OKW Annual Dues Skyrocket?

[sndral]

The big mystery to me is the maintenance fee at AKL, as well as the relatively low point cost. I would think the cost of maintaining the animals, and to a lesser extent the extra Cast Members who are at the savannas, would be a huge expense.

Don't actually know for certain, but thought the animal care and staffing was associated with the AK park, not necessarily all to the Lodge. Perhaps the Lodge is an extension of the park care, although I'm sure our AKL membership/dues are paying for some of it!

Caring for the animals adds a small amount to AKV’s budget - last year .37 per point.
My information is based on discussions w/ husbandry staff during several Wanyama safaris & lunch w/ an animal care CM. The AKL/AKV husbandry staff is definitely based at the resort, so they’d be paid out of the resort’s budget.
They occasionally move animals from the resort to the park & vice versa - for breeding programs or to address animal behavioral problems, but generally AKL/AKV animals remain at the lodge & park animals remain at the park (it’s far better for the animals to remain in situ,) thus my guess is that the feeding & care of the animals housed at AKL/AKV is budgeted to the resort & not co-mingled with the park’s animal care budget.

 

[tjkraz]

SSR and OKW are pretty close in points per night to be honest...

Not really. OKW Studio, One Bedroom and Two Bedroom units are priced similar to Saratoga standard view. But that's only 55% of the rooms at SSR. The other 45% are preferred view rooms, grand villas and treehouses which are noticeably more expensive than their OKW counterparts.

An OKW Grand Villa during the middle season is 56 points per weeknight and 69 weekend. At SSR, standard view is 77/86 and preferred 87/98.

An OKW two bedroom is 36 points weekday, 41 weekend while SSR preferred is 41/50 and a treehouse is 44/51. Those differences add up over hundreds of rooms.

Some seasons are more expensive at Saratoga, some are more expensive at OKW. the Villas are more expensive at Saratoga, but at the end of the day those are a small percentage.

No, not really. Again OKW and SSR Standard view are within a point or two of each other much of the year. But the Preferred View, Grand Villas and Treehouses represent nearly half of the resorts rooms and cost considerably more than their OKW counterparts.

I bet that if we totalize the rooms to remove the seasonal differences, they would be very close at points per room. And that would mean that under normal conditions, the transportation cost per point should have been closer.

There are 67% more villas at SSR than OKW. In a vacuum, SSR's total transportation budget would be about 67% higher than OKW.

But that's ignoring minimally acceptable service levels. SSR and OKW transportation is more similar than dissimilar. Both provide bus service to all parks and Disney Parks. Both are located about the same distance from those destinations. Both have multiple internal stops. That said, from approximately 10am to shortly before fireworks / closing, both resorts are able to provide the same volume of service to guests. Even though SSR is larger, a bus running to DHS or MK every ~15 minutes is adequate because those buses aren't filling up.

What drives the SSR annual budget to be 35% higher than OKW is two things:
1) More buses needed during peak periods at park opening and closing
2) The treehouse villas shuttle bus

What we're left is is SSR being a resort with 67% more guests--yet requires only 35% more bus service--and it's per-point cost is lower because it's being distributed over (proportionally) more points than OKW.

 

[davidhr]

Not really. OKW Studio, One Bedroom and Two Bedroom units are priced similar to Saratoga standard view. But that's only 55% of the rooms at SSR. The other 45% are preferred view rooms, grand villas and treehouses which are noticeably more expensive than their OKW counterparts.

An OKW Grand Villa during the middle season is 56 points per weeknight and 69 weekend. At SSR, standard view is 77/86 and preferred 87/98.

An OKW two bedroom is 36 points weekday, 41 weekend while SSR preferred is 41/50 and a treehouse is 44/51. Those differences add up over hundreds of rooms.


No, not really. Again OKW and SSR Standard view are within a point or two of each other much of the year. But the Preferred View, Grand Villas and Treehouses represent nearly half of the resorts rooms and cost considerably more than their OKW counterparts.


There are 67% more villas at SSR than OKW. In a vacuum, SSR's total transportation budget would be about 67% higher than OKW.

But that's ignoring minimally acceptable service levels. SSR and OKW transportation is more similar than dissimilar. Both provide bus service to all parks and Disney Parks. Both are located about the same distance from those destinations. Both have multiple internal stops. That said, from approximately 10am to shortly before fireworks / closing, both resorts are able to provide the same volume of service to guests. Even though SSR is larger, a bus running to DHS or MK every ~15 minutes is adequate because those buses aren't filling up.

What drives the SSR annual budget to be 35% higher than OKW is two things:
1) More buses needed during peak periods at park opening and closing
2) The treehouse villas shuttle bus

What we're left is is SSR being a resort with 67% more guests--yet requires only 35% more bus service--and it's per-point cost is lower because it's being distributed over (proportionally) more points than OKW.

Not perfect because we’re trying to compare one resort that has speciality villas to one that doesn’t, but had some free time. These resorts are closer than you’ll think when we see the inventory annualized. Things being equal the cost per point should be similar. Even threw in max capacity to see if there was a significant difference, but there isn’t one.

But not going to argue about differences or similarities in transportation. You guys know more than me about that.

My initial comment was just wondering why one is more expensive than the other. Not stating anything.