Rumors and Speculation Inquiry

[ScottakaMickey]

So, watching these boards over the last several months there is a lot of fun speculating and looking for rumors. Human tendancy I guess. So, my question is, since I wasn't around here, When did AKV become a rumor and then when did AKV get officially announced?

Or even further back, was SSR a rumor and if so how long was it a rumor before it was announced?

 

[disneynutz]

So, watching these boards over the last several months there is a lot of fun speculating and looking for rumors. Human tendancy I guess. So, my question is, since I wasn't around here, When did AKV become a rumor and then when did AKV get officially announced?

Or even further back, was SSR a rumor and if so how long was it a rumor before it was announced?

Didn't you read the rumor disclaimer?

"Prior rumor time lines are in no way indicative of present or future rumor time lines. Each rumor should be judged on its own merit based upon fact, not fiction, and requires three (3) substantiated sources. Employees of The Walt Disney Company are not to be considered as a substantiated source. They are the last to be told anything. The only exceptions are bus and monorail drivers."

 

[spiceycat]

when SSR was announced - it was surprised to everyone.

DVC was going to build eagle pines (really name not determined) that was the annoucement.

next thing Disney offered to DVC DI - just like that. DVC accepted and the heck with eagle pines - so we got SSR.

akl - I think some people here though about it before hand. for the same reasons that DVC got DI. Disney does not like places it can't kept filled. AKL, of all the deluxes, was having problems kepting it room filled. CR used to have that problem. but its latest rehab was a big success and it is popular again. It hasn't been this popular since the 70's.

as far as rumors go - won't be surprised these days if they annouced a DVC at the Polyn!

for me BCV came out of the blue. even when Doc and a few others say it was going to be a DVC - I was saying ' no way'. the resort was too popular. but hey they were right and I was wrong!

VWL had a sign from the start of construction that it would be DVC.

 

[TTFN!]

This was a very active rumor thread:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1343243

There were earlier ones, but that is all I found via google.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I'm pretty sure it was a rumor around last August, 2006. I was at AKL in September of 2006, and I remember trying to get info from the DVC rep there because of the rumors floating around. I told her that AKL was my favorite resort and that I really wished DVC had accomodations there. She just said "Yes, it is a nice resort, isn't it?" No suggestion it might happen. I was back in WDW in early January, 2007, and I don't think it had been made official yet (although my memory could be wrong on that one).

 

[Muushka]

If I have learned anything from these boards, it is that there are a lot of very smart people and they know how to research and find information. I can't think of any rumors off the top of my head that I repeated to my husband that did not come true. Mind you, I don't repeat everything I read here. I look at who is posting and what others say.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I thought I remember AKV being an on & off rumor for a couple years. I don't remember it being such a red hot rumor like CRV or GCV though.

As spicey said, Eagle Pines Resort was actually announced , then shelved indefinitely without much said from DVC.
SSR quickly filled the void, as there was a danger of nothing for DVC to sell. Since the main infrastructure at SSR was in place from the Institute, construction went quicker than Eagle Pines would have.

MG

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

So, watching these boards over the last several months there is a lot of fun speculating and looking for rumors. Human tendancy I guess. So, my question is, since I wasn't around here, When did AKV become a rumor and then when did AKV get officially announced?

There were rumors, speculation, and wishful thinking about a DVC resort at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge ever since the Animal Kingdom Lodge opened. In other words, there were rumors before Disney ever started planning such a DVC resort.

If I remember correctly, serious rumors about the Animal Kingdom Villas started about a half year before the project was announced. The rumors had credibility because of permit filings with government agencies.

Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas was officially announced October 16, 2006.

Or even further back, was SSR a rumor and if so how long was it a rumor before it was announced?

Less than two months before September 11, 2001, Disney Vacation Development (DVD) announced plans for a huge DVC resort at the Eagle Pines golf course, to be opened spring/summer 2004.

After the tragic events of September 11 and the downturn in attendance at WDW, Disney shut down the already floundering Villas at the Disney Institute. The public Disney Institute educational offerings had already ended. Before the end of 2001, rumors began that the Villas at the Disney Institute would somehow become a Disney Vacation Club.

Here's a DIS thread that began on January 24, 2002: Deb Wills sez Disney Institute to be next DVC. The same day, the official announcement was released. The announcement only called for reuse of the existing Disney Institute main campus buildings and four new residential buildings (today's Congress Park section). There would be 192 units in the new DVC resort. The announcement did not include a name for the new resort.

The announcement didn't say that Eagle Pines plan was sidetracked, but that's happened. DVD was still on target to open a huge, new DVC resort spring/summer 2004, but it would now be at the Disney Institute site, and would reuse the relatively new, Thomas Beeby-designed Disney Institute campus as the core of the DVC resort.

Three days later, on January 27, 2002, there was a DIS thread speculating about the new resort's theme: The Theme for the New DVC at Disney Institute.

Disney didn't announce the theme and the name until September 2002.

Beginning on September 18, 2002, there was a DIS thread questioning the appeal of the theme: What will be the appeal of Saratoga Springs DVC?

Beginning on September 13, 2002, there was a long thread on the DIS Rumors and News board with all sorts of speculation and discussion, including questioning the the concept of DVC itself: An honest to God rumor that even Scoop may like!!!.

What's interesting in these links is that news articles in 2002 reported that some of the existing residential buildings of Villas at the Disney Institute would be refurbished rather than demolished. That led to all sorts of discussion and speculation about the fate of these buildings.

 

[javamom]

not to de-rail this thread... But what exactly was the Disney Institute and the Tree Houses?? I vaguely remember something about these eons ago.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

not to de-rail this thread... But what exactly was the Disney Institute and the Tree Houses?? I vaguely remember something about these eons ago.

Disney Institute: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Institute

Treehouse Villas: http://www.mouseplanet.com/dtp/wdwguide/4_Accommodations/VDI_photo_tour_treehouse_villas.htm

 

[diznyfanatic]

Thank you for the interesting information, Horace Horsecollar! Thanks too for the DI and Treehouse links I never visited DI, but it's cool to see the photos in the links just how much of it was used and is easily recongizable at SSR today.

I can remember when it was the "hot" thing for companies here in the midwest to send their management teams to DI to learn the secrets of Disney's renowned customer service techniques. I knew many people from different companies that attended.

I didn't know that they published a book called "Be Our Guest, Perfecting the Art of Customer Service". I just might have to read that as it would be interesting to see what, if anything, may have changed.