Still having trouble wrapping your head around the idea that the Walt Disney Company just awarded Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts the rights to build a luxury hotel & 18-hole golf course on WDW property? Well, think about how the folks who actually run the resorts side of things of Walt Disney World must have felt. Given that they weren’t actually clued into this deal until just 48 hours prior to the official announcement.
Mind you, this would never have happened back in the late 1980s / early 1990s. Back when virtually every hotel that Mickey owned in Central Florida maintained a 90 % or higher occupancy rate. But now that the Mouse has an inventory of over 21,000 on-property rooms (Never mind about those 2487 Disney Vacation Club units that are currently available for occupancy at WDW. Or those 784 campsites & 409 cabins that you can rent at Fort Wilderness Campground) … Disney really has to hustle these days in order to put heads in all those beds. Especially during the off-season.
This explains why Mickey created that “Magical Beginnings” program. Which was deliberately designed to entice parents with very young children into booking WDW vacations from late August through the last week of October by offering lots of toddler-friendly special entertainment in the theme parks.
This also explains why the Mouse is getting ready to bring back its very popular “Magic Your Way Plus Free Dining” promotion. Which will allow guests who book at least a four night / five day WDW vacation package (That must start sometime between August 26 to September 22) to then dine for free during the length of their stay on property. FYI: The domestic booking window for these WDW dine-for-free vacation packages will be April 12 through June 24th. So plan accordingly, people.
Proposed entrance area for the Villas at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
Copyright 2007 Walt Disney Enterprises
Anyway … In an effort to cut back its on-property room inventory down to a much more manageable size, the resorts side of things at Walt Disney World has been trying a number of tricks lately. Everything from turning some of the inter-connecting rooms over at the All-Star Music to family suites (A total of 192 of these family-friendly units are expected to come on line in the next year or so) to changing the fifth & sixth floor of Animal Kingdom Lodge into a DVC property.
And how about what the Mouse just did over at the Contemporary? Pulling down the entire North Wing of that Magic Kingdom Area hotel (And thereby taking 250 units out of Disney World’s on-property inventory), so that this area could then be prepped for a brand-new DVC resort. Which could be ready for occupancy as early as late 2010 / early 2011.
Disney’s also reportedly looking at knocking down a few walls and then re-theming some interconnecting rooms over at the Caribbean Beach Resort. So that guests there would then have the opportunity to stay in some “Pirates of the Caribbean” -themed suites.
But truth be told … Even with all of this creative nibbling away at WDW’s room inventory, at best all that the Mouse is going to be able to do is remove and/or re-purpose 1000 on-property units. When (According to what Disney World insiders have told me) this Central Florida resort currently has 5000 more hotel rooms than it can actually regularly use.
Exterior paddock view for the Villas at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
Copyright 2007 Walt Disney Enterprises
Oh, sure. During the holiday season, every single hotel room on property is occupied. But maintaining that 21,000-plus unit inventory during the other 50 weeks of the year actually eats away at WDW’s earnings. And given that there have been lots of signs lately (I.E. The rising national mortgage default rate coupled with the recent spike in fuel prices as well as increasing concerns that the War in Iraq may soon spread to Iran) that we may be headed into another travel slump … The Mouse wants to find some way soon to get WDW’s on-property room inventory under control.
In the past, Disney World has artificially lowered its on-property room inventory by doing things like closing the entire Caribbean Beach Resort in 2002 so that the Imagineers could retool that hotel’s food court area. It’s also removed entire hotels from WDW’s line-up by either turning these resorts into DVC properties (EX: How the Disney Institute became the Saratoga Springs ) or getting outside contractors to sign long-term leases for these hotels (EX: Which is how the Golf Resort / Disney Inn became Shades of Green, an Armed Forces Recreation Center that’s dedicated to serving the vacation needs of members of the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy & Marines).
But those are the sorts of trick that you can only play a few times. And given that all of those low-priced hotels that are going to be built by third party vendors out along Western Way in the coming years are almost certain to cut into demand for on-property accommodations at Walt Disney World … Well, the Mouse has got to come up with some permanent, definitive way to deal with the current over-abundance of rooms at its Central Florida resort.
Of course, what’s ironic about all this is — out at the Disneyland Resort — Mickey is now faced with the exact opposite problem. With less than a tenth of the room inventory that its Central Florida resort has, the Mouse is about to begin an aggressive new building program in Anaheim. All in an effort to try & catch up with the increasing guest demand for on-property units.
Possible overview of new DVC property to be built on the
site of the old North Wing of the Contemporary Resort
Courtesy of Google Images
The first project out of the gate is expected to be a brand-new wing for Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel (Which will be built in a seldom-used area that was originally set aside for large outdoor weddings). Which would then be set aside for use by DVC members who are anxious to experience a Disneyland Resort vacation.
Then right behind this project comes a radical retooling of the Disneyland Hotel. With the ultimate goal here being to expand as well as significantly enhance this Anaheim landmark. And behind that … Would you believe possibly as many as four brand-new hotels? With at least one of these resorts being a DVC-exclusive property ?
Mind you, if that U.S. travel slump that I mentioned earlier actually occurs … Well, we could see entire portions of this ambitious Anaheim expansion plan put on hold. But as for that DVC-dedicated new wing of the Grand Californian … I’ve been told by Disneyland Resort insiders that construction of that could actually be underway by late 2007 / early 2008.
Anywho … Here’s hoping that the Disneyland Resort can actually learn from Disney World’s mistakes. And not wind up building more hotel rooms than they can actually fill 50 weeks out of the year.
Your thoughts?