Some of the hotel rooms at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa at the Walt Disney World will be converted into Resort Studio properties for the Disney Vacation Club, under plans announced by Disney today.
The proposed project would see Big Pine Key (building nine) at the Grand Floridian converted into approximately 200 timeshare Resort Studios, each accommodating up to five guests.
Planned for opening in summer 2022, the converted building would become part of The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa and its condominium association. Disney will release sales and booking information for this inventory at a later date.
"This is great news for Disney Vacation Club and our Members," Disney Vacation Club Senior Vice President Terri Schultz said. "It will provide us with new and diverse inventory at a resort that is cherished by our Members and their families."
The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa currently has 100 DVC homes in a mix of styles, ranging from Deluxe Studios to three-bedroom Grand Villas.
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Demand for DVC memberships is being sustained. There is chatter about another DVC development near the entrance of EPCOT.
DVC = built in audience for WDW.
I wonder if this actually represents growth of DVC or instead decline in popularity of the pricey rooms at the Grand Floridian. Most of the other DVC properties at WDW have been purpose built parts of those resorts, not converted sections/buildings of the existing resort. Grand Floridian has the highest rates in WDW, with the cheapest 2021 rack rate (value) for the lowest grade room at $724/night, so I wonder if DVC sees an opportunity to cash in by selling spots at a property that will take little to build/develop but one where they can charge even higher rates/fees than they do now for even the Poly or Bay Lake Tower.
This is clearly an easy way for Disney to sell more DVC without having to bear a bunch of up front costs to build a new resort/addition, which helps to turn the spigot back on as the world emerges from the pandemic.
I still scratch my head at those that buy into DVC and the calculations they perform before buying into it - I can visit Orlando for 1/3 of what an average DVC member spends annually to maintain their status, and have gone through the calculations trying to justify a DVC membership, and just can't figure out where the value is.
Hello Russel. I think you said it in your last phrase. The value is precisely "status", the ever wierd social psychology category, as asset value connected with status is not weighed on a linear cost scale anymore.
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Seems odd that Grand Floridian is the only one of the "first generation" resorts my family never stayed at. Contemporary, Polynesian, Ford Wilderness, we got all those yet aside from a dinner in 1988, never at Grand Floridian. Kept talking about it but the cost was just too much for us when other resorts seemed more fun.