Sapphire Falls as a Premier resort?

[Disney Ron]

Does anyone think that when the new park finally opens Sapphire Falls will become a Premier resort? I would love that to happen. With the additional park to spread people out I think they could have 4 Premier resorts. I would love it because I've always wanted to stay there but we are spoiled by the EP at the Premier resorts so we haven't done it. I know their price would go up to probably the RPR level but I'd pay it knowing we would get the EP's.

Thoughts?

 

[hhoope01]

My personal thoughts is no, it won't. I'm guessing that they didn't add SF to the Premier group for a few reasons (which still exist and will still exist even after the new park is opened.)

First, with 1K rooms, that means possibly another 3K-4K people with EPs. There are already 2.4K rooms (between the existing 3 Premier hotels with EPs. That means 7K-10K people (or possibly more) when hotels are full with Unlimited EPs. Don't forget they also want to sell EPs to the general public and the top level AP comes with an after 4pm single use EP as well. I'm guessing they won't want to dilute that benefit too much.

Second, I think there is a market for hotels with similar in-hotel amenities, but at a lower price point (i.e. Preferred hotels). If they move SF into the Premier bucket, they would also need to raise the rates accordingly. They would no longer have a hotel that is very similar to the Premiers, but without the added cost of the EP benefit.

My guess is once the new Epic Universe park opens, yes, they will then have an opportunity to add another (maybe more) hotels to the Premier bucket. But even then, and I'm just guessing again, they might add one of the new hotels going up around the Epic Universe park to the Premier group, not add SF to it.

Third, SF and RPR are very similar hotels in a number of respect even down to the theming and location. The big difference being SF is much newer than RPR. (Yes, I know it doesn't have a lounge, but that could very easily be changed, even today, if they wanted to.) My guess is if SF were to be a Premier hotel it would have started that way and they would have then removed the EP from RPR to keep control of the number of Unlimited EPs being used throughout the parks. Since they didn't do that when the hotel first opened, I'm guessing they wanted to the "newness" of SF to provide a bit of extra incentive for folks to stay at SF instead of one of the existing 3 Premier hotels (especially RPR.) You essentially have a new, improved RPR without the EPs at a lower price point to stay at where if they switched the EPs to SF, RPR might have a larger drop-off in stay traffic.

But all my thoughts above are my own and I could be very far off from their reasoning and what they will actually do.

 

[Disney Ron]

My personal thoughts is no, it won't. I'm guessing that they didn't add SF to the Premier group for a few reasons (which still exist and will still exist even after the new park is opened.)

First, with 1K rooms, that means possibly another 3K-4K people with EPs. There are already 2.4K rooms (between the existing 3 Premier hotels with EPs. That means 7K-10K people (or possibly more) when hotels are full with Unlimited EPs. Don't forget they also want to sell EPs to the general public and the top level AP comes with an after 4pm single use EP as well. I'm guessing they won't want to dilute that benefit too much.

Second, I think there is a market for hotels with similar in-hotel amenities, but at a lower price point (i.e. Preferred hotels). If they move SF into the Premier bucket, they would also need to raise the rates accordingly. They would no longer have a hotel that is very similar to the Premiers, but without the added cost of the EP benefit.

My guess is once the new Epic Universe park opens, yes, they will then have an opportunity to add another (maybe more) hotels to the Premier bucket. But even then, and I'm just guessing again, they might add one of the new hotels going up around the Epic Universe park to the Premier group, not add SF to it.

Third, SF and RPR are very similar hotels in a number of respect even down to the theming and location. The big difference being SF is much newer than RPR. (Yes, I know it doesn't have a lounge, but that could very easily be changed, even today, if they wanted to.) My guess is if SF were to be a Premier hotel it would have started that way and they would have then removed the EP from RPR to keep control of the number of Unlimited EPs being used throughout the parks. Since they didn't do that when the hotel first opened, I'm guessing they wanted to the "newness" of SF to provide a bit of extra incentive for folks to stay at SF instead of one of the existing 3 Premier hotels (especially RPR.) You essentially have a new, improved RPR without the EPs at a lower price point to stay at where if they switched the EPs to SF, RPR might have a larger drop-off in stay traffic.

But all my thoughts above are my own and I could be very far off from their reasoning and what they will actually do.

A simple "No" would have sufficed. Just kidding. You make valid points and I agree you're correct. Thanks for bringing up those points they make perfect sense. Posts like yours is why I come to this board.

 

[asuburbanman]

I think proximity to a park has a lot to Dow with it too. SP is walkable but not tot yet extent the other three are.

I’d imagine the hotel closest to EU will be premier, which would add more rooms to that category. As you said, that’s a lot of folks with EP access. For those buying an EP they need to make sure that the wait isn’t too excessive or I’m sure they would get too many complaints.

The other thought is that EU won’t open with any EP lanes or it will be exclusive to the hotel nearest the park and other Premier guests will need to buy it.