February 2025

[jimmytammy]

Happy Birthday deebits!!!!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

We added a night to our December stay, but rather than have to call CRO (I hate it!!!) to modify our existing reservation, I decided to book a night on points, so we are staying in a Poly Studio. I am going to check out other threads, but was wondering if anyone here has experienced it? I recall Jimmy & Tammy stayed there but not sure if it was a DVC stay? We've never stayed at any of the monorail resorts so I am really looking forward to it.

We were there in October with my family in 3 studios - one being an HA for my sister. As always, one of my very favorite things about the Poly is the location and the DVC longhouses, though not spectacular for access to the Ceremonial House it is wonderful for monorail transportation since you can walk over to the TTC to get the Epcot monorail or the Express monorail to MK and could skip the Resort monorail unless we happened to be going thru the main building first. Also, it was a trip that we road the Ferry to MK more than I had in awhile - I really enjoyed that! You'll have the new quiet pool open which I think is a great option and has to really enhance the Villas. If you have any questions I'll see if I can help!

 

[bobbiwoz]

Who has stayed at VWL recently?

Are the trees between the DVC building and the bus stop gone as well as what you can see from the boat? I just can't bring myself to book VWL now. I used all of our VWL points to book Aulani in February.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Who has stayed at VWL recently?

Are the trees between the DVC building and the bus stop gone as well as what you can see from the boat? I just can't bring myself to book VWL now. I used all of our VWL points to book Aulani in February.

The bus side is not having anything done so it looks the same. It was Feb that I last saw it but recent reports have been the same. From that direction you really wouldn't know anything was different.

There's eventually a new parking area going in to the south of the Villas but I don't think you'll even see it from any of the VWL rooms. Here's a picture from the Expansion thread on the resort board that highlights the areas that will have some kind of work done.

 

[bobbiwoz]

The bus side is not having anything done so it looks the same. It was Feb that I last saw it but recent reports have been the same. From that direction you really wouldn't know anything was different.

Well, that's good to know.

I see that May 2017 has a lot of Groupies enjoying F&G! We will be at BCV for 3 nights before the EBTA! If i can get VWL at 7 months, i just may book it. Thanks.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Well, that's good to know.

I see that May 2017 has a lot of Groupies enjoying F&G! We will be at BCV for 3 nights before the EBTA! If i can get VWL at 7 months, i just may book it. Thanks.

I have been hesitant to book also. I added a trip last Sept after they announced the plans and before work started just to experience it all one last time. I've been so close to selecting and really wanted to stay at VWL both this fall or else next spring but have ended up booking elsewhere still. But I did finally go check out the work. It wasn't terrible around the resort as long as you didn't look at the lakeside.

 

[twokats]

Happy Birthday deebits

 

[jimmytammy]

I have been hesitant to book also. I added a trip last Sept after they announced the plans and before work started just to experience it all one last time. I've been so close to selecting and really wanted to stay at VWL both this fall or else next spring but have ended up booking elsewhere still. But I did finally go check out the work. It wasn't terrible around the resort as long as you didn't look at the lakeside.

In the same boat. I so want too pull the trigger and stay at our Home then second guess myself and stay elsewhere. Our DSIL is going on his 1st trip to WDW with us in Dec. Our DD said he would love WL/VWL but felt the impression made may be less than stellar with all the construction. We will take him over to check it out but will intentionally avoid the worst of it and show him what we love about the place.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

In the same boat. I so want too pull the trigger and stay at our Home then second guess myself and stay elsewhere. Our DSIL is going on his 1st trip to WDW with us in Dec. Our DD said he would love WL/VWL but felt the impression made may be less than stellar with all the construction. We will take him over to check it out but will intentionally avoid the worst of it and show him what we love about the place.

I'm happy that some are still doing ok with staying there and sad that some of us aren't. It was my continuing hesitancy to book at VWL that finally prompted me to write DVC on how this project impacts my use as an existing owner - all for their profits on the next. That's easy to say since I was happy with the existing resort and felt no need for any additional amenities. It also doesn't mean that we won't enjoy them but that I couldn't comment on it since we they won't even tell us what we have coming! But I was secure in my feeling that I'd have preferred the existing ambiance over whatever they would put in.

 

[Friendlyadvice2]

I'm happy that some are still doing ok with staying there and sad that some of us aren't. It was my continuing hesitancy to book at VWL that finally prompted me to write DVC on how this project impacts my use as an existing owner - all for their profits on the next. That's easy to say since I was happy with the existing resort and felt no need for any additional amenities. It also doesn't mean that we won't enjoy them but that I couldn't comment on it since we they won't even tell us what we have coming! But I was secure in my feeling that I'd have preferred the existing ambiance over whatever they would put in.

