The pending room refurbishment and property tax rates were just two of the topics discussed during the 2024 Disney Vacation Club Condominium Meeting for Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney's Wilderness Lodge.
Editor's Note: Beginning in 2024, Florida condo associations are required to hold quarterly meetings, rather than the annual meeting previously permitted under state guidelines. These smaller meetings are can only be attended by owners of the resort. DVCNews will be present at several of these meetings and will report back with some brief recaps.
Meeting was the first of the day. Scheduled to begin at 8:30am, the start was delayed a few minutes due to backup of traffic trying to get into the resort.
Jerome Smith, the General Manager of Disney's Wilderness Lodge, personally introduced himself to us. 14 Disney Vacation Club members were in attendance. One member claimed to have also attended the first quarterly meeting in September, and he & his wife were the only attendees.
Board members present include Yvonne Chang, Bill Diercksen, Shannon Sakaske, Alison Armor, Steve Whittington, plus treasurer Tylana Hill
The refresh of Copper Creek Villas is scheduled to begin in late Spring 2025. It is a smaller-scale refresh of the rooms which is scheuled to occur after 7 years. Changes will include new fabrics, art work, more Disney intellectual property (characters, theming), new curtains, updated color palette. Crews will take approimately 12 to 16 villas at a time out of operation. Thefull projject may take a year to complete, but schedule has not yet been finalized.
A decision has not been made as to whether Copper Creek rooms will receive the Murphy-style pull-down sofa beds.
Attendee Q&A items:
- Why does DVC use a room close to the front of the resort for open house sales while members have to use rooms that are further away. Board response is that it is the first time this issue has come up.
- Can we get better toilet paper?
- Can we get better DVC branded clothing? Prefer something with softer material.
- Property Taxes status. Yes, there will be a shortfall in 2024. Board can’t predict how taxes will change in the near future. Property assessment went up 10%.
After the Q&A session, the board moved to approve the budget for 2025. Annual dues will be $8.49 per point, an increase of $0.40 or 4.9%. Karen Grip is the voting member and she voted in favor of the budget.
The board now entertained questions regarding the budget
- How are transportation costs calculated in a shared resort like Wilderness Lodge / Copper Creek / Boulder Ridge? Why do the premium resorts seem to always have shared buses while cash resorts like French Quarter have dedicated bus services. Board stated that there are a lot of analytics going into the scheduling of bus services. DVC has input in the process but not exclusive voice in how resources are expended.
Meeting concluded after about 30 minutes, less than the budgeted 45 minute duration.
Wil Lovato is a contributor to DVCNews.com and has been a Disney Vacation Club owner since 2009. His DVC Home Resorts include Copper Creek Villas, Bay Lake Tower, Animal Kingdom Villas, and Aulani. He can be found posting on many Disney discussion forums under the username of “wdrl.”
