So true, you see the DVC sales booth and most feature a picture of Aulani. The lot next to Aulani has been open for a long time. 5 star hotels are just not overally profitable, in fact they seem to change hands all the time. Very high overhead. Most of the Hawaii 5 stars are over 30 years old. What does seem to work is the time share, or condo. If it does get built out I would expect it to go that way
Agree that the poster misunderstood the business strategy behind Aulani, but you’re misunderstanding it as well. Disney did not spend 800 million dollars to build Aulani as a sales tool to sell Florida product. They built it to sell it, but wound up overestimating east coasters’ willingness to cover expensive travel expenses and endure a ten hour flight to get there, with WDW already in their backyard. So, ten years later, Disney is still selling points, but not in any rush because the property is beautiful and they’re making a fortune on it as a hotel, even though that was not the original intent.
They’ll sell off both Vero and Hilton.
I would love Atlantis to be next door to Aulani. I could hang out at Aulani with my kids, wife and their grandma during the day. At night, my wife and I could go party at Atlantis. It would be awesome.
All that trust stuff is just idol speculation. But even if it were to go ahead, I think it would be difficult to incorporate older properties into a trust of which they were not originally a part.
Yes. exactly. From that same press release:
All good questions! The whole existence of the trust is a bit of a mystery. Some think it’s part of a long term plan to allow multiple home resorts with a single purchase, possibly for new resorts going forward, possibly to include new and existing resorts, or maybe the trust is part of the existing DVC system and has nothing to do with home resorts, and represents some bookkeeping sleight of hand that saves Disney money. Who knows!
Oh yeah my wife and I would LOVE to go party at Atlantis next door while my mother in law watches the kids at Aulani. We are crossing our fingers something cool gets developed
If it was actually unspoiled land, I might agree with you. But it was cleared around the same time the land for Aulani was and left abandoned. I would at least like a usable park area if no resort wants to build there.
Regardless of what anyone wants, my guess is that land is just going to sit there for a long, long time. I don’t think the tourist numbers are good enough for any developer to get financing for some huge over the top resort. There is a building boom for condos in Honolulu, but, aside from a not so special, somewhat generic Renaissance Hotel, that’s not even on the beach and is a component of a condominimum complex near the Ala Moana Shopping Center, a fancy, new, from the ground up beach resort hasn’t been built in Hawaii for years and years.
Given the rates that the Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton can demand, it’s a little surprising to me that the exclusive luxury hotels aren’t more profitable (and there is less interest in building them)— is the “new” Ritz on Turtle Bay just a rehab of a pre-existing resort?— but I am relieved to hear there doesn’t appear to be a current owner actively planning to develop it— I would assume it would take several months to get new plans approved even if someone was motivated to start today?
I totally agree. Even if it's a cleared lot, that's still better than another giant mega-building taking up space.
Yes, the Ritz on Turtle Bay is a rehab, of a beautiful hotel that was itself just rehabbed! I doubt the Ritz is doing much. If whatever ultimately gets built on that lot, sometime far down the line, isn’t a complete monstrosity, I really don’t think it would diminish the Aulani experience, aside from the annoyance of construction, the hours of which would probably be regulated.
If it’s not the same crescent then I would be much happier, and if it doesn’t block most of the island view rooms in EWA tower then I’ll be grudgingly optimistic.