Kathy, did you get a response to your letter from DVC? Although it's not the same thing, I've been wondering how the dues will look for next year. Despite some of it being immaterial I'm sure, VWL should have incurred lower housekeeping costs, utilities, lifeguards, maintenance, etc. this year. Maybe that will be offset by lower breakage as well, but I'm curious to see where we end up come December. I will have to look at this a little deeper to see if I can make a valid projection.

 

[Granny]

I'm happy that some are still doing ok with staying there and sad that some of us aren't. It was my continuing hesitancy to book at VWL that finally prompted me to write DVC on how this project impacts my use as an existing owner - all for their profits on the next. That's easy to say since I was happy with the existing resort and felt no need for any additional amenities. It also doesn't mean that we won't enjoy them but that I couldn't comment on it since we they won't even tell us what we have coming! But I was secure in my feeling that I'd have preferred the existing ambiance over whatever they would put in.

Kathy...I'm glad you wrote Disney, and it will be interesting to see how they respond. Of course it will be incredibly customer friendly but probably won't really tell you anything.

We've gone ahead and booked VWL for our December trip, and currently have it booked for our trip in May next year. I think we will be okay with staying there, and part of the reason is I want to support the CMs working there during a tough time. We don't spend a ton of time on the balcony, so we're not worried about construction view or noise all that much.

If I had a first-time guest like Jimmy does, then I don't think I'd stay there. But for now, we still have enough things we love about the resort that we are going to try and enjoy it. Hopefully the Christmas decorations will offset any concerns we may have. If VWL ever starts looking like its new name, then we may not be spending much time there in the future. It's a shame we can't trust Disney to put the owner experience ahead of whatever other motives they may have. I still have this bad feeling that they will not want to make VWL as nice of a place as CCV...surely they will want to be able to tell prospective owners that the DVC resort "back over there" is not in the same class (or price range) as the new CCV resort.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Kathy, did you get a response to your letter from DVC? Although it's not the same thing, I've been wondering how the dues will look for next year. Despite some of it being immaterial I'm sure, VWL should have incurred lower housekeeping costs, utilities, lifeguards, maintenance, etc. this year. Maybe that will be offset by lower breakage as well, but I'm curious to see where we end up come December. I will have to look at this a little deeper to see if I can make a valid projection.

I did actually mention similar in my email to DVC - about dues not reflecting the lower operational costs at the resort during construction. That wasn't responded to at all nor really anything about the loss of use or diminished use during the construction. I did receive a (partial) response and for the first time after submitting something it was the only time I just received an email and did not also get a follow up phone call. I say partial response because I made a mistake in my feedback in that I also referenced the name change and they then responsed only to that which was the easiest part.

When dues come out in Dec if there is not some reflection I shall be contacting them again and it will be the sole focus of my email based on the amenities that have been closed.

I'd be interested, if you want to share, what you work out in your projections when the time comes.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Kathy...I'm glad you wrote Disney, and it will be interesting to see how they respond. Of course it will be incredibly customer friendly but probably won't really tell you anything.

We've gone ahead and booked VWL for our December trip, and currently have it booked for our trip in May next year. I think we will be okay with staying there, and part of the reason is I want to support the CMs working there during a tough time. We don't spend a ton of time on the balcony, so we're not worried about construction view or noise all that much.

If I had a first-time guest like Jimmy does, then I don't think I'd stay there. But for now, we still have enough things we love about the resort that we are going to try and enjoy it. Hopefully the Christmas decorations will offset any concerns we may have. If VWL ever starts looking like its new name, then we may not be spending much time there in the future. It's a shame we can't trust Disney to put the owner experience ahead of whatever other motives they may have. I still have this bad feeling that they will not want to make VWL as nice of a place as CCV...surely they will want to be able to buy prospective owners that the DVC resort "back over there" is not in the same class (or price range) as the new CCV resort.

That's exactly what it was Granny and mostly what I was expecting to be honest. But I brought it up - don't want them thinking we don't at least pay some attention to the happenings! And I do think it's still possible to have a nice trip there and hope you and everyone else does. At least most kind of know what to expect and can make an informed decision on if they can go with it or not. We could if we had to but..........grrrrrr. The disappointment with Disney over what this project does to current owner experience there is great with me.

