The DVC board official Animal Kingdom Villas discussion thread

[drusba]

") The rumor is non-owners can call June 6th...but I've not actually seen that confirmed by MS. Maybe someone else has....???"

The official site, under AKV FAQ's, says that owners can start calling May 16 and non-owners June 6 for reservations for trip times beginning Sep 1. However, for a March 08 ressie as a non-owner you would still have to wait until August to call.

 

[icydog]

") The rumor is non-owners can call June 6th...but I've not actually seen that confirmed by MS. Maybe someone else has....???"

The official site, under AKV FAQ's, says that owners can start calling May 16 and non-owners June 6 for reservations for trip times beginning Sep 1. However, for a March 08 ressie as a non-owner you would still have to wait until August to call.

How will they figure out what can be reserved by non-owners. Is it anything available from June 6 forward until 7 months or does the counter begin on Sept 1 for 7 months. So on June 6 I can reserve Feb 6th or for Dec 6th. In your example you say I can reserve March in August, so August is 7 months from March therefore on June 6 I can only reserve until Dec 6th. Right?

Is the AKV going to be as big as the SSR? I really hope not.

 

[LisaS]

How will they figure out what can be reserved by non-owners. Is it anything available from June 6 forward until 7 months or does the counter begin on Sept 1 for 7 months. So on June 6 I can reserve Feb 6th or for Dec 6th. In your example you say I can reserve March in August, so August is 7 months from March therefore on June 6 I can only reserve until Dec 6th. Right?

As a non-owner, you can book 7 months prior to your check-out date. So on June 6th, you can reserve through the night of Jan 5th (checking out on Jan 6th). For your Mar '08 trip, you can call for a reservation in Aug '07. According to this map: http://advc.disney.go.com/media/dvc/languagespecific/eng/resorts/animalKingdomVillas/DAKVMap.pdf by Mar '08 the DVC conversion of both the Zebra and Kudu trails will be complete and some of the units along the Ostrich and Giraffe trails may be open as well.

 

[icydog]

As a non-owner, you can book 7 months prior to your check-out date. So on June 6th, you can reserve through the night of Jan 5th (checking out on Jan 6th). For your Mar '08 trip, you can call for a reservation in Aug '07. According to this map: http://advc.disney.go.com/media/dvc/languagespecific/eng/resorts/animalKingdomVillas/DAKVMap.pdf by Mar '08 the DVC conversion of both the Zebra and Kudu trails will be complete and some of the units along the Ostrich and Giraffe trails may be open as well.

Thanks that answers my questions.

BUT how big is this resort going to be? Is it going to be as big as SSR??

 

[drusba]

Nothing can possibly be as big SSR. Planned are 458 rooms (134 in the AKL building and 324 in the new Kidani building), making it quite a bit larger than BWV (at 383 rooms) but smaller than OKW (well over 500). Since DVC room counts consider 2BR lock-offs as one room, the actual number of rooms available will be more. Thus, it will be large enough (when done) so that non-owners should be able to get ressies many times of year at 7 months out except for the scarce value, concierge, and standard point cost rooms. But for the near future, there will be only those 134 rooms, and those are coming in phases between Sep 07 and May 08, and thus non-owners will likely find some difficulty getting what they want for a while.

 

[spiceycat]

here the thing - that I think Doc did that has the breakdown

OKW - 0 Dedicated Studios - 0 Dedicated 1Bdrm - 274 Dedicated 2Bdrm - 230 Lockoffs - 27 Grand Villas = 531 Units / 761 Max. Available Rooms

VB - 0 Dedicated Studios - 0 Dedicated 1Bdrm - 18 Dedicated 2Bdrm - 36 Lockoffs - 6 Grand Villas - 112 Inn Rooms = 172 Units / 208 Max. Available Rooms

HHI - 0 Dedicated Studios - 0 Dedicated 1Bdrm - 76 Dedicated 2Bdrm - 21 Lockoffs - 5 Grand Villas = 102 Units / 123 Max. Available Rooms

BWV - 97 Dedicated Studios - 130 Dedicated 1Bdrm - 0 Dedicated 2Bdrm - 149 Lockoffs - 7 Grand Villas = 383 Units / 532 Max. Available Rooms

VWL - 20 Dedicated Studios - 27 Dedicated 1Bdrm - 44 Dedicated 2Bdrm - 45 Lockoffs - 0 Grand Villas = 136 Units / 181 Max. Available Rooms

