The Official VILLAS at DISNEYLAND HOTEL (Discovery Tower) Owners and Fans Info Thread

[laurafoureyes]

Declarations depend on how fast points are selling - DVD wants to stay ahead of demand. So if what you want isn’t available when you try to book, be sure to waitlist. When a declaration is made and more villas open for booking is a good time for your WL to fill. I can’t prove it, but I’m pretty sure I benefited from declarations when Poly and CCV were in active sales!

Thanks! Will definitely waitlist. I was trying to do the same thing a few trips ago with trying to take advantage of Riviera declarations, but it never came through.

 

[laurafoureyes]

In addition to the 61 rooms declared in Phase 1, Phase 2 has also been declared. I'm still working on getting the Phase 2 Condo Plan documents, but based on what was disclosed in Phase 1 Condo Plan documents, we can deduce Phase 2 includes at least the following 11 rooms:

• 2 Duos (likely SV)
• 4 Studios (likely SV)
• 2 2-Bedroom Dedicated
• 3 2-Bedroom Lock-offs

We know, in filings where they estimate the operating budget for 2023, that they based the operating budget on 72 rooms being available and declared. Original 61 + the 11 'known' from Phase 2 do add up to 72, so it might be all we get declared into 2023 inventory.

That said, Phase 1 + Phase 2 accounts for a little over 20% of points, and only ~11% of points have shown up in deeds recorded with Orange County so far.

Ooh thank you!

 

[laurafoureyes]

I am no expert - how does the Magical Beginnings factor in this (if at all)?

I did it with my purchase so would they be renting out the declared unit(s)/(points) with the Magical Beginnings to the public on top of the undeclared units?

I don't remember the exact specifics of Magical Beginnings as we didn't take advantage of it. Was it for all use years? In any event, my guess this means it will impact declarations up and through 2024, per what @ehh said above re: cash bookings.

 

[laurafoureyes]

Impossible to see, the future is.

Small preview of this past week's recorded deeds: things have slowed. Friday's recorded deeds won't show up on OCRW until Monday evening, which is when I'll do my weekly update, but based on the current 4-day sample of last week the current run rate is ~3,300pts per day, or ~16.5k/wk (5 recording days per week), or ~74k/mo (4.5 weeks per month).

74k/month is still beyond what RIV/VGF are selling at and pretty good numbers, but well down from the peaks of initial sales. At the current rate they may sell another ~400k this year, which will require more points to be declared (~700k have been declared and ~360k have shown up in recorded deeds). Or maybe things slow down further and they won't need to declare more into 2023 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

From what we 'know' about Phase 3, it's likely at least the following:

• 6 Studios (likely SV)
• 13 Studios (likely PV)

...which adds up to ~160k points (~5% of total) and should safely get declarations into 2024. But declaring an additional 19+ rooms in 2023 would also mean that their operating budget estimates are wrong.

So I don't know if they're trying to play chicken with it to avoid having to redo some operating budget finance work, or what. I don't even know if those estimates are all that important for dues (the context they're presented in POS) or if the operating budget scales smoothly with declarations, meaning an negligible difference on dues. Or if estimates just kind of mean nothing anyway--what they end up spending is what matters.

I also don't know what declaration pattern they'll use. What I mean by that: from what I've seen there's at least 2 types of declarations/inventory additions.

1. New inventory added to all dates
   • This is what we saw with Phase 2 VDH declarations, where waitlists were fulfilled en masse and it seems the declared rooms were available for every date reservations were available
   • If online booking tool were available at the time, this would show up as a lot of inventory suddenly available for every date
2. New inventory added to future dates, where only reservations after a certain date can benefit from the declaration. Think of it like a pre-scheduled declaration.
   • I've seen this monitoring inventory at Riviera, where only dates after a certain date have increased inventory.
     • The most recent RIV inventory increase was 5/3/24* and dates after
       • *there was some weirdness on 4/20/24 too, I don't want to derail the thread
   • This means waitlists prior to the 'effective' date are not fulfilled by the declaration and there is no mass inventory availability event. If the effective date is 11mo + 7d, then no waitlists are fulfilled at all.
   • I have not seen the paperwork for the 5/3/24 inventory addition filed on the FL Orange County Comptroller site yet.
     • In fact, the last RIV declaration that was filed, on December 16, 2022, indicates a declared inventory well below what was available for booking even for dates as early as Feb 2024 (when I started monitoring RIV inventory). This indicates they've been pre-scheduling Riviera declarations for some time.
     • I don't know when filings are due for the 5/3/24 inventory expansion

tl;dr: the more I monitor the inventory and paperwork, the more I realize the rabbit hole is very deep BUT, I think there's a chance they may try to stick with current VDH inventory through the end of 2023 and future VDH declarations may only impact future availability and not fulfill 2023 waitlists. One or more of those 'future declarations' may have already happened, too. I suppose we'll know more in about 11 days when the online booking tool is live.

This is such an impressive deep dive into the "rabbit hole".

 

[ehh]

I am no expert - how does the Magical Beginnings factor in this (if at all)?

I did it with my purchase so would they be renting out the declared unit(s)/(points) with the Magical Beginnings to the public on top of the undeclared units?

I don't remember the exact specifics of Magical Beginnings as we didn't take advantage of it. Was it for all use years? In any event, my guess this means it will impact declarations up and through 2024, per what @ehh said above re: cash bookings.

I'm also not an expert, but I think I can help unwind this a bit.

2023 was the first UY of points available for VDH, and when they sold contracts with MB, they sold those 2023 points. My interpretation of that is that they must be backed by declarations--they could not have sold points that were not declared.

