DVC due's for Gondola

This might be a stupid question as I don't yet know how all of this works, but with fewer rooms at Riviera, does that not mean fewer rooms to spread the costs around? Therefore a higher cost per room?
 
This might be a stupid question as I don't yet know how all of this works, but with fewer rooms at Riviera, does that not mean fewer rooms to spread the costs around? Therefore a higher cost per room?

Kind of. The costs are spread out across points, not exactly rooms per se. Of course more rooms means more points but the point charts and number of points sold also play a part. Because of the higher point requirements at Riviera when looking at WDW resorts only SSR, OKW and AKV are "larger" in points totals. They all have lower point requirements for rooms in comparison to Riviera. And OKW and AKV not that different. Numbers I've seen for Riviera total points is a little over 6.7 million. OKW has approx. 1 million more points and AKV approx. 7.4 million so 600K more. All other resorts have less points allocated to them at WDW placing Riviera in the top half of WDW resorts to spread costs across points.
 
Kind of. The costs are spread out across points, not exactly rooms per se. Of course more rooms means more points but the point charts and number of points sold also play a part. Because of the higher point requirements at Riviera when looking at WDW resorts only SSR, OKW and AKV are "larger" in points totals. They all have lower point requirements for rooms in comparison to Riviera. And OKW and AKV not that different. Numbers I've seen for Riviera total points is a little over 6.7 million. OKW has approx. 1 million more points and AKV approx. 7.4 million so 600K more. All other resorts have less points allocated to them at WDW placing Riviera in the top half of WDW resorts to spread costs across points.
They are spread across points for the DVC portion but I believe they use a formula related to occupancy/density. IIRC from the BCV/BWV discussions years ago it gets a little more heavily pushed to DVC over the hotel portion.
 
They are spread across points for the DVC portion but I believe they use a formula related to occupancy/density. IIRC from the BCV/BWV discussions years ago it gets a little more heavily pushed to DVC over the hotel portion.

True. The year that BLT first took a large jump in MF's was reported by DVC at the annual meeting that they were allocating overall resort common expenses based on occupancy and that DVC ran with more people in the rooms than the hotel side. Then once the overall expenses that are apportioned to DVC are calculated they then calculate MF's on point totals. Riviera, like SSR and OKW is a DVC only resort so all actual resort expenses should be paid by the owners there. In most cases people have attributed the lower MF's at SSR, and OKW for a time, to the fact that it was DVC only and not getting an excessive allocation of resort expenses.
 


There are some interesting points being made here. I for one believe if Disney is charging everyone for transportation I think it should be the same across the board no matter where you are staying. I could take a Gondola from CB resort to Epcot jump the monorail to PVB for a drink and take a boat ride to MK for dinner. Then I could take a bus back to CB so every mode of transportation could be utilized so all should pay the same maintenance fee.
 
There are some interesting points being made here. I for one believe if Disney is charging everyone for transportation I think it should be the same across the board no matter where you are staying. I could take a Gondola from CB resort to Epcot jump the monorail to PVB for a drink and take a boat ride to MK for dinner. Then I could take a bus back to CB so every mode of transportation could be utilized so all should pay the same maintenance fee.

I understand your point of view, but by law, maintenance fees have to be based upon actual costs. It would be hard to justify spreading the cost of the monorail or gondolas to thoise resorts only served by bus and watercraft.
 
I understand your point of view, but by law, maintenance fees have to be based upon actual costs. It would be hard to justify spreading the cost of the monorail or gondolas to thoise resorts only served by bus and watercraft.
The important point to make is that Transportation is treated differently. Since you are buying a service from a different corporation and they are the same parent, Disney. Thus that corporation DVC is buying the services from (WDW Transportation) can charge whatever they like to the Association (similar to how a roofer can charge DVC what they want for repairs). So WDW Transportation can adjust/move the charges as they like. However, I suspect they try to be somewhat proportionally charging resort based on the services that directly service that resort. So if WDW Transportation decides to increase their charge (to create a profit center) they likely could; however, the auditors might highlight that and have concerns.
 


Kind of like the renovated lobby at the Polynesian paid for by DVC dues.
Really? That sounds like BS. That shouldn't have happened, right? I mean, what could they do next? Up the dues for renovations at Caption Cooks?
 
I saw a post this morning on facebook that they are running a bus POP > AoA > CBR > BW. I sure hope that BWV is not getting charged dues for the skyliner.
 
When the DVC resorts first opened and when new ones open now, are they "set" with a certain amount of points? And do the early resorts still have that same number of points or very close to it?
 