 

[Friendlyadvice2]

I did actually mention similar in my email to DVC - about dues not reflecting the lower operational costs at the resort during construction.....

When dues come out in Dec if there is not some reflection I shall be contacting them again and it will be the sole focus of my email based on the amenities that have been closed.

I'd be interested, if you want to share, what you work out in your projections when the time comes.

I took a "high-level" look at the potential for dues next year. In short, I feel there is just not enough visibility into how several of the expense categories are calculated to provide a valid projection and maybe, it's inherently wrong to even realistically think dues should/could decrease for next year, but I at least wanted to post some of the expense categories here with a few thoughts in case the other knowledgeable members wanted to share their expertise and opinions for discussion purposes.

I believe the following expenses will most likely not have a significant impact on dues either way and are not occupancy driven: Admin & Front Desk ($.71/pt.), Annual Audit ($.007/pt.), DVC Reservation Component ($.006/pt.), Fees to the Division ($.007/pt.), Insurance ($.13/pt.), Legal ($.0005/pt.), Management Fee ($.47/pt.), Security ($.05/pt.).

I do see these remaining expenses as being occupancy driven and could/should potentially decrease dues for next year: Housekeeping ($.97/pt.), Maintenance ($.82/pt.), Member Activities ($.20/pt.), Transportation ($.68/pt.), Utilities ($.26/pt.). The difficulty is not knowing exactly how the expense is calculated to determine how much the decreased occupancy rate or how the complete removal of an item such as the pool might affect it. For instance, with occupancy for the entire resort (main hotel and villas) being significantly down, it seems logical that Transportation should be down as well. What I don't know is if WDW bills WL one amount that is then amortized by the number of main hotel rooms and villas to arrive at our cost per point. Clearly there should be a reduction in housekeeping, maintenance, and utilities, but an accurate percentage remains elusive to me. Member Activities at the resort should be reduced as well.

In addition to the expenses, we should also see a reduction in Breakage revenue ($.13/pt.), as it's likely Disney has not rented as many cash rooms as they have in the past. This would result in an increase in dues for that portion. However, less Breakage revenue also means slightly less of an income tax expense ($.02/pt.), though mostly immaterial.

Property taxes should remain flat, but could potentially go down in the future if the cabins can cover the increase in the new infrastructure....the converted rooms in the main hotel should give us more vacation homes in the denominator to maybe lower our portion. This could also be the case for other shared expenses such as Transportation, Member Activities, Security, etc.

The Capital Reserves ($.88/pt.) could also be interesting. The amount budgeted for Common Element Renovation over the next 26 years was $10.6 Mil. It seems logical that that figure would include costs for the pool, which is obviously no longer there. I'd really like visibility into how they can just merge the new CCCV and how items such as the new pool are being paid for.

Again IMO, I think the lack of visibility makes it difficult to accurately predict, but I do think the expenses I've highlighted have the potential to alter the numbers going forward. I'm sure others much more knowledgeable than I have had some thoughts about this as well.

 

[Granny]

Again IMO, I think the lack of visibility makes it difficult to accurately predict, but I do think the expenses I've highlighted have the potential to alter the numbers going forward. I'm sure others much more knowledgeable than I have had some thoughts about this as well.

I am not knowledgeable at all about how Disney divides costs between the resort and DVC, but I have a feeling that dues may go up quite a bit. If they are basing the splits on occupancy, then think about the fact that WL had basically cut its occupancy in half while VWL has remained pretty much the same. So VWL may be picking up significantly higher percentage of shared costs at this time. Of course, some of those costs like quiet pool maintenance have gone down.

When CCV comes on line it should provide relief from this situation, and by any logic VWL dues should be less than current with another entity picking up part of the shared costs.

What we don't know is what will happen with the shared costs overall. With the new pool, there may be increased cost and maintenance especially if it is a feature pool with lifeguards, etc. Landscaping and outside clean up will be going up as areas that used to be "woods" will now require maintenance.

Overall, the books are such that Disney can pretty much do what they want as long as they can justify it to an audit group should they need to. The real question may be whether CCV will pick up the lion's share of the shared costs since they will be the biggest entity? It will be interesting to see what their dues are compared to VWL.

 

[Friendlyadvice2]

I am not knowledgeable at all about how Disney divides costs between the resort and DVC, but I have a feeling that dues may go up quite a bit. If they are basing the splits on occupancy, then think about the fact that WL had basically cut its occupancy in half while VWL has remained pretty much the same. So VWL may be picking up significantly higher percentage of shared costs at this time. Of course, some of those costs like quiet pool maintenance have gone down.

