As The Walt Disney Company celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Disney Vacation Club, it’s the perfect time to look back at the major changes in the program during its history. Originally only one participating hotel existed, and it claimed the dullest name imaginable, Disney’s Vacation Club Resort. Today, 13 Disney-built resorts participate in the program, not counting the hundreds of other hotels across the globe where DVC owners can exchange their points for RCI stays. As we celebrate 25 years of DVC, let’s take a moment to appreciate the five most important events in the history of the program.
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Disney's Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
Adding a 15-year extension for Old Key West
In 1991, 2042 seemed so far away. The number one original television program was "Roseanne", the most popular movie was "Terminator 2: Judgment Day", and Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls were about to win their first NBA title (with many more to come). When Disney introduced their new not-quite-a-timeshare program, they took an unusual step. Understanding the value of their land and property, they didn’t want to sell it forever. Instead, they chose a strategy that clever car dealers had employed for years. They chose to lease.
Disney's Old Key West Resort
While DVC members file paperwork that indicates their ownership of a real estate interest at a specific property, we all know the deal. At some point down the line, the contract we all signed notifies us that our purchase comes with an expiration date. Originally, that was a 50-year title toward the property we now know as Disney’s Old Key West Resort, 51 years for early adopters who bought immediately in 1991.
Now that we’re in year 25 of the agreement, 2042 doesn’t seem so far away. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that members choose their DVC home resort based entirely on its expiration date, definitely not as Disney’s Beach Club Villas remains so popular. It is starting to become a consideration, though. Family members like the idea of being able to pass along inexpensive Disney vacation stays to their children and grandchildren. Disney always anticipated this, which is why members can deed their ownership rights.
On September 24, 2007, Disney finally addressed this concern at a special member meeting. They chose to allow current owners at Disney’s Old Key West Resort to extend their contracts by 15 years at a cost of $25 per point, with a $10 per point discount for early adopters. As you’re well aware, the entire situation turned into a debacle that will probably wind up settled in court one day. Disney required customers who passed on the offer to fill out paperwork declining it, few of them did, and a lot of others questioned the legality of Disney’s handling of the situation.
At this point, Old Key West owners still feel confused about their ownership interest, but that’s not what’s most noteworthy about this story. Disney does have a group of people that pay them a lot of money via DVC. None of them likes the idea of paying more for something they already “own”. How Disney handles this concern as the countdown continues to 2042 will play a key role in the future of the next 25 years of DVC.
Point Reallocations in 2010
Disney crafted the points chart to reflect the traffic patterns at their parks and resorts, especially Walt Disney World. By this point, they already had more than 15 years of experience in gauging the visitation behavior of DVC members as well as non-DVC tourists. What they accepted over time is that they overcompensated initially.
When do most people visit theme parks? The answer is simple. They go when their schedules allow. For most adult Disney guests, that’s either when they spend some of their vacation days or their regularly scheduled days off. Disney built the entire DVC points chart in anticipation of heavy traffic during national holidays, days when students weren’t in school such as Spring Break and summer, and especially weekends.
What the company failed to anticipate was the passion its DVC members felt toward Walt Disney World and the other participating resorts. In order to maximize the value of their ownership interest, clever DVC members started going against conventional wisdom with regards to their trips to Orlando et al. They recognized that they could stay two weekday nights for less than a single weekend night in many instances. Take a look at this 2008 points chart for Old Key West to see how extreme the difference was.
In order to ameliorate the growing concern, Disney reconfigured the points chart in 2010 and again in 2011. To this day, they continue tweaking to discover the best way distribute points. When they fail to do this, their expected park traffic volume data is incorrect, which can wreak havoc with their employee scheduling as well as visitor satisfaction. Prior to the major correction in 2010, the unconventional visitation habits of DVC owners were that much of a problem for Disney’s park planners.
Fixed-week purchases
The other unanticipated DVC owner behavior Disney learned over time involved the aforementioned popular vacation times. Some DVC members annually spend the same set of days at the park. In many instances, the applicable timeframe is one of the Disney special events such as the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. Others love spending late December at the parks since this is a wonderful time to enjoy the holiday lights and decorations. Finally, some people simply enjoy having something they can look forward to each year, and I happen to fit in that category. My wife’s birthday and our anniversary fall in the same week, so we go to Orlando each year at this time.
Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas
DVC members who fall into one of these categories want to have a hotel room available to them each year. In 2010, Disney finally acknowledged this behavior with the introduction of fixed-week booking at Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas. Roughly a third of the ownership interests at that facility were originally intended as fixed-week purchases.
While Disney continues to sell Aulani to this day, arguably the most popular application of the premise occurred at the Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. Since the inception of DVC, people anticipated the introduction of the linchpin monorail property, and they loved having the ability to guarantee an annual Christmas week visit. As noted here in 2013, “the Fixed Week deeds account for only 3.8% of all deeds sold at the Grand Floridian, they represent for 9.3% of the points sold.” So, the introduction of fixed-week ownership has proven quite lucrative for Disney.
Disney changes the membership privileges to punish resale purchasers
This is the big one for many DVC owners. Since the purchase is a legitimate real estate acquisition subject to Florida law, Disney can’t block the resale market. Given the hefty price tag for direct ownership through Disney, budget-conscious shoppers deduced that they could save literally thousands of dollars by acquiring a DVC ownership interest via resales.
Ostensibly, Disney could do nothing about this, but we’ve learned over the years that we should never underestimate the company when it comes to creativity. In January of 2011, the company proclaimed new rules. From that point forward, anyone who purchased a membership interest via resale wouldn’t enjoy the same membership benefits as customers who bought directly through Disney. Note that they lacked the legal authority to make this retroactive to prior resales buyers.
Still, the ramifications of Disney’s surprising maneuver resonate to this day. Over the past five years, anyone who purchased through one of the several respected online resale vendors lacks some of the options direct buyers possess. The value of the advantages is debatable (and often debated). Disney direct purchases can book reservations with the Disney Collection, the Concierge Collection, the Adventurer Collection, and Disney Cruise Line.
Resale members quickly determined that if they had interest in such resorts, they could sell their points online and then use the newfound money to book those same accommodations, oftentimes making money in the process. So, the impact of Disney’s decision is minimal at best. What’s more interesting is that Disney continues to make vague threats that they may take additional action in the future in order to heighten the difference between direct and resales ownership. It’s probably saber rattling, but they HAVE done it before.
The move toward supersizing DVC
When Disney originally introduced the DVC concept, they followed conventional wisdom during the early days of timeshares. They trumpeted spacious accommodations that would cater to large families seeking to enjoy a home away from home while visiting Orlando. Over time, they scaled back toward a focus on smaller rooms as research data suggested that people spent less time than anticipated in their rooms.
In 2008, DVCNews revealed blueprints that demonstrated Disney was circling back to its roots. The Treehouse Villas at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa hearkened back to the early days of DVC when size mattered. After 17 years of downscaling resort rooms, DVC suddenly decided to offer a cleverly designed villa capable of sleeping nine.
Treehouse Villas at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
The popularity of this stylish but rustic new villa triggered a new philosophy for Disney resort planners. When they drew up the blueprints for the DVC conversion of Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows, they decided to do something splashy. Disney added its costliest room option ever in terms of points. The vaunted bungalows can cost as much as 1,439 points for a week’s stay. Technically, that’s only 20 points more than The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa’s nicest villa. The difference is that the three-bedroom grand villa there offers 2,800 square feet while the bungalow is 1,650 square feet. So, the supersizing isn’t necessarily just the size of the luxury rooms. It’s also the spike in point cost to stay at some of the most unforgettable spots at the Disney properties.
In 2015, word leaked that the company was again upscaling its offerings. The Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge will again feature renovations, this time including “elite, stand-alone buildings with plush accommodations...and likely high point requirements to boot. “ The new trend with Disney is also the original philosophy modernized: bigger is better.
Disney Vacation Club member David Mumpower first visited Walt Disney World when he was six years old. The little brat promptly threw a tantrum because he couldn't find a comfortable shirt to wear around the park. Fortunately Disney shirts got a lot less itchy over the years. David current writes for a number of websites including "Theme Park Tourist", "Box Office Prophets" and "How Well Do You Know." To contact him click HERE.
