Category: DVC Resorts

Disney’s Vero Beach Resort is celebrating it’s 21-year anniversary. Vero Beach opened on October 1, 1995 as the 2nd Disney Vacation Club resort.

Disney’s entry into the timeshare business resulted in sales of about $50 million in its first year of operation. Mark Pacala, general manager and senior vice president of the Disney Vacation club at the time, stated in February 1993 that “If we carry out our vision, we will dot the world with Disney vacation clubs.” He added, the company “is exploring its options in North America” and a major announcement could be made within a few months.

In March 1993, Disney announced that it had purchased 70 acres of oceanfront property near Vero Beach, Florida, where the company would for the first time open a resort outside the boundaries of its theme parks. The DVC resort would begin with a 120-room inn and 60 vacation villas, expected to open during summer 1995. Plans called for another 260 villas to be built later, along with a 6-acre artificial lake. On the diagram below, the 120-room inn and 60 vacation villas would be built between the highway and the beach (on the right), while the another 260 villas and a 6-acre artificial lake would be built on the larger inland plot of land (on the left).

In a public meeting in May 1993, some Vero Beach residents expressed concern that the Disney resort might grow beyond the planned 440 units on 70 acres of land. Again and again, people in the audience asked if Disney had its eye on adjoining parcels of land. They asked if Disney planned a seaside theme park, a monorail from Walt Disney World to the beach or expansions to the local airport. Mark Pacala pointed to a slide of the master plan, which was filed with the county planning and zoning board Tuesday, and said, “What you see up there is what you get.” In the end, the Indian River County Commission approved the project.

Ground breaking took place on July 28, 1994, where Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale were all in attendance for the big moment.

On October 1, 1995, Disney’s Vero Beach Resort opened as the first expansion of the Disney Vacation Club. The resort opened with a 115-room inn and 60 villas. When completed, the resort was expected to have 436 units. Disney officials said they’d wait a year to gauge how business was going before starting additional construction.

However, point sales at Vero Beach turned out to be much slower than Disney had anticipated. Remember, Disney originally planned to start with the 112-room Inn and 60 villas on beachfront property, and then expand by adding 260 more villas across the street, along with a 6-acre artificial lake. Disney proceeded with the initial phase, however, due to poor sales, DVC cancelled Phase 2 in 2001 and sold the land in 2006. Because of this, DVC ended up subsidizing the annual dues for early purchasers of Vero Beach.

Instead of a 70-acre resort, Vero Beach is only a 22-acre resort.

Since Vero Beach is just a 2-hour drive from Disney World, some members add a stay at Vero Beach to relax after WDW.

Five years ago, on August 29, 2011, Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa opened as the Disney Vacation Club’s eleventh resort.

On Oct 3, 2007, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts announced that the company had finalized plans to purchase 21 acres of oceanfront property located at the Ko Olina Resort & Marina development on the western side of Hawaii’s island of Oahu. This would be Disney’s first mixed-use family resort outside of its theme park developments – with both hotel rooms and DVC villas. DVC hadn’t built a DVC resort outside of a theme park since the opening of Vero Beach Resort and Hilton Head Island Resort in 1995 and 1995, respectively.

On Nov 19, 2008, Disney broke ground for its first family destination resort in Hawaii with a traditional Hawaiian blessing ceremony on its 21-acre oceanfront property, located at the Ko Olina Resort & Marina development on the western side of Oahu.

On Jan 20, 2010, the Disney Hawaiian resort was officially given the name of Aulani : A Disney Resort & Spa, Ko Olina, Hawaii. In Hawaiian, “aulani” means “the place that speaks for the great ones” or “the place that speaks with deep messages.”

On July 1, 2010, Disney Vacation Club began selling real estate interests for Aulani.

However, a year later (on July 9, 2011), DVC suspended sales of points for Aulani after discovering  calculation errors regarding the annual dues – the dues were underestimated. This discovery led to the August 15, 2011 firing of three executives, including Jim Lewis, president of Disney Vacation Club.

