Bad News Folks, WDW retracting the July 11th opening date for Resort Hotels

I think this is them saying hey, heads up, we’re taking the reservation system offline and you can’t book a room. Don’t freak out.

If we change the wording to what they meant to say: “Upon reopening, theme parks, Disney Vacation Club Resorts , restaurants…may be modified” it makes sense because remember the DVC hotels are opening June 22

2 Likes

I went back to the official Disney parks blog entry, and it has the same language it did originally…which still does leave room for interpretation. But it sure sounds to me like guests with existing reservations will get priority. Although I definitely see why DVC guests should come first.

That’s what I thought as well, DVC, AP and existing reservations get priority. In fact, I’d hedge my bets that they are part of a soft opening group prior to 7/11. Esp since dvc will be open two weeks before that.

1 Like

Couldn’t that also mean they’re opening the hotels sooner? And not necessarily all at once?

I’m putting my money on that.

1 Like

I am confused by the tweet claiming what Disney officially said. Where, officially, did they say this?

And also, hotels were not part of the reopening plan that had to be presented to the task force and get governor approval- that was only for the theme parks. Disney closed the hotels under their own direction and can reopen them without approval as well. The removal of “hotels” from the wording may simply be to reflect who’s in control of what.

3 Likes

So…let me just ask this…if you had an existing reservation at a value resort because that was your budget, and then due to all this Disney moves you to a moderate for their own safety reasons…does that mean you will have to pay the difference of the hotel stay to keep your reservation? So many questions…

My asssumption would be no you would just get the upgrade…but they would certainly not advertise something like that

4 Likes

No. If Disney offers to move you, you pay the same amount.

For example, my son had a single night at PO, and Disney offered to upgrade him for free to GF.

1 Like

So if I paid deluxe, I get to keep paying deluxe even though a value person gets upgraded the same room for a value price
… uh…blink, blink

i know PO is not deluxe…

1 Like

Yep - just like many (most?) of the people in Business Class are upgrades rather than people who actually paid full freight for the seat.

2 Likes

I assume Disney did it because they had less chance to fill the Deluxe rooms, but if they moved some out of the moderates, they could fill more moderate rooms. It increases revenue for Disney while spreading pixie dust for some guests.

“airplane” pricing. Concerts have moved to this as well. A person who paid 500 for a ticket could easily be sitting next to a person who paid 50, thanks to dynamic pricing.

Um.

Care to say more, Kitteh?

Saratoga Springs and Old Key West are DVC only. 3000+ rooms between them.

Also too, I’d wager that a big part of the reason DVC resorts are opening but non-DVC resorts aren’t is: because the fixed costs of operating the DVC resorts - housekeeping, front desk, maintenance, utilities, recreation, and insurance - are covered not by room revenue but by dues, there is almost no financial risk to opening the DVC resorts. Yes, there can and will still be an operating loss on things like restaurants, but those come from a separate pocket anyway.

If whatever the name of the division that operates the hotels is called opens, say, Port Orleans, there’s a minimum level of staff and costs associated with it, and operating costs, required even if there are no guests. So there needs to be a minimum number of guests before it’s just cheaper to keep the resort closed. That’s not the case with DVC. If one room is occupied, the resort operating costs are still basically covered.

4 Likes

Ooh good point. Those things are paid for by member dues and are already accounted for.

And lest anyone think those DVC-paid services could be used to operate the non-DVC side of joint-occupancy properties: DVC owners have paid higher dues to not have to share facilities with the non-DVC sides of the properties. The check-in desk and bell services at Bay Lake Tower and Kidani Village are examples. Any attempt at “oh hey, look over there” would be grounds for a hum-dinger of a class action lawsuit against DVC Development.

1 Like

What is the impact to Copper Creek? In my mind it seems impossible to separate anything there?

In joint-occupancy properties, DVC is going to pay a percentage of operating the joint facilities, which are in all likelihood managed by the hotel side. There’s a contractual obligation that those facilities are open and staffed to a minimum level. If that means that the hotel side loses money because they don’t have enough revenue to cover that share of the costs, so sad too bad.

In cases like that, I think the hotel side charges more for the services than DVC would pay to operate them themselves, so I don’t think it’s much of a money-loser. There are also probably contingencies built in to the operating agreements where the DVC side could opt to pay to have a pool or other recreation open.

So the practical effects will be minimal. Just everyone who makes all these harrumph-harrumph statements of metaphysically certitudinous TRVTH on How Things Will Be need to understand that there’s rafts of very dense, lawyerly language behind even simple questions like “who empties the garbage cans in the lobby?”