However, DVC then bought back those points and now they can do what they wish with those specific points. The logical bet is they turn them into cash bookings using DVC inventory (i.e., declared inventory), on top of the cash bookings from the non-declared inventory. I don't know what kind of rules they have around using those points, but if it's the standard DVC bank/borrow, they could be using 2023 points acquired through MB into November 2025.

 

[NVDISFamily]

So happy to have two resorts at Disneyland. I just booked a room for a special trip in June for us and realized that our dashboard has only Disneyland DVC rooms on it.



Not trying to flex or anything. Just sharing the good vibes (also, almost back into the double digits on our next stay!)

 

[ehh]

So happy to have two resorts at Disneyland. I just booked a room for a special trip in June for us and realized that our dashboard has only Disneyland DVC rooms on it.

View attachment 778591

Not trying to flex or anything. Just sharing the good vibes (also, almost back into the double digits on our next stay!)

Our travel patterns (in terms of dates) are surprisingly similar, though off by a few days and not necessarily to the same coast

 

[Canadian Harmony]

I'm glad I found this thread! We bought 86 points for my yearly birthday trip (enough for a deluxe studio stay for 5 days) and I was only on a waitlist for about a month before the stay came through! My three girlfriends and I are spending my birthday (12-16 Oct) there!

Please add me to the list: 12-16 October - both a Birthday celebration and my Welcome Home (to this DVC).

 

[DennieC]

GCH and Aulani owner here who had to add VDH to my portfolio. Northern California resident, so had to have all of the West Coast DVC resorts covered. Booked for opening weekend at VDH in a 2 bedroom and the wife, son and I are so excited. Like others, we are Magic Key holders and Sorcerer Passholders so a combo pass for DVC would be most welcome. Glad to be part of this amazing group of Disney fans and DVC owners. Welcome Home!

 

[NVDISFamily]

Anyone else eagerly waiting for the opening of the online booking and non VDH points use?

How I’ll feel if there is any decent availability on rooms I can book with my other direct points (we would love to ninja a 3BR for our sons b-day)…

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

Anyone else eagerly waiting for the opening of the online booking and non VDH points use?

How I’ll feel if there is any decent availability on rooms I can book with my other direct points (we would love to ninja a 3BR for our sons b-day)…

I think we have everything we need within July 27 + 7 month window (well except the one I have wait listed - tee hee).
But I better double check that - haha. Best of luck to all you cuties looking for ressies that day.
That said, I'm just excited to finally be able to see resort availability on our own!

 

[Wedgeout]

Definitely eager for that online booking tool.
Our current reservations are:
Sept 28-Oct 2 (Duo/garden).
May 4-May 6 (Duo/preferred).

 

[ehh]

Definitely eager for that online booking tool.
Our current reservations are:
Sept 28-Oct 2 (Duo/garden).
May 4-May 6 (Duo/preferred).

Opening weekend!

 

[eltorodiablo]

Just added on a lil VDH contract to our DVC portfolio! We're from New England, so don't come out west every year, but doing the math, it made too much sense not to add on and have the 11 month window. Flying out every other or every 3 years, banking and borrowing will work out perfectly for us. Can't wait for our welcome home stay in December of 24 (too long!)

 

[Sunnyore]

Definitely eager for that online booking tool.
Our current reservations are:
Sept 28-Oct 2 (Duo/garden).
May 4-May 6 (Duo/preferred).

What time are you planning on checking in on 9/28? They wouldn’t make us wait until 4pm right? I would love to have access to my room before rope drop.

 

[Sunnyore]

I highly recommend we all make regular recommendations to our guides that Disney really needs a "Welcome Home" Annual Pass (that's just my silly name for it) for us crazy people who own at WDW and Disneyland. 1899.00 would be a fair price for DVC members? Make it equal to the good passes (Believe MK and Sorcerers) at both parks?

I know Iger said no to the old version of this, but I think Disney could get around this with the DVC requirement by saying DVC members get a special pass as the program is on both coasts... and don't you want to spend 30k plus to become a member too....

I paid like $2199 for my premier pass in its last year of existence and I remember thinking it was worth it because my Disneyland Signature Plus pass was already like $1449. With Inspire costing $1599 now and Sorcerer close to $1000, I would expect any bicoastal offering to be closer to $2500. I’d gladly pay for it because it’ll still be some savings over me buying 2 individual APs. Wishful dreaming.

 

[Wedgeout]

What time are you planning on checking in on 9/28? They wouldn’t make us wait until 4pm right? I would love to have access to my room before rope drop.

Earlier access would be great for sure! We live 60 miles away. For us it will be a regular park visit type day and see what happens!

 

[Sunnyore]

Earlier access would be great for sure! We live 60 miles away. For us it will be a regular park visit type day and see what happens!

I got Oogie Boogie that night so I want to maximize my hotel time as much as possible! I live 11 miles away so couldn’t justify booking for more than just 1 night. I got a preferred duo but dying to see what the garden rooms are like. I’ll be eager to read your review!

 

[Wedgeout]

I got Oogie Boogie that night so I want to maximize my hotel time as much as possible! I live 11 miles away so couldn’t justify booking for more than just 1 night. I got a preferred duo but dying to see what the garden rooms are like. I’ll be eager to read your review!

We some how lucked out on tickets that night too!! Current itinerary, decided for the whole weekend (unless family snags them) being Chargers season ticket holder, Sunday afternoon SoFi, return home the Monday. (DW not super excited about the ‘extra enthusiasm’ at the vs Raiders games lol).

 

[pepe3penelope]

UrsulaWantsYourSoul…thank you sooooo much for this thread!!! I just came across this yesterday. So excited about the upcoming villas! We added on to get VDH and are hoping to book next month in August for July 2024. Saw you can’t book online yet 11 months out. Does that mean I have to call next month to book? Is it 08:00 EST? I’d have to call on the dot before I go to work. Thanks for any help!