I saw a post this morning on facebook that they are running a bus POP > AoA > CBR > BW. I sure hope that BWV is not getting charged dues for the skyliner.
Those four resorts sharing a bus? What????????????
 
Maybe some involved more closely with the BCV/BWV dues & transportation issue a few years ago can chime in but IIRC, the costs are divided up more by potential usage than actual usage. And also IIRC, it's by density (# of people per room) rather than per room in such a way that DVC tends to pay more than the resort of the resort(s). But as noted, it's all covered by the owners at Riviera only for the DVC portion.


Back in 2004, there was a likely mistake in the transportation budget discovered by a couple of DVC owners. The DVC owners took action and wrote detailed letters to DVCMC stating their analysis of the transportation costs and asked DVCMC to please review the accounting costs and provide an explanation for the possible discrepancy.

DVCMC responded to the requests and the DVCMC Finance Manager explained that the Epcot Resorts transportation costs were being allocated initially using a fixed cost split and then secondly with a variable cost split:
1) Split the total Epcot Resorts transportation costs by 33/33/33 for each resort group: Swan & Dolphin / Boardwalk Villas & Boardwalk Inn / Yacht Club & Beach Club & Beach Club Villas.
2) For each Disney resort group, the costs were then split based upon guest usage (occupancy).
BCV 19% / YC & BC 81%
BWV 58% / BWI 42%.

After being challenged to validate the transportation costs, the DVCMC Finance Manager discovered that the boat costs were not being allocated properly for BCV. This was corrected in the 2005 budget.

There was also a discussion about the "fairness" of doing the 1/3 split first between the resort groups before allocating the costs based upon guest usage (occupancy). The DVCMC Finance Manager stated that it was the practice that they had chosen to use. (Part of the difficulty of sharing the transportation costs entirely based upon usage (occupancy) may have stemmed from the Swan & Dolphin not wanting to share occupancy data with DVCMC, and this may be why they did the 1/3 resort group split first.)

Based upon the accounting practice at the time, the definition of a "transportation stop" was a resort group: (1) Swan & Dolphin; (2) BWV & BWI; (3) YC & BC & BCV and it was not the actual number of "stops" that a bus made at a pickup/dropoff station. In 2004 there were 2 stops at Swan & Dolphin, 2 at YC & BC & BCV, and 1 at BWV & BWI.

Initially, the DVCMC Finance Manager was skeptical of the request and very confident of their accounting practices. He was embarrassed to discover the accounting error. Overall, DVCMC was open and responsive to the requests by the DVC owners and corrective action was taken to resolve the accounting mistake. The question of "fairness" was not answered.

DVCMC provides management services for the DVC owners. If you are an owner at Riviera and want to know how the transportation costs were estimated for a new transportation service at the resort, send an email.
 
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When the DVC resorts first opened and when new ones open now, are they "set" with a certain amount of points? And do the early resorts still have that same number of points or very close to it?

Each DVC Resort when it goes on sale has a set amount of total points that remains the same unless later they add new buildings/rooms (and thus can add new points, which occurred at OKW in the late 1990s, and occurred at SSR when the Treehouses were added). The totals differ among the resorts. The total for Riviera is 6,739,966.
 
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1) Split the total Epcot Resorts transportation costs by 33/33/33 for each resort group: Swan & Dolphin / Boardwalk Villas & Boardwalk Inn / Yacht Club & Beach Club & Beach Club Villas.

Thanks for reporting this, it's the first time I've read about it.

Any RIV owner who wants to ask DVC how the Skyliner costs are splits between the resorts? Anyone willing to bet they've split in 1/3 for each of the stations (RIV, AoA+Pop and CBR), with RIV owners paying 33% of the total costs of the Skyliner even if RIV has a small percentage of total rooms served by it? It would be the same logic as for the friendship boats costs.

If I were a RIV owner I would immediately write to DVC asking for a clarification. Being an SSR owner I don't think they would answer me if I try asking.
 
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Thanks for reporting this, it's the first time I've read about it.

Any RIV owner who wants to ask DVC how the Skyliner costs are splits between the resorts? Anyone willing to bet they've split in 1/3 for each of the stations (RIV, AoA+Pop and CBR), with RIV owners paying 33% of the total costs of the Skyliner even if RIV has a small percentage of total rooms served by it? It would be the same logic as for the friendship boats costs.

If I were a RIV owner I would immediately write to DVC asking for a clarification. Being an SSR owner I don't think they would answer me if I try asking.
1/3 each would be good for the Riviera folks...
 

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