Island Tower at Polynesian Villas & Bungalows

[DVCsloth]

Isn’t it better to compete at 11 months instead of 7 months?

If I were to buy, it would be to stay at the tower. Disney decided to make it the same association, now all owners at Polynesian are able to book at 11 months.

 

[Genie+]

If I were to buy, it would be to stay at the tower. Disney decided to make it the same association, now all owners at Polynesian are able to book at 11 months.

Yeah more competition at 11 months AND more competition at 7 months too.

 

[Genie+]

^That’s great for the whole of DVC but doesn’t help the rationale for buying direct and paying extra for that.

 

[maui22]

Thing with the tower is it brings a lot of demand to PVB that wasn’t there before. My thoughts are tower will be booked for hotel side and many PVB owners book it during the 11 month booking. New PVB buyers will get the magical booking for their first stay.

May leave a lot of non-owners no choice but to buy PVB if they want to stay in the tower. FOMO is important for Disney sales.

 

[BayTower2010]

^That’s great for the whole of DVC but doesn’t help the rationale for buying direct and paying extra for that.

Disney is increasing their ROFR on Poly resale points. By the time they finally start selling the new Tower, all Poly contracts will be pulled by Disney. So if you want Poly points, you will have to purchase direct -- at least for the first year or so.

 

[Sandisw]

This is for them to sell points - but maybe they don't care about selling points this year? Can it "open" in December just on cash bookings with nothing declared DVC?

I am going to say yes. Look at BPK..it was a hotel until it wasn’t.

If they want to push it not to be DVC until 2025…they can simply wait to declare rooms into the association.

 

[Sandisw]

I’ve never seen a separate license for any “club level” anything anywhere. I wonder if falls under the catering license for the wedding and events

The AKV POS explains how it works. Basically, they moved the lounge to be a common element of AKV.

The hire out to Disney to run it.

 

[Sandisw]

Sorry not following the VGC scenario. I never liked the idea of restrictions. We bought Riviera in spite of the restrictions. Love the resort and the access to Epcot and HS. We like to alternate between BCV and Riviera, so I book at 11 months and check at 7 months at BCV. We stay in 1br's so we usually can modify when we want to.

That is us in terms of restrictions. We are indifferent to them…didn’t buy expecting resale value…which was our thought when we bought BLT to become members..so it didn’t impact us.

Now, if they want to get rid of them, great. If they don’t, not to worry.

But we are off PVB tower because of it wanting to complete with longhouse and bungalow points since those are not our favorites.

 

[Sandisw]

Isn’t it better to compete at 11 months instead of 7 months?

Not for me because it’s not my top choice resort. Plus we want the larger units and I think those are going to be popular and hard until the whole project is declared and sold.

Maybe we will reconsider than once we know how it goes

 

[Paul Stupin]

The only way? You prefer the lobby in the Riviera to the renderings of Poly Tower? You’d rather be close to Caribbean Beach than The Grand Floridian? You wouldn’t want a room or restaurant with a perfectly framed view of the castle, fireworks, the monorail, boats, and the contemporary? Does Riviera have boats that go to a theme park? If the weather gets bad, you’d rather try to get back to Riviera than Poly?

We spent last week at VGF, and walked over to Ohana for dinner. Whereas VGF as actually kind of quiet, serene, and felt like a different world, an oasis from the crowds, Poly was packed with people. Ohana was jammed, the quick service was jammed, Trader Sam’s was jammed, every outdoor seating area was jammed, the lawn out back was jammed with a 100 pre tweens dancing to some video on an inflatable screen, and at 7 pm the pool was overflowing with people.
Now, granted, we don’t have kids, who might like the Poly, but the place just seemed monumentally crowded, and we walked away glad that we weren’t staying there. We love the tower, but it seems inevitable that all those people will migrate over to the tower to use its amenities as well. Thats why we wish it was a separate association.

 

[Sykes]

Personally, I think they should convert it to a larger Trader Sam’s. Inside would be themed so people don’t care. Add an outside area with live music. Trader Sam’s is popular enough for the larger space. Moving it would also move many from the GCH lobby and Capt Cooks to Tangaroa Terrace. Giving GCH a break. Tangaroa Terrace is also closer to TTC for people to walk over.

I hope they don’t do that. Making Trader Sam’s meaningfully larger would ruin the charm for me. All of my favorite tiki bars are tiny inside, and for good reason. Additional heavily themed bars like Trader Sam’s would be awesome, though, and take some pressure off of it. I also think providing a meaningfully themed outdoor bar experience would be amazing.

