Originally posted by vernon
Now how this reflects on the Contemp ( although I'm far from convinced the idea flies for either Disney or DVC) is that despite it's fantastic position on Disney property the Contemp lags behind most of the other "premium" resorts by a fair way. It can be argued that by putting some of the Contemp ( the garden wing is I believe the most unpopular of the areas) under DVC resort status would remove that underperformer status from the contemp and slide it into the much more dynamic financial producer DVC area. IMHO if Disney is going to go to the costly lengths of flattening that area and rebuilding something more desirable it could do so outside the DVC umbrella as financially efficiently as it could within.
But the lingering questions is whether such a move would benefit WDW in the long run. I count 12 separate resorts with "Deluxe"-quality accommodations on WDW property (not including any of the DD resorts.)
If Disney were to redevelop the garden wing(s) for their own use, the argument one would have to make is that the renovated facilities would draw additional guests TO a WDW resort that would have otherwise stayed off-site. If a newly-renovated CR simply drew guests that would otherwise have stayed at AKL, BWI or WL, then it isn't worth the expense. Disney is just moving money from one pocket to the other (or one Income Statement column to another), at a construction / maintenance cost of millions.
I do think Disney has to be a little careful not to waterdown too much the "cache" of the monorail resorts. I think I could make a decent argument that a DVC monorail could lower the $$$ premium that can be charged for those resorts.
I'm not sure that I agree with that. I don't see how the typical cash-paying customer at GF, Poly or even the CR would look at a DVC wing and claim that their experience was being diminished simply because those pesky DVC members have access to the monorail.
What one could easily argue is that revenues will be lost due to DVC members no longer paying cash for weekend stays at Monorail resorts to get their "fix". That ties into the comment that alvernon90 made regarding the "harm" DVC inflicts on the other resorts by drawing away cash customers--both DVC members AND point renters. The monorail resorts may see a higher-than-normal decrease in cash revenues if DVC does build at the CR.
For Disney to put an attractive and desirable DVC resort on part of the ground the contemp occupies would skew the P+L accounts a good amount. The land there if FAR more valuable than where SSR (or EP) will be built and the extra cost for DVC points may be just a stretch too far for purchasers. It would require some very "creative accounting" for DVC to be able to produce a profit on the levels of DVC's previous performances if it were to develop the garden wing of the Contemp.
They can do that in two ways--both the per-point sales price AND the number of points required for a night's stay. I would fully expect to see a
point chart higher than the current top tier (BVC, VWL, BWV Preferred).
In fact, there is a school of thought that DVC now markets itself to the masses to the point that it has lost some of the cache originally associated with membership. If they so choose, DVC could position CR to be the "elite" DVC location. They could take the quality of the rooms up another notch and start the points at 125-150% of the current levels for a night's stay.
...just thinking out loud...
I agree that the land on which the CR sits is some of the most valuable at WDW. But to allow those rooms decay (I've read some real horror stories) is the least-supportable position of all.
