The "Grand" club

[MichaelMouse]

Hey,

Just got back from WDW with the family and I am seriously considering purchasing into DVC. However, I am not too convinced with BLT. I prefer the Grand Floridian or Polynesian. Does anybody know if either hotel will ever add Club villas? If so, I already made my decision to buy. If not, I need to convince myself to buy into the BLT.

[DVC2004]

No one knows as DVC hasn't announced any plans. If I were to speculate it would be Grand before Poly. DVC is opening a resort in Hawaii in a few years.

The bad things about waiting are price increase, possible sell out of BLT (only DVC on monorail right now) and they may never build one at either of those places. IF they do, you can always purchase an add on contract there. Just some things to consider.

[Ed]

I seriously doubt if either will ever become part of DVC without major renovation or expansion. BLT was able to take advantage of availability of some open land (even though it meant demolition of an old wing of the Contemporary), and I don't see that happening at the GF or Poly. :nono:

HOWEVER...

There is another "Grand" that you can buy into, like we just did - - the Villas at the Grand Californian! Villas open September 23rd, the same day we're flying out there. What a coincidence! DVC was offering some great incentives on VGC earlier this month; not sure if they have expired yet.

:cool:

[diz_girl]

I agree that there is no open land at the Poly on which to build. It is completely surrounded.

The GF, however, has a lot of open land to the north, in-between the convention center and the canal where they keep the EWP barges. Disney could easily build a footbridge over the small canal behind the convention center, so that any DVC buildings are easily accessible from the main resort by foot. Maybe a DVC there would prompt WDW to finally build that bridge over the big canal, so that you can walk to the MK from the GF. The walkway from the MK is lighted and maintained, so all that's missing is the bridge.

[Ian]

No need to build at either place ... they'd just convert specific buildings/longhouses to DVC villas.

Admittedly, it would make for fairly small DVC properties, but there's a ton of upside for Disney in doing it. The cost benefit is incredible, so it wouldn't at all shock me.

[diz_girl]

I can see how converting existing buildings or longhouses would be more cost-effective than starting new construction. However, the GF and Poly seem to have fairly good bookings, as compared to AKL, so Disney wouldn't need to convert existing rooms like they did at Jambo House.

And as you can as you can see with BLT, Disney wants to sell a lot of points, or else they would have just converted the North Garden Wing into DVC instead of bulldozing it and maybe converted the South Garden Wing into DVC units too. If they bulldozed the North wing because the way that the CR was initially constructed might make it difficult to convert into DVC units, then all but three buildings in the Poly wouldn't be able to be converted either, since they are constructed the same way. Just Tokelau, Tahiti and Rapa Nui would be able to be converted.

Also, if just existing buildings were converted at the GF and Poly, so few points would be available for sale, as compared to SSR or AKV, that most of the points might be snapped up by existing DVC owners and little new blood would come into DVC. And I would shudder to think of what the waiting list would look like for anyone who didn't own there.

[MinnieMommie]

No need to build at either place ... they'd just convert specific buildings/longhouses to DVC villas.

Admittedly, it would make for fairly small DVC properties, but there's a ton of upside for Disney in doing it. The cost benefit is incredible, so it wouldn't at all shock me.

Totally agree. I rather expect that this will happen. As Ian suggests, there is a ton of upside for Disney to do so. :mickey:

[Ian]

IAlso, if just existing buildings were converted at the GF and Poly, so few points would be available for sale, as compared to SSR or AKV, that most of the points might be snapped up by existing DVC owners and little new blood would come into DVC. And I would shudder to think of what the waiting list would look like for anyone who didn't own there.Yeah, but think about it ... that works in Disney's favor. They don't care a whit about who buys the points, just so long as they get sold.

And you, yourself, admit that they'd be wildly popular properties. Imagine the price-per-point they could charge!

[diz_girl]

I can imagine the price-per-point, which makes me think that Disney wouldn't be content in just converting a building or two to DVC units. They'll want to get the greatest number of rooms that the property can handle (within reason) in order to sell the greatest number of points that they can, hence Kidani Village and BLT, rather than converting a smaller number of units on those properties.