 

[Jwaire]

If it's true that Tangaroa Terrace at PVB is being renovated, it's a perfect venue for a new dining option. That is what it was years (decades ) ago... Closed in '96.

New rumor for me. Odd location and the building needed a gut and redo last time I was doing laundry in there last year.

 

[mkatsy]

I am going to say yes. Look at BPK..it was a hotel until it wasn’t.

If they want to push it not to be DVC until 2025…they can simply wait to declare rooms into the association.

Which way brings in more revenue? Renting the rooms for cash or selling points? Sure, the points are bigger transactions, but there are fewer of them. Those construction loan payments wait for no one.

 

[DebbieB]

My big question for me is if they will have April 2024 points and if i could sell them back for a credit.

 

[tom1944]

Isn’t it better to compete at 11 months instead of 7 months?

If I stay there 2 or 3 times in the next 30 years I am fine. I do not believe I will need 11 month window for that.

 

[Royal Consort]

Yeah the weird thing with Poly Tower same association is in some way it rewards resale and penalizes previous direct.

Direct RIV, AUL, and VGF buyers likely considered direct as an advantage for booking new builds - less trading competition. They are not all restricted resorts but buying them direct meant booking new restricted resorts. The reality is so far it has made little difference, and Poly Tower will be just as hard for them to book at 7 months than any resale trading in. For RIV, the have the albatross of being a single resort resale and the less new builds that join them in that, the more albatrossy their albatross gegets.

I won't be buying direct from Disney again because they do not act in good faith. We accepted restrictions when purchasing Riviera as it was communicated this was their way forward. We accepted that. What we did not expect is for them to pull a fast one, twice.

It's an either/or scenario. You're either changing the product to include restrictions to differentiate resale from direct or you abolish it. The resale restrictions provide no benefit to the company's strategy if they keep selling unrestricted properties. The only thing it does is hurt the consumer who accepted Disney's policy in good faith. That's the only outcome. This leaves a bitter taste. My husband won't discuss the Polynesian tower becauss he is so angry about it. I am more circumspect, but they've lost my trust and I wrote to DVC management informing them politely of their anti-consumer behaviour and optics.

I earnestly believe the DVC division has no real long term or consistent strategy and seems chaotically run. Disney used to be better at this and make data driven decisions. Creating CFW dispelled any notion of that.

 

[Jwaire]

My big question for me is if they will have April 2024 points and if i could sell them back for a credit.

It won't be tower points.

I expect they'll follow the BPK playbook and won't sell the original units, prioritizing tower points first. But I guess we'll see.

 

[DebbieB]

It won't be tower points.

I expect they'll follow the BPK playbook and won't sell the original units, prioritizing tower points first. But I guess we'll see.

I meant tower points.

 

[CastAStone]

Which way brings in more revenue? Renting the rooms for cash or selling points? Sure, the points are bigger transactions, but there are fewer of them. Those construction loan payments wait for no one.

That’s not a simple question. DVC allows them to hide construction costs from their balance sheet (though not from their cash flow statement) and realize lots of potential future revenue quickly.

But over the next 50 years, at 90% occupancy and 80% of rack rate, they almost certainly would make more money off of running them as a standard hotel. So usually, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to just convert something already built.

The big issue at BPK is that GF hadn’t regularly hit 90% occupancy in years. They had the ability to command $400 a night from more people 15 years ago than they have customers at $900 a night today. But because they can get $900 a night from a whole bunch of people, they don’t want to cut prices. So reducing room count is a great option. And what better way to do that than by selling them as DVC?!?

 

[mkatsy]

That’s not a simple question. DVC allows them to hide construction costs from their balance sheet (though not from their cash flow statement) and realize lots of potential future revenue quickly.

But over the next 50 years, at 90% occupancy and 80% of rack rate, they almost certainly would make more money off of running them as a standard hotel. So usually, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to just convert something already built.

The big issue at BPK is that GF hadn’t regularly hit 90% occupancy in years. They had the ability to command $400 a night from more people 15 years ago than they have customers at $900 a night today. But because they can get $900 a night from a whole bunch of people, they don’t want to cut prices. So reducing room count is a great option. And what better way to do that than by selling them as DVC?!?

Has it already be discussed if the entire tower has to be declared into DVC? The two bedroom suites at the top of building seem odd. “Suites” is hotel lingo … maybe they are keeping part of the building for themselves