BCV - 36 Dedicated Studios - 20 Dedicated 1Bdrm - 78 Dedicated 2Bdrm - 74 Lockoffs - 0 Grand Villas = 208 Units / 282 Max. Available Rooms

SSR - 0 Dedicated Studios - 0 Dedicated 1Bdrm - 360 Dedicated 2Bdrm - 432 Lockoffs - 36 Grand Villas = 828 Units / 1260 Max. Available Rooms (based on the remaining Grandstand Building due to open over the next few months)

AKV - 46 Dedicated Studios - 0 Dedicated 1BR villas - 140 Dedicated 2BR villas - 250 Lockoffs - 22 GVs. 134 villas within AKL (opening fall, 2007) , 324 villas in a new building (opening Spring, 2009) for a total of 458 Units / 708 Max. Available Rooms.

 

[spiceycat]

hey going to try for one studio for one night in Oct - for mother's birthday - if I can't have it - then try for BWV - then OKW....

you can generally find something!!!

 

[icydog]

hey going to try for one studio for one night in Oct - for mother's birthday - if I can't have it - then try for BWV - then OKW....

you can generally find something!!!

Hi Spicy,
BWVs are full for October. I think OKW is finished too.
Marylyn

 

[KyleRayner]

This thread has become so huge, I don't know if this question has already been answered. According to the points chart on the DVC website, there are 4 levels of views:

V - Value Accomodations, S - Standard view, SV - Savanna view, C - Killimanjaro Club Concierge

Does anyone know if only the Savanna view and Kilimanjaro Club Concierge rooms will be the only ones with views of the savanna or will the value and standard view rooms have them too?

 

[LisaS]

This thread has become so huge, I don't know if this question has already been answered. According to the points chart on the DVC website, there are 4 levels of views:

V - Value Accomodations, S - Standard view, SV - Savanna view, C - Killimanjaro Club Concierge

Does anyone know if only the Savanna view and Kilimanjaro Club Concierge rooms will be the only ones with views of the savanna or will the value and standard view rooms have them too?

Standard view villas will have a pool, garden or parking lot view. About half of the "value" villas will have a savannah view, the rest will be pool, garden or parking lot view. Concierge will consist of 5 2BR lockoffs (so up to 10 total villas) on the 6th floor of the Lodge building -- 3 of them will be savannah view, 2 of them will be pool view.

 

[icydog]

Are there any special discounts for buying at the AKVs? I asked my salesman but he said there are none now and claims there were never any.

 

[drusba]

If you are asking about price of buying, currently there is an $8 per point discount--for a new DVC owner the price is $104 a point but $96 with the discount (minimum purchase is 160 points); for an existing DVC member, the price is $101 a point but $93 with the discount (but an existing member has to buy at least 100 points to get the discount).

 

[LisaS]

There is a price increase coming for members on June 4th. The $101 base price is going up to $104. I don't know if the incentive ends on June 4th or not.

 

[icydog]

So he was right. I thought I read somewhere that AKV was going for $85 a point awhile ago. Am a crazy or was I thinking of SSR?

 

[LisaS]

So he was right. I thought I read somewhere that AKV was going for $85 a point awhile ago. Am a crazy or was I thinking of SSR?

AKV has never been offered for less than the $93/pt (with the $8/pt incentive) that has been available since they started sales on Feb 1st.

If I recall correctly, the last "Friends & Family" promotion at SSR brought the price down to $86/pt??? So maybe that is what you were remembering.

 

[icydog]

It must be that, thanks for the reply!

 

[LOLA2]

How much are the maintenence fees for AKV?

 

[LisaS]

How much are the maintenence fees for AKV?

The fees for 2007 are $4.62/point.

 

[DeeCee735]

I just received a mailing from my guide for AKV. In it is a points chart and a map of the resort and which phases open on which dates. It looks to me like the entire resort is being converted? Or is it just top floors? (as well as the new building going up). Anyone know if they are going to use the entire resort for DVC or just top floors? TIA

 

[dwelty]

I just received a mailing from my guide for AKV. In it is a points chart and a map of the resort and which phases open on which dates. It looks to me like the entire resort is being converted? Or is it just top floors? (as well as the new building going up). Anyone know if they are going to use the entire resort for DVC or just top floors? TIA

According to the documentation that I got on May 8th at SSR, only the top 2 floors of the existing building will be DVC. If they converted the whole resort, there would be a revolt by non DVC AKL fans to be sure!