AOA's infrastructure and buildings were well under way in 2001 when construction was halted in a post-9/11 economy. They needed to do something with that facility before it decayed.
As prices at WDW's hotels continued their steady climb throughout the decade and an increasing number of consumers were priced out WDW's higher-end resorts, WDW legitimately had a growing market for guests desperate to stay onsite at less overpriced resorts. (Sorry but I choke on calling AOA a "Value Resort" when I think of AOA's $350/night "suite" consisting of 2 small motel rooms.)
The last 10 years have been mostly about DVC:
- Saratoga Springs Resort (DVC) - opened 2004, 1320 rooms
- Animal Kingdom Villas (DVC) opened 2007, 708 rooms
- Bay Lake Tower (DVC) - opened 2009, 428 rooms
- Art Of Animation - opened 2012, 1984 rooms
- Villas at the Grand Floridian (DVC) - opened 2013, 147 rooms
Next up is the DVC at the Polynesian and rumors of another DVC to follow that.
Occupancy rates for popular DVCs typically are over 95% whereas Disney has been averaging more than 5,100 empty rooms per day at their domestic hotels. It's hard to justify new hotel construction when you have the equivalent of 5 Port Orleans French Quarter sized hotels that are empty.
On another thread, I noted that a Standard View room at the Beach Club this Christmas
starts at $660/night and other room categories only go up from there.
People at WDW this week are noting lots of half-full parking lots at the Deluxe Resorts even as the theme park parking lots are bursting.
And they wonder why they have empty rooms.
And they really think being able to book attractions 60 days in advance is going to fill them.
Seems to me corporate has forgotten that WDW is an amusement park built on swampland in central Florida and that their "Deluxe Resorts" are nothing close to 5-star hotels.
Rather than lower hotel prices and build exciting new attractions, we get MyMagic+.
As I've written before, WDW no longer is in the theme park business; it's in the hotel and timeshare business.