VGF

Disneydad1012

Active Member
Original Poster
Anyone else surprised this was announced without anyone here or anther board mentioning it?

Posted on the member site.

More Disney Vacation Club Magic Coming to Walt Disney World
We are excited to share plans to reimagine one building of existing hotel rooms at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa into Disney Vacation Club Villas.
Starting next spring, we plan to convert Big Pine Key (Building 9) at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa into approximately 200 Resort Studios, each accommodating up to five people. Featuring the Victorian elegance and charm of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, these new Villas will offer Members luxury accommodations and amenities, with some Villas boasting stunning views of Bay Lake and Magic Kingdom. Projected to open in summer 2022, these new Villas are an expansion of The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and will be a part of its current condominium association.
We look forward to sharing more information about the start of sales and rental bookings with our Members at a later date.
 

nickys

Premium Member
Not surprised.

Bookings at GF have been lacklustre recently, and since the cancellation of Reflections it was clear they would simply convert rooms to DVC. I think the choice was really between more rooms at AKL or converting a building at GF or Poly. Since the Poly already has lots of studios, GF was the best option.

I am surprised at the timeline though, that’s very quick. The refurbs at Saratoga will have taken as long (not counting the downtime).
 

seascape

Well-Known Member
Not surprised.

Bookings at GF have been lacklustre recently, and since the cancellation of Reflections it was clear they would simply convert rooms to DVC. I think the choice was really between more rooms at AKL or converting a building at GF or Poly. Since the Poly already has lots of studios, GF was the best option.

I am surprised at the timeline though, that’s very quick. The refurbs at Saratoga will have taken as long (not counting the downtime).
They need the rooms to eat up all the outstanding points. The VGF is a high point user.
 

CastAStone

5th gate? Just build a new resort Bob.
Premium Member
Not surprised.

Bookings at GF have been lacklustre recently, and since the cancellation of Reflections it was clear they would simply convert rooms to DVC. I think the choice was really between more rooms at AKL or converting a building at GF or Poly. Since the Poly already has lots of studios, GF was the best option.

I am surprised at the timeline though, that’s very quick. The refurbs at Saratoga will have taken as long (not counting the downtime).
Grand Floridian should get a full renovation this year or early next year as well, so the timing makes sense
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
They’ll be selling more points for this. So I don’t see how it helps with outstanding points.
They could theoretically open all the rooms next summer before they are all sold. Not saying they will, though. There is a certain appeal to opening them slowly so the new buyers actually have somewhere to book.
 

i<3riviera

Active Member
They could theoretically open all the rooms next summer before they are all sold. Not saying they will, though. There is a certain appeal to opening them slowly so the new buyers actually have somewhere to book.

Good point. Declare them all so they become part of the DVC inventory.
at a minimum declared points are always > sold points and usually by a healthy margin so there will be some opportunity for we non-VGFers to sneak in

as one benchmark, RVA's initial declaration was ~1.3M points (~19% of total); VGF part deux could be expected to sell faster so they may declare more initially
 

striker1064

Active Member
Wow! My wife is going to want this... 2064 expiration is fine so long as the price comes down considerably from its sold out pricing...
That's an interesting question, do we think this will come down in price since it's no longer "sold out"? DVC has never done this before so there's no precedent for how it'll be handled.

Then again, direct price for currently-selling DVC resorts in a couple years could easily be VGF's sold out price now, so maybe this isn't a necessary thought experiment.
 

CastAStone

5th gate? Just build a new resort Bob.
Premium Member
That's an interesting question, do we think this will come down in price since it's no longer "sold out"? DVC has never done this before so there's no precedent for how it'll be handled.

Then again, direct price for currently-selling DVC resorts in a couple years could easily be VGF's sold out price now, so maybe this isn't a necessary thought experiment.
They did this with OKW a zillion years ago when they added the last few buildings where the sales center had been. But that was before they were doing sold out resort pricing. So 🤷‍♂️
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
That's an interesting question, do we think this will come down in price since it's no longer "sold out"? DVC has never done this before so there's no precedent for how it'll be handled.

Then again, direct price for currently-selling DVC resorts in a couple years could easily be VGF's sold out price now, so maybe this isn't a necessary thought experiment.
I highly doubt that.
 

nickys

Premium Member
The only issue with them declaring all rooms into inventory immediately is that I think DVC then have to cover the maintenance fees of the unsold points. I guess it depends on whether they think they can get more cash by selling those points vs letting WDW book the rooms.
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
The only issue with them declaring all rooms into inventory immediately is that I think DVC then have to cover the maintenance fees of the unsold points. I guess it depends on whether they think they can get more cash by selling those points vs letting WDW book the rooms.
My guess is that they will do one floor, and declare that floor initially. Then work on converting the other floors one at a time. I totally agree with you that they will not declare it all at once.

In the other VGF thread in News, a person that claims to work at GF states that occupancy has been between 90-95% since the resorts opening last year. If so, that blows out some people's claim that Disney is only interested in converting those rooms because they can't get anyone to stay there, and I tend to believe him over the naysayers. I always thought they were trying to give DVC members more choices on where to stay, and the VGF has always been very hard to get into at 7 months. This will open up a lot more availability for us. We will definitely stay there at some point after they open.
 

CastAStone

5th gate? Just build a new resort Bob.
Premium Member
The only issue with them declaring all rooms into inventory immediately is that I think DVC then have to cover the maintenance fees of the unsold points. I guess it depends on whether they think they can get more cash by selling those points vs letting WDW book the rooms.
They’ve been declaring Riviera about 1.5 million points at a time and VGFv 1.1 will be about 1.75 million points*. So it wouldn’t be completely out of line to declare the whole thing.

*assuming this is 60% lake, 40% standard and uses the existing point chart, which of course is totally subject to change
 

CastAStone

5th gate? Just build a new resort Bob.
Premium Member
In the other VGF thread in News, a person that claims to work at GF states that occupancy has been between 90-95% since the resorts opening last year.
That flies in the face of what every insider here and elsewhere has said about GF. So I’m skeptical.

Either way, based on my vague understanding of construction costs, the refurb will probably cost around $20-$40 million and sell for $350 million so they’re going to capture a lot of profit right now, and it will help DVC sales at WDW stretch until the next big project can go on sale.
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
That flies in the face of what every insider here and elsewhere has said about GF. So I’m skeptical.

Either way, based on my vague understanding of construction costs, the refurb will probably cost around $20-$40 million and sell for $350 million so they’re going to capture a lot of profit right now, and it will help DVC sales at WDW stretch until the next big project can go on sale.
He only mentioned what has happened since the resort opened last year, so I'm of a mind to believe him. The insiders were claiming issues before the pandemic. I haven't heard any talk since then. But you may be right. Even though he works there, he may be stretching the truth or only going by his personal observation, and not actual hard data. Either way, I don't care as I welcome the change that will give us a better chance to reserve a room there going forward.
 

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