IMO Granny, any cost that is split/shared is done by dividing it by the amount of vacation homes/rooms versus using occupancy numbers. I feel the occupancy numbers come more into play for expenses such as utilities, maintenance, etc. I'm also under the belief that VWL occupancy has not remained pretty much the same over this year and has been reduced as some rooms were taken out of service, but admittedly do not have access to those numbers.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I am not knowledgeable at all about how Disney divides costs between the resort and DVC, but I have a feeling that dues may go up quite a bit. .

Actually, as I was reading the first bit of Friendly's post I suddenly was realizing the same thing Granny! Even though there are things closed down and not generating expense they have closed down 1/2 of the hotel and that is 1/2 less hotel guests to allocate expenses towards. AFAIK the allocations are done based on guest count. Also, as I understand DVC is not required to pay dues on any units either under construction nor not declared - or something along those lines. So, VWL's percentage of guests has risen in proportion. I'm not certain if they completely removed from inventory the VWL rooms closest to the construction as I was told last August or so that they were going to, at least in referencing the time we were scheduled to be there in late Oct but since they are placing people into at least some of the lakeside rooms they definitely haven't closed down 1/2 of VWL.

However, a jump in dues because of this construction would also not be very helpful in fostering good relations with existing DVC owners (and perhaps draw the interest of FL if someone were to bring it up), I'm going to guess (ok, hope) they may actually modify their allocation until they get C3V up and running.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

IMO Granny, any cost that is split/shared is done by dividing it by the amount of vacation homes/rooms versus using occupancy numbers.

A few years ago BLT MF's took quite a jump. When questioned at the annual meeting it was explained that occupancy numbers of the villas was running higher than the hotel rooms so more was allocated to BLT for the common expenses. So, it does seem to be based on occupancy, and not villas. I actually think it was a change from how they originally allocated as Disney realized that the numbers tended to be higher in the villas and it was a justifiable allocation they could use that allowed them to shift some expense away from the hotels.

 

[Friendlyadvice2]

A few years ago BLT MF's took quite a jump. When questioned at the annual meeting it was explained that occupancy numbers of the villas was running higher than the hotel rooms so more was allocated to BLT for the common expenses. So, it does seem to be based on occupancy, and not villas. I actually think it was a change from how they originally allocated as Disney realized that the numbers tended to be higher in the villas and it was a justifiable allocation they could use that allowed them to shift some expense away from the hotels.

That's interesting Kathy as I had not heard of the shared costs being divided that way and have not ever seen figures on exact headcount; always by vacation homes. I could see potentially using occupancy percentage rates, but I guess counting heads could be more accurate. Obviously the goal should be to equate actual costs with actual usage. Using Transportation as an example, let's hope that with the reduction in occupancy that the total cost (the numerator) will be lower so that if VWL did in fact have higher occupancy numbers in the denominator the resulting figure will not increase. I'm now even more uncertain of how this will play out.

 

[Granny]

Actually, as I was reading the first bit of Friendly's post I suddenly was realizing the same thing Granny! Even though there are things closed down and not generating expense they have closed down 1/2 of the hotel and that is 1/2 less hotel guests to allocate expenses towards. AFAIK the allocations are done based on guest count. Also, as I understand DVC is not required to pay dues on any units either under construction nor not declared - or something along those lines. So, VWL's percentage of guests has risen in proportion. I'm not certain if they completely removed from inventory the VWL rooms closest to the construction as I was told last August or so that they were going to, at least in referencing the time we were scheduled to be there in late Oct but since they are placing people into at least some of the lakeside rooms they definitely haven't closed down 1/2 of VWL.

However, a jump in dues because of this construction would also not be very helpful in fostering good relations with existing DVC owners (and perhaps draw the interest of FL if someone were to bring it up), I'm going to guess (ok, hope) they may actually modify their allocation until they get C3V up and running.

Agree with you on all points. I just see half of WL out of commission which by definition means that VWL is a bigger percentage of the total pie since they certainly haven't closed half of VWL.

That's interesting Kathy as I had not heard of the shared costs being divided that way and have not ever seen figures on exact headcount; always by vacation homes.

Even if they did it by vacation homes, VWL would represent a larger percentage of the total with half of WL not contributing.

It really would be a stick in the eye if Disney stuck us with higher dues solely for the reason that they are building a new profit center resort on the property. If the VWL dues do go up for one year, they should drop dramatically as CCV comes on line, and VWL should end up with a lower percentage of the total split than before.