baler31
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2010
- Messages
- 3,134
Not likely..... Just because of the history of those Disney deals.
When the parks first opened in 1971, There wasn't a lot of hotel rooms in the area for people coming into Central Florida to visit the parks. Disney leased out the land for the hotels on Hotel Blvd with the understanding that at time the Poly, Contemporary, and Disney Inn wouldn't meet the demand for beds at the park, and they weren't in a place or have the desire to build more hotel rooms themselves.
The Swan/Dolphin story is a little different, and there is some conflicting information/stories out there when it comes to the details. But in essense, it's part of the holdover from the earlier Disney thought process of their not wanting to be in the hotel business (ala, hotel Blvd.).
The 2 most popular stories I've heard are that a developer/contractor involved in the EPCOT construction, as part of their deal/compensation also received the ability to build hotels on Disney property...... OR.... As part of the Original deal that brought us the hotels on hotel BLVD, The developer involved in those hotels believed they had the exclusive rights to further Disney hotels.
In either version, It was Eisner's coming to the company in the mid 80's which ended up changing things on the hotel front. Basically.... He saw all the money the company was losing by not being more involved in lodging the visitors to the resort, and wanted to become much more involved in becoming a one-stop-shop [the precurser to the Disney Decade]. I've also read where he wanted to build a convention hotel to attract non-theme park guests to the resort during the offpeak times (and that this convention part was what prompted the disagreement between Disney and the Developer).
Ultimately, As either part of the previous Grandfathered deal prior to a buy-out [allowing Disney to develop their own onsite hotels].... Or a settlement with the developer [allowing him to build/own 2 hotels in a prime location in the center of the property in exchange for reliquishing the rights to allow Disney to build/control their own hotels onsite]... The Swan and Dolphin came to be. Disney still owns the property, but the hotels are owned independantly and have a 99yr lease of the property they sit upon.
You need to remember, the Swan/Dolphin are some of the oldest properties onsite.... With only the Poly, Contemporary, Shade of Green (The Disney Inn/The Golf Resort), and Ft. Wilderness predating them. I believe the Grand Floridian opened shortly after them, although GF may have been opened around the same time or shortly before. I remember GF was late 80s, but i'm bit fuzzy off the top of my head on the exact timeframe of the hotel openings.
For Universal/Lowes, It's much closer to the original Hotel Blvd deal. When Universal expanded from a single park to the 2 parks, citywalk, and onsite hotels in the late 90's, They were not interested in also getting into the hotel business. So their onsite hotels were built from scratch in a deal with the outside company. It's a partnership that both companies actively partipate in and benefit from.
The Four Seasons is like none of these previous deals. Disney sold off the land so the Four Seasons can build their own hotel. For all intents and purposes, the partnership between the Four Seasons and Disney is no deeper than Disney's existing VIP sales/tour channels. There might be a few extra "perks" which the Four Seasons guests may get compared to other offsite location guests ( such as emh or room package delivery), But this would be because the Four Seasons would be paying Disney large amounts of $$$ on a regular basis to secure these deals. Not because they are considered a Disney resort guest.
But Disney isn't really catering to the affluent "sophisticated" type that the Four Seasons is servicing. The four Seasons are the ones catering to them and their needs and desires. Those people just want to experience Disney, just like everyone else.
With the GF and Poly DVC.... I'm also not entirely sure you can say they are successfully catering outside of the "people of Walmart". they are both "more of the same" when it comes to what they are offering.... DVC membership. Compared to rack rates, DVC is a pretty good deal.....think of it as the Sam's Club version..... You are still dealing with Walmart, but you are buying the same items you get with Walmart, only in bulk. More Expensive than the cheaper walmart stuff.... put a cheaper "per unit" cost.
Even then... DVC is starting to potentially price itself out of being able to get new retail sales using their existing tactics to all but the ignorant masses (which... well... people of walmart . com . ).
We stayed at GF in 1988 shortly after it opened. Swan/Dolphin opened in the summer of 1990.