On Aug 29, 2011, Aulani opened and became the 11th DVC resort.

On September 22, 2011, Bob Iger, President and CEO, The Walt Disney Company and Tom Staggs, Chairman, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, took part in the official Grand Opening Celebration of Aulani.

Also on September 22, Hawaiian state regulators grant DVC permission to raise its annual dues at Aulani by 33 percent.

On July 26,2012, Disney announced a project at Aulani to include an expansion of the highly popular Waikolohe Valley pool area as well as the addition of two new quick-service dining options.

The expansion opened on Oct 19, 2013 – a little more than 2 years after Aulani opened – and featured a spectacular infinity pool with a realistic grotto, a dynamic fun splash zone for smaller kids, and a new location for poolside and beachside dining.

Today, DVC continues to sell points at Aulani (there are over 11 million points at Aulani, which is second only to Saratoga Springs Resort’s 14 million points).

While we all look forward to DVC expansions at the Wilderness Lodge and the Caribbean Beach Resort (and perhaps the Contemporary Resort), let’s look back at the story of four Disney Vacation Club resorts that were planned but never came to be.

Disney Vacation Club WEST

The first resort is the one we know the least about. Disney had just opened the Disney Vacation Club resort in 1991 at Walt Disney Resort, and was working on plans for the next DVC resort.

Disney’s plans included both expansion outside of Walt Disney World, as well as expansion within Walt Disney World. Well before they purchased land in Vero Beach for what would become the second DVC resort, Disney was working on plans for a second resort within Walt Disney World, and no, I am not referring to the Boardwalk.

In 1992, Disney developed plans for a project named “Disney Vacation Club West” on a 164-acre site located south of Epcot Drive, east of World Drive, north of Epcot Resort Blvd, and west of Epcot. If you know where the cast member parking lot is for the Yacht & Beach Club resort, you know the general location.

If you can’t imagine where that is, here is a present-day view of that location.

Remember, the first DVC resort was still called the Disney Vacation Club, so the working project name of the Disney Vacation Club West made sense. Of course, we don’t know what DVC would have named the resort.

The resort was designed to be very similar to the first Disney Vacation Club – clusters of buildings with parking directly outside. It’s very much like an Old Key West style resort in the Epcot resort area.

Below is the overall site plan from October 1992.

Ultimately, DVC decided not to proceed with these plans. We don’t know why.

Newport Coast

The second resort we’re going to look at was officially announced, unlike the above Disney Vacation Club West resort. In March 1994, Disney announced it had purchased 35 acres south of Newport Beach and north of Laguna Beach, and was looking to buy another 10 to 40 acres.

The acres would be used to build 650 villas, restaurants and shops in a Mediterranean village design.

In February 1995, more details surrounding the planned $250 million dollar Disney Vacation Club resort were released. The 76-acre hillside resort would be designed as an Italian-style Mediterranean village of 650 condominiums where visitors could dine at either of two restaurants, hang out at several tennis courts, volleyball nets, poolside or at a golf course. It would offer sweeping ocean vistas, gondola rides along quiet Venetian-style canals and overnight camping for kids.

The main entrance would feature a six-story “main estate” building flanked by twin 109-foot towers. Designed by Italian architect Aldo Rossi, the earth-tone buildings would have tile roofs and a fake Roman aqueduct that spills into the swimming pool.

However, in February 1997, Disney announced that they had scuttled their plans to build a resort along Orange County’s Newport Coast, and that they would be selling the land.

In January of 1998, Marriott announced plans for a California Coast Vacation Ownership resort located on the former Disney site. In June of 2000, Marriott’s Newport Coast Villas opened its first 55 units, with plans for 595 more, bringing the total up to 650 units.

