Category — DVC

We’re getting our first look at the new African dining experience that is part of the Kidani Village expansion of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. Two new photos and the official logo for the new restaurant reflect the African heritage of the lodge while providing a family dining experience, and we get to see the official logo.

Pronounced “Sah-NAH,” the restaurant boasts interiors inspired by African art and remarkable views to a savannah of free-roaming animals. Kidani Village, a Disney Vacation Club property, is the newest resort addition to Walt Disney World Resort.

Looks a little like Boma crossed with with Peter Pan if you ask me. But I like it.

The Grand Californian Disney Vacation Club Villas went on sale today. Any bets as to how fast they sell out. I understand it’s just 50 units, so you can only sell so many weeks.

The full press release from March is below the cut:

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The AP reports that Disney has started to prepare the construction site for their first themed resort located off theme park property that isn’t entirely a Disney Vacation Club location. That location, of course, is Ko Olina, Hawaii.

MouseExtra found some additional concept art for the resort in the most recently DVC newsletter. It certainly looks lush and beautiful. There are definite hints of the Polynesian Resort at WDW, for obvious reasons, but I also see  some echos of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. What do you think?

Fast Fasts:

• 21-acre oceanfront site
• Opening scheduled for 2011
• 350 traditional hotel rooms
• 480 timeshare vacation villas
• will feature a themed pool and water play area
• an 18,000 square-foot spa
• a wedding lawn,
• an 8,000 square-foot convention center
• a child care club.

If you’re a member of the Disney Vacation Club, or planning on renting some points for your next vacation, you’ll want to see how your typical vacation pattern is affected by the recent reallocation in how points are used in the DVC. Disney is prevented by state law from changing how much it costs to stay for a week, but they’re allowed to make some slight changes to parts of a week.

If you like to stay around weekends, you’ll find your points stretching just a big further, but if you prefer those mid-week stays, then you might find it just a bit more expensive. All part of an effort by Disney to maximize the value of their DVC Resorts for weeklong visits.

Not sure how if this will change the DVC point rental market. Right now you tend to pay the same amount for a point no matter what day or how long you’re staying. Could you ask for a discount if it’s a weekend stay now?

(via the Orlando Sentinel)

The Queen Mary attraction in Long Beach, California, continues to struggle according to this story in the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

In the late 1980s, The Walt Disney Company purchased the company that owned the attraction, which at the time, included the plane built and flown by Howard Hughes that came to be known as the Spruce Goose.  More importantly, that company also owned the Disneyland Hotel and the rights to use the Disney name on hotels in the area.  Buying that company helped pave the way to expanding the original Disney theme park into the Disneyland Resort.

Disney also proposed building a theme park and related projects at the Queen Mary attraction, with a concept that later morphed into what was built as DisneySea in Japan.  Some say the Long Beach proposal was only a way to persuade Anaheim to back Disney’s expansion there, but I like to think that if things had been different, we would have seen new theme parks in both Anaheim and Long Beach.  Building large projects along the coast in California is especially difficult - there is even an agency called the California Coastal Commission that property owners must deal with in addition to other local, state, and federal agencies.

Disney ran the operation in Long Beach for a while, transfering some managers there and imposing things like Disney’s appearance guidelines, more strict back then they are now.  Disneyland visitors were handed promotional fliers touting what they was to see in Long Beach. 

It seems like the operation in Long Beach has continually stuggled since Disney sold it off.

Disney Resort on O’ahu Scheduled to Open in 2011

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts broke ground for its first family destination resort in Hawai’i today 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 O’ahu. Scheduled to open in 2011, the new family friendly destination will overlook breathtaking crystal blue lagoons and white sand beaches and is planned to include 350 hotel rooms and 480 Disney Vacation Club timeshare villas.

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Disney shares plans for Hawaii resort

For fans of Disney’s theme parks the choice often comes down to a trip to Hawaii or another trip to a Disney theme park. Usually the Disney theme park wins out. Well, starting in 2011 those fans will have to think harder about putting off Hawaii as Disney will have opened its new Oahu island resort.

Disney unveiled a detailed scale model of the resort. It will have two towers, a convention center, a spa, restaurants, and a luxurious garden area with many water features.

The resort will feature 830 rooms, 350 for the hotel and 480 for Disney Vacation Club members and sits on one of Ko Olina’s four man-made lagoons. When it opens it is expected to employ about 1,000 people.

Close up on Pool Detail

Among the many water park type features will be the volcanic caldera which acts as a center piece to the area. A tube slide will take swimmers down an adventurous water course with rapids, a bubbling pool, some special effects and a plenty of surprising elements. Children will enjoy an aquatic play structure.

For the more adventurous a saltwater snorkeling lagoon will feature native fish and some other elements of Disney magic.

Most of the news reports question Disney going ahead with this plan despite the softening economy, but I think that by the time they open in 2011, the economy should be on the road to recovery and Disney will be positioned to take advantage of that with the latest resort to open on the Islands.

What do you think? Is this a good move for the mouse? I have to say that I’m going to start a second penny jar just to save money for a trip.

Of course, my last post before I go to sleep is about Disney’s secrecy re: the nearely completed Bay Lake Towers. Then when I wake up the Orlando Sentinel is proclaiming that Disney is finally ready to announce both Bay Lake Towers and the Treehouse DVC Villas. Just my luck.

“What we’re trying to do, particularly with the resorts that we build on site [at Walt Disney World], is really provide something that’s unique, something that you can’t get any other place in Central Florida — and, really, in the world,” said Jim Lewis, president of Disney Vacation Club. “With these two resorts, we believe we’ve done that.”

Of course, Disney will also command a premium for the two locations that are sure to be in high demand once made available.