Eagle Pines

The third resort was also officially announced. In July of 2001, Disney announced plans to build their largest DVC resort to date. The proposed 600-unit ownership development was slated to occupy a 61-acre site along the award-winning Disney’s Eagle Pines Golf Course at Walt Disney World Resort.

All rooms would feature either a pool, golf course or forest view. Initial plans called for the construction of a main Inn building encompassing a check-in area; accommodations; restaurant/lounge; theme pool with feature slide; retail space; arcade; common living room area and a health club, as well as Villa buildings containing vacation home accommodations. Development would begin that fall with an estimated opening in Spring/Summer 2004.

The theme of the proposed DVC resort would complement and enhance the beautiful setting found at Disney’s Eagle Pines Golf Course. The new resort would be inspired by the architecture of Addison Mizner, a celebrated early 20th century architect who led the renaissance of Florida resort design. The property’s design would reflect a variety of motifs found in indigenous Florida buildings of this era, including Spanish, Moorish, Romanesque and Gothic forms. The atmosphere and elegance found in the coastal communities of southeast Florida (including West Palm Beach and Boca Raton) would be found in the resort’s architecture, ranging from tile roofs to fountains to lush, tropical landscaping.

Commissioned to design the resort was renowned architect Graham Gund, who created the architectural look for such Disney projects as Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort and Disney’s Vero Beach Resort — another Disney Vacation Club property. Gund designed the resort to take advantage of the pristine setting found at Disney’s Eagle Pines Golf Course while maintaining the integrity of the existing golf course. Guests at the resort would have views of Disney’s Eagle Pines Golf Course but golfers’ view of the property would be buffered, with resort buildings “stepping down” in height as they near the golf holes.

The new resort was scheduled to open in phases, with the first phase consisting of the Inn building and five Villa buildings for a total of 360 units. The Inn and one Villa building were expected to open in Spring/Summer 2004, with the four additional Villa buildings opening throughout the remainder of that year. The final phase of five additional Villa buildings containing 240 units were anticipated to open by Spring/Summer 2005.

However, the impact of the horrible events on 9/11 reduced traffic to Disney World dramatically, and the Eagle Pines plans were scuttled in favor of a make-over of the Disney Institute as Saratoga Springs Resort.

Today, the Four Seasons resort and Golden Oak now sit where Eagle Pines was going to be.

Fort Wilderness

The fourth and final resort we’re going to review was never officially announced by DVC. In September 2011, Disney filed plans for a Fort Wilderness DVC. Several variations of the plan were drawn up, but a multi-story set of interconnected buildings was common.

Below is the site plan dated September 30, 2011 for “Project 2011-2” at Fort Wilderness.

The design firm prepared the video below:

While this plan never came to fruition, they could, however, be revived someday.

Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort is celebrating it’s 7-year anniversary.

BLT opened on August 4, 2009 as the 9th Disney Vacation Club resort (the 7th DVC resort at Walt Disney World).

 

On January 31, 2007, Disney began demolishing the 3-story garden wing building to the north of the main A-frame building at Disney’s Contemporary resort. Demolition was completed on April 6, 2007.

In November 2007, Disney filed plans for “Kingdom Tower” at this location.

On January 14, 2008, the Orlando Sentinel broke the story that Disney was building a 15-story tower that would feature timeshares.

In February 2008, Disney received approval to start selling timeshares in “Kingdom Tower”.

On September 16, 2008, DVC officially revealed plans for its Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. The resort opened on August 4, 2009.

BLT is currently undergoing a “soft goods” refurbishment.

Due to its relatively low annual dues, a contract end date of 2060, and average resale cost, BLT is a good value for those looking to purchase DVC. And of course, its location (within walking distance of the Magic Kingdom) and theme park view rooms have generated a solid base of BLT fans.

I wrote a brief post as a guest blogger for David’s Vacation Club Rentals.  It’s about slowing down when you’re on vacation at Walt Disney World and enjoying the beauty of the resorts.

You can read it here: A Gorgeous Sunrise Tour of Disney Vacation Club Resorts